The battle was finally over.

The crocodile laid there inside the trap hole, dead without a doubt with its eyes out of focus like a dead fish that I gutted to eat every day.

The battle was hard fought keeping both me and Munnji at the tips of our feet all the time because if the crocodile made another attack like the one that hit me it would definitely be over for one of us.

It was definitely our hardest fight yet, even if we had such a handicap with the trap and the poison decreasing the crocodiles battle ability by at least 70% if not more. If the fight had been in the water or if we didn't have a way to attack the crocodiles belly where its defence was low or if we didn't take away the crocodiles mobility the fight would have been just like poking holes in water.

By that estimate you can definitely understand the crocodiles terrifying power.

.....

Munnji approached me swiftly right after the crocodile breathed its last.

“Are you okay?”

“Never been better.”

I answered while gritting my teeth trying to bear the piercing pain that came from my left hand.

“If this is another one of your sarcasms then now it’s really the time.”

“No , I’m just really glad it’s not my masturbation hand that got mangled up, he he.”

During my last attack I thrusted my hand into the crocodiles wound and released the water pressure to destroy it from the inside out making its outside defences useless, but in the process my hand that was inside the crocodile also got beat up pretty badly.

Red flesh and blood mangled up were all you could see because the hand had completely lost its normal shape. The fingers were twisted up in weird angles, some even looked like they had fused together making for a terrifying sight.

“Quickly, bring me to the corpse of the crocodile I need to absorb it so I can heal my wounds.”

“Okay, okay, just hold on.”

Munnji put my right hand on his shoulder and brought me in front of the now dead crocodile.

I reached my hand and immediately started to absorb it. Seemingly unlimited energy started to flow through my veins making me go into some state of ecstasy that I had never felt before. I was so overwhelmed by the pleasure that I didn’t even feel the pain of my hand healing.

When the absorption ended my hand was as good as new and my energy supply in the blue gem had increased by a quarter of its current volume.

I was surprised by the huge amount of energy the crocodile held into its body that was equal to me hunting for one month.

I got myself out of the daze I was in and looked up.

Munji was looking at me with a serious face.

“What? Do I have something in my face?”

“No. I have seen you make the corpses of the creatures you hunt into just skin and bones countless time, but every time you do it, it always amazes me.

Are all humans in your island able to do this? Because if they did, it would be truly a terrifying sight to see.”

“You don't have to worry about that, I’m the only one that can do this as far as I know.

Anyway we have to get going before other creatures come to find out what happened.”

Munnji went to put the raft on the river while I tried to find something valuable from the crocodile’s body. My findings were a red bead that was typically found inside the bodies of predators above certain strength but just bigger, at least three times bigger.

“This is definitely a good haul “

I put the red marble away and continued to search more thoroughly.

What I found were just a blue asymmetrical gem lodged inside where the brain of the crocodile was before I absorbed it. The gem was sky blue in colour the size of my fist and it seemingly held inside some type of liquid. It was very strange. The gem emendated almost pure water elemental energy.

“That seems to be a water element beast crystal.”

The voice of Munnji sounded from behind me.

“Water element beast crystal? What’s that?”

“It’s one type of elemental crystal that is found inside certain mutated beasts. It’s their equivalent of the elemental seed that humans and other humanoid creatures create in their soul space.

You see, mutated beast unlike humans don't enough have soul power to break their soul barrier and then form their elemental seed in it. They use a more primitive type of cultivation.

They cultivate in places where elemental energy is abundant. They live there for a long time letting the elemental energy change their bodies to be able to contain it. Then they slowly create a container for the elemental energy by crystallising their soul in the place most connected to the soul (the brain).

This is only able in creatures with tremendous vitality like this crocodile. If creatures without tremendous vitality or extreme regenerative abilities tried to absorb elemental energy without purifying it first they would suffer body elementialization.”

“What’s body elementialization? Is it that bad?”

“Well, bad would be to putting it lightly. If you are unfortunate to experience it the chances of you surviving are one in a million.

When you absorb raw elemental energy from the air and you are not able to contain or are not able to significantly reduce its side effects your body will immediately start the process of elementialization, meaning you turn into the element you were trying to absorb.

If you were to absorb raw earth elemental energy you would turn into a rock statue of yourself.”

After that explanation from Munnji I continued to harvest the crocodile’s scales because they looked pretty valuable and about an hour later we finally left, floating slowly in the river towards civilization.