Grueling Training

"Training is how you get stronger."

Walking down the street, Xu Ran took a few pieces of purple food shaped like jelly beans from an open bag and fed them to Purple Cloud as he explained.

"There are two common ways to train. One is skill training, where you practice repeatedly on your own to become more proficient with your skills. The other is combat training, where you keep fighting other Supernatural Creatures to gain combat experience."

Seeing Purple Cloud's eyes suddenly light up at the second option, Xu Ran popped two purple jelly beans into its mouth and gave its head a light tap. "Don't get ahead of yourself. What we should be doing right now is skill training."

"Meow~" (All right~)

Purple Cloud rubbed its head against Xu Ran's hand and continued listening obediently.

"There are things you need to keep in mind with skill training, too." Xu Ran paused. "You currently have five skills: Electric Spark, Electric Arc, Bite, Claw Edge, and Self-Healing."

"All five are at stardust level proficiency. The next level up is starlight level. If you can raise your skills to that level, your strength will improve tremendously."

"But bite off more than you can chew, and you won't get anywhere. Practicing all five at once will split your attention and be inefficient, so we need to prioritize them."

"Electric Spark, Electric Arc, and Self-Healing come first. The other two can wait." Xu Ran paused briefly. "Two-star skills are stronger overall than one-star skills, and Self-Healing will be a huge help to you."

"Meow~" (Got it!)

Purple Cloud answered, then rubbed against Xu Ran's hand, which had stopped in midair, prompting him to keep feeding it.

"One last mouthful. We're here." Xu Ran poured a handful of jelly beans into his palm, watched Purple Cloud finish them, then carried it into the building before them.

The Long River Pet Beast Training Center.

This was one of Qingzhou City's finest Contract Beast training centers, offering training environments with over a hundred different scenarios. Xu Ran had settled on it after doing plenty of research.

Stepping into the training center's spacious lobby, Xu Ran immediately saw many Beast Tamers taking their Contract Beasts in and out of individual training rooms.

The varied Contract Beasts ranged from transcendent rank to elite rank. Xu Ran even caught a fleeting glimpse of one whose presence was far more imposing than an elite-rank beast's.

"Hello, I'd like a Basic Custom Training Room." Without hesitation, Xu Ran walked straight up to the reception desk. "For three hours."

"Certainly." The young woman at the desk glanced at Purple Cloud in Xu Ran's arms, then lowered her head and quickly entered the relevant information. "A Basic Custom Training Room costs three hundred an hour. Your total is nine hundred."

Beep- Xu Ran scanned the code and paid.

"Nine hundred received. Here's the key card for training room 1023. Please keep it safe. Your session begins when you first open the room, and you'll receive a reminder when your time is up." The receptionist promptly stood and handed him a key card with both hands, smiling.

"Thank you."

With the key card in hand, Xu Ran soon found his training room.

The basic training room measured ten meters in length, width, and height. All six surfaces glowed white, as though light sources had been embedded in each one.

Xu Ran knew, however, that these were no ordinary lights, but a combination of modern technology and extraordinary power.

A raised control console stood in a corner of the room. Through its interface, Beast Tamers could customize the entire training room to achieve the best training results.

Xu Ran only needed to configure two functions.

One would fire energy attacks that needed to be dodged. The other would generate moving energy targets at random.

This simple combination was more than enough to train three of Purple Cloud's skills at once.

Once he finished setting it up, Xu Ran put Purple Cloud down and pointed to the center of the room. "Purple Cloud, you'll stand there and use Electric Arc to dodge the red attacks coming at you from every direction."

"These attacks are real. If you don't dodge them, you'll get hurt, and you'll need to use Self-Healing to recover."

"Besides those, green balls of light will appear at random around the room. They'll move at different speeds and disappear automatically five seconds after appearing. You need to hit them with Electric Spark before they disappear."

"Do you understand?"

"Meow~" (I understand!)

Purple Cloud nodded earnestly, its expression growing somewhat solemn.

It understood Xu Ran's explanation, and precisely because it understood, it could clearly grasp how difficult the training ahead would be.

It would have to dodge attacks coming from any corner while attacking moving targets. If it got hurt, it would also have to spare some attention to heal itself.

"Then drink this." Xu Ran took out the Stamina Potion and fed it to Purple Cloud.

Now let's see whether something from the system really delivers.

Without any doubts, Purple Cloud held the potion between its front paws and gulped it down, then sprang lightly into the center of the room.

"Begin!"

Seeing that Purple Cloud was ready, Xu Ran pressed the start button on the control interface.

His position was in a blind spot for the attacks, so he wouldn't be caught in them and could adjust the difficulty or stop the training at any time.

As he pressed the start button, two red streaks shot toward Purple Cloud, one from the left and one from the right. As Xu Ran had configured, they traveled at twenty meters per second.

Purple Cloud's pupils widened slightly. Streaks of lightning erupted along its arched back, and in the next instant, it left afterimages trailing through the air as it darted within a small area at incredible speed, dodging both red streaks.

The two red streaks missed and silently merged back into the walls upon striking them. Then two more shot toward Purple Cloud from different directions.

Twisting and darting about, Purple Cloud deftly evaded one red streak after another. It looked perilous, but for now, it was still manageable.

The next moment, it seemed to sense something and abruptly tilted its head up.

A green ball of energy the size of a soccer ball had appeared out of thin air overhead and was now drifting slowly in one direction.

Purple light charged with lightning gathered in Purple Cloud's mouth before it spat it out with all its strength.

Crackle-

Amid a series of explosive cracks as electric arcs tore through the air, Electric Spark struck the green energy ball, and it vanished.

Almost simultaneously, Purple Cloud shuddered and let out a low cry.

The instant it diverted its attention to attack the energy target, two red streaks struck it at once.

In a split second, the fur in both places struck by the red streaks was scorched, and the exposed skin showed traces of blood.

At the console, Xu Ran resisted the urge to hit the stop button and shouted, "Use Self-Healing!"

Purple Cloud's pupils contracted. It dodged two more incoming red streaks like lightning, then instinctively guided its power through its body.

The next moment, a faint white glow appeared over both wounds, and they began healing at a visible rate.

The three-hour intensive training session had officially begun!