Piece by piece, everything started making sense for Eren the more he listened to Nira's retelling of Anfang's true history.
Monster Canyon was a mysterious place even by the Badlands' standards. It contained many sights that could only be described as anomalies. Even monsters staying inside Monster Canyon were wary of their habitat. The monster tribes established a few unique rules to aid them in navigating the place.
Monster Canyon was a burial ground for a lot of rankers. And the few that survived rose to fame and became successful. The city of New Beginnings thrived on Monster Canyon's allure in rankers' hearts.
Eren wondered how Eliza would feel looking at the way the kingdom of Edinburgh had capitalized on her battlefield. He kept those thoughts like these to himself as he listened to Nira's speech.
"You must be aware of a few things as a half-blood that set you apart from regular rankers. They are generally stronger than their regular counterparts. This boost in strength is determined by the bloodline they have.
I find your bloodline's genesis unimpressive, even if it is a bit mysterious. However, your ranking status appears to have improved thanks to refining your bloodline.
Sage Eliza was a dragon half-blood. House Samael was a power to be reckoned with because of that bloodline. It was said that the Witch of Enderflame had refined her bloodline to its genesis, allowing her to shapeshift into a dragon."
'Hmm. I need to show some surprises here.'
Eren thought to himself before giving Nira Nightshade the look she was expecting from him. The latter looked at the butcher intently for a fraction of a second before adding further.
"The House Samael on the continent of Anfang originally hailed from Labh Salem. It was a well-established clan in both worlds.
Thanks to Sage Eliza's persuasion, her clan provided the Anfang Alliance with a lot of unique perks– from powerful battle formations to advanced potioning recipes. The advancement in potioning that we see in the land of Anfang is because of this.
Even now, a lot of the potent potion recipes that potioners use today have their roots in Labh Salem. They say that the witches of Labh Salem had honed their craft to perfection, allowing them to do unimaginable things with their potions alone.
The alliance imported some of that expertise and knowledge here with the help of House Samael. It used that knowledge and expertise to strengthen the allied forces."
Eren could now understand why Layla was so skilled at potioning. All of her potions were potent and had exceptional effects. The Format History potion she had made for him had helped him keep his pursuers in the dark so many times.
As a part-time potioner himself, Eren could understand the importance of the knowledge House Samael must have imparted to the alliance. The potions allowed rankers to increase their offense and defense on an individual level. Those potion-based effects play a crucial role in life-and-death situations like being part of a large-scale war.
'Hmm. I need to visit Labh Salem if I want to step up my potioning.'
Eren thought to himself. He felt that his potioning skills were commendable for his rank. But they were always lacking when compared to his progress in other fields.
The butcher felt like he had hit a bottleneck in terms of the knowledge he could get access to on the land of Anfang about cutting-edge potioning. A world like Labh Salem might provide him with a way to improve his concoction skills.
Of course, this was not something he could do right away. The chronic planner in him was merely making a few plans for the future.
Nira Nightshade continued to describe the events, unaware of where Eren's deep thoughts were leading him.
"Participation of the half-bloods in the alliance was very crucial. The presence of Titan Slayers on the battlefield also played a vital role in boosting the morale of the rankers.
However, the Titans were not something the Titan Slayers or half-blood clans could stop on their own. They attacked various cities, killed millions of people, and plundered everything they could find to be useful for them.
In the war against the invaders, the participants soon found that they were not adequately equipped to deal with the titans. The Titan Slayers also had their limits. And the half-blood clans were already doing their part to minimize the damage. Still, things were pretty dire in the alliance's camp.
The alliance recognized that the reason half-bloods were so effective against Titans was because of their shape-shifting. Some could transform partially. And some could transform into their true beastly form, giving them enhanced body stats.
The power of shapeshifting also allowed most half-bloods to change their size dramatically. They tried to match the titans' size as much as they could, which allowed them to land serious attacks on the giants.
The power of shapeshifting is fundamentally different from forming a mana body with a spell. It couldn't be destroyed as easily as the spell-induced gigantification performed by normal rankers. Plus, the half-bloods were more in control of their beastly bodies than regular rankers with their spell-induced body alterations.
The half-bloods could do more while consuming less mana. Shapeshifting also allowed them to bolster their defense and chances of survival against the titans.
The alliance figured out that they needed to strengthen every ranker with a power similar to shapeshifting if they really wanted to gain momentum against the titans. Relying on the half-bloods and Titan Slayers was liable to make matters worse in the long run."
Eren was genuinely intrigued this time as he heard the Sage archer's words. He could already guess that a war of such a level couldn't be won by a small bunch of Titan Slayers or even half-blood clans alone. The alliance as a whole needed to up its game if it wanted to defend its home world from invaders.
"What did the alliance do then?"
Nira took a deep breath before answering.
