Chapter 18: Appointed as a Guardian Under My Throne

Han Ning continued to release spiritual energy, gently stroking the cool head and spine of the creature.

“Little one, stick with me. There’s meat to eat, and you won’t have to go hungry anymore.”

Han Ning whispered soothingly. He remembered there were some dried fish in his backpack, took out a small piece, and offered it to the youngling’s mouth.

Whiz!

The baby swamp crocodile’s tongue shot out like lightning, curling around the dried fish. After a few chews, it swallowed it down.

The lure of food completely eliminated its last hesitation.

[Unknown creature finds you agreeable and agrees to form a contract.]

[Contract successfully established. Congratulations, you have unlocked a Soul Companion—Mutated Swamp Crocodile.]

“Hiss…wooh!”

The little crocodile let out an indistinct hiss.

At the same time, Han Ning clearly felt a simple silhouette of a crocodile’s head quietly appear beneath his Druid class interface.

The moment the mark was formed, a strange sense of familiarity was established between Han Ning and the baby crocodile.

Not only could Han Ning vaguely sense the creature’s vital signs and simple emotional fluctuations, but an unfamiliar life energy flowed through this invisible bond, feeding back from the baby crocodile’s body into his own.

Though faint, this energy gently nourished his overexerted body and spirit.

[With the blessing of an animal companion, your physical attributes have been slightly enhanced.]

Immediately, information about the new companion flooded Han Ning’s mind:

Name: (To be named)

Species: Swamp Crocodile

Gender: Male

Level: 1

Skills: Bite

As the contract was sealed, the baby crocodile on the ground underwent subtle changes.

Its previously dull scales gained a glossy sheen, and its body size quietly increased a bit.

The look it gave Han Ning was full of reliance and pure obedience.

“Hiss-wooh…” The baby crocodile rubbed its head against Han Ning’s leg, as if naturally drawn to its mother.

“Now that we’ve signed the contract, it’s time to give you a name…”

Han Ning crouched down, running his hand over the bony spikes along the little crocodile’s back, murmuring to himself:

“You look like a Yangtze crocodile, but with white scales… I’ll call you ‘Snowcake.’”

He chose this name because the little crocodile’s appearance reminded him of a video he saw before crossing over—of a Yangtze crocodile biting a popular rice cracker snack.

A name just needs to be easy to say.

“Hiss-wooh!” The newborn probably didn’t understand the meaning behind his words.

Still, to please its master, it wagged its tail happily, almost knocking over a plastic basin under the sink.

After a few hops in the small bathroom, Snowcake suddenly rushed to Han Ning’s feet, wrapping its paws around his thigh, its bright yellow eyes fixed unwaveringly on him.

Stare...

“Hiss-wooh...” Snowcake let out a short call, flicking its forked tongue rapidly as its gaze closely followed Han Ning’s hand.

“Hungry?”

Han Ning immediately understood its meaning.

This little one had just been cut from its mother’s womb and bounced around in the backpack all the way here, expending a huge amount of energy.

Newborns always need energy every moment.

It was clear that raising this little guy to its mother’s size would require a vast amount of food.

He rummaged through the backpack he had taken earlier.

He pulled out the piece of meat he had cut from the baby crocodile, placing it in front of Snowcake.

Sniff sniff~

Snowcake poked its nose toward the bloody meat, sniffed twice, then turned away, letting out an unclear call to Han Ning.

A complicated mix of emotions came through—disgust, doubt, but mostly resistance.

“Not eating? Could it be that it won’t eat its own kind’s meat, or that the meat holds some dark energy from the Black Tide it wants to avoid?”

Han Ning guessed.

But he had planned to use that meat as an experiment anyway.

Seeing Snowcake refuse it, he took out a compressed biscuit, broke off a small piece, and tentatively offered it to Snowcake’s mouth.

The crocodile’s tongue flicked out like lightning, precisely sticking to the biscuit fragment, crunching it with a “crack” sound, swallowing it almost without chewing, then looking eagerly at Han Ning’s hand again.

“That fast?” Han Ning raised an eyebrow and broke off a slightly larger piece, offering it again.

The same scene repeated; the biscuit vanished instantly.

Han Ning simply tossed the rest of the half-pack of compressed biscuits to it.

Snowcake lowered its head, opening and closing its mouth lined with tiny sharp teeth, crunching with crisp sounds. It chewed through the stone-hard biscuits with ease, finishing within a minute.

“Hiss-wooh!” Clearly not full, Snowcake lifted its head again, emitting a more urgent low hum, its short tail sweeping the floor, scraping faint sounds against the tiles.

“Quite the appetite,” Han Ning muttered in disbelief.

Compressed biscuits are highly energy-dense; even an ordinary person would be full for half a day after half a piece. Yet this little creature finished half a pack as if it were nothing.

“Come on, let’s go to the living room.”

Han Ning turned and left the bathroom.

Snowcake followed like a little dog, panting happily.

Han Ning fetched a pile of food from his stored supplies and placed it before Snowcake.

“Awooo~”

Snowcake twitched its nose, attracted by the aroma, looking eager.

“Eat up.”

Han Ning tore open a 500g pack of dried noodles.

Snowcake immediately crunched through it, devouring everything.

Two cans of luncheon meat caught its obvious interest; it gobbled them down noisily in moments.

Milk, raw rice, nearly spoiled meat—no matter what Han Ning fed it, Snowcake ate joyfully.

After about ten pounds of food, Han Ning finally stopped.

Yet Snowcake still showed no sign of refusal.

In the end, Han Ning even tossed it an empty plastic water bottle cap.

Snowcake bit down on it.

“Crunch, crunch!”

The plastic cap instantly deformed under its bite. After chewing twice, apparently finding no flavor and not liking it, Snowcake spat it out with a “pfft.”

“Wow, what a walking trash bin—eats anything and everything.”

Han Ning twitched his eyelids.

Such omnivorous appetite! It seemed willing to try anything edible.

“That’s good—being able to eat is a blessing. The worst is if you’re picky.”

From his observations, Snowcake clearly preferred meat, followed by high-calorie foods like sodas, compressed biscuits, and various carbs.

Its interest in fruits and vegetables was less, but it could still eat them.

After all that feeding, Snowcake’s energy noticeably increased.

It began crawling around the relatively spacious living room, moving far more fluidly and quickly than at birth.

The newborn was filled with curiosity about everything, sniffing here, pawing there.

Plop, plop~

The mucus Snowcake had brought from its mother hadn’t been cleaned off completely, and within moments, the living room floor was covered in slippery trails.

“Snowcake, look here—attack this vine.”

After eating its fill, Han Ning wanted to test Snowcake’s combat abilities.

The vine appeared, immediately catching Snowcake’s attention.

Hearing Han Ning’s command, its yellow vertical pupils locked onto the writhing vine, body lowering slightly, adopting a hunting stance.

The next moment, Snowcake lunged, its short, sturdy hind legs bursting with power, its body flashing like a shadow as it pounced beside the vine.

“Pffft!”

Its clawed paw, covered in fine scales, precisely gripped the vine.

The tough vine skin was scratched open by its sharp claw tips, leaving several shallow cuts.

At the same time, its tooth-filled mouth bit down without hesitation.

“Crack, crack.”

The not-so-thick vine was bitten through cleanly.