Seeing the demon cat get knocked away by him, Ryan Clark kept close—thankfully, he had trained for this! Since childhood, he had dealt with all sorts of unruly animals, including disobedient large dogs. Otherwise, a normal person facing this situation would definitely be intimidated.

You could say that the reason Mr. Harris is so obedient now is at least half due to the stick-based training from Ryan Clark.

Otherwise, who do you think has been suppressing its fighting instincts all this time!

That call of "Mr. Clark" is also Mr. Harris's way of acknowledging Ryan Clark!

At this moment, Ryan Clark's goal was to quickly land another blow on the demon cat's head. Unfortunately, the strike just now was clearly not fatal—the demon cat that hit the ground sprang up nimbly in an instant and charged at him again with ferocity.

"Useless," Ryan Clark thought, planning to repeat his previous move.

However, just as Ryan Clark was focusing with all his might, suddenly, a roar made the attacking demon cat freeze abruptly, as if it had given up on attacking, immediately stopping and retreating a few steps.

This roar made Ryan Clark's expression tighten. He quickly looked toward the demon cat leader, thinking it was about to make a move, that the roar had come from it.

However, to Ryan Clark's astonishment, after that roar, the distant "demon cat leader" did not attack, but instead gave him a deeply human-like look, then turned and left the area.

At the same time, except for the demon cat whose neck had been bitten off by Mr. Harris, the remaining two also chose to retreat, as if they were going to follow the demon cat leader away.

"Awoo—" Seeing this, Mr. Harris seemed to want to give chase, but Ryan Clark immediately ordered, "Wait."

Ryan Clark's command still worked. Upon hearing it, Mr. Harris, though still maintaining a fierce posture and watching the retreating demon cats, had already begun to suppress its own ferocity.

Getting injured and seeing its own blood is one of the conditions for Mr. Harris to enter "mad dog" mode, and now, it had been triggered.

But seeing the demon cat group voluntarily retreat, Ryan Clark hesitated for a moment.

In the blink of an eye, Ryan Clark and his group, who had been in a standoff with four demon cats, saw several of them completely retreat back into the jungle.

With the demon cats gone, Ryan Clark finally breathed a sigh of relief, his whole body relaxing as he looked at his trembling hands.

Although he didn't know why the demon cat leader had ordered a retreat, if the fight had continued, it was clear that things would not have gone well for him and Mr. Harris. Even if they won in the end, it would have been a pyrrhic victory with serious injuries.

He still wanted to say, what the hell kind of newbie trial is this?

"Woof." At this moment, Mr. Harris seemed quite frustrated, very dissatisfied with its inability to take down five enemies in a second. As for one against five... it didn't think it would lose.

"Sorry, Mr. Harris, things are too complicated here. I can't let you fight to your heart's content. Next time... hmm? Wait a second." As he spoke, Ryan Clark finally noticed that something seemed to have changed with Mr. Harris.

[Species]: Snowfield Dog

[Attribute]: Not Awakened

[Species Level]: Intermediate Extraordinary

[Growth Level]: Level 2

[Skills]: None

Unbeknownst to him, after taking down another demon cat just now, Mr. Harris's growth level had actually reached level 2, with a noticeable boost in all attributes.

Because of this, even though it had been scratched twice just now, once Mr. Harris reacted, it could still send a nearby demon cat flying several meters in an instant—the strength was unbelievable.

This change delighted Ryan Clark.

"Maybe the demon cat leader sensed that Mr. Harris's aura had grown stronger, so it decided to retreat."

"To them, we must be extremely unfamiliar as well."

"That's why the higher-level demon cat leader let its subordinates test us first."

"And the result of the test was that Mr. Harris could instantly kill a low-level demon cat, and seemed to get braver the more it fought, with its aura continuing to grow."

"Although they had the advantage in numbers, the demon cat leader didn't dare to gamble, didn't dare to risk injury for the sake of two prey."

"In the natural world, if a predator gets injured during a hunt, what awaits it is often a drop in status within the group, as well as deadly danger from natural enemies."

"Although these projection creatures are extremely aggressive, their hunting should still be for food, not just mindless attacks. They still retain some natural instincts, which means my initial judgment was correct—some battles don't have to be won outright. As long as you make your opponent wary and unwilling to fight, you can survive."

In an instant, Ryan Clark analyzed the situation just now. Although he wasn't sure if he was right, it seemed to be one of the few explanations for what had happened.

"In any case, Mr. Harris, let's get you treated first." Facing the once again meritorious Mr. Harris, Ryan Clark looked at its wounds, then at the hemostatic mushrooms he had gathered. "I don't know how effective this stuff is, but for now, it's all we can rely on."

Hopefully, this stuff works better than the medicine he had prepared.

"Woof." In response to Ryan Clark's call, Mr. Harris nodded.

"Woof?"

But in the next moment, as Mr. Harris walked toward Ryan Clark to receive treatment, it suddenly froze, looking blankly at Ryan Clark's neck.

There, at some point, a golden light had begun to shine.

It was Ryan Clark's family heirloom antler amulet pendant. At some unknown moment, it had started to emit a faint glow.