Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

Qiao Sang carried the Fire Fang Dog, running two streets away before stopping. The Fire Fang Dog looked up at its beastmaster in confusion.

"We're just changing locations for training." Qiao Sang said, catching her breath.

---

Five kilometers away, at an open training ground for pet beasts.

Qiao Sang opened the panel.

Name: Fire Fang Dog

Attribute: Fire

Level: Beginner (152/1000) +

Skills: Bite (Beginner 74/100) +, Charge (Adept 334/500) +, Fire Fang (Adept 539/2000) +, Ember (Adepth 659/2000) +, Shadow Clone (Beginner 42/100) +, Fire Whirl (Beginner 1/100) +

The Fire Fang Dog's stats had greatly improved since a few days ago. Both Fire Fang and Ember had already reached the adept stage.

Normally, even low-level skills like Ember would take at least six months to advance from intermediate to adept, but Fire Fang Dog managed to reach that level in just about two weeks.

And as for Fire Fang, a mid-level skill, it typically takes at least a year to achieve significant progress.

However, Fire Fang Dog had reached an adept level in less than half a month—a feat that would normally take others about a year.

Qiao Sang's gaze skimmed over the other stats, as she had been monitoring them every night before bed. She was already aware of the progress in Fire Fang and Ember.

Fire Whirl (Beginner 1/100) +

Her eyes locked on the newly appeared stat, this wasn't there last night.

Sure enough, there was a new skill! Qiao Sang was excited. The Fire Fang Dog was different from other beasts.

While other beasts might not be able to consistently use new skills they’ve just learned, Fire Fang Dog could release them accurately every time after just one successful attempt.

The same had happened with Fire Fang and Shadow Clone.

It seemed her idea of feeding it the super spicy wings had paid off!

Qiao Sang mentally patted herself on the back and then exited the Beastmaster Codex.

"Fire Fang Dog, release Fire Whirl five times." Qiao Sang instructed.

"Yap?" The Fire Fang Dog tilted its head in confusion.

"You know, the move you just learned from eating the wings." Qiao Sang explained.

The Fire Fang Dog understood. It recalled the burning sensation it had felt earlier, opened its mouth, and a searing fire spun into the air. Soon, it had completed five Fire Whirl attempts.

"Yap!" The Fire Fang Dog wagged its tail, its eyes shining brightly as it looked at its beastmaster.

"Great job." Qiao Sang praised it, pretending not to understand the dog's eagerness.

"You must be tired, let's head home."

She was thrilled with the success of her skill development experiment—the Fire Whirl had a 100% success rate, just as she'd hoped. Now she had to rush home to brainstorm ways to make money.

As she turned to leave, her right foot suddenly felt heavy. Looking down, she saw that the Fire Fang Dog was biting her pant leg.

"Yap! Yap!"

The Fire Fang Dog let go as soon as she stopped and started gesturing with its paws.

It didn’t want to go home! It hadn't mastered Meteor Shower yet!

Qiao Sang was at a loss. What was she supposed to do with such a determined pet?

She crouched down and explained, "You’ve already learned a new skill today, which is amazing. We should take things slow and practice Meteor Shower next time."

She needed to persuade the Fire Fang Dog to leave. Even if they practiced all night, they wouldn't make any progress on a high-level skill like Meteor Shower.

As a high-level skill, the difficulty and power of Meteor Shower go hand in hand. If it were easy to master, it wouldn’t be classified as a high-level skill.

But the Fire Fang Dog took a step back and shook its head.

It wanted to practice Meteor Shower! Its beastmaster was too complacent. How could they call it a day after mastering just one small skill? It was determined to become the invincible Fire Fang Dog!

Qiao Sang sighed and handed it a now-cold skewer of spicy wings.

What else could she do? The Fire Fang Dog had made up its mind, so she had no choice but to keep going with it.

The Fire Fang Dog stiffened, gritted its teeth, and took a bite of the wings.

A second later—

"Yap!!!"

---

At Qingcheng Jiayuan, 7:30 PM.

The Fire Fang Dog lay weakly on the sofa, looking completely drained.

"Coo~" The fat dove approached, nudging it with concern.

"Is the Fire Fang Dog alright?" Her mother asked.

"It's fine, just physically and mentally exhausted." Qiao Sang replied.

Mother: ...

This is what you call fine?!

Qiao Sang sat cross-legged, watching TV.

To learn Meteor Shower, the Fire Fang Dog had eaten six super crazy spicy wings, but they only had three bottles of Qiyuan milk left.

Even though the Fire Fang Dog tried to suppress the burning sensation, its constant flame attacks left it severely depleted.

She couldn’t afford more Qiyuan milk, so she had to make do with seven or eight bottles of water for it to drink.

After a whole afternoon of this, its throat was hoarse from the heat and constant barking, yet it hadn't made any progress with Meteor Shower.

While it didn’t learn Meteor Shower, its Fire Whirl skill level had increased by 45 points, leaving the Fire Fang Dog completely worn out.

Qiao Sang couldn’t do anything but watch. The Fire Fang Dog was stubborn, and stopping it from practicing wasn’t an option, it had to reach its own limits first. As its beastmaster, the best she could do was not to interfere.

"You’ve tidied up the room well. Now, how about explaining why you needed to take two weeks off?" Her mother asked.

Qiao Sang snapped out of her thoughts and cautiously replied, "I told you, it was for training Fire Fang Dog. How else could I win first place in Shengshui High's special admissions? Right, Fire Fang Dog?"

"Yap." The Fire Fang Dog rasped.

Her mother glanced at Qiao Sang, then got up, went to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and gently placed it in front of the Fire Fang Dog.

"Here, have some water."

Qiao Sang: ...

Why did it feel like her mother was silently accusing her of mistreating the Fire Fang Dog?

Fortunately, her mother didn’t press the issue further, probably because she had tidied the room and got into Shengshui High School today. Qiao Sang sighed in relief.

An advertisement was playing on TV, announcing the registration time and location for the F-level Beastmaster competition in Hanggang City on June 30th.

As they showed the prizes for the top three finishers, Qiao Sang leaned forward.

Third place, a BD-7800 model Moonlight Motorcycle and 50,000 Alliance Coins.

Second place, a Water Evolution Stone and 100,000 Alliance Coins.

First place, a random pet egg and 200,000 Alliance Coins.

Qiao Sang’s breath quickened.

This first-place prize seemed tailor-made for her! Whether it was the pet egg or the Alliance Coins, she needed them both right now!

Before she could memorize the registration website, her mother had already picked up the remote and changed the channel.

“Mom!” Qiao Sang called out.

She wanted to ask her mother to switch back, but her voice trailed off.

On the screen, a woman in a business suit was reporting the news.

"At 1:23 PM today, a case of malicious destruction of a building's wall occurred on Jiangyi Street..."