Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Where are we going, Erni?"

"Hm? Why did you call me Erni instead of the usual Eren?"

"I just felt I should call you by that name. Aunt Nina calls you that, right? Hmph! I can call you the same then. And you didn't answer my question."

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

Eren was seen traversing through the forest again, heading away from the cave he had selected to go through his transformation at.

Reen was now absorbed into Eren's body. And they were talking via their mental connection. Of course, Eren was sharing his senses with the latter as well.

After getting out of the cave, Eren had told Reen to destroy it. This was another of his safety precautions to keep Reen hidden from any prying eyes. The guy was always paranoid about random things.

She could cast the same spells as him now after going through that transformation.

The magic beasts and demon beasts had their way of casting spells. Their spellcasting was a fusion of various concepts. The concepts that humans referred to as schools of spells.

The beasts didn't have to study the spells like humans. They'd just develop a set of innate spells inherently available to their species.

Reen had her species-related innate spells, which unfortunately weren't that offensive. One of them was a healing spell that she had used a while back on Eren.

But after the transformation, she could mimic Eren's mana circuit within her and use it to cast spells like him.

The most advantageous thing Reen had going for her was the fact that she had an elemental affinity in all the elements. And her innate nature of devouring didn't create any conflict with her casting of spells. The inherent nature devoured the concepts of humanoid spell-casting and allowed Reen to make them her own.

Plus, Reen had Eren's memories and experiences of those spells available to her. So it was only natural that a C-Rank demon beast like her learned to cast the F-Rank spells instantly.

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

"Well, we are going to complete some missions first. And then have a look at the site I told you about."

"But weren't you going to involve Marla in your plan to retrieve Malva Hibiscus?"

"I am still planning to if there's a need. But I'm just going to take a quick look first.

If I can avoid manipulating Marla into helping me, I would. Every instance of manipulation takes a chunk away from the layer of trust after all. We need to use such instances frugally to make the best use of them."

"*Sigh! Erni, I still can't understand half the things you say. Never mind. Let's go to our next destination."

Reen was getting smarter at interpreting a lot of things including human interaction. But the concept of manipulation was still a difficult subject for her straightforward beastly mindset to grasp in a short time.

Reen coated Eren's legs with her slimy stuff to strengthen them before executing Blitz Steps her way. This was the absolute maximum speed the butcher's current body could withstand without feeling any repercussions.

Reen was making use of spell hyperdrive from Eren's memories to get the maximum juice out of the spell while ensuring Eren's safety. And as she was a C-Rank beast, she wouldn't receive any backlash from the hyperactive spell execution as long as her mana storage supported it.

Unknown to Eren and Reen herself, she was getting very adapted to using spells belonging to a particular school even though her mimicry of mana circuits within herself wasn't a complete match to that of humans. It was like she was trying to combine two concepts to create something that belonged to her.

***********

"These snakes are so irritating. You want me to eat them?"

"This magic beast is called Nuu Haietlik or by it's common name, Purple Lightning snake. It's a lightning element beast with a focus on speed and agility, just like me. And yeah you can eat some of them.

But not before I battle with a few meant for my use. The retrieval of their bodies is part of my Besanc mission. I want the proof of a genuine battle present on their bodies before I can submit them to Besanc and complete that mission."

A bunch of oversized purple snakes were staring at the new intruders who barged into their nests unceremoniously. At first, they only saw a mere human in the liquid stage of the F-Rank. With their sheer numbers, they could overwhelm him in no time.

But then Reen started talking with Eren openly and made the poor beasts realize who they were up against. The boy was hiding a demon beast in his body.

But their survival instincts kicked in the face of adversity. And it caught fire after seeing that the human boy was the only one who was going to go against them.

The species of Nuu Haietlik, AKA Purple Lightning snake, was known for its speed and agility. Its lightning-based innate spells were strong too. But the beast had an unpredictable way of taking part in the frontal assault. It would retreat midway before initiating a counter move from the state of defence.

That's why it was difficult for F-Rank humans to keep up with the beast's attack if their class wasn't focused on speed and agility as well. After all, no matter how powerful your spells are, it's a game over if your attacks can't land on the enemy and theirs do.

Eren had Reen's speed boost that she gave him after casting Blitz Steps her way. He made use of Sedated Perception to tackle the snakes' speed and took care of them one by one.

At the end of the fight, most of the young Nuu Haietlik backed down from a fight and retreated deeper into their dens. Almost all the adult snakes had been killed by Eren. Reen had already separated herself from Eren and was relishing the dead bodies of the snake buffet her master had created for her.

"Reen, make sure you eat them well, nice and slow. Because you are going to mimic their body type and innate spells. And manifest your presence in the form of these snakes when I call for your support with people around me."

That's right. Eren had another reason to hunt the F-Ranked Purple Lightning snake. He already had the Beast Contract spell in his possession. And it was in LA's records. The administration might get curious if he didn't make use of the transcendent spell to tame a beast for himself.

That's why he accepted this particular Besanc mission. The records of Besanc and Novice Treasury would offer a cover for his newfound powers.

As for Reen mimicking the magic beast's form. It was even simpler. She could mimic the specialities of the prey she ate. She needed to eat a couple of Nuu Haietlik more to comprehend their way of casting the species-related innate spells. But she had plenty of them to do just that.

Reen morphed into a beautiful girl after she was done eating the snakes in her slime form. She mimicked the form of Nuu Haietlik exactly before jumping straight onto Eren.

A wondrous scene was taking place at this time. The giant purple snake was absorbed into the boy's body and disappeared without leaving a trace. Next, the boy closed his eyes and concentrated while moving his lips a little. It seemed like he was talking to somebody. But it could also be that he was speaking spell incantations.

When he opened his eyes, Eren and Reen were ready to cast their dummy Beast Contract spell. Eren's skin started manifesting scales and a slight purple tinge over it. The area under his eyes also started turning green and his pupils seemed vertical, akin to that of a beast.

Eren's legs that had blue tongues of lightning surrounding them now had a few streams of purple lightning mixed. In short, Eren's visage had changed drastically after executing the dummy Beast contract spell.

Next, he tried the beast manifestation. Eren followed the instructions to a T but only a lifeless mana body appeared in front of him before dissipating into a thin air. This was to be expected. Reen's soul hadn't left her body. There was no soul tattoo imprinted on the caster's body from which to draw the soul.

That's why the beast manifestation part of the Beast Contract spell didn't succeed. Eren needed to do more research on the mana body-related spells so that he could emulate this part of the spell too. Meanwhile, he could pretend that he hadn't mastered the beast manifestation.

But whatever Eren had done now was enough for him to initiate his next set of plans. Even without the beast manifestation, he was confident in tackling most problems that might come in his way.

With this effortless execution, Eren now had the option to call forth and depend upon Reen when he was in a pinch without blowing his cover. Of course, Reen was only allowed to manifest the prowess of an F-Rank magic beast.

Eren practised his moves while he was in the contract beast form. Reen had adapted to the snake completely. That's why her mimicry of the snake's manifestation allowed the butcher to experience the same boost in speed and agility as he might have had if he had gone for a normal Beast Contract spell with the Nuu Haietlik.

He nodded to himself after confirming everything about the dummy spell was as per his requirements. He told Reen to cancel the manifestation before looking in a faraway direction:

"Now let's check out this thing called Malva Hibiscus, shall we?"

Author's Note: Hi. Hope you all are doing well. Yes, I survived my second vaccine shot.

It seems there would be a delay for me to go premium because the content editor assigned to me is on a leave till Monday. Yet I decided to publish the chapter today anyway since a lot of regular readers would be expecting a release.

Anyway, I'll finalize the schedule and will let you know as soon as I'm looped in by my CE.

Thank you @sir_dragon @carlitos and @waakaranai for sending gifts. Appreciate your contribution.

Lastly, I'll release bonus chapter after Golden Ticket count hits 12. You can also send me gifts for me to perform another chapter release (separate from the bonus chapter release generated by Golden Tickets). I'll release the same once the cumulative amount from all the readers hit 100 coins. The counter will keep on resetting after it hits 100. A release will take place after every such reset. You can start the counter and/or carry it forward by sending me a cola (10 coins). Let's all come together to make this no-BS novel a success story! ;)