<h4>Chapter 11: Mechanical Soul Pet, 369 Steel</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>As Studios <strong>Editor: </strong>As 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, toprehend 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 caterpir 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 caterpirs 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 caterpir 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, andckluster 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 caterpir, 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 caterpir 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 be truly extraordinary.”
After pondering for a moment, he said to the green caterpir, “Try again.”
Meanwhile, the green caterpir 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 caterpir’s tail had red 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 topletely 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 caterpir.
“It should be the effect of Beast Origin Skill.”
He had taught this green caterpir this particr 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 caterpir would twist its tail, bend its body, and stretch its head.
Bybining all four of them, Wang Che had realized that he could strengthen the green caterpir’s entire body.
“The little one may have learned such a soul skill because of this, but it has yet topletely master it. Nevertheless, seeing that it has already used it once, the caterpir 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 caterpir to a special track.
The track was only a hundred meters in length, but could change its structure ording 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 nning to test the green caterpir’s speed, and so opted to use a regr track.
After walking up to the test area, he pressed a button and started the timer.
Seeing this, the green caterpir 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 toplete a hundred meter run.
Even whenpared to the slow rock monster outside, the caterpir didn’t fare much better.
“Try to circte your soul power throughout your body.”
Wang Che advised the green caterpir who looked lost in thought.
After a while, following his orders, the caterpir 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 caterpir 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 caterpir 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 caterpir next.
The physical test avable at the center was specifically used to test how long a soul pet’s body couldst while doing high-intensity exercises.
After all, a soul pet battle involved a high level of effort and stamina
The testing method itself was notplicated.
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 caterpir’s weakness.
With its ordinary physique, it could onlyst for less than three minutes.
Even when using its soul power, the green caterpir 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 notst long.
“Three minutes, little one. You can’tst long enough.”
Wang Che rubbed the green caterpir’s head as he muttered, “A three-minute caterpir…”
“Ssss!”
The green caterpir 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 iing attacks.
The testing method for this was also quite simple. Under the regr 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 particr, 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 be 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 triangr ne.
When it evolved to its six rod form, a pyramidal 3D shape would be created instead.
With nine rods, three more inner triangr 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 triangr 369 Steel in the testing room saw the green caterpir, it immediately mirrored its form, and turned into a simr looking caterpir 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 caterpir that was white in colour.
Not waiting for its opponent, the green caterpir leapt into the air.
However, the 369 Steel did notg behind at all. Instead, it jumped straight towards Wang Che’s caterpir.
They charged at each other aggressively.
Yet.
When it collided with the green caterpir, the white caterpir was immediately sent flying back.