YM778.TV Chapter 33: 33 The Value of the School Team
Meanwhile, at home, Chen Lingya was perusing a manual.
This color-printed manual wasn’t a book from the school library but a Monster Manual of Nightmare Swamp, personally given to her by the principal. Although she didn’t know its value, she couldn’t find any information about this book online.
“Could Little Wo really be a Taotie?” Chen Lingya compared the pictures of a benign and a malevolent snail, occasionally glancing at Little Wo beside her. On the desk next to her, Little Wo’s two antennae drooped weakly as it rested peacefully.
Comparing with the high-definition pictures in the manual, the benign and malevolent snails, though closely related, still had slight differences in detail.
Though she had no evidence, Chen Lingya was beginning to believe it.
“Could it be a variant? Are you a Taotie?” she asked, prodding Little Wo’s head with her finger.
“Hmm?” Little Wo squinted its eyes, uttering words Chen Lingya couldn’t understand.
…
“You’re here pretty early today, what did you practice this morning?” asked Kuang Shiyi, who walked in around eight o’clock wearing slippers and shorts, and a colorful short-sleeved shirt, holding a steamed bun, and greeting Chen Xing.
“Did some weighted crawling for a while.”
On a sandy patch at the edge of the field, Taotie was crawling back and forth with several sandbags tied to it while Chen Xing occasionally splashed it with water to prevent its skin from being injured due to the friction with the sand.
Endurance and speed were Taotie’s weaknesses, especially on land.
Of course, here ‘speed’ refers to long-distance running speed, not short-distance burst speed.
“Speed is something we can work on,” Kuang Shiyi said, swallowing the rest of his bun and scrunching the plastic bag into a ball before tossing it into a trash can.
“But we shouldn’t be fixated on speed, after all, a weakness is a weakness, something innate that can’t be changed. But we can play to our strengths!”
“Come on, there’s a swimming pool in the back; help me clean it up.”
Behind the teaching building, they came upon a 50*50m swimming pool covered with a layer of green waterproof tarp. “Come give me a hand.” Kuang Shiyi went over to the opposite side to unfasten the hooks securing the tarp, and Chen Xing also went over to help. Together they pulled the cover off the swimming pool.
The pool water was dark green, surfaced with a thin layer of algae and scattered dead leaves.
“Clean it up.” Kuang Shiyi brought out two long-handled nets from the storeroom, tossing one to Chen Xing and taking the other for himself.
The two of them worked half the day to finally clean the debris from the pool.
The water wasn’t replaced; instead, they scattered some white powder into it, which Kuang Shiyi said was used for disinfection and to inhibit the growth of algae. In about half a day, the water would become clear.
“The swimming pool hasn’t been used for a long time, as the last two cohorts of students didn’t have Water Element Beasts, so it has remained idle,” Kuang Shiyi wiped the sweat from his forehead, somewhat sentimental, “Speaking of this pool, our school made it to the top eight in the Shu State Cup back two years ago. There was a senior student with a Water Element Beast who would spend every day in this pool and that underwater raceway over there.”
“Underwater raceway?” Chen Xing was taken aback, looking around, he couldn’t see anywhere that looked like a raceway.
Kuang Shiyi chuckled, “Building that underwater raceway cost over a million!”
“Come on, I’ll show you something new.”
Chen Xing followed Kuang Shiyi further back behind the school; since the new district was newly planned, Azure Dragon Middle School, despite being located in the bustling new district, had a sizeable campus, with a large empty space at the back.
“This is the underwater raceway!”
On the cement ground, winding glass “long lanes” spread across an area the size of a basketball court.
Beneath the tempered glass was a hollow pipeline, similar to the city’s extensive sewer network, with a machinery room next to it.
“As long as you start the machine, the pipes underneath will fill up with water. Then, with four pumps in different directions to accelerate the flow, the maximum speed can reach up to 25m/s. Beasts can swim against the current or go with the flow; there are many branching paths in this underwater raceway. With different pumps activated, it can even create intersecting water flows.”
“A calm swimming pool can only be used for simple daily training, to really hone speed you need a special venue like this,” Kuang Shiyi patted Chen Xing’s shoulder, “But we’re not practicing this today; it hasn’t been used in a while and is covered with moss and algae. I’ll let the school know and have someone come clean it tonight, so it’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
“In a bit, we’ll test all the team’s beasts on land running speed, giving you a direct understanding of the speed differences between different beasts on land.”
At lunchtime, Chen Xing finally met the last senior member of the team, Wen Jin.
With a bob haircut, thick black-rimmed glasses, not very tall, and pale as paper.
Seeing the newcomer, he offered a polite smile.
“After this, we’ll do a speed test for the beasts on the field, to see if you’ve been slacking off lately,” he said.
Tong Xuhua looked towards the bob-haired senior, “Wen Jin, want to have a speed competition with the beasts? Maybe bet a bottle of Grade C universal reagent?”
Hearing this, Wen Jin coughed several times, covering his mouth and turning his head away, while waving his other hand.
He wasn’t interested.
“Why do you always pick on Wen Jin? If you’re so brave, compare speed with my beast,” Wu Ju said to Tong Xuhua.
“It’s no fun playing with you.” Tong Xuhua had no enthusiasm. Compete in speed with Wu Ju’s beast? He would have to be crazy to do that.
Chen Xing glanced at the three senior schoolmates; he roughly knew what their beasts were by now. He was only left to find out about senior Tian’s beast.
After lunch, everyone took a short rest and then went to the field where the four senior team members summoned their respective beasts.
Beside Tong Xuhua stood a Wildflame Monkey, Wu Ju cradled a Shadowcat, Wen Jin stood beside a land tortoise, and with Tian Xuechuan was a Ghostface Bulldog.
Chen Xing couldn’t help but criticize inwardly as he looked at the beast alongside Wen Jin, comparing the speeds of a Wildflame Monkey and a Dryland Tortoise…
Senior Tong’s tastes are pretty bad huh.
…
[Species] Shadowcat
[State] Healthy
[Body Length] 88cm (Tail Length 30cm)
[Weight] 14kg
[Attribute] Wind
[Energy Level] 36.6
[Energy Level Limit] 37
[Skills]
Primary Skill: Jade Wind Blade (Perfect), Wind Walking Technique (Proficient), Flowing Wind Dart (Proficient)
Intermediate Skill: Storm Verdict (Mastered), Sandstorm Summon (Mastered)
Advanced Skill: None
Innate Skill: Shatter Fang (Active) (Proficient)
Passive Skill: Agile Body (Passive)
…
[Species] Dryland Tortoise
[State] Healthy (Shell Dry)
[Shell Diameter] 2m
[Weight] 1460kg
[Attribute] Wood, Earth
[Energy Level] 38
[Energy Level Limit] 38
[Skills]
Primary Skill: Earth Wall Shelter (Proficient), Vigorous Growth (Proficient)
Intermediate Skill: Earthquake (Proficient), Parasitic Seed (Proficient), Heavy Armor Stomp (Proficient)
Advanced Skill: Wild Forest Dance (Mastered)
Passive Skill: Breath of the Earth (Passive)
…
[Species] Ghost-Faced Mastiff
[State] Healthy (Hungry)
[Body Length] 201cm
[Weight] 125kg
[Attribute] Fire
[Energy Level] 31.1
[Energy Level Limit] 37
[Skills]
Primary Skill: Heavy Strike Slap (Proficient), Demonic Tear (Mastered), Malicious Gaze (Mastered)
Intermediate Skill: Great Fire Blaster (Proficient), Magma Armor (Mastered)
Advanced Skill: None
These beast tamers are all very strong, having mastered more than one skill to a high level of proficiency, and only Shadowcat has mastered a primary skill to a level of perfection, indicating how difficult it is to improve skill proficiency to perfection, at least for high school students.
But Chen Xing suddenly remembered that Chi Yu had mastered three perfect proficiency skills and had an energy level of 41, which seemed to make Chi Yu a bit more formidable.