Karathen might not have known what 'dog' meant, but it could clearly hear the mockery in Kevin's words.
Watching Kevin use ice magic to create a giant almost identical to its own size, and feeling insulted once again, Karathen grew even more furious:
"Do you think… becoming as huge as me will give you the same strength as me? Foolishness!!"
"Then why not try it, Gatekeeper?"
"Roar!!!!"
The mockery in Kevin's words became increasingly obvious. Hearing the completely undisguised taunt, Karathen roared once more.
Its two crab claws swung towards Kevin, the giant pincers, capable of destroying underwater mountains, opened wide, determined to cut Kevin's ice body in half!
But Kevin's movements were not slow either.
He controlled the ice giant's palm, accurately grabbing one of Karathen's pincers.
His other free hand used Ice Shape, quickly forming the Shape of a trident.
The combat techniques extended from Deep Sea Combat Arts instantly merged in Kevin's mind. His arm, wielding the trident, blocked the other giant pincer that was 'clipping' towards him!
Rumble—!
The sea trembled. The originally not-so-large Hidden Sea was churned upside down by the battle between this person and this monster.
Under the enhancement of Kevin's power, ice magic began to seal Karathen's arms.
Then, from behind Kevin's giant body, two more large hands extended.
This body was originally constructed by Kevin using the power of ice, so it didn't necessarily need to conform to a humanoid Shape.
After controlling Karathen's two pincers, Kevin could create new limbs to attack the enemy.
In fact, if Kevin wanted, creating a three-headed, six-armed image would not be a problem.
It was just not necessary at the moment.
"!?"
When Karathen saw two more arms growing from behind the ice giant, it sensed something was wrong.
However, before it could break free from Kevin's restraint, one of those arms had already clenched into a fist, powerfully smashing into Karathen's hard, shell-covered face.
Boom!!!
The terrifying, horned face was struck by Kevin's fist.
This punch was heavy; water surged outwards the moment the fist and face connected, stirring up whirlpools and waves on the seabed once again, even causing the island above to shake.
But Kevin did not stop his actions.
After one punch, the other newly grown hand also clenched into a fist, striking Karathen's lower jaw with an upward blow.
Thump!!!
"Ugh roar—!!!"
A heavier thud and Karathen's wail echoed through the water.
After two punches, Karathen's head was briefly dazed by Kevin's blows.
Its body retreated a few steps, its tail behind it constantly whipping. The tail, which had become small compared to its massive body, lashed towards Kevin, attempting to continue attacking him.
However, azure water currents, different from the deep-sea water, also appeared like tentacles from behind Kevin.
They distorted and writhed, more numerous than Karathen's tails, meeting Karathen's ferocious, tentacle-like tails.
This was water magic.
Kevin used the Shape of water magic to create more 'limbs' on his giant body.
Ice magic plus water magic, blue tentacles were added to the four-armed giant.
This scene looked somewhat ominous.
Fortunately, Karathen was a monster; if Karathen's body had been female, this scene would have been even more ominous.
Water tentacles wrapped around Karathen's body. Kevin plunged the ice trident he had created into the ground, and his free hand grabbed Karathen's other crab claw.
Then, holding Karathen's two icy arms, he began to try and tear them apart.
"Gatekeeper, is this your limit?"
Pull harder, pull even harder.
Kevin's eyes were cold, as if devoid of any emotion.
He ignored Karathen's wails, attempting to tear off Karathen's two claws.
Karathen howled, shouting:
"Abomination!!! Even if… you possess such great power, you will never gain the trident's recognition!!"
"That's not your concern. Right now, I just want to ask you, surrender, or death?"
"Roar!!!!!"
Karathen used its roar to replace its answer.
And Kevin also laughed, though his smile within the ice giant's body appeared quite ferocious.
"Is that so? I admire your loyalty to the Atlantean King. Since you are willing to be loyal to the Atlantean King, then I shall grant your wish!"
As Kevin spoke, his other two arms also gripped Karathen's pincers.
Crack, crack—
A scalp-numbing tearing sound echoed in the seawater.
Karathen's arms, under Kevin's tearing, began to show cracks, along with red and green liquids.
When cracks appeared on the two claws, Kevin's tearing seemed to become even easier.
From the initial struggle, to Karathen's one-sided resistance, and then to Karathen emitting even more painful wails.
Finally—
Rip!!
"Ow!!!!!"
With a sound of something being torn, Karathen threw its head back and let out a deafening wail.
And looking at Kevin's ice giant's palm, Karathen's massive crab claw lay in his hand, still twitching occasionally.
At this point, Karathen had temporarily lost its ability to wrestle with Kevin.
Even if Karathen's limbs could regenerate, that was by no means something that could be accomplished in a short time. So, entangled by the sea tentacles and having lost both hands, Karathen was no longer a match for Kevin at all.
But Kevin did not let it go.
Seeing Karathen retreat and wail, Kevin raised his foot, kicked Karathen to the ground, and the ice arm picked up the trident that had been plunged nearby, about to stab it into Karathen's body.
"Wait… wait—!!"
"Sorry, can't wait."
At the last moment, Karathen finally had the thought of begging for mercy.
But unfortunately, Kevin didn't give it a chance. The ice trident decisively and mercilessly fell, piercing Karathen's body and pinning it to the ground!
Did Kevin kill it?
Actually, no.
Karathen was a sea monster; its vital points were different from normal creatures, and it had the ability to regenerate lost limbs. Moreover, Kevin never really intended to kill it, only to teach it a lesson.
So Kevin had deliberately avoided Karathen's weak points just now, aiming for a spot that would incapacitate Karathen without killing it.
Therefore, Karathen was currently only deprived of its ability to move and its consciousness.
"Can't you just talk nicely? You have to be taught a lesson before you think about begging for mercy, how pathetic."
Looking at the unconscious Karathen, Kevin mumbled while swinging Karathen's two huge crab claws.
Hmm… these two huge crab claws look like they have a lot of meat…
Kevin, who hadn't eaten seafood in a long time, suddenly craved crab meat. However, thinking that Karathen was a sentient creature, Kevin was somewhat unable to accept eating the meat of a sentient being.
"Hmm, it's better to deal with the trident first."
Dropping the crab claws in his hand, Kevin decided to worry about eating crab meat later. Now that Karathen was dealt with, the priority was naturally to go and retrieve the trident.
Irresponsibly leaving the created ice giant there, pressing down on the already unconscious Karathen, Kevin, who had walked out from inside the ice giant, slowly approached the trident.
The trident, which was rumored in the legends of Atlantis, was now held in the hands of the Atlantean King's remains, standing before the throne.
Golden light flowed above it, as if alive.
Kevin slowly walked towards the trident, finally stopping in front of it.
The mission objective was right before him; Kevin had nothing to hesitate about. He reached out and placed his hand upon the trident.
In an instant, light flowed, tiny golden lightning sparks erupted in Kevin's hand, and his eyes, too, lit up with golden light.
And in that moment, Kevin felt something explode in his head.
Immediately after, he lost consciousness.
…
Kevin felt as if he had a very long dream.
In the dream, Kevin became a tiny crab walking underwater.
He instinctively searched for food, instinctively avoided strong enemies, sought places to inhabit, and was finally swallowed by a larger aquatic animal passing by.
Next, Kevin turned into a fish, a very ordinary clownfish, swimming with its school until it was devoured by a fierce water beast.
Then he became a sea turtle, leisurely basking in the sun on the surface of the sea.
He became a shark, devouring weak fish in the sea with his companions.
Dolphins, octopuses, lobsters… even whales.
Whether it was shallow-water fish or deep-water fish, or even creatures related to water on land or in lakes, Kevin seemed to have experienced them all.
He experienced the lives of many aquatic creatures, from birth to growth, from old age to death.
In a brief moment, Kevin felt as if millions of years had passed.
Finally, Kevin's consciousness returned to his own body from the vast ocean. The moment he opened his eyes, an inexplicable sense of ancientness flashed, then clarity returned.
"What the…?"
Kevin, who had just regained consciousness, instinctively wanted to curse.
He almost subconsciously looked at his body, wanting to see if any strange things had grown on him.
Like non-existent crab claws, or carapaces, or octopus tentacles or something.
But thankfully, everything experienced in the 'dream' was merely illusory, not real. Kevin had not actually turned into those creatures, nor had he grown any non-existent organs as a result.
He was still him.
"This Ocean Lord class transfer is really… Holy crap, where's my skill tree?!"
Kevin was about to complain that the Ocean Lord class transfer was a bit mysterious, and at the same time tried to open his skill tree to see his new skills after the transfer.
As soon as he opened the skill tree, he found that the original skill tree had disappeared, and Kevin's vision was empty.
He rubbed his eyes, his mouth agape in astonishment. Then he quickly confirmed his abilities, and only when he confirmed that all his abilities still existed did Kevin breathe a sigh of relief.
The skill tree was still there, and Kevin's skills were still there, it was just that for some reason they couldn't be displayed in front of him.
No…
There was still something displayed.
Skill points.
The few skill points Kevin had saved before were still there, but without the skill tree, these skill points seemed rather lonely.
"What's going on? Did the class transfer remove my skill tree? Or is the skill tree bugged?"
Although Kevin had considered that the skill tree might change after the second class transfer, the complete disappearance of all skills was somewhat unexpected for Kevin.
Without a skill tree, and only skill points remaining, how would Kevin allocate points in the future?
As Kevin pondered this, he felt golden sparks dancing before his eyes.
He blinked, closed the skill tree, and looked forward; the dancing golden sparks disappeared with it.
He opened the skill tree again, and the golden sparks reappeared.
Seeing this, Kevin somewhat guessed what was happening.
He raised his hand and reached out towards the golden sparks, trying to touch them.
And the moment Kevin's finger landed on the golden sparks, infinite golden light burst open before Kevin's eyes, and one skill icon after another spread out in front of Kevin in a rather irregular path.
The new version of the skill tree slowly revealed itself before him.