There's a reason pack animals exist. It's better than being alone. The group of men, just a little older than Jasper, turned around. Their eyes tracked him as he slipped around the corner.
He broke into a light jog as he sensed them following him. He was starting to near the eastern gate and it wouldn't be good if these dudes followed him out of the city. Inside he was protected by law enforcement and rules. But outside the walls, clans held the power. Suddenly, he broke into a sprint and started hitting corners.
After a few minutes of running he thought he'd lost them fine enough. They didn't seem like murderous. He attributed their odd behavior to being curious. He'd be curious too. What was the great Lords failure son doing? Jasper sneered as he walked through the eastern gates.
He'd show them. He'd beat the odds. From inside his spirit he felt his new friend squeak in support. He smiled a little while watching the cute grey caterpillar inch around. 'What do you wanna do?' He asked mentally. A twinge of hunger filled Jaspers mind. 'You're hungry? That makes sense. My brother probably barely fed you.'
Jasper looked into the wild plains that surrounded the city. Clumps of trees were everywhere along the road and served as living spaces for spirits. The road had two lanes for vehicle travel. About every 5 minutes a car or truck would pass and fade into the distance.
On both sides of the road was a wide sidewalk that was about 20 feet wide. People walked along with spirits out and following them. Off the sidewalk there was endless wilderness. Jasper could see people walking through fields parallel to the road.
He imagined that the area around the city was densely packed with Spirit Tamers, which made it safer and more dangerous. He was less likely to encounter a violent, predatory spirit because of all the people, but all the people meant more encounters with power hungry clans. He took a deep breath and steadied himself.
Even though he wasn't starting his journey the way he had envisioned it, he was excited to enter the world. He'd been itching to spirit tame. Time to go hunting.
Jasper stood outside a large clump of trees, his hands sweating intensely. He pulled his backpack off of him and set it gently against a tree. He took his spear and shield off and held them at the ready.
At the same time he mentally tugged on the spirit inside him, and had it appear on the ground in front of him. "What can you do exactly?" Jasper said as he pulled out his Spirit Box. The spirit box had a scanning function in which it could identify a spirit and it's abilities.
Jasper crouched down in front of the caterpillar and centered it on the camera. A few seconds later a species names popped up along with a long description. There were average weights and heights as well. 'Flesh Caterpillar' "Scary name." Jasper commented before reading through the description.
These kinds of spirits tend to be found in large dead spirits or creatures. They emit an unpleasant energy that's supposed to deter any non necrotic predators. It's a very slow spirit, but has the ability to jump decent distances in critical moments. Jaspers Flesh Caterpillar was slightly smaller than average, which made sense as his brother had neglected the spirit.
Jasper scrolled down a little more and found the ranking of the spirit. Spirits in their weakest stage were called Pygmy spirits. The ranking of spirits from weakest to strongest is, Pygmy, Chrysalis, Ethereal, Core, Beast, Monster, Shroud, Collosus, Goliath, God, Primordial. There were also measurements between each of those.
A spirit's spirit core goes through mini stages as it prepares for the next main stage. Energy condenses in the creature as its body absorbs spirit energy. From weakest to strongest it goes, Sparse, Thorough, Dense, Steady, Compact, Full, Absolute. Once a spirit's energy reached absolute, it can choose to evolve to the next stage.
Currently Jaspers spirit is a Pygmy with Steady energy. The way spirit tamers grow their spirits is by helping their spirit absorb others, or taking one's spirit to an energy dense location. So Jasper had a lot of work to do. The last thing he checked in the spirit box was the spirits abilities.
Abilities were ways spirits could defend themselves or attack others using its spirit energy. They can manifest differently in species and there's even slight variation in the same spirit species. There was smell of death, and necrotic nibble. He read the descriptions of them.
Smell of death gave the spirit an unpleasant death like odor that can be used to dissuade predators from attacking. It also strengthened necrotic injuries and sped up decay speed when an affected creature comes close.
Necrotic nibble was an attack that stored higher amounts of necrotic energy in its mandible before attacking. "Can you show me that?" He asked. The caterpillar looked up cutely at Jasper before clicking its mandibles. Dark pillowy energy began to condense around its mouth as it focused.
It leaped forward, biting the air. A little bit of necrotic energy leaked into the air as the caterpillar stopped generating the energy in its mouth. "So it's a necrotic bite… Duh." Jasper nodded slightly before looking into the cluster of trees. "Let's go." Jasper whispered as he began to walk quietly through the trees.
His eyes watched carefully for any movement on the forest floor and in the branches. His footsteps were quiet from years of snooping around his home. He was pretty nosy at times, and would sneak into and out of places to watch his siblings train. He began training earlier than he was supposed to from secretly watching his one of his older brothers train. His feet turned quiet from the years of being places he shouldn't have.
The spirit was perched on his shoulder and seemed as alert as it could be. Spirits were generally much stronger than humans. Even a weak Pygmy could kill a careless adult. They walked for a minute before Jasper's sharp ears detected a sound. He paused and slowly lowered himself to a crouch. He focused on the sound and got the direction. It sounded like something was nibbling on something.
There were little squeaks in between nibbles. Jasper quickly found the culprit sat on a large branch a few dozen meters from them. The spirit had a roundish body and looked a little similar to a squirel. The spirit sat up and watched its surroundings carefully. Jasper froze and held his breath.
He got a glance of the spirits tail and was surprised to see it be almost beaver like. It had thick hide like material that was brown and checkered. It's plump body was made from dark green leaves woven together. Its face had two beady rodent eyes and two large buck teeth that seemed larger than what it's face could handle.
It was chewing on a glowing nut and seemed to be slowly becoming less alert. Jasper placed his hand on a tree and let his spirit crawl up the trunk. When it wanted to move it could go at the pace of a roomba.
Jasper sent his intentions to the caterpillar who began to sneak up on the Plant spirit. Jasper readied his spear and got ready for his spirit to make the first move. Although he was a well trained martial artist, he lacked the ability to control spirit energy like more experienced spirit tamers.
So it was best to let his spirit take the lead as it could match the plants spirit power as much as possible. A bite from its teeth could easily match a full powered strike from his spear. It took about 10 seconds for it to get a clear shot on the squirrel spirit. From a tree trunk a few feet above the squirrel, the grey caterpillars body tensed.
It jumped with sudden speed as it's mandibles charged with necrotic energy. The squirrel noticed but couldn't move fast enough before the large caterpillar smashed into it's side. The mandibles pinched and tore at the leafy skin of the plant spirit as they both came crashing to the ground. The squirrel squeeled and sunk its huge teeth into the top of the Caterpillar. The caterpillar wriggled in pain as grey dust shook off it's whole body.
The squirrel's face turned disgusted as it backpedaled and shook its head. The bite in its side was festering with black energy as the grey dust sucked into the wound. It slowly began spreading as the plant spirit's life force battled the disease called necrotic energy.
That's another reason people don't like necrotic affinity. Many times friendly battles turn into deadly funerals when a necrotic spirit goes out of control. Jasper pushed himself up and forward as he raced to his spirit. They circled eachother now as the plant spirit processed the situation.
It looked wildly fearful and looked at Jasper as he ran up. Looking between Jasper and the caterpillar, it darted between foliage and raced up to the young man. The wound in the necrotic spirit was pretty decent, but it still had plenty of energy left.
Jasper swung his spear smashing the beaver sized rodent in the side. It skidded across the ground and scrambled to its feet. Before Jasper could stab at it again, it darted behind a tree. Jasper backpedaled as he tried to make space.
He didn't know where the thing would pop out from. It could climb up the tree, or just come around the trunk above his head. His spirit reached him as it stood protectively. The plant spirit darted from tree to tree its tail slapping the trunks as it ran by.
It began running slower as its tail grew larger. "What is that?" Jasper said under his breath. Suddenly instead of running to the next tree, it ran straight for him. Its tail had become a huge 4 foot long 2 foot thick slab of dense bark. It had somehow stripped the bark of the trees with it's tail and created a massive weapon.
Jasper winced. His spirit wouldn't deal well with that. There was one positive. The plant spirit was now significantly slower. Slow enough for Jasper to outmaneuver it. With a distraction. His spirit shook grey dust again as it jumped at the beaver.
Before it could reach it, the dense bark smashed it to the side. Jasper legs exploded with power as he appeared before the plant spirit. His shoulders and hips worked in tandem as the tip of the spear connected cleanly on the spirits shoulder.
He didn't break it's skin yet but he could see the creatures pain. He grunted, shifting his feet and spinning the spear around again. This time he gripped it by its end allowing the shaft to crack over the spirits head.
Jasper backpedaled only to readjust his grip and thrust the spear again. His legs burned with strength as the tip drove itself through the squirrel. It squirmed and tried to get away but the necrotic spirit quickly sunk its mandibles into its neck.
As the plant spirits side began turning black, it struggled less. Soon its struggling ceased. Jasper pulled the spear out, his arms shaking a little. He stumbled back slightly before regaining his composure. His first time in the wild.
He thought he'd be doing this within a clan. His fathers connections would've put him in a good place to do these things. Experienced teachers to help and guide him along the way. All he had was himself.