Tales of the Slime Tamer

Chapter 8: The Cursed Taming Hand

Kairo was pondering on the meaning of the vision. Why did he have that vision when he tried to force the power through the mysterious obstruction that stopped him from sending the life essence of the monster core to Flay?

What was that vision? His masters talked of Pluton and attacked this person?

The logical conclusion was to assume Flay is Pluton.

“But that’s impossible! The Eos has the powers of Foreknowledge! They would have known that this Pluton would be here! There must be a deeper mystery!” Kairo began to think and knew that there should be something the Eos had done. Even his awakening was mysterious as it made no sense that he was a slime pool being used by the Pteranodon for whatever reasons.

“Kairo? Are you alright?” Flay asked again.

Kairo was startled and glanced back to his master. He still could feel the bond that tied him, and he could not betray his master.

“I guess I’ll have to figure this out later. I can't betray my Master now. I have to find out more about the Taming Hand that binds me to him!” Kairo decided.

“Master. How do you feel? I sensed a strange obstruction when I tried to send the energy. But when I broke it, you started to devour all of it!”

“So that’s what happened! I feel a strange tightness around my body.”

“The obstruction of energy did me from your right hand. I was trying to send the energy there as that’s the source of your power. Is there anything different with your right hand?”

Flay observed his Taming Jewel and saw a much lighter red color.

“Woah! You’re right! It’s very faint, but the color turned lighter! This is impossible!” Flay was so shocked that he shouted.

“Master… You’re too loud.” Kairo gently reminded.

“I’m sorry! It’s just. There has never ever been a case where the Taming Hand changes color!”

“This has never happened before? Even in your village?”

“No.”

“So all Tamers have never, ever increased the power of their Taming Hand?”

“Yes! We are all born with whatever power we are stuck with. Our Taming is mysterious that not even the Kingdom understands it. That’s why we were branded as traitors. That’s why I was shocked that my Jewel changed the first time. But we didn’t have time to think about it. I thought it was because of you. You must have done something the first time when you turned from that pool into slime, and you must have done it again!”

“Master. What you just said is impossible. There is no such thing as an Ability that cannot be improved.”

“I was born with this ability! It’s set!”

“Nothing is set. Magic, Brute, and if the particular race has an Ability, it all grows stronger. If you are born with a Red jewel, it only means you start out as red. But all of you should train and grow to improve that power. It’s like being born with a naturally strong or huge body. It gives you a strong advantage, but others can train to reach that level and go beyond it.”

“Are you… serious?” Flay was shocked. This teaching was unlike anything he had heard of.

“Yes! Your Taming Hand, like most abilities, is related to the soul. So if you train your soul, you should get stronger!”

“My soul? How do I train my soul?”

“This is where it gets interesting, master. The soul is the power that allows you to have life. The stronger your body grows, the stronger it gets. You can take the Brute route or the Magic route. But either way, leveling up usually helps improve the power of the soul even by a very small percentage. So leveling up wouldn’t necessarily improve the power of your Taming Hand. But… we are talking about crossing a realm! If your village has Apprentice-5 warriors, then they should have experienced the growth of their Taming Hand!”

“But that’s not the case… None of them have ever reported changing the color of their Jewel even by a little bit… What does this mean? Is it due to that obstruction you said?

“It could be. I believe that a seal was placed on your Taming Hand. It was hindering my ability to connect or link with you. If what you said that all your clan cannot and have not had any records of them increasing the strength of their Taming Hand, then they may have this same seal!”

“Why do we have this seal?”

“Not why… Who. This seal isn’t something you were could just be naturally born with. I believe someone cursed your bloodline!”

“A curse?! The warlocks! It must be them!”

“The warlocks?”

“There has long been a conspiracy theory among our tribe about how the Warlocks experimented on us. They hold a high position in the Kingdom. They must have something to do with this! No! Wait! We secretly remove the curse! I knew my Tamer village is not weak!” Flay was excited.

“There seems to be conspiracy after conspiracy in your village. Let’s take things one step at a time, for now, Master. You said that you didn’t level up?”

“Yes. I felt the power, but it didn’t even feel like one was enough”

“Touch me with your Taming Hand once more. Now that this strange obstruction is destroyed, I should be able to link my soul easier with yours.”

“Alright.” Flay reached out and touched Kairo.

“Hmm… I think there is still some form of curse done on you. My link with you is limited. We can only keep our mental connection for only a few meters. Beyond that, we cannot communicate telepathically. But now, I should be able can enter your Taming Hand and reside in it!”

“Enter my hand? What are you talking about?”

“Master… There is a spatial dimension within this Taming Hand! This is incredible! Spatial magic and soul magic! These powers are rare!!”

Suddenly, Kairo vanished at the hands of Flay.

“Kairo?!”

“Master, I’m inside your soul space! Close your eyes! I will try to bring your consciousness here!”

Flay was stunned. But he quickly moved into a more comfortable position as he kept the gator’s jaw only slightly opened.

He could hear no creatures nearby and finally closed his eyes.

His vision changed, and he saw himself standing in a dark room with a gigantic red boulder floating at the center.

“Where is this?”

“This world is the spatial dimension in your Taming Hand. Your soul has manifested in here.” Kairo was standing near the massive red boulder. He moved closer to Flay to explain.

“Hey, I heard of this! Soul Dive! This is what mages do in the Kingdom do. They try to create a container where the soul can constantly create mana!”

“Yes. That’s right. The process of peering and manipulating one’s own soul is called Soul Dive. Magic users do this if they need to plant power in their souls so that they can ignite magic. Brute users do the same to create skills.”

“Wow. You even have this power to make us do soul dive!” Flay was amazed.

“This isn’t me, Master. I went in here first and brought you in. Your clan can easily perform Soul Dive because your Jewels acts as an easy doorway to access the soul. If you and your clan weren’t cursed, you’d probably be a top-tier team in the Kingdom. It would be very easy to turn you into magic users with access to this dimension. Of course, granted that if you were to embark as magic users, you’d need to share space with your Taming Jewel.” Kairo analyzed.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Kairo. We can’t waste time talking. We still need to get out of this strange land and escape the Pteranodon. The more mysteries we solve, the more eager I need to go back and tell everyone!”

“That’s why I brought you here, Master. You and your tribe don't just tame monsters. You can capture them! You can seal monsters and bring them inside this space! I can hide here and be hidden from the Death Mark of the Pteranodon, and you would be free to go! If you need me, you can easily call me out!”

“What?! You mean to say that my clan can actually keep our tamed monsters in our Taming Hands!”

“Yes! You aren’t a clan of Tamers. The ancient and lost name that you and your people carry is Summoners! You are a clan of Monster Summoners!”

“Summoners?”

“Yes. That’s a power that is lost throughout the realms! The Eos Mars said only in the Supreme Eos realm do Summoners exist. They are the guardians that watch over the Supreme lands of the Eos.”

“We have to get back to my tribe, Kairo. These things will change my entire village!”

“Yes, Master! You should be able to move out now, and the Pteranodon cannot find me if I stay here. But if you bring me out or use me, the Death Mark will fade.”

“Can’t I just cover you in gator spit?”

“No. The Gator is dead, and the life essence is fading.”

“Oh. Well, it was a stupid and disgusting suggestion anyway. How do I go back?”

“Follow the sensation that you felt to come in here. The clearing of the obstruction allows you to enter this realm freely.”

Flay glanced at his Taming Jewel and noticed that there were strange dark lines surrounding it.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, Master. The curse. It’s still hindering your power.”

“We’ll figure that out next time. I’m going back.” Flay closed his eyes and tried to follow the sensation he felt. Immediately, he felt his soul leave the dimension, and as he opened his eyes, he was back in his body.

Flay slowly opened the gator’s mouth and began to peep out. There was no sound of the Pteranodon, and his sights could not see any signs of the massive beast.

Flay slowly moved out. But he didn’t immediately run but waited for a few seconds to ensure that the Pteranodon had not detected Kairo.

“Alright. It looks like it’s working! Let’s get out of here!” Flay smiled as he began to run.

“Master. I’ll try to see if I can remove this curse.”

“Sure. Just don’t break my Taming Jewel.” Flay laughed.

Inside the soul space, Kairo hopped on top of the massive Jewel.

“This is strange… That obstruction was a curse done by humans. But the bindings in this Taming Jewel are of different origins. It seems my Master is a special one among Tamers! Could it be…? He really is Pluton? The Lost Sol Eos?” Kairo secretly thought. In his loyalty, Kairo decided not to tell Flay to protect Flay from the possible influence of Pluton.