Return of the Woodcutter

During his second day of training, Aito first trotted around with about 450kgs (992lbs) worth of equipment. Exercising his body. Working on his stamina and agility that had yet to reach level 4, while using the excessive weight to feel the limit of his strength.

He did so for two hours, until his skill wore off, then went on to try out his newly evolved skill, Cyclone Lv2.

'Amazing,' he thought as he felt the wind around him while rotating.

Wind blades took shape as he whirled, ax in hand, slashing everything two meters around him. Actually, he didn't even need his ax to activate the skill, although that reduced his attack range by the length of his weapon, two meters.

Although, by trying Cyclone on a brick wall, he realized that wind blade could only scratch it, with time they could eventually scratch off a good chunk. Given around ten seconds, wind blades would certainly be able to shred through leather armor, though. No need to say that a normal challenger's flesh wasn't a problem.

It wasn't almighty but Aito was content with it. Once it leveled up, he could already imagine how devastating such a skill would be. And if the range increased even further...

'Yeah, that ought to be cool… huh, and powerful.'

He trained Cyclone for two more hours while trying to overload it, successfully doing so during his last attempt. The skill's range lengthened to 2.5 meters and wind blades whirled more furiously, capable of shredding leather armor in less than 8 seconds.

Taking an hour of rest to restore his mana, stamina, and soul force, he took this time to chat with George. Turned out, the bear-like man wanted to try his hands on the sixth floor soon.

And also join his team.

In fact, a lot of survivors from the Lunar Eclipse wanted to be part of Aito's team.

Aito didn't outright reject them. After all, he could use more people by his side, especially for the seventh and eighth floors that, according to Roan, were based on tower defense principles.

Although, he didn't just want anybody accompanying him.

He knew most veterans were capable, but that wasn't the issue. Trust was. George, however, was an exception. Apart from the siblings, that bulky man had supported Aito the most during the previous fearsome event in many ways. Proving he was more or less trustworthy, but not exactly.

Trustworthy being at the siblings' level of trust.

Also, they weren't complete strangers. He wanted to outright accept, but to be fair about it, he told him the same thing he did the others.

"If you spar with me and prove yourself capable, I'll accept," Aito said. He already knew veterans weren't pushovers, and had just said that to flatten their wills.

Most who had heard this fell silent, only to withdraw their interests in joining Aito's team.

"Ahaha! Sure!" George replied, "Actually, I wanted to spar with you since the night we met. That'll be a great opportunity to learn. I'm looking forward to it."

Like the others, Aito told him to wait up until tomorrow night where he'd hold all the duels at the same time.

George then left with a hearty smile, on his way to hunt his daily quota of hobs with a temporary team.

Going back to his training, Aito improved his control over Impact, overloading it each time. To make it more enjoyable, and, of course, for practice purposes, he created pictures of Belmand on walls with Illusion Lv2.

Punching them turned out to be very, very, very satisfying.

Time passed. He ended his fruitful training on an enjoyable note by beheading an illusion of Filona, then increased the weight of his armor by six times, planning on wearing the additional weight all the time. Only drastically increasing it when training.

With this much weight on him, he could move more or less at the same pace as the others. In a sense, it made it easier to control his strength. It acted like a shackle, a restriction.

A level 4 strength truly was different from a level 3 by a large margin. It was comparable to the difference between a level 1 strength and a level 3 strength. 

Actually, it was a well-known fact outside that most Ascenders had trouble controlling their new body's capabilities upon Ascending.

Until he managed to exert perfect control over his new strength, his skill would do as a temporary fix.

'More importantly, with it, whatever I do, I'm always training my body.'

***

Aito spent his evening with the siblings, planning their next step, gathering whatever informations they could get on the sixth floor from other challengers.

Apart from the creatures inhabiting the sixth floor and overall landscape, challengers actually knew little about it.

Those already challenging that floor were stingy when it came to sharing data. It has also been a while since one of them showed up on the fifth floor.

Aito found that weird for some reason. Unless they purposely stayed there, it either meant they had died, or something prevented them from coming back down.

There was also a rumor of some kind of monster lurking there. Nobody actually knew what it looked like. Nobody alive Aito had met, at least.

Roan had warned him about something though. Orcs weren't as uncivilized as challengers thought they were.

An intelligent species by nature, Roan said that orcs were "close" to the pinnacle of a goblin's evolution.

Aito found that troublesome. If those creatures were as intelligent as humans…, then sheer strength alone might not be enough to get through that floor.

Also, according to Gwen's knowledge, there existed a special area on the sixth floor, although the memory was too blurry to make heads or tails of what it was exactly.

Once their meeting was over, Aito took a short bath, dodging challengers trying to seduce him.

After that, instead of going to sleep, Aito exited the cathedral to train once again. Earning him a few quizzical gazes.

To his surprise, he also found Ogoro and Sheyla training outside. He frowned upon seeing five swords floating above Ogoro's head. It looked like his teammate was trying to do something quite cool. Although... judging by how messy it looked, Ogoro wasn't quite there yet.

After inspecting those, he noticed they were all linked by wires coming out of a gauntlet.

As for Sheyla, she was getting used to her new strength and skill. A layer of frost covered the wall in front of her, riddled with arrows. She was also wearing the ninja's grey cloak Aito had given her. 

He had hesitated to do it at first because it was a great item that gave such a massive advantage over one's opponent. However, for him, invisibility was subtle and didn't exactly suit his fighting style. He was more... on the barbaric side of things. 

The invisibility cloak suited Sheyla better in many more ways than one. She'd be able to hide faster when spotted by an enemy from afar. Use invisibility to scout out the surroundings if needed. Use it in close combat for a short period of time to disappear from her enemy's vision, etc. 

Of course, Aito could do all these but with Sheyla's capabilities and way of fighting, she'd probably do it better than him.

Having lost her leather armor—the new one she had acquired wasn't that good—the cloak would be perfect as an additional defensive gear since it could fend off sharp edges.

Boosting his allies' strength was important in Aito's eyes. Unless he was a god, there was only so much one man could do on his own.

And for some reason, he was happy to give it to her. She had simply replied with a "thank you," and implied that she'd pay him back somehow.

That, to him, had been enough.

Fired up at the sight of the siblings' training, Aito went back to his own training, doubling his efforts.

***

The next day, Aito and the siblings trained all day long..., for a change.

When night came, Aito gathered all those that had been brave or foolish enough to accept a sparing session with him.

Outside the cathedral, in front of the main entrance, Sheyla spread a few light crystals in a circular shape, forming a large ring in which the sparring would take place.

Aito stepped into the ring, pondered about what to say, looked at Ogoro and Sheyla, then smirked while calling them to the center of the ring.

At first, he had wanted to use this sparring session to train his new abilities, but now that he spread his Domain and sensed the danger level of each applicant, apart from George, probably none would be able to satisfy the requirements.

Thinking it'd be a great opportunity for the siblings to improve, he said, "The rules are simple. Challenge me or my teammates to a spar."

Puzzled, Ogoro and Sheyla looked at him inquisitively. However, they didn't object, because they too wanted to test their metal against veteran challengers.

"The spar ends when one of you yield," Aito continued. "Keep in mind that we have battle surgeons and recovery beads at our disposal, so don't hold back. If you do, you WILL regret it. If you die… well, I'll stop the match before that happens, hopefully. The ring is just for lighting purposes. If you step outside, you won't be disqualified. But I'd rather you stay inside it. If I'm satisfied with your performance, I'll let you in my team."

Immediately after, there were complaints amongst the spectators. Those were the veterans who had manifested an interest in joining Aito's team. They had been told they would face the black challenger in a spar, not his teammates.

In a sense, it was normal for them to be angry.

Tired of their yapping, Aito applied Durability to his right greave, which already weighed six times its original weight, and overloaded Impact.

BOOM!

The ground shattered under his foot in a thunderous noise, creating a small crater. The crowd immediately shut up, lowering their gazes in respect, remembering that a hero, but also a monster, stood in front of their eyes.

"Now, who's first?" He asked, his gaze traveling from left to right.

There were ten applicants, George and Olmera included. Aito had been surprised to find the bald old hag was somewhat interested in being his companion—not that he had any plan of letting her into the team.

Apart from the applicants, every challenger on the fifth floor came to watch the spars. With newcomers and those that came back from the second floor, the spectators easily numbered over one hundred and twenty people.

"I'd like a spar with you, black challenger," said a young man wearing a bow.