While Elara was steadily learning to control the crimson power granted to her by the entity they had half-jokingly named Sir Demon, Ethan was undergoing just as rapid a transformation of his own.

He also wasn’t hiding it.

Whenever they were alone in the basement of the Black Howl, he freely summoned his beasts without hesitation or concern.

"It’s not like you can tell anyone," he had joked once, leaning back casually as Spark drifted lazily through the air, its faint glow illuminating the dim room.

Elara had simply rolled her eyes at that, but she watched him closely all the same.

Every day, without fail, he would summon them. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

And every day they were injured.

Sometimes it was minor: scratches, shallow bites, patches of singed fur or feathers. Other times, it was far worse: deep gashes. Fractured limbs. Burns that hadn’t fully healed.

Once, she had even seen Wolfy limping slightly, its massive frame carrying damage that clearly hadn’t been sustained in the real world.

It didn’t make sense.

She was with Ethan for most of the day and was certain he hadn’t entered any gates.

So where was this damage coming from?

Her gaze would often linger on him longer than usual, her thoughts turning.

Eventually, she began to piece things together.

His unnatural sleep, the condition of his beasts, the way he would wake up looking mentally drained but physically fine - there was a connection.

There had to be.

But there was no way to confirm it.

Every time she tried to ask, signing carefully and clearly, he would just give her the same kind of vague, deflective answers.

"Don’t worry about it," he’d say.

Or, "You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you."

It was frustrating, but she didn’t press him the same way he didn’t press her.

Everyone had their secrets.

Still, she was far more perceptive than he gave her credit for.

Ethan himself, meanwhile, had come to terms with one of the more annoying aspects of his abilities.

Unlike his condition, the damage to his beasts didn’t reset after exiting the tower.

No matter how many times he exited whatever strange biome he found himself in, no matter how refreshed his own body felt, his beasts carried everything with them.

Every injury, every strain, and every bit of accumulated damage.

At first, it had irritated him.

But when he thought about it more, it made sense.

They weren’t like him being placed into a separate body. They were summoned, manifestations of something deeper, something tied directly to him.

So wherever they fought, whatever they endured, it made sense for it to stay with them.

Thankfully, there were three main ways he was overcoming it.

First was the Beast Mend skill he was using on them, sometimes multiple times a day. The soft glow would envelop them, knitting flesh, restoring energy, and helping to stabilise their condition.

Second was beast meat within the tower, which they had more than enough of. And last, but definitely not least, they naturally recovered even if they weren’t summoned.

While in their dormant state as tattoos on his body, they were steadily healing.

Together, those three things allowed Ethan to maintain his momentum, with most of his power revolving around his beasts. It also helped him to fall into a consistent rhythm, a routine of sorts.

Ethan would wake up after making progress in the Tower.

At the lowest, he would be "asleep" for ten hours, and sometimes closer to twenty. The first thing he did upon returning to his body each time was have a cold shower.

"Gotta wake the hell up somehow," he muttered, bracing himself as freezing water crashed over him.

It shocked his system and dragged him back to reality.

After that, he healed his beasts one by one, ensuring none of them carried lingering damage.

Then he needed food, a lot of it.

’I need to keep up these gains somehow.’

On that note, he would also train with Elara in one of the Association’s facilities. Thankfully, they didn’t have any other unsavoury encounters with other Titled, mostly because they were wary of the red-eyed A Rank.

Her reputation as the weakest A Rank was slowly transforming, but into what, only time would tell.

Ethan focused on doing weights and also played around in the gravity chambers, running around under the additional weight. Even though it was harder to increase his stats, it helped him understand his limits and make marginal progress.

Meanwhile, Elara would be experimenting with her own abilities.

Then, when they were both knackered, they would get cleaned up, raid the clothes storage, and then get more food.

And what better way to wrap up your day than some family time?

Mark and his family were also welcoming and happy to see them each evening. Elara and Ethan would also eat there again, never seeming to get full or fat either.

It was a simple cycle, as insane as it was.

But its results spoke for themselves, and in just two weeks, Ethan managed to complete both the objectives he had been issued.

{Objective 1: Evolve all beasts to C Rank and officially become a C Rank Titled.}

{Objective 2: Clear all D Tier Floors}

The first objective had come down to one thing: hunting to collect more Evolutionary Shards.

Floor after floor, beast after beast, Ethan almost felt bad sometimes after massacring so many of them. By Floor Fourteen, he had gathered enough to evolve Spark, and by Floor Seventeen, he had enough for his remaining beast.

But that wasn’t all.

He also needed to use the reward he received in the gate for evolving a beast to C Rank.

{Race Crystal (C) - A condensed genetic catalyst that can awaken a higher-tier lineage within a beast, possibly increasing its maximum growth potential to C Rank.}

He had used it without hesitation on Talon, his only beast with potential below C Rank.

It was his first time using a Race Crystal, and let’s just say it didn’t disappoint...