The school had specialized instruments for measuring Beast Taming Levels. Chen Xing had secretly taken his Beast Taming creature to be checked the day before yesterday, and the poor little Salty Bay Crocodile was at a mere Energy Level 1, just a bit higher than a newborn at Energy Level 0.
In fact, the methods for quickly breaking through Energy Levels were all in the books, and they had been taught during middle school.
Feeding the creature a substance rich in energy and easy to absorb could promote rapid growth, and nutritional potions were undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice. But even the cheapest, universal nutritional potion required money, a thousand yuan a bottle.
The most common topic of conversation among other students in the classroom was about the monthly exam and their experiences in raising Salty Bay Crocodiles.
In the past few days, friends' circles from elementary to middle and high school had been nearly filled with Beast Taming posts.
Photo after photo of cute Beast Taming creature cubs adorned the friends circle.
But that phase would only last a few months; after a while, the number of photos would plummet. After all, the cubs of any Species look adorable, but many become harder to describe once grown...
After finishing today's classes, Chen Xing headed home early from school.
His sister hadn't returned, as she would typically spend three to four days in the field during such intensive training sessions.
He took out the black box from his bedroom, opened the lid, and looked at the Salty Bay Crocodile-specific reagent placed inside.
As soon as he opened the lid of the reagent, Taotie, attracted by the scent, crawled over.
"Aw aw!" It stared with a pair of large eyes, looking pitifully at its master.
"Open your mouth," Chen Xing instructed, using his fingers to pry open Taotie's mouth before pouring all the nutritional reagent into it.
"Fed the creature once, intimacy value higher than 90, obtained 2 Skill Point Fragments."
Chen Xing's hand shook, and he almost spilled the last drop of the reagent. His eyes lit up as he noticed two key points: Taotie's intimacy value had increased, and the higher the intimacy value, the more Skill Point Fragments were gained.
However, it wasn't surprising that Taotie's intimacy value had risen so quickly. The school had distributed an egg that was about to hatch, and they even got a two-day holiday to stay home and personally incubate their creatures. While the hatched crocodile wouldn't consider the first person it saw as its mom or dad, it would undoubtedly develop a strong dependence.
Sighting the first life at the moment of hatching, coupled with constant close companionship, it was within reason for the intimacy value to exceed 90 points in merely half a month.
Since feeding resulted in more Skill Point Fragments, the rewards from training should increase as well, right?
But Chen Xing soon realized that Taotie, dazed and dizzy, was not in a state to train.
After drinking his sister's potion, Taotie acted as if it had consumed fake alcohol, spinning in place, chasing its tail with its head but never quite reaching it, until finally it became frantic, leapt up abruptly, and snapped its jaws at thin air.
This was the first time Chen Xing had seen a crocodile that could actually jump!
With a little sprawl of its four short legs, it hopped forward.
The hop was quite far, a whole ten centimeters.
Chen Xing felt Taotie's body, which was overheating, its temperature nearly ten degrees higher than usual, hot to the touch.
That evening, after dinner, Liu Yuzhen was tidying up the pots and pans in the kitchen when a sudden bout of back pain made her drop the bowl she was washing to the ground.
Hearing the crisp sound of the bowl smashing on the kitchen floor, Chen Xing quickly came out of his bedroom and found his mother bending over to sweep up the shards with a broom.
He hurried over, "Mom, you go rest, I'll wash the dishes."
"Don't make a fuss, you go study," she said.
Noticing his mother's face, thinned from overwork, a somewhat repressed Chen Xing spontaneously replied, "I've finished my homework. You sit for a while; washing dishes won't take much effort."
After dumping the broken pieces of bowl from the dustpan into the trash bin, Liu Yuzhen looked at Chen Xing, who had already taken over the dish-washing, biting back her words; yet, the pain in her waist, after hesitating again and again, stopped her from continuing to insist.
Leaning on the counter and sitting on a stool in the dining room, he sighed quietly while watching Chen Xing's retreating figure.
Chen Guohai, seated on the sofa, put down the newspaper in his hands and said to his wife, Liu Yuzhen, "I'll cook dinner tomorrow evening."
"The doctor said you can't go into the kitchen; you're prone to fainting if you tire yourself out. Now is not the time for you to be adding to the chaos," Liu Yuzhen firmly rejected.
Chen Guohai fell silent once more after his attempt to be helpful was again rebuffed.
He could only pick up the newspaper and start reading it again, even though he had already gone through it seven times that day.
After washing the dishes, Chen Xing also swept the floor before returning to his bedroom. Looking at the groggy Taotie sprawled on the desk, Chen Xing cursed himself for his misjudgment; it seemed that no training would be possible today.
At 11:30 p.m., Chen Xing was woken by his alarm clock and climbed out of bed on time, then shook the sleeping Taotie awake.
After three hours of sleep, the Taotie's state had significantly improved. It woke up groggy and then joined Chen Xing for a 10-minute training session.
After receiving two Skill Point Fragments as a daily training reward, Chen Xing lay back in bed contentedly, now with 7 Skill Point Fragments.
The Taotie, now tucked under the blankets by the pillow, looked energetically at the ceiling, its little head full of confusion: Who am I? Where am I? Wasn't I sleeping?
Outside the window, the bright silver moonlight spilled onto the head of the bed. The little Taotie stared blankly for a while, then closed its eyes and drifted off into sleep.
A dreamless night passed.
The next day, Chen Xing arrived at school, with thirteen days left until the first monthly exam.
Taking the Taotie out of his pocket, it seemed a bit bigger compared to yesterday. Holding it, Chen Xing could clearly feel the increased weight of the Taotie in his hand.
He pulled out a measuring tape from the drawer and measured from the tail to the snout: 41.2cm!
He remembered measuring it at 35.7cm the day before. It had grown 5.5cm overnight, over half a meter; it definitely wasn't his imagination.
The effects of the serum his sister had given him were surprisingly clear. But the clearer they became, the more Chen Xing felt that the serum his sister gave him was no ordinary substance—Wang Qiming's Beast Taming creature didn't show such obvious results even after consuming customized serums.
The Taotie had been growing at an average of about 2cm per day in the past few days.
If it could drink that kind of serum every day, in a month it would grow almost a meter longer than if it hadn't—such a bottle of serum would cost at least... several thousand, right? That would amount to a six-figure expense for a month, and over a million in a year.
He suddenly profoundly understood that spending money and not spending were entirely different concepts.
Actually, signs of this had already begun to appear in his class. Some of the wealthier students had Beast Taming creatures that were evidently larger. Everyone had the same species of creatures, and there were no differences in breeds. Perhaps individual creatures with exceptional bodily talents could break this norm, but those were very rare cases.
No one noticed the change in the Taotie. Currently, its size was barely mediocre among the class's Salty Bay Crocodiles, so naturally, no one paid it any attention.
Another day of classes went by. In the evening, Chen Xing came home and fed and interacted with the Taotie. After accumulating 11 Skill Point Fragments, the "+" symbol representing Skill Points finally lit up.
Chen Xing focused his thoughts on the plus sign, and the next moment, ten fragments disappeared, and the Skill Points changed from 0 to 1.
Pet Trainer, Pet Caretaker, Pet Nutritionist—Chen Xing had to choose between these three professional trees.
He had spent three days just to collect a single Skill Point, so he was not acquiring them at a fast rate.
Therefore, which profession to activate early on was crucial.
If it had been before, Chen Xing might have had some hesitation, but after giving Taotie a bottle of the nutritional serum yesterday, he personally experienced the importance of nutrition.
Without any hesitation, Chen Xing set his sights on the profession of Pet Nutritionist.
Pet Nutritionist prerequisite Skill—Health Inspection, activate!