Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 126 Instructing

Su Ping noticed how his student began to fear him from the bottom of his heart.

All right, that was enough of a scare for him.

“If you’re sorry, try your best to learn. You can’t blame me if you fail.”

“I know…”

When they argued outside, Xu Kuang thought he had been too careless and Su Ping took the opportunity to ambush him. But after he saw his own pets being subdued by Su Ping, he had fully realized the unsurpassable gap between them.

“As required by our lesson, I will show you one thing you would like to learn.” Su Ping moved closer to Xu Kuang while ignoring the horrendous pet gawking at him nearby. “So what will it be? Astral power control? Or something about your pets?”

Xu Kuang lowered his head. “I—I’m pretty good at my astral power, sir. So… you can teach me about pets, yeah. But please, don’t just tell me about them. I want to get stronger, and if I can make my pets get stronger… I don’t know how to put it.”

Su Ping nodded. “I see. I will show you how to maximize your strength and the capabilities of your pets in battles then. Be aware that I’m not going to help you or your pets reach a higher rank. But you will know how to do better in the league.”

Xu Kuang looked up in surprise. “Do you mean I haven’t shown my full strength, sir?”

“Yeah. You were doing a pretty bad job by sending your little partners upon me back there. I mean, did your academy teach you how to give commands like that?”

Xu Kuang was briefly stunned when he heard Su Ping referring to his horrid-looking pets as “little partners”. Xu Kuang was used to being around them, though he was aware of their intimidating looks which were effective weapons by themselves, especially against women.

Still, Su Ping had just brushed this off.

Xu Kuang responded as his face blushed in embarrassment. “I just wanted to… fight back. I didn’t think too much about my actions.”

“That’s the problem,” Su Ping responded with a deadpan face, “You want to scare me. Your pets know what you want, so they both came at me. Yet you never figured out whether that was a fight you could win. In your mind, you expected a victory when you knew nothing about me. That was pure foolishness.”

Xu Kuang’s expression twisted as he listened to Su Ping’s words. He knew Su Ping was right about everything.

Could I have done something different if I was more serious?

Such a thought only lasted for a second, when Xu Kuang suddenly remembered how Su Ping tossed a Swamp Creeper a few meters away with one hand and how he unleashed a Dragon Roar using the body of a human.

Is this guy even human??

“When was your most recent loss?” asked Su Ping. “Who was your opponent?”

“Oh, ahem! No offense sir, but I’ve never had any losses these days. I’m always in the top ten at the Ares Academy!”

Su Ping gave him a doubtful look.

“I’m serious!”

Xu Kuang was speaking the truth. Even if he did lose a fight, he’d train day and night to recover his stranding. Until he met Su Ping, that is.

“You sound so confident. Then why aren’t you the number one in your school?”

“I—”

That hit the nail.

“Tell me about your failed matches so I know how to help.”

Defeated, Xu Kuang began explaining the fight he went through several months past. He was going up against the No.2 on the ranking list that day.

Su Ping listened to the story with an odd look because Xu Kuang could have definitely won that match.

“Did you just say that, you told your sixth-rank Rotting Bone to fight against a sixth-rank Blazing Wing up close? Are you missing a screw in your brain?”

Xu Kuang would have cursed out loudly if someone spoke to him like this, though he couldn’t do that at the moment.

“Come on! My Rotting Bone sealed off the sky so his Blazing Wing had to fight it on the ground. Did I do wrong?? It wasn’t my fault that the bird had an elemental advantage!”

“Pipe down, don’t act like a kid. Do you know every skill your pet can use?”

“Yeah. Bone Prison, Corroding Vapor, Bone Spike, Bone Armor and Blood Spirit Conversion.” “Do you know how to use Corroding Vapor?”

“Of course I do. It creates some kind of mist in the field to block the enemy’s vision. But it’s useless against a Blazing Wing, right? The bird can easily clear a way out with its fire.”

Su Ping sighed in disappointment. “Who told you it’s all about blocking sight? The vapor is corrosive. It’s written in its name! Do you know what happens if you breathe in that thing? Your body weakens until you die. Corroding Vapor works well when combined with Blood Spirit Conversion. Both pets are of the sixth rank, surely your Rotting Bone can leave a cut or two on the Blazing Wing, right? As long as there’s an open wound, your Rotting Bone can draw the life force of the Blazing Wing through the vapor to sustain itself. It can even keep a group of enemies busy this way. More targets, more energy stolen.”

Xu Kuang’s jaw dropped open.

“You also used the Bone Prison the wrong way. It’s more than a crowd control skill, your pet can use the prison as a cover. Like staying behind a castle wall, the Rotting Bone is free to launch Bone Spikes across the prison shield, whereas the Blazing Wing can’t hit back. If your pet grows further, it would be able to maintain three or four Bone Prison barriers at once, until the Blazing Wing has nowhere else to move.

“See? You have more than one way to deal with the Blazing Wing. If what you told me is right, that bird didn’t know any skills to use the field to its advantage, while your Rotting Bone knows a handy crowd control move.”

Meanwhile, Xu Kuang failed to understand any of what he just heard. Blood Spirit Conversion worked across Corroding Vapor? Using Bone Prison as defense? Cast multiple Bone Prisons?

He knew Su Ping was totally correct, if his Rotting Bone would have used such techniques during that fight. But he had yet to prove whether these methods could work.

Su Ping saw through his mind and said, “Just test it out. This field is big enough.”

Xu Kuang nodded with a serious look. He ordered his Rotting Bone to prepare Corroding Vapor and summoned another low-rank pet so there was some blood in the environment.

The result was surprisingly satisfying; the Rotting Bone was indeed absorbing the life force of the weaker pet remotely. This was completely new to Xu Kuang, who always believed that Corroding Vapor was a simple means of confusing enemies. Xu Kuang didn’t try the other theory, which was about “overlapping Bone Prisons,” because he knew it was probably true. Su Ping just helped him open up another brand new way of solving problems.

“Um, sir, what if the Blazing Wing uses Flame Flood? The Bone Prison won’t work against that.”

“Your Rotting Bone can use Bone Armor, right?” Su Ping lost patience. “That will help it last longer. The Blazing Wing will slow down when using Flame Flood. That’s when you can land a sure shot at it.”

Xu Kuang nodded in acknowledgment. That meant hitting the Blazing Wing in its weak spot and turning the tide of the battle, as long as his Rotting Bone lasted longer behind cover.

He suddenly felt overwhelmed by the new wisdom he could use to win more fights.

Mister Su is right… I shouldn’t have lost that one!