Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Chapter 2003: Small Corrections Leading to Big Changes

"Ready—Go!"

The host shouted.

Without hesitation, Eren closed his eyes.

He didn't make use of his Soul Sense or Mana Sense. He didn't rely on his extraordinary senses either. In fact, he sealed them and only relied on his gut feelings.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Was he seriously going to shoot blind?

He could feel the positions of every moving target without needing to see them. Their slight movements, their mana fluctuations, even the way the air shifted around them—it was all clear to him.

Then, without even lifting his eyelids, Eren raised the mana gun and pulled the trigger.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The shots rang out one after another, smooth and rhythmic, like the beats of a war drum.

Every single bullet hit its mark perfectly. The targets exploded into small bursts of light, disappearing one after another. Fast-moving ones, hidden ones, even the tricky ones that darted behind obstacles—none were spared.

Azurea and Marina were more shocked at Eren's display of gunsmanship than the rest in the crowd because they knew Eren had only used his instincts to shoot.

Even with their Ranking Statuses, it was impossible for them to do so. Not unless their Individualities were attuned to this path.

Eren had already displayed his swordsmanship skills and his Ranking Path as a close combat expert to Marina. He could also fight like a Berserker and silently kill even a god with his god-tier assassination expertise.

Those two divergent paths were surprising enough. But he could still assume the role of a seasoned Ranger? How could that be possible? It was as if Eren had broken through the A-Rank not once or twice but many times– seven times to be exact.

Within seconds, all the targets were gone. Silence fell over the crowd.

Then, a roaring cheer erupted. People clapped and shouted, some jumping up and down in excitement.

Even the host was left speechless for a moment before laughing loudly and slamming his hand against the table in amazement.

The low-level practitioners were already impressed with Eren. Their interest in his abilities were subtly turning into the feelings of worship in their hearts.

Azurea's mouth hung open slightly before she quickly recomposed herself, coughing into her fist.

Reen, standing beside Eren, clapped her hands excitedly. "My Erni is the best!" she said proudly.

Even though it was a simple contest, she liked whenever Eren won. She knew that her master had a habit of patting his own back every once in a while silently. As such, it was better if he received some acknowledgment from her.

Eren finally opened his eyes and smiled.

If he were to be honest with himself, Eren hadn't practiced his Ranger path that much compared to his progress in the remaining paths. All of his Elemental Attainments were top-notch for his Rank.

However, he couldn't integrate them into his Ranker skills that well compared to his expertise in other paths and their respective skills.

It was like having superior-grade mana stones implemented into a non-optimized mana formation. Even though the fuel was top-tier, it was the instrument that made use of it which created a bottleneck.

It wasn't like the butcher hated keeping his enemies at bay and firing from a safe distance. In fact, he loved the convenience the Ranger Path was known to bring to Rankers of his status.

However, all of Eren's enemies wouldn't let him have it easy.

It also didn't help that most of Eren's enemies had a higher Ranking Status than him. He often had to punch above his weight. The only reason he could still win and survive against some of the supposedly overpowered enemies was because of his divergent path along with other unique advantages.

As such, Eren seldom had time or opportunity to practice his Ranger path. He did the best he could and practised whenever he could. However, he couldn't give his 100 percent to all his paths at all times.

Of course, with his pseudo avatars, most of Eren's burden related to honing his path had been lightened quite a lot.

They helped him gain an in-depth knowledge in their respective fields. However, he still needed to digest those gains and make it become a part of himself. And that's what he felt had happened to him at this point.

His time in Labh Salem was even more precious because he had to carry out many experiments.

The butcher's mastery of the Ranger path had fallen behind his expertise in the remaining ones that were part of his Individuality. However, taking part in this contest made Eren realize he was looking at the whole thing in the wrong way.

Or rather, it could be said that Eren had re-realized the clarity that had already knocked on his doors in the past but he somehow skipped opening the door.

Eren realized that one did not always need the spur of battle to achieve a breakthrough. They didn't need to rely on their Skills to get used to their paths. Instead, they could seal their Skills and abilities related to the path and polish their foundation instead, strengthening it.

Eren had relied on the devouring of various talents to gain his Ranger path skills and powers. As such, he could definitely make use of these foundation-building activities to polish his skills in the said path.

Eren suddenly felt like he had made many small yet important improvements in his path as a Ranger. Even without using Skills or Elemental Attainments, he felt like he had gotten a deeper understanding of the path that he had never realized before.

It also made Eren realize that such occasional breaks from his busy life in Labh Salem were necessary in order to clear his mind and digest the gains he had already acquired for himself.

It was only because of this break that he had realized there was more to the Ranger path than he had initially imagined.

Marching forward to one's goals was important. However, one also needed to take a break in order to look behind, identify their mistakes, and plan their next steps carefully in order to move forward in the right direction.

Sometimes small corrections led to big changes.