"Haah!"
The battle's conclusion left Eren drenched in the poisonous wyvern blood, a testament to the perilous struggle he had faced.
Eren felt the weight of exhaustion settling upon him like an anchor, his body aching from the taxing battle with the wyvern.
The Hex Armor, pushed to its limits, had drained him considerably. Yet, an odd sensation surged through him as the wyvern's dark red blood coated his entire form. His vision blurred, and dizziness washed over him. His mana circuits swelled and his mana core was nearing depletion.
From the contact with the wyvern's blood, visible wisps of smoke rose from Eren's skin, and an unsettling change seemed to stir within him. His limbs felt weak and unsteady, as if his bones had turned to mush. The pull of exhaustion tempted him to close his eyes and surrender to sleep for days on end, but he resisted, focusing on the wyvern's corpse before him.
'I can't harvest this overhyped lizard's soul in my current condition,' Eren murmured, touching the wyvern's head.
'Normal Hex methods won't work either. it would damage the soul irreversibly, just like what happened to the red bear's soul. No. a wyvern's soul is precious. I can't do shoddy work with it. Not after the amount of effort I had to put in slaying it."
As Eren's eyes turned red and his condition grew unstable, the other Rankers stood in awe and concern. However, Altashia signaled her guild members to remain silent, granting Eren the privacy he needed. They sensed that something extraordinary was unfolding before them.
In respectful silence, Jake, Ramy, Renita, Ron, Dino, and the other members of Eren's faction stepped back, forming a protective circle around their comrade. They too had sensed that Eren was going through some kind of peculiar change.
In the aftermath of the intense battle, Eren found himself in a peculiar mental state known as the Battle Trance. It had allowed him to push past his limits to vanquish the draconic beast. Now, its lingering effect was triggering a breakthrough in his Rank.
Bathed in the warm, dark red, and poisonous wyvern's blood, Eren was on the cusp of becoming a Master Ranker.
The butcher's mana-starved Expert Rank core absorbed the surrounding mana, preparing for the imminent breakthrough.
Despite having meticulously planned the wyvern hunt, Eren found himself unprepared for what followed—the unexpected breakthrough into the esteemed Master Rank. He had assumed he had more time before facing such a monumental shift in his ranking journey, as it had only been a little over a decade since he had ascended to the C-Rank.
Eren was well aware of the vastness of the Raking path that he had chosen for himself, and he had expected that achieving the Master Rank would require significantly more time and effort. However, destiny had a different plan, and the timing of his breakthrough caught him off guard, leaving him grappling with the sudden surge of power and change of his plans that came with this prestigious rank.
'Fuck! This was not how I wanted to go through my breakthrough. This is a fucking battlefield, damn it.
But… nothing can be done about it since the process has already started. I… I need to prepare.'
Despite his exhaustion and the inability to control the process, Eren welcomed the transformation. He knew life often took unexpected turns, and he had learned to embrace the moment rather than resist it.
The stress lines on his forehead mirrored the intensity of the moment, realizing that the Battle Trance-induced breakthrough couldn't be halted. The Hex Armor's extensive use had left him too fatigued to suppress the breakthrough. Nevertheless, the butcher recognized this as an opportunity he couldn't let slip away.
With the wyvern's corpse as the backdrop, Eren prepared himself to ascend to the Master Ranker status, accepting the gift of power and growth that the current situation had bestowed upon him.
A peculiar kind of mana signatures started getting released from Eren at its epicenter. The battlefield remained hushed as the miraculous ranking metamorphosis was about to unfold before the mesmerized eyes of the onlooking Rankers.
'I need to first seal the wyvern's soul within its body to prevent it from dissipating,' Eren murmured to himself, his voice laden with determination. He retrieved an intricately designed array disk from his pouch and gently placed it upon the beast's head.
With a swift activation of the disk, golden chains composed of mystical runes materialized and spread across the wyvern's lifeless form. The radiant runes slithered gracefully across the scaly surface, securing the creature's body with their binding enchantments.
The butcher's preparations for the wyvern's hunt were indeed comprehensive, for he had not only planned various means to subdue the formidable creature but had also invested valuable resources to secure its potent soul.
Initially, Eren had contemplated harvesting the wyvern's soul through conventional methods to integrate it into his Hex Armor, using the modified technique he had ingeniously developed. However, with the possession of Shallot's Mirror, his plans took a profound turn.
Why risk damaging the precious soul when he could employ the powerful capabilities of Baelin's smithy to craft a bespoke Hex Artifact? The newfound authority over Shallot's Mirror assured him that the Hex Artifact produced from the wyvern's soul would surpass any of his previous creations in unparalleled quality.
With the assurance that the wyvern's soul was now secured, Eren felt a weight lift off his consciousness. He turned to acknowledge the Rankers who had fought alongside him during the perilous raid, his voice heavy and eyes drooping with exhaustion.
"Th… Thanks for your unwavering support, everyone," Eren acknowledged the spectators with a weary yet appreciative gaze. His keen eyes scanned the surroundings, resting upon familiar faces.
"Renita, Altashia, and the rest of the… Haaash… rest of the White Raven members closest to me can stay here. The rest of you must leave this place," he commanded with authority, leaving no room for dissent.
===
AN: Battle Trance was first mentioned in chapter 1162.
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