Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

There was one artefact the betrayer had said they found in the dungeon that sent the kingdom of Edinburgh into an uproar. That was because it was something that could jeopardize the border security of Edinburgh along with other forces who shared borders with Badlands.

A monster-controlling artefact that could help its user enslave monsters of the same rank as them. Although it was supposedly limited to D-Rank, the artefact used a different method to enslave monsters than soul-binding mana contracts.

A typical soul binding contract wouldn't work on monsters anyway. In addition, if the ranker already had a set number of slaves, they couldn't add more without burdening their souls more. After a certain limit is crossed, the soul of the ranker who signed slave contracts with an excessive number of slaves than he could handle would break. This would turn them into lunatics.

This artefact was a big deal because it transcended the limits of how many slaves a ranker could take. The betrayer of Tumko's team said that the user of the artefact could keep on taking slaves without infringing on their souls.

The news of such a magnitude was bound to create a storm in the kingdom of Edinburgh. Even the kingdom of Layos along with other forces seemed interested. Who wouldn't want to create a personal army in the Badlands even if the soldiers were bound to be limited to D-Rank?

The betrayer also disclosed information about how to find the dungeon and benefit from it. He also revealed the confirmation that the remaining members of Tumko's team along with the leader himself weren't ready to leave the dungeon yet.

One can imagine what must have happened after the news was made public. Several techniques were used to confirm the authenticity of the news, including the Seer arrays at the cost of huge resource expenses. To their utter delight, they soon found out that most of what the betrayer had said about the artefact and its location was true.

This created mass unrest in the Badlands. Countless mercenaries tried to breach the borders of the controlled region. Most of the potential intruders failed. A few people, however, managed to enter the controlled area and confirm that there was indeed a dungeon there.

But the people who ventured inside the dungeon would disappear without a trace. And there was no help to be gained from powerful rankers either. That's because an entity that had exceeded the D-Rank couldn't enter the dungeon. Plus, since the artefact along with other resources were supposed to be limited to D-Rank, the rankers above that rank weren't interested in this dungeon. The low-ranked hunters and adventurers had to get their hands on this treasure themselves.

Numerous rankers of D-Rank and below attacked the dungeon without thinking about the consequences. And yet, no team could conquer the dungeon that was taken by Tumko and his team.

It was only after a few months that people started doubting the betrayer's intentions when they couldn't conquer the dungeon no matter how well prepared the raid got. He had just released the news of the incident and disappeared. Only now did they start asking about his background and the reason for which he had decided to betray Tumko.

Then the unthinkable happened.

One day, an army of monsters of D-Rank and below launched a well-executed campaign against the kingdom of Edinburgh. This attack was different from previous monster horde attacks on the army of Edinburgh.

This campaign was launched by Tumko and his team. The monsters involved seemed to have been trained like humans. Yet they could make use of their monster-specific skills to their fullest. The frontline army of Edinburgh which consisted of mostly low-ranked soldiers was run over like it meant nothing to the monsters.

Soon after, the kingdom of Edinburgh took the necessary action. High-ranking entities were involved to stop the monster march. But the commander of the army along with his trusted confidantes was already planning something big. They had used the monster march as a diversion to execute what they had been planning for a few years.

Tumko killed some of the pursuers of his team the same way they had killed his teammates. Then he destroyed the younger generation of the family whose home they had last raided.

Tumko wasn't left unscathed. He had lost his left arm. Only three members of his team remained alive along with him by the time he was done with whatever he had set out to do.

Tumko and his three members disappeared into the Badlands once again. After that, they would come back to hunt their remaining enemies from time to time using various guerrilla tactics. They had killed some more people before the news about them along with their enemies just disappeared into thin air.

This was the legend of Tumko Darata. His name struck fear in the hearts of many rankers with rich backgrounds. His strategies and his monster army created fear in the hearts of most of Edinburgh's soldiers. And his execution-style killings of his enemies made him a dreadful personality in the eyes of many ordinary rankers.

Nevertheless, the dread effect also brought Tumko into a spotlight he couldn't escape from. Rankers were strange creatures. They started worshipping the same guy who had created unrest in the kingdom and their lives by extension. He started garnering fans from both the ranker and cultist factions.

To them, Tumko was freedom of expression. His act of only targeting the rich gave him instant popularity within the non-so-rich strata of citizens.

Most of Tumko's fans wouldn't come out supporting him openly. They would show their support differently.

Soon, Tumko-exclusive merchandise hit the market. Various versions of the masks he had worn when out in the public eye were made available for purchase by the general populace. This was the origin behind the strange masks that became hugely popular in the Edinburgh kingdom during Eren's previous timeline. But this timeline had something different in-store.

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Eren was also one of the buyers of the same masks. He had started wearing them because they would help him blend in with the rest of the crowd. Since they couldn't see his face, they wouldn't view him with hate, malice, pity, or indifference. At least that's what he felt and took solace in.

The butcher of the previous timeline soon grew fond of the masks because they served as a defence mechanism for him. They had provided him with a psychological relief he had sought for a long time. That's why he would always keep tabs on the news regarding Tumko Darata. The man who was the symbol of fear and panic in ordinary rankers' eyes was an inspiration for him.

That's why Eren crafted the masks himself in this timeline and would often wear them when there was a need for him to do so. Although he hadn't walked on the path to destruction in this timeline, the way he looked at these masks in this timeline didn't change.

But the sentimental value he had for the mask didn't stop Eren from having designs on the treasure that was supposed to belong to Tumko. In this life, he would be the one to control the monsters using that groundbreaking artefact.