Chapter 20: Hobbies and Interests

Dragging his heavy body, even the usually easy wild boar became difficult to fight. Clearly, he was much more agile than the opponent… but before adjusting to the sudden weight increase, Zheng Yichen found that the originally clumsy wild boar also became agile.

However, the gap in strength couldn’t be leveled just like that. After dealing with the wild boar for food, Zheng Yichen suddenly realized a more serious problem: how could he bring this wild boar back?

“Of course, you drag it back.”

“…”

“Hey… why was this forest so ordinary before, but it has become so rich recently?” Zheng Yichen, who was practically crawling back, gasped for breath as he asked Loris, who was still sitting steadily on his back.

“When I saved you before, I casually left behind an area-wide Charm Magic Array.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Something that lures creatures to gather. It seems the effect is a bit too strong.” Loris said calmly, as if talking about a trivial matter.

“…That’s really amazing.” Zheng Yichen mumbled, feeling a mix of awe and confusion. He wasn’t sure if the creatures in this world had strong adaptability or if there was another reason.

Anyway, in less than half a month, this forest had formed a new ecosystem.

After returning, Zheng Yichen, who had hoped Loris would remove the Gravity Enhancement for him, was disappointed. Under her gaze, he didn’t last long before dragging his tired and heavy body to prepare the ingredients. He began roasting the meat following the instructions in the cookbook.

Staring at the flickering flames, Zheng Yichen felt his head grow dizzy, as if he were being hypnotized. He really wanted to rest for a while.

Whack!

A sharp pain and a crisp sound on his head snapped him out of his drowsiness. He directly saw Loris’s dissatisfied expression. “The meat is about to burn.”

“Oh, oh.” Quickly stretching out his claws to flip the roasting meat, Zheng Yichen sighed inwardly. He could endure the desire to sleep for now. Although he had exercised his body, today’s Magic learning hadn’t started yet. He guessed Loris wouldn’t let him keep sleeping.

After adding high-intensity training to his daily routine, Zheng Yichen gained a new and deep impression of the Dragon Clan’s body. No wonder… some people had been obsessed with pursuing a Dragon Clan’s body in the past. Who wouldn’t envy such a body?

On the first day, the Gravity Enhancement had left him half-dead from exhaustion. By the second day, Zheng Yichen already felt much lighter on his feet. In just over half a month, aside from feeling slightly uncomfortable, he had nearly returned to his previous state.

As for Magic learning, Loris provided Zheng Yichen with many books to read. Even if some knowledge wasn’t immediately useful, accumulating it would surely help in the future.

“But can such intense training really cultivate Battle Qi?” Clenching his Dragon’s Claw, Zheng Yichen still didn’t understand how high-intensity training alone could produce Battle Qi in this world. Could it be because the external energy here was too abundant?

As his Mana accumulated and grew, Zheng Yichen gained a deeper perception of the external free energy. What interested him even more were the Magic Artifacts he had collected earlier. Through Loris’s explanation, he learned these Magic Artifacts were also created based on Rune Patterns.

The ones Zheng Yichen collected were all low-level and mass-produced. As long as the required materials were prepared and the Magic Array was precisely engraved onto them, it would work. The Magic Array engraved on the artifact needed some modifications to store Mana, enabling it to be activated and used immediately.

The reason they were called mass-produced was because the Magic Arrays on them were standardized. Low-level Mages could simply copy the pattern to make them. Of course, this didn’t mean every Mage could do it well.

Crafting Magic Equipment consumed extra Spiritual Power and required precision in engraving the Magic Array. Low precision would result in reduced power and increased consumption, and vice versa.

Truly high-quality Magic Equipment was basically crafted by Mages who had reached the Tier. These Mages could optimize and modify Rune Patterns, even creating ones with their own unique characteristics, much like each person’s distinct handwriting.

The content of the words remained the same, but the style, aesthetics, and flavor were entirely different. The Magic Zheng Yichen was learning now was like paper printed from a printer—universal and ordinary. All handwriting extended from these basic words.

Just like Rune Pattern Magic, it was nearly impossible for others to use Magic Rune Arrays optimized and modified by certain Mages. Everyone’s Spiritual Power differed—some leaned toward gentleness, others toward aggression; some were strongly apparent, others weak. Magic Rune Arrays were closely related to Spiritual Power. Aside from the basic unmodified Rune Patterns, the modified ones were generally only suitable for the creator.

Even if some younger generations managed to create improved and optimized Magic Rune Arrays with the help of their elders, the power would indeed improve, but the harmony and smoothness could never reach the peak.

“No idea.” Loris tapped the rings on Zheng Yichen’s limbs. Zheng Yichen, who had been standing firmly, staggered and nearly fell to the ground. “This time’s adjustment won’t be as easy as before.”

“I know…” Waving his claw, Zheng Yichen said with some regret. It was normal to improve quickly at the beginning when the base was low. As the base increased later, the speed of improvement would slow down. When adjusting to the initial Gravity Enhancement, Zheng Yichen had noticed the closer he got to the last few days, the smaller the daily reduction in burden felt.

As for the exhaustion from high-intensity training, he had already gotten used to it. If he didn’t adapt, he’d get beaten! The seemingly soft and tender pseudo-Loli didn’t hold back when she acted!

Noticing Zheng Yichen had somewhat adjusted to his physical state, Loris picked up a bracelet he had tossed aside earlier and observed it. She then sat beside him. “Are you interested in Magic Artifacts?”

“Well… I quite liked making small things even before I crossed over.” Zheng Yichen scratched his head. Before crossing over, the most memorable way he killed time was tinkering with things—whether assembling toys or taking things apart… basically, any time-consuming, meticulous task could quickly focus his attention.

But he could never recreate this special level of concentration when doing other things.

“The making of Magic Artifacts truly begins only after Reaching the Tier. Before that, you’re just an apprentice.” Loris nodded gently. “So it’s not too late to learn related knowledge after Reaching the Tier.”

“But it’s okay to mess around with it before then, right?”

“No problem.” Loris glanced at Zheng Yichen. “As long as you’re willing to use your daily study time on this, I have no objections.”