"Let's run a couple of laps to warm up first," Qiao Sang said next.
The Fire Tooth Dog adjusted quickly after putting on the weighted ring; walking was clearly no issue for it. However, walking with the extra weight didn't yield any significant training results.
"Yah," the Fire Tooth Dog nodded, showing it had no objections to Qiao Sang's plan.
This time, Qiao Sang opted to run alongside the Fire Tooth Dog.
With Qiao Sang's encouragement, the Fire Tooth Dog struggled to finish two laps, looking at Qiao Sang with a face full of despair.
Is this what you call warming up?
Qiao Sang breathed heavily; after two laps, she was feeling a bit worn out as well. It seemed she needed to work on her own fitness…
Once she caught her breath, Qiao Sang pulled out her phone to check the recorded time.
During their morning run, the Fire Tooth Dog averaged about 18 minutes per lap. Now, with the weighted ring, the first lap took 29 minutes and 3 seconds, and the second lap took 38 minutes and 42 seconds.
Qiao Sang noted the times in her phone's memo app, wanting to compare them later.
"The warm-up is over. Next, let’s crash into this tree ten times," Qiao Sang led the Fire Tooth Dog to the phoenix tree where she had been reading that morning.
"Yah~," the Fire Tooth Dog plopped down, feeling weak.
"Don't you want to grow stronger?" Qiao Sang asked.
Having spent several days together, she knew the Fire Tooth Dog had a strong character and good willpower. Although it had only fought against others four times, it had never shied away from the front lines, always fearless of getting hurt.
Grow stronger?
Slowly, the Fire Tooth Dog stood back up, its eyes filled with determination.
Hadn't it contracted just to become stronger and find more opponents?
Qiao Sang was pleased to see this change in its eyes, recalling the scene from when she first met the Fire Tooth Dog. Back then, it had used its small body to crash into tree trunks, sporting the same resolute look.
Now that she thought about it, it felt like ages ago.
"Maybe during this training, you'll finally master that skill you wanted to learn," Qiao Sang said with a smile.
"Yah?" The Fire Tooth Dog looked up at its beast master, perplexed.
"The skill you wanted to learn when I first saw you at the beast base," Qiao Sang explained.
"Yah?" The Fire Tooth Dog was even more confused.
When did it want to learn a skill?
"Why else would you be crashing into the tree? Were you practicing your charge?" Qiao Sang said, also puzzled.
That shouldn't be the case; a proper charge needed a good five meters of distance for a boost. She remembered the Fire Tooth Dog had been crashing into the tree from a meter away.
The Fire Tooth Dog recalled their first meeting. What had it been doing then?
It had been trying to knock fruits down from the tree.
"Yah yah yah yah."
"Yah!" The Fire Tooth Dog gestured, trying to explain.
Qiao Sang: "..."
After a brief silence, she decided to drop the topic. "Let's start training."
With thoughts of becoming stronger, the Fire Tooth Dog threw itself into the training with zeal.
The charge required it to build up power in all four limbs, releasing a burst of force to create the skill. However, with the weight ring on, its speed was noticeably slower, and the force it generated wasn't quite enough to be called a charge.
After six attempts to build power, on the seventh try, the Fire Tooth Dog finally performed its first proper charge of the day.
"Yah!"
It looked excitedly at its beast master, only to find her lost in thought.
Qiao Sang was still mulling over the recent revelation. She thought her Fire Tooth Dog was a bit silly for having crashed into the tree, all just to get the fruits down.
Was the food at the beast base not filling enough?
How could such a small body possibly knock down fruits by crashing? It’d be better off practicing its charge on the tree…
Not only had it crashed for a long time without knocking down any fruits, but now its head even hurt.
Why couldn’t it just climb the tree…
"Yah!"
"Yah!" The Fire Tooth Dog's bark snapped Qiao Sang back to reality.
"I'm fine," she reassured.
"Yah." The Fire Tooth Dog nodded, forgetting its earlier motivations and continued training.
5:53 PM.
Training ended.
The Fire Tooth Dog lay exhausted on the ground. Qiao Sang gently picked it up, saying, "You are the best Fire Tooth Dog I have ever seen."
Though she hadn’t seen many, it didn’t stop her from praising it.
Even though it was all worn out, it still gritted its teeth to complete that final tenth charge.
After an afternoon of crashing, it had indeed performed a hundred impacts.
"Yah~," nestled in Qiao Sang's arms, the Fire Tooth Dog surprisingly felt a bit shy.
"I'll take you out for a nice meal," Qiao Sang smiled.
...
Nian Guo Pavilion.
The Fire Tooth Dog stared wide-eyed at the spread of food on the table.
Fruit platters, fruit salad, fruit noodles, fruit ice cream, fruit cake, fruit jelly, fruit pies, fruit juice...
An array of fruit dishes filled the entire table.
"Gulu..."
The Fire Tooth Dog's belly growled as it gazed hungrily.
"Go ahead and eat," Qiao Sang urged softly.
No longer hesitating, the Fire Tooth Dog immediately grabbed a slice of fruit cake with its paw and wolfed it down.
Qiao Sang found the scene exceptionally heartwarming.
Yet, this beautiful moment didn't come without a cost...
The price was one-fifth of Qiao Sang's savings, plus a scolding from her mother...
...
Three days later.
"Bang!"
A fireball the size of an adult's fist exploded against a distant rock, leaving a significant crater.
[Name: Fire Tooth Dog]
[Attribute: Fire]
[Level: Beginner (127/1000)+]
[Skills: Bite (Beginner 74/100)+, Charge (Proficient 168/500)+, Fire Fang (Proficient 116/500)+, Spark (Proficient 135/500)+]
[Points: 55]
In just four days, the Fire Tooth Dog had brought its Fire Fang and Spark skills to a proficient level. If others found out, it would definitely create a stir.
While Spark was nothing too shocking, given that there were talented beasts able to reach proficiency in low-level skills quickly, Fire Fang was different. That was a legitimate mid-tier skill!
Typically, it took an average of six months to reach proficiency with a mid-tier skill, but the Fire Tooth Dog had done it in a mere four days!
At that moment, the Fire Tooth Dog wore a green triangular sunglasses that had just arrived two days ago, focusing intently as it practiced its skill releases.
With the green and red combo, the Fire Tooth Dog was turning heads everywhere. Many children playing in the park stopped to look, but they didn't dare approach due to the flames surrounding it.
After these few days of training, the Fire Tooth Dog no longer needed guidance from Qiao Sang; it knew what to do.
Under the phoenix tree, Qiao Sang read a book.
Since the Fire Tooth Dog had mastered Spark and Fire Fang, she no longer worried about the special admission exams for pet battles at Holy Water Middle School.
Everyone was still new to having contracted beasts, so it was unlikely anyone's beast could achieve such mastery like her Fire Tooth Dog.
The Fire Tooth Dog’s speed had steadily improved too; yesterday, with the weight ring, it ran a lap in just 22 minutes and 7 seconds, nearly 7 minutes faster than its first day.
While she need not worry about the battles in five days, Qiao Sang still felt uncertain about the high school entrance exam twelve days later.
(End of Chapter)