Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"How should I exit from this place?"

The butcher asked Alephee while still in his Life Drain enhancement mode. He was going to revert to his close combat mode just before getting back to where the other competitors were.

Eren stayed in his summoner class mode because he wanted to create an intentional trail using that as his class. This way, the historians would only find out the trail of summoner class ranker still being present, making Tim a mysterious person that died and lived at the same time. He was also going to use Potion of Innocence to make the matters blurry enough so that his version of the story holds up and doesn't get questioned later.

'Hmm. You obviously can't enter the previous entrance using your current ranking status. There's a way… or two… that you can use. It's where the right-most corner of the library building was supposed to be. Not too far from the spot where you took those books out."

Eren's fight with Tim had collateral effects on the surroundings. The library building that was somehow dragged into the spatial distortion wasn't an exception.

Eren nodded and decided to check the place. It wasn't long before he found a series of spatial tears that were present under the debris of the library's collapsed structure.

Eren now understood how he found those books in the library. The juxtaposition of spatial runs had created chaotic elements near the library building that made the space too delicate. It had various pockets of spatial tears that could be made visible if enough elemental chaos was unleashed near it. Something like fire-element spells setting off in the vicinity.

"There are so many spatial tears… which one should I take?"

Eren asked Alephee while trying to sense the spatial tears using his mana sense. He knew he wouldn't gain anything valuable. But he wanted to check anyway.

'Well... if I use my soul sense on all of the spatial tears, I may be forced to sleep once again. So we have to be prudent in our selection. You choose which one to check out first. I'll just confirm if it's safe to enter or not.'

Eren sighed when he heard Alephee.

'You are putting me in a tough spot here, Alephee. With my luck, we'd end up right in the middle of two competitors' spell collisions.'

He understood that Alephee was making it easy for him to accept his choice. If it was him who chose an exit, and it turned out to be disastrous, he could only blame himself.

'Fuck it. Let's check the very first spatial tear out from the right, 5 meters away from the ground.'

Eren decided to try out the very first prominent spatial tear he had laid his eyes on and decided to try it out. Alephee didn't mind and extended her soul sense to check for any possible mortal danger.

'Hm. I don't know what to tell you, Eren. Your choices have a way of surprising yourself as well as others around you.'

Alephee had a deadpan voice in Eren's head. But he had started to recognize the subtle moods behind her tones now. She sounded like she was amused by what she had found on the other side of the spatial tear.

Eren smirked when he understood the subtle meaning of Alephee's words. It at least meant that the space on the other side was safe for him to enter and check out.

That assurance was enough for the butcher. Before diving into the spatial tear, he checked everything around the distortion once more. He also sent his mana sense inside his ID stone's storage space, keeping it on standby to take out another vial of the all-stats recovery potion should he need it. Only after confirming everything was in order did he jump inside.

"Aaaaargh!"

The butcher screamed in pain once again when he made it to the other side of the spatial tear. He now understood that Alephee's definition and his definition of a safe route were different.

He had felt his skin tear and hurt all over his body as a result of the spatial storm and gravitational spike. These two were present inside the spatial tear he had entered to get outside of the anomaly.

The skin on the butcher's entire body was now torn in various places, in various forms. Still, it wasn't too serious for him because of the class change he had just gone through.

Eren grunted in pain while pursing his lips and stood up on his two legs somehow. He then looked around and found himself to be inside a cave-like structure. Its ceiling was studded with a bunch of yooperlite stones. There was no direct sunlight coming from any source.

The air was stale, stagnant, and damp. There was no sound or sign of any activity. Just a few faint flashes of rune luminescence flashing off at various places.

Eren looked at his surroundings and stopped cursing in pain. He wanted to know where he had landed. But before spreading his mana sense and getting the hang of things, he needed to fix himself once again.

The butcher regretted that his newly worn clothes had become bloodied after he jumped in the spatial tear. He then worried about the dwindling supply of an all-stats recovery potion he had in his possession.

Eren was about to take out another vial of recovery potion when Alephee stopped him.

'Save it for another time. Didn't you want to use Life Drain now that it has been altered? There are a few targets you can use that on.'

Eren stopped himself from consuming the potion when he heard Alephee's words. He nodded internally before spreading his mana sense in all directions. Since she had put it this way, the butcher was sure he wasn't surrounded by his potential enemies.

"What the… where am I?"

A drop of sweat trickled down Eren's forehead when he spread his mana sense and found out what his surroundings were hiding under the cloak of poor light.

The first thing he noticed was the fact that the space was quite large and didn't seem to contain any exit. It meant the space was either isolated completely or the entrance and exit to this space were highly secured.

But the thing… or things that shocked him the most was the number and ranking status of many living entities in the isolated space beside him.