Insect Tamer's Ascension

Right at the body of the boar, Theo crouched to see the state of the mantis. It was attached right in the center of the head, yet due to falling headfirst, it was crunched toward the inside.

So Theo decided to move the head, only to see the mantis looking at him. Both its forelegs were inside the boar's head together and didn't seem to budge.

"I will help you," Theo said and went closer to pull on the mantis.

When he grabbed the two forelegs, he frowned. The legs were attached in very tightly.

To not hurt the mantis in the process, Theo did it gently and tugged a few times. And only after the fourth or fifth time did the mantis get out.

When Theo kept it on the boar's body, the mantis vibrated a little at first, making Theo scared, but soon, it started to lick its forelegs clean.

And while he couldn't see an injury on its body, the mantis took a small bite out of the burly moss on its back.

Now that it was confirmed that the mantis was okay, Theo went to the requirements again with a deep breath.

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[Evolution Information:

Next Evolution – Bloodbloom Mantis [Optional]

Requirements –

Defeat beasts 3 levels above the Moss Carapace Mantis (1/3)

Consume 3 litre beast blood (490ml/3L)

Consume a Thornhide Viper poison sac (0/1)

Reach level 4 for 'Regenerative Moss' skill (3/4)

Reach level 4 for 'Spore Lash' skill (3/4)

Breakthrough level 5 (0/1)

New Traits:

Regenerative Moss (Ability) → Bloodbloom Moss (Ability): Healing moss feeds on enemy blood to accelerate regeneration.

Spore Lash (Ability) → Venom Spore Lash (Ability): Spores carry a neurotoxin that causes muscle spasms in prey.

Poison Spray (Ability) – Toxic poison sprayed from the mouth with a cooldown of 5 minutes per spray.

Poison Sac (Gland) – The mantis produces a concentrated venom in its body.]

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Theo looked at the information once and saw what he needed to see. His lips curled into a smile first, which changed into a grin within seconds.

"One is done…" Theo confirmed while looking at Clara and Elias.

Elias was all confused because he still didn't know the reason, but Clara had an excited look on her face.

"Then it will surely be soon, young master. With how you did it one time, doing it two more times seems doable to me."

"But what was that last attack, young master? I never saw you use it before," Elias asked with curiosity. It seemed he had been waiting for an answer for a while now.

Theo looked at the mantis dig into the boar's body with a smile.

"Well, I discovered it the first time I was so angry with the mantis and threw it across the room," Theo started with an awkward chuckle.

Elias showed a surprised look, yet just like Clara, he quickly understood it. The mantis had a tendency to get on your nerves when it came to food.

"When I chucked it far to the corner, the rascal just used its skill and changed direction mid-way toward the dummy. A lot of the ropes that I was using broke that day," Theo stated with a shrug.

There was silence in the clearing for a few minutes where Theo looked around in the messages again.

"The bonus was ridiculous this time, it was a 50%," Theo said while looking at the system in his hand.

"Mantis got 89 experience while I got 59."

"Woah, that is very high," Clara stated with an 'O' made with her mouth.

"Well, there was both a big gap of level and grade so I'm not that surprised. But young master, didn't you say that you didn't want the mantis to level up more than 4? With this much experience points, it will level up in no time." Elias stated, and Theo nodded.

"I only want to defeat 2 more level 7 beasts now. Aside from that, I will only make the mantis train."

"Do you want to do one more right now?" Clara asked, surprising Theo. She was not the one who could take risks when it came to Theo.

It made Theo realize just what kind of spectacle he had shown them. It made him curious as to what they thought.

"Mantis keeps eating the moss on its body, so I guess it's a little injured. I will observe it for a day to see if they are severe or not." Theo explained while pointing at the mantis, who was eating some more of the moss while it was standing above such a big carcass—it showed priority.

"What did you both think about the fight? Any inconsistencies?" Theo asked, yet internally, he was just trying to know what they thought.

Elias thought for only a moment before he spoke up,

"We both were scared more than many times in that fight, but that was only because we are here to protect you. But if we leave that out, the fight seemed very one-sided, young master. Too one-sided in my opinion."

"One-sided?" Theo asked in confusion. He knew he did good, but it was not one-sided. There were many times that he was going to get hit really badly with those glowing tusks.

"It was one-sided, young master," Clara stated, too, making Theo focus on her.

"The body of a level 7 boar is a lot tougher than you realize, even now. If my pup were level 4, it would have been a lot more injured and bled a lot, without any confirmation whether it could even defeat the boar. While the mantis just stabbed it right in the head, giving the killing blow." Clara stated while she scratched the back of the pup's body.

The pup was a lot bigger now, but Theo could see that—with no measure to tear the metallic skin of the boar and the danger of the tusk…

"Honestly, your approach was very smart. You used the sword's blunt side more than two times to hit the boar's head. It couldn't tear the skin, but it definitely helped give it a lot of concussion."