Beast Taming Patrol

"Xiaoyu, good morning!"

"Lin Su, good morning..." Encountering Lin Su also descending the stairs, Zhang Xiaoyu rubbed his bleary eyes and greeted him subconsciously.

However, when he caught a glimpse of Spirit draped in a cloak and wearing a magic hat following behind Lin Su, he suddenly felt wide awake.

"Is that your Spirit?" Zhang Xiaoyu rubbed his eyes hard, suspecting he was still half-asleep and seeing things.

When he looked at Spirit again and realized it wasn't his imagination, his face instantly filled with astonishment and confusion, "How did it change so much all of a sudden?"

If previously Spirit resembled a little imp running around naked, now it seemed to have grown overnight.

Not only had its appearance and physique changed so markedly, but the energy fluctuations that could be faintly sensed were also much stronger than before.

This feeling...

Could it be...

Zhang Xiaoyu's eyes widened in shock, he exclaimed as if seeing a ghost, "It evolved?!"

"What? What evolved?" Hearing the word "evolution" amid the haze, the other team members in the stairway area perked up, hurriedly quickening their pace. They formed a circle in the corridor, staring at Spirit, who now sported a brand-new look, their faces all bearing expressions of seeing a ghost.

We just slept for one night, and your pet has secretly evolved?!

Is it that competitive?

Damn!

Lin Su was already the strongest in the team, and now... even stronger.

"That... the morning training is about to start," Lin Su coughed lightly, "Shall we not block the stairway? Let's go to the yard first."

"Oh right, right, right!"

"Move it, move it!"

"The instructor's going to scold us!"

"Scolding's fine, just don't skip breakfast!"

Reminded by Lin Su, the team members then realized it wasn't the time to dwell on this and hurried down the stairs.

If we're late for training...

Those crispy golden-brown deep-fried dough sticks, the plump and white meat buns that deform with a pinch and are stuffed with lots of filling, bowls of noodles with tender peas and red oil, the crunchy pan-fried dumplings with chewy skins and juicy meat fillings...

We'd miss out on all that!

At this thought, the team members' legs surged with endless strength.

...

"Hmm..."

Back in the dormitory courtyard, Xing Yun pinched his chin, examining the drastically transformed Spirit next to Lin Su, the fierce scar on his face twitching slightly, "Last night, your pet evolved?"

"Yes," Lin Su nodded.

"But I remember your pet is a newly discovered species, right?" Xing Yun muttered, unable to contain his murmur, "Can a new species find its evolution path so quickly?!"

I'm uneducated, don't trick me!

"Oh, it's like this," Lin Su coughed lightly, beginning to... oh no, explain.

"Before coming to the training camp, to increase my chances of passing successfully, I used my contribution points to exchange for some Dark elements in advance."

Having learned from Qiuqiu's previous experience, all of Spirit's evolution materials had been exchanged on Blue Star; this was his biggest confidence in ensuring there would be no suspicion.

Though the camp didn't allow hot weapons, they didn't forbid the bringing of daily necessities or resources necessary for the routine cultivation of pets. The supply of these materials wasn't the camp's responsibility, so everyone had to bring their own.

So saying he prepared some Dark resources was not a problem at all.

Seeing everyone nodding slightly in understanding, Lin Su continued, "Later, when I learned that we were going to the battlefield, I thought about whether I could enhance Spirit's strength before that. After much thought, evolution seemed to provide the most significant boost, so I took a chance to see if it could evolve."

"Due to the urgency, I let it try to learn the evolution skills of its own element, which are the easiest to master, rather than choosing skills from other elements. Then, combined with the Dark resources I had prepared earlier, I decided to take a gamble," Lin Su pointed at Spirit and spread his hands, "A blind cat runs into a dead mouse, I won the bet."

"Mi? (๑ŏωŏ๑)" (Where's the blind cat?)"

Qiuqiu, who had been silent, suddenly shivered, with wide eyes looking around for its unlucky fellow creature.

"Jie... (￣‿￣)" (It's just a metaphor...)

Spirit scratched its head and softly explained the meaning of the phrase to Qiuqiu.

"Mi! (｡òωó｡)" (I see!)

Qiuqiu looked at Spirit with an admiring gaze.

Good, next time I have a question, I'll still ask my little brother!

Spirit shrugged helplessly.

The big brother has always lived on Blue Star and doesn't even know this.

Unlike me, who mastered so many Blue Star-specific idioms in just a few days!

Ignoring Lin Su's pets' whispering, the team members fell into silence upon hearing his words.

That's it?

Just... that's all?

So pet evolution is that easy?

Looking at Lin Su with a face that read, "Everything I've told you is true; you must believe me," the team members were momentarily silent.

Do you believe it?

Well, I don't.

"All right," Xing Yun was the first to give up thinking. He was a combatant and didn't understand these things, but if Lin Su's pet evolved before going to the battlefield and its strength improved, it meant that Lin Su, who was a priority for protection, was now even safer.

That surely is a good thing.

Shaking his head, he asked carefully, "So what's the status of your pet now? Is it still a leader species? Any new skills?"