Spirit Taming

Chapter 587: Long Night?

"That thing was a monster, right?" Grace's opinion on what they had just dealt with was clearly a monster.

She had heard Clark call it a cannibal jungle spider. That meant that it was even turning against its own kind. What else but a monster would do that?

"Nope, it was a mutated spider. I think I said that. Regardless, because it was a mutated spider that could eat and produce its own eggs, it was unable to breed and make more of itself. So, it was forced to keep going through the same cycle without growing stranger. Nature is very odd. But it is balanced."

This was important for Clark to see. He had not understood what the system had said. He didn't even know if it meant that the system had added these lines here and there as a way to teach him a lesson. But in Clark's mind, he, and the group, were the balance of those that were corrupted.

It spoke a sweet melody of balance to Clark's mind. Especially since they were all out in this wilderness to be able to handle stronger foes in the future. "Hey! This is good stuff!" Ralph shouted out when he started to examine the exoskeleton and fangs of the mutated jungle spider. His voice only grew more exuberant as he noticed more uses to them.

"If all of these are used, we could have some new light armor that easily resists the thorns and thin twigs here." Ella was right next to Ralph. She felt that learning the uses of all materials from such an odd mutated jungle spider would be very beneficial for those that discovered a similar instance in the future. It happened once, so why wouldn't it happen again?

"The fangs will be the base of a dagger. I can make Maria a dagger set that allows for poison to move through the dagger and inject it similarly to the way that the spider would venom. All I need to do is study the tunneling within the fangs. I can replicate it while strengthening it." Ralph's interest was totally on another level.

Clark knew that Ralph was a blunt person. Right up front and didn't hold back. That's why he was so brutal in his double ax fighting style. But right now, Clark was seeing how Ralph has changed his thinking. He was looking deeper than just what the fang was. He was looking to learn how venom flowed naturally.

From there, Ralph would develop a dagger that could match the same venom injecting potential. After that, it was even more adaptable. Especially when it came to Maria's poisons. Lit produces multiple now. Therefore, she would be able to change what Lit provided her. Consistently adding poison to opponents in the same way that a beast would envenomate a piece of prey.

"If it's going to be a dagger, it needs to be heavier than what I have now. Mine are way too light after so much training. I don't look buff like a muscle man, but still, I have enough ,muscle to carry these ones easily. It feels like my attacks are weaker." This was something that no one had realized.

They had all gotten much stronger lately. Especially with the fact that they were training constantly. But what really struck them whenMaria brought this to their attention, was that they had a lot of noticeable changes.

Their armors and their weapons had changed weights. Niot truly, but it was a real reason that they felt faster than they remember. They had grown stronger in ways that helped them move through their fighting style better. Thus, they felt that their weapons and armors were way too light.

"Don't look at me like that. I will make what I can as we go. At least Brad and Reese aren't bothering me." Ralph grumbled as he understood what they were all thinking. But luckily, Brad's armor and weapons were his beast. The same with Reese and his spirit steel sword.

"We need to move, right? This can't be the best place to camp any more?" Jerold was looking around. they had caused a decent bit of commotion as they fought. The frost burst that Grace had released by firing an arrow of ice had spilled out. But worse yet, the ground had shifted causing a small tremor in the general area.

"No, I think it will be better to stay. If they all think that the big bad beast defeated another opponent, they will avoid it even more. Or that something beat the big bad beast here. Then they would be even more afraid. A new big bad beast moved in? Terrifying, right?" Isa was thinking about what the beasts would be thinking all around them.

"That makes sense. They won't want to touch us. So all we have to do is make sure that we  have enough of a presence here. Clark, think that crim has had enough rest?" Jerold looked over as he had some hope that there would be enough dragon energy released to scare the living daylights out of any beast that thought they might come near them.

"No, crim is still resting. He is taking a lot of time to handle everything. But he is also working on another thing too with a little of his dragon energy. I didn't take even a little of it from his right now. but Devi is already scaring away a few beasts. Since it's more or less dark now, Shy will be keeping watch."

The group had not even realized that Devi was nowhere to be seen. But the slight laughter in the distance before they heard a screech of a beast proved that Devi was working hard. They also knew that Devi could feast on the soul energies of the beasts he bit with his chilling bite. That alone was enough to make them all realize that the beasts he was scaring away would not just be scared.

They would be defeated.

"See? Devi left some materials for Shy to reel in like fishing." Shadow threads pulled out a smaller beast that Clark was somewhat surprised to see.

"Green quill porcupine- uncommon

The green quills are green due to the moss that grows on the body of this beast. the water and earth affinity allow for the moss to grow. The porcupine will hide in plain sight while waiting for the jungle cutter ants it loves to eat to pass by. It will skewer them with…

…the quills are ideal for being used in tattooing and also in other arts such as acupuncture. The mosses that grow on them are known to hold healing effects. Many alchemists wish to study this but the mosses are very hard to keep alive after the beast has left the jungle causing it to be a forgotten challenge.'

"Maria, research the mosses on the quills. They have some unique alchemy ingredients in them since they have healing properties. It's an alchemy mystery so if you figure it out, then you will make the record books.

"Really! I will have it figured out in a single night. Isa, get your blaze elemental to make me an alchemy lab. I am going to start working." without any hesitation Isa jumped up to start preparing what she could. They had a lot of tools saved up for just this sort of thing. Especially since they knew that they would be in this deep wilderness.

Between Ralph and Maria beginning to work on things, this entire space was being converted in to an awkward forge and alchemy lab. Clark almost thought of this as a new base camp for them to be able to keep fighting and growing. But in essence, this was how it should be for their jungle survival.

'Sub quest- jungle alchemy

Requirement: assist on creating a potion while in the jungle using only ingredients gathered in the jungle.

Reward: one potion formula gotcha ticket

Sub quest- jungle forging

Requirement: assist in creating one forehead item using only materials found in the jungle.

Reward: one forging blueprint gotcha ticket'

Two sub quests popped up shocking Clark. He had not expected that such a thing would happen. He had two sub quests pop up at the same time. This would be a lot to go through. Not to mention that they were both things that required him to focus at the same time. But they also required a lot of energy.

This meant that he would not be able to focus on meditation so much as he wanted to.

"What are you all frozen up for? We have a lot to set up in camp." Reese tossed Clark one of the strings for a tent. The fight before had messed up their tents. Now they had new work to do.

"Yeah, I can help. But I need to help Ralph and Maria too. Alchemy potions and a new forging material? It sounded like a lot of fun." Clark said this just in general, but he realized it was actually a lot of fun too.