Spirit Taming

Chapter 384: Energy training

"Illia, what do I need to do to control ice even better? I can learn wind from Ella a little but that really isn't much. I want to learn ice." Illia had been training using the method that Maria had started. She found it to be tough but a fair way to make progress.

She was a slightly surprised that Grace, who had not spoken much had just asked a question. "When I did training I went out during a blizzard. My mother showed me how she controlled ice with her beast. But I don't think you should do that. You don't have the same resistance as I do…" Illia wanted to give good advice. She had not had the chance to guide anyone.

No one ever asked her for help.

That was just part of living life being the daughter of a powerful person. Many people would keep their distance or they would only approach to get something from you. But Clark's group had already proven differently. They had been sitting right next to her making fair trades and offering their own skills and techniques to learn along with her.

Illia was in a new world for as much as she could understand.

"What about just staying outside then? It's plenty cold…" Grace was a little slow when she started to ask this. She felt that she had not been doing the best for herself. She was not very accustomed to wind energies or ice energy. She could use the cie energy but it came with baa higher price because she had not become perfectly in tune with it.

"Cold water." Illia made this decision very promptly. It was pretty confusing since Grace had no idea what was happening.

"Ummm, cold water? To drink?" Grace had no idea how drinking cold water would make her better accustomed to ice energy at all. But if that was what Illia meant, then so be it.

"Oh, no. We are going to jump in the pond behind the mansion. There's one just over the wall that is normally frozen. But none has had the time to go ice skating on that lately. So we can just break it so that we can take a swim." This stopped Grace from breathing. She knew exactly how dangerous it was to just jump int to cold water.

Especially cold water that could easily freeze.

"That's not. Won't that-"

"It will be fine. We can make sure that we have dry clothes and a fire after but if you sit in it for a while you will find that your resistances are growing. Just circulate the energy that your beast shares with you. If you have wind energy too, then you should be able to resist the breeze coming around us as well." Illie was all smiles.

She was very proud of herself for finding a solution to Grace's problem.

"Would this work for someone that is not able to use ice energy at all?" The two girls jumped a little finding that Jerold had shown up right next to them with a hand under his chin. Eh was obviously listening the entire time but neither of them had noticed.

"It should. I don't see why your body wouldn't be able to adapt over time as you train this way. It's the same that blacksmiths do when they are apprenticing in a forge." Illi flawlessly gathered herself and responded. She was sure that it would do better to have all of them training like this than just one of them.

"I will see if Isa wants to join in as well. Her, Clark, and Ella were just helping her newly hatched wind caterpillar rest. I should be able to convince her to come. Ralph would definitely come too if he wasn't passed out in the forge. From the way that Jerold spoke it was as if he had seen all of these things happen. But another girl could tell if the other had known he was there or not.

The training that Jerold did when using his invisibility was tough to grasp.

What the two girls did notice, though, was that Jerold's armored chameleon had been in the equipment state for some time. As if the training to remain invisible and hidden longer was the only major focus other than the recent interest in resisting cold. "Jerold, what are you working on lately?"

"The poisonous herbs that Isa gave me after Clark told her to find them were a hard amount for my partner to eat. He had been resting so I am fully in charge of using some of the light energy that he uses to make us invisible. If I work properly I might be able to have the invisibility effect while separated from him. But that may be a distance away from where I am.

Without contact I lose at least ninety percent of my control over it."

The harsh reality of why some tamers would never properly grow was right there. They would not have the time to learn to manipulate the energies that their beasts shared with them like this. Instead, they would focus on making their beasts stronger and stronger while only training physically. It would lead to a massive variance in beast strength compared to tamers' strength.

"Oh! So you are doing the same thing that we are but for a specific skill. That's great. You can work on two things at once. Maybe we should do that." Illia was inspired. She had a small amount of dragon energy that flowed through her.

She knew that she would get stronger just by using it and training. But what about the attacks of a real dragon tamer? The top of the top. What set them apart?

The truth of this could be fought for a long time but what Illia believed was the truth was the use of energy. She could feel with when Clark was fighting. He had used multiple energies but he had definitely used the dragon energy from, Crim throughout his entire body. Every single beat of his heart proved that he was using it to strengthen himself.

Even if it was intentional or not, Illia knew that it was a key to his explosive power when using his spear style.

Grace and Jerold had already run off toward the mansion while Illia was lost in thought.

Meanwhile, Clark had just managed to finish things with the others and retreated to a secluded spot in the mansion. He had looked for his own space to meditate more without any interruption. This had led him to a small room that had enough space to move around but was overall silent.

As he brought out the elemental crystals he still had and looked at them, he wondered just what he was going to do with himself. His body was undergoing changes from shadow, dragon, and spiritual energy. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was also influenced by the mystery that was death energy.

Not to mention the energies that Crim brought when he controlled the odd fusion of energies from his origins as a slime dragon.

All of this was a strange thing that Clark had to begin wrapping his mind around. But he felt that it might all be impossible to be able to do this. He was still just a human. That was it, how could he do more than what he was currently capable of? He could only meditate with what the system had given him.

'Quest: meditation isn't key

Requirement: learn to alter the meditation to one that perfectly suits you and use it while you are training your body.

Rewards: defined mediation technique perfectly crafted for you and the additional beasts in your future.'

"Ha! I should have known you were listening in. So you gave me an impossible task to meditate while training but also to alter it and make it perfect for me. Then you will fix it up? What kind of system is this?" Clark leaned back and laughed. But he was also shocked to a degree.

The system had really listened in and prepared a harsh challenge while he was already working on a quest. Now he had to worry about his training to a much higher degree than before. On top of this, he also had the overall goal of getting ice dragon saliva from a beast that was able to crush him with a thought.

"Let's see what I can do." Clark returned to a good meditation position. He wanted to first sense the energy within him and how it flowed. Forget the energy his beasts brought but only his very own energy. That Was the only way that he would be able to make any progress here. If he didn't do that then he would be lost when it came to altering his training later.

Unfortunately, that wasn't easy either. Most people could go their entire lives without finding themselves. Let alone the core of who they were. The flow of their energy, or even the fact that they could understand that they had certain energies in general. It was just a gap that required intense focus to cross.