My Summons Are Mythical Beasts

Chapter 80 Sharp-Tusk Boar

'How could I not think of it before?'

Lucas thought to himself as he saw the puddle of water bursting out of the boar's intestine.

With such an amount of water present on its intestine, it was apparent that the boar had just recently consumed water.

For the boar to consume water recently, it must mean that a water source was just nearby.

And it just so happened that Lucas had been desperately searching for water since yesterday to refill his water canteen. He had also reeked of the smell of wilderness now; a bath would surely help him in that regard.

Still, even though he was elated by the thought of a water source being nearby, Lucas did not rashly move to search for it.

Instead, he continued to do what he was doing.

At this moment, he had already begun to cut the meat on the boar's legs into thin strips akin to bacon.

After a while, he had already saved a large portion of them, which he stored in the skin of the boar that he had flayed carefully earlier.

The strips of meat still looked bloody and gore, unappetizing to look at, but were a little bearable when compared to the snake meat that he had before.

After he was done and felt satisfied with his harvest, Lucas handed the remaining meat to Spot, who gobbled them up happily. It seems that Spot was fond of the taste of the boar, too.

Lucas smiled and tied the flayed skin of the boar that now contained a lot of meat cut into strips.

It was fortunate that no beast had bothered them until now, but it was now time to leave this location once again and move to search for that water source.

Lucas had already been thinking about its possible location while he was cutting the meat earlier.

Since the boar had been eating in the cogon grass a hundred meters away earlier, Lucas guessed that the water source it had a drink from could not be too far from that area as well.

Carrying his own bag as well as the flayed skin full of meat, Lucas and Spot moved forward to search for the water source.

As they moved forward, he also checked the logs that he received when Spot killed the boar earlier.

[You have killed an Bronze Grade-Iron Star 9, Sharp-Tusk Boar (100%): You gained 83.81 XP]

Seeing that, a look of delight appeared on his face.

Spot was now capable of slaying a Bronze Grade-Iron Star 9 Beast with relative ease; of course he would be happy.

The amount of experience points he received, though less compared to the snake, was still a substantial amount compared to what he had been earning before.

With that, his experience points were now at 225.14/506.

With just less than five kills, his experience points had now almost reached the halfway mark of the current star level.

His progress has now become even more swift than before, courtesy of Spot and his recent breakthrough.

Speaking of breakthroughs, with Spot consuming the meat of a higher grade and higher rank beast than him, he would be bound to make another breakthrough soon too.

It was public knowledge that contracted beasts would usually lag behind with their master's level as it was pretty hard for them to make a breakthrough, unlike the summoners that only need experience points.

The higher the grade of the beast, the more it was like this. Even though they could easily learn skills compared to lower-grade beasts, it doesn't mean that each skill could allow them to level up just like what Spot has been doing.

Perhaps it was due to his grade being low; Spot had always ranked up every time he learned a new skill. Lucas reckoned that he would easily rank up with his recent appetite too, as what he has been consuming was the meat of a beast that was a lot stronger than him in terms of rank or level.

For the first time in a while, Lucas actually felt grateful that Spot was just an Unranked Grade Beast.

The public knowledge did not apply to them, and even now, Lucas and Spot's level had never lagged behind each other.

With Spot's unusual level of strength, Lucas would be bound to reach Iron Star 5 swiftly too. He just wondered if he would be the first to become Iron Star 5 or would Spot beat him to it.

Regardless, both scenarios were a win-win situation for him.

What made him frown, though, was the fact that even after thirty minutes of searching, Lucas still had not found the water source that he had been desperately searching for.

'Could it be that the Sharp-Tusk Boar had traveled a long distance before arriving here?'

That was indeed possible. However, considering the strength of that boar, Lucas believed that it would have already marked a territory of its own. And it would not leave its own territory just casually.

Looking up at the sun, though, Lucas realized that its angle was already beginning to tilt to the west, indicating that noon had already passed.

Knowing that he could not afford to waste any more time, he decided to search for an open area in the middle of the cogon grass and laid the flayed skin of the boar to create a flat surface. He then laid the bacon strips at the top of it, meticulously placing them a few centimeters away from each other to avoid congesting against each other.

Since his tools and means were limited at the moment, he could only dry the meat using the heat of the sun—the most primitive method—to dry the meat of the Sharp-Tusk Boar.

Without salt, though, he wondered if it would turn out great in the end.

'Well, whatever. As long as the moisture gets removed and they don't spoil easily, then who cares about the taste?'

Indeed, food was another major problem he had here aside from water and the wild beasts themselves.

If he could have a steady supply of food for a few days that won't get rotten easily, then his chance of survival would increase to a certain degree.

Who cares about taste when it comes to survival?

While the meat strips were laid over the sun to dry primitively, Lucas decided to take a rest and meditate to recover some energy while he did it.

As he meditated in a secluded area, he also ordered Spot to scout their surroundings and try searching for the water or any visible threat around them.

He also especially instructed him not to provoke any beast unless necessary, especially if the beasts were very strong. If such things exist around here, he instructs Spot to return immediately and inform him.

Spot barked and nodded his little head toward him repeatedly, indicating that it had understood. He then went out on his journey, while Lucas remained to guard the meat strips and recover some Spiritual Energy while he was at it.

A contracted beast could not get too far away from their master. Both the master and the beast could sense the distance limit, so Lucas was not worried that Spot would travel too far from him.

Even from afar, Lucas could also vaguely sense his existence, knowing his state all the time, and vice versa.

When a contracted beast dies, the master would immediately know about it; they would receive certain soul damage, and the page of the grimoire that the beast was recorded on would be destroyed.

On the other hand, when a summoner dies, the beasts would be released from their contact and would most likely return to the wild or die along with their master.

Lucas guessed that it was due to this that Asher was able to immediately tell that his beast had died and was very enraged after Spot's Soft Bark.

If his contracted beast dies, Lucas would probably react the same.

Fortunately, Spot was pretty strong. As long as they don't court death, death would not court them either.

At least, that was what he thought.

Recalling the face of the enraged Asher, Lucas could not help but open his eyes with a sigh. Losing his concentration, he automatically exited the meditative state and, hence, stopped recovering his Spiritual Energy at the same time.

Summoning his grimoire, Lucas nodded his head upon seeing that his Spiritual Energy was now back to full.

After reaching Iron Star 4, his rate of recovery in normal environments had also increased. Each minute spent in a meditative state could now allow him to recover two Spiritual Energy points.

Within six minutes at most, he would be able to recover the Spiritual Energy lost to summon Spot.

Closing the grimoire, Lucas glanced over the field of cogon grass and was relieved to see that the meat strips he laid over to dry remained untouched.

It seems that this area was indeed the territory of that boar. No beast would casually come here, even if they smelled blood.

This also indirectly confirmed that the water source must indeed be nearby.

Speaking of the water source, his pioneer, Spot had just returned, bearing some good news.