Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"I'll ask this to all of you. Who wants to quit being part of this team?"

Eren sent the ball to his team members' court. He blatantly dealt with all the in-your-face criticism coming his way.

He didn't want anyone to quit the team. Because he had thought really hard about who his teammates should be right after Steve had approached him.

He preferred doing things solo. But his past experiences had taught him that there were several limitations in that approach.

Joining someone's team would also restrict his plans. That's why he decided to form and control a team of his own. That way, he'd be able to gain party-based benefits while keeping his freedom intact for the most part.

So he had selected his teammates after a long round of deliberation. Obviously, he didn't want the efforts that he had invested in these teammates to go in vain. But if they couldn't understand that there's always going to be something expected from them no matter which team they belong to, he might as well let them go to make room for new candidates.

Thankfully, Eren didn't have to go that far. Because nobody volunteered to quit. Eren waited for a while before continuing:

"I'll take your silence as your confirmation to continue being part of the team. Good. Now let's talk about the possible improvements you can introduce in your current battling style.

Steve, you have the biggest scope to grow your strength in a short while. Your earth element spell Yemidiri Medafi belongs to a school of spells that I think is not suitable for you.

Thankfully, it is the only stray spell from that school of spells in your arsenal. You don't need to ponder over which school to choose at F-Rank. But figuring out the one that suits you most would help you at the early stages.

So it'd be better if you could just drop that spell. I'd suggest you a spell that would suit you the most.

The spell's name is Zemlyanoy Kulak. It belongs to a school that requires you to shout out the incantation or spell's name while imbuing mana in your vocal cords.

This school focuses on controlling mana flow from the outside with the help of auditory mana fluctuations. But in return, it allows for almost immediate execution by decreasing the casting time.

That's what you need right now. Your berserking class anyway draws enough attention on the battlefield. So you are not losing the advantage of surprise you never had. In contrast, it may work in our favor as your call might force our opponents to focus on you. That'd give us more room to counter their attacks and launch an offensive.

As for you, Jake…."

Eren kept on giving individual advice to all his party mates. The advice he gave to Steve was something the latter had figured out on his own in Eren's previous timeline after a few months.

Steve gave up on Yemidiri Medafi after a few months of failures and focused on spells that belong to a specific school. That decision finally changed his performance on the field and made him a capable berserker. His rise to prominence started from that point.

Eren had cut short that learning process by telling the guy what he needed to do. That would help him realize his potential sooner than naturally ordained.

Of course, Eren didn't remember the growth requirement for each of his teammates. He was a recluse so he hardly paid attention to the rising stars of LA. Whatever he could remember about those students was only a part of the truth known to the masses.

But Eren's knowledge as a previous D-Rank entity was still enough to guide the Novices. So he kept on ensuring his teammates' respective paths were optimized.

Everyone present at the scene was impressed by Eren's knowledge and know-how. Even Renita was no exception.

She had interrupted Eren midway and asked him how he knew so much about spells, techniques, and other miscellaneous stuff that wasn't strictly related to his field. The guy just told her that his aunt Nina had made him aware of these aspects from a very young age.

Eren's lie became believable because he told his teammates that Nina was a C-Rank, which was a known truth among them. They started paying more attention to the butcher as a result.

Then Eren organized a one on one duel among his teammates. He went up against Steve despite Renita's insistence to have a rematch.

Eren was a berserker in his previous life. He had most to offer in terms of guidance to the current berserker in their team. He'd often pause midway during their duel and instruct Steve about his stances. The latter would listen carefully and try to implement the same in his next line of attacks.

The other rankers battled among themselves as per Eren's instructions. Ana and Bel watched from afar. The duo was glad they could join a team with such capable members. And they were most reverent towards Eren who had impressed them with his insights.

The sun had to set for the team to end their practice session. Every student had now started stalking up on food in their ID stones. So an entire day without having to visit the canteen wasn't a big deal.

*******************

The next day!

Eren entered the ranking war and completed his five screen-assigned battles. He had already fought two of them on the first day of the ranking war. Therefore he only needed to take part in three more battles assigned randomly by LA.

The butcher received five Right to Battle challenger passes after completing his fifth battle. The academy mandated that a student needed to partake in a set number of battles arranged by the spectral screen randomizer before they start issuing challenges of their own.

The number of mandatory battles differed from time to time depending upon the availability of students and their respective performances. But they'd be issued an equal number of challenger passes as the number of times they were required to fight.

Eren was unscathed but out of mana after his third match. He had tried different spell combos to calibrate their executions, efficiency, and more to his current standards.

The experiments obviously made it difficult for him to win the matches straightaway. But he gained a lot of insights into how to time Sedated Perception at the right time for each active spell.

The butcher again organized a party meeting the next day and started guiding his teammates. He fought with Renita after her persistent nagging and beat her up so badly that she didn't ask him to battle again.

Renita realized that Eren was only experimenting with his spell combos the first time they fought. He was easily able to defeat her if he restricted himself to his usual spell.

Of course, what Renita didn't know was that Eren was using spell hyperdrive when battling against her. But this time, he kept Sedated Perception out of the equation and controlled the uptime of the hyperdrive to minimize its side effects.

Renita's battle experience was no joke. The class of a ranger suited her. But that didn't stop her from gaining insights in close combat style after seeing Eren fight with his teammates from a keen spectator's perspective.

She was a natural fighter that focused on maximizing her battle potential in every aspect. Although her technique didn't suit the close combat style, her elemental affinity did.

So she used every trick in her sleeve to handle Eren when she fell into his attacking range. But even after so many attempts, Eren proved his battle superiority and defeated her fair and square.

Eren trained and guided Steve the most. The latter had realized that Eren knew more about the path of a berserker than any assistant professor whose private lectures he had attended after paying in Merps.

And the best thing about Eren's guidance was that the teammates didn't need to pay Eren anything.

Or so they thought!

But the shameless guy demanded a varying amount of Merps from each of them depending upon the corresponding efforts he had put in.

Steve needed to pay the most and Becky needed to pay the least. Ana and Bel thought they didn't need to pay anything since they weren't guided by their leader. But they too were charged for being an audience to his teaching sessions by a scrooge that was Eren.

Of course, what Eren charged was a lot less than the amount they needed to pay if they attended private lectures. And Eren's guidance was even more effective than those lectures.

But that fact didn't lessen the bitterness they felt towards scrooge. Now they would pay undivided attention to Eren to get the best value for their Merps.

Eren was aiming for this very psyche to develop from the start. Of course, he'd always welcome more Merps. But that wasn't his main objective in charging his teammates for his guidance.

Human beings had a habit of ignoring the things that were made easily available to them. And the freebies were something they paid the least amount of importance to.

The butcher ensured that his lessons and guidance were effectively implemented by putting the Merps tag on them. And it worked. His teammates started seeing the party meetings as private lectures after they realized they had to pay for his services.

Nothing that is worthwhile having... ever comes free in this world.

This also made Eren's teammates understand the importance of having a fixed source of Merps income. They had decided to implement whatever Eren had taught and guided them so far to get employed in their respective fields. Their accounts were shrinking in Merps after all.