Before leaving this forest, Finn wanted to understand how his Rune Gift worked first. It was obvious to him that earning this gift and understanding it would put him miles above the average.
He didn't know how to go about it, but maybe it was his intuition or through the Gift's weird guidance, Finn could identify somethings.
Within this territory, the spider had killed multiple creatures. These blue ethereal beings that were aimlessly wandering around this area were the remnant soul essence of the recently dead.
They were called Echoes of the dead, and right now, they were the basis of Finn's ability.
[Echo Absorption: You can absorb Echoes, turning it to energy that you can use.]
As Finn absorbed one of these Echoes, he felt it enter his core and took the space. It was like mana energy, but it was different.
Finn looked around, then decided to absorb all the echoes in this region. He needed to go closer to them to absorb them so it took a bit of running around to complete.
The more he absorbed, the more space they occupied in his core and the less mana energy he had. Finn couldn't help but sigh seeing how core capacity came to play here.
He also grasped the concept of this Echoes.
The quality of these Echoes differ, and it seems to be determined by how long the Echo has been wandering and how strong the Echo's original soul was before it died.
After Finn finished absorbing the echoes, he returned to the area where he had fought the spider.
The echo energy he had absorbed was taking about 8% of his core capacity.
Finn, still in the slime-like human form, then walked towards the corpse of the Spider.
There was more to unfold regarding his Rune Gift abilities.
With his first gift skill, [I See You], Finn was able to see most things relating to souls, and he could see something at the corpse of this spider.
Minutes after he killed the spider, while he was absorbing the echoes, Finn saw a blue ethereal essence-different from the mana that was exuded-leak out of the spider's corpse.
He wanted to patiently wait to see what would happen, that was when he felt like he could speed up the process. Feeling that this might be one of the best opportunities he would get to test his abilities, Finn went along with it.
His body moved naturally as if it was familiar with all that was happening.
The echo energy within him channeled out of his core connecting itself with the corpse body.
The blue ethereal essence that had been gradually leaking out forcefully increased in how much it leaked out.
A sort of resistance was met, causing more echo energy to be used to increase the speed of the leak.
Soon, the ethereal essence had completely leaked out and merged to take a shape.
Finn saw the spider in a blue ethereal body that looked like an echo's, but there were differences. The spider's body was evidently deeper in color, it had a definite shape, and most of all, it had a core.
With piqued interest, Finn said, "Astral body… Is this what happens when one dies…"
While he thought, the spider monster, now in its astral body, was looking at Finn who had killed it. After forming like this, it would take a while before the material world expels it.
"So when a living being dies, using their Astral body, they'll go to something like the afterlife… How interesting! As a ghost, I must have defied going to the afterlife, leading me to become what I am…" Finn rambled on.
As he had multiple thoughts, Finn had another idea. Wouldn't this just be a way stronger version of Echo?
Then he grinned at the Spider that was quietly looking at him.
"..." Beads of sweat seem to roll down its head. Although it was confined within the area of its death, it still tried hard to leave this place, away from this weird being in its presence, hoping it'll make it to the afterlife.
Finn stretched out his hand towards the spider. He knew that if he needed to absorb it, he'd have to use the echo energy within him.
The spider resisted hard, but Finn expended more echo energy to be successful in this.
With an indescribably pitiful sad face, the spider was absorbed by Finn.
[Gift skill "Soul Absorption" has been acquired.]
[Soul Absorption: You can absorb the souls of beings into your core, granting you the opportunity to manipulate them.]
Like echoes, the spider took space in his core, albeit taking more space.
"Hehehehe…" In a slightly high pitched voice, Finn began laughing out loud.
He instantly decided to merge his core with the spider's soul body and everything within.
He expended all the echo energy he had gathered to "dissolve" the soul body and merge with it.
As he felt it crumble within him, the most complex part of this being couldn't stay within Finn's body, and forcefully left his body, disappearing away from this plane of existence.
That was the ego of a being, the essence that made up one's essence and identity in every life they live. Finn's current strength wasn't enough to contain this ego, he only weakened it, causing the spider to be even weaker than usual in its next life.
Before the complex essence left this world, Finn felt like he saw and heard the spider thank the world for saving it, while also cursing Finn for almost absolutely killing it.
"That was weird…" Finn couldn't explain what happened, yet he understood it. This was the Gift impacting knowledge in Finn.
Then all of a sudden, Finn felt the merging begin, making him fall to the ground and turning to the Jellyfish form that he liked.
Just as the process began, Finn felt like he should have been more careful, the results may be disturbingly hard to handle.