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Diana's strength had always been immense. Ethan had known this for a long time. Her precise control over that power was also thanks in part to his guidance.

It was exactly because Diana could control her power so well that, after their reunion, Ethan had no real sense of just how strong she had become.

That is, until now.

Watching the creature called Life, Ethan finally had a clear understanding. Under Diana's assault, the protective energy surrounding Life visibly fluctuated with every strike, unable to fully offset the force behind her punches. The creature was being violently shaken again and again, and now, with the vine that had been continuously supplying it with vitality severed, it was in an unprecedentedly pitiful state.

When Diana's final punch drove Life into the ground, the relentless and brutal barrage came to a temporary halt. Only then were Ethan and the others able to clearly observe the current condition of the creature called Life.

"It's really a mess."

Wounds covered its body, and where it had been smashed into the ground by Diana's final blow, a massive crater had formed. The imprint of her fist was clearly visible.

"Why... why... reject... eternal... eternal... life..."

Life struggled to rise again from the ground. But in the face of the mighty Diana, he had no effective means left. Even with his powerful regenerative ability, the damage suffered over such a short period of time was too much. His healing couldn't keep up, leaving him unable to recover to his previous state instantly.

And now that the vine had been severed, Ethan could feel that the creature's energy fluctuations had significantly weakened. He also noticed another important detail.

The life energy that he had previously been unable to mobilize or extract was now gradually becoming accessible following the disconnection of the vine.

"Why is this guy facing us in this form?"

By any measure, revealing this form was a critical mistake.

"Unless... he had no choice but to use this form?"

Ethan walked up to Life, who had been trying to get up but was once again stomped back into the crater by Diana. Looking down at the creature, Ethan casually responded to the earlier question.

"Because we don't want to die."

His answer seemed to leave Life in a daze, but he stubbornly replied, "Becoming... Life... is not... death..."

"To lose yourself is to die."

Ethan stared at the creature in front of him, having no interest in debating philosophical topics like existence or the nature of death. Thanks to Diana's destruction of the energy that had been shielding it, Ethan could now carefully observe the creature's life form. What he discovered was that there was indeed a soul within it. Compared to a normal human, that soul was both incredibly strong and pitifully weak.

It was strong in that it contained an enormous amount of energy. But the spiritual core—the part that bore the imprint of self—was extremely fragile, even weaker than a newborn's.

"A massive amount of energy gave rise to self-awareness for some reason…"

After some observation, Ethan could only come to this conclusion. He remembered that this sea area harbored all sorts of powerful creatures, presenting great danger to adventurers. Some of these beings were even capable of hunting adventurers as prey. The creature in front of him, if given more time, could probably have evolved into that kind of entity.

Unfortunately, it was unlucky enough to run into Ethan's group—or rather, to run into Diana, whose energy level absolutely dwarfed its own.

With Life's energy intensity, even if Ethan could eventually defeat it, it would have taken a lot of effort. If this creature had any sense of retreat, Ethan might not have been able to kill it at all.

However, with Diana's arrival, Life had no chance of survival. Even its once impenetrable energy defenses were no match for her higher-level divine power, and its vulnerabilities were laid bare before Ethan's eyes.

Upon discovering how fragile Life's spiritual core was, Ethan chose to destroy it using spiritual attack magic. Once the spiritual core was gone, the being in front of him would no longer be a living creature, just a mass of energy.

To be safe, Ethan didn't use his own spiritual power or mana. Instead, he relied on the magic from the Book of Inheritance to launch the attack.

As expected, the spiritual core of this self-proclaimed "Life" was unbelievably weak. Faced with Ethan's magical assault, it couldn't resist at all. It was completely obliterated in an instant. Diana's prior destruction of its defensive energy had certainly contributed, but the core itself was far too fragile.

Ethan suspected that its consciousness had only just formed and that it had originally been hiding in the plant to grow and develop, until he and the others discovered and awakened it.

Logan, now recovered, and Cleo also walked over. Seeing the now lifeless Life lying on the ground, both were curious about what Ethan had just done.

After Ethan explained his discovery and actions, the two of them were left speechless.

"That thing we couldn't kill just a moment ago… died just like that?"

Cleo was particularly stunned. He had honestly thought they were done for. Then a woman suddenly appeared and beat the creature to a pulp, yet even then, the monster didn't seem fatally injured. But after she suppressed it, the captain—Ethan—just stood in front of it for a bit, and it died?

"If you had a way to kill it, why didn't you use it earlier?"

"Because it was protected by a constant flow of energy. I couldn't detect how fragile its spiritual core was."

Ethan pointed at Diana as he explained why he was able to finish it off so easily.

"If Diana hadn't destroyed its energy defenses, even if I discovered its core, I wouldn't have been able to strike it."

Diana's ability to crush Life's energy wasn't just due to her superior strength. Divine power is a higher-tier energy, which naturally suppresses lower forms of energy more effectively.

Ethan didn't elaborate further, as there was no need to explain these details to outsiders. What he said was enough to satisfy Cleo's curiosity.

After dispatching the enemy, the group took a short break, though they remained alert. The massive plant nearby was still rooted in place. Ethan observed it carefully for a while and eventually confirmed that it was simply a plant. Aside from the vitality it previously contained, even the immense psychic pressure from before was now gone.

"That mental power belonged to the creature called Life."

Ethan wasn't about to let the remains of Life go to waste. In addition to its immense vitality, the most valuable part to him was its powerful mental energy. He had just observed that this energy was extremely pure, an excellent supplement for someone like him.

As for the massive plant itself…

After conducting a more thorough inspection, Ethan finally discovered the source of the mutation.

"This is a magic stone mine."

Everyone gathered near the roots of the plant, where Ethan had dug a shallow pit. Twisting through the roots were visible veins of ore.

"These magic stones seem to have been drained of energy."

Diana had no knowledge of magic stones, and Logan only understood the basics. Cleo, however, was quite familiar with them. He pulled out a magic stone and confirmed that it no longer contained any energy. The mine in front of them was essentially a depleted one.

"That's right. The energy has been completely absorbed by the plant." Although the stones were empty, there were still faint traces of aura lingering, which allowed Ethan to confirm that the properties of the magic stones aligned with the life energy of the plant.

This plant was very likely the Fruit of Life that Cleo had mentioned earlier. It just happened to grow on a vein of life-energy-infused magic stones. The two underwent an incredible reaction, resulting in a mutation and eventually, the birth of self-awareness.

Ethan suspected that other factors might have played a role in this new life form emerging within the Fruit of Life. It had developed an unusually powerful spiritual presence.

As for what the exact factor was, Ethan had no idea. He doubted the lifeform itself even knew.

"That's probably what happened."

After Ethan shared his theory, Cleo agreed. In a sea as strange as this one, occurrences like this weren't unusual. The creature was a monster that had just been born, but they discovered it before it could grow and wiped it out.

"This part of the route is near the front. If that thing had grown up, who knows how many adventurers would have been killed?"

Unlike the middle or back sections, the front of the route was frequented by average-level adventurers. Against a monster like that, they wouldn't have stood a chance. Their only fate would have been to be "converted into life" by the creature.

Ethan sighed. This monster had been wiped out early. Was that lucky or unlucky? Based on the data, such powerful beings rarely appeared in the front part of the route. And yet on their first visit, they had already run into one. Was that bad luck?

But then again, Diana had been with him. What should have been a life-and-death battle ended up feeling more like spectating from the sidelines. That was definitely lucky.

More importantly, what lay before them was something extremely useful.

"We can't waste all this life energy."

After extensive inspection, Ethan confirmed that all the "resources" on this island had been transformed into "life" by the plant. That meant there was only one resource here—life energy. And fortunately, there was a way to collect all of it.

Coincidentally, Ethan just happened to know the right kind of magic.

"Guess my trip to the Caribbean world wasn't in vain."

(To be continued.)

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