With a new motivation Young set about putting his plan into action. The first thing he decided to do was give up on collecting mushrooms or fighting for the rest of the evening. It occurred to him that the reason he encountered the Cave Grubs was because they were nocturnal creatures. It would be a bit cheap of him, but if he could find out where they slept and get rid of them while they were vulnerable it would be an easy way to quickly obtain monster spirits.
The second thought was that it would be easier to collect mushrooms without worrying about attack constantly. Young had no intention of twiddling his thumbs as he waited either. He decided to focus on raising his qi with the remaining monster energy.
[Qi: 567 / 567]
He then spent the remainder of the time assimilating more white lightning energy. Once he could forge another weapon he would be able to more quickly gather monster energy, thus his goal was to raise his qi to 1,500 as quickly as possible. It was a shame that Spark was still resting, if Young had even one more materia orb he could use that to make another throwaway weapon. He wanted to keep at least one materia in order to create an armament. He felt some type of protection would be important moving forward, thus the two remaining materia already had intended use.
Fortunately, due to all of his practice handling the energy, the process had become more productive, allowing him to gain 7 qi an hour as opposed to three every two hours. By the time Young retired to sleep his qi had reached a maximum of 613.
Though he was a bit sleepy, Young awoke early the next morning after just five hours of sleep and quickly exited the spring. Back in the cavern he walked slowly , searching for any sign of the Cave Grubs but as he suspected they were nowhere to be found. As he walked towards the front of the cave where he usually found mushrooms, he noticed a light blue dot on his mini-map. Upon checking it out it was a monster drop.
[Grub Fang (Material) Rank 0, Quality : 45
A material that can be used in crafting or forging. Influences the physical properties of a spirit weapon.]
"Hmm.. that's interesting." Young said as he collected the item and continued along his way. Most likely in order to determine where the Grubs slept he would need some kind of light source. The only thing he could think to use was a piece of his ripped pant leg. He would have to experiment on ways to set it on fire later, for now he focused on collecting mushrooms and any other gather able items.
It turns out the blue blips were dedicated to monster drops while white blips indicated items that could be collected. There were many more than just mushrooms near the cavern's entrance. Bone Fragments from various creatures, Crystals, even some of the moss and plants growing on the cavern wall could be collected.
He spent roughly two hours of his time gathering everything in sight before he decided to return to the spring. This time on the way back he held his weapon at the ready and walked slowly. As he moved he gazed at the cavern walls, running his free hand against the bumps and cracks. It was purely by accident that he noticed a small hollow indentation near the bottom of the wall. He grabbed a few of the dimly glowing plants from the nearby cavern floor and tossed them into the hollow. Upon kneeling to glance inside it seemed his suspicions were correct, some of the Cave Grubs had taken up residence inside the hole.
Assuming that each monster rewarded four to six units per monster spirit, he would need to collect at least another 177 spirits. This would take a great deal of time, but at the least it was quicker than normal cultivation.
Six of the creatures were huddled together in the hollow, immobile and fast asleep. He decided to use a piece of bone to mark where the hole was and continued moving. He repeated this process until he'd found almost sixteen different holes, each with at least four or more Cave Grubs inside.
"Now comes the hard part.. I have to figure out how to get them…"
The more he thought about it, the more Young realized that there was no way around it. He would have to sacrifice the materia he intended to use for armor in order to obtain more monster spirits.
He was capable of making a spear and this would make killing the Grub nests much easier. From what he could tell the creatures would not stir even if he tossed pebbles or rocks at them. This was most likely due to the thick layers of fat on their plump bodies. If he was lucky he could kill each one while they were unaware, with a single well placed spear strike. If he was unlucky…. Well, he'd cross that bridge when he arrived at it.
After steeling his resolve he opened up his Forging menu and began the process of making another weapon. This time he decided to use one of the Capture Spheres that had several small wisps within. He was sure that both the quality or number used would affect the overall strength of the weapon. In fact, he had begun to think that perhaps using such poor materials with the Holy Lightning Materia was the real crime. If the energy was so potent and pure, pairing it with better items would most assuredly create supreme weapons.
This time around he decided to incorporate one of the materials he'd found inside the cave as his third slot material. His choices were animal bone, a glowing blue crystal or a cavern plant called a Glow Fern. Ultimately Young decided on using the material which seemed the least useful for weapon crafting, the Glow Fern. His thought was that he'd already created a bone based weapon and he wanted to use the crystal in his target forging.
[The following forging will require 575 qi. Commence Forging? Y/N]
Young whistled in response to the prompt.
"The amount needed increased by quite a bit. I'm glad I spent time training yesterday." He said as he agreed to the input. After a few moments the materials joined together in a spiraling dance and after a flash of bright light they all became one.
"This is...actually really nice!" Young was very pleased with the result. The spear was approximately 182 cm in length, slender and it had an earthy, organic appearance to it. Much like the Glow Fern, the plant he'd used to craft the item, the spear resembled a vein-filled leaf with bio luminescent light pulsing within. This unique pattern covered the whole spear and in turn it gave off a faint blue light.
[Fern Spark Spear
Rank 1
A spear weapon created by Young Jade.An interesting combination which led to something beautiful.
Element : Lightning (Grade 4)
Effect : Spark Burst
Uses 15 / 15]
"
"Spirit Forging [2]. While the third material in a forging is optional, providing one will influence both the appearance and some characteristics of the forged weapons. This can have both a positive or negative effect on the weapon, for example, materials and materia that do not have a compatible affinity may be weakened or fail to forge completely. Take this into consideration when forging for the best results!"
In all Young was very happy with the results. The weapon contained three times the number of uses than the Beast Spirit Short-sword as well as a new effect that he was eager to try out. He practiced thrusting with the weapon several times before he flowed his qi into the spear. The energy gathered at the tip head, which glowed fiercely with blue and white energy before a loud discharge sound echoed throughout the cavern. Immediately following the noise a large ball of lightning expanded at the spear's tip. The energy sizzled intensely for quite some time before quickly shrinking away into nothingness.
Perfect for a piercing weapon, he needed only to jab his target then activate the technique! He could only imagine the carnage this weapon might inflict. With that in mind he decided to try it out...