'Look at that poor man. He must have half-emptied his Extols stock just to maintain his reputation as your professor. I'm surprised you stopped at 500, to be honest.'
Layla said from inside her pendent abode. Eren smirked before answering:
'That's because I'm about to open this array thing and read the contents inside it. Of course, I'll give him a discount in advance. I'm not that heartless.'
Eren said like it was the most obvious thing and looked at the flat metal disk that had an intricate array inscribed on it. Layla chuckled at the guy's comment before replying:
"Do you even know what that is?"
"I don't. But how hard can it be?"
Layla chuckled before answering:
"I think your head is lacking in blood since all of it was rushed to a particular region. Cough. It looks like someone has stored spatial coordinates on an encrypted array disk.
Hmm. The study of arrays in the world has progressed it seems. The runic design looks more compressed and efficient.
Anyway, you won't be able to gain anything out of it if you don't have a compatible incantation. It acts as the key to displaying the contents within it. You can also try to break it with a counter array.
But a safety mechanism has been built inside it. The message inside it would get immediately destroyed if someone tries to breach the safety mechanism."
Eren started thinking about several ways he knew from his past life that could help him decipher the message as he continued walking towards his dorm. Layla asked when he was silent for too long a time:
"What are you thinking about?"
Eren pondered a bit before speaking up:
"I can't decipher the content for sure. But I can use the guy's money and hire a professional to do it. I'm thinking about where to go and how to kill the guy when he is done opening this message?"
If one could see Layla inside her lavish pendant abode, they would find that she had been left speechless. She had to admit that Eren would be able to solve any problem beyond the field of his expertise. He could do whatever his heart sets out to do as long as he had money, resources, and will do it with that mindset of his.
She was just getting to know Eren after all. She didn't think the guy, in a sense, was as cruel as his master. She sighed and responded:
"No need to look for a professional. I can do it, for the right price of course."
Eren smirked before replying:
"Five books on random topics."
Layla snorted and replied:
"You think, just because I look small, I'm a brain dead child too? Tc tch tch, Eren Idril. I want those 500 Extols you got."
This time it was Eren's turn to snort. He sarcastically replied to her:
"You are just a shut-in who only dreams of wanting to explore the outside world but has no heart to do it when the moment arises. What would you do with all that money anyway? 10 random books. No more."
Layla felt wronged. She wanted to say she would explore the world and gather the information she was supposed to gather after a few days once she was done with her preparations. But Eren was right too. She didn't need money to do it.
The young girl was already loaded. She was just trying to take a jab at Eren but failed to do it. She sighed before answering:
"Twenty books. They all need to be different. That's my final offer."
Eren sighed as if he had been robbed of his precious resources. He replied in an exaggerated downcast voice:
"You drive a very tough bargain, Missy. Fine. But I thought your area of expertise was potioneering. How can you solve an array problem?"
Layla laughed in response. She sounded proud when she responded next:
"Hehehehe! The field of potion-making seems to have regressed in the world in contrast to the field of array. Or you are just downright ignorant of all things potioning.
Listen to me, Eren. When you gain enough mastery over your field, you can solve the problems in other fields using your tricks. The path of potioning is pretty mysterious and all-encompassing after all.
Send that array plate to me. I'll decipher the contents without triggering the breach protocols. You just remember our promise."
Eren nodded and headed towards his dorm. He found Jake to be busy with his concoctions when he got in. Eren greeted him casually and talked to him about various things for a while. Then left for his room because he didn't want to disturb the guy's serious concoction session too much.
Eren lay on his bed and closed his eyes. Soon he felt sleep taking over him.
This was probably the first night in a long while where he felt this safe. But it seemed that contrary to his belief, the disturbing dreams hadn't left him alone. They kept on increasing in intensity.
Eren soon found himself being stared at by the large dragon head from above. He found himself getting surrounded by wraiths and Draconic Lizards.
The scariest thing among them was Eliza Samael herself who was standing over the giant's skull– staring at him with a smirk on her face. Her hand was engulfed in Enderflames reaching for the sky.
Her serene voice echoed in his mind that he heard amid all the screeches and wails.
'Deep within me...'
Screeeeee!
'Let no man...'
Roar!
'A purge shall begin anew...'
'Rarararararara!'
'When I light my Enderflame!'
'Eren...'
'Eren...'
'Eren...'
****
The sound of something heavy breaking down suddenly echoes in Eren's room.
Tadaaaaak!
"Fuck fuck fuck… it's getting worse. These... these nightmares would make me mad one day.
I... I need a drink."
Eren was rudely awoken from his nightmares when it was too much for his brain to process. His body started channelling mana on its own at a rapid pace because of its disturbed mental state. His bed broke as a result and he was rudely woken up. It was thanks to his isolation arrays in place that the sound and mana disturbance didn't summon Jake to his room.
Eren retrieved a bottle of strong liquor from his storage space. His hands were shaking. The guy was drenched in sweat. And his mouth felt parched. His body had entered into another state of shock.
Eren thought of gulping the whole bottle down in one go. He almost uncorked the booze with his trembling hands. But he kept the bottle aside on the ground and clenched his fist to stop himself from drinking at the time.
Eren stopped himself because he remembered his past timeline. The addiction to booze had completely ruined him. His overindulgence and his emotional dependence on it had destroyed all his prospects as a ranker and as a functioning human being.
The stress he was feeling right now because of those nightmares was even more than what he had felt at that time when Sienna had shafted him. The magnitude and scale of his mental breakdowns were largely different.
Eren knew himself well. He knew that once he starts seeing booze as his solution to the nightmare, he'd head down on the same path he had fought so hard not to walk on in this life.
"Layla… you… Do you have any remedy for this?
And why the fuck is it affecting me this much?
Did your master do something to me?"
