Ch.1919. Skill Shopping

In a way, it was a meta-game for me.

If I were a Farming World streamer broadcasting this, the chat would probably have gone berserk.

Looking at the results, I must have seemed like an idiot who carelessly planted over 50 different seeds in my garden without cleaning the sewers or building even a simple fence, then went into a deep sleep practically inviting my garden to be raided.

Well, that’s not wrong.

It was my choice, and I created this situation.

But even if I hadn’t done that, nothing would have changed.

In Farming World, which has been open for 10 years, countless players interested in this genre have played the game, sharing their research and experiences through the community, gathering knowledge and information to create the most efficient routes—this is one of the most basic exchanges in games like this.

And especially for the early-game elements that involve the most repetitive grinding, research has already been completed on how to avoid wasting even a single second or the smallest resource.

Sure, various options still exist, and comparing them might lead to the conclusion that “there’s not much difference whichever you choose, so go with your preference,” but this early farming stage up to cleaning the sewers is, in a way, the absolute meta-game for Farming World users—something that demands a perfect approach.

Farming is mandatory to complete the tutorial.

Even if you skip the tutorial, since farming is the main focus of the game, you need to farm at least as a secondary activity to earn “farm” currency.

There are certainly playstyles where you just focus on exploration from the start, but that’s something only veterans like me do, who know all the monster patterns and are confident they won’t get hit even once. Otherwise, charging at monsters without armor will get you killed and force a server reset.

So there are a few options.

You can use wood at the crafting table to make basic fences around your garden, and place bells at the entrance or at intervals that make noise when touched to serve as alarms.

That’s the standard approach.

This way, if Big Rats climb over or break through the fence, they’ll trigger the bells, and you can hear the sound, wake up, and minimize the damage—that’s the best play an early-game player can make.

The problem is the bell.

I don’t have the materials to make even a small bell.

Well, I do, but I also need a furnace, and I don’t have that common real-world item—”string”—to tie the bell.

I could probably fashion something by weaving twigs together, but the biggest problem:

Could I actually wake up when I hear that sound?

And there’s quite a penalty for waking up during sleep.

Only 50% of your sleep time counts, meaning you have to sleep longer to avoid penalties.

Above all, there’s no guarantee that the rats won’t return after being chased away once.

There were posts in the community about people who had the bad luck of having their garden raided three times in one night.

This means that even the “best play” is just a temporary measure.

There’s also the option of setting rat traps, but users who’ve advanced that far are perverts who don’t bother cleaning sewers, so they’re excluded from this debate.

Well, I admit I was a bit careless.

From my perspective as a 10-year veteran, making fences takes time, and installing them means eventually having to dismantle and rebuild them when expanding the yard, so I just skipped it.

I had the mindset of “I don’t mind taking some damage,” but when it actually happens, it’s still infuriating.

So in this meta-game situation, I played as I always had within my circumstances and was unlucky enough to suffer damage.

More than I expected.

They’re crops I could do without, but they’re still crops that would have been nice to have.

I needed somewhere to vent this anger.

“Damn rat bastards, they’re all dead. I’ll at least sell their leather and meat.”

That was actually the main reason.

Might as well hunt those rat bastards and make up for some of the losses.

“Wouldn’t it be best to both protect your crops AND exterminate the rats?”

That’s what the chat would have been spamming, but I’m not a streamer, and in this dimension, the only ones watching what’s happening are just me and Lulu.

“Hmm… I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was about 3KM to the southwest.”

“They came all the way here from that far?”

“This area must be part of the rats’ territory.”

3KM is quite a distance.

It would take at least 30 minutes to get there quickly, so why would Big Rats come all the way from their home to cause trouble here?

As Lulu said, if this is part of their territory, they might have come because they were bothered by my presence in the cabin that encroached on their domain.

Anyway, since I’m going to hunt rats today, I planned to move quickly.

Clearing a path can be done later when I have time.

So before departing, I opened the [Farming Point Shop].

“Need to buy a movement skill.”

I currently have 10 Farming Points, combining what I received from leveling up and completing the tutorial.

Farming Points are a type of currency in Farming World that can be used to level up various abilities.

If “Farm” is the money used in the real world, “Farming Points” are used to increase stats, buy abilities, or level up abilities.

Because they have so many uses, one of the biggest mistakes newbies make is spending Farming Points wherever they feel like it.

That’s the charm of games in this genre.

The “freedom” to invest points wherever you want and grow in whatever direction you desire.

Once you have experience like me, it doesn’t really matter how you invest them.

There are core elements to growth, and as long as you meet certain necessary thresholds, veterans don’t find it particularly difficult.

But I keep mentioning veterans, which feels a bit uncomfortable. Some people, like Lulu’s previous owner, choose Magic(SSS+) but try to save points one by one in the early game instead of investing in construction or building orchards, only to eventually hit a wall and wonder, “Was this always this difficult?”

That’s also why I had saved up 10 Farming Points without using them.

To use them only when and where necessary.

And that time seemed to be now.

“The map is too big.”

Farming World users don’t recommend choosing an appropriately sized map for nothing.

Even in PC games, if the map is too large, travel time increases and extends playtime, and virtual reality is even worse.

Of course, later on, you can experience the fun of civilization’s development by laying rails for transportation, creating vehicles, or riding monsters, but the early game is truly hell.

Even I remember when playing an SS+ map in my previous game, the map was so huge that I spent more than half my time just traveling to clear the map in the early stages.

That’s probably why, except for vanilla users like me, most people install mods that allow them to create some kind of mount quickly from the start.

Anyway, in this dimension boasting an SSS+ map size, I need a movement-related skill or mount to avoid wasting time walking around.

That’s why I opened the [Farming Point Shop].

If there’s a relevant skill, I’ll buy it; if not, I’ll buy an active skill related to swordsmanship to use while hunting.

“Hmm.”

I opened the [Skills] tab among the various categories in the Farming Point Shop.

My abilities were subcategorized into [Melee Weapons(SSS+)], [Farming(F)], and [Butchery(F)], and when I clicked on each tab, skills I could learn spread out below like a skill tree.

[Melee Weapons(SSS+)]

[Active] – [Double Slash(SSS+)]

– [Leap Strike(SSS+)]

[Passive] – [Master of Melee Weapons(SSS+)]

The active skills were all grayed out, and only the passive skill I had learned was highlighted in bold text.

There were many skills, all SSS+ grade, which was impressive to see.

For now, what I could buy were the frontmost [Double Slash] and [Leap Strike].

The names seemed simple like some F-grade trash, but the SSS+ grade next to them inspired confidence.

“It’s not the name that matters. It’s the grade.”

Besides, looking at the description, they don’t seem like trash at all.

[Leap Strike]

– Grade: SSS+

– Active Skill (Melee Weapon)

– Mana Cost: 5

– Instantly leap up to 100M and quickly slash the target.

– The number of attacks during the ‘leap’ increases according to your Agility grade. (Current grade: S, 5 attacks)

– Attack power during the ‘leap’ increases according to your Strength grade. (Current grade: S, 100%)

This was exactly the “movement” skill I needed.