I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Attributes

Subai had long heard of the Human Race’s Guardian Array. Or rather, there were few in the Demon Race who didn’t know about it.

"Terrifying doesn’t even begin to describe it. The mortal kingdoms of the Human Race stretch for thousands upon thousands of miles, and the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array covers the entire Mortal Territory with room to spare. Even if a Demon Emperor entered the array, should his Demonic Power leak and be detected, he’d be flayed alive if he didn’t die outright."

Granny Mei said with a sigh, a look of awe in her eyes.

It was said that the Celestial Fox Race were the foxes of destiny, but the Human Race were the true Children of Destiny in this world.

The sheer scale of the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array was staggering. Neither the Human Race nor the Demon Race could even imagine how it had been constructed.

All that was known was that this great Array had existed since ancient times.

If any member of the Demon Race entered the array and revealed even a hint of powerful Demon Qi, they would be locked onto by the Array as divine lightning descended from the heavens, bombarding them without end.

Throughout history, the number of demons who had survived an attack from the great Array could be counted on two hands.

And they only survived because they had merely trespassed on the array’s edge. Had they gone any deeper, even a Demon Emperor would have been struck dead by the divine lightning.

With this great Array in place, the Human Race was virtually invincible.

Even if they suffered a temporary defeat in a war against the Demon Race, the human Cultivators could simply retreat from the Cultivation Realm and hide within the Mortal Territory, leaving the Demon Race completely powerless to pursue them.

Of course, this didn’t come without a price for the Human Race.

All Arrays require Spiritual Power to function, and the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array was no exception.

It operated by drawing upon the Spiritual Qi from the lands of the Mortal Territory.

And it didn’t just draw a little. The land it enveloped was drained so thoroughly that it had become a Land of Absolute Spirit.

In that place, mortals could forget about Cultivation. Just being born with a Spirit Root—possessing even the most meager Cultivation Talent—was an impossible dream.

To pursue Cultivation, one had to leave the Mortal Territory and enter the human Cultivation Realm.

The small town not far from them was situated right on the very edge of this great human Array.

In addition to absorbing the world’s Spiritual Qi, the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array also leached energy, such as Spiritual Power or Demonic Power, from the bodies of practitioners within it.

The process was just slow and not particularly forceful.

The town was unsuitable for practitioners, but for Subai, it was perfect.

If pursuers from the Demon Race came after them, they could, depending on the situation, either enter the human Cultivation Realm or retreat deeper into the mortal kingdoms.

’I hope that one day, our Celestial Fox Race will have a Guardian Array of our own!’

Subai’s heart surged with emotion.

Only then could the Celestial Fox Race truly escape their fate of enslavement.

...

Southwest of Red Fox Town, a small river flowed slowly out from the forest to the west.

The river was quite a distance from the town gate; reaching it required a long walk around the town walls.

So, even though it was more convenient for watering crops, one could still find unclaimed land to clear for farming further upstream, closer to the forest.

This was where Jiang Zuo had cleared a small plot of farmland.

He usually spent his time here. Besides growing vegetables, it was a convenient spot to train Great Black and practice his stone-throwing skills.

He had been out for over two hours, and it was now twelve noon.

"Great Black, come back."

Jiang Zuo called to Great Black, ready to head back to town and make lunch.

Great Black had eaten three large meat buns this morning, but for a dog its size, that was hardly enough to feel full.

This was something Jiang Zuo had learned from experience over the years: a full stomach in the morning would significantly reduce the effectiveness of their training.

WOOF!

Knowing it was lunchtime, Great Black happily bounded over.

Jiang Zuo patted Great Black’s head, just about to turn back.

But at that moment, a line of text suddenly materialized before his eyes.

[Great Black’s raising progress has reached 100%!]

The moment the text appeared, Jiang Zuo felt a mysterious power flow into his slightly weary body.

His fatigue lessened dramatically, and his body instantly felt distinctly stronger.

’It’s several days early.’

Jiang Zuo was a little surprised.

He could check the raising progress of a Pet Beast just by looking at it. This morning, Great Black’s progress had been at 99%, so he’d figured it would take another three or four days to reach 100%.

But it had finished several days ahead of his prediction.

’I wonder how many stats I got this time.’

As he thought this, the Beast Tamer attribute panel materialized before his eyes.

Name: Jiang Zuo

Occupation: Novice Beast Tamer (56/100)

--Novice Beast Tamer: You are not yet skilled at training Pet Beasts, but you have a basic grasp of how to lower a Mortal Beast’s wariness. Additionally, any Pet Beast you raise will be extremely loyal to you.

Race: Human (Mortal) (Holds one opportunity to change Race)

Age: 16 (-) / 104

Beast Taming Reputation: 23

Stats:

Strength 15.7 (+)

Stamina 14.9 (+)

Agility 15.1 (+)

Beast Taming Talent: Learning LV1 (52/100),

--Learning LV1: A universal talent that can be equipped on any Pet Beast you are currently raising. Slightly increases the Pet Beast’s learning ability and efficiency.

Cultivation Beast Cage (1/1): Great Black

--Great Black: A medium-sized, black-furred canine. Lifespan: 35 years. Personality: docile, loves to eat, very strong. Has one Talent Slot, equipped with the "Learning" talent. Current raising progress: 100%.

Ongoing Quest: 1. Successfully cause one Pet Beast to undergo Mutation.

Current System Time:

12:14

...

’Holy cow, a 35-year lifespan! That’s so many years longer than a normal black dog! He’s strong, too. It added about 0.7 to 0.8 to all my stats! All that good food I fed you wasn’t for nothing!’

Jiang Zuo looked at his stat panel, comparing it to his previous stats, and was pleasantly surprised.

When a Pet Beast’s raising progress reached 100%, he would receive a bonus equivalent to 10% of the pet’s lifespan and its three primary stats.

A normal, healthy adult male who didn’t practice martial arts would have Strength, Physique, and agility stats between 7 and 10, and a lifespan of around 80 years.

A large black dog’s three stats were between 5 and 7, with a lifespan of 28 to 30 years.

The previous "Great Blacks" he had raised had usually only added three years to his lifespan and 0.6, or 0.7 at most, to his three stats.

The rewards from this Great Black were undoubtedly the best yet.

In addition to the stats, the experience he received was also more than before.

He received a full 10 points of Beast Taming Experience, raising his total from 46 to 56. He only needed 44 more points to reach the next level.

Each time Jiang Zuo raised a black dog, he would gain 5 to 10 points of Beast Taming Experience, depending on the time it took and the dog’s overall development.

He remembered seven years ago, when it had taken him over a year and a half of fumbling through trial and error to raise his first Great Black, only to receive a pitiful 5 points of Beast Taming Experience in the end.

Now, at seventeen years old, from his first Great Black at age ten to this current, eighth one, he had finally earned the maximum of 10 experience points.

It really hadn’t been easy!

Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but sigh.

Speaking of which, Jiang Zuo was 17, so why did his stat panel show his age as 16?

It wasn’t a system error, nor had Jiang Zuo remembered incorrectly.

Jiang Zuo’s registered age in Red Fox Town was, in fact, 17.

The stat panel showed 16 because Jiang Zuo had used Beast Taming Reputation to reduce his age by one year!

As long as he had enough Beast Taming Reputation, he could press the (-) symbol next to his age to reduce it by one year!

Raising Pet Beasts could increase his maximum lifespan, while Beast Taming Reputation could lower his current age.

Jiang Zuo could only marvel at how absurdly overpowered this Beast Taming System was.

As long as he kept raising Pet Beasts, he could achieve longevity and eternal youth even without practicing Cultivation!

Jiang Zuo was curious. If he kept pressing it and reduced his age to one or two, would he turn back into a baby?

But the thought of actually turning back into a baby was too bizarre. After some consideration, Jiang Zuo decided not to risk it with his itchy fingers.

Besides reducing his age, Beast Taming Reputation could also be used to add points to stats like Strength or to add experience to his Beast Taming Talents. It was extremely useful.

One point of Beast Taming Reputation could increase a stat by 0.1 or add 1 experience point to a Beast Taming Talent.

It was undoubtedly a shortcut to growing powerful quickly.

Unfortunately, Beast Taming Reputation was incredibly difficult to acquire. The previous seven Great Blacks he’d raised had only earned him a total of 26 points.

...

The Beast Taming System wasn’t very complicated. It was worth noting, however, that under the Race section, Jiang Zuo had one opportunity to change his race. It seemed he could switch from being human to something else.

He wondered if changing his Race would also change his appearance.

However, Jiang Zuo had no way of finding out, as the race-change function was temporarily unavailable.

The function would probably unlock after his Beast Taming Level increased.

Jiang Zuo wasn’t surprised by this kind of design.

This Beast Taming System came from a browser game he had played before he transmigrated.

He knew how browser games worked. To keep players hooked, they were designed to unlock new features at certain progression points, maintaining novelty and introducing new ways to get players to spend money.

Jiang Zuo’s job had been a real grind. In his free time, he would rather lie in bed and browse video sites, scrolling through random stuff like food vlogs, forging competitions, and those viral videos of Pakistani artisans making things by hand—anything to unwind.

Who had time to play games?

In Jiang Zuo’s opinion, modern games, especially mobile and browser games, were basically just a second job you had to pay for. Not only were they a waste of time, but you also had to spend money. You’d have to be an idiot.

The only reason Jiang Zuo ever touched this idle Beast Taming browser game was because a colleague had recommended it so enthusiastically.

The game was a total cash grab. To attract more players and boost its daily active user count, it used a gameplay model that was basically a pyramid scheme.

In the game, the amount of experience a player could gain from idling each day was capped. However, if you referred other players, and ten of your referrals stayed online for more than 30 minutes on any given day, you would receive up to double the bonus experience in your mailbox the next day.

This colleague was on good terms with Jiang Zuo, and they often helped each other out at work.

Seeing how hooked his colleague was, Jiang Zuo didn’t say much.

It wasn’t like he had to actually spend time playing it anyway. He just registered an account, wrote a simple auto-run script, and let it log in for 30 minutes automatically every time he booted up his computer.

If he hadn’t skimmed the tutorial during registration and occasionally listened to his colleague talk about it, he probably wouldn’t have even recognized the system.

When he first realized this Beast Taming System came from that browser game, Jiang Zuo felt a pang of regret. If only he had actually played the game seriously, he wouldn’t have had to spend so much time fumbling his way through it.

But he didn’t dwell on it for long.

Playing games with no time or money was a miserable experience, but in this new world with few forms of entertainment, slowly figuring things out like he was playing a game was its own kind of fun.

Judging from the bits and pieces he recalled his colleague saying, the current Beast Taming System still had plenty of locked features.

He remembered that just a few days before he transmigrated, his colleague had already started raising Divine Beasts for battle.

At the very least, he should be able to raise a group of Pet Beasts to act as guards, not just sell them off for a little cash after raising them like he was doing now.

Thinking back, it seemed he had transmigrated exactly one month after he first encountered the game.

He wondered if there was a connection between the two events.

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