Infinite Mana In The Oasis

Eren rotated his neck from side to side as well as up and down, producing bone creaking sounds. He then stretched his arms and looked around.

The bodies of Spiders had all been burnt to ashes before dispersing into the ground because of the fire domain that had encompassed them. Thankfully, Eren had absolute control over the flames inside his domain. He had only left the hands of his victims intact. The same hands that had I-Rune tattoos.

After all, it would be a waste of resources if Eren let the resources on his victims' bodies fall to waste. As their opponent, he had a rightful claim over their resources.

'Time to check my rewards.'

Eren rubbed his hands together as he walked towards the hand that was nearest to him.

***

"What… what happened to them?"

Mia asked as soon as she found Eren in a safe condition. Unlike Eren, the effects of debuff were a serious issue for the elf. She could only recover from it after a few hours. By the time she decided to go back to ground zero, she was contacted by Eren to come to a different place.

Eren contacted Mia using voice communication after he was done collecting rewards for his kills. Although the place was still safe, he decided to change the venue of their rendezvous just to be safe.

"They all died except one. She ran away."

Eren decided to tell Mia the blurred truth. He didn't want to intimidate the elf with his bloody visage. So he changed his clothes before meeting her.

Eren downplayed things a lot to keep his usage of infinite mana core a secret. He made up a lie that he used array traps to get rid of the enemies one by one. Otherwise, things wouldn't have added up.

Mia listened to Eren's report with the utmost attention. She felt that Eren's way of handling things was proper. She also liked the fact that he had decided to prioritize his safety instead of chasing after the escaped one.

Mia was most surprised about Eren's breakthrough. He had again climbed the ranking ladder and was almost as close to the Awakened rank as her. The life-and-death situations really worked wonders for Eren.

This was Mia's third time watching Eren grow at a rapid pace. In all three cases, she was involved in the scene directly or indirectly.

"Maybe Gilaahan's Will likes you too much. You should consider moving here with your real body when you break into Awakened rank."

Mia said while flashing a smile at Eren. Not only had he managed to defeat their opponents by himself, but he had also benefited from the incident.

"I am indeed considering moving here. I am only hesitant because of Gilaahan's elf population."

Eren patted his Noble Feet as he spoke. The duo had found their colts while discussing things with each other.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Mia asked in a puzzled tone as she climbed the back of her colt. Eren followed her lead and chuckled before answering.

"Well, I am hesitant because I don't know if elf ladies remember the promise they make."

Mia was confused for a second or two when Eren said those words. She chuckled when she realized what he was talking about after remembering the last words she had said to him before escaping from the ambush.

"Hehe. Pick a time and place. We'll go on a date. And if sparks fly, we'll let them fly. Sounds good?"

Mia asked, looking at Eren. The latter smiled and nodded at her before commanding his colt to pick up speed. They needed to return to the city of Ludan and report the incident that had happened to them.

From the looks of things, the Spiders had attacked many top-rankers from the Stardust guild who were active on the field. Mia was just one of their targets for them.

Gian, who was an Awakened, wasn't with his team because he had been asked to deal with someone else from the Stardust guild all by himself.

"Oh! Eren, do you want to keep your killings a secret? You won't be targeted by the Spiders if you do that. But you'd be missing out on collecting the bounty money on Spiders' heads that will get declared eventually."

Mia asked Eren something of importance. The latter didn't understand what she was talking about. So he asked for an explanation.

"What do you mean?"

Mia controlled the reins of her colt and made it run at the same speed as Eren's before commenting.

"Guild wars are seldom a one-sided matter. Where only one guild bullies and the other gets bullied. Since House of Spiders wants to be aggressive, the Stardust guild will respond in kind.

Rankers are rankers no matter which organization they belong to. They have their pride and their personal interests. And nobody likes being targeted.

The Stardust guild will follow a bounty system for rankers who are willing to take the fight to the Spiders. For us, attacking is the most effective defense. An internal bounty system will be released to all the rankers of the Stardust guild when this gets officially declared. Soon, we'll be the ones setting an ambush for them.

If you come clean and claim your kills, you will be rewarded by the Stardust guild. Otherwise, you can choose safety and remain in the dark."

Eren pondered a bit before asking the most pertinent question.

"How much money are we talking about?"

Mia looked ahead at the void, she took her time to reply.

"My guess? Your reward for killing these many Spiders would be more than 80 Mana quartz per head. But ultimately, it would all depend upon how the guild perceives the threat level coming from the rankers you killed.

I suggest you come clean with your kills, Eren. That's because the Spiders are a weird bunch. They'd target you anyway if you tried to stay away from them. You might as well get benefited from killing them."

Eren smiled mildly when he heard Mia talk. It made him realize how cruel the world of rankers was. That killing could be quantified in terms of Mana Quartz.