Chapter 18: Taking in as a Subordinate Protector

Han Ning continued to release his Spiritual Power, gently stroking its cold head and spine.

"Little guy, follow me. You'll have meat to eat and never go hungry again," he coaxed in a low voice. Remembering he still had some dried fish in his backpack, he took out a small piece and brought it to the hatchling's mouth.

SWISH!

The little Crocodile Lizard's tongue shot out like lightning, snatching the dried fish and swallowing it after a few quick chews. The temptation of food completely erased its final hesitation.

[The unknown creature thinks you are not bad and agrees to form a contract.]

[Contract successful. Congratulations, you have unlocked a soul partner—Mutated Swamp Crocodile Lizard.]

HISS... WOO!

The little Crocodile Lizard let out an incomprehensible cry. At the same time, Han Ning clearly felt a simple, stick-figure silhouette of a Crocodile Lizard's head quietly emerge at the bottom of his Druid class panel.

The moment the mark was generated, a wonderful sense of familiarity was established between Han Ning and the little Crocodile Lizard. He could not only vaguely sense the creature's vital signs and simple emotional fluctuations, but also felt an unfamiliar Life Energy feeding back into his body from the little Crocodile Lizard through this invisible bond.

This Energy was very weak, but it slowly nourished his overdrawn body and Spirit.

[Blessed by the Animal Companion's attributes, your physical fitness has been slightly enhanced.]

Immediately after, a stream of information about his new companion flooded into Han Ning's mind:

Name: (To be named)

Race: Swamp Crocodile Lizard

Gender: Male

Level: 1

Skills Known: Bite

While the contract was successfully formed, some subtle changes also occurred to the little Crocodile Lizard on the ground. Its originally somewhat dull scales became more lustrous, and its size quietly grew just a tiny bit. The way it looked at Han Ning was full of dependence and pure obedience.

"Hiss woo..." The little Crocodile Lizard rubbed its head against Han Ning's leg, just like a newborn naturally gravitating toward its mother.

"Since we've formed a contract, it's time to give you a name..." Han Ning squatted down and touched the tiny bone spurs on the little Crocodile Lizard's back, muttering to himself, "You look like a Chinese alligator, but covered in white scales... Let's call you 'snow cake'."

The reason for this name was that the little Crocodile Lizard's appearance reminded him of a video he scrolled past before transmigrating, where a Chinese alligator was biting into a Want Want snow cake rice cracker. A name was just a name, as long as it rolled off the tongue.

"Hiss woo!" The newborn Crocodile Lizard most likely couldn't understand the meaning behind his words. However, to please its master, it wagged its tail happily, almost sending a plastic basin under the sink flying.

After bouncing around the small bathroom a few times, snow cake suddenly rushed to Han Ning's feet. It reached out its claws, hugged his thigh, and stared at him without blinking its bright yellow eyes.

STARE...

"Hiss woo..." snow cake let out another short cry. Its forked tongue flicked in and out rapidly as its gaze closely followed Han Ning's hands.

"Hungry?" Han Ning immediately understood what it meant.

This little thing had just been cut out of its mother's womb and bumped along the road in his backpack, consuming a massive amount of Energy. Newborns inherently needed Energy every single moment. It was entirely predictable that raising this little guy to be as big as its mother would cost a massive amount of food.

He rummaged through the backpack he had taken out earlier, pulling out the meat he had just sliced off the adult Crocodile Lizard, and placed it in front of snow cake.

SNIFF SNIFF.

snow cake brought its nose to the bloody meat, sniffed twice, and turned its head away, letting out a couple of incomprehensible cries at Han Ning. An emotional message—too complex to decipher the exact feeling—was transmitted over. It contained disgust, confusion, and mostly resistance. In short, it was very complicated.

Han Ning wondered, "You won't eat it? Could it be that you refuse to eat your own kind, or is it because the meat contains the negative Energy of the Black Tide so you don't want it?"

However, he was just using this small piece of meat as an experiment. Seeing snow cake refuse it, he took out a block of compressed biscuits, broke off a small piece, and tentatively offered it to snow cake's mouth.

snow cake's tongue rolled out like lightning, precisely sticking to the biscuit crumb. With a CRUNCH, it swallowed the food with almost no chewing, then continued to stare eagerly at Han Ning's hand.

"That fast?" Han Ning raised an eyebrow and broke off a slightly larger piece to hand over.

The same scene played out again as the biscuit instantly vanished.

Han Ning simply tossed the remaining half pack of compressed biscuits to it. snow cake lowered its head, its mouth full of tiny, sharp teeth opening and closing. CRUNCH CRUNCH. The compressed biscuits, which were almost as hard as rocks, were easily crushed to pieces and devoured completely within a minute.

"Hiss woo!" Clearly not full, snow cake raised its head again, letting out a more urgent low cry from its throat. Its short tail swept back and forth across the floor, making a faint scratching sound against the tiles.

"What an appetite," Han Ning clicked his tongue in amazement. Compressed biscuits had a very high Energy density. Half a block could keep an ordinary person full for half a day, yet this little thing acted like it hadn't eaten anything after devouring half a pack.

"Come on, let's go to the living room." Han Ning turned and walked out of the bathroom.

snow cake followed eagerly like a puppy.

From his food storage area, Han Ning grabbed a pile of food and placed it in front of snow cake.

AHOO AHOO.

snow cake twitched its nose, drawn by the aroma of the food, looking as if it couldn't wait any longer.

"Eat up."

Han Ning first tore open a 500-gram bag of dried noodles. snow cake just went CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH, accepting it all without hesitation.

When it came to the two cans of luncheon meat, it was clearly much more interested, wolfing them down and polishing them off in no time. Milk, raw rice, nearly rotten meat—no matter what Han Ning fed it, snow cake ate it with absolute delight.

Han Ning didn't stop until he had fed it about ten pounds of food. Yet, snow cake still looked like it would accept anything that came its way.

Finally, he even tentatively tossed it an empty plastic water bottle cap. As a result, snow cake caught it in one bite.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

The plastic bottle cap deformed instantly. After chewing on it twice, seemingly feeling that it was tasteless and unpalatable, snow cake spat it out with a PFFT.

"Good grief, you really are a walking trash can. You'll eat anything." Han Ning's eyelids twitched as he watched. This omnivorous nature was way too extreme. As long as it could fit in its mouth, it seemed willing to try eating it.

"That's fine. Having a good appetite is a blessing. My biggest fear was that you'd be a picky eater."

According to his observations, snow cake's favorite food was clearly meat, followed by high-calorie items like soda, compressed biscuits, and various carbohydrates. It wasn't as interested in fruits and vegetables as it was in meat, but it could still stomach them.

After eating all this, snow cake's state became noticeably much more active. It started crawling around the relatively spacious living room. Its movements were much smoother than when it was first born, and its speed had increased a lot. The newborn little guy was full of curiosity about everything, sniffing here with its nose and patting there with its claws.

PATTER PATTER.

The slime snow cake brought from its mother's womb hadn't been completely washed off yet. In the blink of an eye, the living room floor was covered in slippery slime.

"snow cake, look here. Attack this vine."

Now that it was fed and watered, Han Ning wanted to test snow cake's combat prowess.

As soon as the vine appeared, it immediately caught snow cake's attention. Hearing Han Ning's command, its yellow vertical pupils instantly locked onto the writhing vine. Its body lowered slightly, assuming a predatory posture.

The next second, snow cake lunged forward. Its short, thick hind legs erupted with impressive power, turning its body into a gray blur as it pounced beside the vine.

SLASH!

Its scale-covered claws precisely grabbed onto the vine. The tough skin of the vine was actually sliced open with a few shallow cuts by its sharp claw tips. At the same time, its large mouth, filled with sharp teeth, bit down without hesitation.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

This not-so-thick vine was forcefully bitten in half by it.