Chapter 17 Accompanying the Tiger_1

In the following ten days, his combat ability indeed improved a lot. However, the emergence of stronger skeleton demon apes made it easy for him to be genuinely injured, significantly reducing the efficacy of his training.

Therefore, he could no longer train here.

He had been learning this set of martial techniques for two months already.

The skeleton demon apes were diverse in kind, employing a variety of combat methods, providing Ma Lin with excellent training and accumulating a significant amount of practical combat experience.

Now his courage had grown as well.

He had crafted a bone spear for himself to use in hunting. Before, he relied on his canine tooth dagger to kill his prey; the dagger sliced through wood as if cutting through tofu, its sharpness greatly reducing the difficulty of his hunting. Now, even without the dagger, he could still kill species like the sharp-headed deer, giant sheep, and blood-sucking monsters using just a very simple weapon.

He had four bone spears, two stone axes, and two stone knives.

When he tried using a stone knife to hunt the sharp-headed deer, it required a bit of skill; perhaps several chops across successive attacks before he could truly kill it. Given his current agility, the deer's movements appeared slow-motion to him, so the process was almost risk-free.

Hunting with a bone spear was much simpler. Normally, a couple of thrusts and the sharp-headed deer wouldn't be able to move, stopping and waiting for death.

As his skills improved, his courage greatly increased.

Wasn't there a tiger nearby? Since there was plenty of food available now, Old Hu had no desire to attack him. Sometimes it would even be attracted by the smell of roasted meat and call out from outside the fence.

Raw meat was nowhere as good as cooked meat, which smelled even more delicious once seasoned.

Old Hu wasn't short of food, but it wanted to improve its diet. One day, Ma Lin found a half-dead sheep at the entrance of the courtyard and then saw Old Hu not far away watching him. He understood that the tiger wasn't eating his provisions for free; this was its way of repaying him and hoping to taste cooked meat again.

During the heavy snow, the reason he was able to stay at home was related to Old Hu bringing food.

Naturally, he tried to roast the meat until it was fragrant inside and tender outside, tossing it to Old Hu. The tiger would come every three or four days, calling out from outside the fence, waiting for him to go out and see it, to make barbecue for it.

By now, Ma Lin's combat power had become quite strong, and he was no longer so afraid of the tiger. When using the canine tooth dagger, he believed he could somewhat easily defeat it; if using the bone spear, they might be evenly matched.

So he let Old Hu into the courtyard.

It was still afraid of fire, not daring to come close while he cooked meat, carefully lying a few meters away, waiting until he finished cooking to hand it over.

It had a large appetite, but it could hunt for its own food. It wasn't freeloading; it just wanted him to play the role of a chef.

So he devoted even more attention to the study of roasting, boiling, and frying meat, determined to satisfy Old Hu's palate. He didn't have a single friend and often felt stifled; how wonderful it would be to have such a clever tiger for company.

After entering his courtyard three times, Old Hu became less restrained and began snooping around. It even allowed him to touch its head and stroke its fur.

Initially, after eating and playing a little, it would leave; now it didn't want to leave and just lay on the dry woodpile, snoring away.

Ma Lin thought to himself, what can I do about this?

He left the door open; it was for Old Hu. He went to sleep in the cave.

The next day, when Ma Lin went out to dig for wild vegetables, gather seasoning ingredients and useful seeds, and chop firewood, Old Hu followed behind and watched.

Deer, sheep, wild boars and the like wandered around not far away, but it showed little interest, since it wasn't lacking in food.

However, when a wolf passed by nearby, Old Hu chased it away with a roar.

Ma Lin thought, it's like I've got myself a follower.

That wasn't so bad. Not only could the follower hunt for its own food and feed him, but now he had to make sure to take good care of it and prevent it from leaving if it got unhappy.

So he also spent time playing with Old Hu.

What was the most fun? Throwing frisbees. "The Servant's Book" suggested this idea. Using a kind of soft, light wood to make frisbees, which could be thrown far, and just watching them was very exhilarating.

Then it was him throwing the frisbee, and Old Hu fetching it, playing with apparent joy.

They could also go swimming together, soak in hot springs, and dig up frozen fish to feed it.

Ma Lin wasn't sure if other tigers liked fish, but the one before him loved it dearly, licking it completely clean, neatly peeling off the bones.

Keeping it happy, it even allowed him to ride on its back, then gallop wildly. This was called going for a joyride, and Old Hu was particularly enthusiastic about it.

```

Ma Lin usually just ran around near his home, but one day when the weather was particularly good, Old Hu carried him and they ran dozens of miles to a wasteland. The grass here was extremely sparse, and the ground was emitting black smoke under the sunlight. The extent of the wasteland was unknown. Old Hu stopped at the edge of the wasteland and then roared.

Soon after, a strange and terrifying scream came from the wasteland.

Old Hu roared again.

Then, a shadowy creature could be seen running over from a distance. Old Hu watched it for a while, making threatening 'woo woo' sounds, and then charged at it.

As they got closer, Ma Lin saw that the creature was as huge as an elephant. It must have weighed several tons, with extremely thick skin, standing over four meters tall, with sharp fangs and teeth, and legs as thick as tree stumps covered in thick hide.

Ma Lin thought to himself that this tiger had a lot of nerve to provoke such a huge being.

But Old Hu slightly tilted his body, signaling for him to get off.

So he got off.

Old Hu then charged towards the creature.

It was apparent that the creature's weakness was its lack of agility, and Old Hu repeatedly left scratches and bite marks on it. This tiger was much fiercer than an ordinary one and fought viciously.

However, the creature's skin was so thick that, despite several wounds, none were fatal, and Old Hu was having a hard time defeating it.

Ma Lin watched patiently for any attack patterns from the creature, and he held his dogtooth dagger in hand. Old Hu had seen him use it for hunting and whittling wood and knew how sharp it was.

The creature didn't take any notice of him, feeling that he was too small to pose any threat.

Old Hu deliberately allowed it to turn around, with its back to Ma Lin.

Ma Lin seized the opportunity and charged, stabbing his dagger into its belly and drawing a more than two-foot-long gash, then immediately leaping away to a safe distance.

Old Hu's half-day efforts hadn't been as heavy a blow as this one.

The creature let out a miserable scream, turned its head to look at him, and saw his dagger dripping with blood. It seemed confused and didn't know how it had been wounded.

Old Hu started provoking again, frenziedly tearing and biting.

The creature engaged in combat with Old Hu once more.

Ma Lin spotted another opening and stabbed his dagger into the underside of the creature's belly, slicing a three-foot-long cut this time. Even with its thick flesh and massive size, the creature was beginning to falter and realized that things were not looking good.

Under normal circumstances, how could its hide be penetrated so easily? Essentially, Ma Lin's dagger was exceedingly sharp, something it had not anticipated.

After another two rounds, Ma Lin struck at the tendons behind the creature's knee, severing them. Its leg was crippled.

Then Ma Lin leaped away to a distance, and so did Old Hu.

But Old Hu was relentless, fervently yelling at the creature.

The creature, knowing its condition was dire, tried to turn and flee, but Old Hu blocked its path.

With every step it took, plenty of blood flowed out, along with its internal organs hanging down.

Ma Lin thought the creature was surely going to die; the injuries were incurable.

Clearly, Old Hu understood as well.

Old Hu had three wounds himself, one on his shoulder exposing white bone.

Ma Lin approached Old Hu, took out a few medicinal pills, crushed them on a stone with a stick, and then scattered the powder onto Old Hu's wounds.

The effect was very noticeable; Old Hu seemed to immediately feel less pain, and even appeared to find some comfort in the wounded area, which could be seen from his expression.

After inspecting several times, Ma Lin finished treating the wounds.

The creature was unable to escape and just stood there.

It exuded an evil aura all over, with blood-red eyes that instilled fear at a single glance.

```