Copying Size Alteration

"What are those two doing?"

The Magnetic Mountain Area was obviously another area receiving special attention.

In the monitoring room at the training base headquarters, Shi Yu had briefly claimed first place in points with five Long-Spined Wild Boars, making him a major focus of the five professional Beast Tamers.

On a whim, one of the professional Beast Tamers searched the monitors for Shi Yu and actually found him.

But what Shi Yu was doing now had left him utterly baffled.

On the screen, Shi Yu and the Iron-Eating Beast barged into the territories of one lightning-type ferocious beast after another like a pair of bullies.

The little Iron-Eating Beast then knocked each beast down in a few moves, and that was where things took a turn.

Shi Yu and the Iron-Eating Beast showed no sign of remembering they were taking part in a training assessment. They simply tossed the beasts far away, seemingly unconcerned about the points they represented.

They did dig up the Electric Ore, which was also worth points, but they had no intention of exchanging it for points either.

Instead, the Iron-Eating Beast opened his mouth and, with a crunch, polished off every last bit.

They robbed as they went...

"Expert Level Hardening. There's something off about that Iron-Eating Beast."

A professional Beast Tamer leaned over to watch the screen, his mouth slightly open. "Where did this monster of a rookie come from?"

Truly outstanding Beast Tamers and pets couldn't stay hidden. Shi Yu and his pet had been able to effortlessly defeat every beast in their path in an instant thanks to Expert Level Hardening, backed by Proficient Level Super Vision.

They won every battle and swept all before them.

The professional Beast Tamers quickly noticed what made Shi Yu and Eleven exceptional and spoke up in surprise.

"No wonder they could hunt five wild boars. I was nowhere near their level when I was an apprentice."

"This candidate obviously can't be bothered with those small point values. His target must be a level-ten creature."

"Judging by that Iron-Eating Beast's performance on screen, he should have no problem fighting a level-ten creature."

"The level-ten creatures in the Magnetic Mountain Area... they're those three Electric Slimes brought in from outside, right???"

Zhou Wanshan, the person in charge of the entire training exercise, said, "They are slimes. I wonder if those two can handle them."

"But even if they can't, they'll have no trouble retreating in one piece."

Slimes were exceptionally slow creatures. Anyone who could pass a high school physical fitness test would never be caught by a slime hopping after them.

On the other hand, even if Shi Yu and his pet could defeat an Electric Slime, they would probably have to pay a price.

The main issue was that an Electric Slime's Discharge was a lightning-type skill known for its powerful penetration and destructive force. With a four-level difference between them, even Expert Level Hardening might not let Eleven come away unscathed as he had against those lower-level beasts.

Tianmang Mountain, Magnetic Mountain Area, electrical cavern.

After eating a pile of Electric Ore, Eleven had successfully committed its taste to memory.

Then, relying on his keen sense of smell, Shi Yu and Eleven found the place.

"Finally found one, the first Electric Slime."

Outside the small cavern, Shi Yu looked excited. He had finally found an Electric Slime.

An Electric Slime was a bluish-purple creature resembling a lump of sludge, much like Electric Ore, with electric currents occasionally shooting from its body.

At the moment, it lay in a shrunken state amid a pile of Electric Ore. It wasn't afraid of the currents spreading around it; on the contrary, it looked quite comfortable.

Given their attributes and physiques, they were immune to weak elemental forces of the corresponding attribute. Lightning nourished them rather than harmed them.

"They found an Electric Slime."

Now that Shi Yu and the Iron-Eating Beast had finally reached the electrical cavern, the professional Beast Tamers watched with interest.

Although the Iron-Eating Beast looked agile and had astounding strength, he clearly hadn't mastered a ranged skill.

If they fought, he would inevitably come into contact with the slime.

And the slime's entire body was wrapped in electricity. Anyone who touched it would be hit by its Discharge, making it a particularly tricky opponent.

So, in their eyes, this battle promised to be quite a spectacle, an exciting contest between evenly matched opponents.

Inside the electrical cavern, the Electric Slime sensed enemies approaching and immediately snapped out of its meal. It hopped out and watched Shi Yu and Eleven warily.

A great battle was about to erupt.

Just then, events took an unexpected turn.

Shi Yu quickly opened his backpack and tossed Eleven the high-voltage insulating rubber gloves he'd bought. "Put these on, grab it, and squeeze the electricity out of it."

"Ow!"

Eleven deftly put on the insulating gloves. Clearly, this was a tactic Shi Yu and Eleven had arranged in advance.

Then, under the dumbfounded gazes of the professional Beast Tamers, the little Iron-Eating Beast charged at the Electric Slime in his insulating gloves.

At the same time, electric currents spread across the Electric Slime's body, and it bounced toward Eleven to ram him while using Discharge.

Discharge was a low-level skill that could only release electricity through contact. It also offered little control over the current, so it was easy to counter.

Without a doubt, the slime wasn't particularly strong physically. What made it strong was the intensity of its electric current.

But its lightning-type skill, which hadn't reached the Transcendent Level, met the high-voltage insulating rubber gloves like a son meeting his father and immediately fizzled out.

As it jumped, Eleven caught it in his hands like a baseball.

Crackle!

The Electric Slime discharged electricity continuously in midair, utterly bewildered.

Eleven, who had caught the slime in his insulating gloves, turned his head aside, not daring to look directly at the currents shooting from its body.

This is so scary. It doesn't look like I can eat it like Electric Ore...

"Fuck." The turn of events made the professional Beast Tamers in the main monitoring room gape.

What was going on?

They could do that?

"Does the base store sell insulating gloves?"

"I think so?"

"But no Beast Tamer before has had the clear-headed idea to put them on a pet to challenge a lightning-type ferocious beast... Don't they usually wear them themselves?"

"The main thing is that everything formidable about an Electric Slime lies in its Discharge and defense. Its other abilities are completely ordinary, and insulating gloves happen to counter it perfectly!"

"Who caught those slimes and made them worth so many points?"

The professional Beast Tamers were dumbfounded. Had a slime, one of the level-ten creatures worth the most points in the training exercise, been subdued just like that?

This was bad. The other two slimes might also fall victim to this Beast Tamer's ingenious scheme.

Were those 12,000 points practically being given away?

"Don't worry... it's not that simple," Zhou Wanshan said with a complicated expression.

"That's it, Eleven. Squeeze it and make it keep discharging, keep discharging..."

As Eleven and the slime "battled," Shi Yu fanned the flames from the sidelines.

Aside from Discharge, the Electric Slime's physical strength was trash. It had no chance of breaking free.

Its defense was strong, though, because a slime's sludge-like body could withstand tremendous impacts. Even a punch with Hardening might not take it down in one hit.

But Shi Yu and Eleven had no need to waste their strength hitting it.

They just had to squeeze it with the insulating gloves and wait for it to release all the electricity in its body.

That was called "tactics."

"Whoosh!!!"

The Electric Slime was furious at the indignity.

It released its current even more fiercely, but it still couldn't affect the insulating gloves.

In fact, it really wasn't that easy to exploit a bug against a level-ten boss.

Even when countered like this, the slime still had a chance to resist.

It was just that the Electric Slime was very unwilling to use this skill unless it was backed into a corner.

The high-level skill, Size Alteration!

If it used Size Alteration, its strength would increase and it could unleash more of the current in its body, but as for the side effect... it would probably be drained of energy for a long time.

The slime clan's guiding principle was to shrink down and act cute whenever possible, and never use Size Alteration to become a slime demon king unless circumstances were exceptional.

And now, backed into a corner, the Electric Slime had clearly encountered exceptional circumstances.

"Woo!!!!"

It cried out in fury and began growing larger and larger. At that point, no matter how strong Eleven was, he could no longer hold it between his hands and was forced to retreat.

Crackle!!!

As the Electric Slime rapidly expanded, Shi Yu's eyes lit up.

I'm not afraid of you getting bigger. That's exactly what I've been waiting for.

"Eleven, use Hardening on your whole body," Shi Yu immediately ordered.

While the Electric Slime was growing, Eleven finished hardening his entire body.

The next second, the Electric Slime, finally free of his grip, counterattacked, ramming straight into him with its discharging body wreathed in electric current.

Now that the Electric Slime had expanded to a diameter of one and a half meters, both the force of its impact and the intensity of its current were much greater than before.

Bang!!!

Eleven struck out with a paw as well, and for an instant, neither side gained the upper hand.

The huge Electric Slime was sent flying by Eleven's swat, but its soft body kept the damage to a minimum.

Although Eleven was wearing insulating gloves, the giant slime was releasing and shooting out far too much current. After all, Eleven was only wearing gloves, not an insulating suit, so he couldn't defend against it completely.

Current still managed to enter other parts of his body, and Hardening, with its metallic properties, couldn't completely block it either. The combination of Size Alteration and Discharge was already beginning to take shape as a combo skill.

"The tables have turned."

"Although the Electric Slime has exhausted itself, that Iron-Eating Beast can't be feeling good either."

"I'm guessing they'll both end up badly hurt."

The professional Beast Tamers sat back and enjoyed the show.

But then the tables turned yet again. Eleven finally put Proficient Level High-Speed Healing to use in actual combat.

Although it couldn't be seen from outside, the parts of Eleven's body that had been paralyzed and burned by the current were immediately healed by a surge of green life fluctuations.

"Ow, ow, ow!!!" Once healed, Eleven fought with renewed courage and charged at the giant Electric Slime again as if nothing had happened.

The sight shattered the professional Beast Tamers' understanding of the world.

"Is Expert Level Hardening really that strong? It can even defend against that giant Discharge?"

"Or does that Iron-Eating Beast have such strong willpower that he endured the current and launched a fierce counterattack?"

After all, Eleven had a history of eating Electric Ore like candy.

By now, the slime was bewildered again, because that last move had completely drained its energy.

It had wasted too much electricity after being caught at the start, leaving it unable to counterattack after using Size Alteration...

"Grab it and keep squeezing it dry," came Shi Yu's wicked command from the side.

Outside the electrical cavern.

The Electric Slime, drained of all its energy, had grown much dimmer. It truly didn't have a single spark of electricity left, and it had returned to its normal size.

It had fallen completely asleep in the arms of an excited, panting Eleven.

Just then, Shi Yu walked over with a smile and stroked the slime with a hand full of affection.

The Skill Index had started with five skill slots. After he formed a contract with his first pet, Eleven, five more had been added.

Next, the index would record its seventh skill, Size Alteration.

As for Discharge, its skill level was too low, and it wasn't as good as Thunder Palm, so Shi Yu chose to pass on it.

As he reached out to touch the slime, Shi Yu recalled the sight of the Size Alteration skill and activated the Skill Index.

The next moment, the seventh page of the stone index opened in Shi Yu's mind.

An image appeared of the Electric Slime, a lightning-type pet with a medium species level.

[Skill]: Size Alteration

[Skill level]: High

[Description]: A special-type ability that can shrink or enlarge the body. In the shrunken state, strength decreases and energy recovery speed increases. In the enlarged state, energy consumption and strength increase.

The all-purpose skill is mine!

All right!

As Shi Yu kneaded the level-ten Electric Slime in his hands like modeling clay, every professional Beast Tamer in the main monitoring room fell silent.

Defeating it wasn't enough for him; he actually dared to manhandle a level-ten creature himself? That Beast Tamer and pet were terrifying. Were they really apprentice rookies???