Interests and Hobbies

Dragging his heavy body along, Zheng Yichen found that even the Wild Boars he usually handled with ease had become hard to fight. He was clearly much more agile than they were... but until he adjusted to his sharply increased weight, even the lumbering boars seemed nimble.

The gap in strength could not be closed that easily, though. After bringing down the Wild Boar he intended to eat, Zheng Yichen realized he had a more serious problem: how was he supposed to get it back?

"You drag it back, of course."

"..."

"Hey... why was this forest so ordinary before, only to get so full of life lately?" Zheng Yichen asked between gasps. He was practically crawling home, while Lolise still sat steadily on his back.

"When I saved you, I left an Area Charm Formation here while I was at it."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Something that draws creatures together. It seems the effect was a little too strong." Lolise spoke calmly, as though she were mentioning something utterly trivial.

"...Well, that's pretty incredible." Zheng Yichen's mouth twitched as he spoke. He could not tell whether the creatures of this world were exceptionally adaptable or whether something else was at work.

Either way, a new food chain had formed in the forest in less than half a month.

Once they returned, Zheng Yichen was disappointed to find that Lolise had no intention of releasing him from the gravitational restraint. Under her watchful eye, he could only drag his exhausted, heavy body over to prepare the food. Following the cookbook, he started roasting the meat.

As he stared at the flickering flames, his head grew fuzzy, as though he were being hypnotized. He wanted so badly to rest for a while.

Smack!

A sharp crack and a burst of pain on his head scattered his drowsiness. He looked up to see Lolise's displeased expression. "The meat's about to burn."

"Oh, right." He hurriedly reached out a claw to turn the roasting meat. Zheng Yichen sighed inwardly. Sleep would have to wait. He had done his physical training, but he had yet to start today's magic lessons, and Lolise probably would not let him go to sleep.

Once high-intensity training became part of his daily routine, Zheng Yichen gained a new appreciation for the Dragon Race's bodies. No wonder... people had once pursued dragon bodies so obsessively. Who wouldn't envy a body like this?

On the first day, the added gravity had nearly worked him to death. By the second, he already felt much lighter. After a little over half a month, he felt only slightly uncomfortable; otherwise, he was more or less back to normal.

Lolise had plenty of books for Zheng Yichen to study magic. Some of the knowledge was of no use to him yet, but if he kept building it up, it would surely come in handy someday.

"But can training this hard really produce Battle Qi?" Zheng Yichen flexed his dragon claws. He still did not understand how high-intensity training alone could produce Battle Qi in this world. Was it because the energy in the surroundings was so abundant?

As his mana accumulated, Zheng Yichen's perception of the ambient energy grew sharper. What interested him even more were the magic items he had collected before. Lolise explained that they, too, were made using formation patterns.

The ones Zheng Yichen had collected were low-grade, assembly-line products. As long as someone prepared the right materials and engraved the magic formation accurately, they could make one. The formation engraved on an item had to be modified to store mana, so the item could be used upon activation.

They were called assembly-line products because their magic formations followed a standard pattern. Low-level mages could make them by drawing a gourd from a picture of one. That did not mean every mage could make them well, of course.

Making magical equipment consumed additional mental energy and demanded precision when engraving the formation. Poor precision reduced its power and increased its consumption; greater precision did the opposite.

Magical equipment that truly counted as high quality was generally made by mages who had reached the next rank. They could refine and alter formation patterns, even create patterns with distinctive traits of their own, like each person's unique handwriting.

The words remained the same, but their style, beauty, and character were entirely different. The magic Zheng Yichen was learning now was like text printed by a printer: common and ordinary, the basis from which every style of handwriting developed.

The same held true for Magic Array Pattern magic. Others generally could not use patterns a Mage had refined for themselves. Everyone's mental energy differed: some was gentle, some volatile, some projected strongly outward, and some barely did at all. Magic Array Pattern was closely tied to mental energy. Aside from unmodified basic patterns, altered ones generally suited only their creators.

Even when younger mages, with their elders' help, came up with improved Magic Array Patterns, their power might indeed increase, but they would still never achieve the perfect fit.

"I don't know." Lolise tapped the bands around Zheng Yichen's limbs. His steady stance faltered, and he nearly sprawled on the ground. "This time, adjusting won't be as easy as before."

"I know..." Zheng Yichen waved a claw, sounding rather dejected. Rapid improvement at the beginning was normal; he had started from a low baseline. As that baseline rose, his progress would slow. While adapting to the initial boost in gravity, he had noticed that the burden eased less and less each day as the final days approached.

As for the exhaustion from high-intensity training, he had gotten used to it. If he didn't, he got smacked. The faux little girl looked all soft and delicate, but she never held back when she struck!

After Zheng Yichen had spent a moment adjusting to his body, he picked up a bracelet he had set aside and resumed studying it. Lolise sat down beside him. "Are you interested in magic items?"

"Mm... Even before I crossed over, I liked making little things." Zheng Yichen scratched his head. Before coming to this world, his most memorable way of killing time had been tinkering, whether he was assembling toys or taking things apart... Really, any painstaking task that took time could quickly draw his full attention.

He could never summon that same intense focus when doing anything else.

"Making magic items only truly begins after you reach the next rank. Before that, you're still an apprentice." Lolise nodded gently. "So it won't be too late to study that knowledge once you get there."

"But there's no harm in tinkering with them before then, right?"

"No." Lolise glanced at Zheng Yichen. "As long as you're willing to spend your daily study time on it, I have no objections."