Ordinary people would have had a terrible headache dealing with these Earth-Burrowing Rats, but in the hands of Beast Tamers, even rookies like Shi Yu and the others, the job went remarkably fast.
A well-fed Earth-Burrowing Rat was roughly as strong as a wild dog in a fight and just as fierce. Put it another way: an ordinary person who ran into a wild dog would definitely be scared, even with a weapon in hand.
But against an Iron-Eating Beast whose combat strength was already taking shape and who had Super Vision, these Earth-Burrowing Rats could only count themselves unlucky. One slap apiece!
The Earth-Burrowing Rats could be glad they weren't bamboo rats and didn't taste very good, or their whole family would surely have been wiped out...
Even if they were bamboo rats, though, Eleven might not have wanted to eat them.
In this world, Iron-Eating Beasts had evolved physically and generally didn't care much for meat anymore. Instead, they loved metal ores, which was rather novel.
He wondered if there were creatures like iron-skinned rats...
"This one should count as Shi Yu's, right? Without his Iron-Eating Beast, this Earth-Burrowing Rat definitely would have escaped."
Yu Jingjing spoke as the Thorn Monster put down the Earth-Burrowing Rat, which had been wrapped up and squeezed until it could no longer move.
She had underestimated the Earth-Burrowing Rat's reactions... The Thorn Monster was a hunter in the wild, yet it hadn't managed to catch the rat right away. It seemed their training still had a way to go.
"Mm." Neither Chen Kai nor Zhuang Yue had any objections.
The reward for clearing out an Earth-Burrowing Rat was only a dozen or so yuan per rat. Even Shi Yu didn't think much of it, let alone students from well-off families like them.
As Shi Yu saw it, even if they could clear out a hundred Earth-Burrowing Rats a day, they'd barely break even once they accounted for Eleven's exertion and nutritional needs.
Then again, he wasn't here to make money. Training Super Vision was what mattered!
"Let's split up next, like we discussed in the car," Shi Yu said.
"Okay." Chen Kai nodded. "Then we'll meet back here at noon."
That would speed up the clearing, since the farmland and the mountain woods as a whole were so vast.
They would split up first and deal with any lone Earth-Burrowing Rats on their own. If they ran into a group, they would call everyone over to pool their ideas. Teamwork would be more efficient then.
"How about we see who can clear out more Earth-Burrowing Rats?" Yu Jingjing said.
"Ah..." Zhuang Yue looked at her Iron-Eating Beast and fell into thought. If they competed, she strongly suspected she'd come in last.
Why did she feel as though her Iron-Eating Beast and Shi Yu's weren't even the same species?
At that moment, Zhuang Yue's Iron-Eating Beast had already started dozing off, groggy and half-asleep, while Shi Yu's Iron-Eating Beast was still full of spirit, head held high as he looked around...
With good eyesight, everything was a sight for sore eyes.
With bad eyesight, everything looked pixelated.
That was how Eleven felt at the moment.
After settling on their plan, the four split up.
"Let's aim for twenty before noon..." Shi Yu said to Eleven, who was following beside him.
"Ow!" Eleven put on a serious expression.
No, he was going to catch two hundred!
His eyesight had finally become this good, and he wanted to make the most of it.
"I don't care how many you catch." Shi Yu looked at the huge pit from earlier. "But you're not allowed to damage their crops or fruit trees, got it?"
"Otherwise, we won't just fail to make money, we'll have to pay for the damage."
"We don't have much money, so I'll have to take it out of your food budget."
"Yip." Eleven's face fell. Looking aggrieved, he undid the hardening on the paw he'd been itching to use.
Life was so hard for him.
"We won't train Hardening today. We'll focus on your reactions. With your physical abilities, you can take down Earth-Burrowing Rats without using a skill." Shi Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
This little guy could leave marks even on steel plates now. Those fruit trees and crops really couldn't withstand him!
"But no matter how many you catch, all the reward money can go toward extra meals for you."
Shi Yu was clear about rewards and punishments, and only then did Eleven's eyes light up.
After that, Eleven raced freely across the fields.
The farmer responsible for guarding and patrolling the farmland finally arrived, following behind to count the Earth-Burrowing Rats they cleared out.
These giant rats really were troublesome. Those far from their burrows were manageable: with Eleven's explosive speed, he could easily track their movements and slap them unconscious.
But when they were close to their burrows, a few got away despite Eleven's best efforts. He was so angry he wanted Shi Yu to teach him Earth Escape on the spot so he could go underground and catch them himself.
Shi Yu was speechless.
Weren't you looking down on skills that came without effort before...?
Now you know it's good to have more skills?
But copying Earth Escape was out of the question. With a limit on how many skills the Skill Index could record, every skill he copied from now on had to be just right.
He was already so broke he'd started looking for business opportunities in Worm Silk. If he added Earth Escape, he was afraid he'd end up going straight into the dungeon construction business.
Time passed quickly.
By noon, Shi Yu and Eleven's tally stood at twenty-two, an average of one Earth-Burrowing Rat every five minutes.
Unfortunately, they hadn't run into any groups, or the number could have been higher.
At that moment, Eleven was still full of energy and searching the fields for Earth-Burrowing Rats.
A classic case of, "If the rats aren't resting, neither am I."
The other three had come back dizzy with hunger. Only Shi Yu and Eleven were still hard at work.
"Damn, you're still catching them?" Chen Kai said in disbelief.
When the three gathered near Shi Yu, the sight of Eleven racing tirelessly across the fields dealt their composure a tiny little blow.
It had been more than two hours. Did this Iron-Eating Beast really have that much energy???
Zhuang Yue's expression was especially strange. After all, her Iron-Eating Beast had started dozing off not long after getting to work...
"Well, this is a kind of training too. Aside from eating, my Iron-Eating Beast likes training best," Shi Yu said after a pause.
"Compared with his usual training... this is nothing."
The three of them: ???
"Weren't you feeling unwell this morning? How come you're so energetic now?" Chen Kai stared at Shi Yu in bewilderment.
It was one thing for an Iron-Eating Beast, a supernatural creature, not to be tired, but how was Shi Yu still so energetic too?
He'd been out in the sun for so long, yet he looked perfectly fine.
Shi Yu casually pulled out some Mind-Clearing Capsules. "Want one? They work pretty well."
The three took another tiny little blow to their composure.
After all, when normal people got tired, their first instinct was to rest. But Shi Yu... he took supplements to get back in shape???
He was pushing himself way too hard.
"I think I know how I lost to the Beast Tamers who go to school in the city."
Chen Kai instinctively imagined students in the city staying up late, popping pills to study.
It wasn't scary when others were more talented than you. What was scary was when they worked harder than you too!
Damn it! He'd lost completely.
"H-how many have you cleared out?"
Zhuang Yue looked at Eleven in the distance, who seemed to belong to a completely different world from her own Iron-Eating Beast, and asked Shi Yu.
"What about you?" Shi Yu asked in return.
"Six," Yu Jingjing said.
"Seven," Chen Kai said.
Zhuang Yue said, "My Iron-Eating Beast is too stupid. Just two."
"Ow-"
Eleven happened to return just then and caught a few key words he understood: Iron-Eating Beast and stupid. He immediately took offense.
Don't tar every Iron-Eating Beast with the same brush...
You couldn't lump all Iron-Eating Beasts together when it came to physical ability!
The patrolling farmer responsible for cleaning up after Shi Yu and the others came back with him.
"Don't say that. This little Iron-Eating Beast is the most efficient pet beast I've ever seen. He caught twenty-two Earth-Burrowing Rats in just two hours. Mighty impressive."
He had only seen that kind of efficiency in certain eagle-type pet beasts. He couldn't have imagined it from an Iron-Eating Beast.
Twenty-two???
The other three couldn't quite wrap their heads around it.
Twenty-two? Was he sure it wasn't twelve, but twenty-two???
Zhuang Yue was dumbfounded too. Eleven times her total? Was he sure he wasn't joking?
"Let's eat our boxed lunches and rest first," Shi Yu said.
They had a see-through cheat, so there was no point comparing.
Eating was what mattered!
The village committee staff had brought them boxed lunches. After a quick meal, they still had to keep working.
That was what the four had asked for from the start. After all, they had come to train, so a simple lunch would do. There was no need for a proper lunch break either; a short rest was enough.
The four then each took a boxed lunch and began eating a simple meal, with cold bottled water to go with it.
Zhuang Yue's Iron-Eating Beast, Chen Kai's Ice Armor Beast, and Yu Jingjing's Thorn Monster had all been recalled to their Beast Taming Spaces to rest. Eleven alone... was still outside.
After wolfing down a few mouthfuls of the bamboo shoot rations Shi Yu had brought in his backpack, he ran off to train by himself again, not wanting to waste too much time.
He felt his explosive speed was still too slow. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let so many Earth-Burrowing Rats get away.
Every rat that escaped meant losing a section of bamboo...
With a heavy heart, Eleven began sprinting back and forth along the paths through the fields.
The sight left Chen Kai and the other two utterly bewildered.
Watching the disciplined and diligent Eleven, Zhuang Yue, Chen Kai, and Yu Jingjing felt a tightness in their chests. They couldn't understand what was going on.
Even with bottled water, they found their boxed lunches awfully hard to swallow.
They looked at Shi Yu, who seemed to think this was perfectly normal.
"Does... does your Iron-Eating Beast not need to rest???" Zhuang Yue finally voiced her question.
This wasn't scientific. Iron-Eating Beasts weren't supposed to be like this!!
She had spent so long choosing at the breeding base back then. How had she not found an Iron-Eating Beast this lively and vigorous?!
"Otherwise, why do you think he was able to master Expert Level Hardening?" Shi Yu remained perfectly calm throughout.
The three were instantly speechless. That made so much sense.
But a Beast Tamer who carried supplements around and an Iron-Eating Beast who practiced shuttle sprints at noon instead of sleeping-you two weren't normal!!!