Spirit Taming

Chapter 254: Pile Of Gross

"There isn't much here." Isa seemed like she was more afraid to look through the rotting piles of monsters and random tamers than anything else.

"I know it seems cruel and wrong. But there are two swords, a bag of elemental crystals, and three gold coins right here." Clark showed them off. "This is a mountain wolf body, they have fur that doesn't rot until the temperature is high enough. Then this is a green snake corpse. Its bones can be ground up to make a potion that helps a person recover their stamina after certain activities.

People pay a lot for the bones, especially the richer the people."

It was odd for Clark to be educating Isa on what would cost a lot. A few of the materials had been explained by the system but most were things that Clark could easily make out. The green snake bones were sold often between guards and other merchants around the city. They were a very common item since one large green snake could have a hundred bone pieces.

"I know they are valuable but you want to dig through… this!" Isa was too disgusted to even explain what specifically was causing her to want to vomit.

"There are worse things in the world. It might smell and look bad but I can tell you one thing. Burned flesh smells much worse. It smells so bad that it will remain in your nose for weeks afterwards. It will burn in to your dreams and make you wish that you can't even close your eyes.

So if you want to say that this is so terrible, burn it now and tell me how much better it gets whether we did or did not make use of the items here."

Clark responded by pulling free another bone from the green snake's corpse. He was storing away the head and fangs first before he dealt with the rest of it. "I didn't mean- It's fine. I understand." Isa hadn't realized that Clark was so unfazed because he continued to compare it to worse things.

Watching Isa swallow her disgust and search the pile made Clark feel that he had been too cruel. Yet, he also felt that he had to be the one to push her and the others one day, to their limits. They would see much worse when they faced the Mourne family in battle. They were cruel and would not hold back. If Isa, Maria, and Ralph did not steel themselves then they would fall.

As much as Clark wanted to put Ella in that category as well, but he couldn't, he knew that she was used to experiments. She had already done and seen things in the beast researching world that he would even have trouble making seem normal. That was the life of those that truly cared about what they did, they would not stop at anything to make their dreams reach reality.

"Here, this is an iron sword, there are two shields there. The armor is useless and the other monsters are too far gone. There were even a bunch of crushed bones in the center over there. I think they were broken intentionally." Isa was holding back her desire to lose her lunch at that moment. The smell had permeated the items she had grabbed.

"I think this is not just a pile of waste to whatever is in the other tunnel, I think it is a little more intelligent and this might be food for an egg. Or food for it." Clark stored away the materials. He didn't care that he would have to wash them later or anything. He was planning to ask everyone to stop at a stream on the way to their next camping spot anyways when Isa and him returned.

"What? Food and a nest? What kind of dark imp could want that? I thought the dark imps hatched in the dark little caves. Why would they need this?" Isa's gesture to the whole pile and the terrible smell around them made Clark shrug.

"I will see when I lay eyes on whatever weird mutation the elder dark imp went through to make it the king of this dungeon." Clark turned and walked back to the main second floor cave. The air seemed to have grown heavier while they dug through the pile. It was clearly a wave of anger from the other cave. Something knew that they had invaded its territory and touched what was it's own.

"Crim, Devi, be ready. Shy, I will have you hold on to my shoulder but if you have to let go, retreat back to this spot here. Isa, fuse with your flame sprite, if you need to burn this thing, do it." Clark was not afraid of fire. He knew that it was not fire that had burned his parents but a person. However, he was still slightly perturbed about using it himself.

That was why he left it up to Isa to do the burning for now.

The first step in to the next passageway revealed that it had been broken up the same way as the previous. The stalactites and stalagmites were broken away to make room for something to move through it easily. But the smell seemed to remain. But instead of rotting, it was an animalistic scent. One full of blood and sweat.

'Mutated Elder dark imp (gluttonous dark imp) - ultra rare

The mutated elder dark imp has become incredibly hungry due to the mutation to its body. Instead of one stomach, it has three that have potent acid. This has increased its food requirement. In turn, it has led to the massive weight gain of this imp and the further mutation to a gluttonous dark imp.

It is much stronger than the other dark imps and is able to order them around. If this does not work, it has eaten its own kind. Due to this, it has become the ruler of this dungeon and the only one to produce offspring. This could cause more mutations in the dungeon if this is not dealt with sooner than later.

Beware the tail, instead of poison, it holds stomach acid. Its claws have become dull due to the mutations and now are more like blunt weapons than shredding weapons. But furthermore., it has the ability to crush its opponent under its body weight.

The best way to defeat this opponent is to let its own stomach acid melt it from the outside. Its body is unable to withstand its own stomach acid. Otherwise, it can take immense damage without much of an issue…'

"Isa, use an icicle attack before that thing starts moving!" The mass in front of Isa was what she had confused for darkness, as soon as Clark had said to attack it she had looked at it differently.

"What the hell?!?" The ice began to form on the end of the elemental staff that Isa held. She was even more disgusted by the massive thing in front of them. The radically altered shape of growing flesh and bones that had come from overeating was not what anyone wanted from a beast.

The icicle formed and forced landing right on target, it would have been impossible to miss. "Nothing, it did nothing. Try a fire ball next and tell your crystal golem not to approach at all. While we fight, the dark imps and elder imps will not bother us. Also, stay behind me. That tail it has contains acid, not poison." Clark was sure to keep Isa up to date with what he knew.

It would spell her death if he did not.

"Devi, start to confuse it!" Clark ordered Devi to begin to move as soon as the mutated gluttonous imp started to stand. Its overgrown arms tried to reach out for the two that had just disturbed its territory but they were out of reach.

This was when the overgrown tail whipped out. But it was all too clear that with the overgrowth of its body, the gluttonous imp had lost a handle on its body control. The tail whipped around and lodged in to the wall with the hissing of its stomach acid along the stone.

"They weren't drag marks but acid marks. The acid was used to clear the way for this thing." Isa realized this while sending a ball of flames at the gluttonous imp. It hit the imp's body and burned a small layer of skin but nothing more happened.

"Just keep aiming for one spot. I am going to let Devi confuse it. In a few moments, I will approach it and bait the tail attack. If I can do it correctly…well, it will end itself." Clark was sure that this would be a massive risk, but the system analysis of this beast was clear. The best way to defeat it was using its own stomach acid.

Doing so would be dangerous but it was the same for almost every creature. Just because they had stomach acid inside themselves safely did not mean that the rest of their body was resistant to it.