Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 697

Chapter 697: Chapter 697 - Taming the Fifth Year - Optional Paths - 6

The group continued advancing, encountering more spiders as they went deeper into Silver territory.

The second encounter was an agile variant, its body more slender and its movements significantly faster than the constructor’s slower pace. This one didn’t hesitate initially, launching toward them with a speed that would make most students panic and fumble their response.

"Use your Hawk wings," Ren ordered calmly without a hint of the urgency the situation might seem to warrant. "Send a wind burst at its center of mass... Again, don’t kill it, just push it back."

The hawk boy reacted in time, his beast manifesting partially in his arms while he swung them hard, launching concentrated wind with a common technique he’d practiced all the time.

Yet the first attempt was too weak... The spider barely staggered, momentum barely affected by the insufficient force. He had thought of not killing, but had lowered the power too much.

"Stronger," Ren instructed without criticism, just correction. "About fifty percent more intense."

The next attempts were better, demonstrating he was learning fast. The spider was pushed backward, its legs scraping the walls while trying to maintain grip, claws leaving gouges in the silk. When it finally stabilized several meters back, it simply stayed there watching them.

Evaluating...

Deciding finally that these strong intruders weren’t worth the effort when mana was enough in the forest to live.

"Good," Ren approved the execution and result. "Next time try to hit it a bit weaker but more concentrated at the center... The point isn’t to push or dominate. It’s to show being strong enough that they realize they’re outmatched and should not see us as easy prey."

They followed this pattern during the following hours of steady progress. Each encounter with spiders resolved with minimal necessary violence. Wind to push. Extra light from Ren to intimidate when needed. But never killing unless there was no alternative, conservation of the "silk workers" life alongside conservation of the groups energy.

Klein observed how Ren coordinated, how he read each situation, how he seemed to understand spider behavior better than they understood themselves...

♢♢♢♢

After another long stretch of serpentine tunnels that tested memory and orientation, they finally arrived at their destination.

Silver 3...

No, Ren guided them to the border between Silver 3 and Gold 1, where tunnels reached their maximum possible rank and amount of mana for this gathering challenge and weavers were slightly older, more powerful, almost ready to evolve to the next rank.

"Here," Ren stopped at a particular section, touching the walls with both hands like reading some spider braille. "This is what we came for."

The silk in this area was visibly different from anything they’d passed through. Thicker and more lustrous... With a texture that suggested years of development in the mana rich environment, an accumulation of quality over a long time.

"How do we know which to take?" the earth boy asked, seeing silk everywhere but unable to distinguish the best quality.

Ren pointed to certain specific sections with precision that seemed to come from experience. "See the patterns here? The darker strands interwoven with the light ones? That indicates the correct age. Between ten and fifteen years is perfect for processing... Younger and the silk still has too much residual stickiness. Older and it becomes a bit fragile."

He showed them how to cut the appropriate sections for market standard, explaining that since this was silk that could be considered old it wasn’t as elastic or resistant and the forest was preparing to absorb it, but no longer protected it as actively with its sap.

Yet the cutting technique still required precision, feeling where any roots were behind the silk and cutting at specific angles to not damage the surrounding root tunnel structure.

The team began working, searching and gathering the ideal sections with growing confidence in their technique.

But soon the problem became evident.

There weren’t that many sections of perfect age.

The correctly aged sections were scattered, requiring the team to spread through different tunnels to find sufficient material for a truly impressive haul.

And dispersing was slow... Dangerous and inefficient in territory they didn’t know well.

"This is going to take us all three days," one member murmured, frustrated after his third search produced only another small roll of appropriate silk, returns diminishing with each attempt.

"Not necessarily," Ren observed a particular tunnel section with a thoughtful expression. "Now that you’ve learned the appropriate cutting technique, it’s time for mass production..."

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