"There it is!"
Eren was finally able to locate the Karma Points Sharing Perk. It was made available to him after he put his Karma Points into leveling up.
The multiple level-ups in one go allowed him to become an Ace ranker once again. One could say that the Karma points earned after finishing off Meeshah's entire team had been put to good use.
Eren quickly bought and activated the Perk through the Sansara interface. He then linked it up with Steve and Renita. He divided his existing Karma points into three equal portions. He retained his portion while allocating the other two portions to the captain and ranger of the team.
Eren had already told Steve and Renita to prioritize their levels over getting Perks for the first week. Unlike him, they were playing defensively. Plus, they had the support of the main team. So they didn't need many Perks.
Eren then walked up to Meeshah's corpse. He bent down and took her tattooed hand in his hand. He felt the tattoo of the Sansara Wheel with his fingers before asking Alephee.
"Alephee, can you override the access rights of this elf's storage?"
The Sansara World had sealed off rankers' storage. Instead, it offered its own storage system for the participants to use for their rations, weapons, and other stuff. The butcher knew that the seal on the personal storage was strong to prevent anyone from taking unfair advantage of their backgrounds. But he was hoping the Sansara storage could be accessed using Alephee's help.
Alephee didn't come out of her Pendant abode. She sent her soul sense outside and scanned the Sansara Wheel Tattoo before replying.
"I can. But only for the next few minutes. The storage would collapse after the dead body's temperature starts dropping down."
Eren nodded before making his wish known.
"Take everything out."
In the next moment, the Sansara Wheel tattoo started getting blurred as Alephee used her soul sense to override it for a fraction of a second. She took everything out of Meeshah's storage and asked Eren to throw the body away.
Eren quickly threw Meeshah's body in the air and raised a non-elemental mana shield around him. In the next moment, a suppressed implosion was heard.
Splat.
Meeshah's body imploded like a mini-bomb had been detonated inside a watermelon. The pieces of her flesh and bones were spread everywhere. In the end, Meeshah's body suffered the same fate as that of her teammate. But since it was done after her death, one could say that the butcher had kept his promise to offer an easy death.
Eren canceled the shield around him before looking at Meeshah's stuff. She had two swords and some other stuff that she had bought using her Karma points. The butcher stored everything within his Sansara storage before selling it to the interface for Karma points.
However, this was not what the butcher was after in the first place.
Eren walked up to the dead body that Meeshah had stored inside her Sansara Storage. It was the headless corpse of Ken along with his chopped head beside it.
"He was a perfect hero and therefore, an imperfect ranker."
Eren sighed before narrowing his eyes on the corpse. He stretched his hands over the corpse and turned them into a slimy mass.
"Since I took revenge for you, it is only fair that I receive a payment from you."
Eren mumbled to himself before spreading the slime mass all over Ken's corpse including his chopped head. He activated his bloodline Ability and started digesting Fist Saint's gains.
Not much time had passed since Ken's death. So Eren thought that he still had a chance to get Ken's Fist Arts for himself. However, the haul he was receiving was greater than expected as he offered the hero a unique form of burial service.
Even after being under Sansara World's restrictions, Eren's ranking status was still intact. He could feel that he was progressing ahead in his ranking journey as he started digesting Ken's experience as well as his elemental attainments.
Eren received the knowledge of Ken's Fist Arts and his custom modifications to it for the most part. He was also able to strengthen his earth-element attainments to some degree.
The progress in his ranking status wasn't much. But in the C-Rank, even a bit of progress was a huge thing for the current Eren. it was as if Ken agreed with the butcher's barter and readily offered his gains for his growth.
***
The next day. Near a small lake.
Eren opened his eyes when the lakewater started reflecting the fake sun rays over his face. He had finished digesting Ken's experiences by this point.
Eren found out that Ken also had a peculiar Ability. An Ability to use his life force as a means to boost his offense and defense capabilities. It was a very simple and straightforward Ability a Fist Saint could have asked for. The butcher was able to make the Ability his after relieving his life as Ken through his memories.
Eren got up on his feet and started practicing throwing pouches. He had never digested gains related to Fits Arts before. So he knew it would take a while for him to sync with Ken's mastery over the Fist Arts.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
Eren kept on getting better at using Ken's spells and techniques with each passing second as he started practicing near the lake. The surface water started getting agitated with various ripples as a result of his power-packed pouches.
"In the battle of existence, tact is the clever footwork and talent is the punch.
The poor fool had both of them. He just didn't understand their importance."
Eren started talking to himself as he synched his footwork with his Fist art.
"No… he understood it just fine. He just ignored what he had for the most part."
Eren's mind again crafted an analogy related to his most recent driving experience. Ken's gift and his hesitancy to use it was akin to an owner with an expensive flying vehicle that they parked at their estate– rarely using it. The butcher felt like even wrecking the flying vehicle in a grandiose manner was a much better choice than simply possessing it only to do nothing noteworthy with it.
Eren's fists started getting imbued in lightning streaks. His legs started getting coated in orange flames. His punches started straying away from Ken's signature moves bit by bit.
The butcher was adjusting Ken's Fist Arts for his own use.
"In due time, I'll show him how his gift should have been used."
