Chapter 14

What does this mean? You like it? Ji Ran looked up at Erin with some confusion.

"What I mean is, I want these boots. Consider them as a magic item you made for me." After saying this, Erin didn’t even change the boots, but instead walked to the side, leaned against the wall, and continued to play with Hualuo.

"..." Ji Ran was speechless. These boots were supposed to be sold for money, but now... they were just confiscated?

Turning his head to look at the others, he found that Les and Baker were also staring in shock. However, after a while, Les seemed to remember something and could only shake his head with a bitter smile.

"Ji Ran... you know, the boots you made are too beautiful. And elves are creatures that particularly pursue beauty..."

As soon as Les said this, Ji Ran understood. He had read many fantasy works before and was familiar with the elves' pathological pursuit of art and beauty. He didn’t expect that the elves in this world were the same, stopping in their tracks when they saw something beautiful. As for him, he had chosen a relatively beautiful design from the various templates provided by the forging skill, and added a bit of his own understanding, which ultimately led to this result...

"Speaking of which, it's also your fault. For a magic armor, as long as the effect is good, it’s fine. Why did you make it so beautiful? And it’s clearly for a woman to use. How could Erin, an elf, not like it?" Les’s voice was very low, but when Ji Ran glanced at Erin, he noticed her pointed ears twitch, clearly indicating she had heard. However, Erin didn’t care and didn’t react to the comment.

Ji Ran smiled bitterly: "Uncle Les, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but in my hometown, there’s a saying that women’s money is the easiest to earn. I just wanted to sell this thing for more money, but who would have thought..."

Erin’s position in the team was a bit peculiar. She usually followed Les’s commands when hunting monsters and didn’t act too stubbornly. However, in other matters, she was very independent, and others found it hard to persuade her. Of course, she didn’t usually do anything excessive, so no one paid much attention to this.

But now... the first magic item Ji Ran had forged was taken by her, which was a bit...

"I’ll give up my share of the loot to exchange for these boots." At this moment, Erin spoke again. She didn’t look up but continued to play with Hualuo while looking down at the boots.

Once she said this, no one could say anything more. In fact, the materials Ji Ran used to forge the Boots of Swift Travel only exceeded one-sixth of the total, but not by much. As long as they had more loot in the future, Erin could use her share to offset the materials used for the boots. However, the price of magic items was not just based on the cost of materials...

"Here, this is for the labor cost." Erin suddenly stood up, pulled out a small branch from somewhere, which was emerald green and still had a small leaf on it, and handed it to Ji Ran.

Ji Ran was very surprised. The branch emitted a strong wood element aura, and although it had been cut off, it still seemed to have life. With his level 100 forging master’s perspective, he could see that this small branch was a very rare high-grade material! Even if it wasn’t at the gold level, it was at least level 50-60!

"This... is a bit too valuable..." Ji Ran wanted to refuse, but Erin stopped him.

"It’s useless to me, but it would be different in the hands of an alchemist, especially one with such unique alchemy skills... or do you think the boots I like are not worth it?"

What? You don’t want it? Are you looking down on my taste? Faced with this attitude, even Ji Ran had to back down...

"Ha ha, Ji Ran, look, I also want to use my share of the loot to exchange for a real magic item. What do you think? I won’t skimp on the labor cost, but I’m a bit poor, so you’ll have to wait." Beside him, Baker’s eyes twinkled, and he suddenly came over with a smile.

Ji Ran glanced at him, feeling both angry and amused, and his face naturally showed a helpless expression.

"This magic item isn’t something I can just forge whenever I want. The materials need to be properly matched. The remaining materials can’t be used to make another one like this..."

Ji Ran was telling the truth. The practice items he made were fine, as they could be made with a few not-so-rare materials. But real magic items required properly matched materials. Otherwise, if you just threw things together, you might end up with something with strange properties.

The forging skill in the game had this characteristic. It would provide you with a basic template, and as long as you followed it without making mistakes, you would definitely get a qualified magic item, but the attributes would be similar, just with different numerical values. If players used their own understanding and different materials, they might create magic items with special functions. Of course, if the materials were not properly matched, creating bizarre items was also common.

Ji Ran’s level 100 forging skill had not only brought him proficiency but also a wealth of experience. In the later stages, he could even customize the attributes of magic items, even if he couldn’t fully satisfy the requirements, he could meet most of them. For a low-level magic item, if he couldn’t control the attributes, it would be a joke.

But to create good attributes, you needed the right materials. The remaining materials were hard to match to create an outstanding magic item.

"No problem! Our hunt isn’t over yet! When the time comes, you can look at my attributes and make one for me. It doesn’t have to be too good, just like Erin’s boots. Oh, and don’t make it too fancy, we’re men, after all, hehe..." Although Ji Ran mentioned the difficulty, Baker didn’t give up but directly latched onto his words.

"Alright, if I have the right materials in the future, I’ll make one for you. But don’t get your hopes up too high, after all, we can’t predict what kind of monsters we’ll hunt in the future..." Reluctantly, Ji Ran agreed.

"Ji Ran, since you’re making one for Baker, can you make one for me too? I have the same requirements as Baker, just similar. The labor cost is the same, and I’ll work hard to earn money for you in the future." Unexpectedly, Ban spoke up right after Ji Ran agreed to Baker.

"Ji Ran, I... I..." Lydia looked at Ji Ran with big eyes.

"Hehe, kid, you really have some skills. But since you’re making them for everyone, I can’t be an exception, right?" Finally, even Uncle Les joined in with a thick face...

Ji Ran was at a loss. If this continued, wouldn’t the practice items he made before be useless? Well, they weren’t completely useless; at least they could be sold for some money. But whether he could gather the right materials in the future was uncertain...

But no matter what, the matter was settled. The others were full of anticipation, and only Erin had a slight smile on her lips. After all, she had taken the first piece of work... what the others did had nothing to do with her.

Thus, the next month was another hunting life.

During this month, the group’s harvest was not small. The Blue Pine Forest was a place where monsters gathered, although it wasn’t a particularly large forest, it was said that there were gold-level monsters of level 7 or higher in the deepest part. Those places were claimed by intelligent monsters similar to humans, and adventurers who dared to enter easily would die without anyone to avenge them.

Of course, there were gold-level strong humans, but strong beings rarely directly fought each other. After all, the impact of a battle between two gold-level beings was too great. In the absence of significant enmity, gold-level beings would try to coexist peacefully and avoid unnecessary conflict.

Therefore, those places were also off-limits to adventurers. Most adventurers could only hunt in the outer areas.

Les’s group planned to hunt only in the outer areas of the level 4 monster zone. After all, they were here to make money, not to risk their lives in dangerous places. Losing their lives or even being severely injured would be a loss.

After staying in Ji Ran’s small nest for more than half a month, the group finally moved to a new temporary base. Although that place was a convergence point for level 2 and 3 monsters, it was still dominated by level 2 monsters. To get better prey, they needed to go deeper into the forest.

During this period, the group hunted many more monsters. Although level 3 monsters were slightly stronger, the group’s current strength was sufficient to handle them. With Ji Ran’s various dishes, the group was always in high spirits and full of energy, making their battles even more effective.

The group’s strength also improved significantly during this time. Of course, it wasn’t as much as before. For example, Baker and Ban only advanced one level, and Erin and Les didn’t advance at all. Even Lydia only advanced two levels.

As for Ji Ran himself, he only advanced two levels and then stopped. Although monsters still provided experience, it wasn’t as much as before. Even in the game, leveling up by just killing monsters was a very arduous task... most of the time, players relied on experience from quests to level up.

When he crossed over, he brought the game skills, but apparently not the game’s quest system... so, the rapid early leveling method in the game would not apply to him.

But even so, the others were quite satisfied. Although they didn’t level up, their various attributes improved significantly! Strength, agility, stamina, mental power... these days, Ji Ran was no longer just making one dish per meal but was making different dishes for each person to improve the attributes that would benefit them the most. Although it didn’t directly enhance their internal martial arts or magic power, the group’s actual strength had increased significantly.

In this world, the main method to improve strength was through cultivation. Practical combat, although effective, was mainly for consolidating the results of cultivation. The food provided by Ji Ran greatly enhanced the efficiency of cultivation or practical combat—this was already a significant benefit.

Actually, in the ordinary sense of cultivation in this world, advancing one level in a month—of course, not this world’s level, but the game’s level—was already considered a god-like speed. Ordinary practitioners in this world might take years to reach level 1, and the time to advance from level 1 to level 2 and from level 2 to level 3 would be even longer... as for the level 3 to level 4 barrier, countless people were stuck there for their entire lives.

According to the world’s standards, Les’s group didn’t truly level up, but they could feel the improvement in their strength. Others might not notice, but they knew the speed of their strength growth. Compared to their previous hard training, it was much faster. Naturally, they placed even more importance on Ji Ran.

Additionally, during this month, Ji Ran only managed to create one true magic item.

There was no way around it; his luck wasn’t good. Although they killed many monsters and collected many materials, the attributes of these materials were somewhat conflicting, making it difficult to create a magic item. Although he could force them together, the attributes would be usable, but it would be a waste of materials.

Finally, after killing a Bladeback Lizard, he used the hard bone on its back, which was naturally like a blade, as the main material and forged a two-handed greatsword.

Yes, the kind of weapon Uncle Les used. When Ji Ran forged this two-handed greatsword, Les and the others were so stunned that their eyes almost fell out.

A magic weapon! The strongest product of magic items!