Chapter 10: Absorbing Weapons

Every single alarm in the facility had gone off, and the sound of the alarms blared rhythmically with the warning beacon light overhead.

Rayleigh glanced at the ceiling, searching for the source of the alarm—a speaker, perhaps, but it was a futile attempt. He found nothing, presumably because they were built into the walls.

"We need to leave now. Guards will be here any minute," Rayleigh stated the obvious. He could already hear a dozen boots running through the floor above them. It was only a matter of time before the Silvereds discovered the source of the breach and located him.

"Who are you?" The prisoner, Ron Kol, inquired. He still hadn’t exited his holding cell, for some reason.

"Your boss sent me to break you out. Now come on, we haven’t got much time."

"My boss?" Ron Kol was very skeptical and distrustful of his saviour. "What’s his name?" he asked again.

At this point, Rayleigh was already getting fed up with his trust issues.

"You could either stay here and get charged with the worst crimes Skylark has to offer, or you could come with me. You and I both know Elias doesn’t give a runeless damn about you; he just wants the weapons you were transporting. Now where are those being held?"

Hearing Elias’ name assured Ron Kol that Rayleigh was truly who he said he was.

"They’re being held in the storage unit located at the east wing of the building."

For someone who infiltrated a Silvered facility with careful planning, Rayleigh had no idea how to differentiate between the wings in the building.

Rayleigh and Ron Kol were already on the move as the boots marching somewhere on the upper floors got even louder. Rayleigh could estimate about 20 Silvered agents responding to this breach.

"Where is the east wing?" Rayleigh asked as they turned a corner, their feet moving fast through the hallway.

"There is an access pod located three doors from one of the ventilation shafts. The weapons are located in hallway C-EW5. We can take the pod down to the east wing."

"Whoa," Rayleigh halted, pulling Ron Kol back with him as well. "There is no ’us’ here. I am going to get those weapons alone." Rayleigh made sure to place enough emphasis when he said ’alone’.

"And you are going through that ventilation shaft, out of this building."

Ron Kol was about to argue when Rayleigh shut him up with a finger. "No arguments. I can’t fend for both of us when a fight breaks out, which it probably would. Understood?"

Rayleigh wasn’t giving Ron Kol much of a choice in the matter. Not debating the case any further, Rayleigh and Ron went their separate ways.

"I sincerely hope you have the capacity to scale an 8-meter wall."

Without waiting to explain what he meant by that, Rayleigh took off instantly. He successfully passed three heavily reinforced steel doors, and spotting the access pod was easy.

Accessing it was even easier, as it required no lanyard or access card to activate. Just a few buttons pushed, and Rayleigh soon found himself inside the east corridors of the facility.

He located hall C-EW5 only to find rows of steel doors lined up against each other all the way down the hallway on opposite sides.

What Ron Kol failed to mention was the specific storage where the weapons were being held.

Rayleigh was blind, in a figurative sense. He had no idea what type of weapons he was looking for or any means of identifying them. Perhaps, coming by himself didn’t pan out to be such a good idea.

Blowing raspberries, Rayleigh muttered, "Great..."

◇◇◇

A dozen voices overlapping against each other could be heard outside the briefing room, but that didn’t matter to him.

He simply walked with grace and fluidity, barely a sound escaping his footsteps. The second he stepped inside, the murmuring ceased and the entire room became completely silent. His presence alone carried weight; enough authority to keep a multitude quiet.

"What do we have?" He asked, his voice stern, confident, and final.

"Sir, there’s been a breach at Area C." One of the female Silvered agents, clad in the standard uniform, answered.

His uniform differed from hers and the few dozen agents packed inside the briefing room. One didn’t need much detail to understand that he was a high-ranking agent.

"The breacher?" He asked, staring up ahead, unmoved at the news of a break-in at one of his facilities.

The female agent answered carefully. "Unidentified, sir."

"Send in a team of Ascendant-ranked runers. Our friend there is going after those high-grade weapons, and I believe the breacher to be more powerful than Awakened runers, but less powerful than our Ascendants. He wouldn’t know what hit him."

◇◇◇

Rayleigh spent a few minutes contemplating what to do regarding his current situation when the system chimed.

►[ A high-grade weapon has been detected ]

► [ Analyzing Area... ]

►[ Analysis complete ]

►[ Location: Storage Room C-EW5-10 ]

Rayleigh’s eyes lit up. "Finally, some good news."

He moved down the hallway, counting off the numbers on each door until he found a door with the ID tag ’C-EW5-10’ tucked at the far end of the corridor.

He pressed the stolen lanyard against the scanner, and a sharp beep echoed, followed by the soft hiss of the door unlocking.

"What would I ever do without you?" Rayleigh’s voice was soft, almost as though he was proposing to a lanyard that wasn’t even his.

To be fair, that lanyard had saved him more times than he could have anticipated. It proved far more useful than merely accessing a ventilation shaft.

Rayleigh stepped inside the storage room, and the moment he crossed the threshold, his system went haywire, a flood of messages stacking one after another in his vision.

►[ Scanning storage contents... ]

►[ 10x Intermediate Grade Weapons detected ]

►[ No active or passive skills present. Combat efficiency: high ]

►[ 2x Legendary Grade Weapons detected ]

►[ Forged from Predator Level beast remains ]

►[ 1 of 2 carries an Active Skill derived from beast genetic ability ]

►[ 1x Advanced Grade Defense Shield detected ]

►[ Active Defensive Skill present ]

Rayleigh’s eyes widened as he scanned the shelves lined with crates and mounted weapon racks around him. He had no idea a single storage room could hold this much firepower.

►[ Would you like to absorb all detected items? ]

►[ Absorption will grant applicable skills and trigger a System Upgrade & Enhancement ]

Rayleigh barely had a single thought about his answer when he made it.

He was here to retrieve these weapons for Elias, not absorb them. They weren’t his to begin with.

But seeing what the system had installed for him; the upgrade, the active skills, and the active defensive skill, he had only one answer in mind:

"Yes! Initiate absorption!"