Chapter 57: Devour
That’s why he knew it was here, but he also understood that just walking in like that would be suicide. There were at least five Walkers inside, including two level 2s.
Although it was possible for him to win, he didn’t know the distribution of Paths, so it wasn’t a good idea. Locking himself in a room like this with an Alchemist or a Hunter with fire abilities would be suicide.
That’s why he had to take another alternative.
To do so, Ryan closed his eyes and brought his spirituality to them, activating the attributes of spirituality to the maximum. When he opened his eyes, they flashed, and he could see the currents of spirituality around him swirling in small and large clusters on the other side of the door.
It wasn’t much spirituality, as most of it was in the form of electricity here; all the spirituality he was seeing belonged to those guys.
Ryan smiled.
There were many ways to use his devouring power; if he had seen normal beasts, he could even devour them, literally and in every sense, to obtain a higher percentage of spirituality.
The devouring ability of his skills was truly amazing, and here was another example of it.
He didn’t even have to touch the door; through the narrow crack in the door, he began to devour the spirituality of those guys silently. The distance between him and the group was barely 3 meters, so he didn’t even need to take another step closer.
He was in the right place at the right time.
This is another way to use devouring, but it’s not usually very easy to employ because most battles don’t take place in enclosed spaces where the Devourer can hide to do so. So, the devouring that is usually seen is the one that the members of his group saw when they were fighting the giant mutant beast.
But this was much better when the mission was like this, because...
As time passed, every second was a new bite from the spirit, swallowing all spirituality at absurd speeds.
Five minutes later, Ryan gently opened the door and looked inside the room.
It wasn’t very big, about 6 square meters, and everyone in the room was practically huddled together, protecting the treasure.
When he opened the door, Ryan began to notice the changes. So he smiled and waited another 5 minutes.
"Hey, are you falling asleep?" One of the civilians hit a walker, and it staggered to one side.
"Huh?" He was slow to react and looked at him. "Asleep? Of course not..." He staggered to one side and suddenly fell to the ground.
’Huh? Why do I feel so weak?’ he thought. ’Was I poisoned?’ His body tensed, and he looked at his companions for help, but the four of them fell to the ground in succession.
"Ah." The cry of one of the civilians woke them from their weakness (as did the blow from falling).
"What’s going on? Why do I feel so weak?"
"Hey... Have we been poisoned? Who betrayed us?!" Although one of them tried to shout, pain struck him from within at that moment, and they looked at the two civilians.
"Was it you?!"
The civilians took several steps back in shock, falling to the ground.
"Scared, you bastards?! You dare betray us?!" Despite his attempts to shout, he had no strength left, and his words sounded more like ordinary speech or weak cries.
Everyone was like that, but the civilians weren’t in shock because of "fear"; it was because they were looking at Ryan.
Ryan smiled under his hood.
’This is the power of devouring. It’s like I have an item that removes oxygen from an area... It’s simply spectacular against walkers.’ Ryan stood in front of one.
"I wonder if you would give up information under torture," he considered aloud.
They were frightened and stepped aside to look at him. "You... Who the hell are you?"
"Does it matter?" Ryan shrugged. "I’d like to get some information, but you know, we’re in a hurry and I need the power you can give me."
He smiled and, without even blinking, cut off one of their heads. Immediately, the remaining spirituality in that body was devoured by Ryan’s spirit, which even shook the body at that moment, as if it wanted to devour the body as well.
But Ryan wasn’t going to do that; he simply walked over to another and killed him as if he were cutting tofu.
Having stripped them of their power, even though they screamed continuously, cried, and begged for mercy, they had no choice but to die.
In a short time, the five walkers were completely devoured.
’Not bad. This feeling of growth is really comforting.’ Ryan thought, laughing a little.
When the Spiritual Synthesis process was complete, he looked at his system.
[Spirits: 28/100.]
’Not bad. After killing several mutated beasts, helping to kill that big one, and also killing these five, it seems I’m getting close to reaching the halfway point.’
Ryan focused his attention on the two civilians in front of him. They were running toward the door on the other side, the emergency exit they hadn’t used for fear of being caught by the organizations looking for them.
This time, they had no choice; they had to run as fast as they could because they weren’t trained to face this monster that could kill their Walkers as if they were butter.
He laughed. "You’re very naive if you think you can escape."
He jumped at them and grabbed them both by the head before slamming them to the ground.
The one he had grabbed with his right hand had his head blown to pieces. The one on the left was completely unconscious, dying.
As he fell unconscious, he dropped the hexagonal item he was holding in his hand.
It was shaped like a teapot, but without a spout for the steam. It was emerald green with black parts.
"The King’s Blessed Emerald, huh." Ryan grabbed the item, and his eyes sparkled with curiosity when he noticed that there were still 30 spirits inside, waiting to be devoured.
’An unexpected little gift, I like it.’ He smiled and grabbed the dying guy by the neck to escape, but then he tensed up and looked at the door he had entered through when he heard voices.
"Why is it open? Can’t those guys be patient for once in their lives?"
"Haha, Young Master, I’m sure they went out for some fresh air."
"Tsk, annoying bastards."
Ryan tensed up. The footsteps belonged to many people, but the main voice...
’Brandon!’
Just then, a voice emerged from his shadow.
"Ryan, Brandon, and his people are a little strange. They got through my puppet network with strange tactics. Be careful!" Cecily shouted from the other side.