My Summons Are Mythical Beasts

In truth, this was the same for all Unranked-Starless creatures. After all, the difference between an Unranked-Starless creature and normal animals before the cataclysm was that the former had a skill, while the latter didn\'t.

Previously, his Gentle Dog also belonged to this category, a beast that can be killed even by mortals with some effort.

However, ever since it ranked up to Iron Star 2 and obtained the Hellhound Manifestation skill, it had long abandoned that category and became something even Lucas could not properly explain, and perhaps no one would, except for the system and the grimoire, of course.

Crouching right beside a Soulshade Leaf that was a mixture of light and dark purple in color, Lucas stared intently at Ethan, who was now seriously inspecting every nook and cranny of the wide magical leaf.

His brows were raised, his eyes were squinted, as he turned over the leaf carefully, checking if any Vinecrawler Caterpillar was hiding beneath it.

From what he read before, Vinecrawler Caterpillars have a peculiar way of eating magical plant leaves.

Instead of devouring all the leaf they passed through, they wound instead just eat the one underneath, leaving enough above to make it seem as if the leaf was still whole and undamaged.

In scientific terms, they would just consume the lower epidermis and the parts below it, leaving the top section of the leaf untouched.

This way, it would seem as if there was no creature lurking beneath and that the magical leaf was untouched and in a pristine condition. However, after a week later, the leaf would slowly wither and die.

But at that time, everything would already be too late, as the Vinecrawler Caterpillars would have long transformed into a cocoon and evolved into the Greenthorn Locust that would spread even more Vinecrawler Caterpillars to wreak havoc on the surrounding magical plants.

Killing the Vinecrawler Caterpillar was an easy task. What was hard was how to spot them.

Their camouflage ability caused headaches to those who do not have searching-type skills like Ethan and Lucas.

To spot one, they would need to scrutinize every nook and cranny of every leaf and determine if anything was unusual about it.

"Here," Ethan\'s squinted eyes suddenly enlarged as he gazed at one particular spot of the Soulshade Leaf.

Following his gaze, Lucas was confused and strained his eyes to spot the elusive Vinecrawler Caterpillar.

Ethan\'s eyes did not move, but his hand slowly reached toward the knife. His hand, now holding the knife, slowly reached toward a particular spot on the leaf, to be precise, toward the dark purple veins of the Soulshade Leaf.

Lucas scrutinized and squinted his eyes as well, staring intently at the spot. However, he still failed to see the Vinecrawler Caterpillar that his senior had seen.

In the end, the tip of the knife slowly poked one of the veins.

The next moment, that particular vein squirmed and wriggled, as if trying to shrug the thing that was poking it.

Seeing the vein move, Ethan immediately yanked it away using the knife.

The Vinecrawler Caterpillar, almost as thick as one\'s pinky finger, was smashed to the ground.

Before it could try and recover, Ethan immediately stabbed it with the knife he was holding. The small beast only struggled for a moment before it stopped moving and died.

Phew!

Ethan heaved a heavy sigh of relief as he wiped the imaginary sweat on his forehead.

"Done! Did you see how I did it?"

He was breathing heavily; his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Lucas.

If Lucas did not know any better, he would have thought that this senior of his had just fought a life-and-death battle against a terrifying beast.

Hearing his words and his action, Lucas smiled inwardly and wanted to remind the senior that what he killed was just a tiny worm.

However, considering that even he himself had trouble seeing the Vinecrawler Caterpillar until it moved, Lucas smiled wryly and reigned in his words.

He then nodded his head, answering the senior\'s question.

"Good! Good!"

Ethan even repeated the word twice, showing how elated he was.

"Well then, since you already know, I\'ll leave the matter to you now. I hope that when I come back, I\'ll get to see many of such abominable beasts in that basket, okay?" Ethan said, his voice full of hope and expectation.

Seeing the eyes of his senior, Lucas could not help but shudder at the expectation that the senior had set for him.

\'Seriously, is there a need to be so hopeful? Will he be disappointed if I only hunt one? Damn, I don\'t even want to know what his reaction will be. Is this Teacher Christie\'s effect?\'

"I\'ll do my best, senior."

Hearing that, Ethan patted his shoulder as he turned around, preparing to leave the Soulshade Leaf garden.

His mood was bright. The thought of getting rid of some trouble for Teacher Christie made him smile in delight.

"Senior, wait," Lucas suddenly called out, making him pause in his tracks.

"Yes?"

"Ahh, you said yesterday that you would compensate me for coming, right?" Lucas remembered with a little bit of a smile on his face.

Senior Ethan\'s words yesterday were still as clear as a pristine lake in his mind today.

"Don\'t worry, I\'ll compensate you handsomely if you come. In case you misunderstand, I also have something to gain in this transaction," was what Senior Ethan said to him.

Hearing his words, Ethan tilted his head in confusion before the bright mood suddenly turned dark.

"I did not forget about that. I will give it to you after you\'re done with the task," Ethan said before he turned around and left in a hurry.

In his mind, though, he was already cursing Lucas slightly.

\'Damn, this kid is actually a greedy little fellow!\'

\'Well, this is good. With his greed, he should be able to hunt as many Vinecrawler Caterpillars as possible, right?\'

Thinking of that, his smile turned bright once again but turned dark at the next moment as he thought of something.

\'With his greed, it\'s possible that he would take some leaves with him…\'

"I hope not," with his heart growing cautious toward the honest youngster, Ethan left the Soulshade Leaf garden with a mixture of ever-changing emotion.

…

Back inside the garden, Lucas smiled happily, thinking about the promised compensation.

Reeling his emotion in, Lucas took a deep breath and finally observed the garden and the Soulshade Leaves once more.

With the net cast over the garden acting as a dome, it made him wonder how a Greenthorn Locust or even a Vinecrawler Caterpillar was able to sneak and propagate inside.

However, such matters were not something he should be thinking of.

His job today was to kill as many Vinecrawler Caterpillars as possible, not investigate how they got inside.

Clearing his mind, Lucas took the basket and the knife, crouched down toward the nearest Soulshade leaf, and began seriously inspecting underneath.

Following Ethan\'s example, Lucas finally saw his first Vinecrawler Caterpillar camouflaging as the vein of the Soulshade leaf five minutes later.

With a start, Lucas immediately went into action.

"Attack!"