Spirit Taming

Chapter 87: Sneaking

"Clark, why are you so quiet?" Maria had a bad feeling that Clark was about to say something crazy.

"We still have a day to kill before the classes resume and we have to battle amongst the class." He slowed his walk while looking around. The walls of their city weren't far from where they were. The colosseum had been built near the gates in case something happened. Many fighters would be able to join the city defense.

"We can't go out there. There's no way that they would let us. We aren't even ready to walk outside in to the real wilds! Did you forget that you can't even use your beasts right now?" Maria wasn't having any of it. She was about to slap Clark over the head if he didn't wake up.

"But we can catch some of the smaller horned rabbits to feed beasts and make some extra money." Clark knew that the real life or death battle experience could also help the taming space. He just didn't feel that Maria would understand why he wanted to go out so badly.

"You're going to do it whether you have my permission or not, aren't you?" Maria knew that she had already lost before she had begun. If she hadn't managed to overhear some good information this would never happen.

"How do you think it will go when we try to leave? The guards will block us because we aren't old enough to venture out. We don't exactly look like adults who have become proper tamers. People who could survive the wilds." While Maria had a point, Clark knew there were ways.

"Simple, you see that large merchant caravan? We walk behind them. We can just say we are trainee guards that will leave for a short part of the journey and then walk back. It's how a bunch of people get in and out without any issues." The reason Clark knew this was because his mother had told him never to follow bad examples like this. Unfortunately, he was going to go against his mother's wishes.

"You're crazy…but I will go with you, if you get hurt someone needs to heal you." Maria pulled the hood of her cloak down further and followed Clark toward the gates. She felt that this was a ridiculous risk. Yet, she felt that she was more excited than afraid. As If she needed this.

'Quest- defeat five horned rabbits in the city outskirts

Reward- 5 gotcha tickets'

Clark saw the small quest and thought that the system was supporting him further. It was the perfect motivation to spend their last day making greater improvements. If He was even luckier, Clark could grasp the next spear move in the moonlight spear technique. He had been thinking about it a lot after the battles in the coliseum.

The rising moon slash was a slash from the ground up. It was a unique attack that needed the right time and place. The reason that Clark didn't grasp it in his current battle style was simple. He hadn't encountered a time and place to put it to use.

As much as he could train it against a shadow in his mind while going through the motions, it wasn't real. He had to experience it in the real world against a real opponent. He hadn't even found the chance while he had been in the coliseum.

"I know a little about the horned rabbits' attack styles. I can share." Clark heard Maria start to mumble softly. She was clearly unhappy with him but she was still trying to help.

The more you share the better. I will do my best to avoid any attack they try and use against us." Clark knew that Maria couldn't see the smile he put on just to cheer her up. But she clearly heard it in his voice. It was enough to cool the tension.

"They like to scrunch down and spring forward attacking with their horn first. A lot of traps are set with sharp spikes for them to spring in to." Maria knew this just from what she had heard about horned rabbits at this time of year. Many people could have told Calrk this but he would not have managed to let Maria show off a little if he looked elsewhere.

'Horned rabbit- common

The horned rabbit is a beast that is rarely tamed. They are often captured alive and brought in to villages to be butchered fresh. They have fragrant meat that is loved by many beasts and humans alike. Their horns hold a weal numbing poison that they try to inject their prey with. Unlike normal rabbits, horned rabbits can eat foliage and meat. They are excessively…'

Clark saw a cage along the road of a young horned rabbit being sold. He knew that someone might try to tame it or raise it as food just to do it. This wasn't uncommon since some rich families would keep them until there was a fancy occasion. Often their horns were removed while they waited to be slaughtered. It was just another beast taken for food after all.

"If it wants to stab us so badly I assume it has some poison in that horn?" Maria nodded at Clark's assumption. It made her even happier to make him think even though she didn't know that Clark had read it from the system. Yet, it was just more encouragement to head out sooner. To push each other to get a little stronger.

The merchant caravan was loud and full of people moving things. There were ten carriages altogether. They had more cargo than most merchants would bring. Yet, this was the season. They would be leaving to get to another city that would be able to provide different goods. The goods they brought back in a month would be used to preserve the horned rabbit meat on the market.

"Come on, get a move on! The gate can only be open for so long!" One of the guards was not having it. He could only allow for the gates to be open for certain intervals of time to prevent breasts from trying to come inside. The hard iron that protected the city was specially made from the toughest beast materials.

"What are you two doing?" The guard saw Clark and Maria. He stopped them instantly.

"We are following behind this caravan to learn for a few miles. Then when we reach the first resting space we have to turn around and report back to our teacher about what a real caravan does while on the move. He instructed us that we are only to travel the same route that the caravan took for safety." The guard looked at them then heard another shout from the other guards.

"I swear, you bodyguards start earlier and earlier every year. Just go and don't cause any trouble. We have enough of that here. I will tell the other guards to expect two people back sooner." The guard was pulled off to help another guard. Clark couldn't help but chuckle at how easy it was while they walked through the large front gate of the city.

The caravan could care less about them. They spurred the horses that they had resented to pull them quickly ahead. "I can't believe that it worked as easily as you said." Maria could only shake her head at Clark.