Spirit Taming

"Ugh!" Clark had been getting more and more frustrated. He could not enter the same feeling and state as he had when he had been meditating while moving before. This had been his goal for a while now, but he believed that he was making absolutely zero progress.

While Clark had gained some rewards when it came to his meditation, nothing had been enough for him to boost his understanding of the internal energies that flowed through his body. Let alone how to properly make them flow and meditate with a unique technique.

Because Clark had been using a technique given by the system, he had not gone through the normal meditation learning process. The system had given him the knowledge and even helped him understand the feelings of what meditation was. Now that Clark was in a position where he had a great time to train and try to create his own technique, he was at a loss.

The lack of feeling, when he grasped at the bold and mysterious death energy, was what he expected. He had always felt that Devi held a lot of frustration even though he was able to gather some of it. However, Devi still relied more on spiritual and undead energies than he did death energy. This was because he also could not grasp how to make the death energy better move according to his will.

Knowing that it was both him and Devi struggling did make it a little better. Yet, when the two tried to meditate and focus only on their bonds, Shy and Crim sensed it. They could sense their bonds weakening. Normally, this would not happen. All bonds were somewhat special and could retain their form unless something extraordinary happened or the beast died. As long as it was not a spirit beast, it was fine.

The idea that Clark had come up with was his unique form of bonding with his beasts. While Devi was his spirit beast and born with him, Shy and Crim were more influenced by the taming space, system items, and the simple fact that Clark constantly used their energies to also grow. These three unique points caused their bonds to intertwine within Clark.

It wasn’t all bad though. That had inspired Clark as well. The fact that the bonds had become so complicated and intertwined meant one thing to Clark, every beast he contracted was more or less the same as his spirit beast.

Crim had given incredibly important dragon energy. It had strengthened Clark’s body and Crim had constantly pushed himself to awaken anything from the origin of his being. That alone made him stronger while also taking on energies from around him. While using the natural dragon energy Crim had, Clark had been able to adapt and grow to the surroundings better. That was why he had better resistances than the average person.

Shy may be the most recent addition to the group, but she provided a shadow energy. Unique and perfect for manipulation. The fact that Clark hadn’t realized its effects inside his body until now was plain foolish. He had felt the way the bonds acted with the other energies and begun to understand that the shadow energy literally drew Clark’s natural energy toward the altering energies from his partners. It was like invisible thread tying him closer to his bonds and the growth he strived for.

That just left the unique energies from Devi. Death was not the only thing that could potentially strengthen Clark. While he had a theory that his attacks were more deadly because of lingering death energies, the undead and spiritual energies from Devi wildly strengthened his mind. Spiritual energy could strengthen the soul and the mentality of anyone with a spirit type beast. While this happened, the undead energy helped create a natural resistance to rot, poisons, and many other unique things that were related to an undead remaining in existence. Only undead had the extreme will to remain even within death.

What should have stuck with him more was that when he became closer to one of his partners, he was also growing closer with the others. That was why Shy had so easily adjusted to him and made sure to be close to him at all times. She had sensed the closeness of their bond even before Clark had realized just how deep it was. She had felt Devi and Crim’s bonds and emotions the moment that the contract had formed. It was an awakening of sorts that Clark had been a little late to.

With these thoughts in mind, Clark began moving through his footwork while focusing on just his legs. He wanted to channel the dragon energy through his body while Crim was in the armor form. This goal was to circulate it and give his muscles a boost as other dragon tamers had done. The physical prowess was a big deal when it came to dragons.

The sudden feeling of heat made Clark wonder if his blood had begun to boil. But he did sense that his calves and legs in general expanded. The muscles contracted and he shot forward as easily double the force normally. Even the speed was enough to make him worry he might fall if he tried this without thinking.

The following cool feeling came from Devi who had returned to his side and pressed against Clark’s temple. The boost from the spiritual energy being added too helped Clark understand that the dragon energy was vicious. It could easily tear his body apart even now that he was stronger. "I need to get stronger. How is the dragon energy going to hold together the undead, shadow, death, spiritual, and much more?"

Shy and Devi both tried to pat Clark on the head. The two had occupied one shoulder each as their spot. It seemed to be a fair trade that they worked out since neither could take a similar form as Crim who would one day be able to completely act as armor to protect Clark. A slime armor that could reform and grow tougher. Something anyone would be jealous of.

The sudden success and clarity made Clark realize that the last system reward to strengthen his mind had been paying off much more. He has meditated and been able to find all the wrong ways much faster than he would have before. Choosing the wrong method was the best way to find the right things. The small details that would guide him to these kinds of results.

"Shy, wrap my hands in your shadow threads. I want to see if I can use shadows around me if your energy and mine are together." While this seemed like a random idea, Shy wanted nothing more. She couldn’t easily capture and control another beast yet, but helping Clark battle sounded amazing.

Clark brandished his black lightning spear and shadow threads gingerly rose from around his shadow and took their place on his hands. The connection with his own shadow and the sudden cool flow of shadow energy made him think.

This cool flow was one that seemed to almost be like when Devi was invisible. Clark knew he was there. He could sense it clearly. Yet, when he looked, Devi was nowhere to be seen. It was elusive and mischievous. But if Clark encouraged it and let it naturally flow, the shadows reacted to him slightly.

While it was just a waver in the black lightning spear’s shadow, Clark felt he could do more with it. The dragon energy could boost his sudden power and speed in the blink of an eye, the shadow energy could help him dodge. That cool and mischievous feeling made it seem flexible. Not many people could touch a shadow, right?

When Shy sensed Clark’s intentions, she made the first noise that he had ever heard from her. An excited and nearly silent chittering that many bugs would make with their mouths and fangs. When he heard it, he felt that it was the most adorable moment yet for his youngest beast! But even more, Devi laughed slightly since he could use his own unique experience of hiding and abiding hits in battle.

Clark knew this too. He mimicked the ghostly movements he already had while in his footwork. Since no one was there to see it or even to keep track of time, Clark’s hyper focused state only grew deeper. No one had bothered him for hours on end since the entire group had their own agreements and were constantly busy. However, the system responded with something that finally caught Clark off guard once he had sat down to finally get something to drink due to the sudden parched feeling he had.

’Hidden quest completed, ghost dragon’s shadow steps have been recreated for the first time in five thousand years. This accomplishment is with sharing with the entire human race.

Reward for bringing back a movement from a species that does not live on this plane of existence and has not touched this earth in too many generations: small insight on to planes of existence, worlds, and the existence of older beings.’

A somewhat illusory book fell right in front of Clark. He could tell it was mostly in his head, but the system that had given him gotcha rewards, skills, and even epiphanies was showing him what it could do yet again.