Spirit Taming

Chapter 608: Ancient Elf

"Well, I'm just saying that it would have been better to break in." Ralph was somewhat held back by the way that Grace was looking at him. However, he still had a supporter.

"The challenge of strength would have let us know better as to where we stand. Now we are just moving blocks of stone that are basically dust at this point." Brad was right there with Ralph. But everytime they grabbed a stone, it seemed to become lighter.

This wasn't just because the stones up at this ledge were falling apart. It was because this tones had clearly been through some damage to collapse the ceiling and block this entrance. It made Clark believe that this was the intention of one of the ancient elves for whatever reason.

"There is not any evidence of writing. It is odd to believe that the moisture and koss caused the degradation of the stones below but also preserved the shapes of wrong. I should make this an experiment when I have the free time. It may be useful to the builders of the city when we have some control over improvements…" Ella hummed a little while randomly pushing her ideas and theories.

She was in her own happy world of mystery and discovery.

"If we were to start breaking in, then it might collapse more. The tougher stone is further in, it looks liek all this weak stone collapsed here on purpose." Maria reprimanded Ralph and Brad before they ended up getting each other riled up and causing issues.

"There we go, it looks like there is something here." Isa had been focused on her own efforts digging. The perfect crystal golem had made itself very useful by manipulating some of its crystal to surround a smaller hole that Isa Had begun to dig out. Not they had a hole they could crawl through. The darkness inside was unsettling though.

"Clark, you first, you seem to have…" isa frowned seeing that Clark was ignoring her. They had worked hard to make this space and he was busy with something else.

Yet,. as she watched, she realized that Clark had stopped for a reason. He had begun to use some extra fabric, some moss, and a few damp tree branches he had collected just in case for torches. He had even set himself up to be able to carry three extras himself so that the others could take them from his back and light them if theirs burned out or started to be left behind because of whatever reason.

Alright, everyone gets two torches. If you want to come inside, you can. But we should have someone on watch outside just in case. I have no idea how long things will last since we disturbed the plants causing this area to remain as a safe zone." Clark already saw the many drunken grape vines beginning to wilt. Just the group walking nearby them had caused them to begin to wither.

Such a plant was very unique. The smallest of seeds had grown these drunken grape vines all over a very large area. Then they had grown to the level where they made the very air toxic because of their fruit beginning to rot and become literal wine pon a jungle floor. It was an enigma within itself. But they did have the seeds and some powerful farmer or merchant might want them.

Plenty of beasts could use seeds as their strength or could grow them.

Even though Clark could tell that Jerold wanted to take the risk to go first, he pushed ahead. Crim was clearly ready for an adventure that would stretch his newfound legs so to speak. It was just the sense that he got whenever he saw Crim staring at the hole the perfect crystal golem was keeping solid.

"Just let me stay here and guard it. I want to take some more rest and let myself get accustomed to channeling more of the earth energy with my partner." Surprising everyone, isa just spoke up to change the topic. But Clark could definitely tell that she was just generally tired.

She had fused with her beasts multiple times and was worried that the group would not have an exit if this place began to crumble. Something they all felt was in the back of their minds since it was clearly possible.

"Then I will stay back too. My partner and I can fight a lot, but we are not fans of smaller spaces. That right there, it says small spaces everywhere." Reese seemed to have a feeling that he and his spirit steel sword would be trapped without the ability to use their strength. To be fair, the spirit steel sword was longer than most weapons and Reese did not have an alternative weapon to fight with.

"Then you can learn a little about fighting with your beast's energy from me. I literally fuse with them. And seeing that you can use your partner's energy to make that sword aura thing, you can learn a bit to use it without having your partner help you as much." Isa seemed happy to have something interesting to do.

When it came to the group learning to channel energies, she had been the one that taught them the basics most clearly from her understanding. She had helped Grace  a lot in that very matter. But when Reese noticed his partner vibrating with excitement, he could only nod along. He also looked a little embarrassed to be the weaker one of the group. Not to be of use here other than a guard.

It was only a moment that this conversation took place, but in that moment, Crim had begun to travel through the crystal tunnel. Clark realized that Crim's vision had increased greatly. He could definitely see much more clearly than all of the others, including him.

"Clark, be careful, using your spear will be tough here." Maria was a bit worried since Clark would be limited to jabbing attacks and that was all. He could not slash or build speed for larger attacks.

This was proved even more as Clark followed Crim. more of the crumbling stone was held up by toppled pillars of what had once been the entranceway. But this created a less controlled crawling experience. Clark even noticed that there were more defined words on the places he could make out in the firelight.

"This is the homestead of those who could not be powerful enough. May we rise in secret and return with true light."  Clark read out the words on the entrance stone. This was something the ancient elves would walk over every single day. This was clearly what they were trying to obtain. What they stood for. It made Clark somewhat melancholy to realize that they had failed.

He read bits and pieces out loud. He knew if he didn't that he would be hounded by Ella. but when he realized that he had come to what had once been a door, now it was just pieces of stone and dust which might have been wood at some point, he stopped. He realized that the space opened up ahead of them. But Crim had also stopped. He was smelling the air.

"Why does it smell like beef jerky that sat in the sun too long?" Ralph grumbled before he realized that there wouldn't be any such thing here. Crim also sniffed again before he slowly moved to the more open space. He only stopped when Clark's torch illuminated the dried body of what could only have been an ancient elf at one point.

'Ancient elf body- ultra rare

This corpse is one of the only ancient elf bodies remaining on the world. This is due to the fact that it was in the safety of a temple that has fallen to ruins. It perished due to extreme light exposure that created heat. However, It was preserved because it was not allowed to gain moisture again.

The…'

The details that Clark read after were all about the state of the body. There were also a few bones that Clark's system just analyzed them as old bones worth nothing and unidentifiable for whatever beast they had come from. It was rough since Clark had no idea what kinds of beasts the ancient elves might have had. Yet, he was more worried that this elf had perished due to high exposure to light.

Most people saw light and spiritual beasts as being some of the most powerful healing type beasts. But the light beasts that could attack with light were very dangerous. Mostly because they had blinding effects and also could cause lasting damage.

But clearly, whatever had caused this was a beast that used so much light that it created heat. Similar to the sun. When Clark explained this to the rest of the group as they moved in behind him to take up the space, they were understandably worried too.

"We made it inside, but we should be even more careful. Just because a light beast was here, it might not be. But, if it is, it might be dormant due to lack of energy. It might go wild if we wake it." this fear was why they began to watch their steps much more closely.