At noon, Shi Yu ate and drank his fill once again, then opened the Skill Index.
[Cooldown]: 24 hours
In other words, he had to rest for another day before he could conduct the next round of skill teaching.
Shi Yu figured he still needed to go out that afternoon.
Mainly because Eleven was too self-disciplined. Going even a little while without training made Eleven uncomfortable all over.
There was really nothing wrong with liking training. Eleven's self-discipline was exactly what Shi Yu liked about Eleven.
If Eleven had been a lazy, gluttonous pet beast with no desire to improve, Shi Yu wouldn't have been willing to expend so much stamina teaching skills.
Convenient as the Skill Index was, he couldn't always rely on it. The basic training a pet beast ought to do was beneficial too.
The process also tempered the heart, mind, and will.
But if Eleven was going to train, the training had to be made more efficient, or it would be wasted effort. So he planned to find some training equipment for Eleven.
"Pet beast training equipment doesn't seem cheap..."
"I need to find a more cost-effective training method."
After giving it careful thought, Shi Yu went out that afternoon to look for one.
Throughout the day, Eleven practiced maintaining, activating, releasing, and applying Hardening in earnest.
After the Hardening skill reached the proficient level, it could be maintained for half a minute, and it would no longer be canceled when a hardened body part sustained a somewhat strong impact. The speed of activation and release had also improved.
Eleven's main training now was to quickly harden and cover multiple body parts at once. This was crucial in battle; once Eleven mastered it, Eleven would basically be able to attack and defend at the same time.
That was the entirety of the training. There was still nothing to train Hardening's strength, since the house was too fragile to withstand that kind of battering.
Still, comprehensive or not, Eleven's training workload was substantial.
As a result, Eleven's appetite grew again.
And Eleven's consumption in the Beast Taming Space increased even more.
The current situation gave Shi Yu a preliminary idea of his cultivation path going forward.
A Beast Tamer's duties weren't as simple as raising pet beasts and drawing up training plans for them. They also needed to develop their own beast-taming abilities.
Aside from their Beast Taming Talent, upgrading the Beast Taming Space was a part of cultivation no Beast Tamer could avoid.
Strength, environment, and scale were the three elements of a Beast Taming Space.
Beast Tamers could freely choose which aspect to strengthen, or pursue all of them.
Of course, pursuing all of them required far more effort than focusing on a single path.
Beast Tamers who liked to change pet beasts frequently, constantly replacing weaker ones with stronger ones, generally focused on developing the strength of their Beast Taming Space and increasing its restraining power.
Only then would pet beasts bound by forced contracts have difficulty turning on their Beast Tamers.
Conversely, some Beast Tamers focused on building emotional bonds with their pet beasts, so the beasts wouldn't turn on them even without the Beast Taming Space's restraints.
The environment of the Beast Taming Space determined how efficiently pet beasts digested food and nutrients and absorbed battle experience inside it. The better the environment, the faster the pet beasts would grow. It was also the element of the Beast Taming Space that Beast Tamers valued most.
The area of the Beast Taming Space, meanwhile, indicated how many pet beasts a Beast Tamer could contract.
Some Beast Tamers who specialized in raising a single pet beast simply ignored this element, while those who favored group combat and won through numbers would focus their development in this direction.
For Shi Yu at present, the environment of his Beast Taming Space was certainly the main direction he needed to develop.
Eleven had been raised at a legitimate breeding base as a pet beast suitable for a novice Beast Tamer to contract. Eleven had received an excellent early education and, unlike forcibly captured wild pet beasts, would almost never disobey a Beast Tamer. Besides, Shi Yu hadn't forced the contract when he made it, giving Eleven the freedom to choose. So he felt he could ignore the Beast Taming Space's ability to restrain pet beasts for now. He only needed to ensure it was strong enough to support a pet beast's growth inside.
At the same time, Shi Yu had no plans to contract a second pet beast for now, so he could also disregard the scale of the Beast Taming Space.
Thus, the more urgent priority was to create a relatively comfortable environment for the little Iron-Eating Beast to grow in.
With the Beast Taming Space and Absolute Sleep, Eleven could train however Eleven liked without putting any strain on the body.
With the little Iron-Eating Beast's self-discipline, plus the aid of his Beast Taming Space and Skill Index, Shi Yu figured that as long as Eleven got enough nutrition, Eleven could reach full maturity in a very short time.
Sigh, but by that stage, the cost of food would probably be super doubled too... Still, as long as the little Iron-Eating Beast could grow quickly and become a fighting force capable of standing alone, it would all be worth it.
The next day, Shi Yu sat in the courtyard with his insulated cup, meditating to modify the environment of his Beast Taming Space.
Not far away, the little Iron-Eating Beast Eleven earnestly trained Hardening alone.
Every now and then, Shi Yu opened his eyes to check Eleven's training progress and record it. It gave him more of a sense of raising Eleven.
Watching alongside Shi Yu was the Green Silkworm in the birdcage in the tree. Besides persimmon leaves, it had many new kinds of food today.
For example, bamboo leaves and the Chinese cabbage leaves Shi Yu had picked off while preparing lunch that day.
Things continued like this for another day. Both Shi Yu and the little Iron-Eating Beast gradually began to adapt to this new way of life.
In the blink of an eye, another day arrived.
Iron-Eating Beast: (◍•͈⌔•͈◍) Awoo-
Eleven was especially excited early that morning.
After Eleven's Hardening ability reached the proficient level, Eleven had spent a day digesting the gains, and Eleven's growth level had immediately risen again.
In the Beast Taming Space, Eleven underwent a fourth awakening transformation. Both physical attributes and the energy in Eleven's body increased, reaching Awakening Level Four.
Eleven was happy, and Shi Yu, as Eleven's Beast Tamer, was naturally excited too.
He was one step closer to becoming a professional Beast Tamer!
"Good. I'll go buy something tasty today."
"On top of your usual food, I'll give you an extra meal to celebrate!"
For once, Shi Yu spoke generously.
Iron-Eating Beast: (っ˘ڡ˘ς) nodded furiously.
"There's one more thing. I think it's time to put training your Hardening strength on the agenda too."
"But as you know, this place isn't really suitable for you to use Hardening to smash things."
Eleven looked at Shi Yu with a resolute expression.
Eleven suggested that Shi Yu could take some hard equipment and hit Eleven with it. That would train Hardening strength too.
And it might work even better. Eleven could take it!
A brave Iron-Eating Beast feared no pain!
"No, I can't bear to hit you," Shi Yu said, shaking his head.
Eleven was touched.
The truth, however, was that Shi Yu worried he would be the one worn out from hitting Eleven, a lump of iron that could harden.
Wouldn't the impacts leave my body numb? That's far too inefficient...
"Ahem, but I've prepared some equipment you can use to train your Hardening strength on your own. It should be delivered shortly."
As soon as Shi Yu finished speaking, someone knocked on his front door. Several movers carried a pile of high-strength alloy steel plates into his home.
Looking at the steel plates spread across the ground, the little Iron-Eating Beast Eleven wore a bewildered expression.
"These are high-strength alloy steel plates. I can't let you smash the walls, but you can smash these."
"Also, if you think you can't hit hard enough and the training isn't having much effect, you can lay them on the ground, several layers deep."
"Then, with the help of gravity, let this planet help you train. Jump straight down at them from the tree or the roof with your whole body hardened."
"Our persimmon tree and roof are pretty high. I've named this the 'Falling Training Method.' You can even change the intensity of the training by adjusting the height you jump from."
An ordinary Iron-Eating Beast would definitely be perfectly fine falling from a tree to the ground in its normal state, but if it fell onto steel plates while hardened, it wouldn't be able to cushion the fall. The force of that impact...
Wouldn't that be more useful than hitting Eleven with a spiked club himself? Once Eleven could jump down from the clouds without a scratch, the training would be complete.
Meanwhile, after understanding the training, Eleven's eyes lit up.
Just listen-what a genius training method! How had Eleven not thought of it?