Insect Tamer's Ascension

6 months later…

CLINK!

A sword that shone bright, reflecting the sunlight falling into a clearing, cracked the core of a being right in the center.

A young boy with focused eyes stared at the remains of a small slime and its core stuck on the sword's tip.

"Wonderfully done, young master." Elias, the attendant, started clapping with a smile.

"Well, still not as good as him, but I did my best," Theo responded with a chuckle while looking at the mantis, who was standing above four slimes all brought together to one place.

And they were not brought by any human too, but the mantis, to have accessibility to eat one core after another.

The difference in ability always made Theo just shake his head.

But to his advantage, he was not training for killing the slimes with a sword but to increase his precision such that he could attack at pinpointed locations his mind directed him to hit.

There had been countless slimes before this one in the past four months out of the six.

At first, Theo found it tough to pierce the cores of the slimes. The cores had the tendency to move even before his sword would enter the slime.

That made it difficult to kill off slimes. Theo did not have the instincts and quickness of a silverfang direwolf, or the bursting power of a boar. Nor the speed and cutting edge of a mantis.

As a human who had just started his training, things were tough, and it sort of made him feel weak.

But fast forward 4 months, and Theo was able to strike the cores with enough power and speed that they cracked or got stuck to the blade's tip almost every time.

"Your precision has grown with time, young master. I wouldn't be surprised if you took on a silverfang wolf in some time." A nostalgic girl stood on the side. There were no beasts with her, which made it seem like she was weak, but things were not always as they seemed.

"Fighting a wolf may be dangerous, but it will be a lot better than being this precise in my strikes. When do you think we should go for a wolf hunt, Clara?" Theo asked with a smile.

It had been two months since she had joined Theo and Elias in their journeys. At first, it was tough to get the Baroness to agree to this demand, but seeing that Theo wanted to make his people stronger alongside him made it seem more sensible to the Baroness.

So, in the end, it was decided to give Clara minimum pay to stay alongside Theo. The pay was two times cheaper than being an attendant.

But even though Clara didn't find it problematic for some reason, Theo found a better option to cover the costs.

All the body parts that Theo didn't let the mantis eat would go to Clara so that she could sell and earn some money that way too.

Though, even now, the cores they were left with and slime remains were not enough to make a proper living.

But training said otherwise, and only now did Theo start getting confident in his sword abilities.

"How are the pup and the boar doing right now?" Theo asked while cleaning the blade of his sword with a cloth.

Elias wanted to take the cloth from him and do it for him, but Theo didn't let him.

"They are going around having a fun time right now, young master. The boar is good at collecting the cores, so it contributes significantly in the end." Clara said while she came forward. She was in the same leather armor as she was before.

Though when she came close enough, it was easy to notice that in just 6 months of training time, Theo had gotten a little taller, closing the gap between her and him by a little.

Elias was still a lot taller though. The men in this world were giants in comparison to Theo's previous world. Yet even when the females only went till 6 feet, it was still a lot better than his old world.

"I guess this is enough for today, let's go back." Theo stated and kept the sword back in the scabbard.

Elias and Clara were a lot more lax when it came to protection, as this was only the slime territory, and for protection, the ape on the top of a tree was enough to keep watch.

They quickly went to the carriage where Warren was sleeping as usual. A few taps from Elias finally woke him up, yet the next destination of the group made even him surprised, as they all knew Theo's objective these days.

"Are you sure about this, young master? I was only saying this jokingly." Clara spoke with an awkward chuckle.

"What's the worry? We have enough people and protection right now. There couldn't have been better timing… And also, I will only be targeting level 1 or 2 boars for now." Theo stated.

"Why not the wolves then, young master? They will be much easier than the boars to defeat."

"Wolves will have big packs, Elias. If I am going for level 1s and 2s, they will only be pups, and it will be difficult to get them alone."

"You don't have to worry, I will destroy all the adult wolves and the other strong ones before you even enter the clearing." Elias spoke with a straight face, yet Theo looked at him with a frown.

"I don't want the ecosystem of the forest to be so disturbed, Elias. Running a level 7 amok in a forest filled with level 1s to 4s is just ridiculous." Theo stated and looked out the window.

Elias sighed inwardly. It seems things weren't going to be easy for him this time too due to an overly ambitious boss.

They were soon going to reach the boar's territory, and Theo couldn't wait. It was time he hunted one boar of his own too.