Chapter 120 - 1: Secret Dog Food - Learning from Beasts

Chapter 120: Chapter 1: Secret Dog Food - Learning from BeastsAlthough Xiao Jie had made plans to depart for Luoyang Town tomorrow, it was still early in the day, merely three in the afternoon. Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, he decided to finish all the tasks he needed to do in Newbie Village. In addition to preparing supplies for the journey tomorrow, he mainly wanted to learn all the skills he should. Previously, due to lack of money, he hadn’t learned many essential skills. But now, finally having money, there was no need to be so thrifty. He spent 1500 coins with the butcher to learn Anatomy. Now he could handle the corpses of wild beasts on his own. Then he spent another 1500 coins to learn Fishing. This way, he could obtain cooking ingredients and pet feed as much as possible by himself. There were plenty of other expenses in the future, so it made sense to save money wherever he could. The next skills he needed to learn couldn’t be acquired simply by spending money. Xiao Jie was prepared to make good use of the legendary talent "learning from beasts" by picking up a few skills from the animals in the village. He carefully studied how to use this talent. Although he could learn Combat Skills from wild beasts, not all skills were learnable. For example, Meiqiu’s three skills—Charge, Thick Skin, and Life Tenacity—the latter two were shown as unlearnable, with only the Charge skill being learnable. He found this understandable—Thick Skin and Life Tenacity were innate to wild boars, stemming from their physical capabilities, so naturally, they couldn’t be learned. Only the Charge skill, being action-based, could be replicated by humans. Glancing down at Meiqiu, the creature was busily foraging for food, the pig truly had an insatiable appetite, occasionally grunting to demand food, especially after discovering that Xiao Jie could understand its language, and since then, it never stopped clamoring to be fed. "Meiqiu, let’s make a deal, teach me your Charge skill." Meiqiu responded with a snort, "Humph, I won’t teach you. You’re a bad owner, never letting me eat my fill." Xiao Jie was somewhat speechless, thinking, ’You seriously have no concept of being full, do you...’ "Teach it to me, and I’ll make you something delicious." "Humph, won’t teach, won’t teach," Meiqiu said, then ignored Xiao Jie and started wandering around. [System Prompt: Meiqiu’s favorability toward you is too low to be willing to teach you the skill.] Xiao Jie looked at the Happiness value and Loyalty. Happiness value: 50, Loyalty: 53, this Loyalty is equivalent to Favorability. It took half a day just to increase Loyalty by 3 points? How much favorability is needed to learn the skill? And why hasn’t the Happiness value increased? Feeding it so many steamed buns did nothing. Xiao Jie found that making a pig happy was not an easy task. He even asked Meiqiu what it wanted to do; besides eating, it only wanted to sleep. However, he needed to fight monsters, so he couldn’t possibly leave the pig at home to sleep while he went monster-hunting alone. It seemed he had to use Secret Dog Food to boost the Happiness value after all, as a high Happiness value would enable Loyalty to increase faster. Lately, Xiao Jie frequently prepared food, making glutinous rice cakes, Roasted Meat, and Garden Roasted Cakes. His Cooking skill had reached entry-level 785/1000, only a bit more than two hundred Experience Points away from hitting Master Level. There’s no time like the present; he might as well get his Cooking skill up to Master Level. He made a cooking fire with dry firewood and looked in his bag. There was still plenty of Beast Meat left over from leveling up. He set aside five portions of each kind of meat—Wild Boar Meat, deer meat, and mutton—in a 1:1:1 ratio and started cooking the remaining meat into Roasted Meat. Meiqiu wandered around for a bit before returning, drooling at the scent of the Roasted Meat. "Humph, smells so good." Xiao Jie ignored it, thinking, ’Even if I feed you, you don’t increase in Loyalty.’ Soon he used up all the spare ingredients in his bag, and his Experience Points were at 836/1000. Well, time to make steamed buns. Steamed buns were probably the cheapest food to make, requiring only wheat, water, and a cooking fire. Water could be drawn for free from the well, and wheat cost three coins per portion. One portion of wheat plus one portion of water made one steamed bun, which sold for five coins each according to the recipe book. It looked like there was some profit to be had. However, now that Xiao Jie’s reputation had reached the worship level, the cost of steamed buns was reduced to three coins each for him, meaning he effectively didn’t make any money from making steamed buns now; he was only doing it for Cooking Experience Points. After sitting for half an hour, his bag quickly filled up with steamed buns. Luckily, the buns could be stacked, otherwise, they wouldn’t fit. If there really was no room left, Xiao Jie, adhering to the principle of not wasting, began feeding Meiqiu the buns. Finally, after feeding Meiqiu over twenty steamed buns, Xiao Jie’s body flashed with golden light. [System Prompt: Your Cooking skill has advanced from ’entry-level’ to ’Master’.] Now he could finally learn the recipe for Secret Dog Food. He clicked to learn the recipe, noting the ingredients—Wild Boar Meat, deer meat, mutton, Wild Chrysanthemum, and Ningshen Grass. The ingredients needed were truly numerous, making it the most complex food he had made so far, and the cooking process was much more complicated. He had to add the ingredients in sequence according to specific time points, and adding them too early or too late could lead to failure. The three types of meat were already prepared, and Wild Chrysanthemum and Ningshen Grass could be bought at the apothecary — of course, he could also pick them himself, but since Xiao Jie hadn’t learned gathering, he didn’t bother. Luckily, these two herbs were not expensive, with Wild Chrysanthemum costing seven Wen each and Ningshen Grass twelve Wen each. Xiao Jie prepared the five ingredients, clicked on Cooking, added the ingredients in order, and with a flash of white light in his hand, the creation was complete. [System Prompt: Cooking successful, obtained Secret Dog Food ×3. Your cooking experience has increased by 5 points, now at 5/2000 Master Level.] Fortunately, this stuff could yield three portions at a time. Xiao Jie breathed a sigh of relief. This way, the cost was still acceptable. He calculated that if he didn’t buy the ingredients at a discount price, the cost for one portion of Secret Dog Food would be around thirty Wen, and with a discount, the materials would cost around twenty Wen instead. Converted into RMB, it would be two to three hundred yuan per portion — definitely a luxury item. He made fifteen portions of Secret Dog Food in one go, looking at the fifteen fist-sized roasted meatballs in his backpack, adorned with ground herbs, they actually looked quite appetizing. He threw a piece of Secret Dog Food to Meiqiu, "Hmm, delicious! Delicious! Master, what is this, it’s too tasty!" Meiqiu excitedly started circling around Xiao Jie, its Happiness value instantly increased by 10 points, and its Loyalty also increased by two points. "Tastes good, huh? Eat more if it’s tasty, Master is so good to you. Just follow Master happily, alright?" As he spoke, he threw another Secret Dog Food meatball over. "Master is good, Master is too good to me!" Meiqiu was eating with oil dripping from its mouth, its Happiness value skyrocketing. Xiao Jie fed Meiqiu with five Secret Dog Foods in a row, and Meiqiu’s Happiness value shot up to 100, only then did he stop. With high Happiness value, Loyalty soared. Xiao Jie would ask Meiqiu if it could teach him a skill every time its Loyalty increased by five points. When Meiqiu’s Loyalty reached 80, it finally grunted and agreed. "Hmm, alright Master, I’ll teach you. Watch carefully." Then it aimed at a small tree not far away, scraped the ground with its hooves, and charged at it fiercely. Bang — crack! Like a black cannonball, it struck the small tree, snapping it clean at the thickness of a bowl’s rim. [System Prompt: Your Pet Meiqiu has passed on the Combat Skill — Wild Goat Charge to you.] Haha, at last, he had learned it. Xiao Jie couldn’t wait to open his Skill Bar to check it out. [Barbaric Charge (Combat Skill) Usage: Charge after Charging, dealing 22 points of blunt impact damage to the target ahead (the higher your head defense, the higher the damage), and receiving a speed damage bonus. Side effect: If the target successfully Blocks, has overly high Defense, or is too large in size, the user receives 22 points of reflection damage, and a dizzying effect for 1-3 seconds. Combat Skill Introduction: A Combat Skill imitating wild boar fighting, barbarically charging into the enemy to inflict damage and attempting to knock them down. However, force has a mutual effect, and when using this Combat Skill, remember to wear a sturdy helmet.] Damn, why are there side effects? Xiao Jie was a bit puzzled. Without side effects, this skill would actually be pretty good, but with them, it seemed somewhat less useful. If he got blocked, not only would he take damage, but he would also be dazed, which would be bad news. It seemed he would have to use it with caution in the future. But no matter, there weren’t only these animals in the village. Xiao Jie hurried to the sheep pen, where the old Shepherd had been changed. The new shepherd was a woman in her thirties, and Xiao Jie laughed as soon as he saw her, it seemed she was one he had brought into the village. The woman greeted Xiao Jie immediately, "Ah, Benefactor, what brings you to the sheep pen?" "Bring out the Head Goat, I have something to talk to it about." Without a word, the woman straightaway opened the pen and led the Head Goat out. Xiao Jie got straight to the point, "Goat, we are old acquaintances now, I have a favor to ask of you." The goat seemed to have a decent Favorability towards him, given that he had spent a good while Sheep Herding it. Sure enough, the Head Goat nodded, "Meh, human, I’ve said it before, I know nothing about any strange goats." Xiao Jie had previously inquired about strange goats from this one, but to no avail, as the Head Goat knew nothing at all. Xiao Jie quickly explained, "I’m not looking for any strange goat, I want to learn some skills from you. You know how to do the Mountain Climbing Step and Wild Goat Charge, don’t you? Teach me." "Meh, human, why do you need to learn these clumsy goat skills? They’re not that useful. If my Wild Goat Charge was really that powerful, why would we be locked up in a pen? Besides, humans and goats have different body structures, and the skills wouldn’t be as effective if learned by you." "Cut the crap, just teach me. What do you want in exchange?" "Meh, alright. Get me some white salty stones, and I’ll teach you." [System Prompt: Head Goat Big Horn has issued you the quest [The Desire of the Head Goat], help Head Goat Big Horn find "white salty stones". Quest Reward: Mountain Climbing Skill, Wild Goat Charge.]