Chapter 16: Expert Level

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The Year 177 of the Alliance calendar, July 7th.

It had been three and a half months since Shi Yu had come to this world. It had also been four days since he became a Beast Tamer.

On the first day, Shi Yu’s contractual pet, Iron-Eating Beast Eleven, awakened the Hardening skill and welcomed its first victory, defeating the beast with the greatest population, the silkworms.

The next day, Shi Yu used the Skill Duplication Book to upgrade Eleven’s Hardening Skill to the proficient level.

On the third day, Eleven was training like always, upgrading its hardening ability daily.

On the fourth day, the Iron-Eating Beast reached Level 4 and learned an Intermediate healing skill. Then, it started its “falling” training…

Falling training was a good way to train. If the steel plate at the landing point was not broken, it meant that Eleven’s hardening strength was not enough, and it could continue training.

If the steel plate broke, it meant that the training had paid off. At that time, there would be no need to worry about the broken steel plate being wasted because it could still be fed to the iron-eating beast.

By then, it should have the ability to eat and digest metal matter.

Therefore, not only did Shi Yu buy training equipment, but he also bought Eleven’s spare food. This cost-to-effect ratio was really too high… and Shi Yu felt suffocated by his own intelligence.

On the fifth and sixth days, Shi Yu began to recuperate and recover from the weakness brought about by the teaching of the healing skill.

In the past two days, Eleven’s appetite had doubled again. The frequent use of the two skills made it consume a lot of food, and it relied more on the nutrients in its food rather than the Beast Taming Space.

On the seventh day, a week after becoming a Beast Tamer, Shi Yu was shocked to discover that using the Skill Index affected more than just stamina. There were also hidden benefits.

As long as he had enough nutrition, every time he recovered, his physique would increase slightly, just like how the consumption from using the index was equivalent to the consumption from exercising.

This discovery suddenly made Shi Yu feel that there was nothing wrong with frequently teaching skills to enter a weakened state. After all, the body was the capital to control beasts.

On the same day, Shi Yu used the skill index again and taught Eleven the Hardening skill again.

After this lesson, the proficiency of Hardening did not reach expert level. However, compared to before, Eleven was indeed better at Hardening.

Currently, it was already proficient in various states. It could simultaneously harden multiple body parts without affecting its movements.

But still, it wasn’t enough, and the minor improvement made Eleven very uneasy. Therefore, it trained even harder, and clear marks appeared on the alloy steel plate.

On the eighth day, Shi Yu recuperated.

On the ninth day, Shi Yu continued to teach Eleven the Hardening skill. This time, Eleven’s hardening skill proficiency had finally reached the expert level.

Being in the expert level of Hardening Skill, the Iron-Eating Beast could use it to fight without affecting its movements!

After its skill proficiency increased, Eleven’s growth level increased again, and it reached Level 5.

Iron-Eating Beast: ๐·°(৹˃̵_˂̵৹)°·๐ I really didn’t cheat!

The uneasiness in Eleven’s heart grew stronger even as the marks on the alloy steel plate deepened.

“If it’s to the proficient level of hardening, an iron-eating beast would need to train hard for a month under superior training conditions.

“In that case, the expert-level hardening skill would require the iron-eating beast to train hard for a year under superior training conditions.”

If they trained hard, it would be best if they did not sleep at all.

—No, normal Iron-Eating Beasts did not train this hard.

Now, they had only used a week to accomplish this.

Training hard and not sleeping, that was an extreme routine. Beasts didn’t train so hard in the first place. However, in the courtyard, Shi Yu, who was leaning against a chair, analyzed Eleven’s growth. He felt that becoming a professional Beast Tamer was a very stable thing.

Both he and Eleven had a bright future ahead of them.

On the 10th day, he rested.

After that, Shi Yu did not use the skill book to continue increasing Eleven’s Hardening Skill proficiency.

From beginner to proficient, one “lesson” had been enough. From proficient to expert, it seemed to require two lessons… Then, from expert to perfected… what would that take?

The sign of the Perfected-Level Proficiency of Hardening Skill was “Flow”.

Expert Level Hardening could already harden the Iron-Eating Beast’s entire body, while Perfected-Level Hardening could make the hardened area flow like liquid on the Iron-Eating Beast’s body, superimposing to form an even stronger effect.

When an attack was needed, the hardened part would flow into the sharp claws, forming a weapon with stronger attack power.

When they needed to defend, the hardening would flow to the defensive parts, creating the thickest armor and taking the lightest hits.

In essence, it was an increase in the efficiency of the usage of strength. It could concentrate all its strength at one point in order to pursue extreme output and defense.

The perfected level was already the pinnacle of skill proficiency for ordinary pets. It would definitely require more teaching, but Shi Yu planned to experiment with the Green Silk Worm first. After all, the cooldown time for teaching silkworms was relatively short.

Furthermore, he had been raising this green silk insect for 10 days already. He had decided to cultivate the worm silk, but he had yet to take action… He could not delay any longer.

On the 11th day, Shi Yu took down the birdcage from the tree. The green silkworm inside felt that something needed to be done, so it calmly turned around and changed its lying position.

If it was the time when Shi Yu had just caught it, it would still have had some resistance. But now, after it had listened to the sound of Eleven and the steel plate colliding every day, it had no resistance at all.

Besides, it did not need to do anything now. Every day, Shi Yu would place the food in the birdcage.

Where else would this bug find such a perfect living environment?

In addition, Shi Yu had been using this low-IQ green silkworm to practice telepathy for the past 10 days. It had understood that Shi Yu had no hostility and was exceptionally obedient.

On this day, Shi Yu once again taught the green silk insect. After teaching it, the silkworm underwent its third awakening transformation, reaching the third level of awakening.

However, the Worm Silk skill should still be at the proficient level.

On the 12th day, Shi Yu began teaching the green silkworm a third time. As expected, it went through a fourth awakening transformation, reaching Level 4.

The growth rate of bug-type pets was indeed fast.

At the same time, the strength of the worm silk had also undergone a qualitative change. At this moment, its strength was already comparable to that of a fishing line. Furthermore, when the green silkworm used the skill, it could be as agile as a human’s hands and feet.

For example, using worm silk to tie a flower knot was no longer a difficult task for the current Green Silk Worm. Obviously, the proficiency of the green silkworm had gone from proficient to expert.

As someone who had watched hundreds of episodes of Conan¹, he understood that this meant that the worm silk was beginning to become a threat.

However, its threat was still limited. The reason was very simple. The Green Silk Worm was too weak. An adult using the fishing line as a tool was completely different from a palm-sized worm using the fishing line.

However, it was undeniable that the current green silkworm’s silk quality was already very excellent. Generally speaking, even if it was a Green Silk Worm that was about to cocoon, its silk proficiency was rarely at this level.

As long as the proficiency of this silkworm thread followed its growth level, transforming into a butterfly was almost 100%.

By then, not only could he sell the worm silk, he could also sell the Wind Crystal Butterfly’s crystal powder…

If the worm silk reached perfected proficiency before the cocoon transformation, or even higher, the evolution would be even more magical.

According to the different cultivation methods, there might even be a special evolution.

For a total of 12 days, the teaching of the two pets allowed Shi Yu to confirm the effect of the skill book.

If a pet did not master a certain skill before, after the first lesson, the pet would master the skill at initial-level proficiency.

In the second lesson, the initial level was upgraded to the proficient level.

After the fourth lesson, the proficiency level would be upgraded to expert.

And Shi Yu intended to do it in one go. He wanted to see how many times he needed to teach to raise its proficiency to Perfected level.

However, before that, they had been cooped up at home for too long. Shi Yu planned on engaging in actual combat.

Eleven, who had mastered Expert-Level Hardening and reached Level 5 after a week of arduous training, should have completed this round of training perfectly. Its combat ability could not be underestimated.

It was time to test the results.

Shi Yu opened the birdcage, and the green silkworm crawled in on its own because it was much safer inside than outside. At least, it did not have to worry about becoming food for birds.

After resting for the entire morning, Shi Yu shouted for the little metal-eating beast in training.

“Eleven, stop training in the afternoon. Have a good rest and eat more. We will go for a battle later!”

“Wuu?”

Eleven: ✪ω✪ A battle?!

The young and weak little metal-eating beast hugged the steel plate and knocked on it. Instantly, its blood boiled.