The next day.
Inside Eren's potion lab. Underground facility. White Raven guild's headquarters.
Eren had gotten refreshed after completing the nightly mana circuits training and sparring sessions with Alephee that followed afterward. He was now looking at a giant array that had been created by Alephee in an empty hall space.
Alephee entered the array eye and began her operations. There were various sections inside the array that were created by the intersection of complex runic details. Some sections contained metallic ores while the other sections contained various weapon artifacts.
The various chunks of various metals found in various sections of the array were obtained inside Minerva's Utopia. There were some metallic chunks that Eren had personally bought from external sources upon Alephee's suggestion.
Then there were sections for raw ingredients inside the array that belonged to different elements. Eren was sure that if Durbag had been here, the guy would have been blown away by the complexities of the array Alephee had created.
The weapons artifacts that could be found inside the array all belonged to the Novice rank. Eren had bought them in large quantities from his sources for this experiment.
All the ingredients, weapon artifacts, and other items that had become part of the array by being inside were levitating at a fixed distance from the ground. The weapons and ingredients would only move under Alephee's control.
She would move them inside the central array eye to process them and create a high-ranked weapon artifact.
However, what Alephee did with Eren's weapons and what she was doing this time using the array was a bit different. It was not the existing Novice weapons that she was converting. Instead, she was making brand-new artifacts while using the existing artifacts as a foundation that could be copied.
Alephee would then use the chunks of metals and other items to create an identical-looking weapon to the original artifact. Only that its rank would be higher.
Alephee's Perfect Paradox was at work in this case. The spell was used differently using the array setup.
Alephee closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn't have any stressful expressions on her face. It indicated that operating arrays of this level was not a big deal for her. Her Homunculus body was the only limit to her powers. And yet, she was doing what might seem impossible to most people.
Eren was having his breakfast as he watched Alephee potentially making more money for him. This was not his first time seeing the phenomenon. The homunculus had already operated on the array a few times, giving him loads of Ace and Adept-ranked artifacts.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
It looked like Eren was chewing on blocks of berry-shaped ice as he watched Alephee work. But it was a very rare ingredient. This consumable ingredient was known as Ivory Ice Berry.
***
After getting intimate with Lensa once again, for some reason, Eren had received some of her elemental attainment from her. He could vaguely guess that it was his Sin series Ability evolving. But he couldn't be sure.
It could just be because the couple enjoyed each other's company so much that they ended up creating a rare phenomenon. Similar things had happened in the past.
The act of intimacy would sometimes pull people into a state of epiphany. Sometimes, they wouldn't even be aware that such things had happened to them because their senses get overwhelmed by waves of ecstasy.
Thus, Eren would only believe that the portion of elemental attainment of ice he had received from Lensa was from his Ability if and when the same thing happens a second time with a different ranker.
However, how he had received elemental attainment didn't matter to him for the time being. He focused on making the most of it by increasing it even further and solidifying it. He had even bought a couple of ice and water element spells to experiment with them.
Thus far, his results have been satisfactory. Especially after considering the fact that the ice element and by extension the water element were completely unexplored territory to him in both his timelines.
Eren spent thousands of Extols on such a rare D-rank ingredient without batting an eye after knowing about its benefits for ice and water element users. He was earning money through his guild so he could spend it on things like this.
A bite of an Ivory Ice Berry was akin to discarding hundreds of Extols. Most ice and water element rankers would only use them when planning an isolated meditation inside an elemental array. And yet the butcher ate the ingredients for a mundane breakfast as if they were peanuts.
The ice-element ingredient would freeze his tongue and then create a layer of ice over his face and neck every time he took a substantial bite. But it would disappear just as quickly when he gulped the berry down.
The ice-element ingredient would then provide a soothing cooling effect to one's mana circuits once it entered the system. It also had the property of healing injuries attached to it.
Eren's brain would sometimes get filled with various ice-element nuances he could apply to his newly learned ice-element spells. His understanding of the water element also improved, helping him catch up with his current rank in terms of his mastery over both these elements.
Eren was saving years of grueling work, training, experimentation, and time by eating a raw ingredient like this, in an insane quantity. Agatha had stopped giving him money after seeing his ridiculous expenses. She had flat out told him to look for another source of income if he wanted to be such an insane spender.
Eren chuckled when he got a reality check from Agatha. He didn't want to give a financial blow to his guild that was slowly rising to prominence. So he agreed with her and stopped buying expensive raw ingredients for the time being. He would only buy them a fixed amount, in a fixed time frame. That way, he would be able to make use of his money and not burn a hole through his sleeves.
***
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
With many thoughts swirling inside his head, Eren kept eating the ranked ingredient and watching Alephee work. He would digest all his ice elemental attainment he derived from the berries while seeing the artifacts getting a revamp in front of him. Before he knew it, an hour had passed.
Just when Eren snapped out of his semi-conscious state and was done eating, he saw that Alephee had also finished operating on the array.
Loads of weapons had been created from their lower-ranked counterparts. Smiling, Eren dusted off his hands to get rid of the frost and ice that had accumulated over his arms holding the Ivory Ice berries.
Eren had a gracious smile on his face as he watched the manufactured goods. He couldn't wait for the war to break out between Edinburgh and Layos. No matter which side comes out on top, he was sure to turn into a lord of war by driving the war-based economy his way.
AN: They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails." (Lord of War)
