“Ha, haha... hahahaha...”

Exhausted and lying on the ground, Xie Wen turned to look at the headless goat monster beside him, letting out intermittent but very satisfying laughter. As someone who had rarely fought even before his transmigration, being able to personally take down such a large monster in a one-on-one duel made it hard for Xie Wen not to feel proud of himself.

However, he quickly stopped his silly laughter, struggling to sit up while pulling out a piece of smoked meat from his waist pouch to munch on. Heaven knows if another monster will come; it’s most important to recover his strength as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, while chewing on the smoked meat, Xie Wen slapped his forehead in frustration, realizing that he had forgotten to replenish his stamina during the battle, even though Sanji Cat had prepared plenty of food for him. Indeed, memories are just memories; before he fully converted them into personal experience, he could still only be considered a half-baked monster hunter.

While restoring his stamina with food, Xie Wen began to review the battle he had just fought. Although he had managed to defeat the goat monster without sustaining any injuries, upon reflection, he found that he had missed quite a few opportunities during the fight—some due to being overly nervous in his first battle, and others simply because of a lack of experience.

“... I still need real combat experience.”

Xie Wen felt that the growth he had gained from this battle was tenfold or even dozens of times greater than what he could achieve in regular training. Plus, having defeated a large monster without taking any damage gave him a preliminary sense of confidence, making him less hesitant about fighting than before. After all, he couldn’t always rely on the cat, and others had transmigrated. If he continued to live as aimlessly as he did before his transmigration, wouldn’t that be a waste?

At that moment, Xie Wen felt a sense of boundless possibility.

“Meow! What’s going on here?!”

Just as Xie Wen was lost in his thoughts, Sanji Cat returned. He paused for a moment before leaping into Xie Wen’s arms, covered in blood, and began to anxiously pat him all over.

“Xie Wen! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!”

“I’m fine, really! I didn’t get hurt at all. Don’t be fooled by its size; it was much clumsier than you and couldn’t hit me once.”

Receiving the cat’s concern, Xie Wen immediately cast aside his earlier grand aspirations, grinning with a playful smile as he scratched Sanji Cat’s head and gently reassured him.

“Hmph! I was worried that no one would take me to find Sister Elucats, that’s why I’m concerned about you, meow!”

Hearing that Xie Wen was okay, Sanji Cat immediately returned to his previous tsundere attitude, crossing his little paws over his chest and turning his head away with a huff, though he didn’t shake off Xie Wen’s hand that was scratching him.

“Sure, sure,” Xie Wen maintained his playful smile, “I will definitely help you find Sister Elucats~”

Although tsundere girls aren’t as popular these days, tsundere cats, whether male or female, are still so adorable!

As for Sanji Cat’s flirtatious nature...

As the saying goes: “Food and sex are basic human desires.”

Xie Wen also liked looking at beautiful women; isn't it normal for Sanji Cat, as a little male cat, to like female cats?

“By the way, meow!” After enjoying Xie Wen's service for a while, Sanji Cat suddenly jumped out of his arms, “We need to hurry up and process this corpse, or else the quality of the ingredients will drop, meow.”

“I’ll help too.” Xie Wen stood up and picked up the salted fish katana he had thrown aside earlier.

With such a large “goat,” who knows how long it would take Sanji Cat to handle it alone?

Under Sanji Cat’s direction, Xie Wen swung the salted fish katana and quickly dismembered the huge corpse into several pieces, and then... he could no longer help.

Sanji Cat thought he was too clumsy, couldn’t even cut the corpse properly, and immediately pushed him aside without hesitation.

“Tsk...”

It seems that Xie Wen would still have to continue eating this bowl of cat food.

With nothing else to do, Xie Wen thought for a moment and finally remembered his “high-tech” hunter manual. Now that he had seen and interacted with this goat monster and even killed it, the large monster encyclopedia should be unlocked, right?

With that in mind, Xie Wen found a stone to sit on, then took out the hunter manual from his waist pouch.

Flipping to the page below the small creature encyclopedia, it had indeed been unlocked. The layout of this page was not much different from the previous one; most of the page was about the goat monster’s introduction and its illustrations. However, the monster list on the left side was not as full as the previous page and only had a lone entry (unnamed).

It seemed a bit inappropriate to just call it the goat monster, and it didn’t actually live in the mountains...

After some contemplation, Xie Wen, who struggled with naming, finally decided to call the first large monster he defeated “Forest Goat King.”

Because according to the usual pattern in Monster Hunter, generally, this type of low-tier 1-3 star large monster would usually have similar types of smaller monsters, so he followed the naming convention from Monster Hunter...

After all, he could change it anytime.

However, when he entered the name “Forest Goat King” into the hunter manual, the page of the large monster encyclopedia suddenly glowed with a faint white light. As the light grew brighter, the page slowly stood up.

At the same time, the hunter manual floated away from Xie Wen’s hand, hovering gracefully in front of him.

“!!!”

This sudden change caught Xie Wen off guard, and Sanji Cat, who was processing the Forest Goat King’s corpse, was also attracted over.

“What’s happening, meow?”

“I don’t know; I just unlocked the large monster encyclopedia, and then it started glowing.” Xie Wen shook his head and then asked, “Haven’t you heard about this situation before?”

“Of course not, meow.” Sanji Cat shot him a glance, “I’ve never heard of any hunter having such a magical manual... What should we do now? Should we close it, meow?”

“... No, let’s see what changes will happen next.”

Xie Wen thought for a moment and decided to observe first before making a move.

Fortunately, this hunter manual, which seemed to be his true golden finger, didn’t make him and Sanji Cat wait too long. When the illuminated page reached a brightness similar to that of an ordinary energy-saving light, it slowly detached from the manual and floated into the air.

At the point where the page separated, a new page that also glowed with white light “grew” out. Soon after, the new page’s brightness rapidly faded, and the content still read “Large Creature Encyclopedia.”

Then, the floating hunter manual suddenly lost its “power,” falling back down to the ground as if caught by Newton.

Xie Wen quickly reached out to catch it, but his eyes were still fixed on the glowing page of the “large monster encyclopedia” floating above.

Under his gaze, that page began to shrink little by little, and when it became slightly narrower than a sticky note, the light faded, and it also floated down from the air.

Xie Wen reached out again to catch it, and before he could carefully observe its changes, a message suddenly transmitted from the piece of paper—

“Cat Companion Summoning Ticket (1/3)”

Xie Wen: ???