With the tamed Apeman, we began the attack on the next territory. After a taking a break for the night, we managed to break through to the boss room early in the morning. I used the Apeman and the girls to battle the territory boss, who happened to be some kind of carnivorous plant. I wasn’t able to find a way to tame it, and we had it near death when Terra came up with an idea. We used the mana source gaia and then created a combination skill out of Submission called Plant Subjugation.

Upon using that, the plant finally submitted and I was able to absorb it and temporarily put it in my soul world until I could get back home. The skill seemed like a somewhat silly thing. After all, how often did we encounter monster plants? The deep was the first place I had seen so many, and I had no desire to conquer them.

That’s when Terra suggested that being able to control plants might have more perks than I thought. I could order plants to grow in specific ways, or make them react how I wanted. That reminded me of a book I had read that suggested high-level farmers seemed to be able to ask plants for favors and get them to perform by talking to them. I had originally written such a thing off, but now that I had experienced so much of the world, why couldn’t a high enough level just tell a plant to grow and make it grow?

Perhaps, all those seeds from my world could become a profitable crop sooner rather than later. I also had my farm in my soul world which I could control to some level, but I’d bet it’d be even better with a farming job. I wasn’t able to explore that yet as the entire garden had recently been trampled and uprooted by the dwarves. It wasn’t easy feeding three hundred people.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

With the carnivorous plant boss and the apeman, I felt there was enough time to at least venture into a third territory before we needed to be back for the blacksmithing competition. I was also feeling the pressure of Twilight’s inevitable attack, and wanted to bolster our strength as soon as possible. It turned out we didn’t need to go far before we encountered the boss. Since the dungeons that once formed these territories no longer existed, the bosses weren’t bound to remain in one area and could wonder. Some were grounded, like the plant, while others just preferred an area where they were strongest, like the Apeman.

The cyclops was just roaming down the halls, and I wouldn’t have thought he was even a boss until my dangerous sense struck and we narrowly dodged a powerful strike. Thus began a long and exhausting battle. We depended on various techniques. Blinding the cyclops was the most obvious means of controlling him. Terra was able to create a dust cloud, but without Celeste’s wind magic, it was difficult to keep him sufficiently blinded without blinding us as well.

I’d like to say that I came up with some trick for this one, but he was a battle junky, and it took just beating him down. Terra’s impressive constitution could take just about any hit, along with Sapphire, the Apeman, and me dealing damage, and we finally wore it down. The carnivorous plant was still weakened from our earlier battle and couldn’t participate. With my White Mage spells healing us, we were ultimately able to outlast the cyclops, and it finally bowed to me.

{You have tamed the monster, Raging Cyclops.}

{White Mage has increased to level 66.}

{Monster Tamer has increased to level 55.}

{Apprentice Blacksmith has increased to level 33.}

{Blacksmith has increased to level 9.}

Sapphire had also reached level 72 in Blacksmith and I decided to switch her over to Weapon Smith to increase our chances of making a better weapon, so that made it to 28. We were as prepared as we’d ever be.