Planning to drain his MP completely, let it recover, then repeat the process to expand his capacity and experiment with his beasts, Ethan didn't hesitate for even a second.
"If muscles grow from stress," he muttered to himself, "then MP should too."
He raised his hands.
'Beast Summoning.'
Wolfy materialised first, then Talon - both the tattoos on his body sprang to life.
The basement instantly descended into chaos.
Wolfy burst into existence mid-bound, paws scraping against the ground as he skidded sideways and slammed straight into a stack of storage boxes.
They toppled over with a loud crash.
"Oi! Careful!" Ethan snapped, though he was already grinning.
Wolfy didn't look guilty in the slightest. If anything, he looked proud of the noise he'd made. His tail wagged violently as he bounded toward Ethan, claws clicking against the floor.
'It really has grown.'
Ethan noticed it immediately.
It was still young and energetic, but not quite the same puppy he'd first summoned. Even its yellow eyes were sharper and more predatory.
Meanwhile, Talon materialised silently and rose in a smooth glide before perching atop one of the exposed ceiling beams.
It observed silently, as always.
Ethan leaned back against the wall, folding his arms as he studied them both like a trainer evaluating new recruits.
Wolfy ran up and nudged his leg insistently, tail wagging so hard his entire rear swayed.
"You want attention, huh?"
The Ulfen practically vibrated with excitement.
Ethan crouched and scratched behind his ears. Wolfy immediately leaned into the touch, eyes half-closing in contentment.
A low rumble escaped his throat.
It wasn't a growl or a purr, but something in between, definitely wolf-like.
Talon shifted slightly on its perch above, sharp orange eyes tracking everything.
It didn't seem to like being touched - Ethan had learned that quickly.
The first time he tried to stroke its feathers, Talon snapped at his fingers, not hard, but enough to warn him. Talon was independent and proud, not affectionate, as it continued watching coldly.
Ethan grabbed a packet of nuts from one of the boxes.
"Let's try something."
He tossed it into the air.
Talon vanished from the beam in a blur.
A sharp snap echoed through the basement as the Skyrend Hawk caught it mid-air with perfect precision, then returned to its perch as if nothing had happened.
"Okay," Ethan nodded slowly. "It seems to like that."
He threw another piece, this time higher.
Talon adjusted effortlessly, swooping in at the perfect angle with perfect timing.
As he continued throwing more and more for Skyrend Hawk to catch and eat, Wolfy barked once in protest, as if offended by the attention shift.
Ethan snorted.
'I can almost feel the difference between them.'
There was no need for words; this was something deeper.
Wolfy's emotions were loud: excitement, possessiveness, curiosity, and jealousy.
Talon's were quieter: measured, evaluative, alert.
One craved attention, the other valued respect.
"There's a difference between instinctive loyalty and actually caring, isn't there?" Ethan murmured.
They were bound to him through the system, but he didn't want mindless obedience.
He wanted trust, which was built through interaction; as such, he began experimenting with his beasts.
"Sit."
Wolfy tilted his head.
"Close enough."
Ethan guided him down physically, then rewarded him with food or by rubbing its head as he repeated the process with other instructions.
Talon responded better to gestures and eye contact. When Ethan pointed at a specific beam, the hawk eventually relocated there after a few tries.
There was little progress, but outside of a battle, both beasts seemed hesitant to follow his commands.
'Maybe it's because both are still infants, or maybe it will just take time. Either way, they did well in the Tower so far, and if I can just get them to work together...'
Ethan smiled as he imagined both the beasts grown up and fighting his battles for him.
He continued testing what they would respond to and building rapport with them, but he could feel his MP draining by the minute. When it finally ran dry, a familiar emptiness settled in his body.
Both beasts were dismissed without him even needing to; Wolfy disappeared reluctantly, while Talon dissolved without ceremony.
Ethan immediately dropped to the floor and began doing some push-ups.
If he couldn't train MP, he would train his body.
Push-ups.
Squats.
Sit-ups.
Planks.
His muscles burned quickly, but what shocked him was how fast they adapted. The body of a Titled developed far more efficiently than before - he could feel it.
Recovery was quicker, and his progress was noticeable.
Ethan was obsessed.
Before this, his untitled body had limited him, but now there was no visible ceiling.
Not that this was the norm.
Most Titled rarely rose even a single rank, yet he had the potential to climb from E Rank to S Rank. That was as long as he didn't die in the Tower or in a gate first.
"I'm not wasting this," he muttered through clenched teeth.
He trained like a madman: until his arms trembled during push-ups, until his legs shook during squats, until his abdomen spasmed during sit-ups.
Then he ran.
Ethan burst straight out of the Black Howl, nodding at Mark before heading through the neighbourhood park. Lapping around it like he was being chased by demons, he looked possessed.
Sweat soaked through his shirt, his lungs burned, and his heart pounded - yet he loved it.
It felt easy compared to surviving in the Tower, and the pain meant progress, which made him ravenous. He wished he could bring beast meat back from the Tower to recover, but instead, he raided Mark's pantry like a starving animal.
Sandwiches, leftovers, fruit - Ethan devoured anything he could find.
He never used to eat that much, but now he eats enough to feed a small family.
Now?
He was eating enough for three people.
After getting his fill, he headed back downstairs into the basement and was ready to get back to training.
It wasn't like he had anything better to do.
Seeing his MP had recovered, he also summoned both his beasts, but eventually the noise drew attention...
-
'What is this guy up to?'
Mark gave Ethan his space and was glad he seemed to be doing better after receiving his Title, even if it was only measured as E Rank.
Ethan didn't drink, slept earlier, and even seemed to be exercising.
But this was extreme, and he couldn't hold back his curiosity anymore. Mark headed downstairs before stopping halfway, shocked by what he saw.
"I thought you could only summon a dog," he said cautiously. "Now there's a bird, too."
Ethan froze mid-squat.
Wolfy was jumping around him as he trained, and Talon perched on his shoulder, observing everything indifferently.
Mark blinked several times, then rubbed his eyes.
"And was the dog always that big?"
He wasn't sure if he was remembering incorrectly, but Wolfy didn't look like a harmless puppy anymore. Its proportions were shifting: posture lower, gaze more intense, claws and teeth more prominent.
There was something dangerous about it now, something that no longer resembled an ordinary domesticated animal.
Ethan smiled, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah. He's… growing."
Mark stared for another few seconds.
His eyes moved from the wolf-looking creature to the hawk, then to the chaos of the basement.
He didn't know what to say.
Mark didn't even get a chance to properly question Ethan before he resumed exercising as though his life depended on it.
From Mark's perspective, this looked disturbingly familiar.
The intensity, the obsession, the all-or-nothing behaviour - it felt like another addiction replacing the last one. Ethan had always been like that, and when he latched onto something, it was hard for him to let go.
But at least this time, it wasn't drinking, numbing his mind and slowly destroying himself.
He was preparing and working towards something...
'I just hope he doesn't lose himself in the process.'
Mark silently watched him for a while longer, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern. Then he quietly went back upstairs, him to it.
Later that night, after getting cleaned up, Ethan collapsed onto his air mattress without hesitation.
To anyone else, he looked like a madman.
But to him?
This wasn't madness.
It was momentum...