Insect Tamer's Ascension

"This… mantis is very good at camouflage. The slimes couldn't realize something was approaching them until it was too late. And even though when they knew that the mantis was there, it still defeated them easily," Lucien muttered.

Theo nodded in understanding, and Lucien continued, "I wasn't expecting this to start so smoothly. Your beast is strong in its size and level range, Theo. Now, we have to only develop it such that defeating creatures a lot stronger and bigger is also as easy, like this." He pointed toward the slimes.

Theo couldn't see the mantis anymore, and he looked at Clara once before she nodded and sent the pup to find it.

"Let's find an even higher-level slime around here, if it's possible," Lucien muttered and looked toward the slimes as if validating something.

A curious smile formed on his face, and he stated, "What is your beast doing, Theo?"

Theo quickly looked toward the dead slimes, and it was then that the pup also reached there.

When the pup was near and its nose went down, Theo finally saw the glimpse of the mantis.

Lucien was curious, and he started moving toward the slimes; the others followed suit.

While the boar gave Theo little leeway to walk on his own, when they were inside the clearing, Theo sighed.

CRACK CRACK

The mantis was munching on the cores so proficiently now that little sound was coming off of them. Only when they came this close did they start hearing the noises.

Yet Theo was surprised. Lucien came to know of where and what the mantis was doing even with its camouflage that sometimes even made Theo unable to find it.

"Such a peculiar thing. It even has a waste disposal ability, huh…" Lucien muttered while he saw the mantis passionately munch on the cores.

"It… doesn't have that ability, elder brother. It's just the food it likes," Theo muttered with a deep sigh, and even an involuntary chuckle left his mouth when he saw Lucien's dumbfounded look.

"Well… tell it to eat later. We are going to find a level 5 slime now." Lucien moved toward Clara, who looked at him with curiosity.

"Theo's attendant, me and my attendant can't summon our beasts here, or the forest will be disrupted by their auras. Why don't you use this Silverfang pup to find one?" Lucien asked in a rather polite way.

Clara gave a slight nod with a smile before she looked at the pup once, who whined one time before moving toward the west.

They all stayed in that place silently. At first, the mantis had moved back to Theo's shoulder, but when it realized that they were not leaving, it went on to munch on the slimy body and the cores of the moss slimes.

A minute passed, and Lucien looked at it completely eating one core. A few more minutes passed, and his face went pale seeing three out of the four cores just vanish from the ground.

Lucien looked toward Theo, who just gave an awkward smile. It had been so normal for him and Clara, even the boar and the pup, to look at the mantis eat almost anything that it was able to, that it became normal in their eyes.

Yet Lucien and his attendant did not share the same opinion.

Another minute later, the mantis seemed to be done with the cores and left behind the last one. But it was not because it was done; its attention was now on the slurpy remains of the slime all over the grass and the ground.

Small blobs of liquid kept getting sucked and vanished before Lucien could not believe his eyes anymore.

"Just… how much can it eat, Theo?" he asked, while his eyes were still on the mantis.

"… I haven't seen an end to its hunger till now, but I am as curious as you, elder brother."

Clara was doing her best not to laugh, yet the situation was too funny as it is.

Things became silent again till the pup finally found something. They all traveled to the next area and found nothing but low-level slimes.

The search went on for another time, yet unfortunately, they couldn't find anything above level 4.

Lucien went to one of the solo slimes on his own and smashed it under his heavy boot. The sound of cracking resounded, and the slime splattered everywhere. It was an instant kill on the spot.

'Wait…'

It was then that Theo finally realized something. His lower lip quivered for a second before he looked toward Lucien.

"Elder brother… did you get any experience just now?" Theo asked and felt his heartbeat increase; his eyes were already widened.

Lucien looked at him, and a smirk soon formed on his face.

"Yes, I did."

"!!!" Theo felt like an idiot for not knowing about this till now.

He looked toward Lucien again and wanted to speak, yet no words seemed to come out.

"As you may know, when the beast fights, it gets 60% of the total experience points gained. We only get the remaining 40%," Lucien explained and continued, "But when we kill a creature on our own without the beast's help, the situation flips. We, the humans, get 60% this way, while the beast only gets the remaining. Understood?"

Lucien was grinning ear to ear while he saw such raw expressions on Theo's face.

"So… if I kill something on my own, I get more experience," Theo muttered to himself while looking toward the slime that was splattered everywhere.

Lucien chuckled, his smirk widening as he crossed his arms. "That's right. But don't get too excited, Theo. Killing something on your own isn't as easy as it looks. Especially when you're used to relying on your beast."

"It is also frowned upon using such methods. The only path that is somewhat acceptable in this is becoming a knight. But it's a very dangerous path."

"Elder brother Cedric and father are doing it right now," Theo stated, and Lucien only nodded.

"There are some times when talent speaks louder than anything else. Our brother and father possess strengths that allow them to fight like that. Just think about it, Theo." Lucien pointed his finger toward the splattered slime, making Theo look at it intently.

"You can probably kill something like this the same way I did in some time; that is good. But… do you think you can kill a dragon the size of our whole castle with just yourself and a greatly made sword?" he questioned.

Theo thought and imagined it, making a frown form on his face. Not only would he get splattered while fighting such a creature on his own, but also the mantis, with its size too.

"I guess it's tougher than it looks like…"

"Some years ago, Cedric got challenged by a baron's son to fight with his beast with his sword, as a knight. The beast was a level 7 Battering Hog, a menacing creature to fight against." Lucien's body shook just by thinking about it, and Theo's mind went to the fact that he didn't know this creature.

"Our brother not only accepted this duel where everyone mocked him the one last time before he shut all them up—oh, that day… he made a mess out of that hog in a mere hour, Theo. If you saw Cedric like that, you will know why Father respects him so much."

Theo saw both pride for his brother's success and envy at the same time on Lucien's face.

"Anyway, I think it may be a good idea for you to use those knife-throwing skills on these slimes, Theo. They are the only beasts that are safe enough to do it against."

Theo nodded in approval, yet then he looked toward Clara, who was silently looking around in vigilance while also hearing the conversation.

She made eye contact with Theo, and before he could even ask anything to her, a nod came from her side.

Theo sighed in relief and stated, "Yeah, it sounds good."

"Great. I have already seen what needed to be seen about the mantis. Now, it's just training we will do in some other part of the forest from now on. The free point allocation will take place back at home. And lastly, your body training will now be done with me every day." Lucien pointed out, and it made sense to Theo.

"But for right now, I guess it's fine to try that knife throwing. Did you bring a dagger or something like that with you?" Lucien asked, and Theo looked at Clara again.

Clara only smiled and took out one of the daggers she had on her leather belt. It seemed she came a lot more prepared than Theo had realized.

The pup went to find yet another slime in the forest, and in that time, Theo practiced his form in the air.

When he did it multiple times, he finally got the confidence to throw it toward one of the bigger trunk trees near them.

CLANK!

The dagger got embedded at the leftmost side of the trunk, making Theo feel embarrassed.

"Puhahahahah…! You still need practice!"