Insect Tamer's Ascension

After a few more minutes, it was then that Theo saw the perfect branch.

And fortunately, it was one of the lower ones, so with Clara's height and surprisingly high strength, it only took a few big tugs for the branch to break from the attached area.

When Theo took the branch in his hand, he grinned. The branch was a heavy one, yet Theo had been practicing so much that holding it was not bad.

What took all his attention was the 'V' shape from the quarter above the middle of the branch.

It was sturdy enough, and with the help of his daggers hanging by his waist, Theo was able to chop the extra part out, even when it took a lot of time.

All this time, they also had to make sure a viper wouldn't surprise attack them, and while the boar and pup were doing this job, Theo wanted to be extra sure.

Now that they had a stick of his liking, Theo went toward the next part of the plan.

With the help of the boar, they increased the clearing they could stand on, the boar took no time to till through all the tall grass that was left around. It was completed in a measly 10 minutes.

Theo stepped back and saw the clearing with a bigger picture. A smile formed on his face as he briskly walked toward the part a little ahead of the middle and stopped there.

"Make the boar and pup dig here, please," Theo requested, and Clara nodded.

She wasn't saying whether it would work or not, but her helping Theo with the process said something. She was meant to help him, but at the same time, also direct him in the right direction—which she wasn't doing right now.

The boar and the pup started throwing soil all over the place, the blades of grass just kept flying in the air and to the side.

At one point, the hole was big enough that the boar wasn't able to do anything anymore, and even if it did, the amount of force it used to throw soil out of the hole made it go everywhere.

Now, only the pup was digging and sending the soil to the side, and when Theo looked down properly, he stopped the pup and crouched down with the branch in his hand.

He focused and stabbed the ground far from the pup, but it still made the poor thing jerk in a jump scare.

"My apologies, puppy," Theo said as he grinned, looking at the two sides of the 'V' shape digging itself into the ground properly.

"This is ready. Now, the final part." Theo said with a hearty chuckle. The plan had been going great till now.

When they reached back at the carriage, Warren had already taken out the long rope from the carriage's emergency equipment.

Theo analyzed the rope and, with a thoughtful nod, cut it from the middle, as it was too big.

He made the boar and the pup hold onto the corpses of the vipers that were already torn open in many places.

Since the mantis had a better level ability now, tearing through the skin of a level 3 or below viper was nothing.

When they were back at the dug-up hole, just at the farther side front of the clearing, the boar threw the corpses from its mouth instantly.

The pup whined a little, but a single stern gaze from Clara made it throw the viper too while licking off the little blood that was left around its mouth.

"Now we just wait for something to go in there. As the vipers only move alone, having more than one will be a rare possibility," Theo explained while rubbing his hands together.

The winters were at the onset, and Theo could feel the forest becoming colder. In the following months, everything was going to be covered by snow.

It made Theo speed up everything he was trying to achieve so that most of it could be completed before winter.

They went back to the carriage and waited patiently. Even the pup was refrained from scouting over there, to give the vipers a properly natural environment.

"I must say, this plan of yours is better than I could think of, young master. Where did you learn it from?" Clara muttered while sitting beside Theo near the carriage.

"There are multiple books about traps in the library. I happen to remember one of them."

Clara was surprised. "Sometimes I think you should be focusing on becoming a scholar, young master, instead of becoming a tamer." She stated with a little hesitance, yet said it without any trouble.

For some reason, Theo thought it to be a little rehearsed and chuckled. It seemed she didn't want him doing dangerous stuff like this.

"This is the life I have chosen, Clara. But if I ever think about changing it, I will consider this option."

"Thank you, young master. For some reason, I think you will be very good in new medicine discoveries." Clara stated with sparkly eyes.

"Hahaha, where did that come from?" Theo chuckled.

The trio talked with each other a lot, where Theo asked Warren for more of his experiences in the forest. The talk was long, and before he knew it, a lot of time had passed.

"It's been 15 minutes. We should go check out the trap."

Theo stated and grabbed the white sheet of cloth from the emergency equipment.

When Clara and Warren saw it, they were confused. Even when Clara thought a lot, she couldn't come up with the reason to take it along.

They made their way toward the trap slowly, and when they were close enough, Theo bobbed his head slightly and froze.

There it was—a viper, not big in size, gulping down the whole body of the dead viper's carcass as if it was nothing.

Its eyes went directly at Theo and froze too.

It was finally time to capture a strong beast.