Ch.1212. Romantic Mapping

The act of revealing the map is called “Mapping.”

This concept isn’t exclusive to Farming World; it exists in most open-world genre games. Since the fun of these games comes from exploring unknown territories, the anticipation of what might be around the corner makes mapping an essential content feature.

Well, ultimately, when Koreans play open-world games, over 80% focus on taking the shortest route to progress quickly.

That’s not strange.

Everyone wants to grow easily and quickly; nobody wants to waste time eating plain rice and sweet potatoes while gaming.

Since so many users maintain this impatient play style, game developers had to find ways to extend playtime. They ended up assigning random values to each user’s map, spawning different key location points for each person, preventing users from sharing crucial location information.

Nevertheless, some users still extracted map files to discover key locations.

In Farming World, these few players with unusual mapping habits were called “romantic mappers.”

Eventually, completely revealing a map becomes recognized as legitimate content, but doing this from the beginning—thoroughly exploring every inch before moving to the next biome—is something that even a jobless person like me who’s enjoyed Farming World for ten years would tsk at.

Of course, this isn’t entirely meaningless.

In the very end, though your growth might be slower, the foundation and solidity of your base won’t differ, and if you enjoy that aspect, you can achieve quite satisfying results.

Moreover, Farming World created achievement quests for such users, making them feel greater growth proportional to their time investment.

That’s exactly the Explorer Growth Quest I’m looking at now.

It’s not particularly difficult.

As you can see, it automatically clears when you reveal more than 80% of the dark map in a Level 0 biome. Then you get Explorer Quest 2, requiring 80% of Level 1 biome, followed by 80% of Level 2 biome… continuing in this step-by-step fashion until you become an Exploration Expert and complete the achievement.

This straightforward quest offers insane rewards, practically showering you with items difficult to obtain in Level 0 biomes.

Since resurrection costs 1,000 Biom at my current level, completing this achievement sub-quest means I can die and revive at least four times for free, including the free resurrection ticket.

Planning to complete this quest by spending more time in Level 0 biome isn’t efficient enough to change my plans.

Indeed, these achievement sub-quests can’t match the efficiency of a high-level character revealing low-level biomes quickly.

However, they do prevent the balance from completely breaking.

Achievement points.

These are considered endgame content in Farming World because they can be exchanged for excellent rewards.

They provide both Farm and Farming stats in abundance.

Farming stats are generously given during level-ups and early tutorial quests, making newbies think they’re being spoiled, but once past the early stages, farming points become harder to obtain. That’s when players in growth plateaus return to lower-level biomes to complete achievement and sub-quests.

Plus, there’s a reward to expand your base for free.

This feels better than previous achievement quest rewards.

1P in Farming World means 1M³.

It’s roughly equivalent to 1 pyeong, but unlike the traditional 3.3M² measurement, it includes height, hence the different unit.

So this achievement quest gives about 10 pyeong of free base expansion.

That’s quite significant.

My current hut is about 10 pyeong, so this would double my base size.

A larger base means a wider safe activity radius and more space for storage and workbenches.

Considering that items in storage only sync within your base, bigger is definitely better.

Naturally, increasing your base’s P requires investing farming points or Farm.

The random base box is also quite valuable.

With good luck, you might get an anvil or furnace that requires rare materials.

“Hmm…”

I’m contemplating this attractive achievement quest.

The fact that I’m even considering it means I’m leaning toward completing this quest, which demands the opposite of my original plan.

Romantic mapping.

I never thought I’d be doing this.

It’s not bad though.

This is possible mainly because this map is SSS+ grade, with SSS+ resource rarity and deposits.

“Even Level 0 biome resources can make money if you sell enough.”

You don’t necessarily need B-grade or A-grade resources—rare minerals and plants hard to find in reality—to make good money.

This world currently revolves around dungeon resources.

Rare minerals and resources have value because of their scarcity.

Even relatively common resources can be valuable if they benefit human life.

For example, the “Recovery Herb” I planted in my front yard.

“Recovery Herb” is an E-grade crop; its seeds have a 1% drop chance when harvesting E-grade or higher basic resources (wood, weeds).

The planted “Recovery Herb” bears fruit after a 5-day growing period, and this fruit is a crucial ingredient for what’s commonly called “potions.”

Its effectiveness isn’t hard to discover—the herb itself states that when processed, it can be made into a potion that greatly restores health. Many hunters in the real world consume Recovery Herbs or Recovery Potions for this reason.

Not only that, but the remaining leaves after harvesting the fruit can be ground into an ointment that significantly helps wound healing.

It’s not like ordinary ointment—depending on the herb’s grade, one leaf used for wound treatment can heal minor scratches within 10 minutes.

That’s why Recovery Herbs trade at high prices.

Hunters who frequently get injured buy them, and hospitals treating external wounds are desperate to purchase them in bulk.

While surgeries inevitably leave scars when cutting and closing skin, using this dungeon resource—Recovery Herb leaves, which science can’t explain—can heal even scalpel incisions without a trace, even with just E-grade herbs.

That’s why I initially planted about three Recovery Herbs.

Besides Recovery Herb seeds, a few other seeds dropped too, which help when sold as Farm and are useful for making healing potions when fighting monsters in Farming World.

If I returned after the tutorial ended, I could quickly harvest what I’d grown for a few days and make potions.

But now that I know I can take crops grown in the Rift Dimension outside, everything changes.

“E-grade Recovery Herb with both leaves and fruit: 100,000 won each.”

The seeds in my field, not even sprouting yet on day one, all look like money to me.

Make them myself for potential injuries vs. Sell everything for 300,000 won.

“No need to think about it.”

This is why I chose the romantic mapping route.

I believe I could make a lifetime’s worth of money just by exploiting Level 0 biomes.

Not that I plan to settle for that.

But building a solid foundation through romantic mapping doesn’t seem bad.

The logout cooldown is 7 days.

Recovery Herb growth period is 5 days.

“I’ll clean up the yard, plant Recovery Herb seeds as they come, harvest them when they grow, and sell them…”

I’ll also plant other seeds that might appear, just in case.

With these happy thoughts, I take out some firewood, lay it on the darkening yard, and light it.

In Farming World, you’d have to struggle to make fire, but here I just clicked with the power of modern civilization.

“Wow. Is that from master’s dimension? Is it a magical artifact?”

“Something like that.”

I cut a Big Rats meat chunk in half, grilled it in a frying pan, and heated instant rice in a pot of water.

Sizzle- Sizzle-

With the sound of weeds rustling in the wind and insects chirping everywhere, it promised to be a romantically perfect dinner.

“Romantic mapping and romantic camping…”

Doesn’t suit a T-type like me.

But I like it.