Chapter 820: It Wants to Train!

Busy in the kitchen, Liu Yao heard the noise and laughed, "Come eat first, the food's already ready."

Saying so, he brought out the Energy Pills on the plate in his hand.

"Yaya!"

The enticing aroma drifted over; Like Ya Bao perked up, leapt to its feet at once, ran excitedly to the table, and happily ate the Energy Pills placed in front of it.

"Eat first." Qiao Sang sighed.

"Bing Ai." Lubao nodded and came to the table.

Teacher Bilite helped bring out dish after dish.

Once everyone was seated, Qiao Sang picked at the rice in her bowl and finally couldn't help asking, "I heard B-rank Fire-Cleansing Elixir is suitable for General-stage late-phase or King-stage pet beasts, and General-stage early-to-mid-phase pet beasts will feel pain taking it — why didn't Like Ya Bao have any reaction just now?"

"Could it be you bought a low-quality elixir?" Teacher Bilite ventured his guess while eating.

Qiao Sang shook her head: "That shouldn't be possible. The one who gave me the elixir was a senior from the Pet Beast Elixir Department, Year 5, at Imperial United Beast Academy, and it came with an authentication certificate."

"You've always mentioned it — look, Cheng Yanqilu, even without any regression-style training, hasn't been regressing."

Liu Yao said slowly, "There's another possibility: Like Ya Bao's tolerance for fire-type energy is better than other fire-type pet beasts at the same stage."

"Yaya!"

Back then, the Fire-Taming Bird at the National Campus Beastmaster League had the Flame-Attraction characteristic, which left a fairly deep impression on her.

"Then let it train." Teacher Bilite set down his chopsticks, looked over with a steady air: "Its Cheng Yanqilu has very low talent; you've almost never seen it do targeted training, so its skill rustiness has been steadily climbing. Actually, other fire-type pet beasts of yours have all done rather grueling training — the kind that damages the body."

"I remember from the data that its Cheng Yanqilu has the Fierce Fire characteristic."

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Never thought Like Ya Bao would one day be able to have that characteristic too!

After a pause, he asked, "Remember the Flame-Attraction characteristic?"

When you first saw the Fire-Taming Bird, you were dying for that characteristic.

It wants to train!

Liu Yao was stunned for a beat: "But Like Ya Bao doesn't have the Flame-Attraction characteristic."

Ran Chun felt a slight headache coming on.

"Or it has the potential to awaken it at this stage." Qiao Sang added.

"I see."

Dampening its fighting spirit, huh… Liu Yao glanced at Like Ya Bao.

The Flame-Attraction characteristic lets a pet beast, when hit by a fire-type skill, absorb the flames and make its own fire-type skills stronger — equivalent to immunity from fire-type skill damage, and a great boost to combat ability. It's simply the dream characteristic of every fire-type pet beast!

If I'd known that, it would've been better not to let you know from the start that Like Ya Bao had that possibility…

Like Ya Bao called out once, expressing itself in more detail.

Liu Yao pretended not to understand: "Once you're done eating, go ahead."

Saying so, he glanced at Lubao, who was still eating with its head down: "But the process has to be something it feels and experiences deeply on its own, so no healing methods can be used — only after it stops trying to absorb can treatment be given."

Forget it, he's a teacher at Imperial Beastmaster Academy, he knows better how to train pet beasts. He's a Breeder, so naturally he looks at things from a different angle.

"I think I've heard someone mention that before." Teacher Bilite suddenly thought of something and chimed in: "When a pet beast clearly doesn't have a certain characteristic, but sometimes shows behavior that only appears when it does have that characteristic, it means it has a real chance of awakening that characteristic in the future."

Do I even need to ask? A question mark flashed through Teacher Bilite's mind.

Qiao Sang opened her mouth, hesitated, and finally chose to silently pick at her rice.

Like Ya Bao's expression was hesitant.

Qiao Sang continued, "It's only a possibility, not a hundred percent certain to awaken."

"Does Cheng Yanqilu want to train?" Teacher Bilite asked.

Like Ya Bao met its beastmaster's gaze and called out firmly.

It wants to do the training that increases the chance of awakening the Flame-Attraction characteristic!

Liu Yao: "……"

But making a fire-type pet beast develop a fear of flames — that training is just too cruel.

"I think its Cheng Yanqilu's Fierce Fire characteristic probably hasn't improved in a long time." Teacher Bilite said.

"Yaya!"

In the middle of flames… Ran Chun imagined the scene and instinctively felt some resistance.

Liu Yao spoke up, "Is there any other way to increase the chance of awakening the Flame-Attraction characteristic?"

It wants to train!

"This only raises the odds a little. Maybe you don't even need training — it could awaken that characteristic when it regresses." Liu Yao tried to persuade.

"Yaya!"

Teacher Bilite took a sip of soup and said, "That, I know. I've seen people train it — you can have Cheng Yanqilu try to absorb while in the flames."

"Right."

At that moment, Like Ya Bao swallowed the Energy Pill in its mouth, looked up, and called out with a resolute expression.

A fire-type pet beast afraid of flames… Liu Yao couldn't, for the moment, imagine a scene of Like Ya Bao fearing flames.

"Ya!"

Right now Like Ya Bao doesn't have the Flame-Attraction characteristic. Although being a fire-type pet beast gives it some resistance to flames, being placed inside flames will definitely cause considerable damage.

Liu Yao's eyes suddenly lit up.

True — almost all of her pet beasts awakened their characteristics through regression; only Like Ya Bao's original Fierce Fire characteristic was suddenly awakened in battle… sigh… Thinking that Like Ya Bao has a certain chance of not awakening the Flame-Attraction characteristic in the future, Liu Yao couldn't help sighing inwardly.

"There isn't." Qiao Sang said, "Pet beast characteristics are basically awakened during regression. Only in very rare cases do they suddenly awaken at the current stage through some method. There used to be quite a bit of research on how to boost characteristic awakening, but later almost all related research projects were declared failures, so there's much less of that kind of research now."

Even a pet beast with the Flame-Attraction characteristic, if it stays in flames too long and absorbs more than it can handle, will still take damage.

My beastmaster is so dumb…

If it can increase the odds even a little, it's worth it—it has to train!

"You saw that training method in some paper." Qiao Sang said in a low voice: "It can indeed raise the probability of fire-type pet beasts awakening the Fire Draw trait, but a portion of fire-type pet beasts not only failed to awaken, they were also seriously injured. Prolonged training like that can even cause some fire-type pet beasts to develop a fear of flames. I suggest you don't try it lightly."

Liu Yao gave an "Mm."

Given Yaobao's temperament, it really is afraid of hardship, but that training is somewhat cruel. Most importantly, Yaobao might awaken the Fire Draw trait on its own during evolution—this training doesn't raise the odds to a hundred percent, so there's no need to insist on practicing it.

"If a fire-type pet beast has no stimulation at all, it's hard to improve, and its fighting spirit will gradually fade. Whether it's getting hurt in battle or feeling pain during training, for fire-type pet beasts these are actually good things—they'll make them progress faster." A voice from the bracelet said in a low tone: "Besides, you still have Bing Ai Pa Lu. As long as Cheng Yanqi can endure this kind of training, in the end it won't cause any real harm."

That's because I have a cheat ability. Looks like from now on, when Yaobao and the others train, I can't let the teacher watch too closely—otherwise, after one day of training, an entry-level skill would jump straight to mastery. Anyone would find that suspicious… Liu Yao's heart skipped a beat, and she quietly grew wary, nodding on the surface without a flicker of expression:

"That's right." Liu Yao confirmed.

The stronger Yaobao gets, the harder that trait is to trigger. If the trait can't be used, naturally it can't be improved either.

What?! Liu Yao asked eagerly:

"For pet beasts that already possess the Fire Draw trait, taking potions related to fire-type energy—even potions far beyond what their current stage can handle—won't cause much of a reaction." Qiao Sang said: "But the specifics still depend on the grade of the pet beast's Fire Draw trait."

Qiao Sang nodded: "I remember."

"Is there any way to raise the probability of awakening?"

Alright, alright, you've already said that plenty of times… Liu Yao's mouth twitched, and she conceded: