Chapter 33: Sir Tonald Eldwood

A few more seconds passed with Declan remaining still beneath the shower.

It was time to reconcile himself with everything that had happened, and after finally getting a hold of himself, he reached for the shower knob and turned it, bringing the warm stream of water to a stop.

He grabbed a towel, dried himself, and headed into the bedroom before pulling on a simple round-neck shirt and shorts.

A few minutes later, he returned to the living room and settled into the chair at his desk, but the expression on his face had changed.

The uncertainty was gone.

Now... it was time to begin plotting his revenge.

And the first name on that list was the man who had killed him.

Sir Tonald Eldwood.

Declan switched on the devices around him, and the moment the screens illuminated, he cracked his fingers and pulled the chair closer, his hands settling over the keyboard.

There was one question he needed answered before anything else.

Who exactly was the man who had killed him?

When their group had completed the Anomalous Seed Core, they had been given very little information about the person who was supposed to test it.

All they knew was that the man was an ordinary person who had been sent by a Tier 2 Mechnoheart Organization responsible for arranging the project.

They had also been told that he possessed a D-tier talent affinity, meaning there should have been little difficulty in fusing with the module.

But now Declan knew that story had been a lie.

He could still remember the exact words the man had spoken before killing him.

_____________

"I was ordered to kill every last life that knows even a clue about creating an Anomalous Seed Core."

_____________

That sentence changed everything.

The scientists had believed the man was simply someone undergoing his first fusion.

He wasn’t.

He was a killer, a trained killer with specific targets.

Declan began searching, and it took less than thirty minutes before he uncovered his first lead.

It was an image of Sir Tonald before his fusion.

His search continued as he dug through old records, abandoned profiles, archived databases, and even deactivated social media accounts.

Most of them had been locked behind privacy restrictions, but there were still traces left behind, and Declan began piecing those fragments together one after another.

He opened the laptop beside him and started connecting the scattered information, comparing names, dates, locations, affiliations, and old records until the pieces gradually began forming something resembling a history.

Hours passed.

For nearly four hours, the room contained little more than the rapid clicking of keys as Declan continued searching through every lead he could find.

Eventually, he leaned away from the keyboard and rotated the chair toward the laptop, where he began examining everything he had collected.

Another hour passed.

Five hours in total.

And finally, Declan had reconstructed most of the murderer’s history.

It was far darker than he had imagined.

His real identity remained hidden behind layers of missing records and deliberately erased information, but Declan had managed to trace his movements through several organizations and incidents that had occurred throughout his life.

There was no clear information regarding Sir Tonald’s parents or his childhood, and several years of his history were completely missing, almost as though someone had deliberately erased them.

When the man had first appeared in their project, he had presented himself as an ordinary Nexian with a relatively unremarkable background, but the deeper Declan dug, the more inconsistencies he discovered.

His records had been altered.

His affiliations had been hidden.

Several organizations connected to him had disappeared or changed names over the years.

And every time Declan reached what should have been the end of a trail, he found another connection leading toward something larger.

A Mechnoheart Organization, then another, and then another.

Eventually, all those trails pointed in the same general direction.

Eurobos City.

Declan leaned back slightly, his expression becoming darker as he examined the information on the screen.

"So, the organization behind him is the Mechnoheart Organization in Eurobos..."

He stared at the records.

"They were the ones who sent him to test the module."

"And behind that organization in Eurobos City is the Higher Mechnoheart Organization itself."

Mechnoeldar Group.

Declan gave a bitter chuckle.

"Two years."

He shook his head.

"Tch, to think I poured two years of blood, sweat, and tears into that project because I wanted to earn admission into Mechnoeldar."

"An organization that sends trained killers to get rid of Mecha Scientists."

[He’s dangerous. You know that, right?]

The system’s panel appeared, and a sharp glint passed through Declan’s eyes.

"I know."

He leaned forward again.

"Very dangerous."

Sir Tonald wasn’t simply someone who had gained power and then decided to abuse it.

If the information Declan had uncovered was accurate, and he had little reason to believe otherwise, then he was not someone he could underestimate.

Worse still, the Anomalous Seed Core wasn’t necessarily the limit of his power.

He had told Declan that completing the mission would earn him a Heart Core, and if he had truly received one...

Declan’s expression became solemn.

"I... I need to estimate his current strength."

Declan straightened in his chair and immediately pulled out every journal and document he possessed concerning Seed Cores, comparing lower-grade examples with average and peak specimens one after another.

Three hours later, he finally leaned back.

"It’s insane."

He turned toward the laptop.

He already understood exactly why the Perfected Seed Core his team had created was considered such a success, because he knew its maximum output and the level of physical enhancement it could provide.

According to the system’s statistics, the average child possessed 10 Strength, while an average adult possessed 20.

Five times an adult’s base strength would therefore place the man at roughly 100 in every physical stat back when he had attacked them.

Declan looked down at his own attributes, noticing that his current stats were around 60 each.

"There was no way I could have beaten him as I am now. Maybe I could have escaped, but there’s no killing him."

And there was another factor that concerned Declan even more.

The man had already completed his mission, which meant he should have received the reward he had been promised: a Heart Core.

Declan’s expression grew serious as he considered the implications.

The weakest average Heart Core provided around 100 points in every stat, which was already five times the base strength of an ordinary adult human.

An average Seedian Nexian user would possess around 150 points per stat, equivalent to roughly 7.5 times a human’s physical strength.

And then there were the anomalous ones, which could push a Nexian’s physical stats all the way to 200 per stat, giving them ten times the strength of an ordinary adult.

If Declan wanted to prepare for the absolute worst-case scenario, then he had no choice but to assume that the man had somehow obtained one of those Anomalous Heart Cores.

200 per stat.

And that was only his physical strength.

A Nexian with a Heart Core wouldn’t simply rely on his body. There would be weapons, Mecha Arts, specialized equipment, and perhaps even a fully integrated Mech, all of which could push his actual combat strength considerably higher.

Around 250 to 300 per stat wouldn’t be unreasonable.

Declan leaned back in his chair, his expression darkening as he calculated the gap between them.

"If I want to crush him without leaving anything to chance, then... I’d need at least 400 to 500 points in every stat."

At that level, he could confidently confront any Heartian Nexian, regardless of what weapons, equipment, or tricks they possessed.

The problem was simple.

Declan was nowhere near that level.

His current stats were only 60 per stat.

"He’s far beyond me."

[You’re overestimating him because you’re preparing for the worst.]

The system panel flickered into existence before continuing.

[I’d put him closer to 200 stat points in actual strength. With weapons, a Mecha, or other enhancements, he should reach around 250 at most.]

[Even so, that’s still far beyond what you can fight right now.]

[250 stat points is no joke.]

Declan couldn’t disagree, but at least now, he had something concrete to work toward.

If he wanted to truly measure himself against the man who had killed him, he needed to reach 400 points in every stat.

Only then would he have enough strength to stand directly before him without having to worry about being overwhelmed.

The goal seemed ridiculously distant, yet strangely enough, Declan felt calmer because of it.

At least he finally had a direction.

His eyes gradually sharpened.

"Now I have a goal."

As soon as those words left his mouth, a notification appeared before him.

[Epic Quest Generated!]

[Mission: Reach a Base of 400 Stat Points in All Stats.]

[Rewards:

+10 Level-Up Cards!

+3 New Awakened Abilities!

+3 New Ability Evolution Cards!]

Declan stared at the notification for several seconds.

A quest had actually appeared for the very goal he had just established.

"Oh?"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"The System really gave me a mission for it."

The rewards were tempting.

Very tempting.

Declan’s gaze hardened as he looked at the quest again.

"Then that’s it."

He clenched his fist.

"My goal in the Academy is to reach 400 stat points in every attribute."

For the first time since entering the Academy, Declan felt as though the road ahead had finally become clear.

He pushed himself out of the chair, only to immediately drop back into it with a groan.

"Ugh..."

His legs were almost completely numb, and it was only then that Declan realized just how long he had been sitting there.

He had been at the desk for nearly thirteen hours.

When he checked the time, his eyes widened.

"5:30?"

His gaze quickly shifted toward his device, where a timer was displayed on the screen as a reminder that his first class started at exactly 6:30.