Chapter 94: The Smugglers Were Selling Bloodlines

Raven looked over the bodies again before deciding Nyxara wasn’t lying. That didn’t mean he trusted her. It only meant the wounds told a more complicated story.

Three corpses carried damage consistent with what he had seen around the patches of unnatural darkness. One had been split from shoulder to ribs by a cut so clean that the armor had barely deformed. Another had a broken neck and a black stain across his back. The third showed no visible wounds, but Predation detected traces of foreign mana around the heart.

The others were different.

Raven crouched beside one of the dead escorts and pulled his shirt aside. A blackened circular mark sat directly over the sternum. It wasn’t a surface burn. Something had destroyed the tissue from within.

Valeria approached, and her expression changed when she saw the partially charred symbol surrounding the injury. "She didn’t do that."

Nyxara remained leaning against the wagon, watching them with a level of calm Raven found suspicious even considering the difference in Levels. "How considerate."

Valeria ignored her. "It looks like a contractual seal."

"Slavery?" Raven asked.

"Not exactly. Slave collars work differently. This is integrated with the user’s mana. It could be a forced oath, a disciplinary mechanism, or..." Valeria touched the edge of the mark with a hardened blood needle. "A way to make sure they can’t talk."

Raven looked across the remaining corpses. "A kill switch."

"I don’t know that term in this context."

"Something goes wrong, someone activates the mechanism and removes everyone who knows too much."

Nyxara smiled faintly. "Now you understand why I only had to kill three."

Raven stood. "Who activated the seals?"

"I don’t know yet. I was trying to find out when you arrived."

Valeria crossed her arms. "You expect us to believe a Royal Bloodborn Champion has been following human merchants for weeks and just happened to end up here when someone decided to erase an entire caravan?"

Nyxara tilted her head. "I don’t expect you to do anything. But if you’re going to keep saying Royal Bloodborn in that tone, you could at least try to hide how uncomfortable it makes you."

"Your existence doesn’t make me uncomfortable."

"Then you’re only uncomfortable because I keep looking at Raven."

Valeria’s expression didn’t change, but the three blood blades floating beside her moved several inches closer to Nyxara.

Raven decided the investigation was more useful. "I want to see the cargo."

Nyxara looked at him. "Of course you do."

"That means you know what they were transporting."

"Some of it."

"Then start with what you know."

Nyxara studied him for a moment, apparently still entertained that a Level Eleven Awakened spoke to her that way, then pointed toward the largest wagon. "That one."

Raven walked over. Roland kept enough distance from Nyxara to turn caution into an art form. Valeria did not. She remained close to Raven, too close for it to be accidental. He noticed and chose not to comment.

The wagon looked ordinary from the outside: crates of grain, tools, cloth, barrels of oil, and two reinforced metal chests. Raven opened the first.

Coins.

Not enough to justify a massacre.

The second contained low-grade mana stones.

Also not enough.

Raven knocked on the floorboards with his knuckles. Solid. He moved his hand eight inches and tried again.

Hollow.

Nyxara smiled. "That took you less time than it took me."

"You already opened it?"

"I didn’t need to understand how it was built to know something was underneath."

"That didn’t answer the question."

"Yes. I opened it."

Raven found two concealed catches beneath a side plank and released them. The false floor lifted.

The smell came first: alchemical alcohol, blood, preservatives, and something sweet Raven was beginning to associate with mana-rich tissue.

Beneath the floor was a compartment almost two feet deep, occupying most of the wagon. Roland stopped pretending he preferred not to look.

"That doesn’t seem like legal cargo."

There were dozens of jars, some small and others large enough to hold entire organs. Raven picked one up. A red gland with crystallized ducts floated inside clear liquid.

FORGE reacted.

[Biological Crafting Material Detected.]

[Source: Unknown Magical Beast]

[Organ Type: Thermal Mana Gland]

[Integrity: 62%]

[Project Relevance: LOW.]

Useless to him.

That wasn’t the important part.

The compartment held far more than one gland: eyes, hearts, venom sacs, fragments of cores, crystallized organs, and harvested tissues from creatures Raven couldn’t identify. Everything had been carefully preserved and labeled.

Valeria picked up one of the documents stored between the containers. "This is too organized for amateur smugglers."

Raven looked over her shoulder. The labels listed species, Rank, organ quality, and something called Trait retention.

That caught his attention.

"They know abilities can remain inside tissue."

Nyxara answered from behind him. "Naturally."

Raven looked at her. "Naturally?"

Valeria seemed to understand his surprise. "Raven, alchemists have been using monster parts for centuries. Cores for tools, glands for potions, bones for weapons, blood for rituals. You’re not the first person to discover that magical biology can retain properties."

That mattered.

Raven had assumed too much from the uniqueness of Predation and FORGE. The world understood the relationship between anatomy and power.

It simply couldn’t exploit it the way he could.

Raven lifted the jar. "But this says Trait retention."

"Because some organs function better when the original magical structure remains intact."

"Can they transfer the Trait?"

Valeria hesitated. "Not the way you can gain a Skill by eating the source. There are grafts, rituals, potions, and artifacts. Most lose a significant portion of the original capability, and direct integration attempts usually end very badly."

Raven looked at the preserved gland again.

There was the difference.

Predation could assimilate.

FORGE could convert.

The rest of the world harvested echoes.

That made his Authority much more dangerous than he had realized.

Nyxara approached the wagon, and Valeria immediately moved a little closer to Raven.

The Bloodborn noticed.

Again.

"The monsters are the least interesting merchandise," Nyxara said.

She leaned over the compartment and moved several crates aside, revealing a second section underneath. It was smaller and far better protected, with reinforced locks that had already been destroyed.

Probably by her.

Raven opened the first case.

Inside were rows of blood vials, each marked with different symbols.

Valeria recognized several immediately.

"Bloodlines."