Spirit Taming

Chapter 166: Pebbles

"Wait, but can't you tell me more about where we are going?" Clark was trying to get Alexander to tell him more. He wanted to know exactly what dungeon Alexander was taking him to. Exactly what kind of training he would be doing. Not knowing was driving him crazy.

The habit of always being able to analyze beasts and materials had become something that made Clark impatient. He was able to always get more information than other people. Now that he was not able to do so right away, he found that he develop[ed frustration.

"You will see when we get there." Alexander still did not budge an inch. He had silently walked with Clark from Nova academy in to the city. Instead of leaving the city like Clark had expected, they had remained within.

The streets were still a little busy even though it was not the main market hours or even that easily in the evening. But they still did not encounter many people as they got closer to a larger mansion within the richer section of the city.

The larger mansion that were in the richer sections were sought after by many in their dreams. This was where the prominent merchant, large families, and even some of the individuals under the city lord lived. It was a palace that many of the common people would never get to go unless they did so for work. Even then, it was rare.

Furthermore, Clark had only ever come here once. He had been younger and running around for one of the first times playing with some of the neighborhood children. This had led them to dare each other to get closer and closer to the mansions. At the end of the day, they had been kicked out by guards. Now, none of the guards dared to approach when they saw Alexander's emblem on their clothing.

This building here is a guard station." Alexander pointed out a simple building hidden away from prying eyes on the main road. This was a common sight throughout any city. "Underneath is not what would be normally there, instead of a basement, there is a small dungeon. It is watched over by the guards. They are not here to guard those mansions but to guard this."

Upon walking through the door, the guards at the main entrance stood at attention. They were sure that they would have to send someone out until they saw that it was Alexander. "Sir, we have your appointment right here. You are allowed to send your student in to the dungeon for three days straight."

"Good. very good. I will head on in then." The guards parted and allowed Clark and Alexander to move down a stone staircase in to the basement. It was made in a twisting fashion to make battling easier. Many dungeons had buildings made like this so that anything climbing up had a harder time fighting what was coming down. It was an ingenious safety aspect of the construction.

As they descended the stone staircase, Clark could feel the earth elemental energy gathering. It was much denser than he had expected. " You should be able to feel that now. That is what happens when a dungeon is getting close to breaking. The energy will start to pour out in to the world around the dungeon.

The solutions are simple, clear the dungeon and the powerful monster at the core, destroy the dungeon itself, or let the dungeon break out."

"We can't let the dungeon break out. We can't let the dungeon get destroyed either. They are valuable resources." Clark knew that there was really only one option here.

"Why can't we let it break? They are very useful for farming. There is one dungeon on the outskirts of the icy northern city; Orion. It is where they get their snow peas from. The dungeon beasts are a unique ice and plant type beast that produces them. Instead of going inside where the space is small, they let it break over and over so that they can harvest many snow peas."

"That's not dangerous?" Clark had never heard of this. He had not heard much about Orion City. it was farther north and had a lot of natural ice. Many people would avoid the more dangerous trip there. That was also the reason they did not worry too much about anyone coming to fight them in their territories.

"It is, but after many years they had created a large space around the dungeon. It is called the snow pea harvest. Each month it occurs once. Many people rush there to get the easy money. It feeds families and keeps their city economy growing." Alexander felt that Clark would be interested enough to visit such a place at least once when he was stronger.

"Now, this is the dungeon entrance to the dungeon I want you to clear. Between your beasts, you have a decent chance. As one of the more powerful individuals in the city, I can solo clear a dungeon. This one I have dealt with many times while raising one of my beasts. I needed the materials from this dungeon.

Now you will take this dungeon as a challenge." Alexander moved behind Clark and pushed him in to the dark doorway that had earth elemental energy spilling from it.

Before Clark could register that he had just been pushed, he found himself in a completely new environment. Instead of the small basement with multiple guards, he was in a glowing cave. Crystals hung from the ceiling causing the cave to be lit with a blue and white glow. There were piles of rocks and pebbles all around. The cave was not small but also not large.

It was spacious enough for a smaller beast to fly around without any issues.

"And it's an underground dungeon." Clark was unhappy to see another cave. He remembered the caves from the slime dungeon test. He wanted to have more battles on open plains so that he could judge what the beasts would do.

Without any moment of hesitation, Clark let Devi and Crim out to prepare themselves. Clark knew that there was no one else in here. Alexander said this was a place for him to clear by himself. Also, a place that he had reserved. Alexander would not let anyone else inside to see what Clark's secrets were.

"There is a lot of earth energy here, that means whatever beasts are here are tough." Clark was trying to pick up on any signs of what beast might be living here. He thought it might be a mole type beast or even worms. Unfortunately, there were no signs of any living things at all. Just a clear tunnel moving forward and twisting around a corner.

Crim sniffed the air trying to sense anything. Devi was moving around invisibly and finding nothing as well. All three of them were stumped. "This is a dungeon about to break?" Clark kicked a nearby pebble in frustration. He felt that he had just been tricked by Alexander to learn some hidden lesson.

The pebble that Clark kicked bounced a few feet away before suddenly stopping. If the sudden sound of stone bouncing hadn't stopped so suddenly, Clark would have just kept walking. But the sound silencing itself was off, he knew he had kicked it with a decent amount of force.

When Clark noticed that the little pebble was slowly moving back to where it had come from, he moved his eyes to the pile of pebbles it was moving toward.

'Pebble golem- uncommon

The pebble golem is one of the weakest and easiest to defeat rock golem species. They have not condensed a great amount of earth elemental energy, therefore, they are limited to the forms they can take.

They will take somewhat humanoid forms to attack and defeat anything within their territory. They do not need to eat but will defend their land so that they can peacefully absorb the earth energies around them.

Raising a stone golem is very hard. The growth paths require time and energy. Unique materials to make them tougher also need to be gathered in mass. This is why many tamers do not raise such beasts. They do have the potential to become many different earth type golems such as steel golems, bronze golems, crystal golems, magic golems, ancient stone golems…'

"There are golems all around us! Look for the cores so that we can pierce them. They will be a smaller round stone that has a different color than the gray and brown pebbles that make up their bodies!" Clark issued this order to Devi and Crim.

What Clark saw next he didn't expect. Devi moved behind one of the pebble golems and a rough shaped hand made from pebbles struck out at Devi. Clark knew Devi was there because of their connection. Yet, the golem knew that Devi was there because of the energy sense it had so that it could move around. Golems were usually blind beasts. They relied on energy just as slimes did.

This meant that Devi had lost his main attack style; invisibility.