Spirit Taming

Chapter 387: Pink Smoke

Days of harsh training passed them by. The group completely ignored the passing of the days. Some nights they went outside in the pitch dark to train themselves better. It was a marked improvement since the group had not been doing such dynamic training in the first place.

For any tamer or just a traveler in the wilderness, being able to fight in the dark was a key focus on their survival. Not being able to do so would mean that any nighttime predator could end their lives in the blink of an eye.

What had come of this was the fact that Ralph's molten boar and Isa's flame sprite could work together to light a decent area with flames. It was very good for them since the blue flame skeleton was not as adept in controlling the fire's strength. It was still too uncontrolled for safety and Ella had already left it in the taming space since it was too risky to have it out and about casually.

The blue flame skeleton was a rough topic. It had grown the fastest of any beast that Ella had. However, it was the least controlled and calm. It was forced to train itself much more and Ella was sure that this was all due to the speedy growth it had undergone. Not to mention the higher quality materials that it was able to have causing it to gain larger amounts of fire energy faster.

But this wasn't the only snag that the group had hit while training. Clark had found that Devi had become slightly slower as of the last few days. Before he could figure out why, he had caught on that he had been lacking in the energy that devi normally consumed from the souls of defeated monsters. The chilling bite that he normally used had only been used a few times.

Therefore, Devi had not been able to replenish all the energy he needed fast enough. That had led to a very interesting solution. As most people knew, there were services that could be purchased to help feed beasts in cities. Most people could not take their beasts to hunt in the wilderness or they did not have the space to breed food for them.

Livestock were hard to come by when the homes were so close in a city like Nebula.

That was why Clark had found a beast at a local shop on one day. It had taken very little time and he was glad to get out in the city on a short jog to see the bustling atmosphere.

'Cotton sheep- common

The cotton sheep is a beast that has a very soft wool like fur. It is able to protect it from blunt force damage and keeps the sheep warm in the coldest mountain habitats. This beast lives both in the wild and as livestock to become food or be used to produce clothing.

It is able to grow to adulthood in a month with proper care or food. If it is left in the wild, the cotton sheep can become an ice cloaked sheep. If it lives near a hot spring or volcano it can become a hot moss sheep. This diversity makes it a favorite of some breeders.

The male sheep are known to grow three horns on their head during their breeding season. Their aggressive nature makes them dangerous to the average person but most of the time the cotton sheep will not see humans as their competition for female attention.'

This beast was ideal for Devi and had been the cheapest option. It was also one of Nebula's greatest producers of clothing material. This had also been how the entire group had gotten a brand new set of warm underclothes that would help them all in the upcoming dungeon. A very good deal.

Other marked differences were in Isa and Grace's ice and cold resistances. While Ralph had been the last of the others to try and stay with the training, he had proven to be unable to keep up with the two girls' growth in this result. The two of them had the ice energy from their beasts and had greatly used it to their advantage as it assisted their bodies in adjusting.

But Ralph wasn't at a loss. He had been forging better armor the last two days. It was almost an average quality that could be used to defend things. Everyone had a pair of bracers that they could wear now. Was it the top quality that they could purchase? No, but it had been weight for training and a new battle technique that they all began to learn.

Having the ability to block projectiles with the bracers or deflect light attacks would help them all. Having the added skill to do so wasn't everyone's strong suit but it was very good to have. It was almost as good as when Maria had shown off her fastest speed.

None of them had imagined that Maria had been fully focusing on leg strength. She had been doing the same training as all of them when they worked as groups to improve their muscles. But Maria had been additionally adding leg training to increase her ability to burst off the ground and sprint forward. This combined with her stealthy assassin like approach made her very dangerous.

So much so that Clark expected her to be able to land a few hits on him when training no matter what.

Other than these things, the general growth was good. This process of thinking had left Clark wondering what they would work on next. He had watched Crim, Devi, and Shy carefully to see their growth. He had trained himself and found a slight grasp on the dragon energy and his goal of making his very own meditation technique that he could use while battling or training physically.

These things would still take time. And time was what they lacked. "These are the guards that will be escorting you to the dungeon. I would like to go but I am not allowed. You will see many other others but unlike a normal dungeon, there are four entrances to our dungeon. The plains you find yourself in are dangerous just like the massive ice mountain castle.

So be safe." Illia only knew what her mother told her, but this was enough to help the group as she gave them a wave farewell.

"You will be visiting us in Nova at some point. But we will say goodbye once we get back here with what we promised." Clark made sure that Illia would keep this promise too. But he had said this to ensure that she knew to keep up hope. He hated knowing that they were going somewhere dangerous, but hated even more that someone was suffering without the single thing that could save their life.

Illia didn't essay anything else as the guards lead the way. But everyone saw that she was holding herself taller than usual. She had grown closer to them and trained by their sides. Everyone had a positive opinion of her and realized just who Illia was. She was a friend of theirs through and through now. Not just some student from another city.

"We will be leaving the city in a few moments. I hope that all of you can respect the secrecy we must keep." The guard held out a small container that oozed a pink smoke. Clark had expected such a thing but he was not happy.

The pink smoke swirled around them and before anyone could react, they had fallen in to the darkness of unconsciousness. By the time Clark regained his senses, he felt that he was moving through a rough terrain.

Upon looking out the carriage windows, he found that he and the rest of the group had been set on a long carriage to rest. The space was decent so they could all lay down. But outside was a world of white. It seemed that they were heading to a large glacier in the distance. Nothing was around them. No sign of Nebula but the feeling that they were close to it somehow.

A sixth sense that said they could somehow get to safety if they were stranded out there.

"That was a very rude thing to do. They used pink dream mushroom smoke to make us sleep without even warning us. Everyone should drink a lot of water." Isa was the first to begin explaining what happened. She had seen the mushroom beast before and knew it produced spores that when burned created a drowsing effect and pink smoke.

What they had not expected was that Nebula had to protect their dungeon with this much secrecy, only Clark had expected that something like this might happen. But the reason wasn't just safety but also because of the recent attack. Many people might be out to steal or attack Nebula after the issue of the tournament.

"There are other carriages around us. They should be the other students coming with us." Ella saw carriages and knew that they were going to be around many more people soon. A few friends and a few enemies.