"This Green Silkworm is probably level one."
After praising Eleven, Shi Yu looked at the Green Silkworm.
Green Silkworms were the pet beasts Shi Yu had studied most extensively, thanks to his three-month internship.
After all, he had filled several whole notebooks with data on their growth!
Judging by the single marking on this Green Silkworm's body, it should have awakened only once. It was a weakling with a combat power of five, so Shi Yu boldly reached out to it.
A pet beast's level was divided into its growth level and species level.
Generally speaking, the higher its growth level, the stronger the pet beast's overall strength.
Species level, meanwhile, was more indicative of a pet beast's growth potential.
The higher its species level, the higher the upper limit its growth level could reach.
This Green Silkworm was currently at the Awakening Stage, the first of the growth levels.
This was the growth stage at which the vast majority of pet beasts awakened their species skills.
Each awakening raised a pet beast by one level, improving its physical constitution and increasing the upper limit of its internal energy. It also gave the pet beast a chance to awaken one of its species skills.
After ten awakenings, it could attempt to reach the Transcendent Level and become a true Transcendent Level creature.
Beast Tamers generally referred to these ten stages of awakening simply as levels one through ten.
This Green Silkworm, for example, was level one, while the Iron-Eating Beast Shi Yu had contracted was currently level three. That meant they had undergone one and three awakening transformations, respectively.
However, the number of awakenings did not entirely represent a pet beast's strength.
An Awakening Stage pet beast's strength depended mainly on the species skills it had awakened.
In other words, at the same growth level, a pet beast with a higher species level had greater combat power, unless the lower-species pet beast had mastered powerful skills beyond its basic species abilities.
Therefore, even if a Green Silkworm awakened ten times, as long as it only knew the unranked Worm Silk skill, there was no way it could defeat an Iron-Eating Beast that had learned Hardening, even if the Iron-Eating Beast's growth level was much lower. That was species suppression.
The Green Silkworm's advantage was perhaps that it grew faster than other high-species pet beasts. After all, its short lifespan meant it had to grow quickly.
In any case, this Green Silkworm was very weak. Its strength, which left it "unable to control its own fate," made it Shi Yu's test subject on the spot.
"Ji-"
The Green Silkworm had fallen to the ground, but because its body was light, it wasn't injured.
Even so, the Iron-Eating Beast's branch-breaking slap had thoroughly frightened it. After its initial daze came endless fright.
Green Silkworm: Σ(°△°|||)︴
Eyes wide, it looked in panic at the giant before it and the Iron-Eating Beast that had jumped down from the tree. It turned and crawled away, without even thinking of using Worm Silk to fight back.
But... Shi Yu moved faster. He stepped forward and grabbed it in his hand.
At that point, the Green Silkworm finally fought back.
Worm Silk!
Snow-white Worm Silk sprayed from its mouth in a great white mass, wrapping around Shi Yu's hand. But he tore it away with one hand.
After three months as an intern, tearing Worm Silk was what he did best.
Your Worm Silk is still a little too weak.
Who do you think you are, Donquixote Green Silkworm?
Green Silkworm: Σ(°△°|||)︴
"Little guy, behave yourself."
"Or I'll feed you to that fellow over there."
Iron-Eating Beast: (¯﹃¯*), can I eat this???
Though they were transcendent creatures, Green Silkworms weren't very intelligent and had only various instinctive emotional reactions.
Even so, Shi Yu's Telepathy was somewhat useful. After all, it conveyed dialogue from mind to mind.
Although the Green Silkworm couldn't understand what he meant, its body instinctively reacted with some degree of panic, making it afraid to act rashly.
[Skill]: Worm Silk [Skill level]: None [Description]: A bug-type skill. If brought to its utmost, it might be of some use. [Status]: Available to teach
Shi Yu looked at the Green Silkworm before him, summoned the Skill Index in his mind, and turned to the second page.
Of the six skills recorded in it, he selected the most useless one, Worm Silk, and designated the Green Silkworm as its target.
Green Silkworms were born with their species skill, Worm Silk, so this one was certain to know how to use it. Shi Yu had known that from the start.
Teach, Shi Yu said silently, trying to activate the index as the Green Silkworm stared at him in confusion.
This was his first attempt, and he was very uneasy.
What happened next wasn't what Shi Yu had imagined: the Green Silkworm didn't learn it right away. Instead, his hands gradually began to glow.
Immediately afterward, the glow on Shi Yu's hands passed directly into the Green Silkworm through their contact, like flowing water.
The light flowed, and the next second, the glow had completely left Shi Yu's hands and covered the Green Silkworm's entire body, making it shine.
Buzz!
When it was all over, Shi Yu felt some of his physical strength being drawn away. His mental state seemed to decline sharply; he was hungry, tired, and sleepy.
But the change that followed quickly surprised him enough to perk him up. The Green Silkworm's body suddenly began to develop before his very eyes.
The Green Silkworm was undergoing its second awakening. A second marking slowly appeared on its body, and Shi Yu hurriedly put it down to observe it closely.
The Green Silkworm's perspective.
The little green worm was probably just as confused.
As the glow entered its body, its physical constitution and the upper limit of its internal energy rose sharply.
At the same time, the Green Silkworm had a vague feeling that it had used Worm Silk countless times in an unconscious state.
That experience made the Green Silkworm feel that it had become more proficient in using Worm Silk.
Although it still wasn't quite sure what had happened, the Green Silkworm did understand that it had grown stronger.
But none of that mattered.
With its intelligence, the Green Silkworm couldn't figure out what was going on. It could only decide what it should do now.
Continue escaping Shi Yu's clutches-
It had no idea that Shi Yu was a thick thigh to cling to, or that the changes in its body had come from him. It only wanted to slip away and find a safe place to enjoy the breeze and cool off.
The Green Silkworm twisted around and fled again, only for Shi Yu to block it once more.
"Ji-"
White Worm Silk once again emerged from the Green Silkworm's mouth as it launched a second round of resistance. But the Worm Silk was ruthlessly torn apart again.
Weak as Shi Yu was now, he was still more than capable of dealing with a Green Silkworm.
As the Green Silkworm looked on in despair, Shi Yu subdued it again. This time, it simply gave up struggling and curled up to one side.
"The strength of its Worm Silk really has improved..."
"It's using it more skillfully than before, too..."
Shi Yu made his assessment as he matched wits and courage with the Green Silkworm in front of him.
He glanced at the marks on his hand, then looked back at the Green Silkworm.
Did this mean its Worm Silk proficiency had gone from the beginner level to the proficient level?
Worm Silk of this strength was already on par with that of the high-quality Green Silkworms raised on spirit plants at the Icefield City Breeding Base.
Its growth level might be lower, but its Worm Silk proficiency was definitely the highest.
Shi Yu had expected the Green Silkworm's Worm Silk proficiency to improve, but he hadn't expected its growth level to rise.
Was it because a deeper understanding of its species skill had driven its own strength to grow, allowing it to undergo a second awakening transformation?
Or did teaching the skill also mean he had given some of his own strength back to it?
Whatever the case, these changes made Shi Yu very satisfied with the Skill Index's effect.
And the results of the experiment...
Shi Yu's expression suddenly changed.
Because...
When he opened the Skill Index,
he discovered that every page of the Skill Index had dimmed.
A cooldown timer had appeared below the status field for every skill.
[Cooldown time]: 8 hours
That meant he would have to wait another eight hours before he could use the Skill Index again.
Shi Yu: ???
A cooldown too?
Shi Yu was taken aback.
But it seemed normal enough.
Although the strain from this experiment in teaching the unranked Worm Silk skill was within what he could bear, it wasn't negligible.
The cooldown was more like a protective mechanism of his own, preventing him from abusing the Skill Index and draining himself dry.
Eight hours... I'll probably need a meal and a night's sleep to recover.
If I want to make good use of the Skill Index, I'll have to train my body... Even an unranked skill takes eight hours to recover from. A low-level skill would probably take one or two days.
What about intermediate, high-level, and super-level skills?
Shi Yu suddenly realized the Skill Index wasn't quite so great. The pet beast got to enjoy itself, while he was the one who got tired.
Could eating some highly nutritious food speed up my recovery?
If it could, he might be able to prepare some beforehand and quickly restore his condition after teaching a skill. Pet beasts had nutritional supplements, so Beast Tamers surely did too.
Shi Yu looked at the Iron-Eating Beast beside him, which had been confused the whole time. Eleven still had no idea what his Beast Tamer had done.
"I brought back some bamboo shoots from the breeding base. Tonight we'll have shredded pork with bamboo shoots and white rice."
Iron Bamboo stalks were hard, but even people could eat the shoots, and they were very nutritious-much more so than ordinary vegetables. Shi Yu thought he needed some nourishment so he could be in top condition to teach the Iron-Eating Beast Hardening tomorrow.
Bamboo shoots?
The Iron-Eating Beast's eyes lit up.
But soon, he realized there was a serious problem.
"Awo...!"
Weren't the bamboo shoots food you brought back for me???