Defeating the two beast groups that rushed at him with a fast speed was not problematic, and Jason killed them with smooth slashes and thrusts of his sword.
However, he noticed that the commotion he created was beginning to attract a horde of beasts, increasing his problems much more than initially expected.
As such, the moment he defeated the last beasts, Jason fled from the battlefield, in an attempt to escape the clutches of even more beasts lunging at him.
A quick backward glance made him see four small beast groups charging at the spot he had previously been, proving his previous assumption to be correct.
'They really got attracted to the loud commotion, but only focused on fighting me. These four groups of beasts don't even think about killing each other!'
Seeing how the beasts were looking around, trying to find him, Jason just shook his head before he continued to run further away from them.
It was not a cowardly act of turning his back to danger, but there was no need to be reckless.
He could, of course, defeat them but that would require careful planning and strategy. Mindlessly diving in the melee would do him little good and only increase the risk of getting killed or heavily injured.
During the fight, he would create a loud commotion, and even more beast groups would get attracted to the noise to charge at him.
If that were to happen, Jason would slowly end up in an encirclement of beasts that would only continue to grow until every beast of the first floor would have surrounded him.
That was something Jason didn't want to happen, so his mind worked furiously to create a small, yet efficient plan.
Being able to fight one beast group before leaving would be the best scenario, but Jason was not sure how feasible it was if another group of beasts were to be nearby.
In that case, they might as well pursue him, creating an even louder commotion than a normal fight would.
That was not unlikely to happen, and Jason tried to make up his mind and put together the best possible plan that allowed him to clear the first floor.
Yet, at the same time, he thought of a plan B that would allow him to advance through the floors without worrying about the surrounding beasts.
However, after thinking about the second plan, Jason shook his head because even though it would be the most secure plan to initiate, it felt wrong and cowardly.
Torn between the two plans, Jason couldn't help but sigh. His first plan was to rush through the floors by solely focussing on killing the Guardian before advancing to the next floor.
The first plan could turn extremely dangerous, which was not something Jason wanted to occur.
Unfortunately, something about his second plan seemed to be wrong too, except the fact that it was cowardly, yet the most logical. He wanted to extinguish every single beast on the first floor before cultivating for several months, only to advance afterward.
This was logical, but at the same time, Jason felt that something was odd.
Nevertheless, he had to avert his attention to his surroundings in order to prevent being found and attacked by other beasts.
Instead of being attacked, Jason wanted to be the aggressor because it gave him a great advantage that might even allow him to silently kill an entire group of beasts before continuing to advance.
Given the time limit of two years to advance through the tower's floors, Jason didn't want to be too hurried, but he also didn't want to waste his precious time.
If he used his time well, he should also be rewarded accordingly.
Thus, with that in mind, Jason let Petri occupy his mana core, preventing the Cursed Basilisk from continuing his cultivation progress. Nonetheless, Petri had enough time to finish the cultivation procedure without receiving an injury as it would normally be the case if one were to forcefully interrupt one's cultivation.
With his physical strength that advanced tremendously, Jason rushed through the first floor, attacking all kinds of beasts ruthlessly, killing them without showing any mercy.
Several days passed like this and his fights seemed to go on for hours at a time, blurring the difference between day and night.
Before he knew it, he had killed all of the beasts.
This was easier than he had expected, but Jason also knew that the first floor was the easiest of all.
At least, that was what common sense told him, and once the floor had been cleared of all beasts, Jason approached the seemingly ordinary gate.
Just like the ground floor, the gate opened when Jason was barely a few meters away from it, revealing a portal with a beast emerging from it.
This time, it was a flying beast that followed the path of Maest.
It had a Light affinity and looked like a gigantic, white eagle that had a wingspan of more than twenty meters.
Jason was not really shocked about the beast in front of him as it only had seven solidified prismarine crystals. This was not a worrisome fact for him, and the only thing he had to pay attention to was the light affinity.
Every other characteristic of Jason was much stronger than the Gigantic Light eagle.
Solaris gave Jason his strongest affinity, the black flame, but even that was at most comparable to a common affinity whose capabilities were strengthened owing to three, at most four solidified prismarine crystals.
Fortunately, this disadvantage didn't seem to be that much of a problem because his physique was strong enough to balance it out.
At the same time, Solaris' flames had unique effects that only required to inflict a small injury on his opponent, which would render the opponent unable to do anything else as the flames burned through every kind of being that was unable to extinguish flames within their body.
Exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, Jason emerged in front of the Gigantic Light eagle, the moment it emerged out of the portal.
Brandishing Byakur that had just manifested in his hand, Jason quickly thrust it forward, not giving it enough time to react and evade the attack.
As such, his eyes fused with Petri's, increasing the effect of the race specific weakening- and petrification curse that forcefully subdued the eagle for a fraction of a second.
This fraction of a second was more than enough for Jason's slash to hit the Gigantic Light eagle.
Yet, instead of being able to end the eagle's life with a single strike, Jason was barely able to inflict a severe injury in its right wing as it suddenly released a large margin of its light affinity, the moment it could move again.
Jason had already expected the Gigantic Light eagle to retaliate, but he had expected to create a shield of light, not that it would forcefully change his slashe's trajectory with its affinity.
Additionally, Jason was dazzled by the bright light of the beast's affinity, forcing him to switch his position instantaneously because he predicted to be attacked a moment later.
Thus, he jumped into the air, which he shouldn't have done.
Oddly enough, the Gigantic Light eagle seemed to have predicted his prediction as light spears shot towards Jason just a quarter of a second after he had jumped into the air.
From the looks of it, the Gigantic Light eagle had no similarity whatsoever to both the Minotaur he fought earlier, and all the ferocious beasts that fought without using their mind, recklessly attacking him.
The eagle's constitution seemed to be enhanced, just like the Minotaur's, but in the eagle's situation, it was the intelligence or foretelling ability that was exceptional.
As such, Jason had much more issues in fighting the eagle than previously assumed.
Nevertheless, it was already severely injured, and unable to fly because one of its wings had been rendered useless after Jason's attack.
Unfortunately, Jason hadn't enveloped Byakur in Solaris' black flame at that time, otherwise, Jason would have been more confident in defeating the Gigantic Light eagle in a short amount of time.
Yet, the injury it had sustained was enough for Jason to believe that it wouldn't take him long to defeat it, as long as he evaded all of the attacks by predicting their trajectory.
This was crucial because it was impossible for him to be faster than the light spears that were being shot towards him.
"So...is that how the entire first trial will look like?" Jason mumbled, breathing heavily the moment he had evaded the light spears in the air, using a vast majority of his mana.
He had underestimated his opponent while overestimating himself, which made him end up in the current situation.
As such, he told him that he will completely fuse with Petri before fighting the guardian on any of the following floors.
At the same time, Jason finished his fusion with Petri midair. This transformed his appearance entirely as he unleashed his Celestia aura that was intertwined with Petri's wildness and his unrestricted desire to eradicate the Gigantic Light eagle.
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