While Clara was fixating on things like how an insect could kill a beast like that, Theo stared at the mantis with pride.
It felt like fate that he had t and tad a creature like this. At this point, he was sure that not choosing the tarantula as his first tad beast had been the right decision.
The mantis was done cleaning itself now; it had started eating the long and thick body of the viper aggressively. At first, the scales were not coming off just from its bites, so it beca creative and went for the chopped part where the flesh and blood were exposed.
"Should I let it eat the corpse, Clara? It's poisonous, right?" Theo asked, making Clara co out of her trance.
"The poison is not in the whole body, just in the fangs and a small sack filled with venom inside its body. It should be fine, as beasts are quite intelligent at detecting poison if there is any."
"Hmm, alright."
Theo opened the status of the mantis and looked for any extra conditions such as 'poisoned.' Upon finding nothing, he simply shifted the corpse closer, making the mantis move from the tall grass as well.
"Would you like to continue, Young Master?"
"…I don't know. The mantis was bitten very aggressively, but at the sa ti, I couldn't find any injury on its body. The moss and plants have beco sparser than before on it's body, revealing the tallic exoskeleton again..."
Theo observed the mantis closely. The moss and plants had indeed decreased in number, and in so places, he could see the mantis's tallic gray exoskeleton where the green attachnts had once been.
Just as he was watching the mantis, Theo noticed sothing else. While eating chunks of at from the viper's body, he saw it pluck so moss off its body with its sharp forelegs.
It moved the plucked greenery to its mouth and ate it like it was nothing, then continued eating the at again.
Theo frowned. He didn't understand why it had done that. He checked the status again to see what had changed or what was causing this behavior, only to facepalm in disappointnt.
"I can't believe I didn't think of this before…" Theo sighed.
Before Clara could ask, 'What is it, Young Master?' Theo quickly stated, "The mantis has an ability called 'Regenerative Moss.' It ans it can heal using the moss growing on its body. I just saw it eating so of the moss, so I think it is sowhat injured."
"That's a very good skill to have, Young Master. Just how many abilities does the mantis have, if you don't mind telling?"
"Only three, but I'll tell you about that later. How can I tell if my tad beast is injured, Clara? There's nothing about that on the status."
"Oh, that's a tough thing to do if your ntal commands aren't strong enough, Young Master. You can try asking the beast directly, and if it understands, it will show you."
Theo nodded in understanding. He made a ntal command for the mantis to tell him where it was injured.
The mantis looked at him for a few seconds while munching on the food it was holding.
Fortunately, just a mont later, it gulped down the food in its forelegs and curved its body, making its forelegs touch its hind.
That was when the mantis touched a specific spot where little moss was present. Theo crouched down and examined the tallic part with focus.
That was when he found two dots on the tal exoskeleton—marks that quickly resembled the fangs of the viper.
Theo nodded in understanding. The fangs had not dug too deep, based on what he saw, yet if the mantis was still trying to heal itself, then the injury might have been more internal than external.
"How do I know if the mantis is poisoned, Clara? It got bitten pretty badly." Theo asked.
"For that, the status would show the effects on its own. If the mantis were poisoned, paralyzed, or affected by any condition, the status would display it for sure."
"That's great… well, I don't know if I should continue for today or not."
"Young Master, the first set of attacks that the mantis made on the viper were very effective. Although it was smacked down by the tail, there wasn't much of a reaction from the mantis, as if nothing had happened to it. And when it used its ability, the viper's neck had a deep gash." Clara said, and Theo nodded. Those were just explanations of what he had seen for himself.
"But what would happen if its ability wasn't level 1 but level 2? Even the Spore Lash ability is still level 0, yes? You should focus on improving these abilities first; only then can you defeat the viper more efficiently, Young Master." Clara explained, and Theo saw the situation in a new light.
"That makes sense. Then I guess I should stop focusing on leveling for a while and focus on the abilities instead again."
"That'd be great."
With that, Theo decided to leave the viper's territory for now. Killing one level 1 viper had taken so much effort—what would vipers of the sa level as the mantis do to it? These questions irked him.
Clara placed the viper's corpse on the boar, who snorted in annoyance, yet the mantis simply hopped onto the boar as if nothing major had happened and continued eating the viper as fast as it could, as if soone was about to steal it.
When Theo and Clara returned to the carriage and started traveling back, Clara rembered sothing from the fight.
It seed that when the spores affected the viper and made it limp on the ground, Theo's shout had woken it up from shock, as loud sounds like that were uncommon in the forest.
Theo realized his mistake and decided not to use physical commands anymore. His training for ntal commands was only just beginning, and he couldn't have been more excited than ever.
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