"All right..."
A moment later, Luo Yu more or less accepted that July also had a great talent for fishing...
As for why it didn't show up on the talent panel... perhaps even the panel didn't think a talent for fishing was of any use.
And in fact, it did seem pretty useless.
"But not everything has to be 'useful.'"
"Meaning is something you give it yourself... as long as you like it, that's enough."
He was actually the same way. Back in school, Luo Yu had already discovered his own talent. It was probably a talent for languages, wasn't it?
Whether it was English, Japanese, Russian, or some other language, he picked it up quickly. By rights, he should have applied for a foreign-language major and found work in a related field, making use of his strengths.
But although he had a talent for languages, Luo Yu didn't like them, so he resolutely applied for an animal science major instead.
Thus, in his own outlook on life, "interest" came before "talent."
After noticing July's talent for fishing, and seeing that he genuinely enjoyed it, Luo Yu suddenly changed his mind.
He would add "fishing" to July's special training, giving him more time to pursue his hobby.
As for whether it would waste his effort?
Luo Yu didn't think so.
A mutant beast's strength didn't depend solely on its mastery of its "special ability." It involved all sorts of other factors.
For example, general qualities like concentration, reaction speed, coordination, and perception... could all play a decisive role in battle.
He thought it over. Since the little penguin was interested in fishing, it seemed like a good idea. Fishing as a sport seemed capable of training certain qualities.
For example, anglers had to wait a long time for their prey to bite and keep their impatience in check, which trained patience and concentration.
Then there was emotional control. Going a long time without a bite or having a big fish slip off the hook could easily frustrate an angler.
And observation, physical coordination, reaction speed... none of those could be dispensed with, either.
The more Luo Yu thought about it, the more he realized that fishing could train quite a few overall abilities.
"Those who raise pet beasts according to mainstream, commonly accepted experience can only be considered ordinary Beast Tamers."
"Only those who can raise pet beasts according to each individual's talents can be considered excellent Beast Tamers."
"And only someone like me, who can raise a pet beast by combining its 'talents' and 'interests,' can be considered a top-tier Beast Tamer! As expected of you, Luo Yu." Luo Yu patted himself on the shoulder, having convinced himself in no time.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
July's talent for fishing was indeed astonishing.
That group of Ink Fish with "ordinary talents" soon became his fishing targets. After getting a little practice fishing for live prey, he quickly conquered the Ink Fish pond.
Catch one, release it, catch one, release it... the entire Ink Fish clan was loyal and heroic to the last. Those with good talents became subjects for breeding experiments, while those with poor talents became sparring partners for fishing practice.
Unfortunately, the Ink Fish were too stupid and too easy to catch, so they weren't much help in training July. If they'd been even a tenth as clever as ordinary octopuses, July definitely wouldn't have had such an easy time.
After giving it careful thought, Luo Yu released the batches of native loaches he'd bought into the pond as well.
These things... were much more agile than the Ink Fish.
Even though July had the makings of a Great Emperor and an astonishing talent for fishing, he came back empty-handed every time he faced the conceptual god of "slippery as a loach."
Their bodies were so slippery that even after being hooked, they only had to wriggle a few times to slip right off. They tormented July to no end, successfully training his emotional control.
"Wuji..."
July's resentment toward the native loaches was so great that he couldn't forget them even while training his special ability and talent.
Underground, July was supposed to be calming his mind and concentrating on resonating with the power of the earth veins. Instead, his mind was now entirely occupied by native loaches.
His thoughts began to run wild, and he couldn't concentrate enough to properly sense the power deep within the earth.
His mind wandered, and he saw things, remembering the loaches slipping off the hook time and again...
"Still too young. This is a good chance to train his resistance to pressure." Seeing this, Luo Yu, who was reading nearby, shook his head. Beginners were always impatient. Unlike him, who remained unruffled even when he went half a day without a catch...
"It just slipped off the hook at the crucial moment, that's all. Take it easy..."
Luo Yu comforted July, but the next moment, he suddenly sensed something was wrong.
Just a little more... just a little more and he would have caught it... As the little penguin kept replaying the fishing attempts, his whole body heated up. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and his body grew scorching hot. Then things seemed to slip a little beyond his control.
He realized that his body temperature, which should only have risen slightly from anger, was now continuing to climb rapidly.
His body suddenly erupted like a gigantic furnace, frightening July into scrambling out of the ground.
Boom!!!
July leaped out, and Luo Yu immediately saw a little penguin with scalding heat rising all over him, the air around him blurred by the high temperature.
A blazing red flame enveloped the little penguin, making him look like an erupting volcano, with astonishing heat radiating from him.
Volcano Talent, activated!
"It worked?!"
Luo Yu froze, finding it hard to believe.
"Thinking about failing to catch fish made him so angry he heated up, and that caused the resonance? I knew the fishing training method really worked."
Scalding heat rose from the little penguin's body. Judging by how hot it felt, Luo Yu reckoned the temperature around him had definitely already exceeded 100 degrees.
"Coo, coo, ga, ga." At that temperature, the little penguin looked a little uncomfortable. Every part of his body felt like it was burning, and his throat had even become inflamed, changing his voice. His cute cries were gone, replaced by hoarse, unintelligible sounds.
That was normal. After all, people's voices also changed when they had a fever.
At this temperature... if he were one of the other mutant fish in the water, he would probably have turned into grilled fish long ago.
But his feathers showed no sign of catching fire. His physique had already been perfectly transformed by his top-tier talent.
"Don't be afraid."
"Calm yourself down first."
"You can control this heat. You have the talent for it."
Luo Yu reminded him through mental communication. July nodded with difficulty.
Soon, July shed his flames. The heat surrounding him began to fade, and the little penguin panted as he returned to his original state.
"Coo ga..." His face was full of lingering fear.
Then he looked at the pond and wanted to take a cold bath...
A moment later, Luo Yu fished the little penguin out with practiced ease.
"Coo ga..." He sat on the ground, his face once again full of lingering fear.
"All right, all right," Luo Yu said. "Try to find that feeling again and dry yourself off."
"Coo ga..." The little penguin nodded.
"Remember to learn to control the temperature. Just like you control how hard you pull the fishing rod, you can control that heat too."
Luo Yu could tell that at the little penguin's current level, he wasn't nearly strong enough to condense magma. He could only temporarily raise the temperature around himself.
So what he needed to train now went without saying... he had to learn to keep the temperature within a range his body could withstand!
The strength used to pull the fishing rod... Luo Yu's example made the little penguin sink into thought. He closed his eyes and once again recalled the frustration of failing to catch the loaches, just as he had before.
His body began to heat up, resonating with the power deep within the earth, and his temperature began to rise rapidly...
Thanks to his previous experience, the little penguin handled it well this time. When his body temperature rose enough to make him slightly uncomfortable, he immediately stopped the endless rise, as if easing up on his strength.
The next moment, a glowing, heat-emitting creature stood before Luo Yu like a little sun.
Feeling the high temperature coming off the little penguin, who was "hot enough to make the air blur," Luo Yu took out a thermometer and tucked it between his wings.
Before long, the reading on the thermometer began to soar.
It finally stopped at 220.
"Holy shit!" Luo Yu exclaimed. The little penguin's surface temperature had actually reached 220 degrees.
At that temperature, proteins could already be carbonized.
If an Ink Fish were to touch the little penguin now, its tentacles and flesh would instantly dry out and char.
For an ordinary creature, this was already a highly lethal temperature, yet the little penguin now seemed to be handling it with ease.
A top-tier talent was terrifying indeed!
But the state didn't last more than a few seconds before the little penguin plopped down on his bottom, as though all his strength had been drained.
"..." Exhausted, he wiped away his sweat.
"Obviously, although this temperature doesn't make his body uncomfortable, it still continually consumes his stamina... he soon has trouble sustaining it."
Luo Yu fished out a sticky loach for the little penguin to eat and replenish his strength.
The little penguin, who had been exhausted, instantly pounced on it.
Watching him eat like crazy, Luo Yu stroked his chin and said, "Surrounding his whole body with heat is still too wasteful of his strength."
"He's too weak right now. He has to maximize the efficiency of his energy use."
"He's very talented and managed to control the temperature on his first try. After some simple training, concentrating the heat only in his 'wings,' 'feet,' or 'beak' shouldn't be impossible."
"That way, he'll have some fighting ability."
"When the heat is concentrated in his beak, he can instantly cook food, killing some parasites and toxic substances."
"High-temperature wings can inflict severe burns on an enemy the moment he swings them. They're his main means of close combat."
"High-temperature tread can severely scorch whatever he steps on... it's suited to dealing with larger enemies, by jumping onto their bodies and damaging them."
Luo Yu felt that the little penguin could train toward heating specific parts of his body next.
As for condensing magma and creating earth... judging by how much he struggled now... they would take it one step at a time.
He also came up with corresponding skill names for these three directions of talent development.
High-temperature wings: Blazing Blade.
High-temperature beak: Sun Peck.
High-temperature tread: Flame Tread! Luo Yu felt that as long as July mastered these three talent skills, it wasn't impossible for him to take on a Mid-Rank Species!