Eren was done with killing eight more wolves the same way before he ran out of mana. He then ordered Reen to start her long-awaited feeding session after securing the bodies of his kills in his storage space.
Reen had used her deterrence as a demon beast to make the approaching wolf pack halt in its steps. Then she only allowed six more beasts to attack Eren in the pair of two so that he could practise his spells and battle style.
Eren had stopped using Blitzortung after its first time. The spell was taxing on his mana reserve. And he didn’t have a ranking technique yet to recover from the state of lack of mana quickly.
Eren’s clothes faced the burnt of the wolves’ attack as a result. His chainmail armour could now be seen in the open. He had cuts and bruises on his skin due to the effects of wind blades and claw slashes aimed at him by the wolves.
Eren had understood a lot of his flaws in that controlled battle. First, Blitz Steps was incompatible with close combat style no matter how he executed it.
Blitz Steps gave Eren the element of surprise when attacking his opponent. But it was a dual-edge sword. It also sent him right in the opponents’ attacking range. If his attack was failed or deflected at that time, the counter would be too heavy for him to face it without the artefact or defence spell.
And Eren couldn’t see the counter coming at him due to the tunnel vision. He had the means to dodge that attack with his Blitz Steps, but the same spell had become a reason for him to not see the incoming counter.
Plus, Eren’s berserking habits made him unable to fully utilize any openings properly. Other aspects needed some amount of fine-tuning as well. But Eren needed to prioritize a few of them first before thinking of doing anything else.
Reen was soon done consuming the pack of wind wolves one by one. Her devouring speed had increased and she didn’t need to shapeshift her whole body to digest her prey now.
Reen would just extend her arm and it would extend like a lasso before forming a slimy mass of a bubble at the place where her palm was. She would drop that slimy matter on her prey while it was still connected to her torso through the very lasso-like semi-transparent thing that once acted like her arm.
The magic beasts would get digested thoroughly inside that slimy bubble. Then the nutrients and purified mana after the digestion would travel back to Reen through her lasso-like arm.
Reen was satisfied after she ate almost 24 wind wolves this way.
She retracted her arm to its normalcy and used the same hand to control her burp in a ladylike manner. Her mannerisms were perfect, thanks to reading through Eren’s memories. But the noise of that burp was earthshaking, making her seem like a demoness that she was.
“Where are we heading next, Eren?”
Reen asked Eren who was busy changing into a new shirt. He drank an F-Rank healing potion that he had obtained from Isaac’s party before replying,
“We have saved a lot of time on this mission. Ideally, students are suggested to lure the sentry wind wolves away from their pack one or two at a time before commencing battle.
It takes a lot of time and planning. But our frontal assault has cut down on that ETC tremendously.
Today, we’ll focus on completing missions like these nearby while completing the herbs collection mission simultaneously. It won’t be too difficult for us to locate the herbs with your ability anyway.
Tomorrow, we’ll head inside the deeper parts of the forest before returning to the academy’s check-post.”
Reen just nodded her head at Eren’s plan. She was happy as long as she got to eat plenty of food in the process.
******
Eren got back to the academy’s check post after completing all his missions. The site had a facility managed by Besanc for students to deposit their in-mission items.
The butcher visited that facility and deposited all the items in one go. There were magic beasts’ carcasses, all kinds of herbs, and minerals. They were all related to his missions.
Eren had also mixed in random items that he had picked up while doing the missions. These items will also be converted into random Merps based on their actual values.
Eren also added an E-Rank Mana Blessing he had collected from the Osan woods in the list of things he claimed to have found in the sanctuary. The Besanc staff was surprised before getting all excited about Eren’s luck. He was ready to offer the kid some Merps in thousands to get the MB from him. But Eren denied that offer.
Eren only showed the E-Rank Mana Blessing so that it gets added into the Besanc records and its source could be justified. He knew the amount he was offered for the Mana Blessing was good. But it wasn’t the best he could get for the stone. Especially considering the upcoming event.
The Butcher’s account was credited with around 3K Merps for all the missions he had completed so far. He now had around 17K Merps in his reserve.
Eren got out of the Besanc’s collection facility feeling refreshed. He hadn’t slept much in his stay in the forest, but the heavy Merps account became the reason for his rejuvenation.
Completing all the missions in two days was a pinch. The butcher wouldn’t have been able to pull it off had it not been for Reen.
The day was going to set. Eren soon found Marla near her cherished stallion. He quickly made his way towards her.
“Miss Marla, I’m back.”
“Yo. Eren right? Did you complete all the missions you were assigned with?”
“Yes, ma’am. You can check my Besanc record if you want.”
“Don’t mind if I do then.”
Marla immediately sent Eren a read request to access his Besanc records. The latter accepted it just as quickly:
“Hmm. Let’s see. Herbs collection missions have gone smoothly. Too smoothly if I may add. But it might be that you are just that lucky.
The beasts’ carcasses have taken some damage. It seems you’ve ruined some parts of their bodies. There was a penalty of Merps for that. But overall you did well.
The earning is around 3K Merps. Too bad, the academy doesn’t convert Merps into Extols. Otherwise, it would have been a pretty good way to exploit the system.”
Eren didn’t say anything in response. He let her analyse the Besanc records her way. He could have dealt with the beasts with more finesse to make more profit out of the deal. But that would have been detrimental here.
Marla needed a weak point, a blemish in Eren to make sense out of his achievement. Too perfect a result would raise suspicion in everyone’s mind.
“Hmm. Eren, I’m satisfied with your result. You wanted something else instead of a three-star weapon, right? State your reward. I’ll accept it if it’s within reason.”
Eren was waiting for Marla to say those words. He replied to her without wasting time:
“Miss Marla. I know you’d appreciate a straight shooter. I want to be your apprentice and learn close combat style from you.”
“Hmm? You want to be my apprentice? Aah, you must have been there in the crowd when I offered it to the Riverine kid. You even know about my path. But sorry kid, I doubt you have what it takes to be my apprentice.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to underestimate you. It’s just that a BTP of 14 isn’t going to cut it if you want to follow the regime I will set for my apprentice. I’d suggest you ask for some other reward.”
“Please hear me out, ma’am Marla. I have a lightning element, same as you. I’m sure you’ll find out that I’m better suited for your apprenticeship than anyone else in my year.
I might not be the best candidate when it comes to the BTP value. But I have what it takes to stand at the top of my class if given enough time and nourishment by the academy.”
“Oh! Tall claim kid. I suppose you seem smart enough to come up with a way to prove that claim.”
“Indeed ma’am. You can watch my performance at intra-class and inter-class battles to know about my calibre.
And I’ll let you in on an academic secret I accidentally got privy to if you allow me. You can consider that as my gift to you for being my mentor.”
Eren flashed a cunning smile after saying that. Marla was hooked.
“Hmm? What is it?”
Marla’s voice got lower when she asked it. Eren came closer to her and almost whispered what he had to say in her ears:
“I heard the conversation between two academy staff and got to know this information. LA is going to organize an auction event for first-year students four days from now on. You know what that means right!”
Marla was surprised by Eren’s revelation. The auction event was as important for professors as it was for the students. That’s because they would have an auction event of their own after the kids’ event took place.
The same restrictions and then some more were implemented in the professors’ auction event as well. That’s why knowing about the event came with a certain advantage. Marla could immediately stock up on Merps to get maximum benefits out of the event.
Of course, the stakes were bigger in the auction event meant for E and D-Rank entities. So the prices for products getting sold in the event were also higher.
“Kid, I’ll have to liquidate a lot of my assets. If I find out that you were lying…”
“Rest assured, ma’am Marla. I’m not lying. Why would I lie to the person who I want to take as my mentor? Plus, why do you think I decided to complete all the missions?”
Eren and Marla both smiled cunningly at each other after knowing about this. Eren also let his potential mentor know that he was going to sell an E-Rank Mana Blessing in the auction meant for E and D-Rank entities.
Marla didn’t need an E-Rank MB for her anymore. But she could tip off the professors under her about the product that was getting auctioned. They could prepare in advance for the same.
Eren scored some more brownie points in Marla’s book. She couldn’t help but say:
“Alright, Eren. If the news about a “certain” event is true, and you perform well in the ranking wars, I’ll take you as my apprentice. I’ll give you a worthy gift if you get selected. And I’ll still give you a decent reward even if you fail to do so. Is that alright?”
“Certainly, miss Marla. I look forward to your teachings.”
Eren bowed to Marla before turning his back and walking off in the opposite direction. Marla’s horse snorted its nose in response to the lad’s suave. But the D-Rank Amazoness couldn’t help observing his back far longer than she cared to admit.
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Author’s Note: Hello. This extra chapter is dedicated to all the readers who have invested their time and efforts in this novel. ?