Before moving, Ethan pulled up his own status screen.
If he was going to fight the boss of the floor, he needed to know exactly where he stood.
The familiar translucent panel appeared in front of him.
{Current Status}
{Name: Ethan Crowe
Title: Lord Of Beasts
Titled Rank: E
Strength: 10.5
Speed: 13
Stamina: 10
MP: 18/18
Beasts: 2/2
Skills: Beast Assimilation (D), Beast Summoning (S), Beast Link (D)}
Ethan read over the screen carefully, his eyes moving from line to line.
Then he nodded slowly.
"Not bad."
A small grin crept onto his face.
Compared to when he had first received his Title, the improvement was massive.
Back then, his stats had barely broken into double digits. Now? Every fight, every training session, every scrap of monster meat he forced himself to eat inside the Tower had pushed those numbers higher.
But one stat stood out the most.
MP.
His gaze lingered there for a moment.
"That one's grown the fastest."
And that wasn't by accident; it was the thing he focused on the most.
'At this rate…'
A smile slowly spread across his face.
"…I'll be a monster soon enough."
Satisfied, Ethan flicked the interface again and opened the Beast Tab.
He had two beasts to choose from and started with his first.
{Name: Wolfy
Race: Ulfen
Growth Stage: Infant
Beast Rank: E
Beast Potential: C
Strength: 12
Speed: 12
Stamina: 12
MP: 0}
Ethan then reviewed the other.
{Name: Talon
Race: Skyrend Hawk
Growth Stage: Infant
Beast Rank: E
Beast Potential: D
Strength: 6.5
Speed: 22
Stamina: 8
MP: 0}
Three things immediately stood out.
The first was obvious, as he pointed at the screens.
"Still no MP…"
Neither beast had any, which likely meant they lacked skills they could use and relied purely on physicality. That didn't make them any less dangerous, but it would be good to diversify his portfolio.
"That's definitely something I should prioritise when I get my third beast."
A creature with its own MP pool could completely change the way he approached combat.
Not only would it have a skill like the other two Elite Beasts in the Rocky Plains, but if he assimilated with it, he would gain additional MP.
"Yeah… that'd be nice."
But for now, there was nothing he could do about it, so he mentally filed that information away and moved on.
The second thing was their stat growth.
His eyes flicked to Wolfy's numbers.
All three stats had increased by two: strength, speed, and stamina, perfectly balanced.
"Wolfy's like a perfect predator."
It had no weak points or obvious flaws, just clean, efficient physical capability across the board.
Then Ethan tracked back to Talon's screen, and his grin widened.
"Yeah… that tracks."
Talon's growth had been very different.
Its speed had skyrocketed, while its strength and stamina had increased slightly, but nowhere near the same degree.
"Exactly as expected."
It was a living missile: fast, sharp, and deadly.
Then Ethan leaned back slightly as the third observation settled into his mind.
His eyes narrowed.
"Their growth… isn't normal."
When Talon eventually reached Prime Growth Stage, its stats wouldn't match the Skyrend Hawk he had originally killed.
Not even close.
And Wolfy?
His numbers already surpassed the Juvenile Ulfen Ethan had first fought back on Floor Zero, while only being an Infant.
That realisation made Ethan whistle quietly.
"Damn."
Their development was clearly different and likely much faster.
It was clear that they would very easily surpass the very beasts he had defeated to obtain them.
"Guess all that fighting and eating monster meat helps."
The sheer amount of combat experience they were gaining already made them strange compared to wild beasts.
But that wasn't the only factor.
The biggest was that they were bound to Ethan, connected to his Title, and to the System itself.
They weren't just beasts anymore; they were something new.
Some form of spirit entity that could materialise and would continue to evolve alongside him.
Ethan stared at the screens for another moment, letting that sink in.
Then he shrugged.
"Eh, no point overthinking it."
With a flick of his hand, he dismissed the interface, and the translucent screens vanished instantly.
His eyes lifted back toward the blazing yellow sky.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
-
Without hesitation, Ethan summoned Talon.
The Skyrend Hawk appeared in a flash of blue light, wings spreading wide as it landed gracefully on a nearby rock. Its sharp eyes immediately began scanning the vast plains with predatory focus.
Ethan cracked his knuckles.
"Alright, Talon…"
His gaze hardened.
"Let's try this again."
He then activates Beast Link.
Talon had reluctantly allowed it once before, though the proud hawk clearly disliked the sensation. Even now, the bird shifted slightly as the connection formed, its feathers ruffling in faint irritation.
Still, it tolerated the link.
The world tilted, and Ethan was now within the body of his beast, which launched into the air. From the hawk's incredible vantage point, everything sharpened: every rock formation, every movement in the dust, every ripple in the heat haze.
Talon soared across the sky at incredible speed, circling wide above the plains while Ethan searched through its eyes.
Minutes passed as they scoured the central region of the floor.
Yet there was nothing.
Not even the distant movement of Common Beasts.
Just endless stone and dust.
Ethan frowned.
'Seriously?'
Talon continued sweeping across the sky, covering far more ground than he ever could on foot.
Still nothing.
And the longer the link remained active, the worse the strain became.
MP drained steadily from Ethan's body, and a dull pressure built behind his eyes as the connection pulled at his mind.
'Not worth it.'
With a sigh, he cancelled the link, and the world snapped back to normal.
Talon gave an annoyed screech as if glad its lord was no longer within its body, while Ethan rubbed his temples.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it."
He glanced up at the circling hawk before Ethan exhaled slowly.
Using Beast Link like this cost too much MP, and the mental strain wasn't worth it if it wasn't working to find the Boss Beast.
Which meant he would have to do things the old-fashioned way - walking around while avoiding unnecessary fights to conserve energy.
With that decision made, Ethan began roaming across the plains on foot.
The rocky terrain stretched endlessly around him as he pushed deeper into the central region.
Time passed, but the strange absence of beasts continued.
There were no Elite Beasts or even Common Beasts.
Ethan slowed.
'This is… weird.'
By now, he had reached what seemed to be the centre of the Rocky Plains.
And the area felt completely empty.
Too empty.
After wandering through the scorching heat for nearly two hours, sweat running down his back, Ethan finally stopped.
He wiped his forehead and looked around.
The silence pressed down on him.
'Something's wrong.'
Very wrong.
This was the longest he had gone without encountering a single beast.
His gaze narrowed as a thought surfaced.
'Maybe… the boss beast stays underground.'
Lithoserpents were burrowing creatures after all, so it wasn't impossible.
'And maybe the reason there aren't any beasts is because they knew better than to be in its territory...'
As if summoned by that exact thought, the ground suddenly shook beneath his feet.
Ethan froze.
The vibration rolled through the rock like distant thunder.
His eyes narrowed.
"Another one of those rock worms?"
That was his first thought, but almost immediately, he realised that he was very, very, very wrong...