The Fire Tooth Dog was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the ball, only reacting when it was almost upon it. Luckily, the speed of the ball in the first gear was not fast. With a lift of its left front and left hind leg, the ball smoothly rolled beneath it.
Two automatic baseball pitching machines launched balls simultaneously, their barrels rotating occasionally to change direction. After dodging for about a minute, the Fire Tooth Dog adapted to the trajectory of the balls, its expression becoming more relaxed. It started to act playfully, making tiny movements to avoid the balls just before they touched it.
Qiao Sang watched with satisfaction. Such dodging required a certain level of reflexes and evasion skills. However, Qiao Sang was not here today just for practicing dodging skills. Once she saw that the Fire Tooth Dog was doing well at the first gear, she stood up and switched both pitching machines to the second gear.
The first gear threw balls at about 3m/s, while the second gear’s speed was 5m/s. The room was only about a dozen meters long, which meant the Fire Tooth Dog had to dodge two balls coming from different directions every three seconds or so.
At the second gear speed, the Fire Tooth Dog seemed less agile. Just as it finished dodging one ball, another would come flying towards it. With such a dense firing rate, it was inevitable that the Fire Tooth Dog would get hit a few times. The baseballs came in both hard and soft types; the ones used indoors for training were soft, made of rubber, and hollow. They wouldn’t hurt if they hit.
In about a minute, the Fire Tooth Dog was hit five times. At this point, Qiao Sang pressed the red button nearby, stopping the automatic pitching machine.
“Yah?” The Fire Tooth Dog tilted its head in confusion as it looked at its Beast Master. Why did it stop? It wasn’t done playing!
Qiao Sang knelt down next to the Fire Tooth Dog and untied the weight ring from its right front leg, smiling as she said, “I didn’t come here just to play. I wanted to see how your training has been progressing these past few days, and what your speed limit is.”
“Yah!” Hearing this, the Fire Tooth Dog raised itself with the power of its hind legs, patting its chest proudly with the now-unconstrained right front paw. It was ready to show its Beast Master what it was made of!
Seeing the Fire Tooth Dog’s fighting spirit, Qiao Sang couldn’t help but pat its head, saying, “Go for it.” The Fire Tooth Dog felt a surge of motivation. It ran to Qiao Sang's backpack, rummaged through it, and hesitated for a moment before picking out a pair of dark green triangular sunglasses to wear.
“Yah!” The Fire Tooth Dog returned to its original spot, nodding seriously at Qiao Sang.
Seeing this, Qiao Sang knew that the Fire Tooth Dog was about to show its true skills. “Good luck,” she encouraged again before approaching the pitching machine to switch it back to the second gear mode.
With the weight ring removed, the Fire Tooth Dog sprang back to life, its speed much improved. The balls launched at the second gear simply posed no threat as it dodged them with ease.
Two minutes later, Qiao Sang raised the machine's speed to the third gear mode. In this mode, the speed of the balls doubled, reaching 10m/s. Miraculously, the Fire Tooth Dog dodged every single ball.
Though Qiao Sang had a good sense of the Fire Tooth Dog's progress, witnessing it in action brought her great joy.
Two minutes later, she increased the speed of the pitching machine again, this time to the fourth gear. The speed jumped from 10m/s to 20m/s. For a moment, the Fire Tooth Dog was caught off guard, as the first ball at the fourth gear hit it, followed by the second and the third shortly after.
It seemed the Fire Tooth Dog's reflex reaction speed limit was about a dozen meters per second. Qiao Sang thought about shutting down the machine.
“Yah!” The Fire Tooth Dog cried out anxiously. Don’t stop! It could still go on!
Qiao Sang was stunned; she hadn’t expected the Fire Tooth Dog to notice her actions amid the continuous assault of balls. Since it had chosen to continue, she naturally didn’t want to stop it. With the Fire Tooth Dog’s character, she feared that if she halted the training now, it might sulk.
The Fire Tooth Dog refocused on the balls, realizing that it had simply been unprepared for the sudden speed increase! After days of hard training, how could it let these balls defeat it so easily?
Qiao Sang was amazed to see the Fire Tooth Dog, which had initially been hit constantly, quickly finding its rhythm. From hitting once for every ball at the start, it progressed to getting hit once for every three balls, and ultimately managing to evade most as it continued.
In just half an hour, the Fire Tooth Dog had improved to the point where it was only hit once after dodging an average of 45 balls.
Since the Fire Tooth Dog showed no signs of fatigue, Qiao Sang didn’t stop the pitching machine. Her initial plan was to simply test the speed today without letting it tire itself too much. After all, if it trained like before, it would surely feel sore the next day, which wouldn’t help its state.
Tomorrow was June 10th—the special admission test for Holy Water Middle School. Qiao Sang wanted the Fire Tooth Dog to rest today and to keep the testing light. But now, the Fire Tooth Dog wasn’t testing speed; it was training. Continuing like this would mean it wouldn’t be in top shape tomorrow.
Qiao Sang hesitated, considering if she should call it to a stop. Just then, an identical Fire Tooth Dog appeared next to her!
Qiao Sang froze, raising her hand to rub her eyes, confirming it wasn’t just her imagination. What else could explain such an unnatural phenomenon besides a skill?
She quickly entered the Beastmaster Codex.
[Name: Fire Tooth Dog]
[Attribute: Fire]
[Level: Initial (133/1000)+]
[Skills: Bite (Beginner 74/100)+, Ram (Expert 198/500)+, Fire Tooth (Expert 188/500)+, Spark (Expert 232/500)+, Shadow Clone (Beginner 2/100)+]
[Points: 55]
The training over the past few days had led to progress in all skills except Bite. Qiao Sang checked the numbers every night before bed.
Suddenly, a new skill appeared in the data that hadn’t been there last night—Shadow Clone.
Qiao Sang was taken aback. Shadow Clone was a mid-tier skill, comparable to Fire Tooth. It had been just about ten days since the Fire Tooth Dog learned Spark, and now it had comprehended a mid-tier skill!
Normally, learning a skill took a considerable amount of time, needing appropriate guidance and training. Many novice Beast Masters who didn’t know how to train for the skills they wished would send their pets to training institutions where they could learn skills. Such institutions were extremely popular in today’s society and could thrive on teaching even just one skill as long as it was mid-tier or higher.
Qiao Sang pressed the stop button, gazing at the Fire Tooth Dog with excitement in her eyes.
“Yah?” The Fire Tooth Dog looked confused at the sudden stop. Why had it paused?
Qiao Sang exclaimed, “Fire Tooth Dog, if talent could be graded, you’d definitely be a solid S Rank!”
“Yah~” The Fire Tooth Dog called out shyly, feeling a bit embarrassed. Why was it being praised so suddenly?
In the next moment, the Fire Tooth Dog realized something and turned its head to the left.
“Yah!!!” With a terrified yelp, the Fire Tooth Dog dashed over to Qiao Sang, leaping into her arms faster than it had dodged any ball!
(End of Chapter)