A few days after the Slughorn Scandal.
Eren could be seen practising his ranking technique late at night inside his dorm room. He had assumed a meditative position with his eyes closed, tongues of lightning dancing over his skin.
Eren could feel that the technique he had been using was making him feel that it had become slightly incompatible with him. It did make him progress in his ranking journey. But he was starting to have a hard time following the steps mentioned in the technique.
Sometimes the mana points that the technique wanted him to activate would remain dormant. And other times, the mana would circulate faster than he needed to through his mana circuits, forcing him to start the sequence all over again.
And despite the slight incompatibility, his ranking journey had gotten fast-paced instead of slowing down. Tonight was no different either.
Before his transformation, Eren needed to spend at least three to four hours every night practising the technique perfectly. But post his transformation, he could be done with his ranking technique in an hour despite having to restart a few times.
Eren had first thought that the technique itself has a problem once the practitioner reaches closer to the upper stage of the F-Rank. It was known by rankers that a few techniques would speed up or slow down at a particular stage within the rank because of their peculiarity in channelling the mana through your body and strengthening the mana core. So the butcher drawing that conclusion wasn't surprising.
Eren hadn't practised a five-star ranking technique in his previous life after all. He didn't know what to expect. He never really linked the peculiar state he experienced while practising his running technique to his transformation at first.
But reading JJ Edgar's journal opened Eren's eyes to the truth that was in front of him. Indra's Levin was meant to be practised by pure humans. And he had ceased to be one when he transformed.
Edgar's journal had hypothesized that the demi-humans would not be able to practise ranking techniques. At least not completely. Or the way they should be practised. This was based on the fact that a human's position of mana points and mana circuits would be different from that of the demi-humans, because of the difference in their constitutions.
Eren connected the dots and realized that something similar was happening to him. And yet when Edgar's journal hypothesized that the techniques would be incompatible, it only created a slight discomfort for him. As if his body could deal with the incompatibility or mould itself up subconsciously to adapt to the technique.
Indra's Levin was completed just fine. And Eren was about to get up. But before he could do that, the mana started to circulate inside his body on its own and started activating the mana points on its own.
This was as if the mana had a mind of its own. Eren decided to cancel the plan of halting his technique and observed what was happening inside his body with keen eyes.
Eren could feel that whatever was happening to him right now was not detrimental. He could feel that the autonomous circulation of mana was even better at nourishing his body and mana core than the current ranking technique he was practising.
Minutes soon turned into hours. Eren had changed from technique-guided mana circulation to an autonomous one when it was over. He was hoping he could taste the incredibility of that small miracle once more. But alas, it turned out that he was being too greedy. Autonomous circulation did not take place.
'I have changed. Yet I feel like I haven't.'
Eren sighed and recalled only his body stats onscreen:
************************
Name- Eren Elijah Idril (Verified)
Base Stats:
HP- 4.8 / 4.8
MP- 5.7 / 5.7
STR- 4.0
AGI- 5.0
INT- 3.6
BTP~ 23
BTP Visibility- Private
*************************
'Damn! My BTP rose again.'
Eren exclaimed to himself after seeing the autonomous mana circulation had shot up his BTP value. Now he just needed a little push to enter the upper stage of the F-Rank.
'This is way too fast even if I consider that the technique is five-star grade and I practise it diligently. It all must be due to my tra…'
Eren's chain of thoughts was cut by the extreme hunger he felt right afterwards. He felt like he could eat the food ordered for all his teammates all by himself if it was presented to him right now.
'What is this? What is happening to me?'
Eren asked himself as he caressed his stomach with his right hand to calm it down. He had never experienced his tummy making growling noises before.
Eren had eaten moderately all the time, this and in the previous timeline. He had never overindulged when it came to food. That was because he ate for sustenance. And his sustenance would be ensured after he had just the right amount of meals every few hours.
But the feeling of strong hunger Eren was feeling now had almost overwhelmed all his thoughts. It was to the point that he could now eat raw meat if it was offered to him.
The butcher immediately retrieved all the staple ration he had in his storage and started eating them. But his demon beast was one step ahead of him.
She had separated herself from Eren to let him practise his ranking technique without any disturbance. And she felt his extreme emotions of hunger as soon as he got out of the practice session.
Reen always had a stash of food with her when she used to feel hungry. And since she didn't have the abundance of stashed human nuggets in her storage all the time, the demon beast had opted to store good human food of every kind she had found interesting.
She immediately retrieved some high-quality beef steaks that had been grilled to medium-rare and offered them to Eren. The latter stopped eating dry food after he saw that his demon beast had produced a heavenly treat for him. He wiped away the dripping saliva from his mouth and started devouring the steaks as he had never had them ever in his life.
"See, Erni. Didn't I tell you before? Always stock up on good food."
Reen said smiling and started having a piece of steaks too.. The duo then had the steaks in silence, enjoying every moment of it.