Ch.178178. Purification Enhancement

[Purification Stone]

– Grade: Common

– A stone condensed with purified energy.

– Can be used for various purposes.

– When used on items, it appears to infuse them with purification energy.

The Purification Stone looked quite clean and appealing.

“Is it like an enhancement stone?”

It gave off a somewhat sacred feeling while simultaneously filling me with anticipation.

Purification enhancement, huh.

Purified energy only brings good memories for me.

After all, purified energy options have always made me happy and only provided good bonuses.

I grabbed the Purification Stone and immediately ran to Kukum.

“Kukum!”

“Friend. What brings you here?”

Kukum was spending his day busily crafting something in the forge.

“Why are you making things all day when there’s no one buying?”

“A dwarf must always craft to keep his skills sharp. Haha!”

“Is that so? Anyway, look at this.”

“What’s this?”

Kukum took the Purification Stone and examined it from various angles, his expression growing increasingly interested.

“Oh ho. This is quite a fascinating stone. It contains incredibly concentrated power.”

“So what do you think? I heard it’s used for enhancement. Can you do it?”

“Hmm… It’s not an easy item to handle with my current skill level.”

“…Huh?”

Hearing this unexpected answer, I anxiously asked again.

“What do you mean? If an SS+ rank blacksmith can’t handle enhancement, who can I entrust this to?”

“It’s only natural since I’ve never used this for enhancement before. But don’t worry. If what you say is true about it being an enhancement stone, I should be able to figure it out with a bit of research. So…”

Kukum asked me with sparkling eyes.

“Could you get me a few more of these stones?”

[Sub Quest]

[Forge-Kukum]

[Kukum has discovered a Purification Stone for the first time in his dwarven life and is curious about it. A pure crystallization of purified energy. The possibility of enhancing equipment with this has made his hot dwarven blood boil with excitement. Kukum, determined to develop a technique to enhance equipment with Purification Stones, has requested more stones for his research. Let’s gather Purification Stones for Kukum, who possesses SS rank or higher blacksmithing skills, to unlock ‘Purification Enhancement’.]

[Purification Stone: 1 / 20]

[Reward: ‘Purification Enhancement’ activation. Farming Ability Points 20.]

“…Uh, I’ll try to get them.”

I came with high spirits carrying the Purification Stone, but ended up having to find 19 more stones for Kukum, who was even more excited than I was.

I can’t exactly ask for the one I already gave him back.

Since it seems like content that needs to be unlocked, I can’t just ignore it either.

The reward is just the activation of Purification Enhancement, nothing else.

I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with getting 1 Farming Ability Point per stone.

Still, it shouldn’t be a loss.

According to the quest description, this is only available from blacksmiths of SS rank or higher, and it seems you need SS rank or higher blacksmithing ability to perform Purification Enhancement, so teaching Kukum should provide a skill I can use for a long time.

Besides, I momentarily forgot that this is the standard content unlocking method in the Farming World.

Unlocking through quests.

Acquisition through materials.

I’ve been so spoiled lately that I temporarily forgot about this.

“19 more…”

If it’s 1 stone per 100 resources, maybe I can get enough by using all the purified resources from the Corrupted Forest to unlock this with some extras.

Since I’ve started, I might as well see it through.

I went home and threw in all the purified resources I got from the Corrupted Forest.

I had over 3,000 various resources at that time, but excluding those that could be used as medicinal ingredients or those with unknown uses, I put in almost everything like wood, stones, and weeds.

Even after setting aside what Kim Sol-i had reserved for decorating the Naru tribe village, there was still a lot. After purifying everything, my Purified Energy level rose to 14, and I got quite a few Purification Stones.

33 stones.

I put in about 2,500 purified resources, so this is more than the expected probability.

“Please be good content.”

At first, I started with vague optimism that this would be good content, but after converting all those accumulated purified resources into Purification Stones, the value of these stones increased to the point where they absolutely had to be useful.

While the purified resources would have been equally useless sitting in storage all day, there’s still a difference between having resources that could potentially be useful somewhere and converting them into stone lumps that might be completely useless.

“Oh! So quickly? Wait just a moment. I’ll research this right away and give you good news soon.”

The quest wasn’t completed immediately.

It seems it will complete when Kukum finishes his research, which might take a few days, so I left it with him and went on my way.

“Why do I have so many things to do?”

For every item I cross off my to-do list on the board, two more appear.

This time, after completing the unscheduled task of raising my Purified Energy level, the “Try Purification Enhancement” task was added, pending the completion of that quest.

I also had to add “Draw Village NPCs” to the list.

With 170,000 Farm, I could draw 300 times at 500 Farm each.

That should be enough to draw most village NPCs at legendary rank or higher.

“Let’s get the quest first.”

I’ve been working hard on building my foundation these past few days.

Now it’s time to accept the main quest.

I’ll get the quest, organize a bit, and then get back to it—focusing too much on foundation building can get tedious.

I visited the Black Monkey Forest after a long time.

The Gobring Forest I passed on the way was still well-maintained.

“The Sunro mushrooms are still doing well.”

I haven’t been calling the Gobrings to the village lately.

There aren’t many left, and I wanted to give them a break to reproduce and increase their numbers on their own.

Besides, for labor-intensive farm work, Black Monkeys are more efficient, so there was no need to bring Gobrings for that.

Instead, I instructed the Gobrings to take care of the Sunro mushroom trees in their forest, and they were diligently fulfilling that role.

They were managing a total of 100 Sunro mushroom trees, including the original ones and the newly added ones. It must have been quite demanding for the small number of Gobrings, but their numbers had actually increased a bit, showing that creatures in the wild can still reproduce even in dire situations.

The 10 Gobring slaves had increased to 13, and at this rate, their numbers would grow quickly again.

Just a bit further past there, a tropical biome spread out.

“Whew.”

It was already hot summer, but the moment I breathed in, the overwhelming humidity made me grimace.

How do people with hairy bodies even survive in a place like this?

The tall Balmosus trees I hadn’t seen in a while.

Black Monkeys approached, welcoming me.

“Chief! Kik kik!”

“How are things? What about the Guava Snakes?”

“Haven’t seen them lately. Kiki! But three monkeys were eaten by snakes. Kik.”

“I thought Guava Snakes usually don’t invade other territories unless their own is invaded?”

I already had a rough idea of why this was happening from following the main quest flow, but I pretended not to know.

The quest-receiving methods in the Farming World are all quite similar.

Either opening quests through conversations with races related to the quest,

Or getting involved directly in incidents and opening them that way.

“Kik! Strange energy has been flowing from the Steam Forest for some time. Kik… That strange power from there has made the Guava snakes behave oddly… Kik kik… They’ve started invading surrounding territories and now they’re even attacking us.”

Black Monkeys aren’t low in the hierarchy.

Although they live on the outskirts of a Level 2 biome, this isn’t because they’re weak, but because they’ve settled where the Balmosus trees grow.

If something is attacking Black Monkeys, who are relatively high in the food chain of the Level 2 biome, it might mean they’re attacking indiscriminately.

[Main Quest]

[The Snake Den Filled with Steam]

[The Steam Forest is a lush tropical rainforest, but beneath it lies a damp and gloomy snake den. The chaotic energy that has seeped into the ground has corrupted the Steam Snake Den, and the Guava Snakes affected by this chaotic energy have begun attacking the surrounding Steam Forest with aggressive tendencies. Let’s resolve the corrupted Steam Snake Den that threatens the livelihood of the Black Monkeys, who are workers on your farm.]

[Purify the Steam Snake Den by destroying the corrupted core inside]

[Relocate the Black Monkeys from the Steam Forest to a new settlement]

[Reward: SSS+ Ability Selection Ticket x1, Farming Ability Points 30, 100,000 Farm, Achievement Points 7, Corrupted Thousand-Year-Old Snake’s Hwan-Dan (S)]

This time, like with the Corrupted Forest, I was given choices.

“This looks pretty tough.”

From the name alone, it didn’t sound like a place I was eager to enter.