Spirit Taming

Chapter 615: The Long Way Out

"Worst Alarm ever." Clark felt that he had dreamed about some faint memories in his past life. However, when he realized where he was waking up, he did not need any time at all to get his bearings.

What he had not expected was that Maria had ended up setting up a sleeping bag right next to him and sleeping at some point. He hadn't even taken the time to be on watch during the last few hours!

That wasn't the alarm clock though. The alarm clock that he had heard was not the sound of an alarm from some electronic items from his past life. Nor was it a beast making sounds that would be considered a threat or call. No, it was the system alerting him of his next quest.

'Chain quest (first link) - the winding trail

Requirement- using the map of the violent jungle, follow the winding trail which has been overgrown to the dark river.

Reward- second link, turtle breathing skill book.'

The system had rung out in his head making Clark wake up. While getting rewards was not necessarily a bad thing, it was the fact that he was right in to another chain quest. The last one had taken some time and brought him to some troublesome places. Therefore, it was understandable that he would feel some stress when it came to another quest set like this.

Furthermore, it was offering a second link but also a skill. The skill book was not something that Clark had gained before. He had gained skills or knowledge, but the books showed techniques usually. Therefore, he was a little lost as to what he might be getting from this.

When he read the chain quest again, he made his effort to look at the map. It was surprisingly easy to read the map even though it was so large now. But he did find the winding trail that he was supposed to follow.

It was a long jungle trail that moved to avoid larger trees and a few cleverly marked beast nests. The territories would present some trouble when they went through them. Therefore, the trail was designed to ignore it.

When Clark found himself thinking about who might have made this trail, he realized that it was not a trail made by tamers at all. It was made by beasts!

This was not uncommon. Many places had beasts that would carve trails through grasses, forests, or even some rocky ground that was beaten down over long periods of time. This was a jungle, the weak beasts had to survive somehow. Over many years, it would just make sense that the weaker beasts would be able to find ways to avoid the territories of their predators.

The orange baboon was one beast that was very hard to handle. They were only partial to eating meat, therefore, they would not be very dangerous. That was false though. They were fiercely territorial.

It was stated right on the map that they will chase anything. It made Clark understand that the map was more than just a map. It was a small bit of warming that showed why certain places were marked. But it also explained a little of why the beasts on the map were marked.

Some beasts were fiercely territorial. The orange baboon was known to be just that. If Clark and his group moved inside their territory and were seen… they could run for weeks through the jungle and still be pursued.

Regardless of what other beasts might be around, the winding trails had many different worries. It would bring them through a section of jungle called the hanging branches. This didn't sound dangerous, but Clark knew that it must be marked for some reason.

After that, other beast territories made him worry that they might have to fight some more jungle spiders or even some larger beasts of similar species.

From there, the end of the trail brought them right to the largest river that came together from every stream in the violent jungle. The group could not be traveling in it because it ran the opposite way of where they wanted to head. It would bring them in to other wilderness areas.

But Clark saw the reward from the system's first chain quest here. The turtle breathing skill book. A book that would teach him this skill. If that was the reward, he had a feeling he would be entering this river.

While turtle breathing was not an unfamiliar skill or technique to learn, many people struggled with it since they needed a beast that helped them to do so. Needing less air or being able to survive underwater without going up for air for longer was a very hard thing to manage. It was valuable for underwater dungeons though.

B between having to go in to the river later, and knowing that there would surely be added dangers going in to such a place, Clark felt his head and shoulders feeling like a larger weight was on them.

"I am beginning to believe that you have more secrets that you have been leading us to believe. They may be your secrets, but can you share a little more with us?" Reese was somehow behind Clark. To be more specific, he had come up along his right side and leaned on the same tree that Clark had his back on.

"I won't judge you, some things are better off not said. But you have a literal map that has more details than we have traveled. So, you either hid it from us, or used some magical skills to make it. It would just be nice to know we have a better mapped route ahead of us." Reese looked at Clark and Clark back at him. With a small nod, Clark understood.

Reese had been waiting with Isa outside. He had also listened to the others speak about Clark and his actions. Lately, it seemed that Clark always knew more with every second, but he also seemed to hold back a lot more than what he said. It was somewhat unnerving at times.

But from their points of view, Clark was always helping them with everything he did. He was ensuring that they were all getting stronger. Therefore, they trusted him even with his odd actions.

That did not mean that as his friends, they did not feel off about it all. They felt that there was a line where Clark stopped trusting things. That line felt like an impassable wall to his friends. Even Maria had held back here and there for fear of pushing too far.

"I will see what else I can explain. None of what I figured out makes sense though. So I won't make promises." This was true for the most part.

Thinking about some greater existence that was giving him quests and rewards was ridiculous. Especially since that would make many people think he was just crazy. Even if the group started to think he was crazy, they had seen his plans and actions working out. They had seen the proof of what he could do. So, was he really crazy?

They had all already believed that Clark was a little less than sane. Especially when he would look off at something as if he was reading a book about it. That was when Clark used the analysis, but he had chalked it up and lied saying he has special eyes. So they had let it slip even though it was harder to believe it fully by the way he explained it.

Reese only stood there for another moment because he saw that the two of them had managed to disturb Maria. It was just about time to get moving too, so Rees planned to clean things up and get prepared himself. He needed to make sure his partner was cleaned up and polished. It was part of their bond. The spirit steel sword enjoyed being pristine when fighting. Every beast had its thing.

It only took about half an hour for everyone to have something to eat and get themselves ready. By then, Clark had set up a spot with the map and spread it out to show it all off.

"Regardless of how this map exists, it does now and I might be able to make more like it in the future. I might even be able to teach you all how to make maps like this. But, this is going to be our route out of here. First step, we follow this trail made by beasts to get to the river. Then from there, we map another path out."

No one said anything as they analyzed the map themselves. They were all looking at it with a lot of scrutiny. Especially the new details and the fact that there were more beast territories in the massive violent jungle that they had not fully explored.

"Then I am ready for it. We can follow that trail even though I am sure it's overgrown. I want to see if we can fight some beasts along the way. But what are titan spiders?" Reese pushed the conversation forward, his finger pointed at a beast territory near the river.