Chapter 56 - 56 53 Lunchtime

56: Chapter 53 Lunchtime 56: Chapter 53 Lunchtime Although the loot from the treasure chest was somewhat mediocre, Xiao Jie was still quite satisfied with the haul. At least these junk equipments could be sold for some copper coins, and he had also obtained so many copper coins. Besides, there’s still that unidentified stone seal, who knows, it might be something good. “Feng, let’s keep going and take care of the last demon, too. I have a feeling that the key to opening the Tian Family Mansion lies with this Tian Daniu.” Of the three demons, only one remained undefeated, and logically, it should be their turn now. But Xiao Jie shook his head, “It’s noon already, let’s go back for lunch first, tidy up the inventory, and also, I’ve run out of arrows and need to buy some more.” In truth, there were still about a dozen, found on Bone Chomper. The game’s arrow retrieval mechanism was a mystery to Xiao Jie; he had shot the giant rat with forty arrows, most of which hit the target, yet when looting the corpse, he only recovered thirteen arrows and urgently needed to replenish them. He had noticed that fighting little monsters wasn’t too bad, but for bigger ones, it was safer to use bow and arrow. The two of them made their way back to the village just in time for lunch. Casually whipping up a pack of instant noodles, Xiao Jie cleaned out his backpack while waiting for the noodles to cook. He sold all the junk equipments in the bag first, of course, after sorting them out since his own equipments weren’t much better and there was still room for upgrades. In the end, he managed to assemble a full set of White Board Equipment. Head: Old Man Bamboo Hat. Body: leather armor. Hands: Cotton Gloves. Legs: farmer’s long pants. Feet: Mountain Cat Boots (blue). Back: Ranger Cloak. Weapon: Yanling Saber, Iron Inlaid Shield, Hunting Bow, Rough Feathered Arrows. With this set of equipment on, he looked quite presentable. All eight pieces of junk equipment sold for a total of 345 cents. Six rat skins sold for another 132 cents. Plus 289 cents picked up from the chest. Together with the drops from the straw man, after some calculations, the morning’s earnings were a surprising total of over 1,200 cents. This was much faster than earning money through a job. Next, it was time to replenish supplies. First up was buying arrows, considering the situation of running out of arrows, this time he decided to buy more. He looked at the prices of the different arrows. Rough Feathered Arrow, +1 Stab. 5 cents apiece. Yan Feather Arrow, +2 Stab. 10 cents apiece. Wolf Tooth Arrow, +3 Stab. 20 cents apiece. Xiao Jie decisively gave up the idea of upgrading his arrows, paying such a high price for a slight increase in damage was too much of a loss, he’d stick with the cheaper options. Xiao Jie restocked up to 100 Rough Feathered Arrows directly. This thing was also a consumable, the more the merrier. That promptly spent over 400 cents. A bit of weapon and shield repair, and another 73 cents was gone. Thankfully, rat meat could be used as dog food, otherwise there would be another expense. The dog’s healing depended entirely on eating, and the consumption was massive in intense battles. Right, the dog has food, but people need to eat too; he needed to buy steamed buns… Monster fighting and leveling up significantly increased the Energy consumption, and the more Energy consumed, the lower the satiety… After calculating, Xiao Jie realized that just supplies would cost around six or seven hundred cents, and half of the morning’s earnings vanished in the blink of an eye. Looking at the mere 665 cents left in the bag, Xiao Jie scratched his head with some resignation. This won’t do, he couldn’t continue burning through his savings like this. He needed to find ways to save, and since he had picked up a recipe book in the morning, he might as well learn the Cooking Skill, which could at least allow him to prepare his own food and save some money. He found the chef at the food shop and requested to apprenticed. The cook’s face lit up with delight, “You want to learn cooking, but I can’t teach you for free. If you pay 500 wen as an apprenticeship fee, I’ll take you on as my apprentice.” Xiao Jie decisively paid the money. “Hahaha, that’s the spirit. Alright then, I’ll start by teaching you the basic cooking techniques. First is grilling. Natural ingredients should be cooked in the simplest way. Grilling food with fire can make it more delicious. For example, if you’re a Hunter, you can cook the beast meat you hunt this way.” Of course, you can also boil it. Although the taste is bland, it preserves the nutrients in the food to the greatest extent. Like bird eggs, for instance, are much better boiled than eaten raw.” If you have wheat, you can also use it to make steamed buns… If you want to learn more advanced cooking techniques that’s possible too, but they will cost you extra. My skills are all family heirlooms, and I can’t just teach them to you for nothing.” [System Prompt: You have learned Life Skills [Basic Cooking], Recipe: Roasted Meat, Recipe: Boiled Bird Eggs, Recipe: Steamed Buns, and your Skill Book has been updated.] Xiao Jie opened his Skill Book to check the new skills he had learned. Not bad. Even though it cost 500 wen, at least he got three entry-level recipes, which allowed him to make simple food. He used the recipes right away, which added another recipe to his collection. Roasted Meat: Requires beast meat and cooking fire. Restores 20 points of satiety and increases your Physical Strength recovery speed by 10%, lasting for 30 minutes. Boiled Egg: Requires bird eggs and cooking fire. Restores 10 points of satiety. Steamed Bun: Requires wheat, clean water, and cooking fire. Restores 10 points of satiety. Garden Roasted Cake: Requires wheat, Chinese chives, bird eggs, and cooking fire. Restores 30 points of satiety. Currently, he had ingredients only for Roasted Meat. To make it, he needed beast meat, which included deer meat, mutton, and even rat meat. Fortunately, the rat meat in his bag could be put to use. Xiao Jie used the cooking stove fire of the eatery and began to grill the meat directly. While he was grilling, I Want to Be Immortal walked in, looking to buy some food. “Eh, Feng, what are you doing? Grilling meat? Why bother when you can just buy the food with money?” “Is your family rich?” Xiao Jie responded as he continued to grill the meat and slurped up some instant noodles. “A million or so. I’m planning to spend it all in the game to become a big-spending player and boost my game strength as much as possible. Anyway, once I’ve achieved immortality, money will just be an earthly possession.” Xiao Jie replied speechlessly, “You think a million or so is enough to be a big spender? Maybe in other games, but don’t forget, in this game every copper coin costs 10 yuan. Your million or so will only get you One Hundred Thousand Copper Coins, just one hundred taels of silver. Although the equipment, food, and various items are quite cheap early in the game, as time goes on and levels increase, prices will rise. How long do you think your million or so will last? Who knows if later on, a piece of high-level equipment or a powerful skill will cost more than one hundred taels? It’s better to learn a professional skill that can earn back its cost. As your Skill Level increases, so does your earning potential. If you manage well, you can significantly offset your expenses. Otherwise, just relying on the small amount of Copper Coins from killing monsters for learning skills will be tough. Take food, for instance. The cost of the steamed buns you eat every day would total up to tens or hundreds of wen. As your level goes up, your satiety requirement will also increase and so will the amount of food you need. You’re bound to spend several thousand wen a month. The small amounts add up to a large sum over time.” I Want to Be Immortal was rendered speechless. “You’re right, Feng. Should I also learn cooking?” “No, it’s better if we each learn different skills so we can help each other out. I’ll handle the cooking, which will be enough for both of us, and you could learn Woodworking, to make arrows, or Alchemy, to concoct medicine, or Forging, for example.” While they talked, Xiao Jie had finished grilling all the rat meat from his bag. He also grilled the rat meat that I Want to Be Immortal had picked up before. [Rat Meat (Cooking Ingredient) Item Introduction: Meat from a large rat, can be used for cooking, or as food for a Pet, restoring some health and increasing a small amount of Happiness value.] [Roasted Meat (Food)] Usage: Restores 20 points of satiety and increases Physical Strength recovery speed by 10% for 30 minutes. Item Introduction: Fragrant roasted meat, can be used to restore Physical Strength, increase satiety, or as food for pets to restore health and significantly increase their Happiness value.] A simple act of cooking had turned something worthless into something magical. Xiao Jie roasted all the rat meat they had. Then, he thought about it and went to the farm to learn the two most basic agricultural skills, [Harvest] and [Turning the Soil], from a farmer. Since these were fundamental tasks, he could learn these two skills without spending any money. When he had nothing else to do, he could go harvest wild wheat from the field to make steamed buns. This alone saved him at least two or three hundred wen, and as time passed, the savings would only increase. Moreover, as a high-level food, roasted meat even provided a temporary BUFF, which was an unexpected gain.