Chapter 8: Goal - Going to School?

  The next day, everyone got up with a full spirit. The effect of the big pot stewing meat had not passed yet, and their physical strength was naturally overflowing. With abundant physical strength, their spirits naturally improved as well.

  Now it's time for hunting.

  Yesterday evening, Ji Ran had already roughly understood what this adventurer was all about. This world was like the Western Middle Ages of his previous life on Earth, with various countries standing side by side and occasionally breaking out in small-scale wars. However, overall it seemed peaceful on the surface, not to the point where people were struggling to survive.

  Unlike the Middle Ages, magic and alchemy are real. Moreover, this world has elves, dwarves, beastmen and other humanoid races. Humans may be considered the strongest race on the Alfa continent, but they do not have an overwhelming advantage.

  The relationship between different races is also quite complicated and cannot be summarized simply as allies or enemies. Of course, at least for now, there are no large-scale wars between the various races, but there is no shortage of accumulated hatred from the past, and having varying degrees of closeness is normal.

  In this world, although it can't be said that the strong are respected and power is supreme, becoming a strong person is the deepest desire of everyone with talent. Becoming a strong person naturally allows one to become a superior being. One can rely on their own strength to stand in a higher place.

  This world has many dangers that the original world did not have. For example, magical beasts and the like are simply disasters for ordinary people. Ordinary people who have not become professionals encounter magical beasts and it is almost a dead end.

  Moreover, in this world there are powerful magical beasts that can withstand military forces. Once such a beast appears in human territory, it is inevitable that a strong human will emerge to defeat it. Therefore, the attitude of various countries towards the strong is also more beneficial, and when their strength reaches a certain level, it is not difficult for them to obtain positions or even titles within the country.

  Of course, in just one night, Ji Ran couldn't understand too much and could only get a general idea. However, at least he knew that this was similar to the game, where you had to level up! After leveling up, he would be able to live better in this world!

  Don't want to be like those ordinary people who are at a loss when they encounter strong enemies or monsters, and can only wait to be slaughtered. I must take control of my own destiny!

  Lyle and his companions came here to hunt some magical beasts in exchange for money. Most adventurer teams in this world do such things. Magical beasts are almost indestructible, and the number of them killed by adventurers each year is also a contribution to human safety.

  In this world, magical beasts are like the leaders of ordinary wild beasts. A beast group, as long as it is large enough, will always produce at least one magical beast. Of course, extremely powerful magical beasts may wander alone, but in any case, you can always find the type of beast group that produced this magical beast.

  Adventurers can kill monsters and obtain materials from their bodies, which is enough to sustain their lives. And if they're lucky, they might even make a small fortune by hunting down rare monsters. Of course, not everyone has good luck, and most adventurers are still struggling to make ends meet. Those with particularly bad luck naturally lose their lives in battle.

  Becoming an adventurer, although there is hope for improvement, also carries the danger of death. Therefore, adventurers in this world are still a minority compared to ordinary people. Of course, there are also reasons such as talent and opportunity, it's not that anyone who wants to become an adventurer can become one.

  It has to be said that among this group, little Lydia is a lucky one. She lives in a remote mountain village, with magical talent but unknown to others. If it weren't for a wandering magician passing by, her fate would probably be the same as that of other villagers, living a life barely scraping by, marrying an ordinary man and spending the rest of her life like this.

  However, the wandering mage who discovered Lydia's talent didn't have much ability to teach her - he was only a third-rate mage himself and a wild card at that. So after teaching her some basics, he pointed Lydia towards the famous commercial city of Pers, to take an exam and try out for the famous Free Academy - Sky Blue Wind Academy.

  Then, the wandering mage continued to wander. Meanwhile, Lydia, who had been holding onto her dream of becoming a magician, finally arrived in Perth after much hardship, only to find out that the tuition fees required to enter the Azure Wind Academy were far beyond what she could afford!

  Desperate Lydia was luckily picked up by Lays and his party. As it happened, their adventure team was short of a magician, so they took Lydia along with them to go on adventures together. The gains from one adventure may not be enough to cover the tuition fees, but if not, they can just do several more! Anyway, the academy didn't have too strict age requirements for admission, as long as you're under 20 years old.

  "What's an academy? What do they teach there?" As soon as he heard the word "academy", Ji Ran's interest was piqued. He himself was still in the dark about this world, relying on Lais and others to bring him up to speed, and didn't know when he would be able to get familiar with it. Moreover, many things were not something that Lais and others could teach him... such as the history, geography, culture, religion of the world.

  To survive well in this world, it is naturally necessary to understand more.

  "What, you're also interested in the academy? Hmm... your age isn't a problem, looks like you're only two or three years older than Lydia, probably seventeen or eighteen. The exam... with your sword skills, passing shouldn't be difficult either. So your problem is the same as Lydia's, tuition." Lays stroked his chin, looking at Ji Ran.

  "Tuition? How much money?" The concept of money in this world was still unfamiliar to Ji Yan.

  "It costs 100 gold coins to enroll. Afterwards, the money is easy to come by; if you really don't have any, you can do various tasks for the academy to make up for the tuition. As long as you're not too weak or too lazy, it's always possible to scrape together enough. Of course, the money earned from doing tasks for the academy is much less than what you'd get outside, but the advantage is that you don't have to worry about finding suitable tasks to do." Lays seemed quite familiar with this so-called Sky Blue Wind Academy's rules.

  "Alright... then we should make a good effort now." Ji Ran made up his mind. First, he would enter the school and learn some basic knowledge about this world! This world was too dangerous, and one had to know how to avoid disaster in order to survive. Knowing where to go and where not to go, what could be provoked and what couldn't, was one of the necessary elements for ensuring that one could stay alive and become a strong person.

  Moreover, if you want to play to your strengths, then you must have a considerable understanding of geographical knowledge...

  In short, Ji Ran has now set a short-term goal. Earn enough 100 gold coins and go to school! It's fortunate that after crossing over, he became slightly younger by a few years; otherwise, at his age, he would truly be considered overage...

  But now it's still too early to say these things, the most important thing is to have money!

  One hundred gold coins may not seem like a lot, 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 is exchanged in a hundred-based system. One hundred copper coins equal one silver coin, and one hundred silver coins equal one gold coin. And the purchasing power of one copper coin is roughly equivalent to fifty cents in the original world, enough to buy a piece of black bread to fill your stomach.

  This calculation shows that one gold coin is equivalent to 5,000 yuan! One hundred gold coins would be 5 million!

  The tuition for the last semester was 500,000! The cost of education in this world is too high!

  Although it's not that simple to compare the currency with the original world based on this world's productivity, in any case, for an ordinary family, one hundred gold coins are absolutely a huge sum of money they can't even imagine.

  One gold coin is enough to make an ordinary family worry-free for a year. Most families may not be able to save up one hundred gold coins in their lifetime.

  That's an unbearable amount for the parents in that small village where Lydia is from. That's why she joined the adventurer team, wanting to earn enough money on her own to pay back this hundred gold coins.

  In fact, for adventurers, one hundred gold coins are not a small number. Ordinary adventurers can earn a lot of money, but they spend even more. After all, in order to increase their strength, the resources needed are too many. Being able to save up one hundred gold coins, most likely is because there's something they really want to get, and that's why they gritted their teeth and saved up.

  Of course, if there's a windfall or overnight wealth, that would be simple. But adventurers who have such opportunities are one in ten thousand, and most adventurers struggle to increase their own strength.

  One hundred gold coins, now it seems, is the biggest problem in front of Lydia... Of course, also for Ji Ran.

  "But with Ji Ran, I think we want to make up for the two of your tuition fees, it shouldn't be that difficult." Lais smiled when talking about this topic.

  Others were somewhat puzzled, why? Is it that increasing a person's combat power can greatly increase their gains?

  "What a wonderful magical tool made by Ji Ran! Think about it, this magical tool is made from the extra materials on the demon beasts that are almost worthless and can't be sold for a good price. And its power is not bad, with a relatively low requirement of control. Although there's a limit to how many times you can use it, and its lifespan might be a bit short, who cares? Low-level magical tools are like this anyway!"

  As soon as these words were spoken, everyone suddenly realized.

  That magnificent wolf-toothed handcuff has already been observed and studied by the crowd. Not only did its passive effect, but also its active effect was triggered at the same time. Then, the crowd found that this thing, although it can't be considered a high-end magic tool, is even more shocking than high-end products!

  Its effect is no less than that of low-end alchemy products, and the proactive activation effect can even be used as a means to achieve a surprise victory. The magic or aura consumed by activating this effect is not high, and the control difficulty is also relatively low!

  Compared with it, problems like low durability are simply no problem at all.

  The most important thing is that this thing is cheap! It almost doesn't require any cost! In this way, even if there are some disadvantages, it's enough to make people ignore them!

  Not many people can afford to buy magical tools, at least for adventurers of this level, many of the magical tools they have are obtained during the adventure process and may not be suitable for themselves. The things Ji Ran made were exactly what adventurers urgently needed, almost everyone could use them, wouldn't there be a market for them?

  In this way, the tuition fee of 100 gold coins is really not a big problem!

  Then, the momentum of the people's fight became even stronger.