On July 7, 177 of the Alliance Calendar, three and a half months had passed since Shi Yu came to this world, and he had been a Beast Tamer for four days.
On the first day, Shi Yu's contracted pet, the Iron-Eating Beast Eleven, awakened the Hardening skill and won his first battle, defeating the most widespread and numerous pet beast, the Green Silkworm.
On the second day, Shi Yu used the Skill Index to raise Eleven's Entry Level Hardening skill to Proficient Level.
On the third day, Eleven practiced Hardening as part of his daily training.
On the fourth day, Eleven's growth level reached Level Four, and he learned the intermediate skill High-Speed Healing through the Skill Index. Then he began fall training...
Fall training was a good training method. If the steel plate at the landing point remained intact, it meant Eleven's Hardening still wasn't strong enough, and he could keep practicing.
If the steel plate broke, that meant the training had borne fruit. There was no need to worry about wasting the broken plate, either, because it could be fed to the Iron-Eating Beast.
By then, he should have gained the ability to gnaw and digest metal.
So Shi Yu hadn't just bought training equipment; he had also bought reserve food for Eleven. It was such a great deal that Shi Yu was left breathless by his own ingenuity.
Over the next two days, the fifth and sixth days, Shi Yu nursed himself back to health, recovering from the weakness caused by teaching High-Speed Healing.
During those two days, Eleven's appetite doubled again. Frequent use of the two skills consumed a great deal of his strength, and he relied even more on the Beast Taming Space to quickly digest the nutrients in his food.
On the seventh day, a week after becoming a Beast Tamer, Shi Yu made a surprising discovery: the weakness caused by using the Skill Index wasn't the only consequence. There was a hidden benefit, too.
As long as he got enough nutrition, his physique seemed to improve slightly each time he recovered, as if the toll of using the Index were equivalent to the toll of physical exercise.
The discovery suddenly made Shi Yu feel that repeatedly teaching skills and falling into a weakened state wasn't so bad after all. The body was the foundation of beast taming.
That same day, Shi Yu used the Skill Index again, teaching Eleven the Hardening skill once more.
After this lesson, Hardening's proficiency didn't reach Expert Level, but Eleven did use it a little more skillfully than before.
By now, in all kinds of positions, he could harden multiple parts of his body at once with a single thought, without impeding his movements.
This improvement made Eleven very uneasy, so he trained even harder. For the first time, he left a clear mark on the alloy steel plate.
On the eighth day, Shi Yu rested and recuperated.
On the ninth day, Shi Yu continued teaching Eleven Hardening. This time, Eleven's Hardening skill reached Expert Level proficiency.
The mark of Expert Level Hardening was that an Iron-Eating Beast could fight with extreme fluidity while its entire body was hardened, without its movements being hindered!
After the skill's proficiency increased, Eleven's growth level rose along with it once again, reaching Awakening Level Five.
Little Iron-Eating Beast: ๐·°(৹˃̵﹏˂̵৹)°·๐ I really wasn't using cheats!
The unease in Eleven's heart grew stronger, and the marks on the alloy steel plate grew deeper.
"For an Iron-Eating Beast to reach Proficient Level Hardening, it would need to train hard for a month under excellent training conditions."
"For Expert Level Hardening, though, an Iron-Eating Beast would need to train hard for a year under excellent training conditions."
Training hard meant preferably not even sleeping. Normal Iron-Eating Beasts didn't train that hard, yet they had accomplished it in just one week.
In the courtyard, Shi Yu leaned back in his chair and analyzed Eleven's growth. He increasingly felt that his becoming a professional Beast Tamer seemed like a sure thing.
Both he and Eleven had bright futures ahead of them.
On the tenth day, he rested and recuperated.
After that, Shi Yu didn't use the Skill Index to continue raising Eleven's Hardening proficiency.
One lesson was enough to go from Entry Level to Proficient Level, while going from Proficient Level to Expert Level seemed to take two... So what about going from Expert Level to Perfect Level proficiency?
The hallmark of Perfect Level Hardening was "flow."
Expert Level Hardening already allowed an Iron-Eating Beast to harden its entire body, while Perfect Level Hardening allowed the hardened material to flow rapidly over its body like a liquid and stack together for a stronger effect.
When attacking, all the hardened material would flow to its claws, forming weapons with greater attacking power.
When defending, all the hardened material would flow to the area being defended, piling on the thickest armor to take the lightest blows.
Essentially, it improved the efficiency with which power was used, concentrating all of it at one point in pursuit of the ultimate attack or defense.
For ordinary pet beasts, Perfect Level proficiency was already the pinnacle of skill proficiency, and it would certainly take more lessons... Shi Yu planned to experiment on the Green Silkworm first. After all, the cooldown for teaching Worm Silk was relatively short.
Besides, he had been raising this Green Silkworm for ten days. He had clearly said he would cultivate its Worm Silk, but he still hadn't done anything about it... He couldn't delay any longer.
On the eleventh day, Shi Yu took the birdcage down from the tree. The Green Silkworm inside felt it needed to do something, so it calmly rolled over and settled into a different lying position.
If it had felt even a little rebellious when Shi Yu first caught it, now, after listening to Eleven collide with the steel plate every day, it had no rebellious feelings left at all.
Besides, it didn't have to do anything now. Shi Yu put food in the birdcage every day. Where could it have found such a perfect living environment before?
On top of that, over the past ten days, Shi Yu had practiced Telepathy with the not-so-intelligent Green Silkworm whenever he had the chance. It no longer had any intention of attacking him and was exceptionally obedient.
That day, Shi Yu taught the Green Silkworm Worm Silk again. Once the lesson was complete, the Green Silkworm underwent its third awakening transformation, reaching Awakening Level Three.
Its Worm Silk proficiency, however, should still have been at Proficient Level.
On the twelfth day, Shi Yu taught the Green Silkworm the skill for the third time. As expected, the Green Silkworm underwent its fourth awakening transformation, reaching Awakening Level Four.
The growth speed of insect-type pet beasts... was indeed fast.
The strength of its Worm Silk also underwent a qualitative change. By now, the silk was as strong as fishing line, and the Green Silkworm could use it as deftly as a human used their hands and feet.
For example, tying a decorative knot with Worm Silk was no longer difficult for the Green Silkworm. Clearly, its Worm Silk proficiency had risen from Proficient Level to Expert Level.
Having watched hundreds of episodes of Conan, Shi Yu understood that Worm Silk now had some power to it.
Its power was still limited, though, for a simple reason: the Green Silkworm was too weak. There was a world of difference between an adult using fishing line as a tool and a worm smaller than a palm using it.
Still, there was no denying that the Green Silkworm's Worm Silk was now of excellent quality. Generally speaking, even Level Ten Green Silkworms on the verge of forming cocoons rarely reached this level of Worm Silk proficiency.
With this level of Worm Silk proficiency, as long as its growth level caught up, its transformation into a butterfly was almost a certainty.
When the time came, not only could he sell its Worm Silk, he could also scrape off and sell the Wind Crystal Butterfly's crystal powder...
If its Worm Silk reached Perfect Level proficiency or even higher before it formed a cocoon, the phenomenon during its evolution would only be more extraordinary.
Depending on how it was raised, a special evolution might even occur.
After twelve days in total, teaching the two pet beasts had allowed Shi Yu to tentatively determine how effective the Skill Index's teaching was.
If a pet beast hadn't mastered a skill before, it would master that skill at Entry Level proficiency after the first lesson.
The second lesson raised it from Entry Level to Proficient Level.
The fourth lesson raised it from Proficient Level to Expert Level.
Shi Yu planned to press on while his momentum lasted and see how many lessons it would take to raise Expert Level Worm Silk to Perfect Level proficiency.
Before that, though, they had been cooped up at home for far too long. Shi Yu planned to try some actual combat.
Eleven had mastered Expert Level Hardening, reached growth Level Five, and undergone a week of grueling fall training. This round of training should be considered a perfect success, and his combat strength was definitely not to be underestimated.
Now it was time to test the results.
Shi Yu opened the birdcage, and the Green Silkworm crawled inside of its own accord. It was much safer inside than outside; at least it didn't have to worry about becoming bird food.
After resting all morning, Shi Yu called out to the little Iron-Eating Beast, who was training.
"Eleven, we're pausing training this afternoon. Get plenty of rest and eat more at noon. After that, we're going to fight a real battle!"
"Aw?"
Eleven: ✪ω✪ A real battle?!
The young, weak little Iron-Eating Beast hugged the steel plate and rapped on it. Thump, thump, thump. His blood instantly began to boil.