Chapter Eleven Lydia

  "Hey, now you're the strongest one here, it's only right that you take on a bit more responsibility!" Beck said with a grin, coming over to pat Jian Ran's shoulder.

  "Come on, my level is a bit lower than yours, okay? Luckily I have Lydia with me, or else I'd be a burden!"

  Actually, what Ji Ran said is correct. He inherited the game's skills, one of which is Appraisal Technique. Using Appraisal Technique to observe other players' monsters and NPCs can reveal their levels - as long as the difference between their level and his own isn't too great.

  At his current level of appraisal, he can see the levels of people within fifteen levels above himself. So he could tell that Beck and Ban's levels converted to game levels were thirty, and Aileen was thirty-three. As for Uncle Lays, it was just a question mark.

  Ji Ran's current level is 22nd. Lydia, who was pulled by him as a little partner, has just reached level 20.

  Recently, Ji Ran found that his level growth rate had slowed down. The experience provided by ordinary beasts was negligible, and only demon beasts could provide a decent amount of experience. Although cooking and equipment refinement could also provide some experience, the amount was limited. As for eating, it was almost useless.

  But even so, these ten or more days have allowed him to rise by four levels. In fact, this speed is already godly compared to others. Of course, if they knew that Ji Ran was still at level zero less than a month ago, they would be shocked to the point of their jaws dropping to the ground...

  Actually, over the past few days, everyone's strength has increased. The greatest contributor is naturally the various dishes made by Ji Ran. The various gain effects provided by these dishes greatly increased their training efficiency, and as a result, their strength grew rapidly. Of course, this growth is more pronounced for those with lower strength, such as Lydia, who was initially only a little over level one, equivalent to around level 14 or 15 in the game. As a result, she has now leveled up even more than Ji Ran!

  In this world, every level upgrade is quite difficult. Although it's not like Bronze to Silver or Silver to Gold with a huge hurdle, each level upgrade requires a breakthrough. If the breakthrough fails, you may be stuck at this level for life.

  But this hurdle, for Ji Ran, is equivalent to nothing. Although the 39th and 40th levels, as well as the 69th and 70th levels, also require breakthroughs, but the usual ten-level upgrade has no special place, it's just that when experience is gained, it breaks through naturally. Compared to this, he occupies a significant advantage over the native inhabitants of this world.

  And this advantage of his seems to be contagious.

  Ban and Beck have also been stuck at the third-tier gate for a while, and this time they came out to adventure with the intention of breaking through the battle. Unexpectedly, the battle didn't break through, but after eating several meals from Ji Ran, they suddenly broke through! This made the two people extremely happy, and even more so, they regarded Ji Ran as a treasure.

  But what was most astonishing was Lydia.

  Among the crowd, no one was a law-abiding professional, so no one could point out Lydia's practice. And her previous teacher only taught her some basics, allowing her to have the ability to upgrade to level 1. In fact, her previous idea was to work hard to upgrade to level 2 after entering the academy. At her age, it would be almost enough to pass the exam with level 1 strength. Unexpectedly, after eating a few meals from Ji Ran and getting a alchemy product made by Ji Ran for her, she actually broke through to level 2!

  This kind of power boost is a surprise for anyone. Lydia also knows the reason for the sudden surge in strength, and now she's looking at Ji Ran with stars in her eyes - don't get me wrong, it's not that she has a crush on him, but rather she's hoping he can cook more dishes that increase spiritual energy...

  Of course, she also knows that her strength can't grow as quickly as before. To say nothing of others, she herself doesn't know how to proceed after the second level... Without inheritance, there's no way to go further.

  But anyway, hope is now in front of us - or rather, on that person's body.

  "Can this pangolin's meat be eaten too?" Beck picked up the pangolin's corpse. The useful parts of the pangolin, apart from the magic crystal, were its scales. Although some were damaged in battle, most were still intact and could fetch a good price.

  "No problem, but I'm afraid it's not enough to eat. It's almost noon, if you don't want to go hunting again, let's take out some dried beef to eat." Ji Ran looked at the pangolin cat.

  A few days ago, a group of people encountered a third-level magical beast - the Unicorneed Bull. This thing had thick skin and flesh, with boundless strength, and it took quite some effort to kill it. However, with great effort comes great reward, as this beast yielded around 300-400 kilograms of meat!

  So much meat, one meal is definitely not enough to finish. The current weather is also relatively hot, and it can't be stored at all. So in the end, Ji Ran thought of a way to make these beef into dried beef.

  He made a delicious potato beef stew for everyone and turned the remaining meat into beef jerky within a day.

  In fact, under the condition of having nothing, it is impossible to make beef jerky in one day. However, Ji Ran used his cooking skills in the game and utilized some wild seasonings and salt he had collected to barely manage to make the beef jerky.

  These beef jerky have also become cooking products, with additional effects. Eating these beef jerky can speed up the recovery of injuries. Of course, this beef jerky is not an alchemy medicine, it's impossible to recover from injuries instantly, but it's enough to shorten the recovery time of injuries that would normally take several days or even tens of days to just one day.

  After making this beef jerky, Ji Ran explained its effects to everyone. As a result, Lais and his group immediately treated these beef jerky as treasures, putting them all in their magic pockets, and wouldn't easily take them out to eat. In their words, this beef jerky might just save someone's life at a critical moment!

  Outdoor adventures, the most feared are getting sick and injured. To solve these two problems, it usually requires a potion made by an alchemist. However, that kind of potion is too expensive, not many adventurers can afford to carry it with them all the time. Now, this beef jerky has almost solved the problem of injury!

  Got injured? Eat a piece of beef jerky and you can recover your combat strength in no time. Is there any food more suitable for adventurers than this?

  Well... of course there is, but that requires future efforts. At least for now, the conditions are not ripe, and even a skilled housewife can't cook without rice.

  When Ji Ran said he wanted to eat beef jerky, Lais was the first to disagree: "No way! That thing has so many uses, how can it just be used to fill our stomachs? No problem, let's go hunt a couple of small animals, that'll be enough to eat! If all else fails, we can even dig up some potatoes or something!"

  Having heard Lais' words, Ji Ran could only shake his head and sigh. These people really do treat dried beef as a treasure... Never mind, since that's the case, I'll just have to put in more effort then.

  It's a good thing that this world is like the game world, where you can easily dig up all sorts of wild vegetables and fruits in the wilderness. Otherwise, he would be able to make even fewer dishes.

  Hunting ordinary beasts isn't a troublesome matter, if all else fails there are still several mountain cats on that side, although the meat of this thing doesn't taste very good - but mixed with the meat of the pangolin cat it's not inedible either. Lays and the others went hunting, so Ji Ran helped to clean up the pangolin cat.

  In the immortal game "Xian Xia Xiang Yang", Ji Ran also learned a few gathering skills. No way, refining equipment requires mining, cooking requires meat and vegetables. Learning gathering skills by yourself can be self-sufficient and save a lot of cost. To deal with the corpse of the armored mountain cat, of course, you have to take out your culinary skills.

  He pulled out the dagger that Lays had given him and began to skin the pangolin. It wasn't a particularly difficult task, with his culinary skills, he seemed to instinctively know where to make the most efficient cuts. As he dissected the pangolin's body, he managed not to damage any of the scales... Without much effort, the pangolin was cleaned up.

  "Ji Ran brother, your skills are so proficient...” Lydia didn't go hunting, but instead stayed by Ji Ran's side to help. For example, collecting some firewood and fetching water. She also grew up in the mountain village, so this kind of work wasn't tiring for her.

  "Hehe, the more you do it, the more skilled you become. I used to do this a lot back in my hometown." Ji Ran said as he cut the meat of the Puma into blocks, looking up at Lydia.

  To be honest, Lydia is still young now, but she's gradually showing a bit of beauty. However, she should be due to malnutrition, her figure is slender and doesn't seem to have developed yet. Plus that short hair that reaches her ears, gives people a slightly neutral feeling. But Ji Yan dares to bet, as long as she dresses up a bit, this Lydia will not be much worse than those beautiful girl idols on his original earth... of course, Western ones.

  Lydia had already collected enough firewood and was now squatting beside Ji Ran with her hands under her chin: "Brother Ji Ran is really amazing, he understands everything. I'm not good at anything, my magic isn't even learned well, and I don't have any other special skills..." As she spoke, a gloomy expression appeared on her face.

  Just by looking at her expression, you can roughly guess what she's thinking in her heart. After all, when his parents had just passed away, the confusion in his heart was probably more than hers.

  "Don't worry, Lydia. You see, you have mastered the power of magic, which is something that none of us can do. Everyone has their own strengths, there's no need to compare your weaknesses with others. To reach level two without any inheritance, this is something that most magicians can't even achieve. With such a strong talent, what's there to worry about?"

  To be honest, Ji Yan wasn't particularly good at comforting others as a kind-hearted older sister, but having gone through similar experiences herself and once having the same "can I really keep going" feeling of hopelessness towards the future, she could deeply understand Lydia's current state of mind and manage to say some comforting words.

  "But I just have some magical talent, and there's no way to compare with you. Look, your swordsmanship is so great, you can make strange dishes, and you can even craft magic tools... As for me, besides magic, I'm useless at everything else..." Although she had slightly regained her spirits, Lydia still lacked confidence. She hung her head low, using her hand to fiddle with the grass leaves under her feet.

  "...How to say it, this is completely because I've been learning since I was a kid." Ji Ran said this with some embarrassment, and in total, he had only spent three years playing the game.

  "People can't choose their birth, of course. Don't resent your parents, they gave you life. But after that, it's up to you to grasp your own destiny. You felt suffocated living in a small mountain village, so you left. Along the way, nothing bad happened and you even met Uncle Lays and his family, this is your good fortune. Seize this opportunity and change your own fate, this is what you should be thinking about. Moreover, everyone has various talents, the difference lies in whether they can find a place to bring out their talents. You say, your talent for free combination magic, isn't it exceptional? Believe me, as long as you're willing to work hard, you'll definitely become a powerful magician!"

  After racking his brains, Ji Yan finally managed to come up with something to say. Actually, he was quite eloquent, after all, he had been struggling in society for so many years. It's just that this was the first time he played this role, so he still needed to think carefully before speaking these words.

  And the effect of these words is also immediate.

  "Really?" Lydia's eyes were already shining with light.

  "Really!" Ji Ran nodded heavily, then looked at Lydia with a sincere gaze. At this time, there couldn't be any sign of wavering, or it would hurt Lydia too much.

  "......Thank you, Brother Ji Ran." The little girl and Ji Ran looked at each other for a while, then suddenly lowered her head. But from Ji Ran's side, the little girl's face turned red.