Chapter 359 Exit Strategy The Mayor stood and bowed to his Master before turning to Andar, "Remember to check the public storage for anything you require before you leave. I will see myself off, please take care of my daughter on your trip, she is a silly girl, but I'm sure she would be of assistance to you." A few seconds later Livia ran after her father, clutching something tightly in her left hand, Andar looked after her retreating form with suspicion before turning to his master. His master gestured for him to be quiet and to follow him. Andar nodded and his master hurried down to his studies, where he reached his desk and activated a hidden switch. Andar felt the floor below him jolt as the room began to revolve. His eyes widened as he was not aware that such a mechanism had been built into this office after all the years he had spent here. The revolving room revealed a long passageway and at the end of it, a staircase that led straight down. His master began descending the stairs and Andar followed, the staircase was carved from the rock beneath the laboratory, and from the marks on it, this was all handmade. The curiosity in his heart was only tempered with deep thoughts about the current actions of his master. They descended for more than seven stories when Andar had initially thought there were only two floors below the ground. When they reached the bottom, he heard the faint sound of rushing water, and it soon revealed an underground stream was below them all this while. Andar looked around in amazement to see a functional mini-port, with a boat and provisions arranged in different sections, enough to feed and provide for a small army for a month. His master began hurrying about and placing what he needed on the boat and pushing others into a Spatial Ring. "Andar, connect the fuel nozzle to the boat, the injector port is closer to the stern, twist the cap to the left, not the right, with your strength you would tear the hull off the boat. I will tell you the reason why we are leaving like this, but we are running out of time and you are in danger." Andar did not hesitate and he went to his task without any questions. He trusted his master. This man could have used or abused Andar on his quest to understand his talent, but he did not, he had treated Andar like his son and had given him no reason to ever believe he would betray him. This was the thought of Andar, but deep down his wariness had increased and he had begun making plans, although he doubted he would be able to escape or fight back if his master had bad intentions in mind for him. He successfully connected the pumps to the boat, and the fuel tank began to fill up. This technology was primitive. He looked away and watched his master in his preparations. The Alchemist began to speak to him in a distracted manner while he was busy arranging the provisions. Andar doubted they would need most of what he was gathering, but his Master was someone who was always prepared for the worst. "This is a boat I constructed using ancient fossil fuel technology. I cannot use Scripts, Aether Stones, or Magic to power it in order to prevent anyone from detecting any emission from it. Of course, it is silent. This was the backup route for the laboratory I created fifty years ago. Remember Andar, you must always have an exit strategy." Andar was familiar with this habit of his master to speak about general matters while his mind was far away on other things. In a few minutes, his master was done, and they boarded the boat, which started up with a few button pushes. The engine below whined to life with a quiet purr and the boat began to move forward, navigation was automatic, yet his master still kept his eyes around, and with the focused look on his face, he must have other surveillance methods he was actively using. The first part of the ride was silent and it left Andar wondering how far this underground river flowed, for they must have moved for at least thirty miles, and this would put them outside the town's territory. His master seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after they had crossed a certain distance and he increased the speed of the boat and turned to him, "We were lucky that the Mage that was sent during your awakening was so young, else he would have seized you at once and taken you away… sheer luck." Andar's heart skipped a beat, "Master, is there anything wrong with my awakening?" "Wrong?" his master shook his head, "No, there is nothing wrong, it is, in fact, the opposite, everything went right in your awakening. Everything went so right it is abnormal and… scary." His master looked at him with a strange light in his eyes, as he took Andar's hand and began tracing the glowing silver veins beneath his skin with his fingers, "Your body is the perfect vessel for a mage, do you understand that Andar? It does not seem like a byproduct of any awakening I have ever seen, it is…" his master seemed to be struggling to find the words to describe him, "...art!" The curiosity and hunger burning in his eyes were shocking and with a strength of will he pulled himself away and seemed to collapse beside him, his voice became low as he said, "My apprentice, due to the unique nature of your talents, I began investigating intensively on all subjects of Awakening and so, I can boldly say in the entire planet I am one of the foremost researchers on the awakening process." As he was speaking his voice gained volume and clarity as he went lost inside his memories, "As you know during your awakening, you crushed your gate and opened up your Spirit Matrix, the combination of your gate being drawn into your Spirit Matrix combined with a unique factor inside that space would produce a byproduct that would upgrade and change the body of the awakened. The mysteries of that process are beyond me."