Beast Taming Starts with Ground Mushrooms

Chapter 3: Plant-Based Clan Skills

"Lin Yi, I hope you will reconsider."

"This is your first pet, don't make a decision so easily."

"You should know that mushroom-type pets haven't evolved many of their own species' skills yet. Contracting them will not only be hopeless, but it will also waste one of your contract slots."

The number of beast tamers can contract is limited. Even the most talented beast tamers can only contract a maximum of twenty beasts in their lifetime.

Most people can only contract three pet beasts in their lifetime, so naturally, the choice of pet beasts becomes crucial.

"Teacher, I've made up my mind. I'll choose the free-range mushroom. This isn't an impulsive decision, but a result of careful consideration. I feel that the free-range mushroom suits me better."

Lin Yi persisted in his own ideas, while Tang Xinyi frowned slightly.

Seeing that the other party still refused to budge, Lin Yi pondered for a moment and then played his trump card.

"Teacher, I know that you and Professor Liu have been studying free-range mushrooms, trying to construct an evolutionary path for them."

"I also know that it is because of your and Mr. Liu's persistence over the years that free-range mushrooms have been able to maintain a place in the cultivation base."

After Lin Yi finished speaking, Tang Xinyi was slightly moved and couldn't help but raise her beautiful eyes: "What else do you know?"

"I also know that no one at Tiannan University has been willing to form a contract with a pet like the Ground Mushroom for the past two years."

Lin Yi said sincerely, "If no one is willing to sign a contract this year, the school will shut down all research projects on the cultivation of free-range mushrooms. At that time, those little guys will really have no hope of turning things around."

At that time, the ground mushroom will be classified as a beast pet and deemed to have no contract value.

A single strike hits the vital point.

The initial look of incomprehension in Tang Xinyi's beautiful eyes seemed to have found an answer at this moment.

The old man Liu that Lin Yi mentioned was her mentor and the leader of the Department of Spirit Plant Cultivation and Research.

The free-range mushroom project was one of the cultivation and research projects she and her mentor were in charge of back then. The dedication of the researchers was something that most people could not understand.

In recent years, the master and apprentice have devoted themselves to the cultivation of the ground mushroom, perhaps to make a name for themselves, or perhaps to remain true to their original aspirations. In any case, they have experienced countless moments of hope and despair.

Unfortunately, several years have passed and the research project on the cultivation of free-range mushrooms has made very little progress. It can be said that there has been almost no progress. The school has tried to withdraw the project countless times, but Tang Xinyi's mentor has strongly blocked it.

One of the reasons she stayed to teach at Tiannan University was that she wanted to stay with her mentor for a while longer.

According to the agreement between the supervisor and the school, if the contract rate for mushroom-type pets is still zero this year, this breeding and research project will have to be terminated.

"Teacher, let me form a contract. Maybe after forming a contract, I can create a new direction for evolution."

Lin Yi smiled warmly and said, "Even if I ultimately fail to establish the evolutionary construction direction, at least I can still preserve this project. I've heard that Elder Liu has achieved quite a bit over the years. We can't just watch all that hard work go to waste."

Upon hearing this, Tang Xinyi's expression completely changed.

She was struggling.

I don't know if this freshman has lost his mind, or if six months of part-time feeding has made him develop feelings for those little guys.

Or perhaps... he was well aware of his and his mentor's backgrounds, and therefore wanted to do them a favor?

If it's the former, then she can only say that this young man is not suitable to be a beast tamer. People who act on emotion are never able to achieve great things, let alone the extremely precious contract slots for beast tamers.

If it's the latter, then it's harder to judge.

But for whatever reason.

Lin Yi's decision did indeed help her and her mentor a lot.

"Lin Yi, first of all, on behalf of myself and my mentor, I thank you."

"But secondly, out of responsibility to you, I still hope you will go back and think it over carefully, after all, I am your homeroom teacher."

Tang Xinyi's tone softened considerably as she looked at Lin Yi seriously and said, "Mushroom-type beast pets are indeed not worth wasting a contract slot on. For you, a beast tamer contract slot is far more important than a project."

"Teacher, no need to think about it anymore, I'll choose the ground mushroom."

Lin Yi's tone was unusually firm.

The problem is, I can't afford to raise other beast pets that I contract with.

However, no matter how vast the world is, the ultimate advantage is the cheat code.

If I can cheat, what am I afraid of?

Seeing that Lin Yi insisted, Tang Xinyi ultimately didn't say anything more.

She's done everything she could, and there's nothing she can do if the person just won't listen to advice.

However, Tang Xinyi quickly issued the school subsidy certificate for purchasing free-range mushrooms to Lin Yi. Lin Yi realized for the first time that Teacher Tang was so efficient.

"With this certificate, you can purchase a pet from any pet breeding institution in Tiannan City, and the school can reimburse 50% of the cost."

"Also, this is your first time contracting a pet, so I need to tell you some basic knowledge about pets."

Although she didn't hold out much hope that the boy could actually achieve anything with the Walking Mushroom, as his teacher, Tang Xinyi still shared some knowledge about how Beast Tamers cultivate their own pets with Lin Yi.

It's simply about how a beast tamer, after establishing a contract with their beast pet, completes the evolution construction, outlines and instills the evolution blueprint for the beast pet, determines the evolution direction, and some things to pay attention to.

After a brief introduction to evolutionary construction, the next step is the inculcation, instruction, execution, and enhancement of the race's skills.

"For the 'Live Mushroom,' my mentor and I have built quite a few evolutionary constructs and some feasible evolutionary directions over the years. You can go back and take a look."

Tang Xinyi handed a thick stack of documents to Lin Yi, pondered for a moment, and then took out several semi-finished research papers on mushroom cultivation techniques.

"These are some papers on mushroom cultivation techniques that we have tested. Some of them are experimental data and methods for cross-species cultivation techniques, so they can be considered as semi-finished products."

"Since you've decided to contract with the Mushroom, here are some for you. I hope they'll be of some help."

It's more of a psychological compensation than a real help.

After all, she and her mentor had poured their hearts and souls into the research for several years but couldn't complete it, so they didn't expect any breakthroughs from a beast tamer with ordinary beast-taming talent.

"Thank you, teacher. These are very important to me."

Lin Yi wasn't being pretentious. Although these were all half-finished products and might not be useful to others, he might be able to tinker with them and create something useful.

At the very least, it can be used to test the ability to copy cheat codes and verify the correct way to use them.

Watching the boy leave with his school subsidy certificate, a mushroom evolution construction plan, and some semi-finished papers on cross-species skills verification of mushrooms.

Tang Xinyi's heart, which had been secretly shaking its head, fluttered slightly.

For some reason, she saw a hint of something inappropriate in Lin Yi's eyes, even though he was trying to restrain himself, she still caught it.

That was... excitement and anticipation?

Could it be that he really discovered something on the mushroom-type pet?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, Tang Xinyi immediately suppressed it. She had actually placed her hopes on a callow youth when even a mentor of her caliber had failed to solve the problem.

I find it ridiculous myself.

Tang Xinyi, you can't judge a book by its cover. Just because someone is handsome doesn't mean they're capable.

……

I walked out of Teacher Tang's office carrying a thick stack of documents.

Lin Yi glanced through the evolutionary construction directions that Tang Xinyi and her mentor had built countless times, and instantly lost interest.

It's not that these evolutionary construction directions are too bad.

I simply can't understand it.

The long, rambling articles, such as "Herbal Cross-Species Evolution Theory," "Mushroom Construction Argument," and "The 792nd Cross-Species Skills Education Comparison," are just a headache to read.

Lin Yi's assessment was that it wasn't as shocking as he had imagined. Anyway, with the "unscientific evolutionary construction," he could just let his imagination run wild, while his cheat system would handle the execution.

These documents are so heavy to hold.

Lin Yi walked to a secluded corner of the pavilion, looked around, and stuffed half of the documents under his buttocks.

What he wanted were half-finished papers on cross-species skills.

"I don't know what this so-called copying is."

According to the cheat code, he only needed to memorize the skill papers of different races of beast pets to successfully copy them.

Thinking to myself.

Lin Yi immediately flipped through the paper on pet race skills in his hand.

What Tang Xinyi gave him was almost entirely the research results on spirit plant-type pet skills, as well as the conclusion of the failure of cross-species education.

"Why are all these plant-type pet skills their own?"

Lin Yi was somewhat disappointed, but thinking about it, it was normal. Even if it was cross-species skill research, it couldn't be too outrageous. The success rate of different species of spirit plant-type pet skills would be higher.

Tang Xinyi didn't actually give Lin Yi many skills; there were only five different skills from different plant-based races.

"Research Record on the Verification of Herb-Type Beast Pet Sword Spirit's Skill, Grass-Character Sword Technique?"

This is good; it fits the image of the free-range mushroom I described last night.

Turn to the first page of the record.

Lin Yi then saw the first line of text on the title page.

[Spirit Plant-Type Beast Pet Sword Spirit Herb Race Skill: "Grass Sword Technique"]

[Research Subject: Cultivated Free-Range Mushrooms]

[Feasibility of the study: Very low.]

[Result of the education: Failure.]

[Analysis Summary: Cross-species feasibility is less than 1%]

[Contingency Plan: None]

Below that was the entire paper, which included methods of skill instillation, teaching approaches, application processes, reinforcement pathways, as well as experimental data, argumentation summaries, feasibility assessments, and so on. Lin Yi found it all quite overwhelming.

This single technical achievement is dozens of pages long and over 100,000 words, not including supporting data, formulas, and symbols.

"A person who can discover and train a skill of their own kind based on their research on their pet is simply a genius."

Of course, people like Tang Xinyi, who can combine existing pet skills to research cross-species attempts at education, are geniuses among geniuses.

In this world, 90% of the pets' innate skills are actually derived from the beast tamers' deductions and explorations, while only 10% are the pets' instinctive awakenings.

Although beast tamers are now rampant, more than 99% of them simply copy the methods of their predecessors and use them to train their pets.

Only a very few beast-taming geniuses can discover new beast pet skills. Compared with such geniuses, Lin Yi actually felt like a fool.

We all have the same brain structure and eat the same things, so why are you all so much smarter than me?

This damn, inexplicable feeling of inferiority.

But soon.

Lin Yi then changed his extremely immature view.

I'm not stupid.

He's such a stupid pig.

"Holy crap, a paper on our own tribe's skills is over 100,000 words long, how the hell am I supposed to memorize this?"

"You might as well just kill me."