Eren felt like he was living a second life. The life of someone named Gian.

He witnessed Gian’s hardships and his love for his younger brother. He also started experiencing the struggles Gian had to go through as a ranker right from the beginning of the Meta rank.

Eren was absorbing Gian’s experiences through his memories. When he opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity to him, everything looked different for a while. It took a while for Eren to come to his senses.

Eren raised his hand and concentrated. In the next moment, red lightning streaks started dancing over his palm. This was not all. Eren manifested the water element next and altered its viscosity to turn it into a gel-like substance.

Eren’s lightning element attainment had shot through the roof after obtaining Gian’s memories and experiences. Additionally, his water element affinity had increased, enabling him to gain Gian’s aspect in the same way. It had to be noted that Eren had an affinity for water elements as well. It was just that it was not strong enough to grant him an elemental aspect. But that was in the past.

Eren smiled after he saw that he had obtained Gian’s lightning aspect. His attention was shifted when he heard Aleph’s voice in his head.

‘That’s how you make your opponent’s gains yours. Good job, Eren. Not bad for a first try. You are almost on par with Gian’s elemental attainments. I dare say that your elemental attainments in lightning and water are way ahead of your ranking status right now. This kind of situation is always a plus, as it’ll allow you to break into the next rank faster, sans any bottlenecks.

We could have raised your ranking status as well. Too bad you don’t have the kind of body constitution that is required to pull off something like that.

Still, obtaining an aspect and mastering it in a few hours is not a terrible deal because you have just started as a ranker. Compared to you, I had to struggle a lot to get to where you are now from the ground up. Hehe. I guess what they say is true. The younger generation will always surpass the older generation.’

Eren raised his eyebrows before replying to Aleph.

‘Only a few hours, huh? Makes me tempted to just go on a hunt for rankers like these. That is if you can help me claim their experiences every time we find such… benefactors.”

Aleph chuckled before responding.

‘Kekeke. Of course. But I can’t exert my powers all the time. I have limitations, you see. So wait for my signal. I’ll tell you when the right time comes. And we can take action after that.’

Eren nodded to himself before looking at Gian’s body or whatever that left of it. His head was nowhere to be found. It looked like it had simply disintegrated, leaving behind his torso.

Eren quickly accessed Gian’s I-Rune tattoo and tried to access his storage. Aleph helped him by erasing the guy’s residual mana signature on the tattoo, allowing Eren to take out whatever Gian had on him.

Another smile was plastered on Eren’s face as he saw Gian’s resources. They could easily fetch over 10,000 mana quartz. As an Awakened ranker, the guy looked like he was loaded for Eren. He quickly took all of Gian’s resources into storage before destroying his benefactor’s body completely.

***

“Gian… he is dead?”

Yeti mumbled to herself in disbelief after seeing Eren fine and dandy. She had been dragged to this place by Eren’s group. All the Spiders that were with her were dead. And from the looks of it, she was about to share the same fate as them.

Yeti was in runic bindings at this point. All the escape routes had been sealed for her since Eren’s team had secured a perimeter. There was only one man in front of her– standing in the same position she had seen Gian in.

Eren pursed his lips and nodded. He locked his hands behind his back and started pacing around while speaking up.

“Yes. Gian is dead. And so are the rest of the Spiders who didn’t want to submit to us. I only told them to renege on their contract with the House of Spiders and find some other organization.

Nobody agreed for the fear that they would be hunted by remaining Spiders or the backlash of reneging on the contract. A foolish thought process if you ask me.

Those guys couldn’t see what was in front of them because they were trying to grasp the big picture. So we had to kill them. I hope you are smart enough to see what I’m offering is a way out. As terrible as it is, it’s at least not an immediate death sentence.”

***

Eren would have killed all the Spiders right away instead of offering them a way out. But since he was working in a team, he had to put on a face. The other members of the Stardust guild were not as cold-blooded as him. And he didn’t want to ruin his image in front of them by coming across as one. So this was something Eren’s group had decided as a whole.

In that respect, Eren was very adamant about not letting the Spiders and his entire team stay as Spiders after the battle. This would be leaving behind enemies with a personal grudge to settle. This was not something he wanted. The whole reason he had come to kill Gian was that the guy was trying to target him for personal reasons rather than thinking about the House of Spider’s welfare.

Eren didn’t want an entire group of rankers coming to get him because he took care of Gian. that would be counterproductive. So he forced all the Stardust guild members to compel their opponents into reneging their binding contracts with Spiders.

This would do two things for him.

First, these rankers won’t be affiliated with the House of Spiders anymore. They would lose a reason to participate in guild wars when that happened. There would be no point in reneging on a contract only to sign it over once again. Especially when the organization was about to collapse in a few months.

Second, these rankers would be weakened after breaking their contract. They would regress a lot in their respective ranking statuses. They would be physically and mentally damaged, making it impossible for them to seek revenge on Eren or his team.

As a bonus, the House of Spiders might assign a hit on such rankers for breaking their contracts this way. The guild’s resources would be invested in this endeavor as well, not allowing it to target Eren or his guild to its fullest potential.

Even if House of Spiders let things slide for its own good, these rankers were bound to disappear underground and appear after House of Spiders was no more. As such, the threat of being ambushed would be greatly reduced for Eren.

This was as pragmatic as Eren could be.

***

“Hmph! Reneging on a contract doubles your chances of getting hunted, injured, and losing your ranking. It was a lose-lose situation for Spiders with the options you offered. No wonder they wanted to try their luck.

Should I have to say thank you for giving me a chance to work through all this shit?”

Yeti looked at Eren and said in a serious tone. The butcher shrugged his shoulders before responding.

“Honestly? Yes. You should thank me for giving you this option. Tell me what it will be instead of wasting my time. Death or compromise?”

Yeti was tongue-tied when Eren presented his option in front of her. She pondered for a while before speaking up.

“I… I would be targeted by the Spiders for sure if I reneged on my contract. That’s because I served right under Gian. I know a lot of their secrets.”

Eren smiled when he heard Yeti’s concern. This was as good as her telling him that she was ready to play ball under the right circumstances.

Yeti was also influenced by the fact that a Spider like Lagartha was working for him. And the fact that Ariadne also served under Eren told Yeti that Eren owned significant resources.

Eren looked in the distance and gestured with his hand. Ariadne appeared beside him in the next moment. She looked at Yeti and smirked before speaking up.

“We are organizing a mercenary group, Yeti. If you are ready to sign a binding contract with us from the get-go, we will ensure that the backlash you receive from the contract is minimal. What’s more? We will also assure your safety by taking you to a safe house.”

Yeti looked at Eren and looked him in the eyes. She tried to see something in him for a moment. In the end, she sighed before agreeing to Eren’s proposal.

“Compromise.”

Eren and Ariadne looked at each other and smiled. The latter chuckled before speaking up.

“Hehe. Eren is like a spider collector at this point. Welcome aboard, Yeti.”

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