18 Chapter 18: Improve Fur Shield

Melvin woke up and went to go brush his teeth and take a morning shower, and after that, he went to Room No 2 to pick up Al so they could go have breakfast. But when he got there, Al, Red, and Blue had just woken up and were playing around. Melvin decided to bring the trio together. Once they were out of the playground, they happily followed Melvin upstairs. "Their moods are better now," said Melvin. [That is the effect of the playground. Now it will be easier Al to learn things for training today] said Bjarni. After they had their breakfast and Melvin led Al to Room No 3. They entered the dungeon and could see that the trees around them had fruits back. The dungeon was reset. "Bjarni, will the pet foods in the storeroom be fine? Will they not get spoiled?" Melvin asked. He had a feeling that they would be fine, but it was better if he could confirm it. [The tube that stored the pet foods is time-proof. They will stay fresh forever as long as they are inside the tube] Bjarni replied. Since they would not get spoiled, Melvin decided to continue his harvest that day. Be that as it may, he decided to do that later. Al's Fur Shield training was his focus at the moment. Melvin opened his system and checked on Al's stat. Name: Al Species: White Fur bunny Tier: 1 Stage: 1 – Newborn Rank: 1 Potential: E Element 1. Normal (60% talent) 2. Leg (40% talent) 3. Fur (50% talent) Status Health: 20 (Max 20) Energy: 10 (Max 10) Attack: 5 (Max 5) Defense: 5 (Max 5) Speed: 10 (Max 10) Skills 1. Tackle (Normal) – Rank 1, Level 8 – Attack 12, Speed 5 2. Blitz (leg) – Rank 1, Level 10 – Speed 14[1], Attack 5, Center 3. Fur shield (Fur) – Rank 1, Level 4 – Defense 4 4. Fur missile (Fur) – Rank 1, Level 5 – Attack 5 5. Energy Control (Normal) – Rank 1, Level 1 – Control 10% Al had stayed in the playground for the whole night, and his talent had increased by a lot. That was the benefit of the pet playground. Al's normal element talent had increased from 35% to 60%. Since the playground was a normal element playground, the normal talent received the most increase. His leg and fur talent had increased by 10% to 40% and 50% respectively. Al's other stats remained the same. There was no change in them. All the changes happened during their training time, and Melvin was aware of it. "Al, today we will continue training your Fur shield skill. However, we will change our training today," said Melvin, and Al nodded. He looked eager to train thanks to the pet playground, improving his moods. "I want you to use Energy Control and make your Fur shield bouncy instead of hardening," said Melvin, and he added, "Make sure the fur is stronger too. I don't want them to rip easily when hit," he thought for a bit and added more, "Make the fur stretchy too." Al nodded, and it started using Energy Control and tried his best in making his fur bouncy and stretchy. On the first try, he failed and ran out of energy. After a rest, he tried again, and he failed again. Al continued doing it until the tenth time, and the fur started exhibiting a bouncy and stretchy feeling. "Try to maintain that," said Melvin, and Al did his best but could only maintain it for five seconds. After another rest, Al continued his training. 6 seconds, 7 seconds, 8 seconds, 9 seconds. The more Al tried, the longer he could hold the bouncy and stretchy state. His learning ability increased a lot after he stayed in the pet playground. The increase in talent helped a lot too. After more than a hundred tries, Al finally managed to hold the bouncy and stretchy fur state for 20 seconds. It might sound low, but Al did it in less than a day. That was super impressive for a pet with E-grade potential. [Will this improve the Fur shield? You did not even use the skill while doing this. Al may end up creating a new skill instead of improving the Fur shield] Bjarni said. "We need to take this slowly. There is no need to rush. We have a lot of time," said Melvin, and then he gave new orders to Al. "Ok, Al. That is good for now. Next, I want you to use Fur shield and use this state on your Fur shield," said Melvin. Al tried it and failed on the first try. He continued fusing Fur shield with the bouncy and stretchy state, but it proved to be hard. Al kept trying, but he failed many times. He tried it until it was afternoon (dungeon time) before Melvin gave Al the afternoon rest. They had their lunch, and Al continued his training. Melvin did not stay idle while Al was busy training. He did his usual training, too. Not only that, but he also went around the area and collected pet foods. Al did not follow him. He left him under a tree where it was far away from monsters. Even if there were monsters nearby, it would not be a problem for Al. As Melvin was collecting fruits on a tree. Something hit the tree. He looked below, and a white wolf was growling at him. It wanted to fight. "Al had always been the one fighting," said Melvin. "I should try fighting monsters, too. The white wolf is only a Tier 1 monster, and we are of the same rank. The fighting should not be hard," Melvin decided to try fighting the white wolf. Melvin climbed up and stood on the tree branch. He looked down at the white wolf and took a deep breath. The first time he fought a monster, he was killed. He was a bit nervous but he knew that he had improved a lot from before. "Body Enhancement," Melvin used the skill on himself, and his stats increased by 5%. He felt that his body was stronger, but he knew it was only for 20 seconds. Melvin jumped down towards the white wolf and threw a punch. The white wolf easily dodged the punch and quickly took a stance and rushed towards Melvin with its mouth opened. The white wolf teeth shone lightly. Melvin knew what it was trying to do. He had seen this scene countless times before when Al was fighting. Melvin moved to the right side of the white wolf, "Fist of The Rock gaint!" Melvin's fist turned as hard as a rock, and then he launched a barrage of punches at the white wolf's body. "Awoo!!!!" The white wolf screamed in pain. It used its speed and tried to escape from Melvin, but Melvin was faster than the white wolf. "Your speed may have a limit of 14 points, but you did not train it enough to reach that limit," said Melvin, and he continued using Fist of The Rock Giant on the white wolf. With his 10 speed points, he could easily outrun the white wolf, which had less than 10 points of speed. A few seconds later, the white wolf died. Melvin looked at the white wolf and he looked at his hands. The enhancement effect had ended, and he clenched his fist. "Tier 1 monster is not a problem anymore," Melvin was smiling. As usual, he dismantled the white wolf and sent the materials to the storeroom. "… Should I continue fighting?" Melvin said. [Do it. Master needs fighting experience, too. You can not fully rely on Al in the wild. I am not saying that Al is unreliable, but I want master to be prepared] said Bjarni. [Many unexpected things happen in a dungeon. It is safe in this dungeon because this dungeon is not the same as the real dungeon but the real dungeon will have a lot of danger] Bjarni warned him of the danger in the dungeon and encouraged Melvin to keep fighting. "Let's do it. Al is busy training his skills, and new progress will take a while. I don't want to waste time doing nothing," said Melvin, so he decided to search for more pet food as well as hunt more monsters. Melvin continued collecting pet foods, and when he met a monster, he would kill that monster. The more he fought, the better he was in executing the right skills at the right moment. Thanks to his comprehension stat, Melvin understood a lot of things faster. A day later, Al finally succeeded in fusing the bouncy and stretchy state to Fur shield. However, he could not hold it that long. He continued training and increased the time more and more. Three days later, Al could keep that state for almost a minute. A huge improvement after working so hard for four days straight. Now that the state could be held that long, Al decided to try it in a fight. They walked around and found a white slime. "Al, use what you learn," said Melvin. Al used Fur Shield and added the bouncy and stretchy state to the skill. The white slime tackled Al, and when it hit Al's Fur Shield, the white slime was forced backward by the bounciness of the Fur Shield. Not only the white slime but Al was pushed away, too. Be that as it may, Al did not suffer any damage thanks to the fur's bounciness. "!!!" Al was shocked and amazed that he could do that. All this time, the Fur Shield had been useless, but it could now protect his body properly. [Wow~ The improvement looks great. The gaps in the fur help to enhance the bounciness of the fur. The soft fur also helps a lot in enhancing the stretchy-ness of the fur, hence improving the overall bounciness of the skill] Bjarni was amazed too. "It works!!" Melvin was happy. He had no idea that it would work, especially when it took that long for Al to fuse the two things. Luckily, he and Al did not give up. [Now, all we need is to keep practicing this skill in battles and wait for the system to approve this improvement. Al needs to stabilize the skill more, too. I wonder what effects will be added to the Fur Shield?] said Bjarni. She was excited, too. Al continued battling the white slime. Whenever the white slime tackled Al, who was encased with the bouncy Fur Shield, both would be thrown backward, and their distance would increase. The white slime would then fall on the ground and suffer minor damage while Al did not suffer any damage. Al's mood turned better, and he kept improving and stabilizing the skill to a point where he could hold on to the skill for almost three minutes. The new improvement seemed to need a lot of time to be approved by the system as after five days of using the skill in battle, Melvin finally got the system notification. [Al's Fur Shield improved. Effects added: Repel 10, Bounce 10, Defense +10] When Melvin read the notification, he was petrified. Bjarni was shocked, too. Two new effects were added to the skill, and not only that, the defense stat was increased, too. [… Master, the difficulty of improving this skill must be hard that the skill gets a lot of improvement] said Bjarni. She did not expect that the Fur Shield would improve that much. "Maybe the skill is suitable for a fur bunnies. When we think about it, the fur bunny is a soft-body monster. Hardening his soft fur might not be the right approach. So, there was no improvement when I asked Al to harden his fur using his energy," Melvin gave his opinion. "After I asked Al to make his fur bouncy and stretchy, we saw the improvement happen. It is slow, but the improvement always happened, unlike hardening. Also, I think the element of the skill plays a huge part too," Melvin added. "We had been approaching this problem in the wrong way." [Master is right] Bjarni agreed. Now that the Fur Shield improvement problem had ended, Melvin was relieved. Not only that, he learned some new things. "I will need to consider a lot more things in the future when I want to improve the skills of my pets," said Melvin. Melvin checked on the improved version of Fur Shield. Skill: Fur Shield Element: Fur Rank: 1 Level: 5 Effect 1: Defense 15 Effect 2: Repel 10 Effect 3: Bounce 10 Based on the stats alone, Melvin could say that the Fur Shield was Al's best skill. Since Al had been using the skill a lot, it had leveled up to level 5. Despite the constant usage of the skill for the past few days, the skill had only leveled up once due to the skill used by Al being different than the original skill. However, now that the skill has officially been approved by the system, the level up would be faster. The next skill Melvin wanted Al to improve was the Fur missile. Since Melvin had more knowledge of skill training, he already had an idea of what he should do. Even so, Melvin decided to stop the training for the day. He brought Al out of the dungeon and put him in the nursing pen for healing. He felt like the combination of nursing pen, pet playground, and training had helped a lot in Al's improvement.

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