Chương 19: The Pangolin

Slurp... The small eyes of the Crystal-Scaled Pangolin stared dead at Rowan's wrist, its pink tongue licking the corners of its mouth again. Its adorably naive movements lacked any aggressiveness; instead, they revealed a pure, unadulterated craving. The muscles at the corner of Rowan's eye twitched slightly. The Source Crystal Core inside his left chest maintained an extremely high operational frequency.

As soon as this little thing dared to make any sudden moves, three supercritical water blades would instantly shred its head to pieces. In this man-eating alternate-world jungle, a Tier 1 mana-beast didn't pounce and bite his throat out, but instead stared at his wrist like a beggar asking for food?

"You... want this?" Rowan furrowed his brow. He tentatively lowered his left hand holding the scabbard, while slowly extending his right hand forward a bit. Seeing the Möbius ring approaching, the pangolin excitedly rubbed its two front claws together on the rough tree roots. It didn't pounce and bite. Instead, it carefully leaned in and gently nudged Rowan's wrist with its snout, which was covered in tiny crystalline scales. No hostility, not even a trace of mana resistance.

Rowan could feel that it seemed to be enjoying the Möbius ring birthmark. It was as if it were inhaling some kind of premium, hallucinogenic mint. Is this thing... addicted to the Möbius ring? Could the Möbius ring be emitting something? Rowan marveled inwardly. But he didn't have the luxury of walking a pet here, let alone a Tier 1 mana-beast with an unknown background. The dense stench of blood in the surroundings could attract other high-tier predators at any moment.

"Get lost." Rowan scolded in a low voice, gently pushing its head away with his scabbard. The pangolin shrank back aggrievedly, but its small obsidian eyes still stared longingly at Rowan's wrist. Rowan ignored it and turned toward the severed leg of the Rock-Scaled Giant Crocodile he had cut off. Looking at this massive lump weighing over a hundred pounds on the ground, Rowan's brow tied into a dead knot.

"Too heavy, and too bulky. Even if I could barely carry it, trekking through the primeval jungle carrying a meat pillar reeking of dense blood is practically being a walking target." Rowan squatted down and sighed helplessly. He could only fish out that high-frequency tactical dagger with the broken tip from the sub-pouch on his thigh.

It seemed he could only do what he did with the giant rhino: carve out a few of the most premium chunks of thigh meat to take away, and wastefully discard the vast majority of it here. Just the thought of throwing away so much Tier 1 mana-beast meat—enough to drive Terra's body-tempering martial artists crazy—made Rowan's heart bleed. Just as he was about to cut, a series of huffing and puffing noises came from beside him. That Crystal-Scaled Pangolin had wandered over at some point.

It seemed to understand Rowan's distress as he frowned at this massive slab of meat, or perhaps the enchanting scent on Rowan's wrist gave it the illusion that he was "one of its own." It waddled over on its short little legs to the giant crocodile leg. Then, under Rowan's dumbfounded gaze, this pangolin—which wasn't even half the size of the crocodile leg—opened its slightly comical mouth.

"You want to eat it? Don't break your teeth..." Rowan's words weren't even finished before they got abruptly stuck in his throat. He saw the closely packed, semi-transparent crystalline scales on the pangolin's belly suddenly ripple like water! Rings of hidden ripples, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, expanded outward with its body at the center. The next second. It merely brushed its mouth lightly against that hundred-plus-pound severed leg of the Rock-Scaled Giant Crocodile. With a soft hum.

That thick, rocky crocodile leg, which was two or three times larger than its entire body, acted as if it had fallen into a black hole that completely defied all laws of physics. It instantly twisted, folded, and with a slurp, completely submerged into the crevices of the scales on its belly! The spot was left completely empty. A breeze blew past. Only a few residual drops of crocodile blood remained by the stream-marsh, proving that the massive slab of meat had ever existed.

"..." Rowan froze stiff on the spot, the scabbard in his hand nearly dropping into the muddy water. He stared like he was looking at a monster at the pangolin, which let out a faint burp.

"You... ate the whole thing?!" Rowan exclaimed subconsciously, his eyes immediately locking onto the pangolin's stomach. Not bulging. Not even a single bit! Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After swallowing a hundred-plus-pound object, its physique was still that chubby, rotund shape, and its footsteps hadn't grown a fraction heavier. Rowan's brain crashed for a brief moment. Then, a profound memory flashed across his mind like lightning.

That ripple radiating from the scales just now... that visual dislocation that seemed capable of warping light and distance...

"Spatial fluctuations!" Rowan gasped sharply. The texture of those ripples was exactly identical to the spatial ripples produced when the Möbius ring on his wrist activated, and when the white-robed cleric's storage bag collapsed after being stomped on! It didn't eat it; it stored it!

"An alternate dimension inside its body? A spatial folding innate talent?!" Rowan stared dead at this little beast currently licking its claws, the shock in his heart akin to a category-twelve earthquake. In the Terra Republic's magic system, magic affinities were incredibly diverse, but "Space" was absolutely a high-tier and mysterious existence. Ordinary mages could only rely on exorbitantly expensive "spatial array containers" (like spatial rings or storage bags) to store items.

And if a creature wanted to control space purely with its own physical body, or even open a folded space within itself, there was only one possibility— A Tier 3 Mage! He had only ever seen such big shots in the official news broadcasts; they were basically already the crucial core of the Empire's upper-middle echelons! Only upon reaching the realm of Tier 3 would the Source Crystal Core supposedly undergo a qualitative change, thereby interfering with physical space in reality.

But if asked for specific details, Rowan could only say this was all he knew. Yet now, a mere Tier 1 wild mana-beast—one that even cleanly concealed its mana pressure—was actually born with an innate spatial storage ability?!

"No wonder you're so interested in the Möbius ring on my wrist..." Rowan's gaze changed. If he only felt this little thing was a bit bizarre before, then now, in his eyes, this pangolin was simply a priceless treasure! A living storage bag capable of automatically concealing mana fluctuations!

"Come here." Rowan suppressed the wild ecstasy in his heart, trying his best to make his voice sound a bit gentler. He sliced off a small piece of unfinished, ordinary mana-beast meat from his fanny pack and offered it over like he was coaxing a child. The pangolin twitched its nose, seemingly uninterested in this low-grade meat.

But for the sake of Rowan's wrist, it waddled over anyway, curled its tongue around the meat, and then naturally climbed up Rowan's pant leg, ultimately resting securely on Rowan's shoulder like a crystal-clear, armored pendant.

"Looks like you're stuck on me." A smile curled Rowan's lips. Feeling that negligible weight on his shoulder, he was in a great mood. As long as he tamed this mobile warehouse, his endurance and looting capabilities in this primeval jungle would undergo a terrifying qualitative leap! Looking at the sky through the gaps in the towering trees, he could see that the massive alternate-world moon had already begun emitting a faint halo.

Various spine-chilling roars of nocturnal predators gradually began echoing through the forest.

"It's getting dark. Time to find a safe place." Rowan originally wanted to turn back and see if the corpse of that Tier 1 male rhino was still there, but he quickly dismissed this greedy thought. Traveling through a mana-beast jungle after dark was absolutely not a wise move. Relying on the fading light, Rowan, with his new pet on his shoulder, wove through the underbrush like a ghost and expertly returned to that concealed, massive tree hollow from before.

Re-camouflaging the entrance with broad fern leaves, Rowan let out a long sigh of relief. His taut nerves finally found a trace of relaxation.

"Time to work, little guy. Can you spit it out?" Rowan patted the pangolin on his shoulder. The little beast intelligently jumped down. Rowan made prompting gestures. After a few rounds of miming, the little beast understood his meaning. The scales on its belly rippled again, and with a thump, that massive severed leg of the Rock-Scaled Giant Crocodile was spit out, perfectly intact, onto the floor of the tree hollow. Even the blood flowing from the severed cut hadn't coagulated.

It was as if time inside the folded space was completely frozen! Rowan immediately drew his high-frequency oscillating dagger. Expertly avoiding the rocky scales, he carved out a massive chunk of lean meat weighing five or six pounds from the thickest part of the leg. He skillfully dug a pit, wrapped the meat in leaves, sprinkled on cheap synthetic BBQ spice powder, then sealed it solid with wet mud and buried it in the ground, starting a smokeless fire.

The alternate-world version of "Mud-Baked Beggar's Crocodile" officially started cooking. While waiting, Rowan took out that gem-like [Mana Primordium]. Inspecting it carefully by the faint light, his eyes were filled with calculations for the future. About half an hour later, the aroma of meat mixed with spices began permeating the tree hollow. The pangolin, which had been dozing, instantly perked up.

Its beady little eyes stared dead at the lump of mud Rowan dug out of the fire pit; drool even dripped down its crystalline scales onto the floor.

"You want some?" Rowan cracked open the scorching hot mud shell, peeled back the leaves, tore off a small piece of meat, and tossed it to the pangolin, while he himself took a bite of the sizzling, grease-dripping crocodile meat.

"Urgh—!" The moment the meat entered his mouth, Rowan frowned. Compared to the intensely aromatic, top-tier texture of the rhino meat from before, the texture of this giant crocodile meat was far inferior. It felt like chewing on a torn burlap sack soaked in grease—tough, astringent, and carrying an unshakeable, fishy swamp stench. But as the chunk of meat slid into his stomach, a heavy, dull earth-element energy slowly radiated outward.

If the rhino meat's energy was a "sharp barrier-breaking arrow" that instantly blasted through Rowan's congested meridians, then the crocodile meat's energy was "heavy clay"—lacking agility, but winning in sheer density. It slowly flowed along with his blood past Rowan's already-tempered bones, beginning to fill in and reinforce those microscopic crevices.

"The purity of the energy is a notch lower than the rhino meat." Rowan felt the changes in his body. The thrill of an explosive surge faded, replaced by a tangible, solid stability. He clenched his fists, his knuckles emitting low, muffled cracks.

"Although my strength didn't experience a leap-like boost like last time, my body's endurance limit and strike-resistance have clearly been pushed up another notch." When alive, this Rock-Scaled Giant Crocodile was equivalent to a Tier 1 Dual-Phase Mage of Terra, and even stronger in terms of physical strength. The energy contained within its flesh and blood was still extremely useful to Rowan's body, which suffered from deficits due to chronic malnutrition! A sharp light glinted in Rowan's eyes.

"No wonder those lunatics practicing ancient body-tempering on Terra are willing to bankrupt themselves to buy pure mana-beast meat. That low-grade magic rabbit meat probably wouldn't have any strengthening effect on my current body at all anymore; at best, it can only serve as ordinary food to fill my stomach." Only by continuously hunting stronger mana-beasts and devouring higher-tier flesh and blood could his physical body keep up with his spell progression.

Fully fed and watered, Rowan leaned against the damp wooden wall. Listening to the rising and falling roars of beasts in the rainforest outside, he gradually closed his eyes. The pangolin naturally curled into a crystal-clear ball, snuggling against Rowan's calf like a loyal guard. Tonight, Rowan needed a good sleep. Because when the sun rose tomorrow morning, the Möbius ring on his right wrist would almost be done with its cooldown. Tomorrow.

Carrying this Mana Primordium worth thirty thousand Terra Credits, along with the mana-beast materials, he would return to Terra. Those vampires in the black market...