CH 4

Chapter 4: Taming a second animal.

In the morning, the next day.

Mino woke up and blankly stared at the wooden ceiling.

Last night, she fell asleep several hours later because she had been thinking about whether she should leave with Mu Liang or not.

“Sniff……”

Mino wrinkled her nose and smelled the scent of meat.

The girl turned her head to look. There was a little charcoal burning in the fire pit and an iron pot was hanging on the wooden frame of the fire pit. The fragrance was coming from the pot.

“You’re awake. Get up and eat something.”

Mu Liang held a spoon and gently stirred the things in the iron pot.

Mino was lost in thought for a moment. Usually, she was the one who prepared breakfast.

She hesitantly asked, “Has your body already healed?”

“Well, it’s all right.” Mu Liang said lightly.

There were some compressed biscuits and boiled small lizards for breakfast. It was a dark dish, but it could fill one’s stomach.

The compressed biscuits were one of several things that Mu Liang brought from the Earth when the ground cracked.

“Oh.” Mino quietly sat by the fire.

“After you have eaten, I’ll go hunting with you.”

Mu Liang placed the breakfast in an iron box and handed it to the girl.

It would take a long journey to leave the camp, so he had to prepare some food, and there were only a few compressed biscuits left in his backpack.

“Okay.” Mino obediently took the iron lunch box.

The girl recognized this iron lunch box. It was in the backpack.

Five days ago, she wanted to use it to pay taxes, but then she didn’t.

Mu Liang could tell that the girl was not in a very good mood, but he did not comfort her.

He held the inner layer of the lunch box, filled it with lizard meat, and quietly ate breakfast.

“Zizi~~”

The two of them ate their breakfast in silence.

Mino pursed her lips and peeked at Mu Liang’s face.

For some reason, the young girl suddenly couldn’t find a topic to talk about as freely as before.

“Click……”

The rock armor tortoise kicked the ground, and its emerald green eyes stared at Mu Liang.

Mino saw the rock armor tortoise and immediately found a topic to talk about: “What about this tortoise?”

“It will be going out with us.” Mu Liang did not feel comfortable letting the rock armor tortoise stay in the camp.

A Level 1 rock armor tortoise was not strong enough to not be found, and it would be slaughtered for meat if anyone found him.

Moreover, the rock armor tortoise also had to eat and it could hunt for food on its own outside the camp.

“Alright.” Mino nodded slightly.

The atmosphere once again became quiet, and there was no more conversation.

After breakfast, the two of them brought the important things from the wooden shelter with them, just in case any thieves came in.

Mino’s house was a wooden shelter. It was made of animal skin and deadwood.

The wooden shelter was located at the edge of the camp. It was just right for two people and a tortoise to sneak out of the camp.

The rock armor tortoise’s crawling speed was not fast. Its speed was as fast as an ordinary person’s walking speed. However, the brown rock appearance of its shell was an excellent disguise.

After leaving the camp, the two of them and the tortoise headed toward the north.

According to the young girl, there was a hilly area in the north that had many small lizards.

Mu Liang also saw many other figures along the way, but all of them stayed far away and avoided them.

He could guess the reason. They should be afraid of being robbed of food or something like that.

After all, they had to be careful in order to survive because it was possible to be backstabbed at any time in this wasteland-like post-apocalypse world.

The rocky hill was not far from the camp. The two of them quickly reached the foot of the nearest hill.

“Little Black Tortoise, go find food yourself.” Mu Liang squatted down and patted the head of the rock armor tortoise.

He named the rock armor tortoise the Black Tortoise, which could be considered his expectation from it.

“Ouch~~”

The Rock Armor Tortoise rubbed Mu Liang’s palm, then chose a direction and slowly crawled away.

“It won’t get lost, right?” Mino asked, worriedly.

“No, I have a telepathic connection with Little Black Tortoise.” Mu Liang said with a smile.

He could communicate with a tamed animal through his mind.

Mino breathed a sigh of relief and raised her finger to point in a direction: “The traps I made are at the foot of the few hills ahead.”

“You go and see the traps. I’ll see if there’s any prey nearby.” Mu Liang decided to split into two groups.

The prey he wanted to catch was not a small lizard. The small lizards had too little meat and it couldn’t fill his stomach.

“Alright.” Mino whispered, “If you need anything, call me.”

“Okay.” Mu Liang nodded and walked in the opposite direction of the rock armor tortoise.

“Ai~~Why are you so upset today?”

Mino sighed sadly and slapped her hands on her cheeks to cheer up herself.

“……” Mu Liang paused for a moment, but then he kept walking away.

Now that he had been strengthened by the rock tortoise, his five senses had become stronger, and he could hear the girl’s sigh.

The young girl was very sentimental. She had been lonely for a long time and now that she suddenly had someone to accompany her; she wanted to hold on to them even more.

Mu Liang did not intend to comfort Mino. If the girl did not leave with him, then his gentleness would only hurt her even more.

“It’s really desolate, just like the Gobi Desert.”

Mu Liang lightly stepped on the ground and scanned his surroundings sharply.

He sighed faintly, “I wonder how the people here have lived for so long.”

“Sha~~”

The sound of sand falling to the ground instantly caught Mu Liang’s attention.

He stared at a rock wall not far away, and after looking carefully, he found the animal that had caused the sand to slide.

It was a small lizard that was climbing the rock wall.

“I can’t let you go now that I have seen you.”

Mu Liang drew the saber from his waist and quickly pierced the little lizard’s head.

Pfffff……

The small lizard died.

“Sha~~”

Suddenly, another small lizard appeared on the rock wall and quickly climbed upward.

“A small lizard that can change colors?”

Mu Liang froze for less than a second. Then he quickly reacted and raised his hand to catch the small color-changing lizard.

He caught the small color-changing lizard on his second try because his first attempt failed.

“Unexpectedly, this small lizard is not the same species as the other small lizards.”

Mu Liang looked at the struggling little lizard in his palm. It was twice as big as other small lizards.

The most surprising thing was that the skin of the little lizard had three colors: red, green, and blue.

“Ding! Tame able creature detected. Do you want to tame it?”