Chapter 201 - 196: The Warehouse District
John didn’t tell anyone where they were going the next morning.
Not because he didn’t trust the group.
Because he didn’t want anyone outside their group to know.
The information they had gathered the previous night was still too uncertain.
A few strange shipments.
Nighttime wagons.
Rumors of noises.
None of it proved anything.
But there was one place where all three rumors seemed to overlap.
The southern warehouse district.
John stood near the inn’s entrance, looking at the busy street.
Lythriel joined him.
"You’ve been staring at the same street for five minutes."
"I’m thinking."
"About the warehouses?"
"Yeah."
She sighed.
"I knew it."
John smiled.
"You’re getting predictable."
"You’re the predictable one."
"Fair."
The others soon joined them.
Darius carried a small notebook.
Sylvara had packed almost nothing.
Aerion wore ordinary clothing instead of his usual adventurer equipment.
Lythriel noticed.
"We’re trying to look normal?"
Darius nodded.
"Exactly."
John looked at Aerion.
"You might have trouble."
Aerion frowned.
"Why?"
John looked at his enormous sword.
"Because normal people don’t walk around carrying that."
Aerion looked down.
"Oh."
He reluctantly left the sword at the inn.
John smiled.
"Better."
---
The warehouse district was on the southern edge of Ravencross.
It was a completely different part of the city.
The central streets were crowded and lively.
Here, everything was quieter.
Large stone buildings lined the streets.
Most had enormous wooden doors for wagons.
Workers moved crates.
Merchants checked ledgers.
Carters shouted at horses.
The smell of grain, leather, oil, and spices filled the air.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual.
John walked casually.
Darius occasionally stopped to examine signs.
Sylvara looked at the shops.
Lythriel pretended to be interested in a clothing stall.
Everyone had their own way of observing.
John watched the wagons.
Most were ordinary.
Food.
Clothing.
Building materials.
Weapons.
Then he saw one.
A black wagon.
No merchant emblem.
No guild markings.
Nothing identifying its owner.
It was covered with a heavy canvas.
Two men escorted it.
John slowed down.
"That’s one."
Darius glanced at it.
"Are you sure?"
"Not yet."
They continued walking.
The wagon stopped in front of an old warehouse.
One of the men unlocked the door.
The other looked around.
John immediately turned toward a nearby food stall.
"Let’s get something."
Lythriel understood.
"Sure."
They approached the stall.
John ordered something simple.
While eating, he watched.
The two men opened the warehouse.
The wagon went inside.
Then the doors closed.
Darius whispered.
"Interesting."
John nodded.
"We wait."
---
They spent almost an hour nearby.
Nothing happened.
Eventually, the warehouse doors opened.
The black wagon came out.
But it was empty.
John noticed something else.
A second wagon was waiting inside.
This one had a merchant emblem.
Darius looked surprised.
"They’re transferring the cargo."
"Probably."
"Why?"
"To hide where it’s going."
The second wagon left.
John watched its direction.
It headed north.
Toward the central city.
Not outside.
Inside.
Darius wrote something down.
"Should we follow?"
John shook his head.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"If they’re careful enough to transfer the cargo, they’re probably careful enough to notice someone following."
Darius nodded.
John looked at the warehouse.
"We need to know what’s being stored there first."
---
They waited until evening.
The warehouse remained quiet.
Then something changed.
A small side door opened.
Two people came out.
One was carrying a box.
John couldn’t see what was inside.
But Sylvara could smell it.
She whispered.
"Alchemy."
John looked at her.
"Certain?"
"Yes."
"What kind?"
She shook her head.
"Too far."
They followed from a distance.
The two people entered a narrow alley.
John and Lythriel took another route.
They emerged ahead.
The two strangers passed them.
John noticed one of them.
A young man.
He had a scar across his cheek.
And around his wrist was a black bracelet.
John’s eyes narrowed.
He had seen the symbol before.
On the documents.
A small mark.
A stylized circle divided by three lines.
**Project Evolve.**
John kept walking.
He didn’t react.
Neither did Lythriel.
Once the men disappeared, she whispered.
"That was them."
"Yeah."
Darius caught up.
"What happened?"
"We found the symbol."
Darius’s expression became serious.
"You’re certain?"
"Yes."
That changed everything.
They now had a direct connection.
The warehouse was involved.
---
They returned to the inn after sunset.
John wanted to investigate immediately.
But Darius stopped him.
"No."
John looked at him.
"We know the warehouse is connected."
"Exactly."
"So we should enter tonight."
Darius shook his head.
"That’s precisely why we shouldn’t."
John raised an eyebrow.
Darius pointed at the documents.
"They’re cautious. They transferred the cargo specifically to hide its destination."
He paused.
"If we break into the warehouse now, they’ll know someone is investigating."
John considered it.
Darius continued.
"We need to find out where the second wagon went."
John nodded slowly.
"Then we follow the chain."
"Exactly."
Lythriel smiled.
"You’re both becoming annoyingly patient."
John laughed.
"That’s growth."
---
The next morning, they returned to the warehouse district.
This time, they split up.
John and Lythriel watched the warehouse.
Darius and Sylvara monitored the surrounding streets.
Aerion stayed nearby as backup.
They waited.
Hours passed.
Then the same black wagon arrived.
John watched as the doors opened.
Three men came out.
One was carrying a small wooden box.
Another held a piece of paper.
The third looked like a mage.
He stopped beside the wagon.
Then something strange happened.
He raised his hand.
A magical barrier briefly appeared around the vehicle.
John’s eyes narrowed.
"A concealment spell."
Lythriel nodded.
"Why would they need that?"
"To hide the mana signature."
Darius approached quietly.
"We need to follow them."
John nodded.
---
The wagon left the warehouse.
This time, they followed.
Not directly.
John stayed on the rooftops.
Lythriel and Darius moved through the streets.
Sylvara stayed farther back.
The wagon passed through several districts.
Then it entered a poorer neighborhood.
John expected it to stop at another warehouse.
It didn’t.
It continued.
Then turned into a narrow street.
The road ended at an old building.
A former bathhouse.
The wagon stopped.
The men unloaded the boxes.
John watched from above.
One man knocked on the door.
Three times.
Pause.
Two times.
The door opened.
The boxes disappeared inside.
Then the wagon left.
John climbed down.
Darius joined him.
"The bathhouse."
"Yeah."
"Think that’s the entrance?"
"Maybe."
Lythriel looked at the building.
"Why a bathhouse?"
"Old buildings have underground infrastructure."
Darius nodded.
"Water channels."
"Sewers."
"Basements."
"Exactly."
John looked around.
"Let’s not enter."
Lythriel stared at him.
"You said that surprisingly quickly."
"We already know they’re connected to Project Evolve."
John pointed toward the building.
"What we don’t know is whether this is the entrance to the facility beneath the city."
Darius smiled.
"You’re thinking ahead."
John looked at the bathhouse.
"If we break in now, we might lose our chance to find the real entrance."
"So what do we do?"
John watched the building.
"We wait."
---
They waited until night.
The bathhouse closed to the public at sunset.
One by one, the surrounding shops shut their doors.
The streets became quiet.
But the bathhouse remained active.
Lights appeared behind the windows.
People entered through the side entrance.
Not customers.
Workers.
John counted them.
Twelve.
Then another group.
Five.
A total of seventeen people entered.
Nobody came out.
Lythriel whispered.
"That’s a lot of people."
John nodded.
Then he noticed something.
The building had no chimney.
Yet smoke was coming from the roof.
"There’s a furnace underground."
Darius looked up.
"Probably."
John focused his senses.
He could feel mana beneath the building.
Weak.
Hidden.
But definitely there.
"That’s it."
Darius’s expression became serious.
"The facility."
"Probably."
John stepped back.
"We’ve found the entrance."
Lythriel looked at him.
"Then tomorrow—"
"No."
She frowned.
"What?"
"We don’t go in tomorrow."
"Why not?"
"Because we’re still missing one thing."
"What?"
John looked at the city around them.
"Proof."
Darius understood.
"If we expose the organization, we need enough evidence that they can’t simply deny everything."
John nodded.
"And if the guild is compromised..."
"We can’t rely on them."
"Exactly."
They needed evidence.
Something undeniable.
Something that connected the people inside the bathhouse to the experiments in the Silverwood.
John looked at the building again.
"We need to know what they’re doing down there."
---
The following day, John returned alone.
He didn’t enter.
He simply watched.
Late afternoon, an ordinary-looking carriage arrived.
An elegantly dressed man stepped out.
John immediately recognized him.
Not from his face.
From the documents.
One of the names appeared in their records.
**Lord Armand Veyr.**
A wealthy nobleman from Ravencross.
John’s expression became serious.
The man entered the bathhouse.
No guards.
No announcement.
Just one quiet meeting.
John watched the door close behind him.
Now they had something they hadn’t expected.
The organization wasn’t simply operating in secret.
Someone with political influence was involved.
John returned to the inn.
Darius was waiting.
"What did you find?"
John sat down.
"A nobleman."
Darius looked up.
"Who?"
"Lord Armand Veyr."
Darius went silent.
"You recognize the name?"
"Everyone does."
"How important?"
Darius hesitated.
"Very."
John leaned back.
"How very?"
Darius looked at him.
"His family controls a large portion of Ravencross’s trade routes."
John’s eyes narrowed.
"So that’s how they move everything."
"Probably."
John looked toward the window.
The pieces were beginning to fit together.
The warehouse.
The secret shipments.
The bathhouse.
The underground facility.
The noble connection.
But something still didn’t make sense.
Why were they experimenting on monsters?
What were they preparing for?
And why had they built another facility beneath the city?
John pulled the Project Evolve document from his bag.
He stared at the final section.
It contained a phrase he hadn’t paid attention to before.
He read it again.
**Phase One: Adaptation.**
Below it:
**Phase Two: Integration.**
John frowned.
Darius leaned closer.
"What does that mean?"
John shook his head.
"I don’t know."
He turned the page.
There was one final line.
**Phase Three: Human Compatibility Trials.**
The room went silent.
Lythriel slowly looked at John.
"They aren’t just experimenting on monsters."
John folded the document.
"No."
His expression hardened.
"They’re preparing to experiment on people."
And suddenly, the urgency of their investigation changed completely.
---
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