Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Damn it. A high ranker. Reen, don't you dare do anything while this rude ass is here.'

Eren warned his demon beast after witnessing that middle-aged man enter the hall. He immediately figured out the guy was a high-ranked who was at least in the B-Rank or higher.

The guy didn't try to hide his ranking status either. He let his aura herald his grand entrance. Usually, the high rankers like him would contain their mana sense, mana signature, and aura within themselves in presence of the low rankers.

Otherwise, the low rankers would face the same repercussions Eren had faced just now when they came in contact with such existences. This was one of the Rankers' Codes after all.

But this didn't care about the code. Not today. He wanted to make a statement.

Ken also felt the same side effects after he sensed the man's presence. Almera was in better condition than these two. But she too looked pale. But none of them voiced their displeasure. The man was already rude and uncaring towards them. What good would it do to provoke him further?

"Ah, I'm sorry, younglings. I usually don't meet with people so I forgot to contain my aura. At ease."

The man retracted his mana sense and aura, which allowed the low rankers present in the hall to breathe a sigh of relief. He didn't pay attention to any particular low ranker though. He was focused on the block of ice in front of him.

"Go ahead, scion of Riverine. I want to see how Lensa's subconscious reacts to your presence when you go near her."

The man said this while looking at Lensa's face. His statements felt more like an order than a suggestion. Either way, Ken had to oblige. He knew recluse rankers were erratic. They would get offended over the slightest inconvenience.

Ken nodded his head to nobody in particular and walked ahead. He reached the block of ice and touched it with the palm of his hand.

An extreme shiver ran through his body after the white knight touched the surface of the block of ice. He also fell under a short illusion of standing in the middle of a valley surrounded by ice mountains. And the weird thing was that the ice was exuding a faint white light with tinges of rainbow shades making their sporadic appearances.

Ken immediately retracted his hand and the illusion stopped. He had understood one thing. What he had experienced just now wasn't just an effect due to his skin getting in contact with the ice. But due to something else entirely as the chill was felt by his soul not just his body.

'Way of the ice!'

Ken's eyes opened wide in surprise when he realized what this block of ice contained within it. The way of elements was a mana concept that was not known to many low rankers.

The way of elements was used by high ranked entities to cast their spells with. It would boost their spells to an unfathomable degree while allowing them to breach the ranking restrictions placed on the spell efficacies.

In short, the way of elements was only employed by the high ranked entities to make their spells almost come to life. And low rankers didn't stand at the pedestal to utilize it. Furthermore, the utilization of the concept was a long shot when most low rankers didn't even know of its existence.

Even a guy like Ken who had been given knowledge about a lot of ranking-related things only barely knew a thing or two about the way of the elements. That is because most of the information about the concept was only made privy to the high rankers.

And yet, an F-Ranker like Lensa had used the spell while incorporating the way of ice. How was this possible?

"Don't be so shocked, boy. Don't use your human standards to judge the calibre of an elf. Yes, it is what you think it is. Way of the ice."

The middle-aged man cleared Ken's doubts. Also, Eren's as well, because he was paying close attention to Ken's shocked face too.

"Do you mean it is common for an elf to unlock the way of the element this early?"

Ken asked while lowering his head. But one could sense the tinge of unbelief laced in his voice. The high-ranked entity didn't mind and continued:

"No. I must admit that it is still surprising for an F-Rank elf to unlock the way of elements. And it would amaze you even further when you think about the lineage that is dominant within her."

"Please explain further, Sir."

Ken wasn't aware of what the high-ranker was talking about. And ideally, he shouldn't be so casual in talking to this rude man. But he asked anyway as he wanted to know more about Lensa. Thanks to his protagonist luck, the guy explained it to him:

"Lensa is a Suryakht, or what you humans call a sun elf. The only trace of snow elf lineage within her comes from her great grandmother. And yet, she is now an ice element user.

To be honest, Lensa has dual hybrid element affinities. Light and Ice. But her ice affinity was never this prominent.

But now Lensa's ice affinity has shot up. Or it was slumbering within her and was only waiting for the right moment. Now she can give the prodigies of the snow elves a run for their money if and when she wakes up.

Sigh! No matter how high ranked we get, we can never really predict how a ranker's path can deviate from the initial estimates."

"Gramps Dan, forgive my rudeness but can we stop explaining things to this brat and focus on waking Lensa up now? It's already been so many hours since she is in that state now."

Devon butted in right after Dan finished what he had to say. The guy was in a hurry to wake Lensa up. He was worried about his niece's safety after all.

Dan finally moved his eyes away from the block of ice and looked at his impatient family member because of which the latter started regretting speaking at all. But contrary to his imagination, Dan didn't exert any ranking pressure on him and just casually blurted out:

"We don't need this Riverine boy to wake Lensa up."

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AN:

A new event is ongoing on Webnovel: Golden Tickets Count For Double. It makes it so that your Golden Tickets submissions on the novel of your choice would be counted twice their original values. So now is a good chance if you want to place your GTs on VEH. You also get a Christmas Cracker for every Golden Ticket you spend.

But that's not all. You also get a Christmas Cracker for every 200 coins worth gift(s) you spend. So there would be a Christmas Cracker for you if you gift VEH with two Inspiration Capsules (100 coins each) or four Pizzas (200 coins each).

I've also decided to take part in the event in my own way to increase the readers' rewards a bit. Of course, it'd be beneficial for this novel as well.

During this event, I'll release a bonus chapter for every 100 Golden Tickets VEH receives. And I'll release a separate bonus chapter for every 2000 coins worth of gifts the novel receives.

If you don't want to contribute all of the 200 coins on VEH, then that is fine as well. Just drop an Ice Cola (only 10 coins) or two on VEH. An extra chapter will get released when all of your contributions amount to 2000 coins. ;)