Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"A student from 1/A has raised the price for the book of Indra's Levin again.

7000 Merps going once... 7000 Merps going twice… Sev…

Oh!

There's another prompt on the screen sent by a student from 1/C, raising the amount for this item to 7500 Merps.

Is there anyone else who wants to raise the amount any further?

The technique is not available in the Novice Treasury, you know!

Just to make it clear to the newbie students. Even an amount of 10K Merps wouldn't be deemed expensive for a five-star ranking technique.

Still no takers?

7500 Merps going once!

7500 Merps going twice!

.

.

.

And….

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.

.

*Blaring beep sound and the removal of the entry named Indra's Levin from the list of ranking techniques displayed on the hall's huge spectral screen*

.

.

.

7500 Merps going thrice!

Congratulations to the 1/C student named Eren Idril for getting this five-star lightning element ranking technique. It is made for close-combat style. You will receive the book at the end of the auction event after signing a binding contract."

Jaime Lancaster congratulated Eren as a formality before taking a sip out of the small vial that he had seemingly retrieved from nowhere. He resumed his stoic face after the sip and restarted the bidding process for the next ranking technique in the list. The auction event was being held at the large hall named Novice Inspience.

Jaime was standing on a large, raised platform. There was a huge spectral screen placed in front of him that listed the current items for auctioning. A group of first-year students was standing below the platform.The students eyes fixated on the spectral screen.

There were five other professors like Jaime catering to their respective groups of first-year students. These Novice rankers were divided into six groups according to their elements.

The first five groups were dedicated to students with five great elements respectively. And the sixth group was dedicated to the entire lot of students who had derived elements.

Eren was part of the sixth group. The group's auction was hosted by none other than Jaime Lancaster. The same person Eren had seen in the Osan woods.

The students interested in the bidding item only needed to send the prompt of the raised amount through their personal spectral screens to make their bid. They would get the item if no other student is challenging their amount with another raise.

Eren was excited about a five-star ranking technique. He never got to practise a technique like this in the previous timeline. It had burned a hole through his Merps reserves. But he thought it was worth it.

But this was not the end of the auction event. First Jaime would auction all the ranking techniques made for various derived elements. The auction for spells, potions, and artefacts would follow soon after.

The auction event kept on progressing as it was scheduled. Eren soon obtained a few more Novice levelled spells for himself. He had obtained the higher-star variants of all the lightning element spells he was used to with.

The butcher also bought an F-Rank mana gathering array layout. Plus, there were two new additions to his list of spells now.

The total cost of the ranking technique, array layout, and spells had almost emptied the butcher's reserves. Now he only had around 700 Merps remaining in his account. But his battle prowess had received an unprecedented boost as a result.

Even with its speedy execution due to the inclusion of a spectral screen, the auction went on for a few hours. Eren met up with his party members after the auction got over.

The members kept on conveying their thanks to Eren who just nodded at them as a response. Even a low-key haughty girl like Becky thanked him for his suggestion and heads-up to gather more Merps a few days back. She had decided to follow Eren's advice and chose a mage class ranking technique for herself in the auction along with the spells related to it.

Jake, Becky, and Steve had avoided falling prey to LA's debt trap, thanks to Eren's warnings. Now they had more time for themselves to focus on their studies due to not having to accept any binding employment contract.

Of course, they would choose to enter employment later on when the binding contract became more student-friendly in a few days. They had to. Because they had ended up using the advance on their default monthly allowance. Therefore, their accounts wouldn't get credited with 1K Merps for around six months. That meant the trio was going to be Merps-broke for those many months until it decided to do something about it.

Now Jake, Becky, and Steve needed a stable source of income. They couldn't become the members of Besanc like Eren due to their BTP values not hitting the mark of 14. And they had already overdrawn on the support offered by their families. So the employment at the academy was the only way for them to curb their need for Merps.

Eren gave them a few pointers regarding their jobs postings. He told them to join specific jobs as per their respective classes so that they could also practise and enhance their class-related skills on site. The butcher mainly did that so that their job timings would sync and they could all be available at the same time while ensuring that their class-related skills are nurtured.

Eren and his group was about to head to the pantry to have their dinner when they heard a voice coming from behind:

"Little Idril, wait up!"

Eren and his party members turned 180 in unison only to observe that Adapt Marla was making her way towards them from a distance. Eren understood the reason for her calling so he told his group to go ahead to the pantry, saying that he'd join them afterwards. The group left and Marla caught up with him soon afterwards.

"Adapt Marla, what do I owe this pleasure?"

Eren asked while performing a slight bow. Marla was all smiles when replying:

"Hehe! You are wise, Idril boy, I must give you that. You addressed me formally again after meeting for the second time. You didn't abuse the freedom I gave you. These little subtleties are all signs of you being on the right path as a ranker.

I came to say my thanks. You know, your 'tip' would help me and my panel well tonight. The auction for Ace rankers will start now that the Novice auction has ended. And the auction for Adapt rankers will take place at midnight. We have loaded our accounts with Merps and expect a great haul from it."

"Aaah! See, my information came through. And you were doubting me then."

"Hehe! That was only natural. But I won't go back on my words. I'll give you something worth your information in a few days.

And I'll come to see your performance in intra-class battles. If you can perform well, I'll consider taking you as my apprentice despite your low BTP value. By the way, which technique did you obtain?"

"I convey my sincere thanks, Adapt Marla. I got my hands on five-star Indra's Levin for 7500 Merps."

"Oh! A five-star technique in LA is extremely rare. And you even got it for peanuts' worth considering its actual value.

Indra's Levin, huh! So you are serious about becoming a close combat expert. Good. Make sure you kick some serious ass in the intraclass battles.

The close combat experts are known for their boldness to enter their opponents' attacking range and beat them up head-on. I need to see the fierceness in you that is needed for this class to take you as my apprentice."

"I understand. Thanks for telling me what you want to see in my battles. I will make sure to quote-unquote kick-ass in my battles."

"By the way, did you set the base price for the E-Rank Mana Blessing you found?"

"Oh. I set the base price at 10K Merps. But I'm hoping it'll cross the limit of 20k when the final bid amount is set. Hehe!"

Eren smirked at Marla while replying to her. She realized this little devil already knew about the stone's worth even after still being a Novice ranker. She was excited to see the boy's performance now. She'd rather take a smart student as her apprentice rather than teach to some gullible fool.

**********

Eren could be seen inside his dorm room now. He had imbued his mana into the mana-gathering array layout he bought from the auction and laid it inside his dorm room. It was an array with a Penta-star layout.

Eren then used all of his F-Rank Mana Blessings that he had collected from the Osan woods and planted them at the five distinct points over the array.

The butcher experienced an unprecedented level of mana purity of F-Rank gathering inside his dorm room now. With this array, Eren will be able to expedite his ranking journey in the F-Rank much faster than his previous estimations.

But Eren's attention was soon drawn to a particular spell scroll in his hand. He was most interested in this spell because he had never experienced the effects of this spell in his previous timeline.

The spell's name was Sedated Perception.

It was a four-star F-Rank spell belonging to the time element!

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Author's Note: The target of 100 power stones has been achieved while we are still only halfway through this week. It shows that VEH is growing strong on this platform. This extra chapter is dedicated to all the active readers who contributed to this novel. ;)