Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The day was going to set when Eren was done with his business in the Novice's Treasury. Eren had a hearty supper in the canteen before heading to his dorm room. He needed to re-learn the spells he had bought.

That's right. Eren had already learned these spells in his past timeline. He had selected the same spells because it would be easy for him to execute them because of his previous familiarity.

Eren remembered the spells just fine. But he bought the spell scrolls so that he could explain their origins when he executes them in front of the students. He would be able to cast them without having to worry about coming up with explanations.

Eren locked the door behind him and sat cross-legged on his bed. He first opened the spell scroll of Rayo, the spell he was most familiar with. He analyzed the mana pathways and mana points that needed to be activated in sequence inside his body for the spell to get activated.

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Primary mana pathways will be created as soon as the ranker steps into the F-Rank. These mana pathways can be assumed as veins through which mana gets circulated inside the body.

These mana pathways draw mana from the mana core located below the ranker's navel. They are interconnected at a specific distance and interval, where the mana gets accumulated before it travels any further. These points of intersection where the mana accumulation takes place are called mana points.

The mana points are found in abundance inside a ranker's body. They only grow in quality and quantity as the ranker ranks up. The F-Rank entity is only privy to the most elementary form of these mana veins and mana points. That's why the whole circuit consisting of these two aspects is called the primary mana pathway system while the ranker is in low ranks.

A spell describes a specific way and sequence with which a ranker is needed to circulate his mana inside the mana veins. Certain mana points get activated as the previously accumulated mana starts to travel to the next mana point in the mana circuit or get dispersed. And the now-empty space is taken over by a new deposition of the mana drawn from the mana core.

The caster needs to make sure that only the mana points mentioned in the spell scrolls are activated and other mana points don't react to the circulation of mana inside the mana veins. They also need to ensure that mana dispersion occurs at specific mana points while the remaining mana points send the accumulated mana inside the mana circuit again.

The dispersed mana brings forth the required effect intended by the spell while the mana that gets circulated keeps it powered up in case it is a prolonged cast. The mana circulation will take place even when the spell doesn't need to be maintained over a period. It's just that a ranker will face less trouble if he doesn't need to maintain the spell.

Any minute failure in sequencing and execution might result in the spell not getting cast at all. Or it can end up in a skewed spell effect. In worst cases, the ranker can feel some side effects due to their mana pathways and/or mana points getting injured due to improper execution.

F-Rank spells were easiest to get accustomed to because they were based on the primary mana pathway system. A ranker had few mana pathways and points to worry about. So the casting took less time and there was less room for errors.

Generally, a ranker would be able to learn to cast a spell within two-three days if the spell was of the same element as their elemental affinity. The further the element of the spell was from the caster's elemental affinity, the more were chances of the caster not mastering the spell even after a long time, the spell getting miss-executed, or in the caster getting injured in the worst case.

That's why it was necessary to choose the ranking technique and spells according to one's elemental affinity. The synchronicity in elemental affinity would result in the spell quickly getting mastered by the ranker, with enhanced output and efficient usage of the limited mana storage.

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Eren already knew about the mana pathways and mana points needed to get activated to execute a Rayo beam. He closed his eyes and confirmed the sequences mentioned in the spell scroll are in sync with what he remembered.

Eren opened his eyes suddenly and activated the mana points needed to get activated for the spell with utmost precision. It took just a moment before a straight purple-blue beam emerged from the tip of his right index finger. He maintained the 4ft long beam and observed its effectiveness.

The blue beam had tiny tongues of lightning surrounding it. It looked like it had taken a solid form. But one could see that it was still ethereal upon closer inspection.

The beam was less than 0.5cm in diameter, making it highly penetrable. It could cut or tear through a thick wooden log or a small rock like they were made of papers. But it worked most devastatingly on one's flesh.

Eren could control the beam's diameter and length by tweaking the flow of mana inside his mana circuit. The beam's penetration power would be at its maximum if Eren kept its length under 3-4 feet while narrowing its diameter as much as he could.

Eren knew the rankless people and beasts couldn't threaten him anymore with just this spell alone. The body of a rankless entity was extremely fragile as it wasn't imbued in mana. Rayo could easily cut a rankless person from head to toe vertically in a straight line without facing many obstructions.

Rayo's use wasn't limited to the beam deployment alone. It came with a dagger art that could enhance the penetration power of a ranker's dagger. Eren needed to slightly change the activation sequencing of mana points to make the dagger imbue in Rayo's coating. The dagger's edge will have streams of lightning dancing on it.

Plus, there were other variants of Rayo that Eren wasn't used to yet. He had focused on potion-making at the start of his academic journey in his previous timeline. The F-Rank elemental spells that he had practised unrelated to the potion-making were limited in number.

Even the spells Eren had just gotten in this timeline were the same spells that had accompanied him at the beginning of his berserker journey. He had practised them when he was a berserker, so it felt different when he executed the Rayo now. He felt it was lacking in output even when it showed unbelievable penetration power from a rankless' perspective.

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A berserker class was straightforward. The berserker could use the most spells of close combat expert or many other compatible classes. The ranking technique of a berserker would help them pump up the spells' effects. And the effects would only multiply after the consumption of the berserker potions acting as the external power sources.

This was the relation between a berserker and a close combat expert. A close combat expert is what one would get after they make a berserker skip on steroids. The ex-berserker would then have to focus on close combat skills and points of impact instead of cranking up the raw power to the max.

This cranking up of raw power was what made the berserker's combat technique different from that of a close combat expert. The spells' effects would extend in range and power due to the berserker's way of executing them. That allowed the berserker to remain at a distance from their enemies while they focused on normal spells that acted as AoEs. So a berserker didn't need to get close to their opponents to beat them, unlike a close combat expert.

That's why the founder of LA and renowned berserker of his generation, Ivar Ironside chose to become a close combat expert after he experienced an incurable injury. That injury forced him to let go of the path of a berserker.

But Ivar wasn't willing to start from scratch. So he opted for the path of a close combat expert at the cost of regressing in his ranking journey. The regression wasn't that heavy due to the path of a berserker and that of a close combat expert didn't have much conflict between them. After that, the bearer of the title Lionheart became equally famous in the path of a close combat expert.

This is the reason LA focuses the most on three paths: berserker, close combat expert, and potioneer.

The directly proportional relationship between a berserker and a close combat expert had given Eren the confidence he needed to change his class in this timeline while keeping the advantages of his previous experiences almost intact. He knew he would master the path of a close combat expert eventually for this exact reason. He had realized that his lightning element and his inherent nature of speed were more compatible with the finesses of a close combat expert than the wild nature of a berserker.

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Eren knew the seeming lack of power came from him not being a berserker anymore. This was the spell's original effect without it getting enhanced by the path and powers of a berserker.

Eren needed to adjust his battle style according to his new reality.

Eren then spent the night doing the same with the rest of the spells and confirmed that he could execute the spells without having to worry about casting failures. He would scare Jake with his learning speed if the latter came to know that he had mastered four spells in one night. Only when he was assured that the spell execution had no problem did he sleep post-midnight.

Eren skipped his homeroom classes and decided to pay a visit to Novice's Training Center. It housed private training rooms for Novice rankers. The training rooms were big enough for rankers to cast any of their spells.

The rooms would come with special equipment to measure the output of the spells if the ranker was willing to pay more in Merps. There were also other services available, but that came with their own Merps costs.

Eren went towards a counter and booked a plain room for himself without any services or add-ons.

The no-add-on booking would cost him 30 merit points per hour. Eren booked the private room for 10 hours today and 10 hours tomorrow.

But Eren didn't care much about the lost Merps when he had so much to gain from his trip to the sanctuary. He needed to fine-tune his basic combat prowess, his spells, and his E-Rank strengthening with Reen's help. The private room had cost him 480 Merps but it had given him the privacy he needed to do all that he had planned.

Eren spent the two days training in the private room. He got used to the spells. He still carried his habits from being a berserker so his new battling style had many flaws. It neither looked like a berserker's or a close combat expert's way of doing things. But it was the best he could do for now without the guidance of an expert.

Eren used his ID stone to unlock the giant door and got out of the private room. He was sweaty all over, bruised, battered, and exhausted. But he had a smile on his face.

Eren was finally ready to visit the sanctuary tomorrow!

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Author's Note: Hello. I will update the Instagram handle in the novel's synopsis. Readers can use that handle to contact me. Eren's visual profile as well as that of the other characters will get unveiled on that account first. So you might want to add it to your friend list! ;)

The novel would have a fixed release time starting from next week. It would be around 12 AM every day (GMT 8+, Time in Shanghai). The timely release might start this week as well but I'll have to keep some chapters as a buffer and save them in the draft first. Let's see!

VEH completes 75 chapters with this release. Only 25 more to go for a 100-chapters milestone. This is a good time to release the overall ranking system of the story-verse.

Check out the VEH Ranking System chapter in the auxiliary volume. It will give you a glimpse of what you can expect in the aspect of characters' power level progressions. Be warned of spoilers though! ;)