Whoop!
Gravis summoned some edible parts of the fish he had killed earlier and shoved them into his mouth. Then, he watched his stomach for a couple of minutes.
'It's being digested, but it takes quite a long time. I think it should be more efficient to hunt weaker Demonic Beasts and eat the fish later,' he judged.
Whoop!
The massive flounder disappeared as Gravis recalled it into his Life Ring. Keeping it outside would only be detrimental. The Demonic Beasts might flee at the sight of this massive flounder. After that, he used his Spirit to shoot himself upward.
With his ridiculous speed, it took only a couple of seconds until he reached a part where the pressure wasn't overwhelming. However, that pressure had stopped being relevant after he had reached the power of a Demonic Beast anyway.
'Speaking of, the ferocious beasts probably have it quite difficult at the bottom of the ocean. The pressure makes it really hard for them, though I only saw crustaceans at the bottom of the ocean. Their hard outer shell probably makes it easier to hunt there.'
'Yet, on the other hand, the ferocious beasts might not even hunt. I think they mostly gain their power by eating the falling leftovers,' Gravis thought as he saw some meat falling down beside him. 'I guess most of them eat these leftovers until they become powerful enough to actually hunt by themselves.'
'Yet, I wonder where the fish and eels become powerful. Fish and eels don't have such a powerful outer layer. So, there should be some area where they gain their strength,' Gravis thought as he looked around him.
'They are probably further away from the world's core where the Energy density is lower. No Spirit Beast or Energy Beast would be interested in staying there.'
Gravis shook his fleshy alligator head. 'Let's focus on getting stronger for now. Analyzing the workings of the world can wait,' he thought as he looked at his surroundings.
Surprisingly, the density of beasts was way lower than on the bottom of the ocean. Gravis only saw two Demonic Beasts inside his Spirit Sense. One of them was a rather big fish, while the other one was a kraken. The big fish looked like it had just eaten something.
'Middle-rank and high-rank,' Gravis estimated. 'I should be able to digest a middle-rank Demonic Beast without any issues.'
CRK! CRK!
Both beasts were torn apart by Gravis' Spirit. Then, he summoned them into his Spirit Space and resummoned the fish parts. After separating edible from inedible again, he shoved as much as he could of the fish into his stomach.
'And I'm feeling bloated again,' Gravis thought in frustration. Yet, that didn't deter him. He looked at his stomach for a couple of minutes and saw that the fish was being digested many times faster than the stronger one he had tried previously.
'I can work with this. Should only take around two hours,' he thought with satisfaction. 'Anyway, I should hunt some more. Better hunt enough to reach the next evolution. I think it should take around two beasts, one rank higher than my body, to rank up. So, I need one more middle-rank Demonic Beast and two more low-rank Energy Beasts. After that, I just have to eat and wait.'
Gravis used his Spirit to shoot himself through the water and found some other beasts after a minute. Even though the population looked rather scarce, it wasn't a problem to find food with Gravis' insane speed. Yet, it still took him another five minutes to actually find a middle-rank Demonic Beast.
After collecting that beast, Gravis looked and charged upward. The ocean was pretty deep, and Gravis had previously already ascended by about 20 kilometers. Yet, there was still no light.
After ascending another 20 kilometers, Gravis saw more beasts. They were Demonic Beasts, and their ranks were varied. Gravis couldn't see a pattern of strength. Since he didn't need Demonic Beasts anymore, he quickly shot past them.
After another ten kilometers, Gravis saw his first Energy Beast. It was a 50-meter-long orange fish. 'Man, eating that will take forever. I should find some smaller Energy Beasts,' Gravis thought as he ignored the fish.
The bodies of beasts were equally powerful in total. Their size made no difference. The only difference would be over how much mass the power would be distributed. An Energy Beast that was only two-meters-long had the same amount of power as one that was 200-meters-long. It was just more compressed.
After another ten kilometers, Gravis finally saw some light. 'The surface shouldn't be far,' he thought, and sure enough, only a couple of kilometers further, Gravis jumped out of the ocean into the air.
After coming out of the water, Gravis hovered in the air. His body wasn't nearly as heavy as his previous one. So, flying wasn't an issue to him right now. Though, that would probably become impossible after he became a Spirit Beast.
Gravis looked around for a bit but could only see ocean as far as the eye could see. 'No sign of any beasts at the Unity Realm or higher. I am probably nowhere near the actual continent. Well, better for me, I suppose,' he thought as he shot along the surface of the water.
Without the water's resistance, his speed multiplied. He kept checking all the beasts inside the water with his Spirit, but after some seconds, he found a problem.
'I need air!' Gravis thought. 'Or, more like, I need water. My body is still required to breathe.'
Splash!
Gravis charged into the water, protecting his body with his Spirit, and took a deep breath. Then, he jumped out again and continued flying. He repeated this process many times on his journey.
CRRRK! Whoop!
After around two minutes, Gravis found a shark that was only five meters long, and it was an early-rank Energy Beast, perfect for him. 'Got one,' Gravis thought as he tore it apart and summoned it into his Spirit Space.
A couple of minutes later, Gravis found another beast. It was a 20-meter-long eel, but it should be easy enough to eat since its body was very thin. This shouldn't take more than five sittings. After killing that eel and summoning it into his Spirit Space, Gravis stopped moving. 'Got everything,' he thought with satisfaction.
Splash!
Gravis went back into the water and shot at the floor again. After arriving, he checked the surroundings with his Spirit. 'No living being around, not even ferocious beasts. This is probably the turf of a powerful Spirit Beast.'
'Eh, doesn't matter.'
Whoop!
The flounder appeared again. "Don't let anything get close to me, and if you see something that can put up a fight against you, inform me," Gravis informed it.
"Yes, master," it sent back. Then, it started to patrol the surroundings.
Meanwhile, Gravis just laid down on the ground, doing nothing. His whole hunt had only taken a couple of minutes. So, his earlier snack was nowhere near digested. 'Well, time to look at the CMO some more,' Gravis thought.
And like that, Gravis spent the whole day eating. One stomach-full of food one rank higher than him took two hours to digest. Yet, the beasts became increasingly bigger as his rank increased. This made his advancements slow quite a bit. At least, it would have.
It took around half a day of eating before he became a middle-rank Demonic Beast. At that time, his body itched again, but he only grew bigger. Apparently, he wasn't able to control his body's evolution inside ranks. He would just grow bigger and more powerful.
After becoming a middle-rank Demonic Beast, Gravis was now over ten meters long. He didn't like being that big, but it had one advantage. His stomach was also bigger now. With that, he could eat more food.
After another couple of hours, he advanced into a high-rank Demonic Beast. He grew bigger again and was now 20-meters-long.
'Man, being so big makes everything cumbersome,' Gravis thought in frustration. Yet, he didn't despair. After all, he could just reduce his size again later.
Luckily, he had caught only small Energy Beasts. With his new size, he could swallow them in one bite. Though, the digestion took longer too since it was more Energy. Digesting such a beast took over 14 hours!
Gravis also slept a couple of times between eating, but he hated it. Sleep seemed like such a waste of time to him.
By now, Gravis had been in the middle world for three days.
Whooom!
'Oh, it's time!' Gravis thought.
He was about to become an Energy Beast.