Having successfully formed the contract, Han Ning didn’t feel the same sharp pain in his head as last time.

He just felt as if a bit of his Energy had been drained away, replaced by a faint connection with the Little Guardian.

His mind was still clear. He estimated... that one probably only needed to reach Unranked (50%) to meet the standard for contracting a second Soul Beast.

"Now that the contract is signed, I should give you a name."

Han Ning played with the Little Guardian’s tail with one hand, murmuring to himself as he watched the little guy noisily licking the Crystal Stone.

’Should I call you Xiaohuang? No, no, that’s way too generic. I’m sure plenty of people call their Soul Beasts that.’

’Let me think... Yellow spots, slightly pale skin... like an egg pancake. How about I call you—Egg Pancake?!’

"Chirp?"

Hearing Han Ning call it that, the Little Guardian first froze, but after hearing him call out "Egg Pancake" a few more times, it finally understood. It rolled around excitedly on the bed twice, then nudged its small, round head against his palm.

Egg Pancake might not have understood what "egg pancake" meant, but it could understand the emotion in Han Ning’s voice.

Affection and gentleness.

"Lingling!" Yin Yi hopped up and down beside them.

"Chirp~"

He placed Egg Pancake in Yin Yi’s arms, letting the two little ones play together.

Han Ning called up Egg Pancake’s status panel.

[

Race: Swamp Guardian

Gender: Male

Talent: F

Level: Unranked

Elemental Affinity (Earth): 0.4

Talent: None

Acquired Soul Techniques: Mud Missile (0/50)

Power: 0.1

Body: 0.1

Agility: 0.1

Spiritual Energy: 0.3

Current Soul Beast is temporarily unable to have points allocated. Its average physical stats must be raised above 0.2 to meet the minimum standard for Energy infusion.

]

’I can’t allocate points directly? I’ll have to train it for a few days?’

Han Ning was a little surprised by the panel’s notification, but he quickly calmed down.

He figured it was probably because Egg Pancake had just hatched and its body was still too weak. It wasn’t like Yin Yi, who had already lived in the wild for some time and whose physical stats met the minimum requirement for point allocation.

’Not a big deal. I don’t need Egg Pancake to join the Soul Beast hunts anytime soon anyway. This is a good opportunity to get in sync with it and build our bond.’

At this thought, Han Ning couldn’t help but reach out and stroke Egg Pancake’s head.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door.

He opened the door and saw his roommate, Lin Tianhe, peeking his head from behind it. "Dean Wu is looking for you," he said with a grin. "Apparently, the first version of the firearm our school developed has been successfully produced." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Oh? Let’s go take a look."

No one had been idle this past week. Han Ning led a team out every day to train their Soul Beasts with the other teachers and students.

Meanwhile, Dean Wu and some of the other researchers had been holed up in the processing center day in and day out, developing the firearm.

To think they’d have results in just one week.

He turned his head, called for Yin Yi and Egg Pancake, and walked with Lin Tianhe toward the processing center.

Egg Pancake scrambled onto Han Ning’s shoulder, lifting its head to curiously observe its surroundings.

Yin Yi floated along, the leaves behind it fluttering as it circled around the two of them.

"Huh? You hatched the Gecko Egg?"

Only then did Lin Tianhe notice Egg Pancake on Han Ning’s shoulder. He couldn’t resist reaching out a finger to tease it.

"CHIRP!"

Faced with a stranger’s teasing, Egg Pancake bared its still-toothless mouth and gripped Han Ning’s shoulder tightly with all four claws, staring intently at Lin Tianhe’s finger.

"Egg Pancake, don’t be nervous. This is my classmate," Han Ning said, rubbing Egg Pancake’s chin to calm it down.

"Chirp~"

Hearing this, Egg Pancake zipped inside Han Ning’s collar with a SWOOSH, leaving only half its head visible as it continued to watch Lin Tianhe warily.

"Haha, it’s got quite a bit of spirit," Lin Tianhe said, not at all annoyed as he chuckled and withdrew his finger.

"Tianhe, your injuries are mostly healed. I’ll take you out for a training run these next few days and help you raise your Silver Lotus Wood’s strength. Otherwise, you’re going to fall into the third tier," Han Ning said, glancing at his roommate’s relatively small Silver Lotus Wood.

"I was just about to talk to you about that. Man, I really didn’t expect so much to happen while I was stuck in bed for a few days."

Lin Tianhe said with a sigh of wonder.

About ten days ago, his Silver Lotus Wood had just undergone its second mutation, placing him in the first tier among the students. Now, only a few days later, he had fallen far behind.

...

Nowadays, there weren’t many dangerous Soul Beasts left between the east wing of the dorms and the processing center.

The two of them arrived at the processing center without any trouble.

Dozens of people were already gathered outside the multi-function CNC machine room at the far end.

"Whoa, Han Ning, your Guardian hatched?"

"By the way... Brother Ning, how did you form a contract with a second Soul Beast?"

"Why do you have to form a contract? Can’t you just keep it as a pet?"

When the students saw Han Ning arrive, they all greeted him with friendly smiles.

"Hey guys, let’s chat later. Dean Wu is calling for me, so I’ve got to go," Han Ning said with a smile, greeting a few students he knew well before pushing open the glass door to the room and stepping inside.

"You’re here?"

The teachers in the room, who had been hunched over, studying the processing equipment, all turned their heads in unison at the sound.

Dean Wu straightened up from behind the control console and handed Han Ning a uniquely shaped firearm from the table.

"Give it a try. It’s the shotgun we just developed. It uses the largest, 4-gauge shells for ammunition. The recoil is powerful, but for you, it shouldn’t be a big problem."

Han Ning took the shotgun and saw that it was about a meter long, silvery-white all over, and had a single barrel.

"Dean Wu, is the material used to make this shotgun... scales from the Silver-Scaled Python?"

he asked in surprise, looking at the familiar silvery-white metal.

"Yes. After some research, we found that the Silver-Scaled Python’s scales are a type of special steel. They’re resistant to high temperatures and quite hard."

"As it happens, the lab next door had some potassium nitrate, so we used various materials to make a batch of large-caliber shells. Go on, try it."

Han Ning didn’t know much about firearm manufacturing, but seeing the bustling activity in the processing center and the several temporarily constructed steel-making furnaces by the door, he could imagine that the teachers had poured a great deal of effort into creating this shotgun.

It was said that the firearm blueprints were also the result of everyone pooling their efforts, rummaging through every student’s laptop in the entire dormitory area until they finally found some high-definition structural diagrams of guns.

In the School of Engineering, there was no shortage of weapons enthusiasts, among both teachers and students.

He nodded, picked up the shotgun, and went to the entrance of the processing center with the others.

"Don’t worry, we’ve already fired it 10 times in a row with no issues. It’s just that our old bodies can’t take the recoil more than a few times. We have to leave it to you young people," Dean Wu explained, pointing to a small tree in the distance. "Its effective range is within 100 meters, less than a rifle..."