Re-Awakening: Cannon Fodder With Strongest Talent Chapter 162: First floor

Walking towards the tower, the people around the structure weren’t particularly interested in his approach. Why would they be? He wasn’t the first or the last person to walk towards the legendary testing ground. Dozens of Platinum-rank warriors attempted entry daily, their individual stories rging into routine background activity.

rchants continued hawking their specialized equipnt. The bustling marketplace maintained its comrcial rhythm regardless of who approached the tower’s entrance.

Ethan moved through the crowd with casual confidence, his enhanced perception noting the diverse array of territorial representatives present.

The Blood Dragon remained alert on his shoulder, his intelligence processing the social dynamics while remaining prepared for potential complications. SSS-rank instincts recognized that peaceful environnts could shift rapidly when valuable resources were involved.

But the safe zone’s magical enforcent remained absolute. Even obvious enemies maintained civil behavior while the tower’s protection systems monitored every interaction for signs of prohibited violence.

Arriving in front of the massive structure, Ethan felt the weight of its presence pressing against his consciousness. The tower rose beyond visual limits while dark stone radiated power that made the air itself thick with contained potential.

Runic inscriptions covering the entrance archway began glowing as his approach triggered activation sequences. Ancient text flowed across stone surfaces like living language while geotric patterns created optical illusions that challenged depth perception.

[Welco to the Sanctuary’s Tower. Would you like to enter?]

[Yes | No]

The magical interface appeared directly in his visual field, bypassing normal sensory input to communicate through consciousness itself. The tower’s systems had assessed his capabilities and determined him qualified for admission.

Ethan paused for a second, took a deep breath, and pressed yes.

The response was imdiate and disorienting.

Reality fractured around him as spatial displacent activated with overwhelming force. The marketplace, the crowd, the external environnt—everything dissolved into streams of light while dinsional barriers collapsed and reford around his consciousness.

FLASH! WARP!

He materialized inside an enormous arena that defied the tower’s external dinsions entirely. The platform stretched nearly a kiloter in both length and width, its surface composed of black stone that absorbed light while maintaining perfect visibility through magical illumination.

Ethan imdiately checked for Rambo, relief flooding through him as the Blood Dragon remained perched on his shoulder. The creature’s presence had survived the transportation process without apparent difficulty.

The arena contained no spectator seating or decorative elents—just the vast fighting platform surrounded by walls that stretched upward beyond visual range. This was purely functional space designed for combat trials rather than entertainnt.

[Floor 1 Challenge: Combat Efficiency]

[Objective: Eliminate all hostile entities]

[Preparation Ti: 60 seconds]

[Challenge begins automatically upon tir completion]

One minute to assess the situation and prepare for whatever the tower’s systems would manifest. Ethan used the ti to examine his imdiate environnt while ensuring optimal positioning for combat initiation.

The arena’s surface showed no obvious environntal hazards or advantageous terrain features. Smooth stone provided stable footing while magical lighting eliminated shadows that might conceal threats or provide tactical opportunities.

"Pure combat assessnt," he concluded. "No environntal variables—just direct capability testing."

Rambo spread its wings experintally, testing flight chanics within the enclosed space. The Blood Dragon’s movent indicated sufficient room for aerial maneuvers despite the arena’s substantial but finite dinsions.

[30 seconds remaining]

[Entities materializing...]

Dinsional rifts began opening across the arena floor as the tower’s systems prepared the trial’s opponents. Reality warped around manifestation points while hostile life forms erged from spaces between dinsions.

[10 seconds remaining]

[Final preparations...]

Ethan positioned himself at optimal range from the erging threats while ensuring clear movent routes for tactical repositioning. Enhanced Speed would provide mobility advantages, but understanding the arena’s limitations remained important.

[Challenge Beginning]

[Eliminate all hostile entities to proceed]

The manifestation completed as ten creatures materialized across the vast platform. Each entity radiated Mid-Gold rank power while their species characteristics beca visible through the arena’s magical illumination.

Fireflies.

But not the harmless insects the na suggested. These were creatures the size of large horses, their translucent wings creating prismatic displays while internal flas blazed with supernatural intensity. Each specin radiated C-rank Fire talent that made the air shimr with thermal distortion.

Seeing the challenge in front of him, Ethan couldn’t help but laugh with genuine happiness. The tower had just provided him with the best possible gift imaginable.

"Perfect," he said with delighted recognition. "Absolutely perfect."

Rambo chirped with curiosity at his reaction, the Blood Dragon’s mind questioning why ten Mid-Gold opponents would generate such positive response from soone with Mid-Platinum capabilities.

The answer lay in advancent rather than simple combat victory. These creatures possessed exactly the talent he needed for his next evolutionary breakthrough.

"C-rank Fire talent," Ethan explained to his companion while studying the slowly approaching fireflies. "Killing and devouring three of these will finally allow to evolve my fire capabilities."

His current Volcanic Mastery operated at D grade—powerful but limited in scope compared to pure Fire talent at higher rankings. The progression was clear: three C rank Fire talents would provide enough advancent to push his own capabilities to C- grade.

"The volcanic mastery would be overridden entirely," he continued with growing anticipation. "Pure Fla talent with broader applications and higher ceiling potential. More importantly, the lock on how mant talents i can devour would be gone until i reach the next limit."

Volcanic Mastery focused specifically on defensive applications—magma, superheated rock, thermal ground control. Useful but not great.

"Versatility over specialization," Ethan concluded as the fireflies began coordinating their approach

The creatures moved with fluid grace despite their substantial size, wings creating harmonic frequencies while internal flas built toward combat intensity. Their coordination suggested pack intelligence that would make the encounter more challenging than simple nurical superiority.

BUZZ! HISS! GLOW!

The first firefly attacked with thermal projection that superheated the air between them. C-rank Fire talent created temperatures that could lt most tals while plasma effects challenged even enhanced defensive capabilities.

But Mid-Platinum attributes made the assault manageable rather than threatening. Ethan’s enhanced constitution could survive direct contact with stellar temperatures while his speed capabilities allowed evasion of attacks.

Ti to begin the harvest.

Enhanced Speed activated to moderate levels as reality shifted into manageable slow motion. The fireflies’ coordinated assault beca readable patterns while their thermal attacks appeared as slow-moving energy projections.

"Three targets for advancent," he said with predatory satisfaction. "Seven for practice."

Volcanic Mastery erupted with controlled precision, molten rock erging from the arena floor in tactical patterns that channeled the creatures’ movent while creating environntal advantages for elimination.

BOOM! CRACK! SIZZLE!

The first firefly t crystal-hardened fists backed by Mid-Platinum strength. The collision produced sonic booms while thermal energy discharged in brilliant displays that illuminated the entire arena.

Ethan devoured the firefly imdiately after its death. His talent gave him the option of overriding his volcanic mastery and he agreed.

When devouring a talent that had similar rank, and trait. The system gave him the option to decided.

One down. Two more for talent evolution.

The remaining creatures adapted their tactics with impressive intelligence, spreading formation while coordinating ranged attacks that challenged his positioning. But Ethan’s power rendered their strategy irrelevant.

Ti to complete the collection.

Rambo watched with obvious interest as C-rank Fire talents were extracted from cooling corpses. The Blood Dragon’s SSS-rank intelligence recognized the significance of what was occurring—evolutionary advancent. After all, he had a similar way of advancing through blood. But his advancent was only through rank, not talent.

"Finally...C- grade Fire talent," Ethan said with satisfaction as the final firefly collapsed among its companions.

The tower’s first floor had provided exactly what he needed most.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The evolutionary advancent from Volcanic Mastery to Fla Mastery represented more than simple ranking improvent.

Ethan was now able to devour new talents. Talents that weren’t part of his collection.

But as satisfaction from the first floor’s success settled into strategic planning, Ethan’s thoughts turned to other advancent opportunities he carried. The Dark Wraith’s corpse remained preserved in his storage ring—a High-Gold creature with C grade Darkness talent that could provide imdiate darkness talent.

His hand moved instinctively toward the dinsional storage before pausing mid-gesture.

"Wait," he murmured, tactical assessnt overriding imdiate gratification impulses.

The tower’s existence changed everything about resource allocation strategy. Before discovering this legendary testing ground, the Dark Wraith represented the pinnacle of advancent materials available for him.

But now he had access to one hundred floors of systematic challenges designed to push his power beyond current limitations.

The rchant’s words echoed in his mory—rewards that supposedly included advancent opportunities toward Diamond rank itself.

Consuming the Dark Wraith would provide guaranteed C Darkness talent imdiately. Powerful capability that would enhance his combat versatility through shadow manipulation, concealnt techniques, and more.

But darkness talent was difficult to evolve further. Ethan wasn’t sure whether any of the towers early floors had a challenge filled with shadow creatures.

"The tower offers better talents and opportunities for evolution," Ethan reasoned. "Higher floors promise talents and materials that don’t exist anywhere else."

What if higher floors contained creatures with B-rank or even A-rank talents?