Three Squirrels

"Hey, Sudden Death King."

"Do you really want a suit of tough armor scales?"

At that moment, Sudden Death King was locked in a battle of wits and courage with a wild grasshopper.

It was astonished, because just as Lu Ran had said, hunting grasshoppers really had become easy.

Its opponent moved painfully slowly in its eyes.

When its opponent struggled against its body, it couldn't even feel it.

Its strength could subdue its opponent in an instant and crush it flat.

In just a few minutes, Sudden Death King had already eaten three grasshoppers. The fierce battles had nearly put General Ha to sleep beside it.

"Waka?"

Hearing Lu Ran's voice, Sudden Death King poked its head out of the grass.

It carefully considered what Lu Ran meant, then gave another waka.

[Hard scales, no pain. Scales not hard, sudden death!]

"Uh..." Lu Ran rubbed his head and continued asking:

"Why are you so focused on getting stronger defenses? If you had absolute strength and could kill any enemy that threatened you, wouldn't that work too?"

[Pain. Pain means sudden death.]

Lu Ran: "..."

Forget it. He wasn't going to keep talking to this little idiot.

He more or less understood what Sudden Death King meant.

With great strength, it could kill its opponent, but it would still risk getting hurt, and that would be painful.

But with the strongest defenses, even if it couldn't beat its opponent, its opponent couldn't do anything to it either. Ideally, enemy attacks wouldn't even cause it any pain. As long as nothing hurt, life would be comfortable.

Lu Ran didn't quite understand this line of thinking, but considering that it was only a lizard, with the intelligence of a two- or three-year-old child and its own species-specific preferences, he wouldn't ask too much of it.

By comparison, General Ha beside him was something of the opposite.

Even if it meant getting wounded all over, it wanted its enemy dead. Its aggression was maxed out.

You two really give each other a run for your money!

Neither of you is normal.

Can't you develop in a balanced way?

Still, maxed-out defenses really would make life comfortable...

If I used Super Beast Mimicry on a giant dragon with maxed-out defenses, wouldn't I become really tough too... so tough that enemies couldn't even break through my defenses?

Combined with the offensive power and speed fed back to me by my other pet beasts, the strongest shield could also become the strongest spear. Am I going to follow the second Beast Tamer style too?

"Keep going, you two." With nothing else to do, Lu Ran went back to browsing the forum.

He browsed as he strolled.

Judging by his estimation, Sudden Death King would have to eat a lot to fill up on ordinary insects alone. After all, it was now a supernatural creature.

Shrinking.

Lu Ran suddenly searched for the keyword.

He had just discovered that the forum had recently added a keyword search feature.

"Huh?" When the search results refreshed, Lu Ran's eyes really did light up.

"Help! Why do other people's pet beasts get bigger after being contracted, but the hedgehog I contracted got smaller?"

Zasini: [Waiting online! This is urgent! I have to enter the Newbie Trial Secret Realm in an hour. I know they assign a suitable secret realm based on the pet beast you pick, but isn't this way too small? Will it be okay?]

[Image]

"Sure enough, it's the same situation as Sudden Death King. Let's see if anyone knowledgeable knows what's going on." Muttering to himself, Lu Ran quickly read through the comments.

The post had plenty of replies, and the featured comment with the most likes had been pushed straight to the top.

Horse Hunter: [Lol.

I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?

Let's start with the good news. Your hedgehog has pretty good innate talent. Feeling happy after reading that?

Well, you're celebrating too soon.

Because the bad news is that your talent sucks.

After a Beast Tamer contracts a pet beast, the pet beast gets stronger, and so does the Beast Tamer.

But the power that strengthens both sides doesn't come out of nowhere.

Some comes from the Contract Card, while the rest comes from what the pet beast provides to the Beast Tamer and what the Beast Tamer provides to the pet beast.

The power they provide each other combines with the Contract Card's power to produce a wondrous reaction, giving both sides an epic boost. The prerequisite, though, is that both sides can provide high-quality power.

For example, if a Beast Tamer contracts a dying mouse, the feedback the Beast Tamer receives on the spot won't actually amount to much.

For another example, if a level-five Beast Tamer contracts an ordinary animal, that animal will definitely receive a bigger boost than it would from being contracted by an apprentice Beast Tamer.

In other words, because you couldn't provide much high-quality power, your pet beast didn't absorb enough nourishment when it awakened. How could it possibly grow bigger?

As for why it shrank, that's a pet beast's self-preservation mechanism. It allows what little power it has to strengthen its entire body. This usually happens when maintaining its original size would likely prevent it from evolving completely and leave it with defects.

OP, don't take offense at my bluntness, but is there something wrong with your health? I'd suggest getting checked at a hospital.

Also, don't worry about your pet beast. It has great talent. Not every pet beast can shrink to achieve a perfect enhancement. That takes a certain degree of innate talent.

It used to be very popular among Beast Tamers to use a resource called the Awakening Leaf to assess a pet beast's aptitude. Since supernatural creatures awakened using Awakening Leaves don't have a Contract Card or a Beast Tamer's feedback, the power available for their initial enhancement isn't all that substantial.

Most won't grow bigger. Instead, they stay the same size or shrink to receive a more complete supernatural baptism. This is very common and can also be used to assess a pet beast's aptitude to some extent.

Once you provide enough nutrients for its subsequent growth and its growth level increases, its size will gradually return to normal. Get it? Rather than worrying about your pet beast, worry about your own health first. You're so young-don't tell me you've been jerking off too much...]

Why does this guy have such a punchable mouth?

"Shit!" By this point, Lu Ran seemed to understand what had happened.

So the Awakening Leaf had provided too little supernatural power, forcing Sudden Death King to shrink so that it could evolve completely.

It had absorbed very little Extraordinary Power to begin with. If it had also tried to grow bigger, an arm or a leg might not have received a proper enhancement.

In other words, the miniature Sudden Death King before him wasn't proof that good things came in small packages...

Instead... it was malnourished?!

Was the reason really that straightforward...? Lu Ran fell silent.

"My knowledge of beast taming is still lacking."

Lu Ran first observed two seconds of silence for the Beast Tamer named Zasini, then looked at Sudden Death King, which was happily eating grasshoppers. He felt a little guilty.

"Sudden Death King, you'll have to put up with this for a while. Make do with what you can eat. Once General Ha and I earn some money, I'll get you all the nourishment you need..."

Big and tough is still better for a tank!

Lu Ran continued browsing the posts.

He hadn't realized before how much useful information the forum contained.

It looked like he could set aside some training time to browse posts and broaden his knowledge in the future...

Just like that, half an hour passed as Lu Ran browsed. Sudden Death King seemed to have been truly starving. It had already eaten several times its own body volume in food...

But its size didn't seem to have changed much.

That made sense. With such a tough body, it would surely need an enormous amount of nourishment to grow evenly without leaving any part behind. Getting that from ordinary grasshoppers would be difficult...

[More people are here.]

[Humans are so scary.]

[Yeah, they're actually killing each other.]

[And ordering scary monsters around.]

Hmm?

Lu Ran was still walking General Ha and Sudden Death King.

But as he walked, he seemed to pick up one inner voice after another.

This was common. After activating Telepathy, Lu Ran could often hear wild animals' thoughts.

Such clear exchanges were rare, though. They indicated that the creatures communicating were fairly intelligent.

Lu Ran surveyed his surroundings and soon spotted three squirrels in a tree, holding fruit and looking in his direction.

Three squirrels, of all things!

Although squirrels weren't especially intelligent on average, they weren't stupid either. Judging by the level of conversation these three were having, they were probably exceptional individuals, with intelligence approaching that of the crow in Green Sea City.

Normally, Lu Ran rarely paid attention when he heard animals' thoughts.

This time, however, he couldn't help stopping, simply because what these three squirrels were discussing was far too outrageous.

People? Killing each other? Commanding scary monsters?

"What's going on?" Lu Ran stared straight at them. When the three squirrels noticed that he had stopped and was staring fixedly at them, they all shuddered and dropped their fruit. Seemingly intent on pretending nothing had happened, they joined paws and prepared to leave...

"General Ha, catch those three squirrels for me!"

"Woof?" General Ha shot forward in an instant, bringing the world-famous painting "Dog Catching a Squirrel" into being.

The three squirrels ran even faster, their expressions shattered by terror. Humans are so scary!