Electric Ore

Little Bear Yan Qi didn't chat with Shi Yu for long. After all, he still had work to do.

"Eleven, let's go get you something tasty."

That afternoon, Shi Yu called Eleven out of the Beast Taming Space again.

The fatigue Eleven had accumulated from fighting and traveling that morning had almost completely disappeared after a short sleep in the Beast Taming Space. That was how powerful the Beast Taming Space was.

As for Shi Yu, after a short rest, he felt reasonably refreshed himself.

With a new goal in mind, Shi Yu didn't want to waste any more time and planned to set off again with Eleven.

"Awoo-"

Eleven's figure slowly materialized outside. Hearing the word "eat," it instinctively wiped its mouth with its arm.

Thanks to the Skill Index, Shi Yu's physique was probably among the best of beast tamers at his level.

When he prepared to set off again, the other examinees were still resting, whether they had arrived at the safe zone before or after him.

After seeing Shi Yu and the little Iron-Eating Beast leave the safe zone, they looked at one another... Hadn't those two just finished hunting five Long-Spined Wild Boars that morning?

They were going hunting again already? Were their livers okay???

If Chen Kai had been there, he would surely have said, "That's just like you two. You're role models for the rest of us."

The Magnetic Mountain area.

It was actually a mountain covered by a special electromagnetic field, an environment that gave rise to many pieces of magnetic ore called electric ore.

Electric ore was dangerous and could discharge electricity without warning, but that electricity was also a favorite snack of many lightning-element creatures.

The map in the booklet marked the Magnetic Mountain area as one of the most dangerous areas on Tianmang Mountain, home to level-ten ferocious beasts.

Most of them were lightning-element ferocious beasts, known for the attack power and destructive force of their skills.

Besides, although the special magnetic field here wasn't very strong, it was unsuitable for apprentice beast tamers with weak physiques to stay for long.

If they stayed too long, it could affect their livers and brains to some extent, causing them to hallucinate.

But dangerous or not, Shi Yu felt he still had to come. Compared with ruins and the like, this place was already quite friendly, and it even came with food.

"Is that electric ore?"

With a clear objective in mind, Shi Yu and Eleven went around some ferocious beasts to avoid wasting unnecessary stamina. After traveling for just half an hour, they reached the edge of the Magnetic Mountain area.

Where the mountain met the ground, Eleven soon spotted a special blue-and-white mineral and gave an "Awoo" to alert Shi Yu.

Electric ore was a prismatic mineral, wedged between the ground and Magnetic Mountain like jutting rocks. Electric currents shot from it from time to time, and judging by the black scorch marks around it, they didn't seem weak.

"Try breaking off a piece and eating it with your whole body hardened?" Shi Yu urged.

"Σ(°△°|||)︴Mm..."

Honestly, Eleven had never eaten electric ore before, just as it had never eaten a Green Silkworm. When it encountered a novel food like this, it always questioned whether it was edible first.

Even a foodie had standards. It wouldn't eat just anything.

If it got an upset stomach, that would affect its training.

"Don't worry, you can eat it."

The basic requirement for an Iron-Eating Beast to eat electric ore, a level-one lightning-element metal mineral resource, was Proficient Level Hardening. Eleven's Hardening was already at Expert Level, so digesting it would definitely be no problem.

"Awoo..."

Hearing that, Eleven reluctantly and cautiously approached the electric ore. It hardened its palm and gave the ore a hard tug.

Bang!

When the electric ore broke loose, a flash of electricity suddenly crackled. The sound startled Eleven so badly that it landed on its rump.

Shi Yu: "..."

How could it be so clumsy? It was so fierce in battle, yet it had managed to blast itself while mining.

"Awoo!" Eleven felt it had made a fool of itself too.

It hurriedly got up and picked up the electric ore it had dropped.

The electric current prickled all over Eleven's body, making it feel numb and causing its fur to stand on end. It was quite unused to the sensation.

Before eating either the Iron Bamboo parts or the Ironheart Wood, Eleven had been able to smell the food's fragrance in advance.

But this thing had none! On the contrary, it looked and felt extremely dangerous. Could it really be eaten?

Eleven turned and held it out to Shi Yu. How about the beast tamer eats first?

"It's fine, you eat first. Even if it makes you sick, there's nothing to fear. Your High-Speed Healing is already at Proficient Level, so even electrical burns inside your body can heal on their own."

A world-famous painting: "A benevolent master and a filial pet."

Shi Yu did have a point.

The reason Iron-Eating Beasts were required to master Proficient Level Hardening, which could armor their whole bodies, before eating electric ore was to prevent the current from damaging the delicate cells inside their bodies.

But in Eleven's case, it would actually be fine even if they were damaged.

Entry Level High-Speed Healing could heal external injuries, while Proficient Level High-Speed Healing could even heal injuries inside the body.

So there was absolutely no problem, and Shi Yu was quite reassured. With a healing skill like that, Eleven could even eat large quantities of electric ore in a short time without worrying about putting a strain on its body, allowing it to awaken its lightning-element talent faster.

Proficient Level High-Speed Healing... That was also why Shi Yu thought Eleven could eat an entire mountain in three days...

"Awoo-" Since its beast tamer had said so, Eleven put on a resolute expression.

Crunch!

It immediately hardened its entire body and bit into the electric ore it had stuffed into its mouth with its hardened teeth.

Crackle!

Eleven worked hard to chew the electric ore. With the currents jumping about, eating it felt like eating popping candy.

Once it had finished chewing, Eleven strained to swallow the fragments of electric ore.

"Mmm-"

As Eleven swallowed the electric ore, the current spreading through its body made it tingle all over again. Then Eleven was utterly astonished.

It could hardly be called delicious, but after it swallowed the electric ore, the numbing sensation that rushed over it, the feeling of lightning exploding inside its body, was very peculiar.

It didn't find the sensation unpleasant. It even felt as comfortable as it did during special training. Maybe it really could eat this?

"Burp~" Eleven opened its mouth and breathed out a faint arc of electricity, then patted its belly and looked at Shi Yu.

Is there any more?

"Hmm... Looks like there's no problem. Let's keep looking for more electric ore to eat," Shi Yu said.

According to the Bamboo Stone Dojo apprentice, after eating a large amount of electric ore, an Iron-Eating Beast would develop a certain affinity for lightning and build up a degree of lightning talent.

During this process, getting struck by lightning more often could also speed up the development of its lightning-element talent.

These were all basic conditions for mastering lightning-element skills.

In fact, Shi Yu was quite interested in lightning-element skills. If this had been some kind of flame ore or cold iron ore, he definitely wouldn't have paid it so much attention.

With the number of skills the Skill Index could record being limited, he was more inclined to have the Iron-Eating Beast learn lightning-element skills than the fire-element Cannon Fist.

The reason was simple: metal and lightning went better together than metal and fire.

For those powerful beast tamers, individual skills were merely the foundation.

Only by combining different basic skills to form combination techniques could one be considered to have truly entered the field of raising pets.

Combination techniques were very difficult for ordinary beast tamers, as they placed great demands on the proficiency of the different skills involved. If their proficiency wasn't high enough, the skills couldn't be perfectly combined and linked together.

Since skill proficiency was so difficult to train, very, very few beast tamers could use two skills to produce an effect greater than the sum of their parts. Basically, only master-level beast tamers could do it, but for Shi Yu, it might not be so difficult.

After all, he could grind proficiency quickly.

For example, if he ground Hardening up to Supreme Level, the skill could even form a long-range combination technique with a lightning-element skill.

The hallmarks of Perfect Level Hardening were flow and stacking, while those of Supreme Level were projection and application. Supposedly, only one Iron-Eating Beast in all of Icefield City had reached that level.

That meant it could use hardening material to form weapons separate from its body, or apply a layer of hardening to other external objects.

Shi Yu thought this effect was very interesting.

So Shi Yu was wondering: after Eleven mastered Supreme Level Hardening, how violent would it be to form a metal projectile in front of its palm and then accelerate and launch it with electromagnetic force?

A close-range Hardening skill would become Railgun, a dual-element, highly destructive long-range combination skill!

Metal and lightning were the main development path Shi Yu had provisionally chosen for the Iron-Eating Beast.

The vast majority of pets had only one main attribute. To form powerful combination techniques, some capable beast tamers liked to have their pets learn skills of other attributes to combine with their own. This secondary attribute was generally called a sub-attribute.

Shi Yu planned to focus on metal and supplement it with lightning, mainly because the two attributes could form combination techniques relatively easily. By comparison, fire didn't pair with metal as well as lightning did.

"Is that an Electric Pincer Scorpion?"

As they continued searching for electric ore and Electric Slimes, Shi Yu and his companions found more electric ore first. This time, instead of a single piece, there were three or four clustered together.

Unlike before, however, ferocious beasts were guarding the electric ore. Two Electric Pincer Scorpions, each the size of a forearm, with purple bodies patterned with lightning, were absorbing the electricity leaking from the ore.

[Name]: Electric Pincer Scorpion

[Attribute]: Lightning

[Species Level]: Low-Level Transcendent

[Species Skill]: Electric Sting

Electric Pincer Scorpions could absorb lightning and store it in their bodies, then use their tail stingers to inject a venomous electric current into an enemy's body, killing their opponent.

Although their species was Low-Level Transcendent, on the same level as Green Silkworms, they were far more threatening.

"Hiss!!"

Seeing other creatures approach, the two Electric Pincer Scorpions, both around growth level five, reacted as if facing a formidable enemy.

But before they could react, Eleven had already grabbed one in each hand. As for their Electric Sting, it couldn't penetrate Eleven's Hardening at all...

"Awoo awoo awoo awoo!!" Eleven swung its arms like great windmills, spinning them around a few times before flinging the Electric Pincer Scorpions far away.

Since their target was three level-ten Electric Slimes, Shi Yu simply ignored minor characters like these.

After driving away the competitors, Eleven began digging up the electric ore. Their goal... was to eat all the electric ore in the Magnetic Mountain area!

They had already paid the registration fee, so there was no need to conserve resources. Presumably, the Ping City Beast Tamer Association wouldn't miss this little bit of electric ore...