The Strongest Beast Tamer - 152 Marie's Struggle in Settling Down

The sun was rising over the island as everyone woke up. It was the day they would change location, Marie Santos was currently staying with them. There wasn’t any room in the orphanage just yet, they would likely finish the room by the afternoon.

Marie had brought a whole shipping container onto the island, filled to the brim with electronics along with other necessities such as a bed. She says the electronics are important to her work and she wouldn’t leave Houston without them. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult bringing the container up.

Marie had woken up earlier than everyone, she had trouble sleeping in a whole new environment, even though she didn’t need to sleep on the island last night since they were still above the city. She said she wanted to get used to sleeping in the environment now so she won’t struggle later.

Walking up to her resting outside of the hut they made for her last-minute, Lachlan sat down and leaned against the tree. “We’re planning on going to New Orleans, is there anything you could tell us now to help prepare?”

“New Orleans? Yeah, it’s a struggling city filled with dangers,” Marie replied in a croaky voice, she held her head down as he brushed her hair. Looking at a mirror that she placed on the floor.

“Why’s that?” Lachlan asked.

“Well, it’s due to the location. Although Houston is somewhat close to water, due to the city being underground we weren’t too heavily affected by aquatic beasts. New Orleans, on the other hand, have it tough. The city is slightly split apart, with different areas on landmasses just separated from the mainland by rivers. When the world changed aquatic beasts stirred up a storm in those areas, killing many people. That’s why the only ones there now are dangerous gangs and organisations,” Marie explained.

“What about the Explorer’s Guild?” Lachlan asked. He was curious as to whether or not the guild would set up a branch there. It would certainly be a ballsy move but at the same time, it could benefit them greatly. Strong people can come from struggling families. As for the gangs and illegal organisations, the Explorer’s Guild has the backing to make them all turn away in fear.

“Yeah, there’s a branch there. There’s a branch in just about every town or city across America. Granted the buildings aren’t always on the same level. The branch in New Orleans could be the size of a house, in comparison to the one in Houston that’s a multi-floor building.” Marie stood up and stretched her body, cracking her bones as she did it.

“So, what do you eat here? Surely you aren’t that insane and survive by absorbing sunlight or something right?” Marie asked. She thought of the group as monsters, their strength and methods of doing things were rather unique, to say the least. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had surpassed the confines of the human body, now only needed sunlight and water to survive.

“Of course we eat. Granted the food on the island is rather unique since its nutritional value is through the roof,” Lachlan replied as he could see what Marie was thinking. “And no, we are still normal people, just with a lot more strength.”

“Taking down an intelligent beast singlehandedly is not normal, let alone taking down three singlehandedly.” Marie protested against Lachlan’s idea of normal. “Also, normal people can’t fly around and whatnot without the help of machinery.”

“These are new times Marie, you should be prepared for just about anything,” Lachlan said seriously. The new materials that could be discovered and mined have increased worldwide, some of which could be used to improve current technology drastically. Let alone portals to other worlds that might have a whole different system of living.

“Well I’m not prepared, I thought I was pretty prepared, I thought Houston was ahead of the game when they decided to rebuild the city underground. Yet here you are, on a floating island with enough strength to take down an entire country,” Marie complained about Lachlan throwing their whole idea of normal away. Flipping their lives upsidedown with the floating island. “Anyway, can we just get something to eat, I’m hungry and I didn’t sleep well.”

“Alright then, come along.” Lachlan grabbed onto Marie’s arm and took her into the air. They shot towards the edge of the island where they came to a stop. Marie was hyperventilating as she has a slight fear of heights.

When they reached the ground she collapsed to her knees, staring up and at Lachlan with eyes fulled of hatred she shouted at him. “What the hell was that for! You should have at least warned me beforehand! You did the same thing yesterday and I’ve never felt closer to pissing myself!”

Lachlan laughed before jumping up to the top of the palm tree, grabbing hold of two coconuts he yanked to off before falling back down. With his bare knuckles, he punched a hole in one before handing it over it Marie. “This is one of the things we eat here, it has enough nutrition to satisfy the human body for a whole day… I think.”

“What do you mean you think?” Marie asked with concern as she took a closer look at the coconut. “This isn’t some type of beast coconut right? It isn’t going to try and bite me the moment I try and take a sip from it right?”

“It is a slightly normal coconut but much with much more nutrition in it. I don’t know if it can satisfy the human’s body for an entire day or even longer, all I know is that my group and I were able to survive off of these. Along with fish and birds but mainly these,” Lachlan explained as he calmed Marie down. Reassuring her that they weren’t some type of monster.

Taking a sip Marie’s eyes lit up with joy, the taste of the coconut water was simply too refreshing. It felt as though it cleansed the body and soul with a single sip, her fatigue and sleepless body swiftly rejuvenated.

“What the hell! This stuff is so good, you could easily market this and sell it,” Marie suggested as she continued taking small sips of the coconut. Lachlan punctured a hole through the coconut’s shell before sculling the entire thing down in one go.

“Sure we could, the only difficulties are when it comes to transporting these coconuts around the place since we aren’t staying at one place for too long,” Lachlan explained. “If we were grounded and had to stay in one place on the mainland then we’d gladly market these coconuts. Even do experimentation with them to maybe turn them into energy bars.”

“Yeah, how about I do that right now so that if you do ever want to create a headquarters you’ll already have something ready to sell and market.” Marie’s eyes lit up with passion, her brain filled with ideas for what the coconut could be used for. She just needed to do a bit of experimentation and she’ll find out everything there is to know about it.

“You know, sure, go ahead, maybe we could use some of those ideas right now,” Lachlan said as he grabbed hold of Marie and brought her back into the air. This time taking her to the orphanage, she screamed along the way, shouting at him to let her down.

“I’ll bring all your stuff over, they’ve already begun to build your room and I’ve told them to make it large for all your electronics. Now, I’ll give you this, just give it a drop of blood and you’ll understand a bit, it’ll also keep you safe. And remember, don’t abuse its powers, there’s always someone watching.” Lachlan handed over a medium-grade gravity stone to help her get around part of the island.

“What’s this?” Marie questioned as she took a close look at the crystal, its purple lustre shone when hit by the sunlight. “It looks so beautiful, is it some type of decoration? And why would I give it a droplet of my blood? It’ll ruin its exterior.”

“Just do as I say, it’s something incredibly useful. Now you have to remember, the only reason I’m giving this to you is so you’re able to travel around the island and into the cave. It isn’t something for you to show off in the cities, especially in one’s like New Orleans, I don’t want some criminal organisation learning of its existence and giving us trouble,” Lachlan explained in a serious tone, repeating the last thing he said multiple times to make sure Marie remembers.

“Alright, alright,” Marie said as she cut her finger ever so slightly on the crystal. She quenched from the pain, as unlike the others she isn’t used to fighting or anything of the sort. She’s similar to Anne, in that she relies on technology.

Lachlan saw her grab her head from the sudden influx of knowledge from the gravity stone. Although it wasn’t a lot of knowledge it seems just the process of having it transferred directly into the mind forces the user to experience pain.

When she finally snapped out of it she glared at Lachlan before turning her gaze back to the stone and then glaring at Lachlan again. She did this a few times until words were finally able to come out of her mouth. “What the hell is up with this!”

Lachlan chuckled loudly when he saw Marie’s reaction, he wasn’t all that surprised, they too were rather shocked by the sudden discovery. Granted, Lachlan only found out due to his eyes. Something he was thinking of upgrading sometime soon, there was just one thing getting in the way.

That would be the quality of the tame he wants. He knows that humans only have 5 slots in the soul contracts, that’s why each tame is very precious. So far he’s done quite well with what he’s got, a three in one and a griffon.

Then there’s also that, should he try to tame more and train them all at the same time or should he try to find one, high-quality beast in the wild. He could also go through the spatial gate, the only problem being that he doesn’t know what’ll happen to the island should he go to another world. It certainly is further than 40000kilometres, but he also doesn’t know if it counts with spatial gates.

Does he need to be 40000kilometres away from the spatial gate for him to lose control over the gravity stone? Or, would it just immediately lose control and plummet from the sky? They needed to do some tests but they’ve been busy dealing with other matters and just enjoying life.

Lachlan would have to bring up the matter in the next few days, he wants to tame something to get his eyes to their next stage and unlock the evolution pathways. Something that’ll be extremely useful as of now, get them ahead of the game.

“So, is this how you keep the island in the air?” Marie asked with wide, curious eyes.

“Obviously, granted we don’t use the stone you’re holding onto right now but rather much stronger ones,” Lachlan answered earnestly. Although he thought about keeping the matter hidden he knew Marie should be smart enough to figure it out. It really wasn’t that difficult once you know about gravity stones.

“Can I have a better one?” Marie asked with puppy eyes, her small physique and large eyes almost nailed Lachlan right in the heart. Fortunately, he was trained in willpower, strong enough to resist any mental attack.

“Nope,” Lachlan replied. “You will only be given a better one once you’ve earned the trust of everyone. Once we know 100% that you aren’t some psychopath hiding amongst normal people.”

“Oh, okay,” Marie’s head tilted downward. “I understand, we did just meet recently so it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to give me something so precious. You probably don’t have many betters ones anyway, so I suppose it’s rude of me to ask such a question.”

Marie instantly put Lachlan in an uncomfortable situation. So he replied earnestly and without remorse. “It’s good you understand, we’re an organisation so there are rules in place to keep us safe.”

“Anyway, make some friends with the parents taking care of the orphanage, they are the ones building your room, you should at least greet them and introduce yourself,” Lachlan said before flying off, back to his huts before Phoebe and Sarah woke up, leaving Marie out in the open.

Pouting, Marie kicked a small stone before walking to a tree and leaning against it. Lachlan swiftly returned with her stuff before leaving again, he had almost forgotten completely about that matter. If he didn’t see it in front of their huts he would’ve forgotten about it.