Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"So you tell me. Do you still want to continue after knowing these hardships are heading your way?"

"I accept."

Eren didn't even think for a second before replying.

He already knew about the reason Marla was reluctant to take him as her disciple even after he had played his cards right with her. He had known what she said was bound to happen to him.

But the butcher was not going to shy away from putting hard work in the right place. Plus, if everything goes according to his plans, he might not have to struggle as much as Marla was planning to make him suffer. If the liquid stage was the minimum requirement for his schedule to proceed smoothly, he'd just have to enter that stage quickly. Simple as that.

"*Sigh! Alright. I'll take you as my apprentice. I'll register the same in LA's records so that we coordinate our schedules smoothly.

Now let me give you a gift for your valuable "tip". You can also consider this as your apprenticeship reward on joining."

Marla retrieved a set of two Katars from her storage. The blades were 15inch long, sleek and sharp in size.

Each weapon had an H-shaped horizontal grip, which would result in the blade sitting above the user's knuckles. Then there was an armguard woven into its construction that allowed for a better grip while securing the gripped hand.

Because the weapon's blade is in line with the user's arm, the basic attack with a Katar is a direct thrust identical to a punch. That's why a Katar was referred to as a 'punching dagger'.

But the weapon could also be used for slashing. The design of the weapon allows the fighter to put their whole weight into a thrust, enabling an exceptional piercing power.

A katar user would target the head and upper body of their opponent, similar to boxing.

The sides of the handle could be used for blocking. The defensive capabilities would increase, thanks to the armguard.

But the weapon's forte was almost unblockable thrusts if used at the right time. It also allowed for quick parries and swift slashes. But it wasn't meant for defence. Not really at least.

A dual-katar wielder had to enter the fray with all their bets placed on offence. They must be agile enough to dodge their opponent's attacks and strike, made possible because of the weapon's small size and light-weighted ness.

Marla had practised katar arts that had a lot of concepts taken from knuckle boxing arts. That's why she could teach Ken Riverine in the previous timeline. Thanks to that, the guy made it as a fine pugilist in his generation even before graduating from LA.

Of course, Ken wasn't an ideal apprentice for Marla. She couldn't bestow a large chunk of katar arts to him due to him practising a close combat technique based on knuckle boxing. But it wasn't like she was looking to take him as his disciple.

But Marla thought of another approach with Eren if he could successfully sustain the training schedule assigned by her. Eren was a close combat fighter of the lightning element like her. Plus he was used to using daggers.

Marla could raise him to be a somewhat exact copy of her close-combat style. Provided the boy could keep up, that is.

Eren took the weapons from Marla's hand. They looked extremely simple yet exceptionally deadly. He heard the latter's words when he was busy observing the artefacts in his hands:

"There are five-star F-Rank katars. Plus, they have lightning-element runes on them, making them element-specific artefacts only meant to be wielded by rankers of the same element.

You won't find them in LA's Novice treasury or open shops due to them being five-star variants.

I had received them as a gift. But I soon broke into E-Rank. So they are barely used at all.

You are a lightning-element ranker who focuses on speed. This set is tailored-made for you.

I'd consider my debt towards you settled with this gift. And yeah, you can see the names the creator has given them on the inside of their armguards."

Eren nodded at Marla after she finished speaking. He was all smiles after observing the weapons. He was happy Marla wasn't being stingy with her bestowal.

As she said, the set was tailored-made for him. He checked the insides of the armguard carefully to locate the names and soon found some text in a very small font etched over the surface.

"Diceros Left and Diceros Right!"

The butcher read the names of his new names out loud. The parts Left and Right was indicative of the hands they were intended to be wielded with.

Eren ran his lightning-element mana through the weapons and their inscribed runes lit up. Unlike the element-neutral daggers he was used to wielding now which had the tongues of lightning dancing over its surface, the weapons he was using now didn't leak any lightning. This was the indication that the elementalized mana was running through the weapons via the runes without facing any resistance.

The katars only glowed faintly blue, and they looked less harmless than the daggers which used to shoot streams of lightning after every thrust and slash. But the butcher knew the weapons were many times more lethal than his now-ex weapons.

Eren had never used katars in his previous life. So he wasn't sure how he should employ them in his attacks from now on. His battle prowess as a close combat fighter would get plummeted before it could see rise from its previous peak.

That meant only one thing. More training was going to ensue.

"I'll give you a couple of days to get prepared. Meanwhile, I'll create a training and apprentice schedule for you to follow.

Of course, your ID stone will keep track of everything and will let me know if you slack off. The punishments for such fouls would range from extra work, extra training regime, Merps penalty and more depending upon the severity.

So make sure you follow whatever I tell you to follow and do. I'm planning to run some errands outside LA in a few weeks. I want you to be a decent fighter of your rank by then.

Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"No. I'll just run some Besanc missions in the forest and meet you right here after two days."

"Alright. Don't use the katars in the forest Eren. otherwise, a mishap might happen as you are not used to them."

"Ah! Thank you for caring for me, Miss Marla. You are as kind as you are beautiful."

"There it is. I was wondering where your glib tongue had gone off to. Humu. Praise me more and I might beat your ass a little less than what I had been planning on doing. Hehe!"

"Here to serve, master Marla. Now, if you'd excuse me!"

Eren bowed to his now-master after their conversation was over before heading swiftly towards the check-post's exit gate.

He had the most important thing to do in the forest.

The butcher was going to use the Beast contract spell on Reen.

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Author's Note: I'm sure most readers haven't heard about a katar. It is a real-life weapon that is quite like a dagger but actually isn't. Whatever I've mentioned about the weapon holds true to its real application as well.

If you are interested, you can search with the term 'Katar Forged in Fire' in Youtube's search box and watch the very first video to get a better sense of the weapon's visual style and handling.

And lastly, 1! ;)