Spirit Taming

Chapter 553: Wild Materials

"Jerold, be careful when you scout ahead. I am sending Devi with you in case you need someone to help ambush or retreat from an area." Clark saw Jerold nod confidently. He was sure to avoid too much trouble. Especially if there was a reason that he would get injured or perish ahead of him.

This was part of the basics when it came to scouting anywhere. Always remember that the most important thing was bringing back the information. The life of the scout was worth more since a scout could always find more secrets or more information that could save multiple lives.

As Jerold left the group behind, Clark started to look around again. He had been focusing on the little things. Herbs that were growing along this older trail, the small beast tracks that had been analyzed by the system, and what the group needed to be able to improve.

One of the best books that they had found was one that spoke about making basic tools. The key to this had been the fact that the basic tools could be made out of readily available items in the woods. Branches, rocks, and other miscellaneous things.

Ralph had already taken it and read what he could while the information was permanently in Ella's mind. She was like a steel trap, everything they read was locked in her head waiting to be used when she needed it. Things only got more advanced the more that she focused on a task.

The reason that the basic tools idea had come to mind the most was simple survival. He knew that they would eventually break something and they would have to fix it. But like all things, fixing every single thing they had wasn't going to be possible. Some things would just be broken.

Ralph's axes were an example of this. He needed them for battle. If he were to use them for chopping trees for their fire wood or just basic things like breaking up monster bodies for food, then they would eventually break. That would leave Ralph without a weapon. Not to mention that his axes had been made for battle and not the basics of survival.

The differences were in the metals they were made out of, the way they were sharpened, and most clearly, the size. But when Clark had taken a glance at the book, he noticed that a glass shale rock could be found in nearly every place in the nearby territory. The reason this was a good thing were the many uses that glass shale had.

"We should all know what glass shale looks like from the book. So keep an eye out." Clark was just focusing on one material, but they all knew multiple that they were looking for right now.

The reason that glass shale was so great was simple. It easily broken in to extremely sharp shards. Therefore, a large piece could be broken in a way that it had a very sharp edge to cut many things. If it were to break while being used, it could be repurposed in to multiple other tools that could be used in multiple other ways.

This was how Clark started using the analysis on every single thing that he could. But when he noticed that the system had picked up on this and a quest popped up, he was very glad.

'Chain Quest- wilderness survival

Requirement: find ten materials that can be used as basic crafting materials.

Reward: survival skills gotcha ticket. (newly created for the user)'

While it was clearly a specific gotcha made just for him, Clark just kept focused. He could think about how this was all happening and how the system was tailoring what he needed now compared to what it had done with the large general gotcha. This gotcha would be useful no matter what. Survival skills were exactly what everyone needed just to survive.

Looking further, Clark began to read the appraisal of the rocks they were stepping over. This was the issue with the older paths. When nature began to take them back due to the lower flow of carts and merchants, rocks, bushes, and other obstacles popped up.

'Yellow slate- common

The yellow slate is a brittle rock that naturally rises out of the earth as time and water flow around it. It is very light but too brittle for building purposes. Some people use it as a material in art forms or statue carving. Unfortunately, it does not have any other uses but for being ground up in to a dull yellow paste that can be used as paint for the lesser artists of the world.'

The rock that Clark found was just one of the many that appeared around him on the trail. He could tell that it had been covered in first and the rains had naturally uncovered it. But when he gave it a soft tap, a lot of it broke up in to a course gravely bit. It would definitely be useless to him since no one would want to buy a poor yellow paint.

But this was just one thing. His eyes darted to the next random rock laying on the ground. To his surprise, it was a little sandy looking. But they had passed a few streams nearby so it made sense that some of the rocks would be here or there. Someone could have moved them or the streams could have flowed this way in the distant past.

'Sand stone- uncommon

The sand stone rocks are less common than the average set of rocks. This is because they are only formed in areas of water that had dried up and condensed. They can also hold various things. Gems, fossils, and even other things that were trapped as the sand settled and water evaporated. The best things to be found other than gems are the fossils. They hold profound earth and other mixed energies.

Some are useful to beasts while others could be the core item for forging unique items.'

This was a lot more than what Clark had expected from just using the analysis on this random rock. He was finding that the rocks were more and more likely to hold unique things. But he had never spent the time to just randomly use the system's appraisal skill. The analysis was clearly more important than he realized.

The last time that he had done so much appraisal was when he was at the open markets. He was able to find things that many people would overlook. Here in the wilderness, he could find useful things that many people would not be able to catch due to the simple lack of knowledge. On top of that, he also had a bit of a game to play while they traveled now.

When Clark took up a denser rock and used it to smash the piece of sand stone, Ralph glanced over wondering if there something wrong with Clark. However, when a smaller dark stone was reveled from the sand stone, Ralph became curious.

"What are you doing breaking that up?" Ralph's curiosity was due to the fact that he knew that some metal deposits could hide in brittle rocks. That was how many miners were able to discover new mines entirely.

'Natural magnet- rare

Natural magnets are harder to find since they rarely form. However, they do form in certain places based on the earth energies and the mixed energies around it. They can be locked within other stones for many years causing them to appear out of place when exposed. They are able to stick to certain metals because of this unique earth energy that bonds with metal but it technically not metal.

Using this as a material to forge something can create unique weapons that can be split in parts and assembled with strength. It is often used for the long spear users, technical weapon users, and even to force certain opposing materials to work with one another within one weapon. This is…'

Clark didn't focus on anything after that. He looked at Ralph and held out the stone. "This is a natural magnet. It's good for making unique things. Try and see what you can do with it if you manage to find a way to forge it without ruining the magnetic characteristics."

"You're really doubting that I know what a magnet is? Really?' Ralph's hands balled up ready to fight Clark. Clark just looked at Ralph with a bit of a challenging smirk. He wasn't just saying that Ralph should try and forge something. He wanted to see what Ralph could do with a rare material like this in the wilderness.

When Ralph walked away, Clark knew he had already set up one material off the quest. But he was more interested to see what Ralph would do when he had the chance to create a wilderness forge the way that the wilderness forging books had said. Not to mention that Ralph had multiple items prepared for doing just that. It would be an interesting experiment.