Chapter 8

The next morning, everyone woke up full of energy. The effects of the big pot of stewed meat had not yet worn off, and their physical strength was incredibly abundant. With abundant physical strength, their spirits naturally improved as well.

Now, it was time to start hunting.

Last night, Ji Ran had a rough understanding of what these adventurers were all about. This world was much like the medieval Europe of his former life, with various countries standing side by side, occasionally engaging in small-scale wars. However, on the whole, the surface was relatively peaceful, and it wasn't to the point where people were struggling to survive.

What was different from the medieval period was that magic and alchemy were real. Not only that, but this world also had races like elves, dwarves, and orcs. Although humans were considered the most powerful race on this Alpha continent, they did not have an overwhelming advantage.

The relationships between the various races were also quite complex and could not be simply summarized as allies or enemies. Of course, at least for now, there were no large-scale wars between the races, but there was no shortage of accumulated hatred, and it was normal for there to be varying degrees of closeness and distance.

In this world, while it wasn't exactly a place where the strong ruled and power was supreme, becoming a strong person was the deepest desire of anyone with talent. By becoming strong, one could naturally become a person above others. One could stand at a higher place through their own strength.

This world had many dangers that did not exist in the original world. For example, monsters, which were a disaster for ordinary people. Ordinary people who had not become professionals would almost certainly die if they encountered a monster.

Moreover, this world had powerful monsters that could challenge armies. Once such a monster appeared in a human area, there would inevitably be strong humans who would go to subdue it. Therefore, the attitude of the various countries towards strong people was that more was always better. Once one's strength reached a certain level, getting a position or even a title in the country was not a difficult thing.

Of course, in one night, Ji Ran couldn't understand too much, only the general idea. But at least he knew that it was similar to the game, and he needed to level up! After leveling up, he could live better in this world!

He didn't want to be like those ordinary people who would be at a loss and at the mercy of others when they encountered strong people or monsters. He wanted to control his own destiny!

Lai Si and the others came here to hunt some monsters to earn money. The adventurer teams in this world mostly did such things. Monsters were almost inexhaustible, and the number of monsters killed by adventurers each year also contributed to human safety.

The monsters in this world were like the leaders of ordinary beasts. In a large enough group of beasts, there would always be at least one monster. Of course, very powerful monsters would also act alone, but in any case, the type of beast group from which the monster came could always be found.

When adventurers killed monsters, they could obtain materials from the monsters' bodies, which were enough to sustain their lives. If they were lucky and hunted a rare monster, they might even make a small fortune. Of course, not everyone was lucky, and most adventurers struggled to make ends meet. Those with particularly bad luck would naturally lose their lives in battle.

Becoming an adventurer offered the hope of increasing one's strength, but it also carried the risk of death. Therefore, adventurers were still a minority compared to ordinary people in this world. Of course, this was also due to factors such as talent and opportunity, and not everyone who wanted to become an adventurer could do so.

It had to be said that in this team, the little girl Lydia was a lucky one. She lived in a remote small village, and although she had magical talent, it was unknown to others. If it weren't for a wandering mage passing by, her fate would have been the same as the others in the small village, living a life of barely making ends meet, marrying an ordinary man, and living out her life.

However, although the wandering mage recognized Lydia's potential, he himself had no ability to teach her—he was only a third-level mage and a self-taught one at that. After teaching her some basics, he advised Lydia to go to the famous commercial city of Baise and take the exam to enter the famous Free Academy, the Azure Wind Academy.

Then, the wandering mage continued his wandering. Lydia, with the desire to become a mage, went through great hardships to reach Baise, only to find out that the tuition required to enter the Azure Wind Academy was far beyond her means!

With no other options, Lydia was fortunate to be picked up by Lai Si and his group. It just so happened that Lai Si's small adventurer team was short of a mage, so they took Lydia along and started adventuring together. One adventure might not be enough to gather the tuition, but they could do it multiple times! After all, the academy had no strict age requirements, as long as one was under twenty.

"An academy? What does this academy teach?" As soon as he heard about the academy, Ji Ran became interested. He was completely clueless in this world and relied entirely on Lai Si and the others. He didn't know when he would become familiar with this world. Moreover, many things were not something Lai Si and the others could teach him, such as the history, geography, culture, and religion of the world.

To survive well in this world, he naturally needed to understand more.

"Do you have an interest in the academy too? Hmm... Your age is no problem, you look only a few years older than Lydia, probably around seventeen or eighteen? The exam... with your sword skills, passing shouldn't be too difficult. So your problem is the same as Lydia's, the tuition." Lai Si rubbed his chin and looked at Ji Ran.

"Tuition? How much?" Ji Ran had no concept of money in this world.

"Admission is one hundred gold coins. After that, the money is easier to talk about. If you really have no money, you can do various tasks for the academy to offset the tuition. As long as you're not too weak or too lazy, you can always gather enough. Of course, the money earned from doing tasks for the academy is much less than outside, but the advantage is that you won't lack for suitable tasks." Lai Si seemed quite familiar with the rules of the so-called Azure Wind Academy.

"I see... Then we need to work hard now." Ji Ran made up his mind. First, he needed to enter the academy and learn the basics of this world! This world was too dangerous, and he needed to know how to avoid danger and seek safety. Knowing where to go and where not to go, what to provoke and what not to provoke, was a necessary element to ensure he could survive and become strong.

Moreover, if he wanted to leverage his strengths, he needed to have a good understanding of geography and other knowledge...

In short, Ji Ran had set a short-term goal. Earn one hundred gold coins and go to school! It was a bit of a shame that he had become a few years younger after his reincarnation; otherwise, his age would have been over the limit...

But it was too early to think about that now. The most important thing was to have money!

One hundred gold coins, which didn't seem like much, but after becoming familiar with the currency exchange and purchasing power of this world, Ji Ran couldn't help but take a deep breath.

In this world, currency was exchanged on a hundred-to-one basis. One hundred copper coins equaled one silver coin, and one hundred silver coins equaled one gold coin. The purchasing power of one copper coin was roughly equivalent to fifty cents in the original world, enough to buy a piece of black bread to fill one's stomach.

So, one gold coin was equivalent to five thousand yuan! One hundred gold coins was five hundred thousand yuan!

The tuition for one year of school was five hundred thousand! The cost of education in this world was really too high!

Although comparing the productivity of this world to the currency of his original world wasn't that simple, for an ordinary family, one hundred gold coins was definitely an unimaginable amount of money.

One gold coin was enough to ensure a year of food and clothing for an ordinary family. Most families might not be able to save up one hundred gold coins in their entire lives.

This was an unbearable number for Lydia's parents in that small village. That's why she joined the adventurer team, hoping to earn the one hundred gold coins on her own.

In fact, for adventurers, one hundred gold coins was not a small amount. Although ordinary adventurers could earn a lot of money, they spent even more. After all, to increase their strength, they needed a lot of resources. Saving up one hundred gold coins usually meant they had something they really wanted and were saving every penny.

Of course, if they had a stroke of luck and became rich overnight, it would be simple. But such opportunities were rare, and most adventurers struggled to increase their strength.

One hundred gold coins was now the biggest challenge facing Lydia... and Ji Ran.

"But with Ji Ran, I think it won't be so difficult for us to gather the tuition for both of you." Lai Si smiled when they discussed this topic.

The others were a bit puzzled. Why? Could increasing the combat strength of one person significantly increase the harvest?

"Ji Ran's magic items! Think about it, these magic items are made from the extra materials from monsters that are almost worthless. And they have good power, with a low requirement for control. Although they have a limited number of uses and a short lifespan, who cares? Low-level magic items are like that anyway!"

When these words were spoken, everyone immediately understood.

Ji Ran's wolf-tooth bracelet had already been examined and studied by everyone. Not only the passive effects, but the active effects had also been triggered. Then, everyone found that although this thing wasn't a high-end magic item, it was even more shocking than high-end products!

Its effects were not inferior to low-end alchemical products, and the active effect could be used as a surprise tactic. The mana or spirit energy required to activate this effect was not high, and the control difficulty was also very low!

Compared to this, the low durability and other issues were not really problems.

Most importantly, the cost of this thing was low! It almost required no cost! In this way, even with significant drawbacks, it was enough to make people ignore them!

Not many people could afford magic items, at least for adventurers of their level, most of the magic items they had were obtained during adventures and might not even be suitable for them. The things Ji Ran made were exactly what adventurers desperately needed, and almost everyone could use them. Would there be no market for them?

In this way, one hundred gold coins for tuition was not a big problem!

Thus, the group's motivation to fight became even stronger.