Spirit Taming

"You know these stairs are like double the size of normal stairs. I don’t even know if this dungeon is a dungeon for humans to be in." Reese had been the one to find the stairs, but after he had climbed them with the group for about twenty minutes, he was sure that this was just a terrible place to be.

"And here we have the rare Reese. He had discovered the direction but found that he was giving up. Just like the ice bath training in the pond." Ralph’s mocking was just enough to make Reese glare at him. But without hesitation, Reese increased the pace and overtook the rest of the group.

"I think Ralph might be trying to get Reese to break." Brad had been fairly silent. His mind had been on the potential of Ralph and his partner the molten boar making blood iron. It was too good to be true in his mind. However since brad had been brought back to the world around him, he was wondering what was going on between the others.

"Eh, it seems like it could be fun to make this a challenge. I just don’t want to be on the stairs for much longer." Grace was glad they had not been encountering many beasts. The fact that the ice dragon had agreed to keep the high number of beasts down was very helpful and surely showing at the moment.

"Don’t make it a game. We are still in a dangerous place. These stairs might take another half hour to climb. This is a castle made for an adult or even ancient ice dragon. It’s very old and the dungeon is larger than most others. It is also a place we would not normally survive without being allowed inside. We need to keep that in mind." Maria made sure to sober everyone up. They could not relax too much while they climbed.

While they did climb though, Clark had begun to focus on the higher amounts of dragon energy moving between him and Crim. This was because he could feel it closely due to Crim becoming the slime armor form to protect him in this palace. It was both beneficial to help protect against the general environment but also for battles.

He had the goal of finding the ice dragon to request a trade for some of its saliva, but also to create his own meditation technique that he could use while traveling. He had to combine the energies and already had the basics of it figured out.

Clark knew that the energies from Devi, crim, and Shy were always within him. This was just how bonds worked. Right now, the energies that Shy provided had weakened because the body of the glacial spider had caused it to happen. When Shy had lost control of it after the battle in the glacial sider nest, Shy had climbed toward Clark and latched on to his shoulder where she remained resting. This was all to be expected.

The energy from Devi was hardest to grasp. Unlike the dragon energy that seemed to always nourish and strengthen Clark’s body, Devi’s energy was harder to grasp. It connected deeply to Clark’s soul because of Devi’s uniqueness. Also because Devi was Clark’s spirit beast. What was hardest though was that Devi had mixed the spiritual and undead energies within him with the changing death energy. The energy that Devi was not able to fully understand but was clearly influencing Devi’s growth.

With every step up the large stairs, Clark used the strength of dragon energy to push up the steps. The feelings of his muscles pushing off the ground seemed to vibrate through his body. The slightest tearing of muscle and the regrowth stronger being the main focus of his mind. He knew that this was how muscles were trained and how they grew. Muscle fingers needed to be trained constantly to grow stronger and stronger.

The energy from Crim appeared to resonate with the dragon energy and Clark could feel his mind becoming sharper. That was until he shifted his mind again and grasped at the mysterious feeling of shadows and death. The feeling of unending mystery that was associated with it. That was when his concentration would fall apart and Claakr would find himself climbing like everyone else.

"Maybe I just need to battle more." The battles were how Clark had been seeing Devi gain these unique energies. Shy also gained things from the shadows and such too. Both were environments and styles that Caslark had yet to use as much. He needed to truly immerse himself in these things to be able to grasp them.

"Clark?" Isa and Ella jumped up the steps next to Clark. When he turned around he saw their concerned faces.

"You have been mumbling to yourself for a few minutes now. Should we assume you are trying to grasp something important?" Ella was just as worried as Isa when it came to Clark’s sudden cold and distracted demeanor.

"If you need help, you can ask us. We are your team, right?" Isa was sure that Clark was just worried he would put too much on them. It was clear that he shouldered a lot as the leader of the group. Whether he would admit it or not that he was the leader taking them down certain paths to become stronger.

"I did say I was trying to make my own meditation technique. I just noticed that when I went in to that flow of battle before that I was affected by dragon energy more. I think whenever I get hyper focused on my body movements and how to use techniques and skills that I use it better. I started to focus on that and then other energies. It wasn’t really working out yet., but I was thinking I should immerse myself in battles and shadows to help. Feel what my partners feel." His honest response made the rest of the group think about their own methods of meditation.

"That’s what my family does. When I was bonding with my partner I spent days in the outdoors or in a sauna. Heat and cold had to be pushed on my body to handle their strength. especially when I fuse with them and we are basically one." This was a common method for Isa’s unique constitution and family.

"Then I will think about it when we get back. Maybe we will be able to find some dungeons with darkness or shadow type beast. Battles will come with time." Clark smiled a little knowing that he could improve more. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"With that aside, we are about to reach the end of these stairs. The basements are large and we only explored a small portion. I am sad not to possess complete data." Ella wanted to spend as much time mapping the massive ice castle out. Unfortunately, that was not possible. They had goals.

"The route you have is already marked out from where we fell in the caves. It might change as more gets carved but we have a very good basic structure mapped out already." Making Ella feel a little better was a good move since she was clearly a little disheartened not to be able to see it all. However, even if she had an immortal life she still might be sad not to see every single little part of existence. Her curiosity was just that deep.

"So, I think we should start to ask ourselves if we really want to keep moving here." Reese, Ralph, and Brad had been the first three to get to the top of the stairs. Jerold mimicked their sudden stop when he got to the top of the stairs as well.

’Clear ice ant- uncommon

The clear ice ants are beasts led by a single queen. The queen can control all of the clear ice ants from the center of their nest. They are often kept as pets by powerful beasts to clean the remains of prey they hunt. They also act as excellent defensive beasts since they naturally patrol an area.

The clear ice ants get their names because they are born with a body made of ice that is completely clear and shows off their internal organs. Their tougher ice shells and pincers allow them to battle one on one with stronger beasts than themselves.

They can communicate through small chittering sounds to warn or attract one another. They are known to swarm their prey even at the cost of their own lives. When they grow too large in population, they will often split the nest and birth a new queen. This can be stopped by killing enough of them.

The clear ice ant is...’

"So these are pets of the ice dragon. The queen must be kept close to the ice dragon so that it can be used to have the ants clean and maintain the castle for it. So there are carver golems and clear ice ants. This ice dragon is much stronger than I was thinking still." Clark felt that this was becoming riskier and riskier. He also hadn’t decided how they would handle these beasts yet.