Two hours later.
Shi Yu came out of the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base, thoroughly satisfied.
Page six of the Skill Index.
[Skill]: Hardening [Skill level]: Low [Description]: A metal-type skill that hardens the body, acting like invisible armor. It can also be developed into offensive power. [Status]: No suitable target for teaching
Copying the Hardening skill had gone quite smoothly for Shi Yu. He had only done one simple thing: feed a wild Iron-Eating Beast.
Unlike young Iron-Eating Beasts, which gnawed on iron bamboo like bones before they awakened Hardening, adult Iron-Eating Beasts armed their teeth with Hardening before eating.
Then they ate the iron bamboo, which was as hard as steel. This multiplied their eating speed: one stalk per bite, with a satisfying crunch.
Shi Yu fed one a stalk of iron bamboo, gently stroked it afterward, and got the skill.
"I won't need to come back for at least a month."
Shi Yu, now a true Beast Tamer, said this after leaving the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base.
Besides taking Iron-Eating Beast Cub Number Eleven with him, he also carried a backpack full of premium bamboo shoots. They were Eleven's food for tomorrow.
Unlike bamboo on Earth, the mutated plants here were highly nutritious, with a nutritional value comparable to some meats. Iron-Eating Beasts' digestive organs were also completely different from those of ordinary giant pandas, so as long as the bamboo was good enough, they might not need to wolf down dozens of pounds a day just to get a little nutrition.
Still, iron bamboo was only the most basic food for Iron-Eating Beasts. There were certainly plenty of more expensive upgrades, though Shi Yu probably couldn't afford them for now.
Make money!
Now that he was a Beast Tamer, he had to find a way to make money first.
He himself was easy to take care of; he just needed enough to keep from starving. But if his Iron-Eating Beast was to grow quickly and strong, skills alone weren't enough. Its nutrition had to keep up too.
Before that, he needed to hurry home and get himself and Eleven settled in.
Food, drink, and shelter were all important.
Before long, Shi Yu arrived home.
Ping City now had many high-rises, but Shi Yu's old home was a large, single-story courtyard house.
For Shi Yu, a single-story house was actually better than living in a high-rise.
After all, now that he was a Beast Tamer, living in an apartment building would be inconvenient for training his pet beast.
He would have to rent a training ground, which would be troublesome and a waste of money.
This place, on the other hand, was a little old, but spacious and open-a perfectly good training ground.
After returning home, Shi Yu casually tossed down his luggage. Finding the place covered in dust, he decided to give it a thorough cleaning first.
But how could he do all the work alone...
Panda Eleven, my partner!
My turn, summon!
A transparent, circular summoning array appeared in front of Shi Yu. Amid ripples like water, Iron-Eating Beast Eleven crawled out.
The colors of the spatial barrier and summoning array differed according to the level of the Beast Taming Space.
For an apprentice Beast Tamer like Shi Yu, the spatial barrier and summoning array were transparent, almost colorless.
Eleven, summoned from the Beast Taming Space, looked rather dazed, as if it had just woken up.
It quickly shook itself a few times, ruffling its soft black-and-white fur. Once its whole body felt much more relaxed, it turned to look at Shi Yu, who had summoned it.
Eleven wagged its short tail slightly. Now that it had become Shi Yu's pet beast, it was no longer like it had been earlier, crying, "Never be a slave!" and "Fear nothing!" A natural sense of closeness had already formed between it and Shi Yu.
This connection between their minds was even closer than the connection of blood.
Eleven instinctively walked over to Shi Yu and rubbed against his leg, melting his heart.
It looks... much better behaved!
Reassured, Shi Yu smiled like a proud father.
"Come on, I'll teach you Hardening first!"
He could handle the cleaning alone. The Iron-Eating Beast was so cute; how could he let it tire itself out? Training was tiring enough already!
Yes, first I'll establish a good image of myself in the Iron-Eating Beast's eyes.
"Aw?"
Iron-Eating Beast Eleven stood up. Hardening?
Come to think of it...
It held out a fist. The next second, its black-furred fist immediately turned even darker and harder, taking on a metallic sheen. It was the Hardening ability.
After entering the Beast Taming Space and taking a nap, Eleven had finally awakened it.
It was really comfortable there. Eleven felt less hungry there, slept more soundly, and felt warm all over. Its mind had become clearer, too.
It had mastered the Hardening ability it had been unable to awaken no matter what it tried before, just by taking a nap.
Shi Yu: ???
Shi Yu: ???
Shi Yu rubbed his eyes and looked at Eleven's fist.
What!
You awakened it yourself?
I just said I'd teach you, and you went and learned it yourself beforehand?
Shi Yu fell silent. Was Lin Xiuzhu reliable or not? Hadn't she said it would take about a week for Eleven to awaken the Hardening skill?
Why was it so fast?
Shi Yu was happy, but he also had a stomachache. He had been so looking forward to the admiring look on the Iron-Eating Beast's face after he taught it Hardening.
"Let's clean the courtyard instead."
Eleven: o((⊙﹏⊙))o.?
Cl-clean?
"Forget it, forget it." Seeing Eleven's bewildered expression, Shi Yu decided to let it go.
There was no hurry to clean. He had suddenly remembered that the Skill Index could teach skills a target had already learned. Teaching a skill again could increase its proficiency!
Skill proficiency was very important too. Even with the same skill, the effect would surely differ between a pet beast that had just mastered it and one that had used it for ten years.
It wasn't impossible for a low-level skill with high proficiency to crush a high-level skill with low proficiency.
Shi Yu took out the basic Iron-Eating Beast breeding manual Lin Xiuzhu had given him.
The proficiency of an Iron-Eating Beast's Hardening ability-no, of all skills-could basically be divided into five stages.
The manual had already summed them up. Skill proficiency could roughly be described with five words.
Beginner, proficient, expert, perfect, transcendent!
They represented the beginner, proficient, expert, perfect, and transcendent stages, respectively.
The Hardening ability Eleven had just mastered was at the beginner stage. Having only just learned the basics, it could harden only one part of its body at a time.
According to the manual, once it reached the proficient stage, it would be able to harden roughly its entire body.
Generally speaking, bringing a low-level skill from the beginner stage to the proficient stage required at least a month of serious training.
Shi Yu was curious how many days' worth of proficiency teaching it once with the Skill Index would provide.
He looked at Eleven, which was examining its surroundings, and sank into thought.
Come to think of it, teaching with the Skill Index seems to consume stamina.
How much stamina would teaching the low-level skill Hardening once consume?
Having never tried it, Shi Yu really wasn't sure. He seemed to have been a little hasty just now. What if teaching a low-level skill exhausted him to death?
"Why don't I first test the consumption with the Skill Index's trashiest ungraded skill, Worm Silk?"
After all, the lower the skill's level, the less it consumed.
It seemed worth a try...
Unfortunately, Shi Yu would have to find another test subject. The Iron-Eating Beast had no compatibility with Worm Silk at all, so he couldn't teach it the skill.
Asking an Iron-Eating Beast to spin silk was too much for it.
"Since you've already learned a skill, why don't we... have our first battle?"
Shi Yu suddenly looked at the two persimmon trees in his courtyard.
More precisely, he looked at a green figure on one of the trees.
A Green Silkworm lay on a branch, resting at its leisure. It was bold enough that it wasn't even afraid of being eaten by a passing bird.
The Green Silkworm, a disgrace to the transcendent world, was pitifully weak in battle. Even an ordinary sparrow, a mortal creature that wasn't transcendent and had never evolved, stood a chance of killing one.
At the same time, they could be found everywhere. The moment Shi Yu saw it, he felt there could be no better test subject.
One look at this Green Silkworm showed it was malnourished, noticeably thinner than those raised at the pet beast base.
Generally, a Green Silkworm like this would never be able to evolve in its lifetime... Most ended up as food for birds... But this Green Silkworm was lucky to have met him, Shi Yu.
I'll give you a chance to get some free Worm Silk proficiency!
"Catch it and bring it down. Be gentle."
Shi Yu gave the order. Eleven looked at the Green Silkworm and froze for a moment.
This little thing was the opponent for its first battle?
Still, it had to carry out its Beast Tamer's order. It immediately climbed the tree and snapped the branch the Green Silkworm was on with one swipe of its paw. It didn't even use a skill. The Green Silkworm promptly fell along with the branch.
The fall left the Green Silkworm a teeny bit dazed.
"Aw."
Won, won! Iron-Eating Beast Eleven called out happily from the tree.
Its first battle-anyone with hands could've done that.
"Nice!" The Iron-Eating Beast was still just a child, after all, so Shi Yu gave it a little praise.
Raising a pet beast was like raising a child. You had to praise it often, not criticize it all the time.
Green Silkworm: ???