Beast Taming: I Can Add Points

”Not yet.”

Shao Ya stuck her tongue out. ”Whatever I decide to contract, I have to get Xiaoyue’s permission first, of course~”

”Meeeooww.” Her Majesty, Xiaoyue, nodded in satisfaction.

”Well, we’re going to bed now. You two should get some rest, too. You’re already exhausted, and you have to be up early tomorrow. It’ll be really tough if you don’t sleep...”

After a few more parting words, Shao Ya took Xiaoyue back to her bedroom.

CLICK. The door closed.

A slight smile touched Su Zhi’s lips. He recalled Yu Bao to his Beast Taming Space, then summoned him again.

This time, the color of the Light Array had turned a light blue.

That’s right. Not long after his long run, he too had sensed a change in his Beast Taming Space. ’Just as I thought.’

’What a coincidence. Even the timing of our breakthroughs is exactly the same.’

”Woof?”

Yu Bao, having just woken up, looked up in a daze.

’Master Su, what happened?’

Seeing the light blue Light Array surrounding his body, Yu Bao froze for a moment before it dawned on him.

’Holy crap, Su Zhi just went and broke through to Tier Four while I was asleep, without saying a thing. Shan Bao knew, but I, his Main Pet, didn’t!’

’Isn’t this a kind of NTR?!’

Yu Bao licked his lips, wanting to give Su Zhi a piece of his mind, but he was just too sleepy. He flopped back onto the ground with a THUD.

’Whatever. Sleep first, deal with it tomorrow.’

”Chirp chirp.”

Shan Bao hopped in front of Su Zhi and poked him with her foot, an eager look on her face.

”Alright, alright...”

Shan Bao clearly had one thing on her mind. Su Zhi chuckled, unable to refuse. He had to help her allocate her Points first.

[Pet Beast: Shan Bao (Flash Gold Sparrow)]

Power: 1.00

Agility: 1.05

Intelligence: 1.02 -> 1.04

Constitution: 2.42 -> 2.50]

[Real-time Energy Value: 2052]

This time, Shan Bao had specifically allocated a few Points to Intelligence. Her big brother Yu Bao had told her that wisdom was the ultimate trump card!

The rest, of course, all went to Constitution. Rounding it out to 2.50 felt auspicious. A nice, even two and a half.

She’d heard this number had some special meaning in human internet slang, but Shan Bao didn’t really get it. She was just a little bird who walked on the ground; she didn’t play basketball or anything.

”Chirp...” Shan Bao scratched her head, a little disappointed.

’There doesn’t seem to be any obvious change. I just feel a little tougher, and that’s it.’

”That’s because you’re already very strong. How could you expect to feel a huge difference every time?”

Su Zhi chuckled. ”In fact, the stronger you get, the harder it becomes. You won’t get that same obvious feedback you did at the start.”

”...Chirp!” Shan Bao pondered for a moment, then waved her little foot.

’It’s okay! As long as I can see the Points go up, up, up, I’m full of energy!’

Seeing her like this, Su Zhi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It reminded him of a saying: studying is tiring because you can’t see your progress. But if you added a visible experience bar, everyone would instantly turn into a super-competitive tryhard...

’Perhaps the greatest magic of allocating Points isn’t about tweaking your abilities, but about making every single drop of progress visible.’

”What about you, Yu Bao? Want to allocate your Points?”

”Woof...” Yu Bao mumbled, waving a paw dismissively.

’No rush. These things must be handled with care. Haste makes waste...’

’I need to save up my Points. This is my... my trump card... for showing off and putting people in their place in the arena...’

Zzzzzz...

’Worthy of being the Pet Beast Realm’s number one King Bi. He’s this exhausted and still thinking about showing off...’ Su Zhi chuckled, then tucked a small blanket around Yu Bao.

”It’s getting late. We should go to sleep, too.”

”Chirp chirp!”

CLICK.

The artificial light vanished, and darkness flooded the room.

...

SPLASH... GURGLE...

”Chirp?”

”I hear it. Let me go check... That’s weird. The faucet is turned off tight.”

”Chirp.”

”Hmm, it might be from upstairs. Forget it, let’s just go back to sleep.”

”Chirp~”

The night was quiet, and starlight filled the room.

Yu Bao slept soundly on his back, paws in the air and tongue lolling out of his mouth, seemingly oblivious to the faint sound of flowing water nearby.

「The next morning, at eight o’clock—」

”Faster, all of you! You call yourselves men? You can’t even keep up with a girl! Shao Ya’s already lapped you a few times! Have you no shame?!”

”If you can’t outrun Shao Ya, you can’t even outrun Su Zhi? He ran twenty laps last night, and you still can’t keep up! What are you, a bunch of weaklings?!”

First thing in the morning, Ke Yan was already in top form, his gruff shouting echoing throughout the Battle Hall.

Su Zhi and Shao Ya were, in fact, running with relative ease. A Beast Tamer’s Constitution is linked to their contracted Pet Beasts. Su Zhi had already run twenty laps the previous night; otherwise, he wouldn’t be trailing Shao Ya.

Also at the front of the pack were Chen Xinghao and a few students from the Shanda University Affiliated School, including Liu Yuhang and Cao Mingyu.

Fang Yuan was at the back of this lead group, essentially the gatekeeper of the first-tier runners.

There was a huge gap behind them; the next runner trailed Fang Yuan by several hundred meters. Beast Tamers with weaker Pet Beasts receive a smaller physical enhancement, so naturally, they couldn’t keep up with the monsters at the front.

Moreover, Ke Yan was making the Beast Tamers run alongside their Pet Beasts...

A defensive Pet Beast couldn’t run very fast no matter how hard it tried. They were nothing like an Agility-type like Shan Bao, who was even in the mood to run backward for a bit.

Ke Yan crossed his arms. ”I know what you’re all thinking. ’Why should mobile and defensive Pet Beasts have the same training regimen? It’s not fair, is it?’”

The eyes of a few of the slower students lit up. ’So this rough-looking coach is actually pretty understanding...’

Ke Yan sneered.

”Tough luck! Suck it up! Since when is life so damn fair! Do Elite Pet Beasts get a pass from fighting Commander-rank ones? Will a defensive Pet Beast never need Agility? Is a mobile Pet Beast guaranteed to never take a hit?

”An evenly matched fight is a luxury, not a right! A life-or-death battle doesn’t give a damn about ’fair.’ If you want fair, then get faster, tougher, and stronger!

”Last two laps! Push through! The last person to finish adds two more laps after we break for lunch!”

As he was speaking, the leader of the pack, Chen Xinghao, crossed the finish line.

Su Zhi was a few meters behind, charging across the line right after him, followed by Shao Ya, Liu Yuhang, Cao Mingyu, and Fang Yuan. In reality, only a few seconds separated them; they had been running neck and neck.

The students at the back grew desperate, all semblance of composure gone as they broke into a final sprint.

In the end, a certain female student with a contracted Stone Armor Rhinoceros won the ”prize” of extra practice at noon.

Su Zhi bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath. Yu Bao and Shan Bao rested at his feet while Shao Ya leaned over to wipe the sweat from his brow with a tissue.

Chen Xinghao watched Su Zhi with a complicated look in his eyes.

His Thunder Qilin Beast was a Commander-rank Pet Beast. The physical boost it provided to its Beast Tamer far surpassed that of an Elite-rank Pet Beast.

Even so, Su Zhi had managed to keep pace with him...

’Is that really something a nobody from a small city can do?’

”Barely acceptable.”

Looking at the crowd of greenhorns sprawled all over the place, Ke Yan pursed his lips and put away his stopwatch.

”Next, we’ll randomly draw two captains for a Pet Beast team battle. If you’re picked, you form your own team. It’s a best-of-five format: three singles matches and two doubles. The draw begins now.”

”Holy shit, already?!”

”We just finished running! Give us a break, man...”

”’Man’ my ass. Calling me your daddy won’t help either.”

Ke Yan casually glanced at the crowd and tapped an app on his phone.

A moment later, two students’ phones buzzed.

”...” Su Zhi stared at the lottery notification from his Joyful Beast Taming app, his expression turning grim.

That’s right. He was one of them.

’For fuck’s sake... How unlucky can I be?!’

”What are you standing there gawking for? You were picked, so get ready.

”You have sixty seconds. Form your team. If you can’t, I’ll do it for you, but I’d rather not advertise the fact that ’you have no friends’ to everyone.”

Ke Yan let out a lazy-looking yawn, but he was observing them intently.

That’s right. He, the one who looked so honest and upstanding, had rigged the draw. Since Chopper had told him to feel free to ramp up the pressure on Su Zhi, he was eager to see how the kid would perform.

’Individual matches are a one-man show. You might be able to win those. But a team battle isn’t something one outstanding fighter can carry alone.’

Su Zhi glanced back. His friends were already standing behind him.

”Go get ’em, Su Baby!” Shao Ya placed a hand on his left shoulder and winked. ”Mama’s got your back!”

”Gotta support Brother Shu!” Liu Yuhang immediately clapped a hand on Su Zhi’s right shoulder.

”I’ll do my part.”

Fang Yuan stood with his hands in his pockets, having run out of shoulders to put a hand on.

Finally, there was Cao Mingyu. ”My friend, Su Zhi, I—”

”Our friendship transcends words,” Su Zhi said, clamping a hand over his mouth.

And with that, the ad hoc team for the group match—the Su Zhi Fan Club—was officially formed!

Su Zhi cast his gaze toward the other side of the room.