Ethan continued downstream, forcing his breathing to steady as he gathered his thoughts.
'Alright. Start from the beginning.'
He had spawned at around what seemed to be sunrise. And from the sky and weather, he could make another inference.
'If this place is mimicking reality, then it's probably mid-spring.'
If that were true, then sundown would hit roughly 12 hours into the trial.
Barely a quarter of that time had passed, which went to show just how long 24 hours felt in such a torturous environment. The sun was still high, warm, and reassuringly slow as it crawled across the sky.
He needed somewhere to pass the time while limiting his encounters with beasts, and the only thing that came to mind was...
Trees!
'I'll hide up in one like I had earlier and save my energy for the night, which I'm sure is going to be fucked.'
The boar beast hadn't noticed him earlier, so he assumed most ground-dwelling creatures wouldn't. And even beasts with sharper senses, like Ulfens, would be visible long before they reached him.
If he stayed elevated, stayed still, he could hide and react to any threats - at least that was the logic behind his decision.
Ethan found a sturdy tree and climbed, wedging himself into a thick crook between two branches, where he had a clear view in multiple directions. Leaves rustled softly around him as he settled in.
He exhaled slowly.
'This might actually work.'
If he stayed hidden and quiet, all he needed was to wait out the timer.
He even felt sleepy after just eating, as if his body wanted to rest.
It wasn't deep, both because of the uncomfortable branch he lay on and the environment he was in, but it was something.
He fell into a strange half-sleep, like he was in class and had stayed up the night before. Every sound tugged at his awareness as he fought the urge to close his eyes. Which was ironic, considering the last thing he remembered before waking in this place was blacking out.
'If this is a dream...' he mused vaguely, 'Could I sleep and even dream inside a dream? Wouldn't that make this some kind of inception?'
Well, whatever this was, it wasn't an ordinary dream, and it made his repeated nightmares feel pleasant in comparison.
He couldn't help but reminisce about his life and be amused by the absurdity of what he was experiencing, but that's when his eyes snapped open, and his body shot upright.
The forest was too silent.
There were no chirping birds or insects, and even the wind that flowed through the leaves had died down. He could feel the tension in the atmosphere, almost as if warning him of danger.
Then something moved, but it wasn't below him, it was...
'Above?'
His body went rigid, and his senses sharpened as he struggled to his feet, not wanting to lose balance and fall off the tree.
'Of course it wouldn't be that easy.'
The branches all around him began to sway as he began hearing shaking amongst the trees and leaves.
It started from one direction.
Then another.
And another.
He was baffled about what was closing in on him, then he saw it.
Dark shapes leapt from branch to branch with effortless grace, silhouettes briefly outlined against the pale sky before vanishing into the leaves again.
His stomach sank.
'…You've got to be kidding me.'
He scanned the surrounding trees frantically, heart pounding harder by the second.
They were everywhere, and it felt so hopeless that it was almost amusing.
'So much for hiding out in a tree,' he thought bitterly.
His plan had unravelled in a matter of minutes.
Creatures he never would have expected in a forest like this emerged, proof that logic had no real place in this damned trial.
It was as if whoever was running it had watched him, laughed, and gone, 'Yeah, no. Patch the tree exploit.'
Ethan found himself latching onto the opportunity of becoming a Titled but cursing the sadistic bastard who was responsible for this suffering. Though he quickly snapped out of it...
A series of chittering sounds echoed through the branches as the creatures surrounded him. It was high-pitched and only grew louder as they came into view.
'Fucking monkeys.'
There wasn't one or two, but a whole swarm.
They clung to branches with long limbs, tails coiling and snapping like whips. Their eyes glittered with sharp, unsettling intelligence. Some were small and wiry, others broad-shouldered and heavy.
But all of them moved in eerie coordination.
They didn't attack; they just watched and gauged Ethan.
'Of course,' he thought. 'Tree-dwelling beasts coincidentally show up just when I got comfortable.'
His grip tightened on the branch.
So far, facing beasts on the ground hadn't been great, but trapped in a canopy with creatures born into it? That would be plain stupid.
A slow, humourless smile crept onto his lips.
"Well," he whispered, pulse roaring in his ears, "I guess I'm fucked."
And that's when one of the most humiliating experiences of his life began...
-
12:06:32
12:06:31
12:06:30
Ethan lost count of how many times he nearly died.
At some point, he stopped seeing the forest as a place but as an ordeal - a living, grinding thing determined to wear him down.
The monkey beasts made that clear first.
One moment, he was chilling in a tree, and the next, one of them suddenly grabbed him by the hair before he could react and flung him to the ground.
Then it began, a beating he would never forget.
After landing with a thud, he didn't even have time to get up to his feet before the monkeys began whaling attacks on him. They weren't trying to kill, nor were they interested in eating him as prey; they were simply playing with him.
They hooted and screeched as they punched, kicked, and flung him between themselves like a toy. One of the larger monkeys even launched him in the air, then let him fall and pointed at him, laughing.
Ethan was helpless to fight back. Each of the monkey beasts had greater stats than him and was perfectly adjusted to this environment. His chances were slim against a single one of them, let alone an army.
But eventually, after yanking his limbs and slapping him around, they grew bored and left.
They left Ethan on the forest floor in a crumpled heap, bruised and gasping.
The only reason he hadn't suffered worse injuries was that he had activated Beast Assimilation.
He stared up through the leaves as they dispersed.
"…Cheeky little fuckers," he groaned.
If they'd been true predators, he wouldn't be breathing; it was almost like they were a warning not to camp in the trees. And boy, did it work. Ethan didn't even consider climbing anything again and instead went back to his first plan: staying on the move.
Over the coming hours, he encountered beast after beast, most of whom thankfully also weren't predators:
A Spineback Hedgehog burst from undergrowth, firing pins and leaving him riddled with holes.
A Bluebell Deer, beautiful and tasty-looking, that he chased down without hesitation, but never managed to get his hands on.
A series of Burrow Hounds who erupted from the ground beneath his feet and chased him until his lungs burned.
Even a Moss Badger lumbered past, massive and indifferent, the only beast that didn't even bother to look at him.
Those were just a few of the creatures he came across.
Some chased him.
Some he fought.
Some ignored him entirely.
And between them all, he would be given a convenient respite period.
Before he knew it, he had covered dozens of kilometres and had no idea where he was. In every direction, there were endless trees, and the more he moved, the more lost he became.
Meanwhile, his body grew heavier with each encounter.
From reopening wounds to his muscles screaming for rest, his condition wasn't great. Though with beast meat and MP, he was managing. Worse than any pain or fatigue was the mental exhaustion - the constant tension, the looming threat of beasts that could appear from anywhere at any moment.
Still, he had no major injuries.
And despite everything, he refused every opportunity to acquire another beast that appeared after a kill.
'All of them were E Rank, just like Wolfy,' he reasoned. 'After the reset to Infant, I won't benefit anything, and there's no way to know what their Beast Potential is.'
Would it come back to bite him in the ass? Maybe.
But for now, he was more focused on survival and stuck to his decision to keep the slot for a beast that stood out to him. He also needed to gather Evolutionary Shards for his beasts, so it was best to focus on Wolfy, at least to begin with.
Checking the timer for the first time in a while, a breath escaped Ethan, who would be lying if he said he didn't wish this hell were over.
"Seven years locked up," he murmured. "I can handle 12 more hours."
Then he looked up at the sky that had burned orange, then red, before now bleeding into darkness.
Half the trial had passed, but now remained the harder half, and he wasn't exactly looking forward to it...