“Lagartha, my darling. Don’t think I haven’t figured out what you were trying to do.”

Eren spoke in a sinister voice close to Lagartha’s right ear

“You had first offered to sign a binding contract with me. And you already had this potion in your storage.

That means my binding contract with you would have gotten broken as well when you broke into Awakened rank.

You would have used the same excuse not to tell me anything. You were planning to use the potion anyway after getting away from me under the guise of having signed the binding contract with me. You would have gotten rid of me then and cleared the mess on your end by sneaking up on me.

After all, it is much better to deal with the Spiders who you know for so long than count on me, a nobody in your eyes.”

A gracious smile spread across Eren’s bloody face. He released his grip on Lagartha and took a step back. He spat on the ground in contempt before concluding.

“I may not look old. But you are 100 years too early to swindle me.”

Eren said and folded his hands under his chest. His impatient stance was telling Lagartha she needed to hurry up.

Lagartha didn’t say anything to Eren. She just nodded at him, indicating that she was ready to follow his orders.

She had indeed planned to trick Eren into signing a binding contract. She could then ensure her safety. The binding contract wouldn’t have been as restrictive as the slave contract was on her. Her consciousness couldn’t have been read by Eren, enabling her to keep her secrets to herself.

Eren’s slave contract changed everything for her. It allowed Eren to learn about the Awakening potion. She could only give in and accept her fate at this point.

Lagartha sat cross-legged and took out the vial of Awakening potion. It was a unique, seashell-shaped vial that had intricate runes carved over it. The vial exuded a warm azure glow with a breathing effect, making Eren realize that it was highly potent.

Lagartha looked at Eren carefully before proceeding with the Awakening rank promotion. The latter pursed his lips before nodding at her.

“Yeah. don’t worry. I’ll stay on guard and look after you till you break into Awakened rank.”

‘Who would protect me from you in case you decide to kill me?’

Lagartha said to herself and chuckled, knowing full well Eren could read some of her thoughts. But before he could say something, the wood-element ranker uncorked the vial and gulped the content down in one go.

Lagartha was a native of Gilaahan. Therefore, she had a ranking technique she could practice to digest the contents of the potion. She closed her eyes and focused on circulating the mana flow in her mana circuits as per the instructions provided in her ranking technique.

A surreal atmosphere was created inside the fire domain when Lagartha started digesting the potion. Eren could feel that there was a change in mana and mana density in the surrounding.

Eren paid close attention to Lagartha’s breakthrough. He wanted to know how difficult it was for a ranker to break into the next rank. He watched as Lagartha started developing stress lines over her forehead.

Lagartha felt like she had been thrown into the deepest parts of the forest with there being nothing but her and the purest form of wood-element mana. The concoction had helped her establish a connection with higher consciousness. This connection would allow her to surpass the Awakened rank.

However, maintaining a potion-induced connection with the higher consciousness wasn’t as easy as one made it out to be. Since it wasn’t a natural breakthrough or mid-battle breakthrough, the enlightenment Lagartha received during the active connection wasn’t much.

A cloud of Awakened rank mana was formed all around Lagertha as she started progressing in her ranking journey. Her body stats kept on increasing at a substantial rate and her mana core started churning.

Her consciousness and her mana circuits were under tremendous pressure because of the potion-induced breakthrough. Even her muscles and bones were getting refined because of being subjected to higher-grade mana.

The Rank-2 mana cloud that was generated by the breakthrough and epiphany started getting absorbed by Lagartha. She could only manage to handle the pressure she was put under because she was pulled into a state of epiphany.

Eren still had his fire domain intact as he watched Lagartha go through with her Awakened rank breakthrough. For some reason, his infinite mana core started churning more than usual as he felt something inside his body.

Eren looked everywhere around him and felt a strange sense of comfort and harmony around him. He sat cross-legged not too far away from Lagartha as well, trying to process the mysterious state he was being summoned to.

Eren was working through his own stage breakthrough as he watched and experienced Lagartha going through her ranking breakthrough. He didn’t care that he had promised Lagartha to watch over her. He just kept his fire domain active while he progressed through his stage breakthrough.

Unlike Lagartha, Eren was surrounded by feelings of comfort and serenity as he was experiencing his breakthrough. He felt like he was surrounded by clouds of fire and lightning that did nothing to harm him. They got absorbed into his abstract being and became part of him.

Eren summoned clouds of Rank 1 mana all around him and started absorbing them at a rapid rate. His infinite mana core churned and digested everything before demanding more.

The bottomless pit that was Eren’s infinite mana core demanded more and more mana from the connection Eren had established with higher consciousness. And for some reason, it listened to its demands and provided plenty of mana.

Eren’s hair grew a bit as he pressed his breakthrough. His beard grew as if someone were watching the video of him in time-lapse. His body stat values increased as his body absorbed more Meta rank mana and made it a part of its system.

Eren didn’t know how much time had passed. But when he opened his eyes, he saw Lagatha looking at him with part surprised and part angry expressions.

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