Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The dense forest outside the city of Ainari. Waning crescent moon night.

"You devil... May the almighty Vulcan… burn your soul to… Ugh!"

A fire-element ranker who was looking to be in his late 30s was seen saying his last words before his body started to mummify at a rapid pace. His mana storage and his life essence were sucked out of his body before he could offer any more resistance.

The ranker died while cursing the man who had pierced his gut with his pale bare hands. He had worn a weird-looking mask that hid his facial features.

"Did you get it?"

Eren asked Layla who was seen searching for something on the dead bodies of men who had already died and been mummified. She opened the palm of one such dead body and poured a concoction she had in her vial onto it. Soon after, an ID stone was extracted from his wrinkled, mummified hands.

Layla picked it up and closed her eyes to examine it. She flashed a cheerful grin as she confirmed something she was looking for.

"Hehe. Yes. Eren, this mugging business is so exciting. I never thought of the other side of the coin in the stories I had read about. That the bad guys can break it big if they plan ahead and plan well."

Eren had amassed 100k Extols so he could attend the auction by showing that he had enough wealth to participate. Dianna had sent him an invite to the auction because of her position in the family. However, she was nowhere near the family hierarchy to allow him to attend the event without skipping that requirement.

The 100K Extols he had won were only meant for him to gain entry into the auction event in the VIP chamber. Of course, he had to pay 10K Extols just to reserve that chamber for himself. But that was a price he was willing to pay for his anonymity. Though not without cursing the House Remus for their way of doing business.

Eren smirked at Layla before releasing the fire element ranker. He wondered who this Vulcan fellow was. But he let the matter go after feeling that his stats had increased slightly yet again.

The butcher smiled and accessed his Status Window.

Name- Eren Elijah Idril (Verified)

Organizations- Edinburgh Army (Nightshade duchy) Lionhearts Adventurers' Academy

Academic Status- Class 2/C

Ranked Status: Not applicable due to on-field assignment

Base Stats:

HP- 13.4 / 13.4

MP- 12.2 / 12.2

STR- 12.5

AGI- 13.9

INT- 10.2

BTP~ 62 (Exceeded normal standards set for Solid Stage Ace Rank)

BTP Visibility- Private

Ranking Status: E-Rank (Solid Core Stage)

******

'Heh! I became one of those geniuses that are above the normal standards.'

Eren smirked when he saw his BTP value had exceeded the normal limit of Solid Stage of Ace rank. He was very proud of his accomplishments. After all, this was the first time in both of his timelines that he had achieved a feat like this.

'This is all due to Life Drain and Domain of Wrath. Maybe what Nina said was true. A person's abilities reflect their desires and needs. I wanted to be stronger faster so my abilities were manifested keeping my desires in sight.'

Eren looked at his haggard and wrinkled hands and thought to himself. He had already achieved the BTP score of 62 after his fight with Tim and Langdon had ended. A small increase in his stats with his recent victims wasn't enough to show up in his overall BTP value. Still, progress was progress.

Eren was worried about another problem after he saw his BTP value though. Even with his stats making progress, he didn't feel like there were signs of his breakthrough into the Adept rank. Despite being in the solid stage of the Ace rank with such a high BTP, it still felt as though his body as a vessel and his mana core as an energy source had not reached their saturation point.

This was a disadvantage of being one of the genius rankers. They exceeded the BTP values defined by their respective ranks. And yet, even with their enhanced stat values, they would be stuck in the same rank for a while.

Altashia was facing the same problem as well. Her BTP value had also exceeded Ace Rank. But her ranking breakthrough was nowhere in sight.

'Hm. Ever since I started using the Rootless technique, my agility stat is not increasing much. It's like every stat is trying to be on the same level. My intelligence stat has got the biggest boost among all those values.'

Eren analyzed his growth while retracting his Life Drain ability. His arms were once again in pain as a result of his actions. But by now, the butcher was getting used to it. And with each use of his ability, he felt like the pain was reducing.

"Eren…. Eren…. What are you thinking about? You are creeping me out here."

Layla started acting innocent and naive once she confirmed the stalk of the Simbelmyne flower was safe. Eren ignored her and called out his demon beast that was soaring in the skies somewhere near.

'Argo. Time to leave.'

Eren let his demon beast know that they were getting ready to leave. He then used the Potion of Innocence on the battle-scarred area after burning the bodies with his fire-element spells.

Eren had ambushed this group of rankers after they had left the Remus auction house. It was the same group that had obtained the stalks of Simbelmyne's flowers.

The Remus Auction House had taken every precaution it could to assure its clients that they would have a safe passage. Each group of patrons would be sent via spatial arrays to random locations outside the city of Ainari. This made it near impossible for anyone to keep track of anyone.

Too bad, Dianna had already rigged the patrons' exit.

Upon Eren's suggestion, Dianna had coated the entry tokens of the patrons that were involved in the auction with an almost undetectable tracking potion. Layla's potioneering knowledge along with the potion book that Eren had obtained from the Purgatory made it possible for him to concoct a potion like this.

Eren had never forgotten how he was ambushed by Team Claho in the middle of nowhere using their potions and gears. Therefore, he also sought out potions and gears that would allow him to do exactly that.

This was the potion Eren had created after three days of experiments. He didn't neglect his potioning practices while he worked on his other frontiers.

Layla had offered to help him to expedite his plans. After all, her personal stakes were also involved in the plan. But the butcher held on with his experiments and finally managed to concoct the potion to Layla's satisfaction.

Dianna played an instrumental role in setting this trap for the butcher. Without her involvement, he would have had to buy the stalk using his own money. Which was something he hadn't planned to do from the very beginning.

Eren had kept Dianna away from his robbery to avoid suspicion. She was told to wait at the auction house and not follow him. He assured her that things were in control, making her listen to his words.

Argo landed near Eren and flapped his wings to create a gale of fresh air. He didn't like the smell of low-quality food getting roasted so he cleared the air for himself.

Unlike his chimera form, Argo was in a complete eagle mode. He had learned to shapeshift in a unique way that was unlike other normal demon beasts. Where normal demon beasts could only change the size of their bodies, Argo had learned to take the forms of an eagle or lion completely.

Eren had stopped getting surprised with Argo's growth after he had realized that the beast was using his devour ability on every consumable mana beast he could get his paws on. Just like him, his beast was growing at an unbelievable speed.

"Where are we going?"

Layla asked while walking leisurely in the recently torched field. Eren smirked before answering her. He had a vial of potion in his hands that would change color whenever he moved it in a certain direction.

"Now that every ranker that was involved with the auction is marked with the tracking potion, it would be silly to be satisfied with one reward. It's time we maximize our gains when we still can before calling it quits."

Eren replied and climbed onto Argo's back. Layla smiled slyly and nodded. She disappeared from her position and sat near him, with her back against his torso. The trio was planning to try hunting a new prey or two tonight.

They had trophies to collect that didn't really belong to them.