As Ethan booted the rock-covered beast off the edge of the cliff, he couldn't help but question if he would actually be rewarded for his efforts.
'What if environmental kills don't count?' he wondered.
If the system required direct damage and for him to kill the beast personally, would this count?
'I mean, I kicked it...'
Thankfully, it wasn't that cruel, and he let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the notification from the system.
{Beast Eliminated!}
He then took his time climbing down, and when he reached the corpse, he crouched beside it.
Up close, it was fascinating.
The exterior truly was rock-like, yet its insides were soft, mushy flesh. It was not remotely appetising and resembled a brain, yet it was throughout its entire body.
He nudged it over slightly and noticed something: its underbelly was far less fortified. The rock armour was so thin that it was practically non-existent.
"That's why it stayed planted on the ground."
He had assumed it was just serpentine movement, but no, it was protecting its weakest point.
"Good to know."
Now he had two methods for dealing with them: either to push them off a cliff or somehow flip them over and strike their belly.
Ethan stared at the corpse.
"Yeah, I'm definitely not eating this thing..."
But wasting resources felt wrong, as such an idea came to mind...
-
It made sense that the Skyrend Hawk had been so eager to have Ethan as its prey. These Lithoserpent Larva would primarily remain underground, and even on land, were a bad match-up for the hawks.
There didn't seem to be many other beasts around either.
The fast claw attacks wouldn't get past its solid exterior, and he doubted its insides were very appealing to it either. Though there was a way to test whether a Skyrend Hawk would eat one of these things if it could.
Without second-guessing himself, he deactivated Beast Assimilation and activated Beast Summoning.
He raised his hand and called forth, "Talon."
A faint glow shimmered in his palm, and for the first time, his newly named Skyrend Hawk materialised before him.
"Alright," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. "Let's see you properly."
It was small, much smaller than the hawk he had fought, about the size of a robin.
'It's quite cute,' was his immediate thought, but there was nothing harmless about it.
Its feathers were a muted sandy-brown that blended almost perfectly with the rocky terrain. As for its talons, they were sharp and curved, clearly evolved for gripping prey mid-flight. Its beak, narrow and hooked, could tear flesh cleanly apart with ease.
Even at this infant stage, it radiated danger.
It was identical to the one he had faced, just scaled down. Then again, he doubted he'd be able to tell beasts of the same race apart anyway. The Ulfens that had mauled him on Floor Zero had all looked the same.
This was no different.
Talon jumped off his palm, flapping its little wings, and landed lightly on a nearby rock. It looked up at him with beady orange eyes.
Unlike Wolfy's energetic first summon - bouncing, excited, practically vibrating - Talon was calm and still, almost as if watching Ethan.
There was something unsettlingly intelligent in its gaze.
"Go on, Talon," Ethan said, gesturing toward the Lithoserpent corpse. "Your turn to eat."
He wasn't sure if it could understand him, but the hawk simply continued staring - its gaze was blank and unblinking.
Ethan shifted awkwardly.
"Don't look at me like that."
Talon kept observing him, and as it did, a strange thought crept into his mind.
'Are all the beasts I acquire male?'
He frowned.
'And… can they mate with other beasts?'
His thoughts spiralled.
'They kind of feel like a part of me. So if they had offspring… what would that even make me? Would I be a beast's dad?'
He stared at Talon, and before his brain could dig that hole any deeper, it suddenly moved.
With swift precision, it hopped onto the Lithoserpent's corpse and drove its sharp beak into the exposed, mushy flesh of the underbelly.
It tore into it with surprising aggression, chunks of it disappearing quickly.
Ethan folded his arms, watching closely.
'How is all of that meat even fitting into its tiny body?'
The physics behind it made sense, as the infant hawk's body gave off a faint glow. It was not as dramatic as Wolfy's earlier growth, but it was still noticeable.
Its wingspan widened slightly, its frame filled out, and its stats ticked upward slightly.
'Feeding them beasts is the way forward.'
He could accelerate their growth through consumption while stacking Evolutionary Shards for future rank-ups.
"That's kind of broken," he muttered as he let Talon eat its fill.
Once the infant hawk finished and was struggling to eat anymore, Ethan dismissed it. There was still a bunch of mushy meat left, which he had zero intention of touching, so he summoned Wolfy instead.
The infant Ulfen appeared and immediately dived into the rock worm remains without hesitation.
It devoured the insides hungrily.
Ethan winced slightly.
"You really don't care what you're eating, huh?"
Wolfy ignored him.
After that, Ethan dismissed it and rested, letting his MP slowly regenerate before moving again.
And thus began his hunting cycle on Floor One of the tower...
-
Most of the Common Beasts that Ethan encountered across the Rocky Plains were manageable. And since acquiring Talon, he also hadn't suffered any significant injuries; both his abilities and his combat prowess had improved.
Surprisingly, he hadn't encountered more Elite Beasts, not that he was complaining.
He also hadn't explored much of the floor yet, so that made sense. The Rocky Plains were massive, and the horizon seemed to stretch no matter how far he walked, though unlike Floor Zero, it didn't feel endless.
Not that he cared about the landscape, his main priority was killing as many beasts as he could.
There seemed to be three main Common Beasts in the area:
Lithoserpent Larvae - the rock worms that he got pretty good at killing through unconventional means.
Spiny-tailed lizard-like beasts called Gravetail Scalers. The first time he faced one, it spewed paralytic poison on him, and he then had to summon both his infant beasts to save his ass.
Then, lastly, were the Stoneback Pikas, small, rock-hugging creatures that resembled stocky hyraxes. They had the least reinforced exteriors, so Ethan found them the easiest to deal with. It was also the only beast he consumed out of the lot.
All of them were perfectly adapted to the biome: muted tones, rock-like textures, and camouflage that made them nearly invisible until they moved.
But with Talon's vision? He spotted them every time.
His new tactic was efficient and seemed to work best in this biome - he would summon Talon and assimilate with Wolfy.
The hawk would distract the beast by diving at the eyes, pecking, and forcing movement. Meanwhile, Ethan, enhanced by Ulfen's instincts and physicality, would close in and find the kill.
It burned through his MP twice as fast, but he had a simple rule he followed.
'If I can't beat the beast in 5 minutes, I run for my life.'
There was no pride or ego, just prioritising survival, and so far, the beasts he faced weren't nearly as fast as the Skyrend Hawk, so he was able to escape from them all if needed.
With his current abilities, it was the best he could do.
And before he realised it, 12 hours had passed inside the Tower...