"And what about the changes to your innate ability?" Ethan asked.

Big Mike grinned so hard it looked like his face might split. "Heh. My innate ability got a massive upgrade too. Super cool skill—Dragonflame. Strong and flashy."

It was obvious Big Mike was thrilled with both of his Stage B gains.

"Not bad," Ethan said, giving him a nod. "Those two skills really are nasty."

Chris snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Great for bullying low-tier trash. If he actually fought anyone on this team, he wouldn’t beat a single one of us."

He was still salty about Toxic Rain making him drop out of the sky and eat dirt.

Big Mike opened his mouth to argue, then looked around the circle... and slowly realized Chris wasn’t wrong.

His eyes drifted—hopefully—toward Emily.

"At least I can beat Emily."

Chris narrowed his eyes. "You sure?"

Big Mike’s confidence died on the spot. "Uh..."

"...Fine. I can’t beat any of you." He coughed, then recovered fast. "But I can wipe those Yamato guys. Who here kills Yamato bastards faster than me?"

Chris nodded, completely serious. "Yeah, no. Can’t compete with that."

Big Mike spread his hands, satisfied. "Exactly. We’re not here to flex on each other. Why would I fight you psychos?"

"Alright," Ethan said, cutting off the bickering before it turned into round two. "Garrick. Your turn."

Garrick nodded. "My Stage B skill—you all saw it. Light-type ability: Protective Dome. Crazy defense."

Then he grimaced. "Big downside though. Once I cast it, I can barely do anything else. I have to keep maintaining it. The second I relax, it collapses."

"That’s not even a real complaint," Ethan said, half laughing. "Do you know how many Flamebirds hammered that thing? Tens of thousands, and it held."

He shrugged. "Extreme defense always comes with a price. And yours isn’t bad—this is a team. If we need the dome, we won’t be asking you to do other stuff at the same time."

Garrick thought about it, then nodded. "...Yeah. Fair."

"And your innate ability growth?" Ethan prompted.

"Sandstorm." Garrick made a small gesture. "It’s an AoE, but it doesn’t do much damage. More like support—blinds anyone inside so they can’t see."

"Useful," Ethan said. Then he looked at Mia. "Mia?"

Mia sat up straighter. "My Stage B skill is single-target damage: light-type Judgment Beam. It should hit hard, and it’s fast—hard to dodge."

She smiled a little. "And my innate ability gained Ice Blade Storm—an area attack." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Nice," Ethan said. "One single-target, one AoE. No obvious weak spots anymore."

Mia’s smile widened. "Yeah. I’m happy with it."

Ethan turned to Emily. "Emily?"

Emily nodded. "I got a wind-type ability: Wind Barrier. It blocks elemental attacks, but it won’t do much against physical hits."

She shot Big Mike a playful look. "So if you think I’m easy prey, you’re wrong. I can probably block your Dragonflame."

Big Mike’s face fell. "...Damn."

Emily continued, a little more excited now. "And my innate ability gained Strength Blessing. I can buff you guys—about a thirty percent strength increase. It lasts around ten minutes."

Everyone sat up at once.

"That’s huge," Sean said.

Ethan nodded, impressed. "Yeah, that’s not just ’nice.’ That’s a straight team-wide power spike."

Emily looked pleased, cheeks warming. "Good. I’m glad it can help."

Ethan clapped his hands once. "Alright. We’ve rested enough. Let’s keep moving—this Void Realm’s huge. There should be more creatures out there."

"Yeah."

They stood quickly, energy back in their bodies.

Then, one by one, each of them walked into the sea of Flamebirds, picked the one they liked, and climbed onto its back.

Ethan swung up onto the Flamebird leader’s back.

Luckily, the leader was fully subdued under Skinny Pete’s Beast Control. Otherwise, it probably would’ve tried to bite his head off—Ethan hadn’t exactly been gentle earlier, what with the chokehold and the black-fist treatment.

"By the way," Ethan said, turning his head toward Skinny Pete, "ask it what kinds of creatures live in this world. And where they’re usually found."

They had a native guide literally sitting under them. No reason to wander blind. A massive flying flock like this should know the map better than anyone.

Skinny Pete nodded and started communicating with the Flamebird leader mentally.

A minute later, he looked up.

"It says this world used to have a lot of life... but a long time ago there was some kind of huge catastrophe, and it turned into what it is now. Most species didn’t make it. The number of living creatures left is pretty small."

He continued, organizing it as he spoke. "The Flamebirds dominate the sky. On the ground, you’ve got the red-skinned humanoids—the Infernals—and then there’s another group living underground: the Redshell beasts, with red carapaces."

"Those three groups are the major ones," Skinny Pete said. "Everything else is basically scattered leftovers—and most of them have already become food for those three groups. They’re hard to even find now."

"As for strength," he went on, "the Infernals are the strongest. There used to be a lot of ground races, but the Infernals ate them all. The Flamebirds survived because they can fly, and the Redshells survived because they can burrow."

"And because food is so scarce, the three groups fight all the time. Flamebirds and Redshells don’t really fight internally, but the Infernals are split into multiple factions and they’re constantly at war over resources."

Ethan nodded slowly.

Honestly, it sounded a lot like Earth.

Before the apocalypse, humans were the dominant species—but humans were divided into countries that fought each other constantly. Meanwhile, most animals were way more unified within their own kind.

"Ask it this," Ethan said. "How many Infernals are there? And what’s the strongest tier among them?"

Skinny Pete closed his eyes again, listening.

A moment later, he answered. "It says the Infernals outnumber the Flamebirds by at least ten to one, and they’re scattered all over the world."

"This region is too harsh, so there aren’t many Infernals here," he added. "There used to be a few thousand, but recently they haven’t been seen. It thinks they probably left—like the ones we ran into outside."

Ethan nodded.

General Maxwell Kane had mentioned the Yamato Empire originally sent dozens of warships toward the Atlas Federation, but most got sunk by sea monsters along the way. Only three ships made it.

If you did the math, that meant a few thousand Infernals probably went out... and got played by Yamato, then died at sea.

Doesn’t matter how strong you are—fall into the ocean and you’re not doing much.

And the sea monsters didn’t fight "fair" by tier. Ethan still remembered that massive thing they’d seen before. Even if it only read as Tier 16, in open water it could absolutely shred a Stage B Infernal without breaking a sweat. Home-field advantage was real.

Ethan kept his eyes on the horizon. "So what’s the highest level the Infernals can reach?"

"Same as the Flamebird leader," Skinny Pete said. "Stage B."

Ethan blinked. "No higher?"

Skinny Pete shook his head. "It says after the catastrophe, the max strength anyone in this world can reach is this tier. They can’t break past it."

"Huh." Ethan let that settle, then nodded. "That explains a lot. We’ve run into more than twenty Stage Bs already, and not a single one above that. So it’s not bad luck—they’re capped."

He leaned forward on the leader’s back, voice sharpening.

"If the ceiling here is Stage B... then there’s no reason to play nice."

His gaze flicked to the others. "We’re going hunting."

"Let’s go."