The waves were still. The sea, silent.
Karim sat cross-legged on the deck of the small boat, his body still dripping with salt and blood. In front of him floated the purple ring of spirit energy, rotating slowly over the slain body of the Deep Water Spikeback.
He could feel its pressure — not just power, but will. The beast had died hard, and its remaining consciousness was trying to resist him.
> "Come, then," Karim whispered, his voice calm. "I didn't train in this sea for nothing."
He reached forward, drawing the 900-year-old spirit ring toward him.
---
🌀 Ring Absorption Begins
As the purple energy surged into his body, Karim's veins lit up like undersea currents — his muscles tensed, and his breath stopped.
The pain was immediate. Crippling.
> "Khh…!" he grunted, gripping his knees. "It's trying to break me."
Visions of the Spikeback's final moments flashed in his mind — its rage, its instinct, its violence. His body was rejecting the wild spirit essence, pushing it out. But Karim's spiritual force, honed through years of mental discipline and survival, pushed back.
He bit down until his gums bled.
> "I don't need to be gifted... I just need to outlast you."
---
💥 The Breakthrough
After nearly an hour of agony, Karim suddenly felt the resistance crack.
The spirit ring stabilized.
His Abyssal Tide Hammer glowed blue, the ocean around the boat rising slightly as if pulled by gravity.
Then it struck—a boom inside his mind.
A memory of the beast—of how it compressed water through its scales and expelled it explosively.
> That's it... not just strength... pressure.
And then, the skill was born.
---
⚒️ New Skill: Tidal Smash
Karim stood slowly. His legs ached, but his hammer pulsed with new life.
He walked to the far end of the boat, raised the Abyssal Tide Hammer, and brought it crashing down.
BOOOOM!
A shockwave of compressed water erupted from the point of impact, blasting outward in all directions. The boat rocked violently, and the sea exploded in white foam over a 10-meter radius.
Any creature in that area would've been crushed and slowed by the water's force.
> "It worked..." he whispered.
The hammer glowed briefly. The pressure in the air lingered.
> "I have my first step. And it was worth the wait."
---
🧠 Reflection
That night, Karim sat by the shore, watching the stars.
Most spirit masters took their first ring quickly — some at age 6, with beasts barely 100 years old.
But he had waited until 7. Waited until his body and mind were ready. Until he could survive the real thing.
And now?
He had a 900-year spirit ring as his first.
A purple ring when others were barely white or yellow.
And a skill born not of theory—but of battle and blood.
> "Step by step... Sea to forge. Forge to battlefield. Battlefield to divinity."
He smiled.
The path to godhood had begun.