Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Haah! I can't do anything about the skin colour. But it's not a complete deal-breaker. The orcs would just assume I'm from a tribe they don't recognize.'

Eren concluded before moving his hands and feet in a way he wanted to. Then he executed his movement spell to check out if he had any problems casting it. So far, he was content with the results.

Non-sentient entities didn't work for Eren because he couldn't create Blood Seed from their bodies for him to initiate shapeshifting. Entities with intelligence higher than a certain level were also difficult for him to shapeshift into. That was because the Blood Seed created from their bodies would have a lot of their consciousness mixed into it that he couldn't get rid of.

That's why Eren wanted to experiment with monsters. He had concluded that Orcs would be one of the easiest monsters he could shapeshift into because unlike the beasts, they had sentience. But it wasn't as developed as humans. His guesswork was right on the mark, and he had managed to shapeshift into the monster just right.

Nonetheless, the Blood Seed also had the orc's consciousness extracted into it, no matter how insignificant it might seem compared to humans and alike. That was a taint in his shapeshifting. That's why it manifested into Eren's skin colour deviating from his victim's appearance.

'This is as good as it gets. I can move across the Badlands without leaving any trace using this shapeshift model. I needed this to get to that place.'

Eren flashed a cunning grin and let go of his shapeshifting to return to his usual appearance. He then got back to his work and destroyed all the orc bodies before leaving the scene.

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

"You punk, you tried to steal a kill from me, didn't you? I'll…Hikick… I'll do the same to you someday. You'll see. Don't cry to me when that ha… ha… happens. You got it?"

Lyon spoke after getting drunk on dwarven mead. He was a dwarf after all. But he was pretty tall for a dwarf– measuring five feet and six inches, so nobody would call him a dwarf despite being one. His peers just called him a midget which would have seemed offensive to dwarves. But since even dwarves doubted that he was one of them, the guy was just bullied by his peers most of the time.

Lyon was always pissed off at his squadmates for this reason. Tonight, the butcher became the reason for his outburst. He pointed his chicken tenders at Eren accusingly while he spoke up what he had to say.

Eren's team had settled into orc camp for the night. Some soldiers ate their meals earlier and were assigned to the perimeter detail. The rest were sitting around a large campfire, which was created by lighting a shabby hut on fire.

"Sigh. When will you understand this simple truth, Lyon? The key to a happy life is forgiveness. We should all just forget about our previous grievances and support each other. There's nothing to be gained from carrying out revenge-driven acts.

Don't you agree with me, Arjun? Please make this lost soul understand."

Eren said while having Frostfoam. This was one of the brands he had stocked up on before leaving for the mission. The rest of the rankers were already impressed by Eren's almost insatiable appetite. The butcher must have emptied the meal meant for 6 Ace rankers in his stomach. Yet he was still eating the Ace rank mana beast meat Altashia had hunted for her teammates.

Arjun spat and sprayed the elven ale he was drinking in front of him when he heard Eren's response while Lyon choked on the chicken tenders he was eating. The spat eleven ale was sprayed straight into the campfire and produced a burst of flames that reached for the sky. The ranked ales were highly inflammable.

The rest of the rankers laughed before looking at Sid in the distance who had joined the perimeter detail. They knew that the guy would have lost it for sure and attacked Eren right then and there if he was here.

"You… *cough cough* you of all people shouldn't talk about forgiveness… you… sly fox. And how can you be so… so shameless… hikik… saying those things with a straight face?"

Altashia chuckled when she heard the conversation Eren had with Lyon, Arjun, and the rest. She had considered Eren to be a very serious man. But the guy just kept on surprising her by showing various facets of his ever-intriguing personality.

Soon, Arjun returned to the perimeter detail to relieve Dianna of her ranger duties. The latter came and sat with Eren. The seductress immediately started chatting and flirting with the butcher. Altashia found it uncomfortable to see something like this. Then she criticized herself for feeling uncomfortable.

Dianna was opposite Altashia. She was a direct girl who wouldn't shy away from saying what she wanted. So she was able to mix with her peers as easily.

'Roo Roo, do I need to change?'

As Altashia spoke to her demon beast in her mind, she sighed. The latter croaked at her first before looking at Eren and Dianna with hateful eyes.

'Hehehe. Don't be silly, you bloodthirsty bird. No harming Dianna, alright? She's one of my teammates.'

Altashia found comfort in the fact there was at least someone like Roo who could truly understand her and always be with her. She then got up from her seat and nodded at the teammates that looked at her before walking towards the camp's boundaries. She thought she should do guard duties, lest her demon beast starts thinking of multiple ways to make Dianna suddenly disappear from their team.

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

"So you are saying you got your hands on a transcendent-grade time element spell you can give me?"

Eren asked Dianna while having another slice of mana beast meat. She had come to give Eren an interesting piece of news because she knew that he was looking for good time-element spells.

She had first thought that Eren wasn't someone who could use time-element spells even though he had been shown to have an affinity for it. The guy didn't show any side effects after all.

He told Dianna that he would only use it primarily for his potion-making and rarely for battles. He also convinced her that he was using an artefact to curb the side effects and also mask his time-element spells.

"That's right. It's one of the most well-known time-element spells after Sedated Perception. Its name is…

Total Control!

While it is considered a transcendent spell, its effects are only supplementary. That means the spell would grow in rank with you. But its effectiveness highly depends upon the way you use it."

Dianna said while running her index finger across Eren's arm and chuckled a bit before replying:

But since it's a time element spell and a transcendent grade at that, I'm sure you can understand why the Remus Auction won't sell it for anything less than 20K Extols. You should even consider the price as a discount given to you because you know me.

So tell me Eren, do we have a deal? Offer closes soon, you know. Hehe!"