7 Chapter 7

After learning to control essence Rake started to kill all the crabs. He was covered in them. The crabs were all over Rake trying to pinch and kill him. There were at least 50 in his body and more were coming. 

"Hi hi hi. Come come. Come and get more Rake. Tasty tasty Rake.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Rake just kept laughing as he killed more and more crabs. The more he killed the more his control over absorbing and spending essence increased. 

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

....

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

He became a killing machine. 

After killing more than 50, he started to feel pain in his hand. It was a slight tingling sensation. Yet the more he killed and absorbed their essence, the more it started to hurt. 

At the 100 crab kill, the pain had become much more noticeable. He had to stop at that point. 

And as he stopped, he realized that he was practically in a mound of crabs. There were so many that they formed a dune around him. 

'Hmm, something doesn't feel right. I need to check my hands. How do I get rid off all these crabs?'

The dilemma was for a simple reason. He had to unsummon his armor to see the condition of his hands. But the moment he unsummons it, he will be pinched by the poisonous crabs and will be killed.

'Hmm, how about an explosion of energy? Can I do that?'

Thinking that, he absorbed 20 shards at once. As the essence was flowing around his body, he concentrated all that into his two arms. This time included his forearms, biceps, and shoulders. 

He then pulled his hands back and then suddenly made a clap using up all that essence and all his strength. 

This produced a shockwave that threw away all the small crabs. It killed and injured most of them as well. With one move, he had killed around another 100 crabs. 

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

....

[You have slain a dormant beast, Small poisonous crab]

Yet it did take its toll. 

The rest of his body was not augmented by the essence. He realized too late what the ramifications would be. Midway through he realised what a blunder he had made. 

The damage was two-fold, the shockwave and the internal vibration. This resulted in several of his organs failing and his brain receiving severe injury.His untempered body was also not ready to bear the load of so much essence.

"Ugggh, that was so stupid.Ugggh, I feel so dizzy."

His eardrums also burst because of this. Well, the pain was nothing he hadn't experienced before.

"Anyway, now the crabs are away. Time to see what's up with my hand."

He then canceled the armor and let it return to his soul sea. 

"What? What is that?"

His hands were black like they were bruised. The veins were black and overall it hurt a lot. 

'Ugh, that seems like a problem.'

And that was when he realized a couple of things. He remembered that in SS, no one directly absorbs the essence from the shards and just uses them to expand their core. 

He also remembered the scene from the anime My Hero Academia where the MC saw that in a microwave the food rotates to make the entire thing warm and not just specific parts. 

"Sigh, I need to get my entire body used to using essence."

"OK! Let's get my priority straight. One, Use essence throughout my entire body. Two, learn the way to get essence from wherever it comes from naturally. And lastly, make a core as soon as possible."

The third point was very important. Because keeping essence in his body without a core requires constant concentration. The moment he lets go of that, all that essence gets out of his body instantly. Not to mention that for storing a lot of essence a core is a must. 

There is a reason that all the divine aspect holders are so strong in the story. They have tons of essence to burn through compared to others. 

"Anyway, lets meditate and circulate essence throughout my body until it gets used to it."

Rake then summoned the armor and then he began to meditate. 

First, he circulated essence throughout his body. But his entire body was heavily damaged from the previous stunt. Circling essence throughout his body felt like pouring salt into internal wounds. It was horrifying, yet nothing for him. He had felt worse pain before.

The crabs returned. Rake was now once again in a crab mound. 

He was so concentrated on circulating essence throughout his body that he forgot about everything. Nothing seemed to bother him. 

Yet at some point, he had to stop.

Mainly because he was eaten alive by one of the many sandworms in the beach area. Nothing major. It was attracted by the previous explosion and then the scent of Rake. 

"Hmm, this is interesting. The armor is holding up well, but it's still melting slightly. Sigh, I can't lose the armor."

Rake unsommoned the armor and slowly let his body melt as he kept on circulating essence through his body. 

This time, due to the essence in his system, he lasted a lot longer than he should've. He was being melted for far longer than he would've otherwise. He also couldn't breathe during that time. It was mainly the lack of oxygen that killed him. Still, he lasted 30 minutes. By then his outer skin had melted and the acid had entered his bloodstream. 

It wasn't as bad as it seemed. Rake was used to this death. He had experienced it too many times.

[You have died. Your trial begins anew.]

**

Rake once again awoke in the Rocky Shore. But this time the area is not as he remembered.

The water.....had changed. 

'Rudy was killed by that poisonous knife memory that I had gotten from the crabs. Hmm.'

{AN: He calls the baby kraken Rudy}

"Dear Rudy, I will miss you. Thank you for your contribution to my future. I will treasure your armor. May you be delivered peace. Amen."

Rake said out loud in a vain sincere prayer.

Rake had wondered for a long time why he stopped getting any rewards from killing crabs. He got an amazing weapon from the first crab he killed. yet he got nothing from his subsequent killings. No memory, no echo, no nothing. But he remembered the description of the memory.

Memory: [Poisonous Pincer]

Memory Rank: Dormant

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Description: [A memory taken from the weakest beast. A poor crab. This memory was forced into existence by a higher power.]

Especially the part that said, [This memory was forced into existence by a higher power.]

He figured that this was a way for the entity that brought him here to give him a fighting chance. Yet he broke it instantly like a gigantic idiot. He could've killed many more monsters if he could keep it. 

And that was his hypothesis for why he couldn't get any more rewards from killing those crabs. It was a way to balance things.

"Anyway, what's up with the water?"

Rake said out loud from the small little rock that he was perched upon. 

'Wait, let's first get the armor.'

He put on the armor and then he got closer to the water.

It was completely black. He just saw darkness hidden within. 

He kept getting closer and closer to the water. Hoping to see what made the water black like this. It wasn't like ink. It wasn't that the water was tinted by something. Even if the water seemed clean, no light was reflecting back. 

It was like the water was filled with black sand.

Sand that moved....

'Wait! Sand that moves!!!!!'

And that was the moment that Rake realized that he had gotten too close to the water. 

He was jumped by countless small fish. Fishes with razor-sharp hook-like teeth that do not let go once they hold on to anything. 

He was instantly covered by one hundred such fishes. 

"Ahhh, piranhas, They are everywhere. Ahhh!!! They're gonna eat me!!! What am going to do!!!

Sike!"

He instantly concentrated all the essence that he had been circulating for a while and slammed his hands together. Creating a shockwave that sent all the small fishes flying and killing most of them.

Yes, he had learned how to absorb natural essence in the short time that he meditated. And now that he could circulate it throughout his body, it had gotten much much stronger than before. Strong enough to somewhat endure that shockwave.

All this is due to the power of the attribute [Talented].

"HA HA HA!!!! I will kill you all! How dare you try to eat me!!! Wait until I kill all 10 million of you!! HA HA HA."

Rake declared. And so did the spell as it whispered in Rake's ear.

[You have slain a dormant beast Ocean locust.]

[You have slain a dormant beast Ocean locust.]

....

[You have slain a dormant beast, Ocean locust.]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Ocean locust.]

[You have slain a dormant beast, Ocean locust.]

[You have received a memory]

[You have received an echo]

[You have received a memory]

...

[You have received a memory]

"HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Now we're talking!"