Eren talked at length with Baran and gave him a few commands to follow. The most critical command he had given them was to relocate the tribe to the Monster Canyon.
Baran had stress lines on his forehead when he heard the butcher's decision to move the tribe. But Eren retrieved an array disk from his storage space. This disk contained a rough map of the Monster Canyon and the safe passage Baran could take to move there from the tribe's current location. All the while staying inside the Badlands.
Eren had used the Edinburgh army database to create this safe route for his tribe's relocation. Baran just needed to follow the route to its T and relocate the tribe to Eren's intended spot.
Relocating the tribe was not easy. Especially when Baran had such a large tribe. So the safe route Eren had given him that missed the other monster tribes made Baran breathe a sigh of relief.
Eren told Baran he did not have to rush the relocation project. He told him to take a few days to prepare. And asked Baran to prepare a special troupe that could be used to lead the tribe members. Meanwhile, he suggested to Baran that he should task Orc Leaders to capture and tame mana beasts that could be used in this project as mounts and more.
After saying what he had to say and doing what needed to be done, Eren bid adieu to Baran, other Orc Leaders, and his treasures. With every pending task taken care of, the butcher was now ready to enter the oni dungeon.
***
A mysterious mountain top was seen to be shrouded in mana fog.
This mountain-top was usually barren. But now it had hordes of undead walking and running around everywhere with their junk armors and mangled bodies.
A young man with a lightning affinity was seen battling with wraiths. He was butchering the decayed and rotten flesh on these wraiths without any remorse, disgust, or apprehension. The title of "Osan Woods Butcher" wasn't wasted on him.
He had green-lightning-clad daggers in his hand. He would use his movement spell and his mastery over his element to deal critical damage to every wraith he came across. No wraith horde was able to hold him down for more than a few seconds.
Additionally, he was using his beast contract spell creatively. He would create a giant apparition of his purple lightning snake with green lightning tongues around it. He would then use its trunk as a safe passage for zipping through his opponents. It is as if an electric eel had created its own lightning water stream to overwhelm its undead enemies.
The purple lightning snake was not compatible with green lightning anymore. He needed a different contract beast. For now, however, he made do with what he had.
This young man was a prodigy in his own right. With a stoic expression on his face, he dealt with dozens of wraith hordes quickly. It looked simple. Only he knew how hard he had fought to gain control over his way of element like this. Or how hard he had struggled to execute the beast contract spell in this manner.
He had way too many close calls this year. He wondered if there was a part of him that died during this time. The part that sought recognition. The part that sought to prove to his grandfather that he should have counted on him more than his abusive brother.
The young man had suffered greatly in this isolated environment where all he was told was to fight and do nothing else. He was thankful for this place for that. That's because loneliness bothered him. It reminded him that he was not welcome in the outside world. That he would be skewered alive for something he hadn't done.
So this torture palace became the young man's paradise. It was his personal brand of hell that he found comforting.
"Lightning Wave!"
The young man mumbled to himself as he decided to finish the rest of the wraiths with his AoE. He had not learned this spell through any scroll. No. It was his own creation that he had created after receiving an epiphany. An epiphany after months and months of battling and doing nothing else.
A cluster of light green lightning was created around the young man before turning into a green-liquid-like substance.
A lightning element spell that had properties of water.
The streaks of green lightning were like water-immersed branches of money plants that didn't disappear. They stayed in the lightning water and glowed green in color as they multiplied.
The young man swung around himself with his dagger drawn and raised at both his sides. The lightning water that was created around him spread in all directions.
As the lightning water spread, a bright green glow appeared. The lightning branches that were immersed in the elemental water latched onto their targets before glowing brighter by the moment.
The young man had kept his dragged into his storage after executing that spell. He was breathing hard. And he had sweat on his forehead. But one could tell he had no problem standing toe to toe with the wraith hordes once again. He had the energy to spare and could dominate.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The wraiths' bodies burst open. Their armors shattered. Their weapons were thrown away from them. Even the ground that the wraiths had occupied cracked below them. Those cracks resembled lightning patterns found in lightning water.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Little eel, I must say you have improved yourself tremendously over these past few months. I am thoroughly entertained by your performance."
A charming yet dangerous woman appeared out of nowhere in the air behind this young man. The latter didn't say anything. He still had deadpan expressions in his eyes. But he turned around and bowed a bit before raising his head.
The dangerous lady nodded after she received that bow. She slowly made her descent and touched the ground with her right foot ever so slightly. In the next moment, she was standing close to the young man who was still bowing down to her.
"Your way of lightning has taken a divergent turn. I am not sure I have seen any lightning element ranker with this version of lightning attainment. I am not sure if there would be anyone in the present who could pull off something like you.
Then again…"
