The next day, Ji An woke up early again.
The sky had just turned bright.
The street downstairs, which was usually full of people, was empty except for a cleaner who was sweeping the fallen leaves on the street.
When he was 13 years old, his parents passed away because of a beast disaster, and he had thus been sent to an orphanage, where he developed the habit of going to bed early and getting up early.
That's right, Ji An had grown up in an orphanage.
He had only returned home to live alone when he turned sixteen.
In Encircle Town that a population of close to a hundred thousand, there was only one orphanage.
The orphanage took in orphans of the residents in Encircle Town who had died for various reasons and had no relatives to take care of them.
Among them, most of the orphans were caused by beast disasters.
In the new era, all kinds of beast disasters were common.
The so-called beast disasters were disasters caused by groups of wild fierce beasts attacking cities.
In the first few years of Encircle Town's construction, the death and casualties of the residents in Encircle Town were so high it was shocking.
Ji An's parents had also passed away in those years.
Therefore, in the first few years of Encircle Town's construction, there had been a large number of orphans.
As the only orphanage in Encircle Town, the number of orphans it took in long reached its initially set maximum capacity.
The lack of personnel, the chaos in the management, and the lack of scale eventually led to the decision of the orphanage management to decide that they would militarize the management of the children for the convenience of management.
As such, he had a fixed schedule every day.
It was also under such circumstances that Ji An developed the habit of sleeping and waking up early.
However, in the past few years, the high walls surrounding Encircle Town had been upgraded to become taller and thicker, and the strength of the familiar army had grown as well.
As a result, the chances of a beast disaster happening in Encircle Town were much lower than in the earlier years.
Without the occurrence of beast disasters that were more terrifying than natural disasters like fire and floods, the safety of the residents was naturally guaranteed.
The number of accidental deaths thus decreased, and the orphanage did not have many orphans to take instead.
As the first batch of orphans reached the age of 16 which was the standard of adulthood in the new era, they left the orphanage and went into all walks of life.
Following this, the number of children in the orphanage started to decrease. it was said that since last year, the management had stopped the militarized management system.
This was undoubtedly good news for the children in the orphanage.
After Ji An washed up, he casually cooked some congee to fill his stomach.
Then, he went to the rooftop where the early morning breeze was blowing.
On the rooftop, the winter bear cub was also woken up in the early morning.
According to the usual practice, before waking up the bear cub, Ji An once again checked its information.
As expected, the winter bear cub's energy level increased again.
This should be due to the effect of the sweetgrass milk but also the effect of Hibernation.
After just one night, the winter bear cub had reached 21 points in energy level.
Specifically, 21.3.
It had increased by 0.5 in one night.
Hibernation had also improved again, from a skill mastery value of 203 to 206.
However, unlike the previous day, the winter bear cub's mastery of Hard Ice had not improved significantly after waking up today.
Ji An had mentally prepared himself for this.
After all, it was easy to understand the improvement of Hibernation.
The special nature of Hibernation was undoubtedly equivalent to the winter bear cub constantly training in its sleep, so the improvement in its mastery of the skill was not surprising.
In contrast, Hard Ice would obviously not be trained during its sleep, so it naturally had not been improved.
Ji An was in a good mood after seeing the winter bear cub's improvement.
He was even more determined to ensure that the winter bear cub slept as long as possible.
That being said, the relevant training could not be canceled because of this.
The winter bear cub seemed to be unaware of the changes in its body and was still sleepy.
Ji An pinched the bear cub's chubby face, "You've slept for 18 hours. Wake up, winter bear cub. We're going to start training! "
However, the winter bear cub still looked like it had not woken up yet, so Ji An could only encourage it, "The earlier you finish training, the earlier you can eat."
For the sake of the food, the winter bear cub finally raised its paws and rubbed its bead-like eyes, forcing itself to be more awake.
Thinking that today's training would be the same as yesterday's, the winter bear cub didn't need Ji An to lead the way and climbed up to the roof with great familiarity.
Its round body swayed like a white furball, which was very cute.
The little fellow clearly did not know that there was a test waiting for it today.
After arriving at the rooftop, the winter bear cub was a little curious when it saw the broken bricks and wooden sticks piled in the corner.
There didn't seem to be such things yesterday.
It looked at Ji An with its dark, beady eyes, as if it were asking what those things were for.
Ji An, who was telepathically connected to the bear cub, smiled and said, "Hehehe, don't worry bear cub. You'll know the use of these things soon."
He walked over to the pile of junk and casually picked up a few broken bricks.
Then, he stacked them in front of the bear cub.
After that, he looked at the winter bear cub and said, "Condense Hard Ice!"
Having condensed Hard Ice no less than a hundred times a day ago, it was already very familiar with the simple use of the skill.
With that, it spread out its bear paw, and a trace of cold air slowly appeared in its palm.
Soon, more than half of its paw was completely covered in ice.
Ji An pointed at the top of the brick pile, which was a brick with a missing corner that was close to the winter bear cub's chest.
"Winter bear cub, strike it!"
The winter bear cub was slightly stunned, but it didn't refuse Ji An's orders.
It waved its right paw which was covered in a thin layer of Hard Ice.
The bear cub looked to only be as high as Ji An's knee and was only as tall as a human child, but its strength far exceeded that of a human.
Even a muscular man who trained all year round would not dare to say that his pure strength was comparable to the winter bear cub whose energy level exceeded 20.
The energy level was not a matter of simple addition.
It couldn't be said that the winter bear cub's overall strength with an energy level of 20 was only twice that of another with an energy level of 10.
A difference of 10 energy levels, in terms of strength, could be two or three times the difference.
When it swung its bear paw, its palm made a whistling sound as it broke through the wind, making it seem as if the bear cub was a heavyweight boxing champion throwing a punch with all his strength.
Bang!
The winter bear cub's palm hit the brick in front of it.
Unfortunately, its aim was still a little off.
Even though the bricks were right in front of the bear cub, only the edges of the bear paw had brushed past them.
The areas where the palm was condensed with Hard Ice did not collide with the brick at all.
As a result, even though the palm attack seemed menacing, the damage it caused to the bricks was very limited.
In addition, the bricks that Ji An had collected were not the cheap red bricks that were commonly known as bricks, but solid cement bricks, which were much harder than red bricks.
In a scuffle on the street, a red brick might break while splitting open the head of someone with an exceptionally solid head, but if a solid concrete brick was used, the other party's head would break while the concrete brick would not even crack.
Ji An's thoughts had been that these bricks were very hard, making them more suitable for training the winter bear cub.
If the red bricks were used in training, with the winter bear cub's strength, it would probably break a piece with a slap, not bringing any training effect.
"Roar~" The winter bear cub looked at the unscathed brick in front of it, then at its reddened claws under its fur, and instantly let out a cry of pain.
However, Ji An turned a blind eye to it.
"Winter bear cub, I told you to split the brick, but I didn't tell you to use your bare hands. Aren't you using Hard Ice to form an ice layer to protect your claws? Continue. This time, remember to hit the brick with the area that is covered with Hard Ice! Otherwise, you'll get injured again!" Ji An's tone became stern when he saw the winter bear cub's pained expression.
It was inevitable to get injured during training.
However, the vast majority of beastmasters would turn a blind eye to the minor injuries that their familiars might suffer during their daily training.
It wasn't that beastmasters didn't care about their familiars, but that training injuries of this level were completely harmless apart from the pain.
First of all, familiars had amazing recovery abilities.
Other than that, a beastmaster's soul domain could speed up the recovery of a familiar's injuries.
In the soul domain, as long as one spent time recuperating, even a serious injury could be recovered. As such, the recovery from a light injury of this level was simply as easy as ABC.
Not to mention, the winter bear cub's Hibernation which had a skill mastery value of 206 also had the effect of greatly improving the strength of the familiar and the recovery speed of its injuries.
With several effects stacked together, even if the winter bear cub suffered a serious injury, it should be able to recover after a good night's sleep, let alone such a minor injury.
"Roar!" As if it had heard the sternness in Ji An's words, the winter bear cub could only raise its paw again.
It didn't want to be looked down upon by its beastmaster.
However, this time, the bear cub was smart and knew to use its uninjured paw to split the brick.
Bang!
Its claws once again came into close contact with the brick before it.
This time, the winter bear cub's accuracy was finally better.
The half of his palm where Hard Ice was condensed hit the brick.
The hardness of Hard Ice was obviously not something that could be compared to a brick, added with the winter bear cub's strength.
The concrete bricks did not crack, but some sand and stone debris came flying.
"Roar!" Even though half of its palm that was covered in ice hit the target, the other half of the palm that was not covered in ice hit the brick as well, so the winter bear cub roared in pain again.
Ji An said in a half-stern, half-encouraging tone, "The pain is nothing! Be strong! If you don't want to feel pain, you either adjust the area where you come into contact with the brick or cover your entire claw with Hard Ice as soon as possible. Continue, winter bear cub!"