Aaron sped through the second floor as fast as he could. He was still wearing his wetsuit so it was not the most comfortable journey. Luckily both the scorpion and the giant snake had not respawned yet and so it was a simple get there, take the mark and get to the next staircase up instead of having to fight or wait at all. In the end it took him barely 2 hours to return to Oceanview. Which was ridiculously fast. But thanks to Wind Steps he was more than capable of traveling these kinds of distances in a flash. Back on the third floor he retrieved his backpack and repacked both it and his bag of holding. The pills were safely deposited inside of the bag of holding for now.

Aaron checked over his supplies and decided to buy some rather overpriced foodstuffs at a local store. He convinced the clerk he was stocking up for his group, which was the most likely thing to happen and in the end Aaron got out of the store with a big bag of food from the third floor mainly. A few tasty looking fresh fish, fish flakes he could use to flavor broths and the like as well as some more flour and spices Aaron thought smelled interesting. He crammed everything into his backpack, checked over his gear and then hurried off towards the Ocean.

What he did not do, was eat the magical Kelp that would allow him to breathe under water. He had a very different idea of getting up to the fourth floor. Aaron made sure he was out of sight of the Town and then pushed off the sandy beach soaring right towards the waves. But instead of diving in, he only let his feet enter the water before pushing himself off again and soaring through the air. Aaron was basically jumping on water and yet he did not give himself any time to enjoy it.

There was a curse on the third floor after all. A curse that would suffocate him if he was too slow. Aaron had some magical kelp just in case he misjudged the distance, but for now Aaron hurried through the third floor with powerful jumps. The Ocean's surface was peaceful. There were barely any animals and most of them who were in the air returned to the water. He was alone on the Ocean as he jumped off big waves, soared over schools of fish and sharks underneath him. This peaceful nature of the third floor, if you stayed above water, was most likely why there were ships traveling the floor to begin with. Being able to fly down from the maelstrom was a good idea though because the closer Aaron got to the maelstrom the bigger it became, the stronger the winds howled and the bigger the waves got. Going up the maelstrom was bad enough, but going down against the stream sounded totally impossible.

Aaron stared upwards to the churning froth of water cascading into the sky and decided it was probably not worth it to use the outside of it, but he had to try at least once to see if it was possible to go the same route as the ships. So he jumped upwards, taking the gradual slope of the water flowing heavenwards and climbed the literal mountain of water. Whenever his feet sunk into the ocean he was dragged upwards and inwards as well as to the side. He pushed through the sudden burst in speed as the Ocean current took him with it and dove out of the water, skipping dozens of meters up into the air. When he made contact again he was catapulted sideways even stronger. Aaron used the sudden acceleration and let it take him with it as he flung himself out into the air again, jumping in a spiral with the water up the maelstrom.

Each step was more precarious than the last and strong winds buffeted Aaron's wetsuit and hair. Luckily the suit was rather formfitting so the only thing dragging him away was his backpack. But he had secured it safely and the physics breaking properties of Wind Steps allowed him to continue his mad dash up the maelstrom. The higher he got the harder it became to see. The outside of the maelstrom was a churning mass of incredibly fast water and each contact with the water was like getting his feet ripped away by a sudden attack of a formula one car. Including a burst of fine water droplets that turned the surrounding area into a cloud of water within half a second. The violent crashes he endured while running up got higher and higher until the sideways force of the mealstrom smoothed out and it just dragged him upwards.

Aaron shot into the air, taking the acceleration as his whole body felt the incredible g-forces he had to endure with each contact to the maelstrom. But everything moved upwards now and he could already see the churning spray of the water hitting the ceiling of the floor. Aaron looked around during his next jump and found himself flying upwards miles up in the air. His stomach did a little flip and it reminded him a lot of sky diving, just in reverse and with way crazier g-forces acting upon his body. But Aaron's body was that of a fiend-god, of a creature impervious even to the void of space. The higher his cultivation rank, the more this turned out to be true and although it hurt to dive into the maelstrom and it felt every time like he had been flung out of a centrifuge or a giant cannon, his body could take it. While he was in the air Aaron turned and spread his arms. He had to laugh as he soared into the sky and then the last step into the maelstrom hit him and accelerated him hard into the sky.

Aaron shouted like one would on a roller coaster as he was sent into the sky. He shifted his direction and flung himself into the spray. His speed was so great Aaron had only a second to see the spiral staircase on top of the maelstrom, before he collided with it. He was barely able to halt his momentum with Wind Steps, but he still crashed into the staircase. It was a mild crash and he was able to buffet it by landing feet first, bending his knees as he bled of his momentum. Aaron grabbed for the edge of the staircase and held on, while he caught his breath.

That had been insane. He had not thought it possible he could do that, but once he was at it, it had just turned into a rush of speed and concentration. It had been surprisingly fun, although his legs were still stinging from diving into the water. But with each breath Aaron took he realized he did not have time to linger. His breaths were already shallow and he was not getting enough oxygen. He quickly climbed into the staircase and hurried up the stairs to the fourth floor.

There was an invisible barrier in the staircase Aaron actually noticed this time, because from one step to another his breath returned to him. He could handle not being able to breathe for a while, but the difference was still stark. He stopped and took a few deep breaths and then started to chuckle to himself. What a rush. It had also been very quick. Aaron did not know exactly how long, but he guessed it took barely an hour to scale the maelstrom. This would be his default way to skip the third floor from now on and it would only get easier if he got better at using Wind Steps.

Aaron returned to his training while he climbed up the stairs, taking three steps at a time with a perfectly timed hop and before he knew it he was standing before the lightpool on the fourth floor. He sighed and got out of the wetsuit. He sat down, rubbed his sore ankles and made sure all of his things had survived the mad dash up the water. But everything was in order. His backpack was wet on the outside, but that was about it. Aaron fastened the wetsuit on the outside of the backpack to let it dry before storing it away and went over his entire kit, before he nodded satisfied. Now he only had to find his way through the labyrinth that was the fourth floor.

Aaron pulled out a wax paper package he had gotten from Roger. It was the multilevel map Roger had used on the fourth floor. It was marked with the shortest path through the labyrinth like darkness of the fourth floor. Roger even had included small marks for rest stops, alternative routes etc in a small legend at the side of the map. Aaron studied the parchment for a few long minutes in the light of the glowstones as he mentally went over the path. At first he was going from one monster nest to the other, basically jumping from lightpool to lightpool, then he would need to go down. After he had killed a spider den he needed to consult the map again to be sure. Aaron carefully folded the map again and then stored it securely in the bag of holding, his safest storage space. At least until the bag broke. Which would hopefully be never.

He also placed a few glowstones into the bag of holding which perfectly masked the light inside of it when it was closed. That done he calmed down and stretched his body like he would before every training. Aaron put a bit more emphasis into his legs and ankles and when he was loose and limber as he could be he went straight into the darkness. Aaron fell back to sensing his environment without seeing it and made sure he was choosing the right tunnel as he walked past a few cave ants that had a small street of their own crossing his path. In the darkness they did not react to him and so Aaron got to the first boss on the list unimpeded and without even having to slow down his steps.

It was a rat nest, which was not really surprising considering how many of the damned things there were on this floor. A lot of other monsters were eating them so it was only logical that there would be a lot of them running around in the dark. Aaron spotted the light first and located the boss by hearing mostly, not smell, which was overbearingly strong. Aaron got into a sprinters stance before a race and then pushed himself off the rocky ground. He twisted as he dove through the opening of the cave to dodge a stalagmite and then turned to face the big limbering boss. This boss was a giant rat the size of an elephant with big claws on its feet and a snarling mouth with way too many teeth that reminded him more of a dinosaur than a rodent. Aaron collided with the giant beast fist first, punching the side of its head, making the creature rear back. But one jump had not been enough to imbue himself with enough kinetic energy to rip through the things head. But his punch did leave it dazed.

Aaron mounted the beast and hammered down with all of his strength, his fists tearing up the top of its head, before the rat roared and rolled to the side. Aaron hopped off the rat and floated in the air until the giant rodent had finished rolling. Then Aaron pushed himself off a stalactite and smashed into the underside of the monster's head, making it bounce off the floor, stunning the creature again. The fight was over very quickly after that. With three more punches he cracked open the beasts skull and killed it with relative ease. The rats around him scurried away or attacked him. But Aaron ignored them and jumped out of the opening that the boss had guarded.

He had to keep in mind any exits that had been marked on the map not to take a wrong turn and while he was fleeing the rat nest, because he really could not be bothered to kill all of those little pests, he pulled out the map again and checked he was correct. But the tunnel layout was easy to remember.

Aaron heard and smelled the next boss again before he could see them in the light of their lightpool. It was a giant ants nest this time. Aaron tried to repeat the same tactic like before, but it was very different with the ants. As soon as Aaron entered the light, soaring over the heads of the ants, they responded with a sharp scented pheromone that turned the giant orderly ant nest into a churning sea of acid and snapping mandibles lusting after his flesh.

Aaron evaded mid air, swatting away ants jumping at him and dodging acid attacks as he closed in on the giant ant queen that screeched at him, but instead of attacking herself, two giant ants the size of horses stomped out of the sharp shadows around the lightpool.

"Royal guards eh?" Aaron said with a chuckle and bounced of one of the ants, crushing it under his boot. The ants were big, but not slow at all. They shot forward, their smaller cousins scattering before them or getting trampled under their feet. Aaron moved back to dodge a bite of giant sharp mandibles that looked and sounded like an industrial steel tool to cut trees in two. The sharp snap echoed in his mind and time slowed down as the second ant followed up the attack with a furious cut of its mandibles as well. Aaron's palm gently guided the mandibles away from him with barely any force, time seemed to have stopped in that moment and Aaron felt the world accelerate around him again once he had finished the stance of the Unceasing Palm kata.

Aaron danced among the two ants, took their attacks seriously and dodged, blocked or made all of their attacks miss with precise attacks of his own. Fighting two opponents was difficult for most people, but the heavenly kata was made for this. It felt to Aaron like a strange mix of time and speed. He punched in normal speed, taking advantage of the ants position, his fists cracking carapaces and damaging the mandibles that sounded so dangerous, but in the next moment when he defended himself he moved in a different time and speed than all of the ants. He dodged sprays of acid, jumped over the ants when too many of the smaller ones came up from behind him and smashed down on the royal guards backs. The giant ants were nimble and tough though. They got themselves turned around quickly, giving Aaron barely a moment to hit them and they kept fighting even with cracks in their exoskeleton leaking green blood.

But Aaron just did not take any damage. He did not need to. He slowly whittled the ants down and after only a few minutes he had smashed one of the ants head in and finished the second one off by crushing its cracked head under his foot while he jumped the boss standing back, blocking the exit next to the lightpool. He dove under the sharp sickle like arms of the boss and jumped up, smashed one of the arms and let his momentum carry him to the ceiling. Aaron pushed himself off the ceiling and hammered down on the boss, which was far less resilient than the royal guards. Its defenses were feeble and before long he was done with the boss. But the rest of the ants kept coming. It was not worth it to kill all of them and so he leapt into the narrow opening into darkness to escape once again.

His next two boss fights went basically the same, just that it was a Moth nest and a nest of strange frogs he had not seen before on the floor. The moths were the easiest room so far, but they all came for him in a huge airborne wave and Aaron had no choice but to kill them all, which is why it took far more time. He still emphasized defense over everything else, trained the Unceasing Palm kata as he smoothly transitioned from one stance of the kata to the next, fusing both styles into a complete offense and defense alike. The billowing crystal dust that the moths doused him in barely had any affect on him other than irritating his eyes. He held his breath for the most part and so even though the fight dragged on it was over rather quickly.

Without the chemical component the moths were incredibly fragile and easy to kill. After he dispatched a giant moth that released a wave of dust when it crashed to the ground, Aaron took a breath and then got out one of the small bags his pots had been in and filled it to the top with crystal dust. Now that he was planning on doing some alchemy for himself, it was prudent to collect ingredients whenever he could. That done he moved onto the frog nest.

The frogs were obviously poisonous, came in all kinds of eye catching colors and nothing ate them apparently. He saw even the ants avoided them in the tunnels surrounding the boss room.

The frogs came in all kinds of sizes and their means of attack was quite deceptive, it was their tongues. Their tongues were barbed and poisonous and Aaron had real trouble dodging their attacks at first. But it was fairly simple once he figured out how the frogs worked. They set themselves up before shooting out their tongues and that was enough for Aaron to avoid them all. Their bodies themselves were incredibly fragile. Their boss was a giant toad that tried to swallow Aaron whole or entangle him with its tongue, but when that did not work it died rather quickly to only three punches. Aaron could feel the frogs toxin on his skin and washed his hands in the lightpool when he had made some space and then he quickly fled again.

In the end it had been simple, no real challenges besides trying to avoid attacks he had not been familiar with.

The spider nest was a bit different. The complication in that nest was the webs that where everywhere. Some where so thin they were almost entirely see through, especially in the dark. It was one of the few things Aaron had trouble detecting. The webs did not significantly smell different than the rest of the spider nest and in the shadows of the lightpool it was almost impossible to see them in the dark spots. So Aaron stumbled into one of the webs and basically alerted the entire nest instantly.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Aaron tore himself out of the spider web that was barely strong enough to give him pause, but it would slow him down. The giant spiders descended upon him rapidly. A few of the giant arachnids jumped him with wicked speed, their fangs poised, dripping with neurotoxin. Aaron paused and time slowed down as he reacted, he shifted his weight and stepped aside, while punching one of the spiders making both arachnids coming for him collide and crash against a nearby wall. But the respite was short lived as a dozen or more spiders came at him from every conceivable direction. When Aaron dove out of the way he got entangled with another web and then the spiders were on top of him.

Aaron punched the first spider in its ugly face, rupturing its eyes, giving him space. Fangs dug into his back leg and Aaron spun to escape his entanglement, guided spider after spider away from their attacks and then started crushing their exoskeletons with quick precise punches. The crack of their bodies was music to his ears as he dispatched the first 5 in rapid succession. The poison entering his veins made him shiver in pain, but he did not have time to take a painkiller pill right now. He dove to the side, giving him some space and killing two more of the big spiders, before he got his hand into his bag of holding. He pulled out the pills and dove backwards while he frantically searched for the right pill. His entire body felt like it was on fire, the pain kept increasing and he gritted his teeth not to start screaming. Finally he managed to find one of the painkiller pills and swallowed it.

The effect was instantaneous. The sweet sugary pill dissolved in his mouth and became a ball of strange energies coursing through his body as he swallowed it. Within a single breath the pain ceased, no not exactly. The Pain was reduced to a manageable level. Instead of fire and brimstone radiating out from the wound on his leg, it was more like a bee sting. Painful, but not debilitating.

Aaron took a deep calm breath and then dove into the spider nest with a vengeance. He slowly got used to the complex environment of nets and enemies who could like him move vertical and attack from strange angles if he allowed them to. The more he fought the more the could handle this environment. Spiders could not move through thick webs either and so Aaron made use of that and slowly whittled the number of spiders down. The boss of this nest was a giant spider that tore through half of the nets of the nest as it stomped over to attack. It was fast, it was big and it was strong. Its many eyes stared Aaron down as it attacked with mandibles and long sharp legs. Aaron slapped legs away coming towards him and dove underneath the fangs of the spider and then delivered a hammer blow upwards into its abdomen. The spider screeched and Aaron quickly scrambled out from under the giant spider before it could crush him under its weight.

Legs followed him as he climbed on its back and it bucked and shook from side to side to get him off. But Aaron had a good grip on the spiders pointy hairs and began to smash its head in. The Spider reared and rammed its head into the ceiling, with Aaron narrowly sliding towards its backside and continued delivering damage there until the spider was falling to the floor again. Aaron saw his chance, dove to a nearby stalactite and pushed himself off it before shoulder tackling the spider. The giant beast landed not on the floor or in one of its nest but on a stalagmite rising from the floor punching through its abdomen and mortally wounding it. Aaron landed, dispatched another spider jumping at him from behind before he smashed the giant ugly thing's head in and ending the bosses life.

Aaron was panting when he was done and he considered that new enemies and complications were still enough to give him trouble. He inspected the wound on his leg, but it had already healed, only the rip in his pants told of what had happened. Aaron cursed to himself and started mending his pants while he took a break. The nest was eerily quiet while he did so. If any spiders were still alive they kept to themselves and were waiting, trying to ambush him. When Aaron was done he washed his face in the water of the light pool and then pulled out the map. He checked the direction he needed to go and verified it with one of the exits out of the cave. Then he opened one of the mana potion bottles he still had, drank the contents and watched as the mana in the potion got absorbed by his body almost as fast as he could drink it. When he was done with it, he placed one painkiller pill in the bottle, put the stopper back in and hung it at his belt.

Another lesson learned. Some pills needed to be available for emergencies. He had done the same damn mistake again. But at least this time he had managed to get to the item he needed in time. He should have thought of this, but he had not. It felt like a monumental failure, but it was not in the end. Just carelessness. He needed to change his mentality. Any creature he could easily kill was not worth preparing for. What he should be preparing for was the tough situations. Aaron knew the pills he had gotten were precious, which was why he had put them in a safe spot. But after taking one of the painkiller pills he knew he would use them extensively until he got Sensory Harmony under full control. He had not thought he would need any of them while on the fourth floor, but that was the problem. He should be planning for situations he could not foresee or handle easily.

More prepared and less angry with himself Aaron entered the tunnel leading downwards rapidly. He was more alert and took the fourth floor more seriously after that.

He fought through eight more monster nests, staying calm and dispatching his enemies without many problems. He had the solutions to all of their attacks at hand. No matter what boss or creature was in his way he defended first and used the openings he got to punish and kill any monster standing in his way. The Painkiller pill lasted for quite a while, but since Aaron did not get injured again he was not sure how long. The painkiller did not affect his senses at all, except for pain, which meant he was not numb or anything, he just felt a lot less pain. It was amazing.

After hours of fighting and following the map Roger had made for him slowly Aaron suddenly saw light again. He could not smell anything in the next room and when he peered in he was surprised to see a lightpool and a staircase upwards. He had made it through the labyrinth.

The path he had taken was complicated, winding and not at all straight, but he did not doubt it was the fastest one. Each cave had multiple exits making it almost impossible to find the right path without knowing it exactly beforehand or following a map. There had also been so many monsters everywhere it would take a group moving safely days, if not weeks to reach the fifth floor. He was glad he had gotten the map, because it would have taken him weeks to find his way through the many tunnels and options and even if he had, he would not have found the fastest route for years if it was just up to him. He had to remind himself to buy Roger a beer sometime for that.

But that was enough stalling, it was time to take a look at this fifth floor. Aaron took a deep breath and then went up the staircase.

The fifth floor had a rather hot savanna type of climate. But it was a dry heat and cool winds buffeted Aaron's hair when he stepped onto the fifth floor, ready to defend himself. From all the stories he had heard, this floor was the true bench mark to go to Ambition and it had the first monsters that had beast cores. So Aaron expected incredible danger from the get go.

To his surprise he found himself on top of a small hilly mountain range and he could not smell any monsters close by at all. What he did smell were humans, Climbers like him. Their scents old and new were layered all over these foot hills hugging the walls of the floor. Beyond the foothills was a grassland that stretched to the horizon. The wind flowed through the tall grass, that must be meters high and made beautiful patterns on the sea of grass. An enormous rock like mountain stood alone in the grassland, dominating the horizon, its peak barely visible as it was touching the clouds.

Aaron listened for any people around, but he was alone in the close vicinity around the staircase. But just to be safe he moved away from the staircase and walked forward until he had climbed a small peak overlooking the surrounding area.

The foothills were a labyrinth of boulders, hills and rock formation eaten through over millennia by small streams that crisscrossed the hills like veins of an ancient being made of rock and earth. Moss and lichen was the only thing growing here, especially around the many small trickling streams originating magically at the wall. The water congregated in small rivers at the edge of the foothills that seemed to vanish in the extensive grassland that covered the whole floor itself.

Aaron looked out into the distance, letting his senses open up as his ears and his eyes sharpened until he could see the individual strands of grass swaying in the breeze and could hear and see monsters in the distance. Towards his left he could hear a scraping and scrambling of too many legs and when he turned and looked in that direction he saw huge, giant beasts in the distance. They towered over the surrounding savanna, bigger than elephants, bigger than some houses really. The lizards moved alone through the grass, surrounded by a whole sea of smaller lizards. The gigantic behemoths were scaled, had gigantic snouts with plenty of teeth and beady eyes looking around the vicinity. Aaron stared fascinated as one of the giant creatures moved slowly, stomping audibly with its giant legs as it moved through the savanna. The smaller lizards around it were like a swarm of locusts. They turned the grassland surrounding the broodmothers, because that was the only thing they could be, into a churning mass of small mouths. Aaron watched as the savanna trembled when the small lizards brought down some sort of pray and feasted upon it. The giant lizard broodmother turned towards the pray and the smell of blood and gulped down the rest of the meal, eating the majority of what looked like an antelope.

The more he looked the more antelopes he spotted. Their scent was prevalent all over the grassland if a bit muted as predators that hunted them were more dominant to his nose. Aaron could see herds of thousands of these antelopes move through the grassland, eating the grass, feasting upon it and yet they kept moving, harried by the predators of the floor.

Towards the center of the floor, directly in front of Aaron, huge groups of predators moved together through the grassland, their yaps and yips and occasional howls identified them as hyena like monsters. But they were significantly taller than any hyena from earth, or any antelope. From his vantage point Aaron watched a pack of hyenas tear into one of the giant herds of antelopes, who scattered in all directions before congregating into the giant herd once again. The flight of the antelopes spread like wildfire and soon the whole herd was sprinting, trampling anything in its wake. The hyenas only tore into the flanks of the herd, isolating a few and then devoured them with loud cackling laughter.

The whole savanna smelled like animals, like sweat, fear and blood. But the right side, the savanna smelled the most like fur. Giant elephant sized shaggy lions prowled that area in small groups of two or three. Their massive size, their strength and speed made them the most dangerous predators on the floor, from what Aaron was seeing at least. He watched one of the lions jump at an antelope dozens of meters away and tear it in half with a massive maw filled with sharp teeth. It had been fast and vicious and the herd reacted way too slowly to get away from them. The second beast broke through the grass like a flood and pounced way too far to be comfortable, catching another one of the antelopes. Both the speed and the range of these beasts was considerable and Aaron had no doubt, creatures of their size were strong as well.

The more Aaron watched, the more clear the picture of the floor got. There were three distinct enemies on the floor, the lions, the hyenas and the broodmothers. All of them stuck to their respective parts of the floor for whatever reason. Aaron could not see why. But it might be hardwired into them by Emnu when he brought these creatures here. The borders of the territories of the predators were where most of the antelopes roamed and it was also where Aaron could spot the glint of water now and then. So there must be small streams flowing through the floor as well at those spots, concentrating the wildlife. The lines the creatures did not cross were significant though. No predator or antelope went into the foothills from the scents he could detect at least. So there was some magic afoot here. From this distance his mana sense could not detect what it was, but he would not be surprised to find strong magical signatures at the borders between the different predators.

With his initial observation of the floor done, Aaron turned to the foothills themselves. To his surprise most climbers had set themselves up to the right, towards the lion's territory, a minority stayed in the center to camp, but almost nobody chose to camp to the left side. Which was curious. Then again, Modestus had told him that few people hunted the broodmothers and he had to bribe the army to get him some of their egg glands. Aaron had not asked for specifics back then, too absorbed by the new information he was receiving, but it would have been nice to know more about that. The alchemist must be cooperating in some fashion with the tower. How else was he getting materials? But that was a mystery for another time. For now he had to find a spot to camp and set up his tent.

Of course he went away from the more populated areas and went to the left. There was no point in inviting trouble by staying at a spot with many climbers. Most of which might have heard of him or worse might have been part of the manhunt. No, he would much rather not have any contact with them. So he climbed through the rough, rocky terrain and looked for a suitable spot.

He had pretty standard requirements for a campsite, access to water, concealed and with multiple exits. He was planning on staying here for a while after all, so it was better to be thorough. The first few camp spots he found, he discarded for various reasons. Some where too open or did not have convenient access to water. Others had been frequented rather recently and Aaron did not want to set up on a spot only to then get into conflict with a group finding someone occupying their spot.

Aaron turned a corner and paused, finding a small valley with a stream flowing by at one side. The spot was vast, flat and had obviously been used before. Detritus and leftover of a previous camp of many tents and many fireplaces told a story of a group of dozens, maybe even up to a hundred people, who had camped here. They had even dug latrines, a fact his nose immediately informed him about. This must have been used by Emnu's Army, he concluded. No other group roamed the Tower in these numbers. Aaron had not had much contact with that faction of the Tower, he had only seen them in action once on the first floor. A uniformly armed group of soldiers that had reminded Aaron vaguely of roman legionnaires. It fit with what Modestus had said and Aaron carefully looked around, before he moved on. The last thing he wanted was to camp at a spot reserved by Emnu's Army.

That said he could understand the allure of the army itself. If he had been just a simple Vessel, he would have probably signed on with them, instead of joining a team lead by a fledgling mage. He had joined the army his last life as well after all. The Army had taught him many things, survival, logistics, even camaraderie. Fighting in a team could be a great thing, although the military had sucked overall. Not because of who fought with you most of the time and not even because of the fighting and potentially dying. But the whole drudgery of army life, the paperwork, useless bureaucratic hurdles, lack of support for anything that was not an absolute priority for the unit and most of all because most of the time it had been boring. Waiting, sleeping and sitting around doing nothing useful felt like everything Aaron had done for most of his time in the military. But then again that time was more than a lifetime ago it felt like.

Aaron walked past the camp and into the furthest reaches of the foothills. It took him probably an hour to find a suitable spot, but he was glad he had spent the time in the end. The spot he chose was in the shadow of a giant boulder that formed a tight seal to a small hill to create a small half cave. A small river flowed by just around the corner and besides two entrances or exits to the small camp site, the tall inaccessible rocks jutting around him into the sky were excellent for a third escape route, because nobody could follow or wait for him up there. Satisfied with his find Aaron started to unpack and set up camp.

The tent he had gotten was far more spacious than he had expected and he had to change its location twice when he realized that fact. In the end the tent sat snug against one rock wall in the half cave and had more than enough space inside for two or three people. The material of the tent was tough, waterproof and it kept the wind out. The internal structure of the tent was to Aaron's surprise made out of metal and very reminiscent of a normal tent he would buy on earth. Just that these iron rods were heavy and needed a rather flat surface to stand on. But on the plus side, it did not require him to dig anything into the ground or string up the tent plane in any way. The metal grid did that on its own and the only risk were heavy winds blowing the tent away, but at that point any other tent would be done for as well.

Next Aaron set up his manastone burner in front of the tent and made himself some food. He could see why this stove was a very useful thing to have without anything to burn on the floor. Moss and Lichen would not make for a good fire after all. With the limited supplies he had gotten from the third floor he made himself soft shell fish tacos in the end. Soft shell because he was basically just making thin flat bread to hold the fish he cooked in a small pot to a mushy flavorful gravy like consistency. He was lacking any proper herbs or even onions, but that was the best thing he could do for now.

Aaron sat down leaning against the wall and ate his meal, enjoying the deep intricate flavors of the spices. Their impact magnified by his taste buds by two or three times and so although the overall flavor was not spicy at all, to his senses it was a flavor bomb. But the spice mixture he had used was not quite there yet. It was the fish that did not fit exactly to the spices, which was annoying, but oh well. Cooking was in the end an art form and he did not expect to suddenly become a master chef just by being able to have a better sense of taste and smell.

When he was done devouring his meal he switched outfits into the armored version to try it out and because the black set of clothes needed to be washed. Even though Aaron had been careful and had only taken that one bite by that spider, he had still been spluttered with all kinds of blood, guts and brain matter. So he went over to the stream and washed his clothes with the alchemical solution Iris had packed into his backpack. It worked wonders and Aaron hung up his clean clothes to dry at a wall in his camp, hammering a hook into the rock.

His food supplies would shrink rapidly if he did not supplement them with what he hunted on the floor, so Aaron set up a place to butcher and bleed out animals he killed a bit further away from his camp. The metal hooks, part of the climbing gear were really useful for that. Aaron was able to string a bit of rope between them like a clothesline to hang up carcasses. That done he cleaned up, stored his pack and non essential things into his tent, before he checked himself over. He had a two pill bottles at his belt, one painkiller, one regeneration, just in case. He wore comfortable and slightly armored clothes that offered a bit of protection and maximum range of movement. He had some potions at his belt as well as his enchanter dagger. His bag of holding he kept on his person with most of his valuables inside. He wore the magic breaker under his gloves along with one of the rings conjuring a shield around him. Last but not least he had the armband conjuring lightning around his left arm.

Satisfied with his preparations Aaron walked out towards the Savanna. It was time to test his prowess against the magical beasts and learn about them, before he could begin to really train.

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