Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis grumbled for several minutes about his body. 'An electric eel? Really?' he thought with frustration. 'Is this some kind of joke?'

Gravis blew some more bubbles in frustration. 'Anyway, I'm stuck with it now. I can change it however much I want in the future. At least, the body is only at the level of a ferocious beast.'

'Actually, the more I'm thinking about it, the more I think that it wasn't Heaven that made me inhabit this body. The highest Heaven probably won't allow the same mistake to happen again. It probably still keeps an eye on this middle Heaven and me. I think that's just my lack of Karmic Luck.'

'I remember that the first time I appeared in the lower world, I have been transported to the top of a volcano. Since I still had my Elemental Synchronicity at that time, this couldn't have been considered bad luck,' Gravis thought as he tried to scratch his chin, unsuccessfully.

'If Heaven chose my body, I would probably have entered a body that was already at the Unity Realm. At that point, I wouldn't be able to achieve Unity again, making my path more difficult in the future. I wonder, does a lack of Karmic Luck work in the way that it chooses the thing worst for me, or something that the majority of people would consider bad luck?'

Gravis thought about this for a while.

'Enemies are good for me, yet, I still run into them, even though I would count that as lucky instead of unlucky. I guess most people would think it's bad luck if they were transported into an electric eel at the bottom of the food chain.'

'Yet, that's good for me. I have a lot of time and evolutions to redesign my body. Interesting,' he thought.

Whoom!

Gravis used his Will-Aura to stop a fish that was just about to swallow him. It was rather huge with a body length of over 20 meters. 'High-grade Demonic Beast,' Gravis judged. 'That would be pretty devastating to a newcomer inside the body of a ferocious beast.'

The fish remained still inside the water as Gravis' Will-Aura was delicately suppressing it. He didn't want to completely destroy it. After all, he needed food to survive and become stronger.

Leisurely, Gravis tried out his new body. Moving his fin wasn't an issue, but the new flexibility of his body felt weird. His signals were being sent to entirely different places. When Gravis tried to bend to the right slightly, he felt his whole body coil. It was like his chest was going all the way to his tail.

After some minutes of trying out his new body, he turned to the still-frozen fish. 'Time to eat,' he thought.

He swam around the fish to inspect it. 'Am I just supposed to bite into it? I haven't eaten raw meat before. I wonder if it tastes different to beasts.' Some more bubbles came out of his gills as he sighed. 'Well, let's just try it.'

Clank!

'Ouch!' Gravis thought as his teeth bounced off of the fish's scales. 'Seems like I can't bite something off of the fish. The power difference is too vast.'

Another frustrating thing was that Gravis wasn't able to weaken his lightning. As soon as he entered his new body, the inherent connection between his centers of power had vanished. Apparently, Unity wasn't possible without all three centers of power working together.

Gravis analyzed the fish more. He looked into its mouth. 'I could eat the tongue,' he thought. Then, he moved to its back and saw its behind. If he were a human, he would show a conflicted look right now. 'The ass is also a weak part…'

Then, Gravis shook his head. 'I won't eat some ass,' he thought. 'Anyway, let's first kill it.'

CRRR!

A tearing sound could be heard as Gravis' Spirit tore the fish's brain apart, killing it immediately. Gravis also tore the tongue from its mouth with his Spirit and made it float in front of him. Then, he bit into it.

His teeth bit into the tongue, but he couldn't even draw blood. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't tear the tongue apart. After some seconds of trying, Gravis released some bubbles as he groaned. 'Change of plans.'

CRRR!

The whole fish was torn apart into tiny pieces, which quickly vanished as they got absorbed by his Spirit Space. 'I'll just swallow them whole. It's like using a knife and fork.'

Gravis summoned a small piece of meat and shoved it into his stomach with his Spirit. Then, he watched. Gravis still felt hungry due to the small size of the piece of meat, but he didn't know what would happen if a beast ate meat that was way above its league. So, he first wanted to see what would happen to the current piece.

After some minutes, his stomach started digesting the meat, or, at least, it tried to. Sadly, his stomach wasn't able to digest this meal. When Gravis saw no progress after several more minutes, he groaned again and shoved the piece of meat out of his stomach.

'Great, so I have to find weaker prey,' he thought as he looked up. 'I'm not sure if the beasts at the surface are more powerful or weaker, but I'm sure of one thing.' Gravis looked down. 'I saw a ferocious beast at the bottom. So, I should check down there first.'

So, Gravis swam downward. Yet, he wasn't very fast. Seeing his slow progress, Gravis groaned again. 'Okay, fuck this.'

Whooom!

Gravis used his Spirit to shoot himself through the water. At the same time, he also used his Spirit to move the water to the side. Like this, his body wouldn't get destroyed by the water resistance or pressure. 'Why didn't I think of this before?' he thought.

After some seconds, he reached the floor again. He also saw the small particles of the former crab. Gravis decided against eating that. The previous crab could only be described as dust now, which probably didn't taste very good.

Gravis inspected his surroundings with his Spirit and quickly found some other crabs and similar animals. He also found a tasty looking flounder, but…

'Low-grade Spirit beast,' Gravis judged. 'Maybe the beasts at the bottom are stronger after all. Maybe the crabs can only survive down here since the powerful beasts don't care about them. I doubt that any Energy Beast or stronger would care about such weak prey.'

Yet, Gravis wanted to test his hypothesis. Using his body, he slowly swam to the flounder and circled above it. Sure enough, the flounder didn't react at all. After some more seconds of circling, Gravis stopped above the flounder.

Whoom!

A small ring appeared in front of Gravis, and he held it with his teeth. It was the Life Ring. 'Time to harvest!' he thought.

SSSSSHHH!

The sound of rapidly moving water appeared as all the ferocious beasts in a ten-kilometer-radius shot into his ring. Absorbing such weak beasts was as easy as breathing to Gravis. Though, he didn't have a lung. So, breathing might actually not be that easy.

The flounder noticed the commotion and locked onto Gravis. What was this weak eel doing? Actually, it didn't matter. This weak eel had disturbed its rest.

The flounder shot upward at Gravis, but instead of biting him, it was also absorbed into the ring. 'Sucks to be you,' Gravis thought.

His Life Ring didn't only have land, but also a humongous sea. Keeping all these animals there wouldn't be an issue. The flounder was incredibly confused for a second but then immediately knew that its master had summoned it to its home. This Life Ring was its home, and it would serve its master.

Seeing that there were no more ferocious beasts inside his Spirit's range, Gravis tried to smirk but failed. With a nod of satisfaction, Gravis summoned one of the crabs and tore it apart with his Spirit. He quickly separated the edible from the inedible parts. For information, Gravis considered the organs as inedible. The worms and beasts weaker than ferocious beasts would surely be happy about his leftovers.

Then, Gravis shoved the whole crab into his stomach. 'Okay, this might've been a little much,' he thought as he felt bloated. However, his stomach quickly went to work. In comparison to the previous time, his new meal was being dissolved.

Yet, Gravis frowned, or, at least, he tried to. 'I remember that Skye achieved a swift breakthrough after eating, but this digestion is taking forever. Does the digestion speed up the more powerful I become?' Gravis mused.

Some more bubbles came out of his gills as he sighed. 'Well, I can't accelerate that. Might as well make myself comfortable here,' he thought.

So, Gravis laid down on the soft sand.

'Wow, I actually feel sleepy. It's been forever since I slept,' he thought. 'It seems like this body requires sleep.'

Whoop!

The massive flounder appeared. It was actually over 200 meters long and quite chunky. Even though Skye was way stronger than this flounder, the flounder would tower over her.

"Master," the flounder transmitted to Gravis.

"Protect me while I sleep. If you see anything you can't deal with, wake me up," he transmitted back.

"No worry, master. This my turf, oh, your turf!" it transmitted. Spirit Beasts weren't very smart, so its transmission was just barely coherent.

Gravis wanted to be careful. His body was weak, and if some beast assaulted him while he slept, he might actually die. Gravis also used his Spirit to keep the pressure at bay. Something as simple as that didn't require any conscious effort. It would even work while he slept.

So, like this, Gravis went to sleep for the first time in several years.