118 The stronghold and it secrets...

"Get everything out of this planet," Aiden said without hesitation. There was no one in the virtual meeting room other than the young man and him.

'Ira' is the name the pale young man had provided him. To Aiden, however, neither the name nor the appearance of the young man was important.

After all, he might have also borrowed from someone else like the face and name of Luke, but Aiden had no way to confirm it. But the bold remark of Aiden shocked Ira a little.

"That will be impossible." But there was not an ounce of hesitation on Ira's face. "Even though I'm a member of the Council, that's still unlikely."

"Why? Is it because of the supply orders from the major companies?"

"I will choose not to answer that." Ira smiled at him, "may I know the reason behind your suggestion?"

"Totem." Aiden didn't expect Ira to show any expression just because of one word. After all, the real Luke might have already informed him about it. "You were the one who gave a totem on Luke, right?"

"Is that what you think?" the smile never left his lips, "Does that change anything?"

Aiden shook his head, "Then let me be more direct. How many mana circles have you got?"

"Ho! Totem, mana circle?" The smile on his face grew, "and you are human. That is interesting."

"So, you are not human." Aiden sighed, "That is not a problem, as long as you are not an elf." Aiden thought for a moment that the smile on Ira's face had distorted a little before it returned to its previous calm.

"Is the ice elf going to attack the plane?"

"NO, they had invaded this planet." Aiden emphasized the term as he continued, "it's not just them. There are beasts of the Chenoo tribe. I don't know if you know about it, but there is something called Bixi."

"A dragon-born?" Ira could no longer maintain his calm façade. "We can't continue this any longer. But it will be hard to make them believe."

"No, that will be impossible." Aiden knew for sure. After all, if he didn't meet Mraz, he too wouldn't have believed that there are other planes in this world.

Most of all, there is no way they would give up on such an elaborate and profitable business. Aiden sighed, adding, "I can send you some proof."

"Proof?" Ira's eyes brighten up, "You got some kind of proof?"

Aiden pointed at his head, "I can provide some."

Ira glanced at Aiden, "Even with the evidence, it will be hard. After all, the first batch had already reached EXO-04, and the reinforcement had already left this Planet Will."

"Do whatever you can." Aiden took a deep breath and asked, "You can take me out of the planet, right?"

"That won't be much of a problem. Do you want to leave now?"

"That would be better." Aiden really wanted to leave this planet as soon as possible. According to Mraz, it will be hard for Aiden to find such a suitable place to train, but to get stronger, he has to be alive.

"Okay. The stronghold #9f is one of the few research posts under my authority." Ira smiled while adding, "You can stay there without any disturbance. I will see what I can do. You may be able to support me with the job, too."

'The Job, huh?' Aiden nodded. Then he put his hand on his head, but he stopped, "Can you defeat a five-circle beast?"

The question caught Ira off-guard, yet he grinned, "Can I not answer this question?"

Aiden, too, smiled at him, "There is something on the planet that could catch a five-circle beast without killing it. And another army of them that might soon invade this plane." And he removed his helmet.

The transporter had already stopped when Aiden removed his contact helmet. Robin, as he had expected, was the person sitting in front of his face. "You extracted the data from those helmets, didn't you?" Robin nodded, while Aiden continued, "Give me a copy."

As he left the transporter, a fully functioning research post greeted him. Robin smirked, asking, "This is your first time in the research post, isn't it?"

Aiden was about to reply, but he ended up frowning. Aiden headed straight to the underground laboratory. In the well-guarded research-post, they soon stopped him.

"You can't go there," The well-equipped guard put his finger over the trigger and calmly stopped Aiden. While three others, behind the first one, aimed the guns at him.

"Aiden Law?" A loud voice called from behind. Aiden turned to meet another unknown guy. He introduced himself, "I am Captain Mado."

"This guy has a similar totem," Mraz informed him again. "But his mana is too little. He is more like Robin."

'Huh? So he is not a mage!' Unlike Luke, who was wearing a mage uniform, the guy in front of him was wearing a full military uniform. "Nice to meet you, Captain. I am Aiden."

Glancing at the hand extended to him, Mado frowned for a moment but still acknowledged it. Yet when Robin greeted him with a salute, the smile returned to his lips.

"Captain Luke had already informed us in advance. Please follow me. We have already cleaned up a barrack…"

"I need to check something in there." Aiden disregarded his words and pointed at the thick conmetal door. "Can we go there now? It is important."

"That…" Mado stared at Aiden for a moment before he said in a suppressed voice, "We can't do that. You need permission to access the underground lab."

"Then call Luke. I can wait here." Aiden had no intention of backing up, "Tell him it is urgent."

"You…" Mado's irritated scowl stopped in the middle as the heavy conmetal door opened on its own.

"Oh! Aiden, you are here." A surprise voice greeted them, "Took you long enough. What are you waiting here for? Don't you just stay there, come in."

"Sir, We can't do that." Mado was the first to react, "Neither the captain Luke nor general Ajar had issued the command. We can't let an unidentified person enter the lab."

"What unidentified person?" Charak looked at Mado as he was looking at the idiot, "This guy is the one who had… forget about it. You won't understand it. Put the details about him on me. If any problem occurs, I will take care of it."

"But, sir." Mado felt like he was getting a headache. While glaring at Aiden, he couldn't help but curse at his bad luck. "Can you wait for a moment? I will contact Captain Luke as soon as possible."

Looking at the inflexible Captain, Charak could only sigh. But he decided not to make it harder for the captain and walked toward Aiden. "I heard that you got lost in the wilderness? So which one is more dangerous?"

Glancing at the enthusiastic big man in front of him, Aiden couldn't help smiling, "Earth was a lot riskier. After all, I was effectively alone there. But the way things are here now, this place will soon exceed the dangers of Earth."

"Oh!" Charak looked up at him for further explanation. But Aiden just smiled at him and introduced Robin, "This is Robin. 1st lieutenant of the 17th squadron." As Robin was talking to Charak, Mado returned.

"What did Luke say?" Charak was first to ask.

"Yes, Captain Luke had granted permission," Mado replied.

"Good, Good. Come in." They entered the underground door that led them to their familiar yet so unfamiliar world.

There was no nasty stench, no dried blood on the wall, or broken lights. Clean, warm, and bright. It was Aiden's first time walking through the corridor.

"Your process was successful. But the problem is…"

"Mutation?" Aiden completed what Charak wanted to say, "You can't do anything about it. That is a typical side-effect. We could count these mutated people as one-fifth of the population of a human city on Earth."

Listening to Aiden, Charak's brow knotted together, "That is going to be a problem. There is no way they could go around with a pair of antlers on their head or with a tail, but the problem is we couldn't surgically remove it."

"Did you want to remove them with surgery?" Aiden would have guessed what had happened after that. He snickered, "What happened? Did they go, berserker? Or they died?"

Finding that Aiden could correctly guess the result, Charak was a little surprised. He nodded, "The one who went roughed…" Charak shook his head, recalling that dreadful memory.

"Let's just say it was a deer-human hybrid, but it turned into a cannibal." Charak took a deep breath, "It was a little mutated, but branding the specimen deer an 'E' graded beast would be far-fetched."

"After the merging process, the specimen had grown antler and fur. But other than that, it was human. We removed the hair, and the specimen regrew it within an hour."

"As for the antler. When we removed it, it lost control. We could only put it down," sighed Charak. However, excitement replaced it, "When we graded the beast, it was grade D. In the berserker mode, it will be a top Grade 'C' beast."

Aiden nodded but said nothing, while Charak continued in excitement, "I just want to know what is the highest grade hybrid you have seen on Earth?"

"To begin with, the grading process is very wrong. It doesn't include the magical capabilities of a beast. But if you have to include only physical capabilities, I would say I have seen at least two A-graded humans."

"Magical capabilities?" Charak was quick to catch on the important points, "magical capabilities of the beast or human subject?"

"Of course, the beast."

"Have you seen them?" Charak was very excited. "Is that even possible for a human to use the magical ability of the beast?"

"Very much possible." Aiden had no intention of telling them he was the prime example. "But that depends on the potential of the human and how much he can control it."

"Control it? Are you telling that humans could control the power of the beast?"

"That is the aim of the ritual." Aiden smiled, "even if I can give you a somewhat scientific explanation of these things, but it will be better if you don't try to explain everything scientifically."

They soon reached a similar-looking junction that led to five different paths. Charak scanned his hand on the scanner, but Aiden stopped in front of the door of another.

"Can we go in there?" Aiden asked, "There is something I need to check."

"That!" Charak was a little confused, "There is nothing but a few of the captured monsters are there. There is nothing much to see. The hybrid production facility is here."

"There are wolves in there, right? Grey with patches of white?" Robin asked.

Both Mado and Charak were a little surprised as they failed to understand how Robin knew about them.