Clang Clang Clang…

It had been nearly twelve hours since I had entered the ruin, and now I am fighting against five Ghouls, using both my hands and the vines.

What I am doing is extremely dangerous, and not to mention, these Ghouls had gotten stronger since when I came to this realm twelve hours ago, but the risk is worth it.

Fighting against these five Ghouls, I am under great physical and soul strain that now, I only needed a little less than ten minutes to digest a small vial of King Grade essence.

The strain helps attract more cosmic energy into me, which fights against essences and melt them to merge with my body, and now every ten minutes, more and more essences are being merged into my body.

Pachak Pachack!

I continued fighting against the Ghoul for twenty more minutes before suddenly binding the two Ghouls with my vines and decapitating them.

As I did, I ran away with Ghaoul chasing behind me madly; I could have killed the three Ghouls too, but I did not as I need them.

I had been fighting against them for little more than an hour, and if I had continued fighting, we would have attacked a few more Ghouls, which I do not want to happen, so I killed the two and made three follow me.

Ten minutes later, I stopped and began to fight again with the Ghouls. For half an hour, no Ghouls will come; after that, one or two will join in the next half an hour; in this location, I will fight for an hour or little more before killing half of the Ghouls and running 

Pachac Pachac Pachac…

Another fives hour passed when finally, I have bound the six Ghaouls Ive been fighting and decapitated them. 

I had constantly been fighting for more than half a day, and I begin to feel tired; these ghouls are quite a tough opponent and made me quite when I am fighting a long battle with them.

All tiredness worth it through; the exertion I go through while fighting with them makes digestion of essences faster, faster than comparing to fighting with humans of similar level strength.

Cosmic Energy's density is greater around Ghouls and closer to them; one gets in contact with that dense cosmic energy, thus making the digestion of the essence faster.

After storing the necrotic cores, I moved away from the battle scene, found a safe spot to set up an abode, and went inside.

As I entered the abode, my alert self finally relaxed, and armor had also vanished. I am alert every second when I am outside; only in a place like this would I let my guards down.

I directly went to shower and wash all the filth Ive accumulated before coming out and taking out food from my storage.

My appetite had increased again, which is not surprising seeing the improvements I have made in the past half a day. It is a good thing; I had researched well and prepared food with all levels of materials.

After I finished eating, I went to my bedroom and opened the control panel, and adjusted a few settings. Just as I did that, cosmic energy flooded in my bedroom; seeing that, I opened the two bottles of the essence and gulped the liquid present in them down before laying on the bed to sleep.

This Cosmic Energy is not harmful to the body as long as a counter of it is present. I have drunk the two bottle of herbal essences; they would be enough to counter the cosmic energy.

It is an extremely dangerous process; an academy had even prescribed the dosage of herbal essence to take when they sleep as not everyone has the space abode that could block off this strange cosmic energy.

I woke up exactly four hours later, freshened up, showered, and ate before walked out of the abode to start the new day.

Another day had passed by, and I again returned, but this time not to sleep but to practice. One and the half-day had passed, and I had acquired the necrotic core from the Ghoul that have 30% greater efficacy in 'Green Source' than the first one I had consumed.

The device again split open the necrotic core in a precise fashion, revealing a drop of watery liquid with a faint silver shine. 

The drop looked exactly like the one I had consumed before, but at closer inspection, one would see a slightly greater silvery sheen present in this 'Green Source' compared to one that I had consumed before.

I looked at it with a shaking hand before moving it toward my tongue, which is also shaking. The pain this 'Green Source' gave had made quite a big impression on me, and remembering the pain I had felt last time, I really don't want to consume it.

"Ahhh…"

With shaking tongue, I swiped that drop off the glass dish, and the next moment, the drop had turned to a flood of energy and spread through every part of my body, giving me pain that is far greater than last time.

My mind had instantly reached the breaking age; I felt like it could break at any time, and the thing is, I could do nothing against it other than bear it.

I wanted to use this opportunity to circulate the Supreme Combat Exercise, but the pain to much for me to do anything else.

I scremed as I bore the pain while wishing the pain to end soon, but it looked like god is in no hurry to accept my wish as the continued boring down on me.

After what felt like hours, the pain finally started lessening, and in a minute, it disappeared completely. 

When I looked at my holowatch, I saw only three and a half minutes have passed, similar to that of last time, which is not surprising. Only pain and efficacy of the 'Green Source' advance with time, not the time it took for consumption.