Spirit Taming

Clark’s speed was enough to dash forward and pull Grace back. The first finch had sensed the impending danger the moment that grace had stepped forward. A large plant lid colored like the ground and grass beneath it opened up revealing the purple acid that was the stomach of the purple acid trap.

The first finch released a burst of icy air that forced the insides of the plant to freeze. The downside of such a beast was clear. It was adjusted to grow in humid and warmer areas. Not cold.

Therefore, when the layer of frost covered it and the cold air kept coming, it reacted by attempting to dig itself deeper in to the ground. Unfortunately for it, the frost finch was angry. It’s tamer had just been attacked right in front of it. Regardless of the reason or the fact that the beast was unable to see, the cold air only grew stronger.

A large ice crystal appeared as the first finch attacked more and more. Imn just the matter of a few seconds, the purple acid trap plant had been killed. Nothing like it could have survived the cold temperatures and the wind that the first finch was able to produce.

"Yes yes, I am fine. Clark pulled me back and you dealt with it." Grace could only try and calm the frost finch that was flying around her with a lot of worry.

"That’s the kind of beast we will be dealing with. A jungle is a hard place to fight. For those beasts that have survived, they have ways to do it. This beast right here is perfect evidence of beasts adapting to look like something else, attract their prey, and then hide again. If Grace’s frost finch had not attacked the way that it did, then we would not be able to even see the full body of this beast."

Since Ella wanted to ensure that everyone understood this level of threat, she began having her earth prince unveil the purple acid trap plant to the group. The earth around it easily moved at the control of the earth prince.

Revealing the stark purple color of the pitcher and the perfectly camouflage top with the purple leaves sticking out made everyone understand that these beasts could easily swallow a human. "I would conclude that this is a somewhat young beast. It is not in an optimal place for growth but if it was in a deeper part of the violent jungle, it may grow large enough to eat us all."

Now this was not what anyone wanted to hear. Especially Ralph who had been angry that any beast would dare touch Grace. "I will have to take the lead. Plants like this might be attuned to heat, but not fire." The idea was right. The molten boar and the dragon welp might be able to burn up any plant type beasts that they ran in to before they could attack.

"That’s actually a good idea. We can see the acid left in the beast’s stomach is melting the ice, but Ralph’s molten boar produces acidic steam sometimes when it eats ores. It should easily resist a weaker acid that doesn’t use heat." it made a lot of sense. Especially since the tough metal hairs on the molten boar would allow it to be able to easily resist any of the normal plants that were spiky or poisonous.

"Between Brad, Ralph, and even Reese, we should be able to cut a pathway through the violent jungle." Jerold thought this was better than him pushing forward to scout things out every time. Especially with the unfamiliar danger within this new deep wilderness that they were going through.

"Then that’s what we will do. Reese, be ready to cut anything down that is in the way of the molten boar and Brad. Ralph and Isa can have fire ready to deal with other issues." Clark took the idea and made it the move for the group. He was glad that they would be able to push ahead.

With this, the group began heading in to the violent jungle. Some small thoughts about how they had been fairly lucky not to deal with any of the other hunters that might be roaming around the outskirts of Nova City territory popped up. Clark easily pushed these away as he noticed the much more apparent changes in his surroundings.

Now that awkward division where some of the forest and some of the jungle melded in to one another was drifting away. The paths that had once been here were too overgrown since no one was camped out here to explore such an area. These deeper wilderness areas were too dangerous. Only the strongest would travel in to these places. Not enough to make solid traveling paths.

But nonetheless, there were some paths that remained. Smaller paths that beasts had made over time. Clark and the group spotted one such beast before they had even truly entered the violent jungle. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

’Jungle rabbit- rare

The jungle rabbit is a green haired rabbit that fosters many forms of moss on their body. They do so as ways to hide themselves in the green of the jungle environment. They adore water and earth since they make their homes in the jungle. They also dig themselves brows so that they can hide from predators at night.

These beasts are very quick and eat a wide array of herbs. This can be good and bad. Some tamers peacefully capture them when they venture in to the forest. This is to feed them specific herbs. Doing so causes their meat to take on the properties of those herbs and can be used for unique cooking skills.

However, this is a problem when consuming them in the wild. They will often eat poisonous herbs making their meat toxic to multiple living beings. But to an alchemist, it might be a valuable storage of herbs if they can decipher what these beasts have eaten.’

"That jungle rabbit could be a good find for you Maria. If you hunt it, it might have some special herbs in its system. That means you can extract them and use them. The same with poisonous herbs though, we have no idea what it has eaten so we shouldn’t eat it." Clark watched as Maria considered this.

For her, this would be a very advanced alchemy ingredient. The partner and her skills in alchemy were both too weak and young to be able to handle such a thing. But in the spatial ring, she could save it for the time that she was ready. There was also the additional fact that she might be able to use it later.

Without saying another word, Maria knelt lower. She was moving a little more silently by changing the way she walked, but Clark knew that it wasn’t the sounds that she was worried about nor preparing for. Instead, Maria was ready to move faster and get her prey.

The entire group knew that Maria was going to be a very powerful person in the future. Between Lit, her Midnight eel, and the newest addition, the jade worm, she would be stranger than most. But her training already made her very powerful. Faster and stronger than those that were her size would be under many circumstances.

The dirt became somewhat indented with her footprints when Maria took off. Her quick and powerful movements made the jungle rabbit unable to react in time as Maria’s dagger pierced it right in the neck. An accurate and swift attack that didn’t allow the jungle rabbit to leave much of a trace other than a few drops of blood.

The beast’s body was stored away and Maria was cleaning her dagger. She hadn’t needed her beasts at all. "Thank you for pointing it out. I look forward to studying it later after we have gathered some herbs for me to use." Maria’s brightness made the entire group feel like they could relax a little more. Having someone that would be able to make potions for them was just that much of a benefit. Additionally, they all knew the speed that their group learned.

"That wasn’t the only one. I thought that was, but there are six more." Jerold pointed out the shapes of hiding jungle rabbits. They had been alerted when Maria spoke loudly after defeating one. Naturally, the jungle rabbits froze in place to hide themselves in the greenery using their natural fur and mossy appearance.

"That just means that more of us get to hunt. Don’t touch their blood though. Maria can handle it along with a few of us, but it’s better safe than sorry." Jerold pulled his dagger out and picked one of the six staring them down. He had an advantage here compared to the others.

"You can have that one, But Devi already has a target." Clark smirked as he watched Devi appear behind the furthest jungle rabbit with a chilling bite attack to steal away its energy. "But this is a good start."