Beast Taming: Starting From Zero

Jin Feifan's forced smile froze on her face, not knowing how to respond.

She had been seen through…

Would her roommate think she wasn’t being welcoming?

Qiao Sang observed Jin Feifan for a moment and said seriously, "I get it. You have slightly downturned eyebrows, which naturally gives you a worried expression. If you shave off the droopy ends and draw them more arched, it'll look better."

“Really?” Jin Feifan blinked in surprise, then asked in a small voice.

“Of course.” Qiao Sang smiled.

“But since we're just in the first year of high school, it might be a bit early to start drawing your eyebrows. You look fine as you are—quite unique, actually.”

This roommate was just like her contracted beast, so timid.

While talking, Qiao Sang glanced at the two bedrooms. One of them already had a bed made.

“If you want to stay in this room, I can move my stuff out.” Jin Feifan said nervously when she noticed her roommate looking at the room she had claimed.

“No need, it doesn't matter which room I take.” Qiao Sang replied.

The two rooms were side by side, both furnished with a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a window, nothing different.

Yabao stayed close to his beast master, inspecting the place they would be living in.

He stared at the empty room for a moment, then ran to the living room, looking around.

Still not finding what he was looking for, he ran to the bathroom, searching every corner of the dorm.

“Yap!”

“Yap-yap!”

Yabao rushed to his beast master, gesturing frantically with his paws.

Seeing how anxious the Fire Fang Dog looked, Jin Feifan stepped back several paces in alarm.

Oh no, what’s going on? It’s so scary…

Qiao Sang looked at Yabao and said calmly, “We’re here to get stronger. It’s perfectly normal there’s no TV.”

Yabao froze.

Get stronger?

In that case, watching TV wasn’t so important after all.

Jin Feifan was still processing.

That’s it? Fire-type beasts are this easy to calm down?

“This is a Little Ball Pofu, right?” Qiao Sang asked, changing the topic.

Little Ball Pofu, a grass-type beast, had inherited healing skills.

Qiao Sang had once considered it as her second contracted beast, but the price was far beyond her expectations.

And even if she had the money, it was almost impossible to reserve one without political connections or insider access.

“Pofu.”

Little Ball Pofu, which had been hiding in its beast master’s arms, timidly turned its head and let out a soft sound when it heard someone mention it.

It was about 20 centimeters tall, green all over, with short limbs, resembling a large round ball.

Its eyes were also green, but they looked a bit red from recent crying. On its head, a white dandelion puff was growing.

Little Treasure stared intently at the dandelion on its head.

“Yes, I call it Little Ball.” Jin Feifan said, smiling genuinely for the first time when talking about her contracted beast.

“Xuuuuun~”

At this point, Little Treasure floated over to Little Ball Pofu, skillfully taking out a bottle of milk from his ring and handing it over.

Qiao Sang blinked, a bad feeling creeping into her heart.

Her Little Treasure always followed her around, and she knew that the milk it gave out was never free—except when given to Yabao…

“Pofu!”

Little Ball Pofu buried its head back into its beast master’s arms.

“L-Little Ball, take it! The treasure-seeking ghost is greeting you.” Jin Feifan stammered, her voice trembling.

Oh my god, a ghost-type beast! And it’s so close to me!

“Yap.”

“Yap-yap.”

Yabao spoke up on behalf of his little companion.

He didn’t understand. His little buddy was so well-behaved, so why were so many people afraid of it?

Yabao had completely forgotten his own reaction the first time he met Little Treasure.

“Little Ball, hurry… just take it!” Jin Feifan urged, on the verge of tears.

Oh no, the Fire Fang Dog is also getting too close!

“Pofu!”

Little Ball Pofu wailed, refusing to turn its head.

Seeing both Jin Feifan and Little Ball Pofu backed into a corner, Qiao Sang suppressed a smile and said, “Little Treasure, come back. You’re running low on milk. If you give it all away, there won’t be any left for yourself.”

Little Treasure paused, quickly comparing the two options in his mind.

Milk or dandelion…

Something to eat or something to play with…

Hmm, milk was more important. He wouldn’t do to have none to drink later.

Little Treasure stopped offering the milk, opened the bottle, and floated back to Qiao Sang, drinking it by himself.

Jin Feifan stood frozen, speechless, as if she had been stunned by what she just witnessed.

Ghost-type beasts could be this obedient too…

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Qiao Sang returned to her room and shut the door.

All her belongings were inside Little Treasure’s ring. Since there was no need for school supplies during the training, she hadn’t asked her mother to send anything over.

After tidying up the room a bit, Qiao Sang lay down on the bed.

Little Treasure began glowing blue and stretched out his tiny paws, attempting to use telekinesis to lift the Yabao into the air.

Little Treasure, just a few days short of a full month old, wasn’t strong enough yet, but one out of every five attempts could lift the Yabao’s paws slightly off the ground.

Whenever he succeeded, the room would fill with his excited cries.

This was the benefit of having two contracted beasts, they could entertain themselves.

Otherwise, without a TV, the energetic Yabao might not be able to stay cooped up in such a small room. At least this way, Qiao Sang had time to focus on other things.

Lying on the bed, Qiao Sang began thinking.

She still had 10 bottles of F-rank energy recovery liquid, which would be enough for 10 more days of intense skill training.

But now that the location had changed, some skills would be harder to practice, like Ember and Meteor Rain.

The proficiency of Ember was already at (Mastery 14,626/20,000), and with nine more days of regular practice, it would reach its peak.

When a beast’s skill proficiency reached the top, the associated attribute would grow significantly stronger.

She was eager to see how the fire attribute within Yabao would evolve once Ember reached its peak proficiency.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t continue the training for now.

The current power of Ember, at near-master level, was much stronger than before. Without a body of water nearby, she didn’t dare let the Yabao use it.

This was a public school, and even if she trained in the empty sports field late at night, she worried the flames might damage the grounds.

It was much more convenient to live off-campus. She wondered how she could manage to stay off-campus during the school year…

Qiao Sang spent the entire night thinking about this problem.

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The next morning, Qiao Sang emerged from her room with dark circles under her eyes.

“Qiao Sang, you’re up! I bought breakfast for you.” Jin Feifan nervously called out from the table in the living room.

Qiao Sang paused for a moment and walked over to see what she had brought.

Fried buns, soup dumplings, sticky rice rolls, crab roe soup buns, mini wontons, shaomai, spring rolls, congee, tea eggs, fried dough sticks, soy milk…

After a moment of silence, Qiao Sang couldn’t help but ask, “Did you buy all this just for the two of us?”

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I bought a little bit of everything.” Jin Feifan explained in a small voice.

Qiao Sang pulled out a chair and sat down, sighing, “Thank you. But next time, don’t spend so much. I’m good with just one bun and a bowl of soy milk.”

With that, she picked up a shaomai and started eating.

Seeing that Qiao Sang didn’t reject the food, Jin Feifan smiled happily, “Got it.”

“What do you want for lunch? I’ll treat you,” Qiao Sang said after taking a sip of soy milk.

“Lunch?” Jin Feifan blinked, then hesitated, “You didn’t know? The school has prepared a group lunch for us.”

Qiao Sang was confused. “A group lunch?”

“Didn’t you check the messages in the group chat?” Jin Feifan asked.

Qiao Sang was even more confused. “What group chat?”

“The one on Shengshui High School’s website, where all the training camp participants were asked to join.” Jin Feifan replied.

Qiao Sang: …

Why does this conversation feel so familiar?

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