Spirit Taming

Chapter 117: Trouble Ahead

"I have five with lumps on them. But why do you want them?" Ella had a gap in her knowledge. This was perfect for Clark to take the chance and impress her.

Well, when the earth potato grows, whatever is around it gets trapped in the vegetable. That means these lumps are…" Clark cut one open with a simple carving knife he had for traveling. "Iron ore chunks. Or other things." He held up the dirty piece of raw ore.

"So you're saying that we might have found even better things! That's great. Not just materials for beast growth. I need to record this. Isa, Maria! Can you two replace us while we do a quick experiment?" Ella was already dragging Clark and the earth potatoes back to the carriage.

Maria and Isa didn't object they wanted to hear how things went.

"Let's see what else we have here." Ella had already pulled out three separate journals. The paper in them was of much higher quality than what Clark has seen since he was born in to this world. It wasn't that the paper was pure white or anything, but that it was made in larger sheets. This made it better for diagrams and larger notes.

"I have journals for materials, beasts, and breeding conditions. This is the best for drawing my sketches of materials and adding notes about what they might need to grow." The incredibly detailed notes that Clark saw while Ella flipped through pages showed him the truth.

The reason that Ella excelled in the beast breeding field of study was not just because she had a unique mind. She had the dedication to spend many hours filling out detailed notebooks of what she might need later. There were even spots for her to develop theories and for future notes. She even factored in her potential for growth. It was incredible.

"You really work hard. I could have these made in to manufactured journals for sale and they would still be worth too much for anyone to afford." The complement was not meant in any way other than how impressed Clark was.

"I have a crate full of these by now. I need to know more all the time. I feel like if I don't write it all down then I will lose my progress." Ella's reasoning seemed strange, but when Clark thought about the things he needed to do to get the skills he had he wondered.

If he had to analyze a certain number of beasts to get a bestiary skill, was this a feeling that Ella followed to get to a skill of her own. Just because other people did not have a system didn't mean that innate skills didn't exist. They just lacked the system to tell them what and how to progress faster. People had to have some sort of skill in their soul.

For Ella, it might be a researching theory that required her to record things to memorize them permanently.

The potatoes being cut open by Clark were watched Carefully. Ella wrote notes about how to go about finding the earth potatoes with something within their flesh. On top of that, Clark saw that Ella had somehow drawn a rough sketch of the earth potatoes cross section.

We have a bunch of poor iron ore and a piece of fools gold. Not bad. The iron ore can be sold for a few coppers and the fool's gold is actually a unique monster material. Have you ever seen it?" Ella asked Clark since she was still trying to test his knowledge.

"Have I seen it? No. But I do know about it, want to hear?" Clark smirked when he saw Ella's eyes lighting up. She was addicted to research. It was a clear example of someone who could become married to their work and only their work. But that was what made innovative breakthroughs in the world.

Pure dedication.

'Fools gold- uncommon

Fool's gold is a strange material that many people ignore. But it is actually adored by the trickster fairly known to hoard anything golden in color. The energy that fools gold has allows the tricker fairy to absorb more energy quicker while giving it a chance to grow in to a false light fairy. The false light fairy is known for the small illusions it uses to trick people…'

Clark shared small pieces of what he had read from the system's analysis. His words made Ella jealous that he knew a few things she did not. Clark did not miss that she had been writing every word down on a different page of her notebook for materials.

"Now, Maria and I bought some of those breakable rocks from a merchant." Clark was interrupted as soon as he said it.

"Those are a huge scam. That guy comes through the city every year multiple times to rob our city of gold. How could you be so foolish!?" Ella was much more surprised that Clark was wasting money on such things than the rock he took out of his spatial ring.

"And with my knack for seeing small details, I picked out some good winners that Maria and I already opened. I sold a few things and hold on to some materials. But this stone gave me a weird feeling. Since you are so good with materials, I hoped you would tell me what it is when I open it." Clark smiled while he said this. It worked like a charm to get Ella interested.

She loved mysteries. Any researcher was a sucker for a mystery. "Then hurry up! Open it and let me show you all that I know." Clark felt that he had understood Ella's core traits now. She wasn't driven by greed or even family ties. She was strong in her own right because she valued research.

Her older brother was strong because he valued strength. The Green family was seemingly a group of people that dedicated their entire being to what they cared for. A respectable endeavor.

Since Clark had this realization, he split the rock with a simple hammer he had in his spatial ring. He always had a basic tool kit in there. If anything he had learned from his last life to this one, it was that basic tools were always important to have.

With three swift strikes, Clark sp[lit the rock revealing a small black cube. It didn't appear to be impressive in the least. "That's definitely not a material. It's nothing like I have seen before. But it has a few runes on it so maybe it's a unique piece of equipment?" Ella was slightly disappointed but still very curious. Who wouldn't be?

"I will try and figure it out. Sorry that I wasn't able to give you something new to look at." Clark felt stumped. He wanted to know more but the system wasn't allowing him to analyze it. All he got was that it was unknown for the time being.

In Clark's mind, he asked the system if it would ever know. The response was not what Clark expected.

'The host is still growing. If the host receives certain information ahead of their growth, then they may suffer. This information is currently blacklisted until the host unlocks more of the system privileges.'

"Ha!" Clark jumped up with hope making Ella wonder what was wrong with him.

"Ehm.. sorry again. Just got excited because I thought I could ask my mentor about this and that he would know. I will hold on to it until we are back at the academy." From there Clark took the chance to meditate and rest. He knew that Isa and Maria would let him know if anything happened.

"That carriage ahead of us appears to have broken a wheel. Should we stop?" Isa wasn't sure if they could do anything. But Maria had another opinion.

"We move past them and watch our backs. There are spare wheels in the carriage and that one was reinforced with magic runes. We both know that the wheel did not break on accident." Maria had begun to think more critically since she met Clark. It was a habit she picked up from Clark through their training and personal evaluations of their strengths and weaknesses.

Isa nodded while she let her ice maiden fuse in to her body. With only one of her beasts influencing her, the appearance was different. A frosty white cloth seemed to cover her and the air around her became cool. Even the spot of the ground Isa stepped on was covered in a glimmer of frost.

"Maria was also prepared. Lit was holding on to her carefully and a few arrows had been rubbed with the numbing poison. Since they might have to face fellow students, Maria was worried that she would get in trouble. However, she cared about her survival more. She had to remain strong and survive the trip where she might find her second beast.

"Hmm? Why are we speeding up?" Clark looked outside the carriage and saw the reason. He casually had Devi move ahead to take a look with his invisibility. What he got in response from Devi was just what Clark expected of the Cain family.