Ch.55. Dignity of SSS+ Swordsmanship

*Swish-*

*Slash!*

Just like I always did.

Just swinging it the way I had for 10 years.

They say even a dog that hangs around a school for three years can recite poetry.

Even someone like me, who had never wielded a sickle or gotten my hands dirty with soil in my real life, could easily cut down weeds after swinging a sword in the Farming World for 10 years.

There must be accumulated habits.

The feel of cutting through countless types of weeds must surely be ingrained in my hands by now.

But this was different.

“Hmm…”

It felt natural, somehow.

The sword didn’t just swing randomly—it felt like it was following some kind of grain as I swung it.

I was clearly the one swinging it, thinking about where to cut, but it felt like I wasn’t the one cutting?

I don’t know what this weird feeling is, but it was strange.

Strange, but effective.

Of course, with S-rank strength, it’s no surprise that cutting is easy.

And I only noticed this later:

[Wooden Sword]

– Grade: D-

– A slightly blunt sword that seems usable for various purposes.

– Made from quite sturdy wood, improving durability.

– Attack Power +5

Originally, a basic wooden sword’s attack power is F-grade with +1.

But since the resources in the front yard are D-grade, even this basic wooden sword is D- grade.

The attack power is extremely high for a wooden sword.

Attack power +5 would be equivalent to a D-grade iron sword in the original map.

So with S-rank strength and a D-grade tool, cutting weeds smoothly isn’t strange at all.

The issue is that cutting weeds feels too easy?

Too efficient?

I shouldn’t call it an issue.

It’s a good thing.

Cutting weeds efficiently with minimal effort.

Some might ask why this matters, but it does.

In a way, cutting weeds, chopping trees, and mining rocks are the most common activities in the Farming World.

And because of that damn “realism,” the efficiency of stamina consumption varies depending on method, posture, and applied force in this game that simulates reality.

“Is this what SSS+ rank feels like?”

It’s a bit pathetic to be impressed by this kind of thing with an SSS+ rank, but I had to acknowledge it.

I’d spent 10 years researching how to gather resources with maximum efficiency and minimum effort.

Yet here I was, experiencing something more comfortable and efficient than my 10 years of effort, just from some system adjustment.

I’m not someone who rejects new things out of conservatism, so I just admired it and moved on, but it was quite shocking.

Thanks to that strange, subtle feeling of my body not feeling like my own while swinging, I didn’t get bored clearing the disgustingly large yard.

“Phew.”

Before I knew it, night had fallen, and I’d managed to clear enough space to move around.

It took several hours just to clear a front yard space about the size of 2-3 huts.

If it were just cutting weeds, I could have finished it with a few swishes, but there were rocks and trees mixed in—not something I could clean up like running a vacuum cleaner.

How should I put it?

This secret farming map felt excessive compared to normal maps.

Even basic resources were abundant and high-grade.

Even the basic equipment provided was higher grade, clearly fitting an SSS+ difficulty map—a thought that occurred to me just from clearing the front yard.

I needed to stay alert accordingly.

The biggest factor affecting difficulty in maps isn’t resources but the grade of monsters.

Not that I should be thinking about this when I’m just planning to do the tutorial and put it on hold.

I immediately brought out the small wooden box that was next to the hut door.

Everyone has their preferred storage arrangement.

When I built a mansion, I made a separate storage room, but in the early to mid-game stages, most people prioritize efficiency and place storage along movement paths. I preferred to line up boxes right next to the door where I could see them as soon as I stepped out.

All 10 inventory slots were filled with weeds, wood, and stones.

“I just gathered this much, and it’s already over 100.”

Stack—a word used to describe resource units, I guess?

I don’t know exactly either, but in the Farming World, the number of resources that fit in one slot is called a stack.

This isn’t a fixed number—a “small box” can hold 99 resources per slot.

So 99 weeds, wood, or stones can fit in one slot, and anything beyond that requires another slot.

Today I gathered 123 weeds, 101 wood, and 88 stones.

That’s quite a lot.

Even considering the hours of hard work, I only cleared the area right in front of the house, not the entire front yard, yet gathered this much.

“‘Resource deposit measurement impossible’ is amazing.”

I’m not sure if this should be called easy mode.

Or if it’s balanced according to the high difficulty.

At least for the tutorial, it doesn’t seem bad.

As long as the materials required for crafting don’t increase with the SSS+ difficulty, having more resources clearly means a decrease in difficulty for base building.

Looking at the well-stocked resources, I tore open two F-grade bread pieces and gulped down a canteen of water.

Early-game food is limited to these basic provisions, so it’s usually best to conserve them, but I’m only playing through the tutorial anyway, and with SSS+ melee weapons, I figure I can obtain food somehow.

[Quest Complete!]

Tutorial Quest 1 was completed.

[Farming(F) Activated!]

After seeing SSS+ abilities, F-grade doesn’t even warrant a notification.

It’s also just one of the thousands of tutorials I’ve seen before.

[Tutorial Quest 2]

[More dangerous monsters roam at night. Let’s eliminate the unwelcome guests around the house to prepare for farming.]

[Clear Condition: Defeat Big Rats (0/5)]

[Reward: 100 Farm. Farming Stat +1]

“Big Rats, huh?”

The next tutorial quest appeared.

It wasn’t different from the usual tutorial quests, but the content was slightly different.

Like Quest 1, where the basic resources growing in the front yard were D-grade, the monsters to be hunted in Quest 2 were different from the usual.

Normally, you’d hunt Rats.

The setting is that you clear out rats that have made their home among the overgrown weeds near your house before starting farming, but here it says to hunt five Big Rats.

If Rats are F-grade monsters, Big Rats are D-grade.

“So what’s a boss in the regular map is just a basic Rat equivalent here, I guess.”

Having upgraded my melee weapon to SSS+, it wasn’t much to worry about.

Just needed to be a bit careful without armor.

I stuffed the remaining bread crumbs into my mouth, finished the water, took out my wooden sword, and went outside again.

Unlike the small hut lit by a tiny lamp, the outside was pitch black, relying only on a small crescent moon.

*Whoosh-*

Every time the wind blew, the tall weeds and trees made an eerie sound, causing most newbies to immediately retreat to their beds when night falls in the Farming World.

The atmosphere is one thing, but nights are genuinely dangerous in the Farming World.

Most monsters are active at night, and attacks coming suddenly from the darkness are difficult to dodge.

That’s why there’s always a phrase in the tips for Tutorial Quest 2:

‘Hunt during the day’

While Rats are active at night, making it logical to hunt around the house then, there’s no reason you can’t find and hunt Rats hiding during the day.

But I don’t bother with that.

If I can’t hunt Big Rats at night with an S-rank physique, my 10 years of experience would be worth nothing.

*Rustle rustle rustle*

The uncut weeds shake unnaturally even without wind.

During the day, you’d have to search randomly for “sewer” areas that spawn near the hut, but at night, Rats come out looking for food near the hut, making them much easier to find than during the day.

And in the darkness, Rats tend to be quite aggressive.

*Rustle rustle rustle*

Eyes glowing slightly in the darkness emerge through the weeds.

A rat as big as me shows off its plump body and thick gray fur, baring its characteristic two front teeth as our eyes meet.

Normally, Rats mainly steal planted crops.

So until you clean out the Rats’ lair in the sewers, you either stand guard at night, make Rat traps, or just accept that some crops will be stolen.

With no crops planted on the first day and hungry Rats following their instincts at night, they see me as food.

I pointed my wooden sword at the Big Rat.

In a normal map, if you see a Big Rat spawned on the first day, it’s better to just restart with a new map.

But I’m different now.

“Come at me.”

To think I’d be standing here with higher stats than a Big Rat.

The broken balance is somewhat offset by my lack of armor, so I don’t need to feel guilty.

Excitement rather than tension heats my body.

Hunting.

The reason I love the Farming World.

*Rustle rustle rustle*

Next to the first one, four additional gray fur balls revealed themselves.

“Perfect, I can finish this all at once.”

I charged at the Big Rats first.