By the ti Ethan finally slowed to a stop, his breath steady but his body humming with exertion, the Frostbitten Forest felt... smaller.
Not literally, but from his perspective.
What had once seed like an overwhelming, unknown expanse was now sothing he could navigate, understand, and hunt within.
"Yeah," he muttered, smiling as he glanced at the blood-streaked snow around him, "I’ve got the hang of this."
After hours of relentless hunting - fighting, experinting, adapting - he had tested every single ability at his disposal. Spark’s volatile flas, Talon’s speed and cutting precision, and Wolfy’s brutal, overwhelming ferocity.
And more importantly, his own ability to weave them together.
’I’m way stronger than I was even a few hours ago.’
That wasn’t just confidence.
It was a fact.
So naturally, his mind did what it always did, and it looked to the future.
’If I clear one floor a day...’
His gaze drifted toward the endless forest.
’I’ll be done with the D Tier floors in a week and a half.’
A grin tugged at his lips.
’After that, I’ll blitz through the C Tier and maybe even B Tier floors. Then, in a couple of months, weeks even, I’ll clear all 69 floors and be an overpowered S Rank.’
He paused.
"Okay," he admitted, scratching the back of his head, "that second part might be a bit much."
Still, a floor like this each day felt very doable, at least it had.
But the more he kept exploring, the more he realised that his earlier confidence had been slightly inflated.
"This place is fucking massive."
Ethan exhaled slowly, trudging forward through inches of snow, his sandals crunching uselessly against the frozen terrain.
The forest stretched endlessly in every direction.
Unlike the E Tier floors, where he could eventually recognise landmarks, paths, patterns, this place felt... boundless. It was clearly much larger than the previous ten floors he had cleared.
The trees didn’t help.
Towering, dense, and tightly packed, they obscured vision, distorted direction, and made every stretch of land feel identical to the last.
"I could walk in circles here for hours and not even realise it," he muttered.
Even his enhanced senses struggled.
The cold dulled scent, the terrain and the howling winds masked sound. And visually, everything was just white and grey.
So while spotting Common Beasts was relatively easy, navigating towards the centre of the floor and finding the Boss Beast was proving tougher than expected.
Still, Ethan pushed forward, enduring the biting cold as it seeped into his bones. His Titled body resisted it far better than any normal human could, but that didn’t an he was immune.
His feet were numb, his fingers stiff, and each breath burning slightly in his chest.
"Rags and sandals," he muttered bitterly, "perfect outfit choice."
But he kept moving, and whenever the cold beca overwhelming, he would summon or assimilate with Spark for a short while.
As such, a couple more hours passed...
-
Beasts ca and fell.
Again.
And again.
And again.
But sothing quickly beca apparent.
"There’s more variety."
Ethan crouched slightly, watching as a giant squirrel-like beast twitched on the ground, its body torn apart by Wolfy.
"That’s the fourth type of Common Beast I’ve seen."
He frowned slightly.
’On E Tier floors, there were three types...’
His mind clicked.
’So four here...’
His gaze sharpened.
’Does that an five on C Tier? Six on B...?’
A slow smile ford.
"There’s always so sort of pattern within the Tower."
But he didn’t trust it completely.
"It also loves screwing with , so it will probably change to throw off."
Not that it mattered either way, since he’d have to hunt whatever beast ca his way regardless.
Eventually, Ethan decided to try what he had on so of the E Tier floors.
’I could use Beast Link with Talon.’
He considered it, glancing upward through the canopy.
’Maybe with Talon’s view, I might get my bearings, then I can continue on the ground.’
As such, he summoned his Skyrend Hawk and used Partial Link, allowing him to share senses with a beast of his choice. The beast burst into the skies, and through its perspective, he could see it.
The endless forest stretched far beyond what he could ever hope to explore entirely.
But in one direction, a thick fog lay in the distance, a natural barrier that kept them enclosed within the floor. Similar to the mountain ranges surrounding the Rocky Plains.
Which ans...
’The centre should be that way.’
He had been moving in that direction anyway, but now he had so confirmation that it was the right way. With that, he continued with newfound motivation.
Not that it made things any easier.
The terrain fought him every step of the way: snowbanks slowed his movent, hidden dips threatened to trip him, and the dense forest forced him to constantly adjust his path.
Branches clawed at him, and the wind howled and whipped him, all worsened by the cold.
"This is getting really fucking annoying."
His patience was thinning, not because of danger, but because of the lack of it.
"This isn’t even hard anymore."
His summons handled most beasts he encountered effortlessly, and even Elite Beasts weren’t enough to slow him down significantly.
"I just want the boss already."
He was tired of wandering in this frozen woodland, becoming frustrated by the maze of trees he found himself in.
At one point, he even stopped, staring at the surrounding forest.
"What if I just burn it?"
The idea was tempting.
"Set the whole place on fire... flush the beasts out..."
He glanced at Spark.
"It could work, right?"
Then the wind howled again, carrying freezing air across the forest, as if answering the question for him.
"Or not."
The environnt itself resisted the idea, and it was too cold and damp, even for his Cinder Wisp’s unique flas.
"Figures."
-
Even more ti passed, and his body was aching so much that it was becoming debilitating. The repeated use of Partial Assimilation had taken its toll, and beast at alone wouldn’t get rid of this deep strain.
His head throbbed faintly, his muscles were worn, and his mana wasn’t recovering as quickly as he’d like.
For the past hours, he had relied entirely on his summons to handle every beast they ca across, but even they weren’t in the best condition.
"Alright," he muttered, exhaling sharply, "if I don’t find it soon, I’m calling it."
He had moved nonstop for many hours, and he even felt like he was reaching the 24-hour limit he had each ti he entered the tower. Though, in all honesty, he wasn’t sure exactly how much ti had passed.
As such, he slowed, relaxing and no longer actively searching.
’I’ll pick off so more Common Beasts and feed them to my beasts to help them recover.’
That would be the best use of the rest of the ti he spent here to hopefully find the Boss Beast when he returned the next night. But when he stopped actively searching, he suddenly felt an unmistakably powerful presence.
Ethan’s head lifted slowly.
"Of course."
A grin ford.
"It shows up when I stop looking."
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