Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The next day.

Six days before Eren's solo intra-class ranking war.

Eren was waiting inside a simple room in the evening. The morning's lecture was conducted by Peter Griffin. He was a goofy guy but his ranger skills were good. Too bad, Eren already knew about what the assistant professor had to say in his lectures.

Eren tried not to sleep in class due to his waning interest in the lectures. His sheer will and Peter's entertaining comments somehow managed to keep him awake.

Eren had been told to wait in this room located in another building for his pending consultation. He didn't know what to expect from this session. Even he didn't read much about the element of time despite being a D-Rank adventurer in the previous timeline.

A person opened the closed door and entered the room. Eren looked back from his seat and was shocked to see someone he knew. But he masked his surprise with a welcoming smile and slight bow before that person could notice it.

The person who was going to offer consultation was a woman in her 30s. She had generic features and average stature. The most highlighting part about her was her hair, which was blood-red. The woman also reeked of a distinct booze smell associated with Golden Grain.

This person was none other than Linda Cardel from Jaime's panel. Eren had eavesdropped on the party's conversation in the Osan woods when it was out camping inside the forest, looking for the Butcher. What they didn't know at the time yet was that the Butcher got on their trail instead. Linda took her seat in front of Eren and pulled up Eren's aptitude test on her spectral screen.

"Hello, young one. Name's Linda Cardel. I serve as an assistant professor in sir Jaime's panel. I'm told you have been detected to possess a time element and require some consultation. What have you been told by that idiot Lin so far?"

Eren was in a dilemma. Should he oppose the way Linda had addressed his homeroom teacher or should he let it pass? This wasn't because Eren liked Lin and was hurt or offended by the way this drunk lady with a loose tongue addressed him. But because he wanted to maintain decorum, even if it was as true as twenty Eddies bills. He decided to choose a middle ground.

"Ah! ADAPT Lin told me that someone with a time element would be better able to provide consultation. So he told me to wait till the academy finds someone. He also told me that since the element of time is rare, the techniques and spells related to it are extremely difficult to get one's hand on as well as expensive."

Eren highlighted the ADAPT part in his speech by speaking it a little louder before honestly telling Linda what he knew about the time element so far.

Adapt was an official prefix to address a D-Rank entity. Similarly, the prefixes for F-Rank and E-Rank entities are Novice and Ace respectively. The C-Rank entities are formally addressed as Experts before their names are called out in a formal setting.

Linda nodded at him before expounding further on the subject:

"Indeed. Element of time is as elusive as the element of space, probably even more since there aren't many ways we humans can make use of it. The concept is too vague for us to wrap our heads around.

That's why understanding the element of time and aptly employing it in your profession is even more difficult than getting techniques and spells related to it. There were not many time-element rankers in the past. And those who were didn't describe enough about what they thought of using that element for themselves. The power of time manifested differently within each of them. So it was difficult to draw a linear relation.

Only one thing is common among all time-element rankers. Most of us have a drug addiction to deal with the side effect that comes with using time-related techniques and spells. That's because most of us have to deal with uncontrollable bouts of time dilation.

Experiencing time dilation can be the most wonderful, most beneficial, most bizarre, and most horrible thing.

Wonderful because it alters your perception of time than your peers around you, allowing you to experience the passage of time differently than them.

Beneficial because when you see everything in slow motion, you technically have more time to think about the right countermeasures in case you are being attacked.

But slowly that time dilation starts looking bizarre because no normal ranker would be able to keep up with you even when you want to have a normal conversation with them outside the battles.

Practising the element of time changes your perception of time slowly but surely. It either makes you experience things happening around you slowly or at a fast rate depending upon the technique and spells you are using.

Soon you'll find that your normal sense of time is being overwritten by the altered perception.

Your normal sense and the altered perception, therefore, would fight within themselves to define what's normal for you. This often results in time-element rankers experiencing sudden bouts of altered time perception even without them employing any techniques or spells at the time.

Soon, the advantages of having a time element are overshadowed by this side effect. Experiencing a time dilation when you don't want it can make you angry and anti-social because of the frustration that comes with it.

Imagine you are talking normally with your party members. Then suddenly the altered perception hits you and you have to hear their voices in slow motion. These voices stop making sense when the altered perception is cranked to a sufficient degree. And when you start talking, the party members with normal perception of time won't be able to make sense of what you said in a rapid-fire speech. Then imagine almost all human interactions like that. Horrible, right?

Therefore, a time-element ranker has no choice but to use some drugs to keep these bouts to their minimum or curb their effects. It can turn out to be pretty vexing otherwise. I'm no stranger to using this "time-tested" remedy myself.

It is considered bad luck to have a time element. First, you'll have to struggle twice as hard as normal people with normal elements if you decide to continue your ranking journey while keeping that element at the centre. You will have to face difficulties in getting appropriate technique and spell suitable for your nature and profession. You will have to get them at a way higher cost even if and when they do become available to you. And third, you will have to deal with the side effects.

But it's not like the element doesn't come with an advantage.

First, when you get a handle on your element, it becomes almost impossible for anyone to kill you instantly during an ambush.

Second, you will be the most deadly force mid-battle because of your spot-on counters and extraordinary responses even by rankers' standards.

This is especially true for close combat experts with the time element who can tear through the opponent's defence like a thin sheet of paper. The time-element mages can't be interrupted during their spell-casting. That's because they're already done speaking out the incantations before their opponents thought of disrupting them.

Third, elements of space and time are special in the way that they are derived from the fusion of all the great elements in different proportions. So theoretically, you'll be able to use any great element for yourself. Although you won't enjoy 100% affinity in any of them, you can introduce variations in your profession to make up for it.

And finally, the fourth advantage. As the element of time is a derived element born from the fusion of all the great elements, its spells won't create a conflict even if you decide to practise any other ranking technique.

The effectiveness of the time-element spells would decrease as a result. But you won't have to struggle as much to get a decent ranking technique. Neither will you have to resort to working harder than most of your peers just to keep up with them. Plus, the bouts of time dilation would be less frequent and less severe than what you'd get if you practise in the time-element ranking technique.

Furthermore, choosing to practise in any other element won't turn out to be a bottleneck in future when your mastery over your time element increases. You can always decide to choose a time-element ranking technique the next time when you rank up without having to regress in your journey. The zero-conflict advantage with other great as well as derived elements extends in this pointer as well.

Even I practise a wind-element ranking technique and only use time-element spells related to my profession as a historian. I'm the first and as of now the only known time-element historian of my or your generation currently active in the entirety of Edinburgh kingdom. I have many advantages over normal historians, and that too when I don't even practise a time-element ranking technique.

Is there anything you want to ask about the explanation provided so far?"

Author's Note: So always-drunk Linda is back. She was introduced in chapter 45 in case you forgot. ;)