Eren and Dom reached the edge of the forest. They tied their colts to a secure spot before heading deeper into the woods on their feet.
Dom was an experienced hunter even without the ranger’s support. He led them safely to a secure area to take a rest.
Eren consumed the antidote before proceeding any further. The antidote only had limited active time. He needed to consume it just before the risk of being poisoned was maximized.
The duo encountered a lot of low ranked magic beasts that had initiated attacks on them without any intimidation. Dom took care of them effectively. He was tired and had some wounds now due to those fights. But he was fine otherwise.
It took them more than a few hours to reach where Elena was supposed to be waiting. She had left the place from there due to a small magic beast horde crossing that area. But Elena had left a note of where she was heading in the area, written on a tree’s trunk signed with her name.
It didn’t take long for them to find her. Elena was shocked after seeing a rankless young boy this deep into the woods. But her body was too battered to raise objections.
Dom explained why Eren needed to be here to Elena and she raised her eyebrows in response. She was a healer herself. Although her expertise lied in healing spells, it wasn’t that she was completely blank in the subject potions.
But Eren too had enough expertise to fool and confuse her by mixing some truthful statements into his bullshittery. And Elena couldn’t help but buy it in the end.
After all, why would the disciple of a famous C Rank healer lie to them? Elena couldn’t see the benefits he would gain by doing that.
Eren had Elena consume the cocktail of antidote and healing potion. And the effects were shown gradually. She could feel the poison getting dispersed, thanks to the antidote and healing potion repairing the damaged tissues at an accelerated pace.
After seeing that Elena was saved, Dom took a sigh of relief. Just like Eren’s previous life, Dom told them they should head to the cave. There, he will go in and retrieve the bodies of his lost comrades while they wait at the cave’s entrance.
Elena wanted to object to Dom’s suggestion seeing that they now had a kid to take care of on their way home. But the kid himself surprisingly supported Dom’s suggestion after getting emotional.
Dom and Elena couldn’t help approve of Eren in their minds. But they both thought that the kid was too gullible to be a hunter like them. Little did they know that they both had become the same kid’s prey at the time.
It was close to 6 PM when the trio reached the cave. It had to find a secure place in the forest to spend the night before the daylight vanished.
The three people would head to a place Dom knew of after he takes care of the bodies. After deciding on finer details, Dom went in while Eren and Elena waited outside. Before going in, Eren had given Dom Rank E antidote and potions and told him to use them before stepping in, which the latter willingly obliged.
Elena started asking Eren about random things. Eren answered skillfully while maintaining his facade. All this while, he was waiting for the medicine to take its due effects on Elena.
That’s right. He had spiked both Dom’s and Elena’s potions. Not with poison. But with sedatives. He had picked Rank E sedatives from aunt Nina’s apothecary that would work on both the hunters.
Sedatives wouldn’t trigger the body’s immune response and these hunters won’t know they have been affected by the sedatives before falling asleep.
Will they wake up after Eren gives them sedatives though?
Elena was a healer. She knew her body had started demanding her to sleep unnaturally. But she associated that with her accumulated fatigue. She closed her eyes and told Eren to wake her up when Dom comes out of the cave. She could only see Eren nod his head before smiling mildly right before closing her eyes.
When Elena closed her eyes, Eren’s faint smile still lingered in her thoughts. Like her brain was trying to process information, which it hadn’t received completely.
Those were her last thoughts!
Eren quickly got to work after ensuring Elena was fast asleep. He took out a surgical knife from his bag and traced the sharp edge of the weapon with the tip of his right index finger.
Eren didn’t have anything against these hunters. That’s why he had decided to give them a sound, painless death. The fact that it suited his safety was an added advantage.
Eren quickly got close to Elena and tried to wake her up. After she didn’t, he pressed the knife over her throat harshly and swung the weapon across her neckline.
It was an F Rank healer’s body. Even though it was weak due to being poisoned and then sedated, it still tried to defend itself subconsciously by deploying a mana layer over the skin. But all it did was make Eren’s job a little harder to do.
Now Eren needed to repetitively slash his dagger instead of doing it once and be done with it. He was finally able to cut Elena’s throat and the blood started spoiling the ground before her.
Elena had died peacefully!
Eren’s first human kill after his second lease on life had been peaceful and without any battle. And he felt a wide variety of emotions. He felt some guilt and regret. He also felt he could make use of her in his next set of plans instead of downright killing her.
And then Eren felt some weight off his shoulders because there would be no loose end after killing Elena. He would be able to claim Dom’s lucky encounter for himself without anyone knowing about it.
Eren had eliminated what stood in his way. He had removed his future troubles. He was also being used, put in harm’s way, and abused by other hunters who were more powerful than him in his past life. He had accepted his fate then, without rebelling. Now it was time for others to do the same in his presence.
Eren tried convincing himself. But soon he felt some clarity to do what he wanted from that cocktail of emotions.
The resolution Eren had gained from living a life that wasn’t worth living overwhelmed his other feelings at the time. It was now confirmed that this life’s Eren Idril was a lot different than the previous him.
Instead of waiting for someone to bring injustice at his doorsteps, he had become the brand ambassador of that very injustice. Before anyone could strike at him, he had struck first.
And there was one more strike he needed to give to his next kill. Dom had gone inside the cave. It would be a while before the sedative worked on an E class hunter. Eren needed to wait a while.
During that time, Eren dragged Elena’s body into nearby shrubbery. He had already looted her body and taken out her ID stone. ID stones also boasted personal storage of about 5 square meters. All of Elena’s personal belongings would be there in her ID stone.
Eren couldn’t access the personal space of Elena’s ID stone because he was still a rankless boy. But he kept and stored it away for future use.
A sufficient amount of time had passed. Eren decided to head inside, lest Dom tames the demon beast before falling asleep due to sedatives. The demon slime will protect him in that case. That would be truly detrimental and deadly for Eren.
Eren knew there were many risks involved in his plan. First of all, he was still rankless. He didn’t have any spells. Neither could he use various mana potions to boost his body stats, because most enhancement potions would require the stimulation to mana core which he didn’t have yet.
Eren only consumed enhanced sharpness, enhanced vision, enhanced speed and enhanced strength potions that worked on mortals to some degree. These potions accelerated the body’s metabolism while removing natural limiters placed on muscle fibres.
Of course, since it wasn’t related to mana, the user would have to face heavy repercussions later on. But Eren didn’t mind that. He was ready to suffer a little to win big.
When Eren tried going deeper into the cave some more, he heard Dom’s voice coming from behind him:
“Erni boy, what are you doing here?”