Preparation [1]

It was true that the Old Lady lived in the outer ring of Gastle, but she naturally had a separate lab for research and experimentation. This portion of her money was the only one she invested in herself, and even that was for the sake of the world. 

It existed near Gastle within the core of a mountain. It couldn't be accessed by anyone who didn't have some sort of flight capability, and anyone who flew up to the lab's main entrance would be met with too many deadly security measures to even think about continuing deeper. 

The whole process of ordinary entry was skipped. When she dragged Gio through her gate, they ended up directly in the midst of that lab. 

"Do you want to start talking now, or are you going to wait until we reach my office?"

She spoke freely because there wasn't anyone else around. Unless she needed them, even her assistants weren't allowed in the main lab. They had a separate space to work out of that was located close enough for communication and whatnot to not be an issue. 

Gio also knew that they were isolated away from prying ears, but his hesitation didn't end. He still hadn't come to a decision on whether telling her was worth it or not. 

She saw his look of indecision when she glanced back at him. The frown she sported made it more than obvious how she felt about it. 

"I would understand if it were anyone else, but are you really going to treat your Aunt like this? When did I ever do anything to make you this guarded?"

Gio smiled wryly. He couldn't answer that question since his hesitation had nothing to do with her. 

"It isn't that I don't want to tell you. It's more that I'm afraid of the consequences of doing that."

The Old Lady halted her steps and fully turned around. 

"So you really were planning to do something that stupid."

"You're right, but…"

He didn't need to say more for her to understand. 

"Haa…"

She sighed loudly in exasperation. 

"You can't keep doing this. Last time, it ended badly. What happens if it ends badly this time as well?"

She was only stopping him out of genuine concern, but when it came to things like this, Gio was the same now and back then. 

"I know I can't stop you when you're this stubborn. Trying will only put you in more danger considering the stupid things you do to escape this place…"

She leered at him as she made the subtle jab, emphasizing the end of her sentence before continuing. 

"...so let's make this deal. As long as you tell me honestly what you're trying to do, I won't stop you. The only catch is that if I think it's too dangerous, you have to be prepared enough to satisfy me before you're allowed to go."

She wouldn't let him run into death just because she wanted to be a good parental figure. At the very least, she would make sure he could stay safe from the worst-case scenario so her people could save him in time if it happened. 

Gio almost felt bad for hesitating. He didn't want to make her feel like she lost his trust. After all, she'd done nothing of the sort. 

'I'm only hesitating because this is a matter of the future. If she questions anything, I'll have to spin a web of lies I don't want to spin.'

It felt like too small of a thing to make him hesitate so much, but it had to be remembered that every step he took from the moment he regressed was planned. 

Every step he took away from that plan, every outlier he created, had to be carefully considered. 

And, at least in this scenario, he decided to allow the outlier. 

"It's like this…"

He looked into her eyes so she could assess him directly. 

"I left Haven for a little."

He led with something that was bound to enrage her, but it was the only way he could explain away his knowledge. 

"Remember that slave contract? Well, that company got raided and shut down. The entire mine is gone too, but I don't know what happened to it. When I left, it was still operating normally."

She wouldn't be able to tell if he was lying. Any files about the mine had been wiped or hidden. 

"I was going to come back, but I lost out on too much money, so I decided to risk it. I left Haven and drove around, trying to see if I could vulture anything, and in the process…"

This was where the lies ended. 

"I found a cave around three hundred kilometers from the border. The beast living inside is a Tier 5 Blackwing Blood Serpent. If I can kill it and strip it for parts, I'll make more than I ever would have at the mine."

Money was the best excuse he could provide, but it really was the worst one he could give. 

His Aunt's eyes had already become sharp. Before she even heard his goals, her ears trained in on the name of the mutated beast he mentioned. 

"Did you say you found a Blackwing Blood Serpent?" she asked for confirmation. 

"Yeah," Gio responded with a nod of his head. 

"It looks exactly like the ones on the internet. I did some more research to confirm, and I think I really stumbled on a jackpot."

That part was the truest of it all. That Blackwing Blood Serpent was only Tier 5 right now, but in the future, it would grow into a Tier 9 beast that terrorized the Wasteland. 

In most cases, one couldn't assume the potential of a wild mutated beast or monster bloodline. They had to be tested in a lab to see how powerful they were, and even then, there was no way to accurately measure potential in non-human species. 

Bloodlines used by Sequencers were not only vetted in labs, but also artificially altered so that their potential could be completely understood. There wasn't a Sequencer willing to gamble on untested bloodlines. 

The bloodline of that Blackwing Blood Serpent, however, was guaranteed to reach the highest level, as it had already happened once. 

And that bloodline with perfect potential was only a part of Gio's plans. Regardless, he needed its Essence Blood, and he couldn't allow anyone to know that he'd collected it. 

All of those thoughts went through Gio's head in a matter of seconds, but he couldn't voice any of them. The Old Lady was looking at him like she was going to kill him if he didn't give her a reason not to. 

He had to hurriedly pull himself out of his own brain to save himself. 

"Right, I did a lot of research, and I think I've come up with a plan to kill it without having to actually engage in combat."

The Old Lady tapped her foot against the ground with her arms crossed, looking like she would snap at any second. 

But, she was a researcher, so she wouldn't judge anything until she'd seen all the facts.

"Go on."

The words that came out of her mouth urged him to keep going until he had nothing left to say.

Naturally, his mouth didn't close again until he'd done exactly that.