"…!"
Despite witnessing such a heavenly beauty reaching out her slender gray hand, Eren's entire body shook in terror.
His instincts, strengthened by his passive skills, screamed at him to run as far away as possible from the thing standing before him.
But he couldn't move an inch.
Nor could he speak.
It felt as if countless threads had bound his entire body, leaving no room for resistance.
She glided forward without making a single sound.
Her cold fingertips brushed against Eren's cheek with impossible gentleness.
"Thump-thump… thump-thump!"
Her emerald, glowing eyes were fixed on his face as she uttered incomprehensible words in a hoarse voice.
"Ael'thra… nox'vel… krrr… thaaal…"
For a moment, time itself seemed to stop.
Then, the reality snapped back like a broken chain.
Gasp
"Huff… haa…"
Eren gasped heavily, staggering back in the real world, now standing in the middle of the forest.
The strength in his legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.
The dreadful feeling still lingered deep in his heart.
His left hand touched the spot where her fingers had brushed against his cheek.
"W-What the fuck was that?!"
"What the hell just happened?!"
Eren had thought that, in the worst-case scenario, he would be cursed if bonding was failed, and by transforming and using [Lunar Benediction], he would recover without issue.
But what he had just experienced was something far beyond that.
Pure terror.
He didn't know what he had seen, but that thing had the power to kill him at any moment.
His instincts told him clearly just how helpless he had been.
[Ding! You have successfully created a soul bond with a weapon containing a primordial remnant…
Hidden attribute
Affinity with Nightmare element increased significantly…
Affinity with Shadow element increased significantly…]
His entire body froze as he read the message appearing before him.
Slowly, his gaze shifted to the dagger in his right hand, toward the green orb that looked eerily similar to the eyes of that thing.
He could feel a deep connection with the daggers, as if they were a part of his own body.
"…"
Gulp
In the weapon's details, his name now appeared under the 'Soul-Bound to' section.
Only then did the truth sink in.
"That thing is… the Primordial Remnant…"
It took Eren nearly ten minutes to calm himself down.
SSRRKK—!
The dagger trembled in his hand as a sense of hunger was directly transmitted into his mind.
Eren quickly took out more than five Nightmare Crystals at once and fed them into the dagger before it finally stopped sending the starving signal.
"What the hell have I done…?"
He muttered to himself before snapping back to current reality.
Taking out his phone, he checked the time, 2:33 PM.
"It's only been a little over five hours since I left home…"
Within those few hours, a lot of things happened one after another without giving him a break.
Eren sat down in an isolated spot under the shade of a large tree.
He took out the lunch bag his mother had given him and ate everything.
In the middle of eating, he caught a faint scent, a thick, iron-like stench.
Very similar to the smell of blood on his hands.
Frowning slightly, he cleaned his hands once again.
Completely taking his mind off what had just happened, Eren focused on the quest he was completing.
He didn't want to complain or waste time over something that was already done now.
'One dungeon cleared… 19 remaining…'
Taking out his phone, he searched for details of the next dungeon he could raid immediately.
Right now, everyone was mistaking Eren for a member of a demon cult due to his unregistered entry.
He knew very well that they would definitely inform the Association for further action, and that would immediately lead to increased security around other dungeons in the city.
That would make his quest much harder to complete.
So instead of waiting for security to tighten, Eren decided to raid other dungeons as quickly as possible.
Tidewatch City had a total of seven Tier 2 dungeons at level 25.
Four of them belonged to the Abyssal faction, two belonged to the Divine Blood faction, and the remaining two belonged to the Eldritch faction.
Eren found two dungeons near his current location, one belonging to the Eldritch faction and the other to the Abyssal faction:
[Feast of Brood] and [Molten Scale Abyss]
"First, I'll clear the dungeon from Eldritch faction… Before that…"
Eren's eyes shifted toward a monster standing within a 200-meter radius as he thought of something.
[Grazing Stag Lv.19]
A medium-sized deer with dark brown fur and antlers resembling tree branches grazed peacefully on the grass.
Taking a deep breath, Eren gripped his dagger before activating his Absolute Concealment Authority, disappearing into thin air.
Even after getting very close to the target, Eren didn't attack immediately.
He took his time, focusing all his strength into a single moment, carefully observing the deer as it munched on the grass.
Just as it lowered its head, extending its neck for another bite, Eren moved.
A single, precise slash.
Whoosh—
Due to the overwhelming difference between his strength and the deer's constitution, its fur offered no resistance.
The blade cut cleanly through in one smooth motion.
Thud!
Hissss—
The head fell to the ground as blood splattered outward.
From start to finish, the Grazing Stag didn't even react.
Everything ended in less than a second.
[You have slain Level 19 Grazing Stag… Gained 70 Life Essence… Antler Fragment x2]
[Random Reward Multiplier triggered…]
[Random number… 650]
[Gained 45,500 Life Essence, Antler Fragment x1300]
Eren was extremely pleased with the result.
'My guess was right… my concealment didn't get canceled!'
Inside the Nightmare Stalker dungeon, he had noticed that his concealment remained active even after killing some monsters unintentionally by stepping on them.
That had made him question how his ability actually worked.
When he stabbed Julien, his concealment had been canceled instantly, just like when he used his skill to bite and kill the area boss in instant.
Now he understood why.
"My concealment has certain conditions to remain active…"
"First, I can't attack using skills. Otherwise, the concealment gets canceled, but transformation skills are fine."
"Second, even without using a skill, if I attack and fail to finish the target within a second, the concealment breaks…"
"But if I don't use any skills and kill the target within a second, I can maintain concealment without a problem… That's exactly what just happened."
Eren found himself slightly amused by his own discovery.
"These Authority skills… are really different from normal abilities… Do my other Authorities also have hidden conditions?"
The thought made him want to experiment further, but he shook his head.
"Now is not the time for that…"
He stored the body of the Grazing Stag before heading east toward the Eldritch dungeon, maintaining his concealment the entire time.