Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"When a spell stops being a spell…"

Eren mumbled to himself as loads of thoughts started swirling inside his head. Were the cultists right in pursuing the heretic paths all along?

More importantly, if the rankers walk on their ranking journeys like beasts sans the ranking techniques and spell scrolls, will they face the same bottlenecks they've always faced? The questions popped up in Eren's mind like wild mushrooms.

Then he compared Agatha's body transformation with his attribute of shapeshifting. The ability he had gained by merging with his demon beast had also stopped being a spell.

Eren's shapeshifting worked on his willpower. It was influenced by his thoughts and only used the mana from his mana core as a driving force. He didn't have to activate the mana circuits in a specific way to initiate the shapeshifting.

The ability wasn't totally in his control yet because of it. He didn't have a set template to follow. But Eren knew with enough practise and willpower, he would be able to take up any shape he wanted to one day.

A spell stops being a spell when it becomes an integral part of your existence.

Mana beasts had innate spells that worked on the same principle. They didn't have to study ranking techniques or practise spells to use them. They just knew what their innate spells were.

But what was stopping humans from having their innate spells?

Nobody could answer Eren's questions because he knew some of them were taboo subjects within the ranking communities. His questions were the same ones that the cultists would ask rankers when they were confronted by them for their actions.

Eren didn't want to come across as a supporter of cultists ideologies out in the open. That would be detrimental to his future goals. What he needed was pre-processed data on the subject. And he had a person in his mind to give him that.

Even if that person wouldn't know much, Eren would make sure that the secrets they carry in their bodies come out in the open for them.

"Reen, you can't eat Agatha. At least not anytime soon. We've just found another use for her."

The demon beast was still thinking of having more human nuggets as she wolfed down the lamb meat. Somehow eating the human dinner had increased her appetite instead of getting satiated.

"But we can find some other humans for you to target in this city by tomorrow. Every city has its share of scumbags after all."

"Yaay!"

The demon beast registered her happiness through her words and actions too as she raised her hands. Eren anyway was going to roam the city tomorrow. They were supposed to stay in the city for a few days before making it back to LA.

Marla was yet to confirm the other part of their missions to them yet. So all they could do till then was to wait and explore the city in the meantime. Eren was hoping he doesn't have to roam the streets with Ken in tow.

Sadly, his hopes were meant to be crushed under the protagonist's foot.

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

Knock knock knock! Knock knock, bang!

"Yo, Eren. Get up, man. How can you sleep till now? It's 9 AM. We need to buy some souvenirs from the city.

Eren? Eren Idril! Hello."

Eren was rudely awakened from his deep sleep. He heard persistent banging on the door of his inn's room followed by his name taken by Ken like the latter was finding joy in chanting it.

'Aaargh! Fu*k this guy. Get the fu*k away from me you… you…

Haha! I've run out of abuses for this madman.'

'You want me to eat him?'

Reen asked innocently in his mind. She woke up with him. She liked to sleep in her slime form on Eren's chest.

'You know, that's not a very bad idea. I'm considering it…

Naah. The guy has many uses for him to get wasted like this. I'll have to let him live. For now.

Reen, from now on you are forbidden to tempt me into killing Ken. Because one of these days, I might just say yes prematurely.

You've gotten pretty crafty yourself over these days, but don't think that I don't see your agenda in helping me.

But the question remains. What should I do with him now?

I'll just pretend to be in deep sleep. Maybe he'll go away on his own.'

Thought Eren and laid back on his bed again drawing the sheets over him.

"Eren, Ace Almera is also with me. She is waiting for you too. Get up already man."

'Give me a break already! I've socialized enough these days, like seriously.'

Eren had to get up and get the door after hearing that Almera too was waiting with Ken on the other side of the door. He couldn't afford to offend an E-Ranker over his petty need to avoid Ken.

Reen merged with her master as Eren got up from his bed. Since their merging, Eren's and Reen's mana signatures had gotten synched. They didn't need to always keep themselves on guard about Reen's existence getting exposed anymore. As long as Reen didn't make things too obvious, she would stay undetected by almost all the rankers.

"*Sigh. Come on in as I get ready."

Eren couldn't get any less enthusiastic even if wanted to after seeing Ken's bright smile. He couldn't even pretend to return the smile in response at this point. Almera was just standing there with her hands folded in front of her.

Eren was wondering why Almera wanted to accompany them but he didn't bother to ask. The girl acted aloof. The butcher wasn't in the mood to soothe her ego by asking her. He had an ego of his own to maintain after all.

Ken acted as the glue that would make two opposing magnets dubbed as Eren and Almera stay in place together. He would effortlessly shift his talks between the two to keep the conversation flowing.

'A sure-shot weapon every protagonist has in their arsenal. Their talk-talk spells.'

Eren thought in his mind and shook his head as he got readied for his forced outing with the two.

The trio started their city exploration soon afterwards.

The entire city was bustling with structured shops and chaotic open markets getting crowded by humans, elves, and sporadic dwarves. To Eren, it looked like the number of merchants was more than the buyers themselves.

The trio bought some souvenirs for themselves from a well-known shop.

But then Ken had his lucky encounter and bumped into an elf girl when they were about to visit another place. The two got to talking and spent a few minutes there standing right in the middle of the shop's traffic.

In the end, the elf girl was smitten by Ken's personality and vision. She gave him her ID Stone details so that he could contact her. And she also told him where he can find her in case he wants to explore the city with her. The latter kept the details to himself. But it seemed that he wasn't going to contact her anytime soon.

But someone else in Ken's group was paying very close attention to the group's interaction.

'Oh geez…. Would you look at the time? It's quarter to fu*k-Ken-in-the-as* PM.'

The shapeshifter had a cunning grin on his face as the group bid adieu to the girl.