Spirit Taming

Chapter 116: Lots Of Mud

The Mud Deer were beasts that were known for the way that they attacked. They could use their very bodies as ammunition to spit dense mud balls from a distance. Therefore, Clark was forced to jump and roll multiple times while he tried to get closer.

He didn't have time to worry about Ella because she had caused this issue. He also had two of the mud deer fully focused on him. This issue was slowly remedied by Crim who dashed forward and slashed at the first mud deer.

Crim was able to ignore the potential damage from the mud deer because any of the mud balls they sent at him were nothing to him. The mud balls were too blunt to penetrate his scaled slime body. When he felt the impact he would just be slightly pushed back. And using the increased flexibility that he had, he easily dodged the horns attacking him.

Crim, keep that one busy or destroy its stone core, they are basically golems!" Clark gave the order as he encountered the other mud deer. The one that had come in range of the spear felt the p[air of the crescent moon slash.

Clark's attack had been set to perfectly slice along the neck of the deer as it tried to lower its head to spear him with its spiky stone antlers. This caused the deer to perfectly decapitate itself in front of him. The only thinking it could do was attempt to heal itself back together.

Unfortunately for the mud desert, this was not going to happen at all. It was already being attacked by Devi. Being invisible and not being seen was Devi's best game plan. He had the advantage over just about every opponent with weak senses. When Devi saw that the mud deer that Clark faced was damaged, he moved to find the core.

The mud deer inadvertently exposed the stone and mud core that kept it alive to Devi while trying to pull back the mud that made up its head. The result was one swift chilling bite that sucked away the soul energy within the core. Devi gained a nice bit of energy while the mud deer lost the ability to hold itself together.

While this happened, Clark jumped forward and used the crescent moon slash multiple times to help Crim. The result was two legs lost on the mud deer and Crimp leap[ing toad the side of it. Without any hesitation, Crim shredded through the mud deer to find the core and crack it beneath his claws.

This was what Clark needed to turn around and help Ella finally. But when he looked, all he saw was Ella using a stick to poke at the body of the defeated third mud deer. "This was a let down. I thought we would have something interesting to study. But it's just a basic beast."

"I swear, if you light more-" Clark was going to reprimand Ella for lighting the red ferns and attracting the earth type mud deer, but he saw that she had already tossed a second bundle of red ferns ahead of them. She smiled sheepishly while the smoke drifted away in the slight breeze.

"Clark, just think of it as more training. These beasts are weak in this area and if we find a powerful one we can all work together." Maria encouraged Clark because she could see the added stress that she had because of Ella's actions. Secretly, she was happy that it was Clark that paired up with Ella.

That meant that she and Isa could avoid attracting beasts like this toward them and have an easier guarding shift.

"Oh, look. We have another two mud deer." Ella was very happy seeing this as she pulled a single thing whip from her waist. Clark had not noticed the weapon wrapped around her hips like a belt. He thought that whips were weak weap[ons used by certain tamers to handle certain beasts.

When Ella whipped out in an arc, Clark realized just hope wrong he was. The whip that Ella used was made from some kind of extremely tough and light metal. The result was that the whip sliced through the mud deer multiple times without a single bit of resistance.

"Crim, Devi… stay away from Ella. if she hits you with that you will get hurt." Clark sent the mental warning to both his beasts to be sure that nothing bad would happen. Meanwhile, he put away the lumps of clay and stone that had once been the mud deer. He would sell them later.

"This is a good sign. A small herd of mud deer can mean we find earth potatoes nearby. They aren't that fancy but since it's the right season, we can gather many." Ella recalled that a basic earth material would grow around where the earth deer split and grew.

"I think I heard of those. They don't have any nutritional value but they have some earth energies solidified within them. They can also be used to enhance the strength of metal weapons if they are used as fuel for the flames of a forge." Clark's knowledge was basic, to say the least. He wasn't looking at one so he couldn't use the system to analyze them for more in depth information.

"Exactly, you really have read a lot. But I want them to try and bring the cores of the mud deer together to create a mud deer egg. Once they split their cores, they will let them come together to make a mud deer egg that later hatches and will grow the same as the previous two mud deer. It's less breeding and closer to slimes splitting.

But, there have to be multiple mud deer and a single slime can split alone.

And Ella showed off why she was the best breeding student in the school so fast. She had this knowledge memorized even though she was not looking to breed a mud deer for her own use. The only goal she had was to make a mud deer egg to sell in Star City when they got there. She also wanted to add to the experiences of breeding different beasts for her later adventures in the profession she chose.

"Then take the cores, but if we find those earth potatoes, you need to be sure that you watch your own back." Clark knew that this would mean going in to a small beast nest. The mud potatoes would certainly have more mud deer around.

"Don't worry about that. If I have to I will use my beast. But they are kind of a little tricky. They like to tease people and I want them focused so I will wait until I need to." Ella looked a little sheepish with this again. Clark wondered what kind of beast she could have that was a trickster. Let alone multiple beasts she had.

Isa and Maria had relaxed within the carriage. Their conversation about the little battle they watched fizzled out. This left Clark and Ella to walk in silence again while the other carriages were far in the distance. "This spot is getting harder to pass. That means we are going through the mud fields that the deer come from. Look for little white flowers with three petals."

Ella made the carriage stop and walked right in to the muddy grass and trees. She was going to find the earth potatoes to gather.

The sudden stop made Clark wonder just what was wrong with Ella. She was so easily distracted out in the wild that it was a wonder how she had ever survived out here before.

"Go ahead, we will wait here." Isa heard everything and showed that her ice maiden was keeping watch.

'Earth potato- common

The earth potato is a strange plant that gathers the first around its roots to form a semi earth and semi plant vegetable. The earth potato is great to feed pure earth energy beasts while also used as a forging fuel. The best way to harvest an earth potato is to grasp below the mud slightly on the stem and pull quickly.

The earth potato also has the chance to capture other stones or ores within it while being formed. Large lumps on the side will show that this has occurred.'

The additional information made this easier for Clark. With Devi and Crim waiting to alert him, he was certain that he could pick the earth potatoes in peace.

"I found ten already!" Ella shouted from a slight distance away. What scared Clark a little was that she had somehow also defeated two mud deer without him hearing a single thing. Ella was much stronger than she lets on with her metal wire whip.

"I have four here now but look for any that have lumps and give those to me." Clark was sure that they would be very useful if he managed to split them open to get small pieces of metal ores.

This also managed to make Clark remember something he had forgotten. Something he had meant to check out but never did. He had a single stone from a merchant left. The single stone with strange energy that he hadn't understood nor the system had understood.