Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Eren kept rummaging through his Spectral Screen, trying to know the essential stuff.

He found out that the category Profession was closely associated with one's identity in Labh Salem. It was something that almost nobody could change once they had made their decisions. At least not on the fly.

Plus, those who used Menaka's Blessing could only use one Profession at a time. If they somehow managed to change their Profession, the progress they made in their previous Profession was practically lost.

Of course, there were exceptions to this rule in the form of rare items, artifacts, and certain Perks that one could buy from Menaka's Market, etc. However, nobody else was as spoiled for choices as Eren was in this department.

Eren was very happy to find out that he could commit identity fraud by using the multi-profession option that only he was privy to out of all those who used Menaka's Blessing. He had to say that the formal agreement he had struck with the goddess was worth it just by considering this advantage alone.

He came to know that his expertise in Array Creation as well as weapon creation could be utilized through the use of a single profession called Runermaster. This Profession gave him a few inherent Perks that he could make use of while synthesizing the Runic Array Circles or crafting Hex Artifacts.

The Runemaster Profession also allowed him to use a few Skills related to the artifact and array creation in a streamlined manner. In Anfang, he had a few limitations while making use of his expertise related to these fields.

However, in Labh Salem, through the use of the Mesh, he could become a one-man factory while creating artifacts. He could also create complex array circles on the fly using the Mesh, which could allow him to outclass even pre-Anfang-exit Sansara Sage.

The Summoner Profession was another example of having one Profession giving the benefits of many. His powers as a necromancer and elemental summoner had been properly segregated under one Profession. He could make use of any one of them at a given time and achieve greater effects if he were to turn Summoner as his Active Profession.

His bloodline Skills somehow felt more easily accessible to him than the rest. He could feel that the effects that they brought were also a tier higher than the other Skills he still had in his possession.

This was because Menaka's Blessing couldn't limit the Skills associated with his bloodline– the Elder Ichor bloodline. It seemed even the Mesh did not have the power to cap the effects brought to him by his bloodline powers.

However, not everything was cool and dandy for Eren. especially when he browsed through the contents related to the Greater Skills. For one thing, they had huge Cooldown time, which basically meant he couldn't use certain Greater Skills in succession. He could neither stack them nor fuse them.

He was sure that there were ways to get around these limitations if he had enough Menaka's Runes under his name. However, until he could exert his Greater Skills to their fullest potential, he needed to be a bit mindful of their use.

"Hmm? Sedating Gaze has been changed to Demi-god's gaze?"

Eren quickly selected the down-arrow sign beside the Skill and saw the prompt generated on the Spectral Screen.

[ Demi-god's Gaze: Wielder can affect the psyche of their opponent simply with their stare alone. The effects can range from changing the perception of time for the targets to temporarily trapping their consciousness into an illusion.

This primary Skill also gives access to the wielder to use the time-element Skills it evolved from. The Skill can evolve for 70,000 Menaka's Runes. It can also link with the wielder's divinity upon paying 325,000 Menaka's Runes ]

"Damn. 325,000 Menaka's Runes! I only have about 10K right now."

Eren smiled to himself bitterly and was about to close the sub-panel associated with the Skill. However, just then, another prompt flashed.

[ A new Skill detected. Insertion into Menaka's Mesh as a new entry is possible. Would you like to donate/sell this Skill to Menaka's Mesh?]

"The gall of this thing! Donation it says. Yeah. I don't do donations."

Eren scoffed as he read the prompt. He quickly selected "no" for the donation and checked the "sell" option just for the sake of it. He just wanted to know how much this original Skill, the one he had made all by himself, would sell for.

[ Option 1: One-time payment of 800,000 Menaka's Runes. The Skill will be completely owned by the Mesh after the successful payment. Wielder can spend the credited Runes to buy various items from Menaka's Market. ]

"I'll be damned. Those zeroes before sure look tempting."

Eren opened his eyes wide in surprise when he realized how much his Skill would net him in profit after feeding it to Menaka's Mesh. he could also see a preview of items under Option 1 that he could buy from Menaka's Market.

The more he scrolled sideways into the preview section, the more he was tempted to feed his Skill into Menaka's Mesh. Some of the items he saw felt downright illegal to him by Anfang's standards.

Of course, once he fed the Skill into the Mesh, it could be bought by others at the right price. It meant that there would be others who could use the same Skill he could. He would basically give away the sole proprietary of the Skill to the goddess Menaka. And then, the goddess would be able to bestow his power as a Skill to those who used her Blessing.

"This goddess… she is basically sitting atop a mountain of knowledge and rare powers that only she is aware of."

Eren narrowed his eyes as he thought of how many Skills and Greater Skills the goddess was able to acquire through her Mesh. Of course, these Skills and Greater Skills did not directly help her. However, they enriched the Mesh and helped her grow her divinity as a whole.

[ Option 2: Get a two percent share of Menaka's Runes every time someone buys Demi-god's Gaze through Menaka's Market. Effective period: indefinite. ]

[ Option 3: Get a ten percent share of Menaka's Runes every time someone buys Demi-god's Gaze through Menaka's Market. Effective period: 50 years. The Skill will be completely owned by the Mesh after the effective period ends. ]

"Basically, I will get a cut every time some user of the Blessing buys my Skill. This sounds like a more reasonable deal to me. Provided, it gets sold enough times."

Eren also weighed down Options 2 and 3 in his head and guessed that Option 2 was a better deal for him. This option would allow him to co-own his Skill with the Mesh, enabling him to get a steady flow of Menaka's Runes for as long as he was using the Blessing.

Option 3 was great when it came to receiving a bigger cut per transaction. But it had an expiry date, which meant that he would not be able to earn Menaka's Runes after the effective period of the deal.

"Sedating Gaze was one of my most hard-earned Abilities from Anfang. I remember getting my ass beat right from my academy days, willingly, to develop this Ability. And it has served me well so far.

I'm glad to see that my hard work can still give me dividends in the long run. But I don't want to see others using this Ability. It shall be something that only belongs to me and me alone."

Eren made up his mind and canceled all the options he saw in the sub-panel. If his ocular Ability was as powerful here in Labh Salem as it was in Anfang, it would still serve him as one of the most reliable Trump Cards.

Eren's ocular Ability was practically a sure-shot way for him to create a chink in one's armor. The effects of the Ability were instantaneous and it could be executed by him as easily as he blinked his eyes. Plus, there was no significant mana consumption.

But all of that could change if he decided to go through with the deal. He knew through the witches' memories that as soon as his Ability was fed into the Mesh, it would be deciphered completely. It also meant that the goddess would provide counter-skills to her patrons in the future once enough users started using his Skill.

Thus, his choice to sell his Skill now could come to bite him in the ass in the future. So even after knowing that selling his Skill could give him the best starting point in Labh Salem he could ask for, he decided to not accept Mesh's offer.

"Gotta play the long game," Eren sighed as he browsed through the options further.

However, something struck in Eren's mind like thunder when he understood how the game worked. He quickly went back to the previous panel and tried to execute a particular spell he had developed through his own merit in Anfang as well.

Wind-fire Shards!