Chapter 133: Brown coat

Erne grabbed Paupre with both hands. At first, Paupre didn’t think much of it as he thought that he could have defended against Eren’s attack easily.

But soon after, his expression turned sour as he realized something else was happening. The Reinforcement in his body was starting to wither and fade away, like a fading sun.

The layer of shield that had protected his entire body from the harsh effects of the Gray Smoke was starting to disintegrate.

It was only when he looked towards Eren’s triumphant smile did he realize that Eren had something to do with this.

"What did you..."

Eren smiled. "I altered your Array Formation, that’s all."

He noticed it just a few seconds ago. The reason that Paupre was able to use a full-body Reinforcement was because of an Array Formation that was placed on his body beforehand.

Eren guessed that it was the pink haired girl that did it. She was the leader of the Medical Sector group that Paupre had allied himself with.

She must have known how to create an Array Formation that would be able to imbue a shield onto a person.

It was a high-level technique, Eren had to admit. It was very complicated and hard to master.

But in turn, this made the Array Formation very delicate. Just grabbing onto Paupre’s hands and imbuing it with a little bit of his R?zoň could simply make the Array Formation malfunction, thereby removing the shield that had protected him in the first place.

Paupre, now no longer protected by the shield, began to feel the effects of the dangerous gray smoke.

His skin started to blister and turn red. More of the intoxicating effects of the smoke began to affect his mind.

It came to a point where Paupre could barely even keep himself steady.

In the end, Paupre looked towards Eren with resignation. Then, he let his own feet lose the Negative Reinforcement in his soles, making his own body fall with gravity, down back towards the base of the Third Cliffside.

Eren watched from his perspective Paupre fell backwards, as if something had pulled him away.

Now with no one around him, Eren immediately put his focus onwards.

With careful movements, he began to move through the obstacles of the Third Cliffside.

He was able to sidestep his way through the pouring lava from the crater. Even the precarious cracks and rifts around him were of no consequence for he was able to easily navigate through them using his memory alone.

The good thing about Paupre and the others being here first was that they were able to explore it and make very detailed descriptions of the terrain. Eren didn’t know how Pang Cai got ahold of that, but it ended allowing Eren to basically win the territory with ease.

Finally, Eren burst through the Gray Smoke, finding himself atop the volcano. The crater was ahead of him. The white flag waved in the air, as if welcoming his coming.

He walked forwards and gestured to grab the flag, before every inch of his body warned him of an incoming attack.

Immediately, he ducked away just as a hand swiped beside him.

Eren stumbled backwards, wary of his attacker.

His eyes widened.

A person was hovering in the air, standing above the crater and the flag. The man wore an expression of surprise, seemingly not expecting Eren to escape away from his grasp.

"You’re... you’re... a proctor."

Aside from the fact that the man was hovering a few feet in the air (something that no examinee would be able to do), the biggest tell that he was not a part of the License Exam was the fact that he wasn’t wearing his battle suit.

The man wore a tattered old brown coat over semi-casual clothes as if it was hastily put on.

"Impressive. It seems that you truly are quite skilled to win against Paupre," said the man in the brown coat.

"Are Proctors allowed to do this?" Eren asked him.

The man looked at Eren and scratched his head. "I guess? The rules aren’t really that strict for us. Let me first introduce myself. I am Aliker. Proctor for the fourth division of the Hunter Sector."

Aliker bowed towards Eren, but Eren didn’t return the gesture. His guard was up the entire time.

Eren carefully took a step forwards, testing to see what Alike would do when it seemed like he was aiming to grab the flag from him.

And Alike stepped forwards as well, raising his hand. "Now, I wouldn’t do that if I were you."

Eren frowned. "I knew that Proctors would be able to exert their influence here in the Second Test... but I didn’t think they’d be able to prevent someone from getting a flag."

The man in the brown coat kept his hand up, preventing Eren from suddenly lunging for the flag.

"It’s for your own good," said Aliker. "If you get this flag, you would be putting yourself in harm’s way."

"Is that a threat?" Eren’s entire body flared with danger. But he wasn’t going to back down. And instead, his own soul was raring to go.

Somehow, fighting against an opponent way stronger than himself had made him even more motivated to fight.

"Not a threat from me," said Aliker. "But one of the sponsors has taken a great dislike towards you."

Eren turned silent. He didn’t know what Aliker was talking about.

"The Elvenied Riders," Aliker said. "You have earned their ire. I mean, I would get angry too if someone made the groups that I sponsored fall to the rankings. Once is fine. Twice is alarming. But three times is too much."

This made Eren think. He could only think of one time that he had fought against a company that was with the Elvenied Riders. And that was when they were attacked by Redd and his group because they wanted to get their lootbox. That one was warranted.

And as Eren began to think about it more, he realized something.