Chapter 23

  Part 3

  “That should do it for now,” Carlos said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. The sun was shining brightly at him as he found himself on the roof of his research building.

  He looked at the hole in the roof that Lex and Mirabit had left when they saved him and his team from that thief who had attacked the building.

  “I do wonder what they were after,” he thought, as he caressed his chin, trying to decipher why his small research building was attacked. There was nothing of great value in this research building in Twinrock Town. Unless you consider monster research papers to be of material value, which in his opinion was more valuable than anything, but Carlos was sure that wasn’t it, no thief would have any use for that.

  “It truly is a mystery,” he said, giving up trying to find the thief’s purpose.

  “But it truly is odd for sure.”

  But not being able to quite let go of it, something in the back of his mind wouldn’t drop it.

  “That’s quite the hole.”

  A voice took Carlos back from his daydream of trying to decipher the great mystery that had befallen him, a familiar voice.

  He turned to look down where the voice was coming from, and if he hadn’t been sitting down on the roof, he would have for sure fallen from it just from the shock.

  “Doctor Spark !”

  He yelled, not believing his eyes, and adjusting his glasses to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

  “Careful, son, you wouldn’t want to fall from that height, not even a monster partner would be without bruises at such heights, plus it's such a sunny day,” Dr. Spark said, smiling at the young monster researcher.

  “S-sorry, sir,” Carlos said, letting out a faint smile, feeling embarrassed, as he began to climb down the roof. Not believing that Dr.Spark was waiting for him down by the entrance of the research building.

  To many monster researchers, Dr. Spark was a celebrity, the grandfather of modern taming devices, having harnessed the power of the crystals of tames from the Stone of Tame.

  Yet another great mystery this day had brought to Carlos, as he wondered why the great Dr.Spark was all the way south in this little town.

  “S-Sir, is a pleasure to meet you,” Carlos said, wiping his hand on his white lab coat, as he took Dr.Spark’s hand.

  “Now, now son, no need to be so formal, plus I prefer the weather down here in the south.”

  “Now what happened there ?” Dr.Spark said, pointing at the hole that was now covered by wooden planks.

  “Some thief attacked our research building, but luckily, a brave young tamer by the name of Lex and his monster partner Mirabit saved us; luckily, no one got hurt except for the roof.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, some people are the worst, hopefully they find this thief,” Dr.Spark said.

  “May the ancient one hear your words, sir,” Carlos said, having grown accustomed to the South’s way of speaking.

  “But I have been wondering why a thief would want to attack this building, that’s a mystery I can’t seem to solve.”

  “Trying to decipher human nature is more difficult than studying our fellow monster partners,” Dr.Spark said, as he looked at the sky, watching a group of Birrow monsters flying by.

  “But the great thing about mysteries is that the clues are usually sprinkled all around waiting to be discovered.”

  “I truly hope they catch this thief for all our sakes.”

  Dr.Spark whispered underneath his breath as he looked for a brief second at the two small statues that were by the entrance of the research building, one of the stone monster’s eye sockets sparkled while the other lay empty.

  “Did you say something?” Carlos said,

  “Nothing at all, son.”

  “Well, I should get going now, I was just passing by on my way to visit an old friend and thought I would visit a great talent such as yourself.“

  "But before I go, I have to say I enjoy your paper on the monster partner's intrinsic nature to avoid danger."

  “T-Thank you, sir,” Carlos said, bowing before him, to think the great Dr.Spark had heard of his name was truly a great honor.

  “I should be on my way now. I would have loved to meet this young tamer, Lex, as well, but I’m sure I’ll meet him soon enough. After all, I have a feeling we can expect great things from him.”

  “Of that I am sure,” Carlos said, as he looked at the patched hole in the roof.

  “Well, take care, son,” Dr.Spark said, waving as he walked away.

  Carlos watched as Dr.Spark left and wondered what kind of person would make Dr.Spark visit the south.

  “Another great mystery indeed.”

  ***

  Lex and the other tamers followed Arthur as they went deeper into the forest.

  “Stonetopolis City has four levels built on top of each other, the Leaf Blade Guild Inn is at the most western part of Stonetopolis City’s second level, and this place is hidden that no one has discovered, except for me,” Arthur said, grinning, as he felt quite proud of his discovery.

  “We’re here.”

  ‘Is that a cave?” Jaden said,

  Lex looked at the opening in the rock wall, It definitely was a cave for sure.

  “You’re late,” a voice said, as it appeared from the shadows of the trees.

  “Violet, I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t show, instead deciding to spend your day back at the Leaf Blade Guild Inn,” Arthur said, jokingly.

  “Funny,” Violet responded sarcastically.

  “Nice to meet you again, Ms. Greenleaf,” Stanley said, as he walked toward Violet, extending his hand toward her.

  “Ms. Greenleaf is my sister,” Violet said, ignoring his handshake.

  “I see you changed the colors,” Arthur said, noticing Violet’s outfit.

  She had on a pink and black jacket with a black shirt underneath with pink borders, dark purple shorts and white and pink boots with a pink hat that was styled back on top of her short green hair.

  “Thought I add my own twist to it.”

  “It looks great,” Stanley said,

  “Thanks,” Violet said nonchalantly,

  “Anyway let’s not just stand here, are you guys ready to meet the Leaf Blade arena,” Arthur said, as he walked toward the cave entrance.

  “I see you’re trying to get on the good graces of the guild leader,” Felicia said mockingly.

  “Shut it,” Stanley responded, as they all followed Arthur.

  Lex wondered just what Arthur had in store for them as he entered the cave last.

  “Welcome to the Leaf Blade Arena, which is a work in progress, but this is going to be our training ground where we’re going to train for the upcoming tournament.”

  All the tamers were greeted by Arthur as he welcomed them to his surprise.

  Lex and the other tamers looked around inside the cave, it was spacious they found, with an arena like block carved out in the middle, yet despite being in a cave it wasn’t dark or anything, in fact it was the opposite, it was quite well lit.

  “I found it while taking a nap and have been building it myself with the help of a few monster partners of my own.

  “A cave? “ Jaden said, sure it wasn’t dark or anything, and it was quite spacious, but he wondered why a cave? And the safety of it as well.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Is it safe? Aren’t caves usually dangerous because a monster attack might cave them in?“ Violet asked as she began to inspect the cave.

  “That’s the neat part, this isn’t like any other cave, here let me show you,” Arthur said, taking a crystal from his pocket and putting it inside his golden tamer gauntlet.

  “Come out Ravorse,” he said, as a dark light shot out of his gauntlet that materialized into a bird-like horse monster.

  Lex remembered the monster from the taming exam. Its black feathers and purple front claws with purple hooves on its back legs and a purple color beak was hard to forget.

  “Ravorse use wind attack toward the walls of the cave!”

  Lex and them moved back as Ravorse began to flap its wings causing wind like blades to come out of it and attack the walls of the cave.

  “ Don’t worry, I found the walls quite sturdy, in fact, I had been attacking them since I found how durable they were, and to my surprise , no damage,” he said as he walked toward one of the walls that had been attack.

  “Smooth as a rock .”

  “It must be imbued with ancient energy by the ancient one. perhaps this was a temple, a great discovery waiting to be brought to light,” Felicia added, as she inspected the cave with stars in her eyes, as if she had discovered a great mystery lost for centuries.

  “Perhaps we have stumbled upon a secret place only fit for a chosen hero.”

  “Here we go,” Stanley said, letting out a sigh, not fond of Felicia’s fairytales.

  Thinking she spent too much time reading myths and legends instead of focusing on her taming skills.

  “Or maybe the walls are just super hard after all, Stonetopolis City is built upon the most sturdy mountain known to man, and time has made them super durable.”

  “You guys are no fun,” Felicia said, giving up trying to change their view.

  “Regardless this is going to be our training arena since you know renting them in the city has gotten more difficult for us,” Arthur said, thought he was curious as to why the walls were so durable but he figured it was due to what Stanlet had said, because of how old the rock that Stonetopolis was built upon as well.

  “ Soon we would have our own arena building inside this cave.”

  “Shall we get started ?”

  “Yes sir,” all the tamers said, in agreement, they were quite fascinated by the discovery, their minds more at ease having seen how much attack the walls of the cave took by Ravorse and no damage was taken, it truly was a mystery.

  “As you all know, this upcoming tournament the Leaf Blade Guild is going to enter five tamers with two Duo teams.

  ‘Duos?” Lex asked,

  “That’s right, Lex, “ Arthur said, winking at him.

  “You and Violet are going to be one of our Duo teams.”

  “Sir, do you think that is wise to have the two brand new tamers as Duos?” Stanley said, interjecting,

  “I think it would be better if we paired our brand new tamers with other more experienced…”

  “Now, now, Stanley, trust your teacher,” Arthur said, smiling.

  “Better luck next time,” Jaden whispered,

  “Shut it,” Stanley said, fearing who the other Duo team was going to be.

  “Like I was saying, Lex and Violet, you’re going to be one of our Duo teams, and the second team is going to be Felicia and Stanley.”

  “Again?” Felicia said, letting out a sigh,

  “Can I get a new Duo partner, maybe Jaden?”

  “Sorry, but I only do Solo battles,” Jaden said, as fast as he heard his name.

  “I agree with the chatter box,” Stanley said, smirking at Jaden.

  “Perhaps a new team, and besides, we lost last time.

  “So now you have more experience with each other's weaknesses, so it should be great,” Arthur said,

  “ Do I have to do Duos? Can’t I enter as a Solo tamer?” Violet asked, hating having to do Duo battles, preferring Solo battles.

  “Nope,” Arthur said,

  “That’s part of our agreement.”

  “Fine,” Violet said, letting out a sigh, honoring her agreement for now.

  “As Duos, the most important thing is synergy, so we need to make sure both your monster partners are in tune with one another, not only in monster class but also in movement.”

  “My Froeater is a nature class,” Violet said,

  “Mirabit is a field class,” Lex added as well, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

  “Mirabit,” Mirabit said in agreement as he nodded his head.

  “Field and Nature class monster partners don’t have much synergy,” Stanley said,

  “That’s true,” Arthur said in agreement.

  “But the beautiful thing about Duos is that it's more than just Class synergy, there’s also synergy of tamers, and I have a feeling Violet and Lex are going to do great.”

  “If you say so,” Stanley added, not being sure Lex and Violet Duo team was going to be successful, at least Felicia and him had class synergy.

  “But of course, we can also make sure we have class synergy between moves,” Arthur said, taking out a ring from underneath his shirt.

  “What’s that?” Lex said, curious as to what Arthur had, noticing the crystal in the middle.

  “This is a move reader and it lets a tamer know what move set a monster partner has.”

  Arthur walked toward Mirabit and placed the ring on the light gray bunny monster’s forehead.

  A light began to emit from the crystal in the ring, and Lex was in awe as the light began to move together, never having seen anything like it before.

  “It knows Horn Attack, Dash, and Scratch,” Arthur said as he read the strange markings in the light.

  “ When you get a move reader you’ll be able to read the light as well, only those who carry the necklace are able to read the light particles, thought no one knows how it works quite yet, it was made by the scientist in Utopian city.”

  “Froeater knows three moves as well,” Violet said,

  “Vine grip, Leaf attack, and Growth.”

  “They both know basic attacks associated with their class, a monster partner can learn 4 move sets at any given time, so we'll use the last move set to learn a new attack that will complement both monsters' synergies.”

  “But doesn’t a monster need to level up to learn a new move?” Lex asked,

  “Is this your first time being a tamer?” Stanley said, mockingly,

  “Sorry,” Lex whispered,

  “Not always, we can teach a monster a move set manually as long as its Intelligence stat is at the right value. You can go into the city tomorrow and buy a move set scroll, which Violet would be happy to show you, but for now let’s train !” Arthur said excitedly.

  “Lex…..”

  Lex turned around, hearing a faint voice,

  “Mirabit,’ Mirabit said, looking up at his partner,

  “Is nothing, partner,” Lex said, petting Mirabit’s soft fur.

  As he looked at the walls of the cave.

  “Alright let’s get this over with,” Violet said, even though she wasn’t looking forward to being a Duo team, she had her taming license and gauntlet and that was all that matter to her.

  “Go Mirabit!” Lex said as Mirabit jumped into action.

  “Froeater, go easy on him,” Violet said, nodding at its monster partner.

  ***

  Stanley looked toward the rock arena that Lex and Violet were standing on, wondering how strong a tamer Lex was. He knew of Violet’s skills as he had seen her battle her older sister the leaf Blade Guild leader, from time to time.

  “Shall be an easy win,” he said,

  “I wouldn’t count Lex out just yet,” Jaden added, seeing Lex’s determined eyes. he could see why Arthur had recruited him to the guild, then again it wasn’t like tamers were lining up to join the Leaf Blade Guild either, but Arthur didn’t just let anyone in either.

  “Instead of focusing on that battle, why don’t you focus on our own training,” Felicia said.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Stanley said, getting up from the dirt floor,

  “Don’t want to lose another Duo battle.”

  Lex looked over at Stanley and Felicia as they began their own training, they each had summoned their own monster partner, which he hadn’t seen before. Stanley’s monster partner was a green bug that he called Grabug and Felicia’s was a yellow bird with leaf like feathers called Banavian.

  He wanted to keep studying them both, but he knew now was not the time to be curious about other monster partners, that could wait, besides he was sure he would come across more monster partners on his journey as a tamer.

  Now he needed to focus on the battle before him, which he was. His first monster partner battle as a license tamer.

  “Now remember this is just a training battle to learn each other’s movements, and taming style,” Arthur said, as he stood in the middle of the rocky arena.

  “Ready, LEX !”

  Ready, Violet !”

  “YES!”

  They both said in unison, curious about each other’s taming skills.

  “Battle START !”

  “Mirabit quick, let’s start with DASH !” Lex commanded,

  “Mirabit !” Mirabit said, as it dashed toward Froeater, the brown amphibian monster partner, and staying wary of the small patch of grass it had on its back with the small plant monster growing from it, its sharp teeth, and vine-like arms spelling trouble for them.

  “Won’t be that easy kid,” Violet said confidently. She and her partner Froeater had been in quite some battles , more than your average twelve year old, and she was prepared for whatever skills Mirabit had.

  “Froeater use Vine Grip!”

  “Froeater!” Froeater said, as it wiped its vine arms toward Mirabit swiftly, trying to catch it on its tracks,

  Mirabit had the speed over Froeater, dodging its vine tentacle arms with ease.

  “Careful, Mirabit! “ Lex said, being taken aback by the speed of the vine arms that were coming toward Mirabit.

  “Keep dodging them by moving side to side! “

  Mirabit moved as Lex commanded, dodging Froeater’s vine grip attack, and creating speed ghosts behind which Froeater’s vine passed through.

  “Let’s keep our distance for now,” Lex added, studying his opponent.

  “How long can you keep dodging? Eventually Mirabit is going to get tired and use up its monster energy,” Violet said, letting out a smirk, she knew the small gray bunny monster would fall for Froeater’s vine grip attack, all she had to do was wait it out.

  ‘” She’s right,” Lex thought, remembering what Carlos had taught him about a monster’s stats, especially about the monster energy stat which allowed monster partners to use their attacks, but the more attacks they use, the more it depletes and makes them tired.

  “Then will just keep our distance and attack from afar,” Lex said,

  “Horn Attack Mirabit !”

  Light blue particles began to form around Mirabit’s horn.

  “Interesting,” Arthur said, as he looked at his ring, a bright yellow-lime light began to shine from it, signaling an enhanced level energy.

  “To think a rookie class monster like Mirabit had such power in it is quite surprising.”

  A light blue beam shaped in the form of a horn shot toward Froeater.

  “Froeater use growth!” Violet said, and Froeater began to emit a green light as it grew in size for a second, then back to its original size.

  “Tank the attack directly!”

  Mirabit’s horn attack hit Froeater , creating a small cloud of gust.

  “Not bad, kid,” Violet said, being surprised at the small monster’s attack.

  “See, I told you, “ Jaden said,

  “That little guy is more powerful than he looks, both of them.”

  “Let’s call it for now,” Arthur said,

  “Good job, Mirabit and Froeater, now you both know each other a little better.”

  ***

  “Did you get it ?” A figure said, as it appeared out of the shadows of the night, they had a large dark green robe that covered their body, and a red circle symbol stitched on the back of their robe

  “Yes, I did ,” another figure said as they appeared from shadow of the trees, she had purple hair on one side and pink hair on the other side with a large robe covering their body, and in their hand was a small veil of glass with a dark liquid in it.

  “ Those bandits should keep everyone occupied for the time being.”

  “Ginny are you sure we should waste our time with those idiots?”

  A grey-haired figure said, sitting by a rock, they had on a black cloak with a white mask covering their face.

  “My young Kai, those fools are useful,” Ginny said, resting against the tree.

  “Ginny is right,” the fully cloaked figure said, revealing a small beige color lava monster in her hands,

  “Shall we see just what one of his children’s full potential can really do?”

  Ginny began to pour the dark liquid on top of the monster, its body beginning to be covered by the liquid.

  “THE PIECES SHALL BE WHOLE AGAIN!”

  They all said in unison, causing the black liquid to glow, as they stood against the backdrop of the moon, its silhouette glowing in the darkness of the night.

  The cloaked figure could sense the commotion being caused by the monster bandits but did not paid it much attention, their desires were not theirs.

  “L-LarvaaaAAAA!”

  The small bug monster let out a screech as its body began to glow, it began to encased itself into a cocoon, and all that was left was a dark purple cocoon.

  “And now we wait for his creation to be born again.”

  “When will it be ready?” Ginny asked,

  “Be patient,” the cloak figure said, as it dropped the black cocoon into a stream of a lake.

  “And let the flow of destiny guide it to where it belongs.”