The appearance of green flames now served as a deterrent to Eren's fight against the mana beast. He couldn't run from the beast. Nor could he approach them using his fire spells.
'Heheheh! You seem surprised, Eren. Weren't you acting all haughty in front of me? Why don't you show your swag to these babies of mine?'
'This idiot, shallow-minded, amateurish fucking brat. I'll whoop her ass one day for playing with me like this.'
Eren heard Layla's voice in his head and started cursing her. But right now he needed information from her. Anything that can aid him in his battle with the three is near impossible to deal with. He gulped the potion he was holding in his mouth to recharge himself and asked aloud:
"Layla, what can you tell me about the beasts? What are their weaknesses?"
Eren asked directly while he changed positions from one place to another. The latter didn't like that it seemed. She replied immediately in a pouty tone:
'I didn't hear any "please" in that request, Eren.'
Eren gripped his fists and controlled his anger after he heard Layla's response.
'I'll remember this, you snotty brat.'
Eren thought to himself before forcing the next set of words out of his mouth:
Please tell me about the beasts, Layla. And do it soon… you know… before I get… DRY ROASTED TO DEATH."
Eren forced himself to respond with absolute focus. But in the end, his frustration did leak out of his words. Layla furrowed her eyebrows after she heard Eren's response laced with anger directed at her. But she found it more amusing when she thought about it and replied casually:
"Alright alright. I'm not supposed to help you. But since I messed up your previous battle tracking and this is just handing out information, I shall entertain you.
You must have realized by now that the beasts have almost full immunity against fire element attacks. And they can use those attacks and absorb fire-element mana from them to unleash the green flames.
About weaknesses? Hm! Well, they are slow. So you can easily dodge them. Plus, they are… well they are kinda dummy beasts. Their intelligence is not at par with the mana beasts of their calibres.
So you might want to avoid showering them with fire. And maybe use their low intelligence to your advantage.
I have already told you enough. Now show me a fierce fight. Hehehe! And yes. Remember. Those three are not the only ones. I expect you to take care of plenty of beasts if you wish to get high rewards."
Eren heard Layla's explanation and his eyes shone with cunning when he heard about the beasts' low intelligence. He had the doubt himself as well, but Layla's explanation confirmed it for him.
She had given him a clue while being vague about it. But his mind soon derived an optimal strategy based on that hint.
"By the way, Layla. What the fuck are those green flames? And what have you done with those beasts that all have runic patterns on them? They all can't be deviant beasts, can they? You have done something to them."
Layla was about to drop her conversation with Eren when she heard Eren's deductions laced with worry. She felt proud and elevated that the flames managed to invoke a sense of fear in a guy like him.
'You will soon learn all about it, Eren. If you survive the first floor that is. Have some patience. And those green flames are only a copy of the original.
You will have nightmares if and when you get to see the real deal.
The real green flame has a name, you know. It was once feared by many as Enderflame. Hehehe!
Survive, Eren. We are counting on you.'
'We!'
Eren heard Layla's response and focused on a particular detail. He momentarily forgot about making his battle strategy and thought about something more serious:
'Something's definitely up. The brat is not alone in this.
Another caretaker? Most likely…
Unless…'
Eren paused his thinking and dodged the swing of the front limb one of the mana beasts had thrown its way. By now he had stopped using fire-element spells altogether and was using lightning-element spells to wear the mana beast out one at a time by kiting them.
He again created a safe distance from the beast and shook his head after resuming his thought process:
'Naaah! No way.
Purgatory has been around for more than a few centuries. Even before the formation of the Edinburgh Kingdom. And according to Zee, there are signs in Purgatory that tell the Illuminati that it is as old as the period of Lost History, if not older.
Nobody. Not even an S-Ranker can survive that long no matter what they do.'
Eren replayed Layla's earlier responses along with the recent one he had received and came up with a scary conclusion. He discarded that conclusion after he derived it because it didn't make sense.
Or maybe he scratched it for his convenience– to soothe his mind.
'I'll deal with this later. I'll need to think about…
Wait…
Life Drain!'
Eren had almost forgotten about his newest addition when he was overwhelmed by the presence of the mana beasts created and raised in captivity. His lightning-element spells were doing little damage to the beasts because of their sheer size. But they were at least not as detrimental to him as using fire-element spells.
The beasts had also stopped releasing the green flames because Eren got closer to them. It seemed that the beasts were collectively scared by each other's flames and wanted to avoid a literal friendly fire. As low as their intelligence may have been, they were right on point with their survival instinct.
Eren changed the direction of his steps and executed Blitz Bolt to its fullest potential. He headed straight to the beast he had inflicted the most damage on using his lightning-element spell.
As soon as he got close, Eren jumped high and appeared on the beast's back. He quickly got to his knees and touched the beast's skin that was now trying to generate a mana field to prevent him from doing any damage.
Eren used his spell on the beast without allowing the beast to take countermeasures against him:
"Life Drain!"