Spirit Taming

Chapter 515: The Hot Climb Up

The misty weather brought a slight breeze of cooler air. The lava and magma flows and pools instantly lost some of their red color giving away to a slight shell of hardened lava rock shell. This change in the air was enough to make them all feel that they had been blessed by an ice type beast. Realistically, it was just slightly cooler.

Unfortunately, this meant there would be some trouble. Not only was it harder to see around them because the heat had died down. It had also made it a possible place to see even more beasts. They would be shaken by the change in temperature and want to find better places with more heat. This would cause the beasts to roam. To fight.

'Flame bat- common

The flame bat normally lives in lava flowing caves. They enjoy the heat while also possessing a decent wind affinity that allows them to use bursts of flames as their sound wave creator. Therefore, they listen to the reverb of the flame waves and use an odd echolocation.

They can attack with small bursts of fire as well, but mostly go after smaller fire type beasts such as fireflies, candle gnats, spark crickets, and so on. They have a variety of prey but are also prey themselves due to their smaller size. This is why they travel in groups of at least a hundred known as a coven or colony depending on the strength and growth of such a group.

They will often avoid cooler weather and fly toward the hotter areas to hunt their food. This is why it is always best to avoid the places that they fly since they will be going somewhere with more danger.

The best way to groom a…'

Clark read the quick analysis of the flame bat and took note of where they were headed. There was still a bright light coming from the group's left which meant there was still a hot magma pool open that didn't care at all about the mist that began falling around and creating fog. It was hot enough that such a mist did nothing to it.

The group only watched the flame bats for a few moments. Clark noticed that Ella was right next to him waiting to hear what he had to say. With a small smile he started to rattle off what he thought about them and she was adding notes to her journal about the flame bats. He had to do the same with the flame burst hermits as they walked too.

Itn was only a few moments of this before the group found their first issue. "Does anyone have any hidden skills to walk through lava?" Grace looked at everyone wondering what they would do. She was sure that she and her frost finch could manipulate the wind around each other to be able to leap across. But they couldn't do that with the others.

"I will literally walk across." Ralph hopped on the back of his molten boar. The heat from his boar didn't seem to phase him at all as the molten boar quickly walked through the flow of lava that had come up and over the path due to the cooled stone around the sides.

"Maria, take my hand and run with me." Clark grabbed Maria's hand. They ran at the lava flow. "Jump!" The moment he said to jump, Crim took the armor form and spread out the wings behind Clark.

A single flap and his wings propelled Clark and Maria who he was holding on to over the lava flow. When Maria landed, she smiled widely and gave him a nudge on the shoulder before pointing at the others to help. Clark had just nominated himself as the ferry man for the lava flow.

This was one of the mana dangers that would be around the lava fields at all times. Because of the current weather, these lava flows could break out more often around the pathways that were seen as safer to walk. Especially pathways like this one that were less used because of the rock formations around them. It increased the danger many times over.

The process of getting everyone over this lava flow was enough to showcase the troubles they had to go through. Not to mention that they were all feeling the steam on their skin. The heat from the rocks where mist landed then turned to steam was taking over the air. It made things much harder to move through.

Grace's frost finch retreated as close to her as possible while everyone else had to make sure that if they had their beasts out, that they were protected. The molten boar didn't seem to mind much since it had trained against colder air so this little mist was nothing. The same could be said about Crim who was now walking beside Clark.

Shy was less adept in this sort of place and had retreated to the edens end taming space. Devi still roamed around patrolling the edges of the group though. His signals of danger from the sides proved that there were passing beasts that the group couldn't pick up on at all.

'Quest: volcanic stairs

Requirement: climb the naturally forming lava flow stairs that were created during the storm.

Reward: one skill and technique gocha ticket, two low healing potions.'

The sudden quest made Clark look around. It took some time but he eventually found the dark hill of lava rock. It was clear that as the lava had burst up here from the ground changing the terrain, that the cooler mists and the long duration of the rainstorm had stopped it in place. This made an odd set of lava rock stairs. It would have been flowing magma, but it was stuck as is for now.

Yet, this wasn't why the quest had been generated. The lava had hardened blocking the way that the group could move. Therefore, they had no choice but to climb it and expose themselves to a more open space that beasts could spot them in. It meant that there would be a lot more danger going forward.

"Brad, have your shield skills ready. We are climbing that and we might have some trouble.m scratch that, we will have trouble." Clark looked up and saw that there were some shadows flying through the fog and mist above them. When the group was spotted climbing, they would surely be attacked.

"Let me see if I can do anything about the mist." Ella calmed the group a little since they all felt the added stress for the risk they had to take. But when Ella shook her head they realized that she could still not risk bringing the living mist out to take control of the mist and fog in the air. The temperature was still too high for it to easily manipulate anything without damage.

"It was worth the try. My frost finch is very limited too." Grace tried to cheer Ella up but it was clear that she felt useless.

"No point in holding off." Reese started to climb with Jerold at his side. Brad was right with them too. It was odd seeing the three working together so much. But with Brad's defenses, Reese's attacks, and Jerold's support, the three of them were a perfect team in a way. They could easily work solo, but together they would be able to resist even tougher situations.

Realizing that was a major step in their growth until they reached such a high level of strength that they would not need to worry about many average beasts in general.

With a heavy breath, Clark started to climb up as well. He could feel the intense heat from underneath the lava rocks. They would definitely melt again and turn in to a flow of lava if the mist would let up. But for the moment, he was thankful that it was cooler around here. He would be able to maintain their path through the lava fields.

'Screeching termite- rare

The screeching termite is a fire and earth type beast that lives exclusively within flowing magma. It can forcefully cool magma to create unique forms of lava stone. This is how they create small nests.

Their fire type is perfect for resisting the intense heat of magma. Their earth type allows them to shape the lava rocks and easily cool magma. This gives them an advantage over many other beasts that live on the surface and within small caves in the lava fields.

They often do not grow much at all. They are known as screeching because they constantly breathe out fumes or steam from the rocks that they eat and keep within their stomach. This is just how they survive. They would prefer to consume other beasts to give themselves better nutrients. This makes them fairly aggressive.

They can not grow unless a higher ranking screeching termite is dead. Upon this occurrence, the stored fire and earth energy within them will alter them in to a screeching termite soldier, guard, or queen. They may also mutate in to more unique forms but that is very rare.

The best….'