"Look at what you have done to the river's flow."
Eren raised his eyebrows when he heard Levine. He looked down from his position and was surprised by what he saw. He had split the water into two and made the river bed visible which was at least 100 meters deep.
Levine was shocked because she didn't think there was any usual form of magic involved in the phenomenon. It was as if what she was seeing was the natural state of the water at the time. Even Nina and Jiana who were standing not too far away from them did not know about the existence of the phenomenon.
Levine wouldn't have been able to sense it either if she hadn't seen it with her eyes. The Master potioner knew that it could not be done by a mere Adept ranker.
After Eren came so close to the body of water, his Way of Water became stronger thanks to the spirit beast. Levine was also right. He had started practicing the Rootless technique subconsciously while he was lost in his thoughts. He felt like he had reached a critical point in his ranking journey at this point.
"I… I'm about to enter the Expert rank."
Eren mumbled to himself before climbing over the ledge.
"I'll be back."
The butcher yelled out his message to the three ladies on board his ship before jumping off the ship's deck. He swam like a fish in the water and plunged deep, closing the rift that had opened in the water behind him.
The surface water became calm once again as if what had happened a moment ago was only a mirage. Nina and Jiana appeared beside Levine all of a sudden and looked down. They then looked at Levine questionably, intending to get some form of clarification from her.
"Well… there was this…"
Levine was about to explain to the two Master-ranked ladies what had transpired. But she stopped speaking when she felt the changes in the surroundings.
Lightning clouds had started to gather in the sky out of nowhere. Before thunder rumbled, the benign white clouds turned gray. The winds started howling in the region, setting the stage for incoming thunder and rain.
Rumble!
It was as if a recorded scene on the array disk was being played in fast-forward. It only took a few moments for the thunderclouds to start rumbling from the moment Eren entered the river. This change in the atmosphere was only concentrated around the ship. After some distance, the three ladies observed that both the river and the skies were calm. They understood that they were now inside a special zone.
"He is entering the Expert rank."
Nina smiled and made a prediction. She could also feel that there was something unusual about Eren's breakthrough that galvanized the entire surroundings to such an extent. If people didn't know about Eren, they would have assumed that a higher-ranked entity was making progress in its ranking.
Nina started to remember what Eren had said to her when they were in the city of Osan. That he would catch up with her one day before surpassing her in no time. She only took joy from the fact that Eren was delivering on his words. And she felt like she needed to up her game as well.
Soon, lightning strikes started hitting the water surface where Eren had dived straight down. Various elemental manifestations started appearing in the surroundings as well, causing miniature mana storms that affected the very spatial fabric.
Clap. Crash. Boom.
Densely charged lightning bolts started hitting the river and evaporating huge amounts of water in an instant. As a result, the air turned damp and the clouds turned darker. A low-pressure atmospheric belt was created in the surroundings.
A peculiar kind of wind storm was summoned into existence in the region as a result of this phenomenon. And it kept getting more massive with time.
Despite the agitated surroundings, Freya remained steady in her position. It had stopped moving after it sensed its captain was not onboard. She waited patiently for his arrival.
Eren felt like he was being embraced by the world itself as he sank deep into the river water. He felt like his body and soul were being nourished at the same time because of the assistance offered to him by his spirit beast.
The spirit beast appeared in its regular form and swam around Eren as they both headed straight for the riverbed. It was only a matter of a few moments before they reached it.
Eren sat at the bottom of the river and assumed a meditative pose for his ranking practice. He closed his eyes and started practicing his ranking technique consciously.
'Nothing is more flexible and adaptable than water. And yet, nothing can resist it.'
Eren started refining water-element mana into his body and started harnessing it inside his mana core which was on the verge of destruction. He began comprehending the other elements as well while under the influence of his epiphany.
'Lightning is nothing like the roaring thunder it is accompanied by. It is silent when it strikes and destroys.
Fire also takes part in the creation and destruction of the matter it comes into contact with. It destroys everything in its wake. But it also transforms that which it can't destroy.
The wind, the earth, and the void. And every other derived element we see around us. They all tell a story to their attentive listeners.
Every element is involved in the creation and destruction of matter. They write their own laws onto the blank slates called matter and give them meaning. Then they rob those meanings from them, turning them into blank slates again.'
Eren's Adept-ranked mana core imploded as he kept comprehending the ways of the elements. Various natural elemental runes started appearing around Eren before disappearing into his body. His hair turned from black to white. Tribal tattoos appeared on his skin and even Sin Series mana started manifesting around him.
A newly formed C-rank mana core started spinning inside Eren's body shortly after the destruction of the old one. There was no bottleneck or difficulty for the butcher to become an Expert ranker. Additionally, he stabilized his breakthrough right away, giving him the confidence to give his best at the graduation event.
'Well… this is going to be... interesting.'
Eren opened his eyes and flashed a subtle smile. There was no doubt that his smile was going to be a doomsday sign for his opponents.
