Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

The spell's name was Sedated Perception.

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

This was the same spell Linda had in her arsenal. Of course, hers was an E-Rank one.

Sedated Perception was one of the most common spells among the time element rankers. And also one of the most hated ones at that. Because it largely contributed to the time-element rankers having to go through frequent bouts of uncalled-for time dilation.

Of course, Eren was worried about the side effects of using the spell as well. But he thought he should give it a try since his time element affinity would at least get utilized this way.

The self-casting spell's effect was simple. It affected the user's perception of time. When the spell activates, the user would experience a slow passage of time around him.

Some experts argued that Sedated Perception was not a complete time-element spell. They believed that a complete time-element spell would allow the user to interact normally with the slow passage of time without affecting their movements.

That meant time would indeed slow down around the user when they cast a complete time-element spell, but the spell would make it so that the user won't slow down with the time.

Of course, low-level rankers weren't privy to the authenticity of these claims. And getting used to Sedated Perception was hard enough. Low-level rankers would feel satisfied after completely mastering the spell without facing its side effects.

Eren was thinking along the same lines. He wasn't experienced in using time element spells. Therefore he deemed that he should focus on what's currently on his platter.

Eren put the spell scroll away. The spell won't be useful in his upcoming battle. He started reading the book and storing the contents on his virtual content storage with the help of the spectral screen.

Eren didn't like that LA was so prudent in sharing the technique in an old fashion way. He had paid a hefty in Merps. The least the academy could do was upload the technique directly on his ID stone. He would have been spared of manually storing the content.

It took him a few hours to understand the initial concepts of the technique while storing the content on his ID stone. Now he could access the content anytime with his spectral screen.

Eren only slept after reading the book completely. He needed to start practising his ranking technique. The initial stage section covered in the technique was simple to follow and had a few things in common with the lightning element technique he had practised in his previous life.

That's why Eren could start practising the technique as soon as he woke up the next day. He was going to practice the technique till evening. And then, he'd go through the spell scrolls of his improved spells.

Most of the students would also skip on their lectures like Eren. They needed to do last-minute preparations for the upcoming battles, after all.

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

The night before the intra-class ranking war.

Eren was done with reading through the spell scrolls of his improved spells. There were subtle differences between the three-star and four-star variants.

The four-star variants were more refined versions of their respective lower star counterparts. They contained a more efficient execution of mana points activation, allowing in better, faster spell deployment while keeping the mana consumption lower.

That's why it was crucial to have higher star spells. The rankers would find that their battle prowess shoot up just by making use of higher star variants of their spells. And since these spells were almost identical to their lower star counterparts except for changes in the algorithm of mana point activation, they could be adopted quickly. At least the spells in F-Rank were quicker to adopt among their multi-star variations.

That's why Eren took till afternoon to practise his ranking technique and get used to it. He used the remaining hours to fine-tune his usual spells to their higher star variants. It was 2 AM. Eren thought of calling it quits. He had finished his preparations and was ready to go through the ranking battle.

But before he did that, the butcher thought of taking a quick look at the Sedated Perception. He knew that he couldn't learn the spell in whatever remaining time he had before the ranking war. But he just couldn't calm his curiosity about the spell.

Eren opened the spell and started recording its content. Then he memorized the mana points activation algorithm of the spell and closed his eyes to recall it again.

The algorithm was nothing too complicated. Eren had been a D-Rank berserker in his past timelines. He was used to executing spells with higher complications than mere F-Rank spells. Compared to those spells, this F-Rank time element spell was no biggie on paper.

But the real difficulty of spells lies in the ranker maintaining its effect without injuring themselves in the process. That's why it was near impossible for Eren to use this spell in the battle tomorrow.

Or so he thought!

Something magical happened when Eren tried to execute his first time-element spell.

He experienced the most elusive event in a ranker's life.

Eren was pulled into a state of epiphany as soon as he tried to execute Sedated Perception.

It was like the spell itself was communicating with him, telling him how it should be better executed.

Eren felt like he was experiencing the passage of time quite differently in this state. He was aware of the things unfolding around him while his psyche communicated nonverbally with the higher consciousness brought about by the state of epiphany.

The butcher cut off his communication with the rest of the world and focused on absorbing what he could from being connected to the higher consciousness. He didn't know if and when he'd get to experience the state of epiphany again. He had to make the best use of what was happening to him at the time.

Eren also subconsciously activated his ranking technique while he was understanding the concepts behind Sedated Perception. What he had failed to realize was that due to the active spell's and state of epiphany's effect, his ranking technique had started working on hyperdrive.

There were tiny tongues of lightning dancing on his skin all over the body due to the ranking technique's activation. The lightning was harmless to him. It was just a manifestation of unelementalized mana in the surrounding getting converted into the lightning element mana under the technique's effect.

Eren learned everything about the spell in that blurred state of self-consciousness. He now knew there was a better way to execute Sedated Perception than what was recorded in the four-star spell scroll. He now knew what part of the algorithm needed to be changed or tweaked to make the spell easy to use for him while increasing its effect.

When Eren opened his eyes, he thought the morning must have arrived. He thought he had spent at least five to six hours in that state. But soon he was left flabbergasted. That's because when he checked his clock, it told him only about 20 minutes had passed in reality. The butcher couldn't help thinking to himself:

'Was Sedated Perception active the whole time I was in the state of epiphany? But how can it be? At my current level, it should be impossible to maintain the spell active for this long a time. Even if I could, the ratio of the time dilation just doesn't make sense.

My mana reserves are empty now. But how did I manage to keep the spell active for 20 minutes straight without overdrawing on my mana core and damaging it in the process?

I learned Sedated Perception in mere 20 minutes. Even if we consider that it is an F-Rank spell that uses only a primary mana circuit, the achievement to learn the spell from scratch and execute it flawlessly is something unthinkable for a guy like me who wasn't even a ranker a month back.

But most of all, I have progressed further in my rank in just about a day after I started practising the technique. My BTP value has shot up. If the word about my gains gets out, it'll create a sensation in LA.

There are many mysteries about this whole event.

Even a mysterious occurrence like the state of epiphany can not take all the credit this time. All things point in only one direction.

The swallowed gem!'

Eren came to that conclusion and caressed his lower abdomen with his hand. Of course, there was no gem to be found or touched. But the butcher felt that it was making its presence known by creating small miracles like tonight's event.

Eren had an inkling that even the state of epiphany was brought about by the gem itself when it detected that he was learning a time element spell. Maybe this wasn't a natural state of epiphany but something that was initiated by the gem?

Eren had more questions than answers at this point!

But the fact that the gem had helped him learn the time-element spell effortlessly was undeniable. It had also aided in him progressing further in the ranking journey.

With benefits lying in front of him, Eren's greed for getting more power for himself resurfaced.

The butcher thought that maybe he should have gone with the time-element ranking technique in the F-Rank itself. The gem could have helped him breeze through the rank at a faster pace.

But then he controlled his greed. The butcher concluded that he still didn't know anything about the gem so it'd be unwise to base his entire ranking journey around it.

And fast doesn't always mean better. It was in his favour that he progressed steadily in the most foundational rank. The state of epiphany was known for producing a lot of wonders for rankers without harming them. But he couldn't just enter the state on his whims. Therefore Eren came to a sound decision.

What he had now was sufficient for now. He needed to cultivate his current advantages before taking a completely different path.

Then his thought process made him wonder about the reason behind his current situation.

Eren wondered if the gem was a Sage rank artefact.

The S-Rank entities were officially given the prefix of Sages. The items belonging to that rank also had the word Sage as their prefix. Therefore, the S-Rank artefacts were known as Sage artefacts. It was the peak of the ranking journey Eren was made aware of.

He had seen only one A-Rank artefact in his whole life even in the previous timeline. And that was the flying platform LA had used to transport its students. After that, he never got to witness the true prowess of a grandmaster artefact his ever.

So Eren had never thought about the sage artefacts in both of his timelines. He wasn't even sure what people and items at that level could do. That subject was more of a distant dream for him.

But what if this gem was an S-Rank?

Or….

What if the gem was even ranked higher than a Sage artefact? Is there even a rank higher than S-Rank for rankers, potions, spells, and artefacts?

As it was said previously, Eren had more questions than answers. So he decided to stop thinking about them altogether.

What was important now was the fact that Eren could use the Sedated Perception tomorrow in the ranking war. It had now become a test field for him to field-test his new and improved-overnight time-element spell.

The butcher was looking forward to tomorrow's match.

Author's Note: Hello. Just a reminder. State of epiphany was explained in chapter 48 in case anyone was wondering. ;)