Chapter 11: Mechanical Soul Pet, 369 Steel
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Soul skill.
When a soul pet reaches a certain cultivation level, it gains understanding of specific techniques.
Unlike now, soul beasts of the ancient era weren’t able to develop intelligence for long periods of time.
As such, to comprehend a soul skill, they had to wait for their cultivation level to rise, and for their intelligence to develop.
However, in the present day, the cultivation age requirement for the learning of soul skills has been greatly reduced, thanks to the soul pets’ incubation phases, which granted them intelligence.
Wang Che looked at the green caterpillar and thought to himself.
A soul pet’s soul skill wasn’t a simple matter.
Even for third years, there was only limited knowledge taught on the subject in school.
From what he knew, these techniques were usually passed down via the soul pet’s genes and as such were innate, or in other words, unchangeable.
‘All green caterpillars have a species potential of below a hundred because they can’t inherit any soul skills from genes…’
Wang Che realized.
To put it bluntly, the first green caterpillar to have emerged in this world was inexplicably useless.
Since it hadn’t learned any soul power techniques when it was alive, it’s descendants naturally did not have any kind of soul skill to speak of.
In fact, the only reason the species had managed to survive for thousands of years is only because of its potency in reproduction, and lackluster conditions needed for survival.
They were unlike other soul pets who, upon reaching a certain age, could use inherited abilities to learn a specific soul skill.
Nevertheless, the soul pets of today could still learn other soul skills through special training.
Though the training was often extremely difficult…
Looking at the number on the machine, Wang Che thought to himself, “To be able to unleash several times its initial power… this must be a soul skill. Could it be that the cultivation of the Beast Origin Skill enabled this little guy to learn a soul skill?”
This was not something that he had expected.
To Wang Che, soul skills were no different from the cultivation world’s Dao techniques, martial techniques, demonic techniques, and so on.
The powers may vary, but at their cores, the basic conditions for learning were pretty much the same.
In order to learn a soul skill, the first step was to gain soul power.
After all, soul power allowed soul pets to erupt with incredible strength.
Take the green caterpillar, which had only managed to exert 180 kilograms of strength with its tail on its first try, for instance.
After using its soul power to swing its tail in a different manner, it was able to unleash more than twice its initial power.
On top of that…
Wang Che walked up to the target and touched the area the green caterpillar had struck with its tail.
“There’s a deep depression, and it’s surroundings have sunk inwards. The force from the attack was incredibly strong!”
Wang Che ran his fingers across the target again.
However, just as he was touching it, the target’s surface was suddenly restored to its original state.
“With the soul power enhancement, that tail has become truly extraordinary.”
After pondering for a moment, he said to the green caterpillar, “Try again.”
Meanwhile, the green caterpillar looked at Wang Che in confusion, as if it did not understand his words.
It struck the target again.
However, it’s attack didn’t seem to carry the same force this time.
The caterpillar’s tail had flared up slightly, but the light vanished quickly as it was jumping.
Like on the first attempt, it hit the target with a thud.
“It seems that this little one hasn’t managed to completely master the soul skill yet. The confused expression on its face… I reckon there must have been some element of luck when it performed the attack earlier. It should have been the first time that it has ever used its soul power.”
Wang Che shook his head.
It was no easy feat to master a soul pet’s soul skill.
Especially since this soul skill was external to the green caterpillar.
“It should be the effect of Beast Origin Skill.”
He had taught this green caterpillar this particular skill. After modifying it to fit his soul pet’s attributes, he had ended up with four moves for insects.
One of them was rather special. It was called ‘Looking Back at the Full Moon’. This move involved a special stance where the caterpillar would twist its tail, bend its body, and stretch its head.
By combining all four of them, Wang Che had realized that he could strengthen the green caterpillar’s entire body.
“The little one may have learned such a soul skill because of this, but it has yet to completely master it. Nevertheless, seeing that it has already used it once, the caterpillar will probably be able to master this soul skill very soon, as long as it continues to cultivate the Beast Origin Skill.”
Wang Che finally understood what was happening.
“Let’s test the next one.”
He said, bringing the green caterpillar to a special track.
The track was only a hundred meters in length, but could change its structure according to the type of soul pet that was using it.
In addition, there were various obstacles that could test a soul pet’s reaction speed.
Nevertheless, Wang Che was only planning to test the green caterpillar’s speed, and so opted to use a regular track.
After walking up to the test area, he pressed a button and started the timer.
Seeing this, the green caterpillar immediately charged forward.
However, a hundred metres seemed too great a distance for it to cover.
It was only twenty centimetres long, after all.
As such, it twisted its tail and ran for about thirteen seconds before finally reaching the finish line.
All things considered, Wang Che still thought that its speed was quite average.
In fact, the little one’s speed was even slower than that of ordinary humans, who took about twelve seconds to complete a hundred meter run.
Even when compared to the slow rock monster outside, the caterpillar didn’t fare much better.
“Try to circulate your soul power throughout your body.”
Wang Che advised the green caterpillar who looked lost in thought.
After a while, following his orders, the caterpillar tried many different poses, as if trying to find the best way to distribute its soul power to its body parts.
However, this wasn’t easy either.
In the end, the little one found a way to do it.
With some faint light being emitted from its body once again, the caterpillar rushed out once more.
This time, there was no special force created, like when it had been testing its strength earlier.
The only effect seemed to be that it was now slightly faster than before.
It seemed that there wasn’t any use of soul power this time.
“The soul power cultivation level is too low. It probably used up too much of it just now.”
Wang Che shook his head.
It was not that easy to learn a soul skill.
After all, they required powerful soul power as fuel.
At the same time, the user also needed to have a certain amount of physical strength. Even if one reached a certain cultivation age, there was still the possibility of failing to perform their soul skill.
In addition, this green caterpillar had yet to reach a suitable cultivation age, and did not possess a soul skill inherent to its species.
In other words, performing a soul skill was out of the question at the moment.
Moving on from his disappointment, Wang Che decided to test the physique of the green caterpillar next.
The physical test available at the center was specifically used to test how long a soul pet’s body could last while doing high-intensity exercises.
After all, a soul pet battle involved a high level of effort and stamina
The testing method itself was not complicated.
The soul pet which was being tested only had to hold on while being subjected to gravity that was twice its own weight.
The longer it could persist, the stronger its physique was.
If anything, this was definitely the green caterpillar’s weakness.
With its ordinary physique, it could only last for less than three minutes.
Even when using its soul power, the green caterpillar only managed to add two minutes to its time.
This meant that under normal circumstances, if it were to fight a soul pet with the same soul power cultivation, the little one would not last long.
“Three minutes, little one. You can’t last long enough.”
Wang Che rubbed the green caterpillar’s head as he muttered, “A three-minute caterpillar…”
“Ssss!”
The green caterpillar did not understand his words, but responded anyway.
The final test was defense.
This was just a matter of whether the soul pet was durable enough to resist incoming attacks.
The testing method for this was also quite simple. Under the regular settings, the soul pet only had to withstand attacks of the same caliber as its cultivation level.
To do this, a 369 Steel soul pet would appear in the testing room.
This was a soul pet of the new generation that had existed for nearly a hundred years.
Steel type soul pet.
In particular, the 369 Steel was a soul beast with a body made of special steel, known as cloud steel.
Like its name suggested, it had the ability to transform and become as pliant as clouds.
In its first form, this soul pet took the shape of three pieces of cloud steel rods, which came together to form a two-dimensional triangular plane.
When it evolved to its six rod form, a pyramidal 3D shape would be created instead.
With nine rods, three more inner triangular shapes would be formed within its original foundation.
The 369 Steel was extraordinary to say the least.
On top of that, its most prominent skill was that it could transform into various other soul pets.
It wasn’t just their appearance that it could imitate, but also the soul pet’s soul power cultivation as well.
This was the power of the first man-made soul pet in this world’s history, which could be used for many life and scientific studies.
When the triangular 369 Steel in the testing room saw the green caterpillar, it immediately mirrored its form, and turned into a similar looking caterpillar that was twenty centimetres in length
However, because of its cloud steel body, the 369 Steel took on a white coloured appearance instead.
A green caterpillar that was white in colour.
Not waiting for its opponent, the green caterpillar leapt into the air.
However, the 369 Steel did not lag behind at all. Instead, it jumped straight towards Wang Che’s caterpillar.
They charged at each other aggressively.
Yet.
When it collided with the green caterpillar, the white caterpillar was immediately sent flying back.
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