Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Haash. Finally absolved of all involvement."

Eren said after he was done cleaning his most recent crime scene. He knew the kingdom of Edinburgh would try to find the culprit who had eradicated the vestige of Sage Nira's soul.

Thankfully, he had the infiltrators of Layos to blame things on. The first thing he did was get rid of his presence as much as he could. Then he decorated the crime scene with fake evidence, scattering the mangled body pieces of elf infiltrators all around inside the hall.

Of course, Eren didn't have to erase his presence from the scene completely-- just make it much less apparent than it was. After all, he was one of the participants in the Sansara array who had entered the Sage's Castle to claim Nira's legacy. So it was fine for his presence to be registered here like the rest of the participants who had appeared here with him before Nira sent them on a wild goose chase.

Eren took a long breath after he was done processing the scene. Sighing, he looked around to admire another of his handiwork. The butcher just wished that the next world he visited wouldn't make him suffer from petty troubles like these.

The butcher turned into his original form before changing into a new set of clothes.

He faced some difficulties while doing class shifts. But they weren't enough to phase him anymore. He knew that it would only get easier to change into Ranger class with time as his unique constitution would eventually get used to it.

"Time to leave this place for good."

He glanced around him for the last time before walking towards a spatial tunnel that had been kept open for his exit.

***

Day 23: Sage Youffie Loxley's Den.

A giant underground space with cave-like entrances and exits. There was just enough light for the contestants to see their own hands. Even their mana senses were compromised.

This was a labyrinth-like place that was difficult to navigate using one's senses or logic. The air inside the den was putrid and sulfurous in nature. Standing motionless, one could feel a subtle sense of danger emanating everywhere around them.

There were a few artificial sources of light present in the surroundings. But for some reason, they only added a touch of mystique to the place instead of illuminating it for better visibility.

The participants who wanted to claim Sage Luftahansa's Legacy had been summoned to this mysterious den. This was the last week of the graduation ceremony. And at this point, a significant number of teams had dropped out of the event.

The rankers were not happy with how Sage Nira's Legacy test turned out to be. Some of the most prominent teams had sent their capable members to attend Sage Nira's test. However, the night elf forced them to fight each other before eventually kicking everybody out.

It seemed that there was some sort of problem with the whole test. That's because the castle remained unresponsive to even the moderators' request to enter it after they requested permission from Sage Nira.

The participants didn't have much time to dwell on Sage Nira's test results after Sage Luftahansa's test site became visible on their maps. The teams prioritized getting rewards from the new test site instead of crying over spilled milk.

The moderators who were truly working for the kingdom of Edinburgh also had their hands full identifying and neutralizing the infiltrators while the event was active. So they decided that they would check out Sage Nira's castle later on and focus on their current predicament.

The White Raven Crew also decided to focus on Sage Lufthansa's Legacy. However, its crew members were the only lucky ones who had received significant rewards from Sage Nira's test.

Usually, the teams would change the participants they wanted to send to the test site depending on the kind of test they thought was going to be at the targeted location.

For Sage Lufthansa's test, teams sent their assassins and close combat experts. That's because they thought that only such rankers could perform better on the test given by Sage Lufthansa who was an assassin.

Eren decided to enter the second test site as well. But that was not because he was a close combat expert. The butcher had already made it clear to his team that only he would enter the test sites created by the founder Dukes of Edinburgh, who wanted to pass down their legacies.

"What are we supposed to do here?"

"Should we take those paths and see where they lead us?"

"That's an excellent idea. Why don't you go ahead and check one of the caves out for all of us?"

"Haah! I'm not doing this alone. If I do it, we all do it. And we do it together. That's the deal. I'm not going to serve as an example of what not to do in Sage Lufthansa's test."

"Why talk big if you don't have the balls to follow up on your own ideas?"

"What did you say? Listen here you mo..."

Eren listened to some of the boisterous participants verbally assault each other with carefree expressions. He neither needed nor wanted to intervene among them.

Plus, the butcher liked watching other rankers fight each other. Especially if a group of participants was targeting a select few. It was a fun activity for him-- like watching a roadshow.

The last time he had this much fun watching an entertaining show was when he saw Ken getting beaten up by Lensa's clansmen for something he did.

'Haah! Those were the good times.'

Eren thought like an old man as he watched the young participants almost brawl with each other just for the silly remarks they had said against each other. He also wished Ken was alive so he could cause trouble for the guy once again.

"Looks like you guys are excited to experience death."

A deep male voice of unknown origin suddenly reverberated in the den. The person speaking seemed to be present at multiple locations at the same time. That's because the voice seemed to be coming from multiple directions.

An assassin's presence could not be felt. There was no bloodlust, no mana signature, and no threat in the person's voice. Still, the participants subconsciously felt that they were in a life-threatening situation just by hearing this voice.