When Theo returned to the Barony, the mantis had already finished eating the entire snake from the inside, leaving behind only the scaly skin and a small purple-colored sack that it had discarded.
Theo went back to his room and started training the mantis on the dummy. There wasn't much he had to do anyway. As an 8-year-old ninth son of the Merrick Barony, not many tasks were on his shoulders other than playing and having fun.
His days passed like that, training the mantis, and Theo managed to gain another 10% proficiency during that time. It seemed that simply using the skill was not good enough anymore; the mantis had to execute effective attacks during ability use to increase its proficiency.
The next day, Theo didn't go to the forest and continued making the mantis train. There were plenty of new kinds of fodder insects he had bought for the mantis to hunt and eat, and it had become quite the motivation for the little fellow.
