Spirit Taming

Smaller vines were shifting around. They seemed to have been connected to the larger vines nearby. However, the dried up and brittle bushes nearby were blocking Clark from getting a good view.

He didn’t need to wait long for a better sightline though. The little vines moved around and crushed the smaller bushes. Their brittle wood cracking in to sawdust in just a few seconds of the vines twisting around them. The beast was clearly making it in to its meal for the day.

’Toothed plant- rare

An offspring of a larger carnivorous plant beast, the toothes plant is looking for anything organic to eat. It is able to use its vines to twist and crush whatever it sees as food. It will grow thorns as it gains enough nutrition. However, these thorns will not carry the same decaying poison since it is not the true source of the rot.

This beast will eventually be consumed by the beast that birthed it. It is in essence just a beast that gathers nutrition. However, its teeth are sharp enough to cut through tougher armor. It is a plague that normally would live in massive swamplands.

The plant material that is left over from when it is killed is not very useful. It will rot at an accelerated rate to provide nutrition to whatever other plant beasts are nearby. Its vines can be used as a makeshift whip if needed. The sap that it produces is sweet saps and will often attract smaller beasts. Especially insect beasts.’

Clark was unsure what to do with this. Defeating it would not help his cause. Especially since it was literally a beast that was just here to gather more fuel for the larger beast causing this. it experienced a lot.

The fact that the larger beast behind this dungeon being forced open and degraded had a skill that allowed it to create smaller gatherer beasts, made it easy to understand how it grew so fast during these years of isolation. Normally, it would take a lot of strength and effort to take over a dungeon. That Was why people fought over them. Why people had to be powerful tamers to raid them and explore them.

Yet, this beast was making these little beasts to constantly gather nutrition. They would be valuable to it if they were alive or dead. But with them alive, the larger beast would not gain anything until the smaller toothed plant had gathered enough nutrients to naturally return to the larger beast. But if it was killed, then it would degrade and feed the larger thorny vines and roots.

With this, Clark slowly began to move to the side. Unfortunately, he had not considered the fact that all the connected vines and roots around acted as a signal. A tripwire. Or a web that alerted the beasts that there was prey. It was one aspect that had allowed the dungeon to be more easily taken over and forced open. The larger beast and all the smaller beasts were more active because they knew food had shown up in its home.

The smaller toothed plant lashed out with its smoother vines. Clark could only duck as the sudden attack went over his head. While he easily spun the black lightning spear upwards and cut the vines, he realized that the toothed plant had almost no defense. The larger plant vines were tougher which had made it impossible to cut easily. Yet these were weak and soft.

"You have attack power and speed but that’s all." Clark watched the twitch of the toothed plant that could clearly not feel pain from Clark’s attack. He knew that he would need to fight at this rate no matter what.

With that being the case, Clark dashed ahead and stabbed the toother plant through the larger bulb of a head, or what was its stomach, Clark wasn’t really sure what was what since it was more a plant than a beast.

The attack caused sap to pour out along with a rotting substance that would have been its stomach acid. Clark knew that it was dangerous to touch either and dipped the tip of the black lightning spear in to the nearest pool of rotten water. The water was better than sap that would attract other beasts when they left the dungeon.

But the toothed plant did not cease even with a gaping hole cut in to it. Instead, it opened its maw to show the tough teeth that had been made of condensed calcium from whatever it had already consumed. Clark pushed backwards but found he did not move as far because most fo the force from his leap was absorbed by the muck on the ground. This left him with the only choice to slash down.

The body of the toothed plant was cut in half easily. The wound before had made it much weaker than before. It fell to the side and began rotting right away. The smell as the plant material flesh bubbles and broke down. "Disgusting." Clark glared at the pile of melting plant material that was being absorbed by the larger thorny vines nearby. He could tell that this would be more troublesome if he was too slow and fought more of these toothed pants.

"Damn!" Clark jumped up again. He could sense the vague dangers around him and saw that Shy had acted to protect him. A single thing vine had been caught by her shadow threads slowing it down before it had gotten close enough to Clark to attack him.

’Swamp Whip vine- rare

The whip vine is a plant type beast that has multiple vines making up its body. In the center of its body is a single small bulb that contains its energy. If this is destroyed, it will cease to function. However, if it is in harsh conditions it can go dormant to revive later.

It has a water and poison affinity which allows it to easily survive in swamp lands. It is unfortunately unable to survive anywhere that does not have a lot of water. This particular species of swamp whip vine has a particular affinity for the poison and atmosphere of a swamp due to the fact that it is kept as a pet by a larger beast.

Its vines will not degrade and can be forged in to a whip that will last for over ten years if properly treated using salt and other things.

This beast is very fast but is very weak and can not move its body once it plants its roots. This is why many people who have this as a spirit beast will have them dwell in specific armor that is made of earth and water that the tamer wears...’

Clark only read part of the appraisal from the system. He knew that this beast was stuck where it was and only attacked because it had been raised to do so. A pant beast using another plant beast as a pet. This thought was odd and Clark was unsure what to do with it. Yet, he felt obliged to attack back.

The core that the oddly shaped mass of small vines surrounded was easy to spot because of that reason. The small vines reacted quickly to attack Clark, but Shy was already awake and attacking. She had used her shadows threads to easily trap the swamp whip vine beast in place.

With that being the case, Clark just stabbed forward with a single falling moon pierce that didn’t even contain any extra energy. This beast didn’t require him to go all out by any means. "Good job keeping it stuck." Clark praised Shy before storing away the body of the beast. He was sure that the girls would take their pick out of its vines to make themselves whips if they desired. Calkr even considered learning how to use a whip from them since he should be well versed in every weapon their group used. It would only make them more unified.

Before Clark could walk away though, he noticed that the larger vine nearby had been latched on to this smaller beast. The connection was enough to send signals and tell the beast it raised as a pet to attack its enemies. This was how they communicated.

"Hey Devi, I have an idea." Clark’s mind worked in a devious way. He imagined what might happen to these connected beasts when someone like Devi bit them with a chilling bite. "See if this is a good enough snack for you."

Devi’s groggy appearance came from all the energy he used hunting prior to this. But he didn’t really need sleep, he was just acclimating to the added energy he had gotten. Without much hesitation, he opened his void like maw and snapped down.

The teeth pierced the vines and missed the thorns causing sap to spill out. Luckily, it was nothing to Devi who was an odd beast and it didn’t stick to him. In turn, Clark watched the large vine cut off from the rest of it when this happened. "I see." Clark grinned while watching this.