Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-336

Chapter 336 Merely the Sixth-rank.

“Professional training?”

Qin Shaotian could tell that Su Ping was not giving a perfunctory answer. After some consideration, Qin Shaotian said, “Sure, I’ll take the professional training. Do you accept any kind of pet?” “Yes, any kind.”

Qin Shaotian was about to summon his pet when he noticed something. He looked around from the corner of his eye. Many people were waiting behind him and they seemed to be impatient, unhappy that he had taken up too much time.

He paused his hand motion, then made a grabbing gesture. A swirl that was several meters tall opened up. From inside hopped out a battle pet with a curvy figure. It was none other than the Wind Siren he had used the other day.

The ones lining behind Qin Shaotian quieted down in surprise.

Those who had watched the matches from Group D would know the Wind Siren was a pet that Qin Shaotian had used.

In the first few rounds, Qin Shaotian had managed to defeat his opponents while only using the Wind Siren, which had earned him much attention.

Surprisingly, the people waiting in line had chanced upon a Wind Siren. “This Wind Siren is at the seventh-rank, an adult one, I suppose?”

“That person should be at least at the fifth-rank, right?” “Is he Qin Shaotian?”

“No way. Think about who Qin Shaotian is. Why would he come here, not to mention waiting in a line with us?”

“I’m surprised to see copycats sprout so quickly. Piss, anyways, I was thinking about getting a Wind Siren. I cannot afford dragons but I could get enough money for a Wind Siren.”

“The price for Wind Sirens is going up. Don’t be in such a hurry. The experts said that Wind Sirens will work best with close-combat pets unless you can be stronger than a close-combat pet like that freaky Qin Shaotian.”

People were discussing heatedly. The Wind Siren had become popular since the day prior, and the appearance of one Wind Siren had reminded them of the previous day’s battles. Naturally, the customers were getting excited. Qin Shaotian paid no mind to the comments. He whispered his question to Su Ping, “Will this one be okay?” Su Ping heaved a sigh inwardly. He apologized, “Not for now. The store won’t take any advanced pets for now. We only accept middle and low-rank pets.”

He wished he could change the rules.

To be able to train advanced pets, he would have to train a pet to have a first-rate aptitude. That was the only way he could open up this service.

The system explained that everything the store provided had to be first-class. How could Su Ping open up training services for advanced pets if he couldn’t even have a battle pet with a first-rate aptitude?

Su Ping wanted to tell the system that he was shameless enough to do that!

Of course, arguing with the system would not help. The system had spent much time with Su Ping and had become smart enough to know to avoid having a verbal battle with Su Ping.

“No advanced battle pets?”

After the initial surprise, Qin Shaotian felt a bit offended. “Didn’t you say the dragon was trained here? Was that not true?

“That was true, of course.”

“So…”

Su Ping rolled his eyes at Qin Shaotian. “Who told you the dragon was an advanced battle pet?”

Qin Shaotian was puzzled.

What?

That dragon was not an advanced battle pet?

What the hell!

Think about that level of energy and strength. How could the dragon not be an advanced pet? The natural thing was to think that the dragon was at the eighth-rank. Even the seventh-rank would be too low for the dragon!

But Su Ping was telling him that the dragon was not an advanced pet?

Was Su Ping trying to say the dragon had not reached the sixth-rank yet?!

Qin Shaotian had an urge to remove his sunglasses so that Su Ping could see his expression, which was saying “Do you think I’m an idiot” with three exclamation marks in bold.

“The dragon is just at the peak of the sixth rank. I won’t be able to train it here when it reaches the seventh-rank, same as with other pets,” Su Ping explained.

This had been a problem for him as well.

Recently, with the Elite League, and the previous promotion, he had been receiving more customers who came from different walks of life. Apart from students, people such as explorers who had been working for years would pay him a visit; some were members of private adventure groups.

Those people would usually come with pets that were basically at the seventh-rank. But he had to say sorry since he couldn’t train them!

Every time he apologized, he felt as though a large sum of money were flying away right in front of him. What a pain.

But rules were rules.

The system would not change them.

To earn money from training advanced pets, he would have to have a battle pet with a first-rate aptitude.

Of course, he had tried it in the cultivation site. That was a hard task.

At the moment, his best pet had an above-average aptitude. It seemed that it would only take him one more step to improve the rate, but that final step was difficult!

It was even harder than when a titled battle pet warrior tried to reach the legendary rank!

Su Ping did some calculations. To do that, the pet’s powers would have to experience a marked increase. Maybe, a pet would have to exhibit legendary-rank strength when it was at the sixth-rank!

To display legendary-rank powers at the seventh-rank would still only be rated as above average.

That point had been proven by the Little Skeleton, which had reached the intermediate position of the seventh-rank.

Therefore, the Little Skeleton was no longer eligible for training in the Demigod Burial. The pet could go there, but once the Little Skeleton died in the Demigod Burial, it would die for real. Su Ping no longer dared to let the Little Skeleton fight in there. The Little Skeleton had spent all its time in the Demigod Burial in the spring. Su Ping had never imagined that the Little Skeleton could be considered first-rate in aptitude.

The Little Skeleton had been measured against countless peers since the beginning of time. To stand out among countless peers was harder than becoming a god! The Little Skeleton seemed to have reached a bottleneck.

That had little to do with the cultivation site. The Demigod Burial was a good cultivation site as it was; outstanding even among all the advanced cultivation sites. The ones better than the Demigod Burial would be the top-level cultivation sites.

The chances of dying in those top-level cultivation sites were high. He could afford the admission fee but not the energy points to buy chances of revival. That was too expensive.

Besides, for the pets that had not reached the legendary rank, he believed training in the top-level cultivation sites or the advanced cultivation sites made little difference.

They would die instantly either way. Actually, in top-level cultivation sites, powerful beings were more abundant and the pets would die sooner. They would be killed even before they could see their surroundings. That would not do any good for the pets’ training whatsoever. Without the benefit of unlimited revivals, visiting a top-level cultivation site would be less beneficial than visiting an advanced cultivation site.

Currently in the Demigod Burial, there were plenty of perilous locations where beings lower than the legendary-rank would die instant deaths or drown in risk-filled areas!

Su Ping tried to let Joanna take the Dark Dragon Hound and the Purple Python to some extremely violent and wicked places to stimulate the pets with constant deaths.

Still, that would bring little effect.

Using death as the pressure and stimulant was no longer inspiring them.

They seemed to have reached the limit of their potential, unless they could learn some strong legendary-level skills, like the Little Skeleton’s (Gate of the Dead).

That would drive up their combat strength by several points directly.

However, luck would play a part in this regard. Skills like this could no longer be learned via countless deaths. Just like a person trying to solve a math problem, head smashing wouldn’t do any good to find an answer. Yet, maybe, the answer would come in a relaxed moment.

The only thing for Su Ping to do was to wait for the Purple Python and the Dark Dragon Hound to have an epiphany.

At the same time, waiting while doing nothing was not the right choice. Su Ping would feel bad every time he saw customers like Qin Shaotian leave with disappointment.

“Ding!”

“The host has rejected training advanced pets for one hundred times. Side mission initiated!

“Task Category: trainer’s cultivation.

“First Task: become an elementary trainer.

“Description: the host should become a qualified trainer as soon as possible to better manage and operate the pet store. As the boss of a pet store, how can you know almost nothing about training skills? That is unacceptable!”

The system’s alert suddenly popped into Su Ping’s mind and took him by surprise. Trainer? Wasn’t he already a trainer?

“Well, well!”

The system continued, “No trainer skill detected in the host. The host cannot be regarded as a trainer. The host shall start as soon as possible and become a qualified trainer.”

Su Ping stood there still. You could have just explained things. What’s with the “well, well”!?

Su Ping felt the system was becoming more and more like a person. Was the system being affected by him after eavesdropping for so many times?

Su Ping held back the urge to argue with the system and asked for clarification, “Trainer skills. Do you mean things like grooming energy?”

He had seen online videos of trainers before. They were low or middle-level trainers that were making money by releasing the videos. Still, Su Ping had learned a lot about their skills and techniques.

At the same time, the skills were nothing fancy.

He had thought about borrowing those skills but he didn’t think that they would be of much use to the battle pets like the Dark Dragon Hound.

Skills like using the trainer’s astral powers to nurture a certain part of the pet.

For instance, the claws, or limbs, to make them stronger…

Su Ping found that method unacceptable. For one thing, it would waste a lot of the trainer’s astral powers. For another, the effect was not that great. True, claws or tusks could become stronger or sharper in the long term with the help of astral powers, but that was too slow.

He would rather torture… no, train the battle pets he had rather than learning those skills. The former method could not make his pets improve quickly, either, but it was more effective than the skills posted online. Besides, those skills would affect his cultivation.

“Grooming with energy is just an entry-level skill,” the system explained, “Elementary skills include strengthening and enlightening.

“Strengthening includes strengthening skills, powers, energy… “Enlightening is to inspire the pet’s intelligence to better the chance of learning skills…”

“Hello?”

While the system went on and on about elementary pet trainers, a voice pulled Su Ping back to reality. It was Qin Shaotian. Su Ping realized that he had been in deep thought for a while.

“Sir, when can you open up training for advanced pets?” Qin Shaotian asked. Su Ping said that it would be available later, so he wanted to know when. If the effect of the store’s training was great, he would consider letting Su Ping train his dragons and the Bloody Servant as well.