Spirit Taming

Chapter 115: Reckless

Clark pushed Isa and Maria to take the first resting shift in the carriage. He wanted to ensure that he got a better opinion of Ella since it was clear that at least Isa would be spending a lot of time around her. Clark had just started to trust Isa a little, but he had not even begun to think about trusting Ella. even if her older brother was an upstanding warrior.

The carriages were simple. They were pulled by earthen stallions, a subspecies of horse beasts. They were able to memorize the routes offered to them and often used to help the injured get to specific locations. Their mentality was totally on maps and travel. They had been bred to be as such and were the most common carriage pullers in the city.

"Did you breed your slime dragon or is it a wild capture?" Ella was totally focused on how Clark had obtained his beast. It was something that he should have expected to come up immediately due to Ella's academic focus.

"No, I bought the egg in an auction because I recognized what it was. There were a lot of random beast eggs and I picked it out. It was just lucky that I had happened to read about it in a book before I went to the auction.

I have found a lot in the library that I didn't expect to use." Clark knew this was a lie but due to the massive amount of knowledge in Nova academy library, it was easy to hide it.

"I see, so you might only know the basics. I was able to read that some slimes are bred through splitting their core under ideal environmental energy. But I have a theory that new slimes can be created by altering the environment over time. I would say ten or so breeding generations. But yours must have a unique way to breed. Maybe none at all."

"It's from the bones and bone marrow of a dragon. It sits there and has a chance to condense the dragon essence. From there the marrow becomes the lime and core while the bones become the egg shell. When it hatches the slime dragon will take the form of a dragon hatchling. Both slime and dragon. I have no idea what to expect as Crim grows.

There are not enough records." Clark didn't hide much, he wanted to test Ella's knowledge base.

"That means you can manipulate the bodies of dragons and attempt to create them. If one could create slime dragons from a behemoth dragon body there is a chance to create multiple. I believe it could be a valuable endeavor with the proper materials." The theory didn't sound bad, but there was one issue.

"There is no way that anyone can slay a behemoth dragon. They live too high in the sky and never land. Some of them are thousands of years old." Clark knew it was impossible.

"Just because you say it's impossible doesn't mean that it is. Why would you want to stay weaker than them? If you can get stronger then get strong enough to stand over them." Ella just shook her head. She thought that Clark was thinking too small. Never had Clark encountered someone that would make him feel he was not pushing for a high enough goal.

"And here's the gate. It's time to see what the wilds hold for us." Ella showed a vibrant smile. Her full focus was on every aspect of the outer walls. The places that might hold the materials and beasts she needed.

Since he had started speaking with Ella, Clark had begun to figure out that she was mostly focused on theory and beasts. Her singular focus left absolutely no room for anything else. "If we stay focused we should be able to find some red ferns. They are perfect for attracting elemental beasts when burned. The oils in the leaves are similar to the smell of elemental flowers.

By the way, can you analyze the materials too? I heard you are a great beast analysis but haven't heard anything about materials."

"I should easily be able to identify some materials. I have been reading guides and other things as much as possible. That's one reason I stopped by the student sales stalls the other day, I tested myself against the beast eggs and watched the materials as well." Clark spoke with such surety that Ella didn't question him. She was fairly easy to convince if he mimicked her confidence.

With the carriages moving in order, Clark was sure that there would be a little trouble at some point. Not everyone was pushing their carriages to move faster. Some students were taking more time to look for materials along the way. The only requirement was getting to the locations that Doc had pointed out before the next morning. He hadn't said that he minded them traveling at night.

What was even more shocking was that Doc was nowhere to be found, it seemed that Doc had taken the chance to slip away where he could watch without anyone else noticing. This was more than just a journey. It was his very own test for his students so that he could determine who was and was not ready to go out on gathering missions alone.

"Clark, what's that smell?" Maria looked outside the carriage with her nose scrunched up. It made Clark realize that he had been stuck in his own thoughts. When he sniffed the air he smelled a strange burning odor.

"Ella! Are you doing that?! You are going to attract beasts to us!" Clark tried to grab the burning red ferns from Ella's hand but was easily dodged.

"Of course I am trying to attract beasts. This is boring if we just travel the safe route. We need to get ourselves some beasts, materials, and maybe even some eggs to sell when we get to Star City. how else will I bring back the materials I need for my beasts?" Ella looked like she couldn't understand what was wrong with her actions.

Just as Clark was going to reprimand her, he noticed that all the other student carriages had distanced themselves from them. They all knew the kind of person that Ella was. She was willing to risk it all to improve. The rest of the class had already played the victim role.

"This is why those two idiots from the Cain family didn't try anything when we left the walls. They knew that Ella was crazy…" Clark was unhappy with this development.

"Who said I was crazy? I am considered a genius you know! One that just brought us three mud deer to harvest!" Ella jumped in excitement seeing the muddy bodies of the mud deer. The antlers made of stone made them dangerous but also valuable. Not to mention their bodies were the highest quality clay that any potter could ever want.

"I swear Isa, if your new recruit gets us killed I will return as a ghost and make sure that you and your family are haunted forever!" Clark swore a little before allowing Crim and Devi out of the taming space. He had Devi already invisible in case anything went wrong.

'You can't haunt me if I'm dead too. But all I see is money in front of us." Isa stuck her tongue out as she let Ella and Clark handle the mud deer.