It didn't take Nereus long at all to finish off the scraps of the starfish he'd scavenged, and just like the barracuda meat it was thoroughly scarfed down chewy suckers and all.
But upon eating it all Nereus couldn't help but notice that the starfish meat wasn't nearly as delicious as the barracuda, nor did it seem to pack the same sea essence rich punch.
'Well at least it was somewhat filling, the barracuda were much better though....'
Just as he was preparing to rise up from his position on the floor of the small cave a sudden burning feeling arising from the depths of his gut grabbed his full attention and forced him to take a seat.
'Woah where'd all this sea essence come from?!' he wondered with a grit of his teeth as lines of concentration began to show on his forehead, 'Holy depths this energy is more potent than what I gained from the barracudas! Here we go again...'
Similar to before, he could feel rising levels of pain appearing all over his body as it worked to assimilate the surge of sea essence into his essence pool.
Nereus's onyx eyebrows knitted heavily in concentration as he worked to run the violent energy through his sea essence pathways and essence pool cyclically, this was how Sealockes further refined their sea essence.
His skin was as red as a tomato right now and he was in excruciating pain but he felt much better than he had moments before thanks to his quick thinking. He continued his cultivating as minute after minute passed while also running the smoother energy throughout his body.
The still fierce lava like energy initially scalded and threatened to burn Nereus's essence pathways and pool to crisps.
But after gradually absorbing the energy and taking his time refining it, the once tyrannical energy appeared to be now further strengthening Nereus's pathways and body.
Multiple branches of the essence pathways and even a small section of his sea essence pool now shone with an electric blue crystalline brilliance.
They were also much larger and thicker than before which would allow them to handle larger amounts of sea essence in the future, suffice to say Nereus was beginning to reap the benefits from the initially underwhelming starfish meat.
Things quietly continued like this for some time, leading to Nereus falling into a deep meditative state, but suddenly the thoroughly digested starfish released a seemingly final burst of potent sea essence.
Almost immediately half of his hair and it's strands began to slightly glow a brilliant shade of blue and his skin and pores oozed thick, smelly blood and impurities that instantly floated away from his being through the water.
By now even more of Nereus's essence pathways and now even his very bone marrow appeared like they were formed from shiny azure crystal.
However he himself did not feel any of these changes as he leisurely dreamt of swimming through the ocean in his full Leviathanic form.
Several hours later however he finally began to rouse as some of the miraculous changes around him began to settle down and a powerful and heavy aura descended from the cave out of nowhere.
The water and it's depths seemed to stand still for a moment as it became completely silent in all the surrounding area near the cave.
Simultaneously back in the cave Nereus had now opened his eyes causing the water and earth around him to violently vibrate as a flood of steam and bubbles seemed to erupt outward from the mouth of the cave.
Once the turbulent waters and bubbles calmed and dissipated, Nereus swam up from the cave floor as a heavy and intimidating aura seemed to seep from his pores.
His consciousness lazily tried to regain it's bearings as his memory and coordination slowly returned to him as well.
Then with slow movements he swished his tail and fins as he took in his body's changes.
He slowly moved his hands in front of him as a rapidly formed whirlpool began to dance accordingly to his hand's movements within the water before him.
"I-Impossible! I can now do the Vorteesi's trademark Aqua Art with hardly any impact to my sea essence stores?" Nereus gasped shocked, " And what a staggeringly violent whirlpool, it could most definitely rend flesh from bone at the speed it's spinning!"
Plunging his senses into his body, Nereus quickly began to check his inner condition when he noticed something that shocked him again.
His essence pathways had now more than doubled in size and appeared to be much more durable now as well. Furthermore, their surfaces had now turned sapphire blue and crystalline.
The most surprising change came from his essence pool as it had completely evolved.
After scanning his internal situation Nereus was pleasantly astonished to find out that his essence had too doubled in size.
The sea essence inside was also much more vigorous and purer than ever before now.
'Yes this is perfect!' he rejoiced inside as he realized this would make his attacks much more powerful as well as allow him to save more essence in Aqua Art casting.
"I-I've even broken through to the mid Wave Ruler rank !" Nereus said in shock and jubilation.
After just one day out hunting in the Open Sea Nereus had come out much stronger. His current self could not be compared to the him from a few days ago. It's like he was an entirely new merman.
His sea essence, pool, and pathways had been completely reforged!
Moreover, he had now broken through to the Wave Ruler rank and could feel the Reef Master rank wasn't too far off!
Nereus couldn't wait to test out his new strength as well as his new physique. He hadn't noticed much before because of his breakthrough but his body's appearance was much different from before as well.
Glancing down he noticed his skin was much smoother, blemish free, and had a shining tannish hue as if he was glowing . He could also see that his body was much more toned, muscular, and matured than before.
'That starfish was absolutely miraculous, I've only seen results like this from the saintly foods of the Northern Seas' Nereus thought to himself as he thought of the gains and gold he could possibly make from procuring more of the beasts.
"I simply must check that area for more later!" Nereus decided, "But there's somewhere else I have to investigate first..."