"This… this is the same Goblin Lord that I fought with, right?"
When Eren got to his next victim, the goblin lord that was slumbering inside the array looked familiar to him. Then he remembered that it was the same Goblin Lord that Kat and the rest had managed to lure out of his monster nest. He had then killed the mana body of this Goblin Lord, giving everybody a hefty amount of Titus points.
Eren didn't touch the F-Rank mana beast and monsters because they were no use to him. And he had killed and drained the life essence out of a bunch of mana beasts and monsters in the E-Rank.
He soon realized that he wasn't using Life Drain and his current situation efficiently. He was subconsciously avoiding the mana beasts in the D-Rank when they were all slumbering and of no danger to him.
Eren quickly stopped using Life Drain on E-Rank monsters and mana beasts and instead used his ability on D-Rank monsters. The Goblin Lord was going to be his first victim in that segment.
'That's right. This guy is the same Goblin Lord you fought with. But what are you doing with that… what is that?'
Alephee confirmed Eren's hunch. But she was puzzled when she saw him taking out an array disk that featured a glass-like platform in the middle. The center was also etched with runes, making it a ranked artifact.
Eren smirked when he found Alephee puzzled for the first time in a long while. He didn't reply with words though and activated his ability.
Life Drain: Devour
Eren's arms forgo their defined forms and change into slimy shapes. The two slime globs stretched towards the Goblin Lord's body before blanketing over it completely.
"Grrrrrrrrr!"
The Goblin Lord growled in his slumber when he unconsciously felt that something was wrong with his body. Eren was about to bolt out of his current position if he had shown any more signs of awakening. But fortunately for the butcher and unfortunately for the Goblin Lord, the monster couldn't wake up to defend himself.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!"
"Grrrrr!"
"Gr"
"..."
It took a while but Eren finally managed to breach the monster's natural mana defense before digesting his entire body with his half-blood ability.
This time, he had chosen to use his ability this way instead of just puncturing his victim's body and drawing the Life essence out. This time, he wanted to create a Blood Seed out of the Goblin Lord.
Eren closed his eyes and processed the monster's life essence as well as his memories. This time, it didn't take long for him to make a Blood Seed out of the monster because of his earlier experience.
Eren drew the mana-coated drop of blood out of the tip of his fingertip and let it levitate over it. He then took hold of the array disk and slowly placed the Blood Seed over the glass surface of the disk.
A blood slide!
Eren imbued his mana inside the array disk and it activated the array and runes were etched over it. The blood slide vanished from the array disk's platform after the array was activated. The slide was secured inside the array disk while ensuring that the essence of the Blood Seed remained intact and unharmed.
'Oh!'
Eren knew Alephee would understand what he was doing once she saw it. He was creating blood slides for various monster forms. He already had Orc form's Blood Seed stored within him. As a result, he couldn't save another Blood Seed.
So he had come up with a way around ever since he got out of the Oni dungeon. It was the first time he used his preparations.
Eren then looked around him. There were a lot of monsters around him, most of them of Ace-rank caliber. But there were some monsters with D-Rank caliber as well.
'I… damn it… I don't have time to process all this free stuff.'
The butcher felt frustrated that he couldn't reap more benefits out of the opportunity that was in front of him than he already was doing. He needed to prioritize his potential gains now.
The mana sense Eren used to scan the area revealed a dreaded presence right in the center of the isolated area. This was an Adept-level monster that was so close to breaking into the next rank.
An Ogre Lord.
'This... this is the last Field Monster they have kept as a group challenge for us.'
Eren quickly recognized the monster when he first saw his gigantic body. The Ogre Lord was a 12-foot mini giant with an overwhelming physique. He had bulging, muscular limbs and a terrifying face. He still wore his arm guard, loincloth, and footwear-looking artifact made out of beast skin.
The Ogre Lord's consciousness inhabited the array-made mana body that he used to protect a large area on his own. As if he was still unaware that it was not his real body. Every contestant had learned about this monster because of his terrifying mana signature that he would release. It was to let everyone know that the area he was protecting was his territory.
No contestant dared to approach the Ogre Lord. This was because they knew only collective efforts by all Top 13 contestants would allow them to think about challenging the ultimate field boss. And yet, nobody was sure they could beat him. The Ogre Lord's Labrys alone would be able to pulverize all the defense they might put against him.
'Eren I don't think you should waste time making Blood Seed out of the guy. You wouldn't be able to get through his mana defense quickly.'
Alephee commented in Eren's head after seeing that Eren had stopped at the array setup imprisoning an Ogre Lord. This monster was only a step away from becoming an Ogre Overlord. Thus, the faint pressure he was released was still intense.
'You think too highly of me, Alephee. I'm not bold or stupid enough to mess with this monstrosity. Who said anything about making a Blood Seed out of this monster? I can't even extract life essence out of him using the normal method because I know I won't be able to breach his mana defense on time.'
Eren looked at his pale arms and said that. His overgrown nails looked deathly and piercing. But he knew his limitations. Forget about piercing the Ogre Lord's skin, the butcher won't be able to scratch him anytime soon even with his body only passively defending him.
'Then…'
Alephee paused as if she understood Eren's intentions halfway.
'Let's create a malfunction in the array.'
Eren smiled and told Alephee what he wanted from her. The latter chuckled lightly in his head and told him what he needed to do.
He was going to rig the Field Boss battle from here.
****************
Time Remaining: 25 Minutes
The final day of the Titus tournament was about to wrap up. In the last two hours, each competitor's location was getting revealed on the wristband's spectral map.
It was clear that the organizers wanted chaos to unfold in the last two hours of the competition. Not just first place, all the places within the top 10 were significant because they all carried rewards. The lucrativeness of rewards was in descending order starting from the first place. That meant the better the ranker's rank, the better rewards they would get.
"Raaaaaawr!"
In pain and agony, Cyclops Lord screamed.
But his cries didn't last long. That's because he was soon decapitated by a ranker who seemed to have done it without much effort on his end. However, only he knew that the monster had been a difficult challenge for him.
He had beads of sweat rolling down his forehead as he looked at his monster kill. This was yet another Adept-level field monster that he had solo-killed.
Drin Dawn and William Shank were in an entirely different league than the rest of the competitors. They didn't form any raid teams and solo-raided the monster nests using their individual battle powers.
They also didn't target other rankers. Because at their level, they would earn more Titus points killing monsters and beasts than targeting rankers.
Drin wiped the sweat forming on his forehead with his arm's sleeve before accessing the wristband's spectral screen. Even he knew there was only one person who could keep up or exceed his Titus point earning rate.
That was William Shanks.
But for the last two days, Drin had been on a grind. He had cleared a lot of monster nests and tough field monsters all by himself. With this monster kill, he hoped to rise to the position of first place holder.
With the bubbles of expectations forming in his heart even when he didn't want to, Drin looked at the updated ranking. But what he saw left him in a state of shock.
AN: Field boss (Field Monster or Field Beast) is a term used for monsters or mana beasts that are seen out in the open. They are generally stronger than any of their variants and capable of claiming territory for themselves.
Labrys is a double-headed ax. I shit you not, another name for it is "bipennis". :D
Also, do you guys remember the Goblin book cover we had? It illustrates the Goblin Lord whom Eren made a Blood Seed out of in this chapter. ;)
