10 Tamer's Club

Walking out of the VIP Fire Evolution Room, Sam lead John out of the clinic and through several corridors. John was completely lost, but didn't really mind it because everything was so fascinating. Pictures of various beasts covered the walls, and doors leading to classrooms with class names like 'Snake Charming' and 'Feeding your pig' or 'So you tamed an insect...'

A massive smile was John's face. Sure, he hadn't been formally accepted, but it was all but in the bag at this point. He'd not only managed to make it into the most prestigious high-school in his country, he'd even made it into the only high-school level taming club in the country. He'd been dreaming of this moment for years.

Taking a final turn, Sam lead John into a conference room already occupied by a woman who John assumed was Ms. Winslow, that beautiful young woman from earlier today, and Kara.

"About time you made it here, according to the logs you arrived nearly four hours ago!" Ms. Winslow glared at Sam and John as they walked into the conference room.

"Sorry Ms. Winslow." Sam bowed saying, "John was injured and his Fire Viper was undergoing an evolution so we had to deal with that first."

Seeming to forgive the two of them, Ms. Winslow sighed and pointed at a couple of chairs. "Alright, you're the only two groups to return successful today, so lets go over the records." Tapping a few keys on the laptop sitting on the table in front of her, a 3D Projector showed the scene of Sam and John walking out of the forest and seeing the Fire Viper.

"I think it evolved last night..." John's voice came from the speakers and everyone watched as the taming took place. Kara watched wide eyed as John put the fire core in his hand and charged the Fire Viper. Everyone in the room, especially John, winced when the Fire Viper bit him and from around his neck the Fire Viper in question hissed in excitement.

"Come on, there's no need to be excited about hurting your master." John said, but the Viper just hissed excitedly as it watched the screen carefully before laying it's head back down contentedly.

The entire time that they were watching the video, Ms. Winslow had been watching the interaction between the Viper and John with a knowing smile on her face, but she wiped it away before anyone else could see it.

"Mr. Caplin, explain your plan and what went wrong with it." Ms. Winslow said.

Clearing his throat, John stood up and said, "Well, I knew that Fire Viper's will enter a coma after eating higher level meat or a higher evolutionary level fire core. So, I marked the location of the Fire Viper's nest yesterday and acquired several fire cores last night..." John walked the room through his plan, the execution, and what went wrong. When he got to the part about using the Fire Viper's soul attacks to wear it out, Kara hissed in surprise while the young woman next to her looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Alright." Ms. Winslow said, "What would you have done differently if you'd known it had evolved already."

"I would've prepared a flute or guitar and put the Fire Viper into an illusion while I snuck up and force-fed it the fire core. If it hadn't evolved, I could've just thrown the core over and it would've pounced without a second thought. Unfortunately, after reaching the lieutenant level a monster unlocks a higher level of cognitive ability and instincts."

Ms. Winslow nodded in agreement before turning to Sam and asking, "Your opinion?"

Sam grinned cheekily and said, "You already know it, he passed."

Ms. Winslow nodded and looked over at the young woman. "Sarah?"

"Passed."

"Alright then, welcome to the Tamer's Club Mr. Caplin." For this first time since he entered the room, John saw a smile on Ms. Winslow's face.

John bowed to her as he said, "It's my honor."

Sam just whooped, cheering loudly until Ms. Winslow slammed her fist onto the massive table making it shake and groan. "Quiet! We still have to go over Ms. Carpenter's exam!"

Somewhat chastened, Sam sat back down and they all watched as the projection flickered and came back to life. This time the video showed Kara slowly make her way through the overgrown forest with a flute in her hand and a bag wrapped around her neck.

"So, my plan is to reach it's nest and light the incense to attract it. Once it materializes I'll use the flute to put it under an illusion while I gather a tiny bit of it's blood, and then I'll keep it under the illusion while I put it under contract." Kara whispered to Sarah as they moved as quietly as possible, avoiding a passing herd of Single Horned Rabbits.

"What if something other than the Illusion Butterfly is attracted?" Sarah asked

"This is a special blend that only attracts butterflies, I'll be playing a song that's designed specifically to put insects under an illusion. If it attracts several butterflies, then I should be able to put them all under an illusion while I contract the one I want." Kara said as they reached their destination.

Taking a deep breath, she took the incense out of the bag and placed it in the middle of a hole in a giant tree. Lighting it, she backed up a few steps quickly and raised her flute, ready to begin at any moment.

Hours passed and nothing appeared... At several instances, a being seemed to flicker into existence and then disappear in the corner of the screen, but neither Sarah nor Kara noticed. "Don't get too down, it can take days, sometimes even months to catch a slippery monster like the Illusion Butterfly." Sarah was saying to Kara who looked down. She'd been so confident that this would work...

Just as the two of them were leaving, Kara turned to look back at the tree just as the butterfly appeared. Moving as quickly as she could without spooking the butterfly, Kara raised the flute to her mouth and began playing. After waiting for hours, Kara wasn't going to take any chances, so she played for nearly half an hour as she slowly approached the tree. Only after making sure the butterfly was under so many layers of illusion it wouldn't feel a thing did she stop playing. Pulling out a small blade, she carefully gathered a tiny amount of blood from the butterfly before beginning to play again before it could even move.

A few minutes later, she quickly dropped the blood on a Growth-type contract and went through the ritual. Unlike with John, this butterfly had never evolved and was under such a deep layer of illusion it didn't even realize it was being put under contract until the dead was done.

Shutting the video off, Ms. Winslow looked at Kara and asked, "What did you do wrong?"

"I sat too close to the tree. I didn't realize until I watched the video, but the butterfly was always there but it didn't approach because it was scared of my presence. If I'd moved just a few feet further away, I would've been done hours earlier."

Ms. Winslow nodded before saying, "This is an important lesson for all of you to learn. Yes, you too Sam!" She glared at Sam who was drooling a bit, having fallen asleep during the video at some point. "Taming is incredibly difficult and dangerous, which is why everyone keeps camera's on them at all times. Not only does it make it easier to review your captures and learn from your mistakes, it can also protect you from criminal liability. At some point in your career's you will be blamed for someone's death, and having the ability to prove you didn't do it is incredibly useful."

Done with her lecture, Ms. Winslow turned to look at Sarah, "Comments?"

Sarah said, "The Illusion Butterfly is extremely difficult to capture and she did so in a single day, she's qualified.

"Sam?" Ms. Winslow asked.

Yawning, Sam shook himself a bit before saying, "Qualified" as his stomach gurgled. It was starting to get late, not to mention that Sam and John hadn't had much in the way for lunch.

"Welcome to the club Ms. Carptenter!" Ms. Winslow stood up from her chair with a smile on her face as she stretched her back. "Now, it's getting late and we're all hungry so I'll send the two of you the informational packet on your school email. You need to go over it and get the permission form signed before school starts next week."