Spirit Taming

Chapter 576: Useful Feathers

'Steam toad- rare

The steam toad is a beast that is able to swallow the heated burning liquids from the geyser pools. It is able to do so since it has two stomachs. One that is able to hold the dangerous minerals and resist the high temperature, the other for food. It has a natural water and fire affinity that are in perfect balance.

The acidic minerals will be processed within its second stomach and used in the first stomach for food. This allows it to eat many more varieties of beasts as prey than other beasts can. The dangers that come with this are mostly to the other beasts since it will actively use both the hot water and the stomach acid to shoot at prey or enemies.

Due to this strong attack, it has lost its claws over the years. It also has a shorter tongue than many other toads. This is because the prey it goes after is often too weak to attack after it has already attacked itself.

Its skin and stomach linings are very valuable materials to some people in certain professions. This is because of the tough and highly resistant abilities that it has. Otherwise, the body is useless for the most part. Too many toxic minerals have become part of it to make it edible or safe to touch.'

Clark sighed a bit seeing this description. The beast was not anything good for the group. The steam toad could attack them from further away. Worse yet, it could use the toxic heated water as attacks and its own stomach acid. Both were not a good attack for the group to face since only Brad had a solid defense to counter this.

While the others had some degree of defenses, it wasn't the same. Ella and Isa could have their beasts work together to make an earth and crystal wall that might be able to protect everyone, however, it might not be fast enough to protect all of them at once.

"It will be a problem if we get its attention. It's a steam toad and it can shoot acid or that boiling toxic water. It also has toxic minerals in its body, so no eating. But its skin is tough since it is able to resist the heat and toxicity. So we might take it. Not that we really want to." Clark broke it down for the group.

He watched as they all looked as if they were not ready to handle this.

It was more often than not that the group haad face to face battles. They had rarely pushed themselves to fight against one another using ranged attacks. Clark was the most advanced when it came to using the ranged defense tactics. But that was still mostly dodging and very little parrying. Not that they could parry and acid or boiling water attack.

"That's fine because we can handle it. All of us have sparred against you. We are fast enough to more or less keep up with you now." this was a lot bigger of a comment then what Grace had understood. Not that she really understood the depths of what Clark was capable of compared to what they had trained in when they stayed with Purple in Terra City.

But it was true that they could all keep up with dodging enough unless the group was faced with multiple opponents. As if to prove this, a hum burst through the air before the unmistakable sound of higher pressure water. Clark reacted first, but one quickly noticed that they were not the target at all.

The steam toad had looked up and saw prey.

'Heat wave falcon- rare

The predator and prey of the steam toad, the heat wave falcon is a beast known to use the steam to heat its body. When in danger it will often release a burst of steam causing an odd wave of heat to deter and kill its attacker. If it does not do this, it is known to suffer internal injuries causing its body to be useless after being defeated.

The heat wave falcon is the perfect balance for the steam toad. They are a species that butts heads with the steam toad and can safely eat the toxic meat of their body. The same is said for the steam toad eating the heat wave falcon. They both share the same fire and water affinities in balance within their bodies.

The heat wave falcon is only able to survive in similar environments as the steamy plains dungeon. Therefore, it is considered rare to the world. It is also why they are not known to grow in larger populations.

Their feathers are very useful for arrows. While the rest of their body houses toxic minerals, the feathers grow the toughest because of these minerals and are not toxic. They are very strong in the heat and cold which normally cause some feathers or fins on an arrow to bend or warp.'

The heat wave falcon was not what Clark had expected. He knew there was another beast named the every same that levied near volcanoes or in the desert. However, that was a purely fire type beast. That alone is enough to make him wonder if the system had made a mistake or if this was a lesser known variant of the exact same species of beast.

He had never seen the purely fire type one, therefore, he had no idea.

"If we can, we should try and capture some of those heat wave falcons. They might not be the kind that we all know of, but they are also fire and water type. They also have feathers that are perfect for arrows. Maria, keep an eye out." Maria was the best archer they had.

Regardless of her newfound strength with daggers, she technically had a deeper understanding of the bow from more years of training than daggers. That made the dagger mastery a newfound skill by comparison.

"Wait, an alternate species that might not be recorded with the same species name? Or are we talking about a rare occurrence where it is the same species but a dormant affinity for a certain energy has awakened because of the unique environment?" Ella was not about to let this slide, however, Maria had realized that she would be the core of this dungeon exploration.

The bow was drawn back slowly and carefully. The steam toad in her sights. Matching her movements, Grace Also drew an arrow with her own bow. This was the benefit that the girls of the group had. But sharing their skills, they all had proficiency in whips, bows, daggers, sabers, and fencing foils. This gave them a well versed set of skills compared to the average tamer.

Compared to the boys of the group, they were much more advanced. Yet, when Maria used what she was most comfortable with, the bow, it stood out many levels above what others could do with it. But that was fine, she noticed that grace had mimicked her which was perfect since the steam toad had tougher skin and the second arrow would finish it.

As Maria released the arrow with a slow breath, it sped through the air. The steam toad had hopped toward the heat wave falcon body that had just fallen out of the air. It was going to eat it. But that left it wide open.

The arrow pierced its eye from a decent distance away. As anyone else would be shocked, the group was not. They knew of Maria's skills. But when Grace's arrow went straight in to the open mouth of the steam toad a second later, it was very impressive. Maria's attack had damaged its brain while Grace's had started a devastating bleed.

The panic set in and less than a minute later, the steam toad had perished. Clark moved with extreme caution toward the steam toad and the body of the heat wave falcon. He noticed that the feathers were entirely fine which was luck since the steam toad had attacked with boiling water and not stomach acid. The steam toad on the other hand was not a material that Clark really wanted to keep.

But Isa still shrugged and stored it away.

"Now I can start to make arrows from wood and other things we find in the jungle." The goal that Maria had was clear. She couldn't easily make a dagger that was the same compared to what she already used. But she could make arrows and potentially a bow if she wanted. Both would be valuable to her while they traveled.

"What about the things in that pool? Are they beasts?" Jerold and Brad had positioned themselves between the group and the bubbling pool of water nearby. The steam toad had been close to it when it was defeated, but that wasn't the issue. The movements in the pool were more than just bubbles. There was a silver beast with a red stripe moving around in the pool.

Enough to make it clear that the beast was not some small and easy to ignore creature.