Lord Of Beasts

{Welcome back to the Tower of Beasts!}

{Floor One: Rocky Plains (E)}

The scorching air of the Rocky Plains hit him instantly.

Dry heat wrapped around his body like a furnace as the jagged stone landscape stretched endlessly in every direction. Dust drifted lazily across the cracked ground, and the yellow sky hung overhead like a blazing lid.

Ethan inhaled sharply.

’I doubt I’ll ever get used to that feeling.’

It was like having his soul yanked out of his body in reality and slammed into this other body waiting for him here.

He flexed his fingers slowly.

Both his arms were fully intact, and there was not a single wound or any pain.

He rotated his shoulder experimentally before glancing down at himself.

Even the ragged clothes he had worn during the fight were whole again, the torn and bloodstained fabric restored as if the brutal battle with the Lithoserpent had never happened.

’It’s still trippy.’

But before he could properly take in his surroundings or appreciate the fact that he had just killed a massive boss beast, he suddenly received more notifications from the system.

{The host may ascend to Floor Two at any point he wishes, but he may also remain on Floor One as long as he pleases.}

{Though it may become easier to hunt on the Rocky Plains, the host and his beasts will limit progress and experience by doing so.}

{Consuming a wider range of beast meat provides greater benefits and more potent growth.}

Ethan scratched the back of his head.

”Yeah... I noticed that.”

It wasn’t exactly subtle.

He had already seen it himself.

Both his beasts and even his own body showed diminishing returns when they consumed the same type of beast repeatedly.

At first, the growth was explosive.

But after enough kills?

The benefits started dropping, which made sense, considering adaptability was a massive part of survival. In the same way the human body adapted to harsh climates, it also adapted to excess.

If you constantly fed it the same type of nutrient-rich food, eventually the body learned to handle it better. In turn, the benefits became smaller.

Still...

Ethan narrowed his eyes at the notification.

”That’s not the whole story, though.”

He folded his arms.

’This feels like you’re just trying to push me upstairs.’

A dry laugh escaped him.

’You just want me to go up there and almost die again.’

The Tower, it seemed, had a very simple philosophy: struggle hard and figure it out.

Nevertheless, he would head up eventually, just not yet. For now, he planned to squeeze every last drop of benefit out of this floor.

There was no point leaving food on the table, which was when Ethan finally looked ahead and blinked.

”Oh?”

The massive corpse of the Lithoserpent was still there and completely untouched. Its gigantic stone-scaled body lay exactly where it had fallen, stretched across the broken rocks like a collapsed hill.

Ethan walked closer slowly.

One thing immediately stood out.

’There’s no blood.’

None of his blood, at least.

Even the place on top of the beast’s body where he was bleeding out was now completely clean.

As for everything else?

It was exactly the same, from the broken rocks, scars in the ground, and even the positioning of the enormous corpse.

Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

”Seems like any trace of me disappears,” he murmured.

”But everything else stays.”

That was... interesting.

He had expected scavenger beasts to already be tearing the corpse apart, or at the very least for something to have wandered into the territory.

But nothing had touched it.

Which meant...

”Maybe time does freeze when I’m not here.”

The system didn’t respond and seemed to pick and choose when it felt like giving him information.

Ethan snorted.

”Yeah, figured.”

There was no way for him to confirm either, since there was no night and day in the Rocky Plains, just an endless yellow sky.

Still, he wasn’t complaining, because it meant one thing...

”Buffet time!”

With a thought and a flick of his wrist, which he found helps with visualising and activating the skill, he summoned both of his companions.

Two flashes of blue light appeared as Wolfy and Talon materialised beside him.

For a moment, both beasts looked around cautiously.

Then their noses and eyes immediately locked onto the gigantic corpse.

Ethan grinned.

”Go on.”

He gestured toward the Lithoserpent.

”Eat your fill.”

He didn’t need to tell them twice.

Wolfy lunged forward first, teeth sinking into the softer flesh along the underbelly.

Talon hopped closer, tearing off chunks with its sharp beak.

And then something incredible happened.

Ethan watched closely.

Their condition, still not fully recovered despite a full day of Beast Mend, began improving rapidly. It was like they were receiving the healing skill again, but an even more potent version, just by eating.

”Whoa...”

He stepped closer, watching in fascination.

Their lingering wounds and scars were recovering at a visible rate, but that wasn’t even the most impressive part.

It was their growth that truly left Ethan in awe.

{Wolfy has grown from Infant → Juvenile}

Ethan blinked.

The next time he looked down, Wolfy had nearly doubled in size.

Not long ago, the Ulfen had been about the size of a puppy Ethan could carry with one hand and had even hurled at a Skyrend Hawk.

Now?

Wolfy stood roughly the size of a full-grown wolf, while its body was leaner, stronger, and its fur thicker and darker.

”Damn...”

Ethan whistled.

”That was fast.”

And though Wolfy’s raw stats hadn’t skyrocketed dramatically from the growth, they were already far better than the juvenile Ulfen Ethan had struggled against earlier on Floor Zero.

Meanwhile, Talon continued tearing into the corpse as well.

The hawk’s feathers looked healthier, as its wings grew thicker and stronger.

It also seemed close.

Very close.

But Talon didn’t quite reach its next growth stage yet.

”Almost there, huh?” Ethan muttered.

Then he opened the Beast Tab.

Since he was already reviewing their statuses anyway, he checked something else.

His Evolutionary Shards.

The number appeared, and Ethan quickly did the math.

6 shards from Floor Zero, then 25 beasts killed here on Floor One, brought him to a total of 31. Then, after this Boss Beast, which was worth 10 shards...

”Only 41.”

He exhaled slowly.

”Not even halfway.”

He would need 100 shards to evolve a beast to D Rank, and he had two beasts to do that to.

Still, the thought of it made him grin.

”Imagine having a D Rank beast...”

Something on the level of that Lithoserpent Burrower fighting beside him.

’Yeah, that would change things a lot.’

Still smiling, Ethan spent the next twelve hours hunting across the Rocky Plains. By now, he was extremely familiar with the beasts that lived here: their patterns, weaknesses, and territory.

With Wolfy larger and stronger, and Talon providing perfect aerial support, the hunts became far smoother.

Once he was finished, Ethan brought up the Tower Tab of the System Interface, which seemed to have been updated.

There was a depiction of a massive power, of which he was at the very bottom - 10 E Tier floors, and he was on the first one.

Below the diagram was a simple option.

{Ascend To Floor Two}

Ethan stared at it.

His finger hovered over the button, but he hesitated.

There was one thing he didn’t know.

’If I ascend now, will my condition reset the same way it does when I leave and return to the Tower? Or will I carry the injuries and exhaustion of the last 12 hours with me?’

He had no way of knowing.

And entering a new floor in his condition?

That sounded like a great way to die.

”Yeah...”

He shook his head.

”Not happening.”

He would only move up once he was restored and mentally prepared. So instead, Ethan exited the Tower, planning for the next time he returned to be on Floor Two.

Back in reality, the madman resumed his brutal routine: training, recovering, and pushing his body as hard as he could.

That was all before diving back into the Tower and fighting for his life while strengthening himself and his beasts.

It was constant.

The insane cycle repeated over and over again.

And before Ethan even realised it, an entire month had passed...