Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil
chapter-429

Life Drain!

Eren had managed to activate this ability at will after learning about it from Nina and his experience with the Domain of Wrath. He now only needed to shake his arm as if tremors ran through them while thinking about Life Drain in his mind to activate the ability.

He had come to realize that abilities would be bound to certain organs of one's choosing. Ranker's organs served as blank paper and higher consciousness as ink to etch runes that enabled one to wield abilities.

Eren had been wondering if abilities could get plundered if he has the ranker's organ that was etched with their ability. He may be able to assimilate that organ into himself through his half-blood powers.

Eren knew things wouldn't be as simple as he had made them out to be. Plus, ability wielders were a rare breed among rankers for him. So his experiments would have to wait.

Eren used his Life Drain on a lot of dead bodies. And yet, his stats only increased marginally. Generally, the Life Drain would top up his stats at their maximum and give them a temporary boost. Stats retaining some semblance of their elevated status was only a residual effect. But he didn't think that was all there was to his slow growth. He blamed the low levels of his targets and his ever-advancing ranking status. The more he progressed in his rank, the more difficult it became to increase any of his stats permanently.

Still, every small gain mattered to him. Plus, he couldn't let these freshly dead bodies be put to waste. He was assigned to destroy them. So he might as well use Life Drain on these freshly deceased bodies before he disposes of them.

Life Drain worked best when the target was alive though. Plus, he needed an orc target alive for another reason.

'Hm! This orc seems alive. Let's try it on him.'

Eren finally found a live Orc Soldier who was taking his last breaths in the furthest corner of the tribe's camp. He had tried to run despite his severe injuries. But Eren guessed he had been hit by Dianna's projectile before he could make it. She must have been playing with her lower-level targets since he didn't die immediately. It forced him to hallucinate– worsening his injuries because they were left unattended.

He first drank the potion Layla had given him to neutralize any weird mana pulse that would get generated due to his experiments. Only then did he proceed further.

'Life Drain: Devour'

Eren's hand turned into a slime form and spread all over his target. The barely alive orc tried to struggle against something he didn't even understand. But all was in vain. His body started disintegrating at a rapid pace before completely disappearing.

The butcher had also learned how to harness half-blood ability consciously. He closed his eyes and turned his slimy mass into his hand like usual.

Various memories started flowing inside Eren's head along with some knowledge about the weapon the victim used. He couldn't understand the comprehension he had received from the orc that covered the way of the elements. The butcher guessed that since he wasn't familiar with the orc race, the victim's interpretation of the elements would be quite different from the human point of view.

'Heh! It's not that I won't be able to understand them ever. I just need to get familiarized with being an orc for these things to make sense.

I'm no longer human. So why should I let my understanding of the elements be limited to that of humans' point of view?'

Eren shook his head as he thought to himself. Next, he activated his half-blood ability consciously to make it work the way he wanted it to work for him after giving it the blueprint it needed to assume the orc's shape and copy his mana signature.

Eren had tried his half-blood ability on mana beasts directly when he was out hunting alone. To his disappointment, it didn't work on non-sentient entities. It was like the blueprint he had received from them was too complicated for the current him. It gave him no reference on a subconscious level that he could use to start his shapeshifting.

But at this moment, in the case of this orc, he had obtained the reference he needed to shapeshift into an Orc. He first processed all the Orc's memories slowly including his language. After that, he focused on keeping the information he needed and removing the one that was too much for him.

Finally, he refined the essence of the orc he had absorbed and converted it into a single drop of blood. He then stored it inside his body close to his heart, isolated by a thin but firm layer of mana. This was the reference point he needed to turn into an orc. He named it Blood Seed.

From now on, he needed to create a Blood Seed from his targets if he wanted to shapeshift into them. Currently, he could only store one Blood Seed in him at a time. Any more and the Blood Seeds would create a conflict with each other, resulting in the butcher losing control over them.

The butcher opened his eyes and looked around. He mumbled a few words only after confirming that everything was alright.

'Shapeshift: Model Orc'

If Eren hadn't drunk Layla's potion before, a distinct mana signature would have been felt by Eren's squadmates that were closest to him. Changes began appearing after the wave of mana signatures passed without being released into the air.

Eren's skin started turning rough. His stature remained the same but his muscles started bulging. His torso got beefier and his thighs also enlarged to look like the robust leg of the orc monster.

The butcher's hair length also increased. His mouth was widened and his eyes bulged. He was soon endowed with lupine ears and lower canines that resembled a boar's tusks. Even his body odor changed.

Eren's skin colour also changed. But instead of turning dark green like it was supposed to, it had turned greyish green.

The butcher smiled hideously when the shapeshifting was completed. Everything about him changed into that of an orc.

He looked at his hands and his torso before nodding to himself. He was dripping sweat from his forehead when he finished his shapeshifting.

This was the closest the butcher had come to shapeshifting into his target. It had consumed a lot of his mana and used up all his concentration but it finally succeeded the way he wanted it to.