Ch.2121. Sewer Dungeon (D)

Rewards should be intuitive.

That’s not my own saying, but something I picked up somewhere that fits perfectly here, which is why it left such an impression on me.

Any reward, no matter how good it is, must be useful to the recipient for it to have value as a reward.

This applies to various cases in Farming World, and many users have discussed it. Some quests clearly provide valuable rewards. When you see questions posted on the Farming World community like “Is this any good?”, most of the time they’re rewards that even veteran players would consider valuable. Looking at the value of individual rewards alone, there were many cases where even veteran players would drool over them.

After all, since the map itself is so vast with diverse quests, hidden quests are naturally designed to offer extremely good rewards.

But in the end, newbies leave unsatisfied.

Even if they asked whether the reward was good or not.

What’s the use if others say it’s good?

Of course, when veterans judge the value and confirm it’s a good reward, newbies ask:

“What am I supposed to use this for?”

“Can’t I exchange it for Farm currency?”

In Farming World, most resources can be exchanged for Farm currency through NPCs.

There are also NPCs who exchange them for other resources.

But not all resources can be exchanged.

Some items have little value on their own and need to be processed or refined to be recognized for their worth—most rare rewards fall into this category.

Items that even veteran players don’t know how to process.

Items where you’ve heard rumors that someone processed it to create an item with certain abilities, but the process and method are so complicated and require so many resources and Farming ability points that the only answer you can give is “Just throw it away. Or keep it as decoration at home.”

In such cases, whether you’re a newbie or a veteran, no matter how valuable the reward is, the quest doesn’t feel worth it.

In that sense, I really liked the D-rank sub-dungeon quest.

It’s intuitive at first glance, isn’t it?

“500 Farm. 20% crop growth speed. And 0.5 Leap Slash.”

Sewer purification allows you to draw water flowing through the sewer after cleaning it to create waterways around your house, which is useful for farming.

That’s why the sewer is a place you must visit, and originally it wasn’t even an F-rank dungeon but more like an instant dungeon you could enter casually. However, this one was a D-rank dungeon with considerable difficulty.

First, the floor was quite a drop down, and the foul-smelling, ankle-deep contaminated water or mud gave an unpleasant feeling that gripped my ankles.

But I could endure it.

“If I can get an SSS+ skill by completing just two quests like this, I’d be an idiot not to do it.”

Of course, the [Leap Slash] I learned is only 10 points, and better skills require more points.

But still, that’s something.

There were several other 10-point SSS+ skills.

So even though there were 51 Big Rats in the sewer.

Even though in a normal rat sewer, Big Rats would be bosses, but here there was a B-rank crazy 0-level biome boss monster called Big Rat Mom that would deserve a barrage of curses for being in such a place.

I wasn’t afraid.

“I’m more broken than they are.”

Honestly, in my current state, not having armor is the only vulnerability that could get me killed, but even without that, I would have wandered through D-rank dungeons like this without any tension, picking my nose.

Well, that’s the mindset I came in with anyway.

Starting with an SSS+ ability that gave me S-rank strength, agility, and health from the beginning, how could a mere D-rank dungeon catch my eye?

I can’t even gauge how many ranks apart we are.

D+, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, A+, S-.

As ranks increase, the effort or points needed to improve abilities increase several times over. Just looking at this, there’s a 10-rank difference.

I only found armor just to have some semblance of gear, but I think even if I got bitten by Big Rats a few times, applying some healing herbs would probably heal me naturally.

Besides, even if I died from having my neck bitten while napping, I have one resurrection right.

This dungeon exploration couldn’t be more enjoyable.

At least for 0-level biomes, or even 1-2 level biomes, I could think of it as playing a farm management game with cheat mode on.

The same goes for the B-rank Big Rat Mom.

“Ah, I should have recorded this.”

Now that I had some leeway, I thought of things I regretted.

If I could bring items from Earth through the rift dimension, I could have brought a camera or smartphone to record.

Even if I couldn’t stream in real-time, recording and bringing it back would probably attract a lot of attention.

Hunters often stream when entering dungeons.

I don’t know how it works, but whether satellites work inside dungeons or not, while streaming doesn’t work in some places, it works well in most, allowing for good communication.

As an SSS+ hunter, I should show some attention-seeking traits.

Uploading this as my first video might have been an opportunity to imprint my name on many people’s minds.

Regretting what I don’t have won’t change anything.

I take out a torch I brought and light it to illuminate the darkness.

The rather spacious sewer stretched long in both directions.

Given the size of the Big Rats, this width was necessary for them to move freely.

Tss-tss-tss-tss-

Unpleasant sounds echoed in the cave-like sewer, and in the distance, splashing sounds of something walking through the muck could be heard from both directions.

Lulu, scared, sat on my shoulder clutching my clothes tightly.

“What’s the point of being an ancient fairy? How can you be scared of pathetic rat noises?”

“Ugh, but rats are so big and gross.”

“Then do you want to stay here? I’ll go alone.”

“Eek! No!”

Lulu shook her head desperately, gripping my collar with determination not to let go.

It’s nice that I don’t need to hold her with one hand anymore.

I moved forward with the torch leading the way.

The sewer in the rift dimension didn’t seem much different from a regular one.

The rats, seeing the arrogant human entering their territory, must have thought I looked pathetic as they revealed themselves from front and back to intimidate me.

Just from what I could see, there were about a dozen of them.

I drew my wooden sword and pondered with a serious expression.

“Should I cut from the front first? Or from the back?”

On my way to the sewer, I practiced to adapt to [Leap Slash], and by the time I arrived, I could somewhat understand its principles.

To apply and use it well, I’d need to experiment more and try it in various ways, but for now, it was enough to cut down all these rats.

“Here I go.”

I lowered my stance and pushed off the ground.

I didn’t need to put all my strength into it.

[Skills] are manifestations of will.

Shouting commands is like a supplement to replace weak will.

Therefore, if my will is clearly directed toward using [Leap Slash], the motion will manifest even with minimal force.

After all, what adds strength I don’t have when using a skill isn’t my muscles or actions, but “mana.”

When I first used [Leap Slash], I thought it was just quickly covering a distance of nearly 100 meters in an instant.

But after using it a few times, I realized I could control it.

– Leap instantly up to 100M and quickly slash the target.

This word “instantly” had an incredible meaning at the SSS+ rank.

If I wanted to move the maximum distance as quickly as possible, it was literally like “teleportation,” jumping the distance.

It took less than a second, and even if there was a tree in the way, I just jumped over that distance.

So I interpreted this “instantly” as a concept of “teleportation.”

I need to experiment more, but…

And if I focused on swinging my sword during the leap, I could slow down my perception of time while the scenery moved quickly.

Swinging the sword 5 times during a leap was possible without difficulty.

Moreover, if I slowed down my perception of time and quickly swung 5 times in one spot, I could deal damage as if attacking 5 times with one sword strike.

Also, if I swing the sword once at each necessary spot, this becomes possible:

“Lightning Flash.”

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pat-!

Big Rats in different positions, as long as they were within 100M, had their heads fall off as if cut in a single stroke.

[Level Up!]

It was hunting time.