Devour!

A shapeless and colorless slimy mass spread over a small mountain of flesh made of 12 limbs. One set of limbs belonged to a beautiful elf while the other two belonged to two male members of a certain special force of Edinburgh.

Someone was standing beside the mountain of flesh. He had his arms stretched over the limbs that had turned into a mass of slime, which was digesting the limbs and boosting his body stat values.

The butcher had already injected the limbs with wrath mana. Additionally, his bloodline ability digested the wrath flames effectively.

"Hungry for days. Starving for centuries. Famished for an eternity."

Eren mumbled to himself and smiled as he started to digest the limbs of his victims using his Devour. This was something Reen used to say to him when she was extremely hungry.

The butcher wasn't interested in mutilating his enemies if it didn't serve any purpose. But he had to do something about his hunger after all. Due to the constant regeneration of wounds he had to undergo during the fight, his hunger intensified. And from the looks of it, the chopped-off limbs were doing a fine job of helping him feel satiated.

Eren had cut off all the limbs of the three rankers after they had fallen prey to the woodland creatures. Only their torsos and heads remained intact. In addition to cauterizing their wounds, he stabilized their conditions and ensured that they remained in their slumber.

Three female treants sucked the life essence of three rankers. They extracted just enough to keep them in slumber while ensuring that they don't die from it.

The female treants were soon filled with vitality and couldn't contain the life essence in their bodies anymore. They started diffusing the excessive life essence they had extracted into the soil through their root-like feet.

The combined life essence of the three rankers couldn't be scoffed at. Soon, the battlefield started turning into a lush green forest as various trees and greenery started growing at a rapid rate.

Eren didn't have to use Potion of Innocence on the battlefield anymore. The woodland magic had altered the residual mana signatures in the surrounding area for good.

"Tch. You created so much mess."

Alephee appeared beside Eren and commented after looking around. Butcher shrugged his shoulders before recalling the slime mass that had digested all limbs.

"Hmmm! I need some time."

Eren started digesting the memories and experiences of the three rankers he had just fought with once the shapeless mass of slime completely turned into his two arms. He closed his eyes and sat down before practicing the Rootless ranking technique.

Alephee looked at the three female treants and concentrated. She used her soul sense to take over their feeble minds and forced them to extend their limbs and wrap themselves around Eren.

In the next moment, Eren felt like all the fatigue he had developed during the battle had been washed away. The effects he received were ten times better than even the most pristine all-stats recovery potions he had in his storage.

Eren realized that he was being fed the combined essence of the three rankers. He smiled as he kept his eyes closed and started digesting his gains.

***

It took a while before Eren opened his eyes. His body was brimming with vitality and his hunger had been completely satiated. He had also finished digesting the three rankers' experiences.

He received a minor boost to all his body stat values. But he couldn't make any major advancements in his ranking. He had just made a huge leap, thanks to digesting Rey Remus whole. As such, he knew any major improvement wasn't possible.

Thus, Eren focused on digesting the three rankers' experiences thoroughly. And it paid him well. Because it had increased his affinity with the most mysterious element out of all the great elements ether.

Krista, Lambert, and Rupen had ether-sub element affinities. Thus, their elemental attainments in the ether element were significant. The butcher was able to make some of those attainments his own after digesting their limbs.

Blink.

Eren disappeared from his position and appeared a few meters away. However, he had not used his movement spell to accomplish this feat. He turned around and looked at Alephee before asking her.

"Hehehe. I finally did it. What do you think?"

Alephee chuckled before casting the same spell Eren had cast. A space-element support spell that one could use to teleport themselves to a different location.

"This was your first successful Blink. Even though you could have done better, I appreciate your efforts. Or rather, the efforts THEY had put into their ranking journey to ultimately benefit you."

Alephee looked at the three limbless rankers and chuckled.

Eren was practicing Blink spells for a while. He lacked a sufficient affinity for the space element that was related to Ether. As such, all the Blinks he had performed would mostly result in failures and him facing backlash from using the spell incorrectly.

The few times he managed to teleport, he was way out of his intended position. Even then he faced a huge backlash for using the spell incorrectly. He, therefore, did not even attempt to use the spell as an experiment against the three rankers.

Eren laughed at Alphee's comment. Then he did the Blink one more time and realized something.

"Damn. This spell eats mana like Reen eats mana beasts for breakfast."

Eren observed that the spell had taken a huge toll on his mana reserves after two consecutive castings. It also made him realize that it couldn't be used casually. Not like a movement spell.

"The space-element spells are more dependent on elemental attainments than any other type of spell. You have just met the minimum requirement to cast the spells after digesting someone else's comprehension. Otherwise, it would have taken you some years to pull off what you did.

I'll call that an absolute win."

Alephee commented casually to Eren. The pair then proceeded to make their way back into the city with their three hostages in tow. wt

AN: "Hungry for days. Starving for" Reen says this in chapter 29. ;)