Insect Tamer's Ascension

Theo had to stop the instructor and persuade him not to approach the mantis before it became familiar with him first.

Since the mantis’s evolution, Theo hadn’t tried pressing its ’button’, and he had a strong feeling that this instructor might get himself sliced in half after annoying the mantis a bit too much.

Meanwhile, the workers did their best to open the cage. The bear remained inside the cage, staring at the mantis.

At first, Theo felt like this was going to be yet another easy one.

But the bear stepped forward.

Once it took the first step within the cage, it snorted a few times and shook its body as if shrugging off the suppression before letting out a furious roaring.

Listening to the bear’s roar, the mantis screeched in response, sending a chill down everyone’s spine.

And then, the beast stepped out of the cage.

At that moment, Theo realized this was the first low-level beast he had seen break free from Mantis’s suppression without help.

Before the mantis could go and mince the beast into thin slices and demand it be cooked, Theo quickly issued a few commands: not to hurt the beast and to let it come out fully first.

The mantis looked at him as if he had gone senile, but it obeyed and waited it out.

When the bear had fully emerged and was going to prepare itself to pounce on the mantis, the mantis released its spores, precisely as Theo had told it to.

Instead of spreading widely, the spores formed a narrow stream, brushing across the bear’s face like a sharp breeze.

The bear tried to close its eyes shut, but its mouth remained wide open.

A moment later, its eyes snapped open again, bloodshot veins spreading across them before it collapsed on the ground with a heavy thud.

"Ouch..."

Everyone noticed the lapse, and Merek ended up getting scratched by a Mirewhisk’s claw while he was distracted.

Theo stepped forward, and so did the attendants. Luciena and Cassian followed behind them, carrying thick ropes in hand.

When they got closer, they finally realized how big of a beast this thing actually was.

Its forearms were nearly half the size of Theo’s height, thick, powerful, and tipped with sharp claws that looked more than ready to tear through flesh.

Theo grabbed one of its forelegs and raised the other while Clara moved in immediately and tied it tightly before shifting to the other.

Meanwhile, Lucien took on the larger task of binding the beast’s mouth so that it wouldn’t be able to retaliate.

All of them had cloth wrapped around their faces to avoid inhaling the spores while they were tying the beast.

Clara even kept her eyes shut, breathing slowly as she worked.

Within a minute, the bear stirred. Its eyes flickered open, and it tried to move, only to realize that its entire body had been firmly bound with ropes.

They all stepped back, taking in what they had just accomplished: subduing a beast that Theo wouldn’t have dared to approach without his sword drawn out of its scabbard.

Oric walked up to the bear and casually ruffled its head, laughing. The bear’s eyes turned bloodshot with such anger that it tried its best to get out of the restraints, which only made Orice laugh even harder.

Theo couldn’t help but think that the instructor was just too weird. And judging by the others’ expressions, they were either thinking the same or had simply grown used to it.

Theo glanced toward Lysara and Garrick, who were watching the group with interest.

"Are you sure you don’t want to join? It could be a good learning experience nonetheless," Theo called out, making them look at him.

Lysara shook her head with a plain expression while Garrick just chuckled awkwardly but made no move to step forward.

Theo sighed inwardly and turned to the instructor.

"How was it, Instructor Oric?" he asked.

Oric stopped petting the retrained beast and looked at him. There was something beyond the instructor’s smile that made Theo feel uneasy.

It felt as though the man was far more perceptive than he let people realize. His antics felt like they were an extension to something.

"Magnificently done. And all the credit goes to your beast, of course, the Apex Bloom tyrant," Oric said, trying to make the mantis look at him.

But all the mantis did was stare at the bear as if it were a sin to watch so much flesh go to waste.

In its mind, the creature should have already served its purpose – to be in its belly by becoming its food.

Theo ordered the mantis to return, but instead, the mantis just skittered toward the frozen Mirewhiks nearby.

Right in front of Merek, the mantis gulped down three Mirewhisks as if they were nothing more than insects.

"Wow, his appetite is amazing!" Oric exclaimed, making Theo feel a little embarrassed.

"If I could, I would like to compensate for the beasts it consumed, Instructor Oric," Theo said bluntly, making Oric simply stare at him for a moment before chuckling.

"It’s like you are a noble and not at the same time. I like you, Young Theo." The instructor said while patting Theo’s shoulder.

"As for the compensation, there’s no need. These Mirewhisks are bred for this very purpose. We feed them to beasts like yours and all the others," Oric explained. "They multiply really quickly too, so farming them is easy."

Theo nodded, letting the topic drop.

After a few more exchanges, they moved on to complete the rest of their training.

By the end of the training session, Theo had learned proper techniques for mining ore, cutting trees, extracting sap or any other liquid inside, and harvesting plants of all kinds.

He also learned that before uprooting any plant, its fruit or seed-bearing part had to be removed and stored separately in a bag designed to slow down the speed of its decay.

Just like that, by the end of the second day of training, everyone was prepared for their roles inside the gate.

And now, the only thing left was to control Lysara and Garrick, the ones who had contributed nothing so far, which felt a little too weird.