In the following days, Ash established a routine. Each morning, he went to the Dragon Den Gym to train fighting skills with the instructors. Afterward, he met Master Shen to learn the Roaring Dragon Fist.
Master Shen was utterly shocked when Ash told him it had only taken one night to reproduce the frequencies emitted by the harmony hummer and shatter glass cups with his voice. Beyond shock, he was grateful that fate had sent him such a monstrous talent, seemingly born for his vibrational martial arts style.
He changed his approach from guiding Ash step by step to seriously explaining the principles of the Roaring Dragon Fist and how to vibrate the body and aura.
To make body parts like hands, legs, and heart vibrate at specific frequencies, Master Shen introduced a method similar to the harmony hummer. This involved using a device akin to a massage chair. Ash would sit in this device, and Master Shen would randomly choose a certain frequency to start the 'massage.'
Ash's task was to get used to this vibration on his body and then try to reproduce it. The 'massage chair' would detect the frequency of his vibration. If he got it right, it would play a joyful song; if wrong, he'd receive a mild electric shock.
Ash, however, cheated his way through again. He ordered his body to gain the ability to vibrate at any frequency he wanted. This ability proved stronger than expected, taking two orders that consumed his entire aura before he could acquire it.
With the aid of this ability and his enhanced hearing, Ash quickly progressed to the final part of learning the Roaring Dragon Fist: vibrating his aura. Without the ability to vibrate his body, Ash would have taken years to master it. With his newfound power, it took him just twenty days to achieve mastery.
Master Shen was already questioning his life. The speed at which Ash mastered his lifelong years of research on vibrational martial arts shocked him to the core.
After 20 days, Ash and Kai had already reached the 190th floor of Heaven's Arena. They could have progressed faster, but Ash decided to slow down to improve his aura manipulation skill and expand his aura reserve. He used his Absolute Order to modify his own aura manipulation talent, improving it bit by bit each day, making his fundamental Nen techniques proficiency improve at an astonishing rate.
He also used Absolute Order to enhance his physical strength. Each night, he consumed his entire aura to strengthen his body, successfully reaching 30% of pre-Nen Killua's capabilities. He measured his current fist strength, which had reached 5 tons, and his speed had increased to 21 km/h.
Ash also improved Elsa's fitness and initiated her into Nen. He had changed his mind about letting her open her aura nodes on her own because both he and Kai sometimes left her alone when they fought in Heaven's Arena. Fearing she might be harassed, Ash decided to initiate her for peace of mind.
The conception of his Nen Ability was now complete. The only step left was to realize it.
Sitting on the bed, Ash reviewed all the information and details about his envisioned Nen ability: its shape, abilities, conditions, and restrictions.
"Hatsu!" Ash exclaimed, concentrating his aura in his hand and emitting it a few steps in front of him.
He closed his eyes and started imagining the shape of the Nen Beast he wanted to create. To avoid any accidents, he used Absolute Order to improve his focus.
Ash's aura gathered into the shape of a ball. Slowly, the white sphere started morphing into a semi-translucent, gelatinous slime with a gentle iridescence, its surface reflecting a kaleidoscope of colors.
This Nen beast was now just an empty shell. Ash needed to embody it with the abilities he desired.
The conditions to successfully embody powers in conjured things are to have a strong desire, a clear vision of what you want to achieve, and to set up conditions and limitations.
This iridescent slime was Ash's envisioned Nen beast. He called it The Great Devourer.
This Nen beast was bred from Ash's deepest subconscious thoughts, representing the concept of devouring. It was inspired by a manga he had read in his previous life called "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime." The protagonist, Rimuru, was a slime with a unique skill that allowed him to devour anything, acquire abilities, and continue evolving, quickly becoming incredibly strong.
Ash's desire for his Nen beast was to devour things containing life energy, Nen, aura—whatever one might call it. The Nen beast would then refine this energy and feed it back to him, similar to the Nen beast of Kakin's Princess Camilla Hui Guo Rou, which could extract life energy from those who killed Camilla and use it to resurrect her.
The life energy fed back to Ash would increase his aura quantity and expand his aura reserve quickly. Another objective he wanted this slime Nen beast to achieve was the ability to store life energy, so that when he needed energy for Absolute Order, he could use it instead of consuming his own.
"The Great Devourer, I order you to have the following abilities," Ash began, focusing intently on the iridescent slime.
The reason why he used absolute order to forge his Nen ability is to avoid any deviation caused by his subconscious mind that may affect the end result he desires.
"First, you must be able to devour my own aura or anything else that contains life energy and store it in your stomach's pocket dimension. You can only devour targets with lower resistance than your devouring force. The devouring force is related to the amount of aura I input and the difference in strength between me and the target."
"The target's size must not be bigger than your stomach's pocket dimension. The amount you can devour is related to how much your pocket dimension can hold."
"After the target is devoured, you must extract and refine its life energy into a liquid clean of any resentments, curses, or negative traits. The speed of refining the life energy liquid is related to the difference in strength and aura quantity. Once this process starts, you can't devour anything else until you finish refining, but I can stop the refining process whenever I want. Also, by infusing my aura, I can speed up the refining process."
"You will unconditionally devour half of the life energy of any object you've refined, and it will be used to grow your pocket dimension size and increase your speed of refining."
Ash looked at the iridescent slime and launched his Absolute Order, stating all his ideas about the Great Devourer's abilities.
"I swear with my ability to use Nen at stake that I'll never use the Great Devourer against innocent living beings. I'll only use it against those who want to harm me and have malicious intent towards me. In exchange for this commitment, I bind this vow to the very essence of The Great Devourer, empowering it to grow stronger and more efficient in its use."
After making this vow, the Great Devourer started glowing with a colorful light, its shape wiggling. A few moments later, the colorful glow dissipated.
Ash looked at the Great Devourer, which had transformed from an empty shell into something more akin to a living being. With a thought, Ash instructed the Great Devourer to come to him.
The iridescent, cute slime crawled like a snail toward Ash's hand. He held the tiny slime in his palm, feeling its softness and bounciness.
"Not bad," Ash mused. "It feels like something I love very much."
Ash nodded in satisfaction, thinking that whenever he felt bored or had nothing to do, squeezing the Great Devourer would be a good way to relieve stress.
Ash began injecting his aura into the Great Devourer. The iridescent slime started shining with a colorful light, and the moment Ash's aura touched its gelatinous surface, it disappeared immediately, absorbed like water into a sponge.
Closing his eyes, Ash focused on his connection to the Great Devourer. Although it appeared to be an independent entity, it was, in fact, just an extension of Ash. He could control it at will and feel the sensations transmitted through it. Unfortunately, the Great Devourer didn't have eyes yet, but Ash was already contemplating further abilities he could incorporate to cover various flaws and make it truly similar to Rimuru Tempest.
Through their shared connection, Ash peered into the Great Devourer's stomach pocket dimension. The space was a perfect cube, each side measuring exactly one meter. It resembled Knov's fourth-dimensional room but with a more organic and otherworldly feel. The walls weren't rigid or fixed but seemed to pulse and shift slightly. The interior had a faint, luminescent colorful glow. Soft light diffused through the semi-transparent membrane-like walls, casting gentle, wavering shadows that made the space seem larger than it was.
The air inside was still and slightly humid, carrying a subtle, almost imperceptible vibration, like the faint hum of a living creature's breath. The floor was smooth, almost liquid-like, but firm enough to support objects without letting them sink.
The small amount of Ash's white aura entered the pocket dimension and floated gently, as if suspended in a low-gravity environment.
Ash's aura was already depleted from the order he had issued, so he waited a bit until he recovered some and continued feeding the Great Devourer. Slowly, the pocket dimension filled with a white mist that covered almost one-third of the space.
"I can choose whether to refine it or keep it like this," Ash mused. "Because it's my own aura, I won't have any problem letting it enter my body, so it's pointless to refine it. But for outside sources, they must be refined into life energy liquid. I don't want to be contaminated with any negative resentments, curses, or other harmful energies."
Ash decided to treat the Great Devourer as his own aura power bank. Since it wasn't refined, he wouldn't need to pay half of it to the slime. When he needed to strengthen his body, fight, or issue important orders, he would use this stored energy.
"Sigh, if only there were some items with life energy I could test the—" Ash didn't finish his sentence as he suddenly recalled that he had such an item in his inventory.
Reaching into the void, Ash grabbed the Compass of Desires.
Looking at this satanic compass, which only God knew how many lives had been sacrificed to create, Ash felt it was only natural to transform it into life energy liquid.
Ash knew that the beliefs he had embodied in the life energy liquid would make it useful in various situations. According to his understanding, the life energy liquid—or "liquid of life," as he began to think of it—could be used for healing, recovering energy, and even safely initiating normal people into Nen users.
Moreover, because it was the liquid of life, drinking it frequently would slow aging and extend longevity. With a sufficient amount, Ash could prolong his own life, help those he cared about, or simply sell it at a high price to wealthy individuals.
If he could turn this evil compass, containing a huge amount of aura, into the liquid of life, his gains would be tremendous. There would be no loss because the compass's function could be replicated using Absolute Order. If Ash wanted to find something, as long as he had the equivalent amount of energy, he could order his body or anything else to go towards it or teleport to it directly.
Absolute Order was simply omnipotent. Ash was already starting to feel bored about his future, envisioning that in a few years, anything he wanted would be achieved with a mere thought. It was like playing a game on easy mode—no, he was playing in creative mode. Cool for a while, but bound to become boring later.
Ash watched intently as The Great Devourer enveloped the Compass of Desires. The iridescent slime's surface rippled and shimmered as it pulled the artifact into its gelatinous body. Once fully engulfed, the compass vanished from sight, transported to the pocket dimension within the Nen beast's core.
Closing his eyes, Ash focused on his connection to The Great Devourer. In his mind's eye, he saw the dark, blood-red compass suspended within the colorful, pulsating space of the slime's interior. The artifact seemed to throb with an ominous energy, a testament to the countless lives sacrificed in its creation.
"Begin the refinement," Ash commanded.
The pocket dimension's walls began to undulate more rapidly, creating waves of iridescent light that washed over the compass. Slowly, tendrils of energy started to seep from the artifact, like wisps of crimson smoke. The Great Devourer's interior pulsed rhythmically, drawing out the malevolent aura.
As the process continued, Ash could sense the resistance. The compass seemed to fight back, its bloody hue intensifying as if trying to retain its power. But The Great Devourer was relentless, its purification ability slowly breaking down the dark energy into its purest form.
Hours passed, and Ash observed the gradual transformation. The crimson wisps were being filtered, stripped of their malice and resentment. Droplets of clear, shimmering liquid began to form, each one containing purified life energy. These droplets coalesced into a small, growing pool at the bottom of the pocket dimension.
"Too slow," Ash muttered, dissatisfied with the speed of refining.
The Great Devourer obviously wasn't able to fully extract all the life energy from the Compass of Desires anytime soon. After all, it had existed for a long time and contained a strong amount of resentment. So Ash decided to help it.
Using the refined energy, he issued an order to the compass to forcibly expel all of its life energy and weaken its resistance.
Visible to the naked eye, the compass began to change. Its sinister red color faded, the metal losing its luster as the life energy was extracted. What was once an artifact of immense and terrible power was slowly reduced to a mundane, worn-out object.
As the final drops of life energy were refined, Ash felt a surge of satisfaction. The pocket dimension now contained a significant amount of pure life energy liquid, gently glowing and tempting Ash's instincts to swallow it. His body, on its own, craved this liquid, recognizing it as a key to unlocking his hidden potential and evolving into a higher-level life form.
Half of the life energy liquid was immediately absorbed by The Great Devourer, causing it to grow significantly in size and vibrancy. The pocket dimension's space expanded to 10 cubic meters, and the refining speed doubled.
The remaining liquid hovered in the space, ready for Ash's use.
The compass, now a dull and ordinary object, floated lifelessly in the corner of the pocket dimension. But as it was, in the end, a product conjured by Nen, it soon turned to particles and disappeared from existence.
Ash opened his eyes, a small smile on his face.
The Great Devourer had performed its task perfectly, turning the satanic and harmful compass into a valuable resource. He knew that this refined life energy would prove invaluable in the near future.