Spirit Taming

Following the banana trees was not an odd ask. Clark already explained that there were multiple beasts that they could unt for a variety of materials and things that Isa could sell. That alone was enough to win Isa’s vote.

What Ella was caught up on, was the reason that these banana trees had grown in this way. "They are all growing in a straight line. Banana trees grow from exceptionally small seeds and in farms are rarely growing in straight lines because the seeds don’t all take the same to the soil. Here they are completely straight. As if they grew from guided roots."

This was something that many spider plants or other similar species of plants grew. Ella had seen them in gardens since they were easily trained to grow as people desired. That was also the beauty of them. The directions that they grew were naturally beautiful since it was a force of nature that made perfect lines and shapes just like human designs.

"I would say that there must be an underground beast that is helping them grow." Clark smiled slightly while dropping this hint. He had been able to look even more in depth with the analysys. Just because he had pretended to hide the type of tree, he still had more information. But that was hidden still to make the group test themselves.

’ wild Banana tree- uncommon

These banana trees are unique since they are wild bananas. They produce smaller fruits and have a natural earth and light affinity. Some even have a water affinity due to the environments that they grow in. However, these are even more unique since they are wild banana trees.

In the wilderness, the jungle mole adores the sweetness of rotting banana fruits. Therefore, they will make their homes underneath the largest of the banana trees. From there, they dig a straight tunnel while purposefully digging smaller homes to release excrement in. The seeds have traveled through the jungle mole and grow.

The jungle mole is a unique earth type beast that must live in the jungle for the soft dark soil that it finds the jungle earth worms in. That is the main staple of its diest. Because of this diet, its stomach is filled with amazing fertilizer for seeds. When seeds leave its body, they grow three times faster than a seed that does not go through this process.

Some farmers would offer their entire farm to have such a beast as a pertinent. However, because the jungle moles must live within the jungle environment, there are limited numbers of farmers that are able to raise them. Only three families are willing to live near a jungle and grow the bananas in the same wilderness methods that naturally occur.’

It was a lot of information. Clark had borrowed a notebook from Ella and wrote all of this down. He knew that she would look through it and write things that were needed or split it up where it fit better in her own records. She had a much better way to keep these records than everyone else after she had adapted her records comparing them to a world famous researcher.

"That means you want us to discover this beast. Does that mean that they are dangerous? Or are they a civil beast that you think would be interesting to look in to since it is part of society already?" The cleverness of Ella’s question was enough for everyone to understand that she was going to get more information than just what the question asked.

"They are a beast that is only used by a small group of farming families. They are very docile. But they won’t be coming out to bother us. It’s just good information to have in mind since there may be other species of them-"

"Jungle moles! I heard about this. There’s a family that used to have two branches. They had farmers that tried to breed the jungle mole with the terra mole to make a better farming mole. But instead they ended up with a muck mole that bred disease because it was always covered in dense mud."

"Grace, how did you know that?" Clark was a little stunned. His game had been partially broken because Grace had showed she had a surprising fun fact about the beast in question.

"I was in the market one day and heard about people trying to do that. So I asked what happened because I wanted to know. The stall owner selling fruit told me the story and it was bad because they wanted to have a boost in produce coming to them to sell. Then they could sell higher quality fruit and buy a new stall. I stopped paying much attention after that. I had to get home." Grace was pretty matter of fact about this.

"Well, I guess that’s one way." Isa was a little happier to hear that a massive fruit merchant hadn’t taken traction before she had started to grow her own business. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"What about the other beasts, is that one of the beasts there?" Jerold was doing his best to spot one of the beasts that Clark had mentioned earlier. "That’s the yellow color of a spider. Right? It’s different from the dull yellow on the bananas."

’Yellow jungle spider shedding- common

This is a fairly useless material. The exoskeleton from a yellow jungle spider is shed once a year. When they shed, the older exoskeleton is very brittle and weak. The reason is because it will start to decay the moment that it is released from the spider’s body. But it is a good sign that the freshly shed spider is kidding nearby.’

"That’s just a shed skin. It sheds once a year and the shed exoskeleton is completely useless since it is already too brittle to be used. I am sure a beast here or there might need it, but good eyes. Now everyone can tell what the yellow ones look like." While this was not actually a beast, it was nice to see the closeness in colors of the bananas that the spiders hide in and the actual spider’s color.

Knowing these things could save a life. Jerold knew this beast since his armored chameleon could change colors or turn invisible entirely with its skills. Therefore, he was always wary of such things himself. He had seen the dangers of it first hand when he was using it to fight!

"Then that orange color would be the same?" Ralph and Brad had teamed up to spot more as well. They managed to find an orange shed exoskeleton just a few trees over.

"Exactly. The orange is to match the color of the flowers before the bananas start to grow. Since this jungle is almost always warm, they go through independent cycles. When the fruit grows, the orange spider attracts a yellow, lays eggs, then moves on to a different tree. Interesting, right?"

"Yes, that is very interesting. I will begin documenting the same species of spider that has alternating colors based on male and female methods of hunting. A very unique species. I enjoy these discoveries." Since Ella found herself in this situation, she did not have any issues.

"So, they are spiders though. Do they eat the fruit bats and the spider silk monkeys you mentioned before?"

"I am pretty sure they do." Clark knew where Maria was going with this question. "And when we hunt some, we can take their venom for you to make antidotes with or let Lit use. Maybe Reese can use the venom too. I doubt it would be useful though." this wasn’t being negative, just a fact since a lot of jungle beats would have some resistances to venoms and poisons.

"Just as materials they could be good." Maria shrugged. She wanted to see what she was capable of. But that could be for another day. She was still keeping a hard focus on the jade worm’s cocoon. Waiting for it to break out at any time.

"Ohhhhhh noo. I don’t like this one bit." Grace backtracked and called her frost finch forward to send out a small cold breeze.

Before the group, a larger spiderweb gained frost. It had been almost translucent but Grace had sensed it with her frost finch’s wind affinity. The two had felt it moving in the soft breeze of the jungle. Therefore, they knew that it was a dangerous trap.

"That would be one of the webs then?" Reese raised his sword and slashed through it. But that was also an unwise decision.

"They just shed their exoskeletons. I guess it would make sense that they are hiding nearby their trees to rest for some time. But that also makes them easier to... or they shed their exoskeletons and just hatched their babies." Clark realized the mistakes here.

All these trees had fruit. That meant the male spiders had been left here to guard the eggs while waiting for them to hatch. It just happened to align with them shedding exoskeletons. On top of that, they had also watched their eggs hatch and needed food to feed them. But in their weaker state, they had no choice but to expand their webs.