“How are you, Erni? Do you miss me?”
Eren heard a familiar voice on his holo-call. He could see that the person was as cheerful and energetic as he remembered them to be.
The holo-call opened a spectral screen in front of Eren which showed a real-time image of Nina. it made the butcher flash a radiant smile as he replied casually in response:
“Of course, aunt Nina. Not a day passes by without me major-missing you. And I don’t even have to ask you this question. Your call now and then tells me all that I need to know. Hehe!”
Eren replied to Nina with teasing expressions on his face. The latter puffed her cheeks while she made her dissatisfaction known:
“You seldom call me on your own. So I have to. And why does it sound like you take pride in the fact that I miss you more than you miss me? If anything, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Hahaha! I was merely pulling your leg, aunt Nina. Of course, you can call me anytime you want. My schedule won’t allow me to always pick them when you do. But I’ll be sure to call you back when I miss them.
I’m doing well. And I have even greater news to share with you.”
Eren expressed another reason for his happiness. Nina was excited for Eren too. She couldn’t help asking as soon as Eren finished delivering the news:
“Oh! A recluse like you can find joy in doing something. That’s news. Tell me what it is?”
“I wouldn’t call myself a recluse now. Hehe! I’m part of the team known as White Raven Crew, did you forget? The news I have is related to my plans related to potioneering.”
Eren flashed a knowing smile towards Nina. the latter could see in his eyes that it was something substantial. The C-Rank potioneer asked eagerly:
“Enough beating around the bushes, Erni. Tell me what it is?”
“Hehehe! You’d be surprised. I have bee a disciple of a Master ranked potioneer Master Levine de Montmorency. She’ll soon start personally teaching me.”
Eren looked at Nina with an expression that screamed, “How cool am I?”. The healer was stunned for real before flashing a genuine smile of pride and happiness:
“That’s awesome news, Erni. I bet you’ll be even more successful than me in potioneering in the future as long as you don’t slack off.
So you were really interested in potioneering, huh? I thought your crush on me had more hand to play in you taking up optioneering than anything else. Hehe!”
Nina teased Eren a bit. But the guy didn’t shy away from admitting that fact either.
“You are right, aunt Nina. It started that way, yes. But now I’m genuinely looking to make a career in it.
I’ve never shied away from admitting that I like you and what you do in the first place. After all, you are a very special existence in my life.”
Eren fawned over Nina with his glib tongue. The latter was pleased and felt more secure than ever before. But her teasing didn’t end there just because Eren’s words worked on her:
“Little rat, you say that now. But tell me honestly, how many hookups have you had in the academy so far?”
Eren paused for a while and pondered over it. Then he started counting with his finger. That got Nina riled up:
“Are you a rat in heat? Girls in the academy have bee too easy. Hmph! You’ll die of exhaustion, Erni.”
Eren burst into laughter after he heard that. He tried to make the misunderstanding go away that he had created himself:
“Relax, aunt Nina. I was just kidding with you. Moreover, what’s up with you? Where are you? I can see that you are not in the city of Osan, that’s for sure.”
Eren asked while looking behind aunt Nina. The holographic screen of the holo-call appeared very lifelike due to its clarity, which allowed the butcher to observe the ruins of some old buildings he could see behind Nina.
“Oh yes, Erni. I forgot to tell you. I decided to follow your advice and not stay in the city of Osan anymore. This is the final stage of the C-Rank, and my ranking technique has practically stopped working. I’ve decided to take the route of forced breakthrough.
Currently, I’m at the Ellora ruins just outside the Edinburgh kingdom. There’s been a rumour that some spatial distortions have been observed in the ruins.
As a result of everyone thinking the same thing, Ellora ruins have bee active again with adventurer parties.
Rankers’ Utopia!
An explored ranker’s utopia gives rise to so many possibilities. Everyone is here to try their luck. And I’m one of them.
I’ve teamed up with some old associates of mine. Ellora ruins attract a lot of beast hordes from time to time. So many parties need to cooperate while also peting with each other.
It’s chaos out here. But I’m enjoying this thrill I’ve been missing for a long time. Hehe!”
Eren was shocked when Nina shared her latest update. From his past timeline, he had heard about Ellora ruins and the ranker’s utopia found there.
A ranker’s utopia was a separate personal dimension created by a Sage ranker from the past. This was just before they attempted to achieve a forced breakthrough at the end of their lifespan.
A Ranker’s Utopia, or just utopia, existed for the Sage rankers to choose their successors and carry on their mantle. It was designed for low-ranked entities that hadn’t progressed further in their ranking journeys.
A ranker’s utopia will test the brave adventurers who take up the challenge to explore it and everything that it has to offer. The separate dimension would spell doom and despair to the unlucky candidates. But it could turn out to be the one-way ticket to success for a few special or lucky rankers.
There had been a lot of cases of rankers getting lost and never being seen after they entered ranker’s utopia. In addition, there were a few incidents in which rankers who inherited the legacy of the utopia achieved unbridled success.
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