The Celestial Pig used to be a third-rank Astral Pet with an adorable body that looked too pink to pose any threat. Staying inside a nursing pen helped it reach the fourth rank. Though such an improvement didn’t help it avoid feeling terrified by the mind-crushing aura as it began screaming, just as if it had been taken to a butcher house.
The presence of the Inferno Dragon was enough to make such a low-rank pet faint. Not to mention that something even more terrible was right there.
“Oink!”
The pig’s brain was no longer functioning properly. Its bodily instincts urged it to run away.
“Tsk.”
Su Ping unleashed the “Killing Intent” skill again through their temporary pet contract, making the Celestial Pig stop in its tracks and run back as its beady eyes slightly glowed in red. Under Su Ping’s command, the pig charged to the battlefield on its tiny hooves,
However, the effect of the skill didn’t last very long when a whip-like tentacle excavated a meter-deep gash on the floor right in front of the pig, almost cutting its nose off.
“Eeeeee—”
The poor creature began trembling again. Then it turned around and fled.
“Man, my skill failed so soon?” Su Ping watched it run and complained, “That’s the biggest coward I’ve trained so far.”
He had no choice but to use the skill again, once again forcing the pig to turn around and fight. This time, he made sure to “refresh” the skill in time so the pig didn’t wake up too soon.
wa
It worked, but that didn’t contribute much when it came to the fight because the pig was instantly turned into pork slices as soon as it was close enough to their enemy Copying his good old tactic, Su Ping forced the pig to dive to death repeatedly. This would not help them defeat it, nor would it help the pig learn any new techniques. By doing so, Su Ping wanted to keep the pig under the pressure of being murdered so it might gain something new when encountering desperate situations.
Both his Dark Dragon Hound and the Inferno Dragon learned to be vicious and careful at the same time from their “death training.” It had done wonders. This was why they could listen to his orders and face off Beast Kings and Goddesses without ditching him. Well, most of the time.
Su Ping mainly kept his attention on his own pets during the battle since it was more important to have them acquire new experiences. As for the Celestial Pig, the quest only required him to improve its aptitude by a small level; it wasn’t something too hard to achieve.
Whoosh!
Little Skeleton teleported around the monster to look for its weak spots.
Little Skeleton was mostly safe when the Dark Dragon Hound and the Inferno Dragon were keeping the monster’s attention with their lives on the line. Besides, it was pretty good at evading attacks. Even a Beast King needed some effort to catch it.
“Use Undead Enslaving!” Su Ping ordered, when he saw plenty of bones available for use in the surroundings. The sizes of those bodies suggested that they probably had also been Beast Kings when they were alive. He was not sure whether Little Skeleton was strong enough to turn Beast Kings into slaves, but he wouldn’t waste time thinking about other chances to try.
Heeding his order, Little Skeleton appeared on top of one of the bone piles and unleashed a cloud of dark energy around it, causing the bones to start twitching.
Losing Little Skeleton’s help, the other pets began dying too fast without giving Su Ping enough time to summon them back. Seeing this, Su Ping jumped off from the Purple Python and asked it to join the battle as well.
After that, he had to constantly keep an eye out for danger.
The Purple Python didn’t do much better than the Celestial Pig as it could only be helplessly slaughtered in the blink of an eye. Or to live just a little longer since the monster didn’t consider it as a main threat yet.
Like its friends, the python maintained its best focus during the painful training and unleashed its hidden potential again and again, just to keep up for an extra second each time it came back.
Away from them, Little Skeleton had successfully manipulated the bone pile to reform and stand up. Its general shape seemed to be of an elephant, but at least a hundred meters in height.
Grooowl!
The first thing it did was to growl at Little Skeleton and resist its control.
Little Skeleton was shaking as if its body were breaking apart. Its hollow eye sockets lit up, and the shadow of a bigger skeleton emerged from behind it, sending a dominating aura from another dimension.
The “elephant” collapsed, before some of its bones floated back up, gathering to make an incomplete shape that slowly moved toward the sand alligator.
Su Ping could tell that Little Skeleton was at its limit through their connection. But the result was satisfying enough; Little Skeleton was actually able to control the body of a Beast King, albeit part of it, as a mere sixth-rank Astral Pet. Nobody would believe him if Su Ping told them that a sixth-rank skeleton had managed to partially enslave a dead Beast King
That was all thanks to the skeleton king’s bloodline hidden inside Little Skeleton. That much was plain to see.
The bloodline was only deemed as “inferior” by the system. Su Ping wondered what kind of terrible things true Skeleton Kings could have done.
The arrival of a “half Beast King” quickly attracted the alligator’s attention as it ditched its weaker enemies and headed that way.
The Dark Dragon Hound and the Inferno Dragon found a chance to unleash their best attacks, which were mostly ineffective against the monster’s hard body.
Grooowl!
The Inferno Dragon felt humiliated because of its inadequate strength. It gathered the last bit of energy available in its body and discharged an inferno ember at the sand monster.
The concentrated power of destruction contained inside this hellish ember caused the alligator to halt briefly.
The ember landed on the monster’s tail and set it on fire. The monster attempted to extinguish the flame using the sand around it. But no matter how it tried, the fire persisted, while leaving puddles of melted sand behind.
Enraged by the small pain sensation, the monster slammed a pincer-like claw on the ground and sent a circular shockwave from its position.
Su Ping only had time to levitate himself off the ground to evade the attack. All of his pets except for Little Skeleton were caught by the shockwave and exploded into clouds of blood.
Strangely, the shock had no effect on the bone slave controlled by Little Skeleton.
Su Ping sighed in relief and revived his pets to continue.
“What was that…?” He glanced at the monster’s tail which was still burning, before he used the Identify skill on the Inferno Dragon.
He saw a new skill displayed.
[Inferno Dragonfire (level 1)]
It seemed the Inferno Dragon’s original fire attack had just gained a new name, along with a level tag next to it. But he didn’t remember seeing any other skills that had such a label.
So… I can raise this skill to higher levels in the future?
He decided to throw the question to the system. The system was usually generous enough to answer simple inquiries. Though sometimes he just had to pay a price.
“Replying to host: a level is always shown when a skill used by Beast Kings is adapted for further improvement. You will see a more detailed explanation once you learn Identify (intermediate). Do you wish to learn it now?”