Chapter 12 : Romantic Mapping

The act of revealing the map is called mapping.

This concept is not only in Farming World but is found in most open-world genre games.

The fun of these games itself comes from exploring unknown regions, so the excitement comes from the anticipation of not knowing what lies ahead on the path I take, making mapping an inevitably important content.

Well, in the end, more than 80% of Koreans who play open-world games focus on mapping only to progress via the shortest route.

That’s not strange.

Everyone wants to grow easily and quickly; no one wants to slowly waste time eating rice and sweet potatoes while playing games.

It’s easy to blame it on players’ impatience, but because so many maintain that play style, open-world game developers had to find ways to extend players’ playtime through this method.

They assigned random difficulty numbers to each player’s map so that different key location points spawn, preventing players from sharing core key points.

Still, there were players who analyzed the map files to find key locations and played accordingly.

Anyway, in Farming World, those few players who played mapping in a perverse way were called romantic mappers.

In the final stage, revealing the entire map is recognized and accepted as content, but starting off by revealing the whole map, chewing it up and down, enjoying it, and squeezing every bit of it before moving to the next biome is something even a hardcore no-job player like me, who has enjoyed Farming World for 10 years, would click their tongue at.

Of course, this is not meaningless.

At the very end, even if the growth speed is slower, the base’s solidity and sturdiness are ultimately different, and people who find fun there can achieve satisfying results.

Moreover, Farming World created achievement quests for such players so that the more time invested, the greater the sense of growth.

That’s exactly the explorer growth quests I am looking at now.

They aren’t difficult quests.

As you can see, if you reveal more than 80% of the dark map in the level 0 biome, it clears automatically.

Then you get explorer quest number 2, which is to reveal more than 80% of the level 1 biome, then level 2 biome 80%, and so on, with a ladder-like quest progression, culminating in becoming an exploration expert and finishing the achievement.

This easy quest has crazy rewards; at least in the level 0 biome, it practically hands out rewards that are hard to get otherwise.

Since it costs 1,000 biomes to revive at my current level, completing this achievement sub-quest means I can have a free revival ticket plus, in total, be able to revive 4 times even if I die.

Spending more time in the level 0 biome to clear these quests with the thought of dying isn’t actually efficient enough to change my plan.

As expected, these achievement sub-quests cannot compete with the efficiency of quickly leveling up and lighting up low-level biomes.

But at least they prevent the balance from completely breaking.

Achievement points—this is considered the ultimate content in Farming World because you can trade them for great rewards.

They increase your farm and farming stats significantly.

Farming stats are given a lot in early tutorial quests, so newbies might think they’re just handed out, but after the early stages, farming points become hard to obtain, and when players hit a growth plateau, they start going back to low-level biomes to grind achievement and sub-quests again.

Plus, they get rewards that can expand their bases for free.

This feels like a step up from the achievement quest rewards given in previous maps.

By the way, 1P means 1M3 in Farming World terms.

It roughly corresponds to one pyeong (a Korean unit of area), but unlike 1 pyeong meaning 3.3 M2 in regular terms, this unit includes height as well, so it seems they use different units.

So it means an achievement quest that increases your base by about 10 pyeong for free.

That’s quite big.

My current cabin is about 10 pyeong, so doubling the base size means twice the space.

A bigger base means a wider safe activity radius, and more space to put storage or make workbenches comfortably.

Considering that only items inside storage in the base are linked, the bigger the base, the better.

Naturally, to increase this base P, you have to invest farming points or farm.

Also, random base boxes are quite rewarding.

With good luck, you can get many materials including rare ones, like anvils or furnaces.

“Hmm…”

I’m deep in thought over this quite attractive achievement quest.

In fact, the very act of worrying means that my heart is leaning toward clearing this quest
that forces a plan completely opposite to the one I made.

Romantic mapping.

I didn’t think I’d end up doing something like this.

It’s not bad.

Above all, this map is an SSS+ grade map, so the resource rarity and reserves are SSS+ level,
making it possible.

“Anyway, even the things that come out of the level 0 biome can all be money if sold a lot.”

You don’t necessarily have to go to B-grade or A-grade resources and bring rare minerals or plants that are hard to find in reality to make a lot of money.

This world now revolves around dungeon resources.

Rare minerals and resources have value precisely because they are rare.

Among the commonly found resources, if they help human life, they have a certain value and can be sold.

For example, something like the ‘Healing Herb’ I planted in the front yard.

‘Healing Herb’ is an E-grade crop, and if you gather basic resources (wood, weeds) above E-grade, there is a 1% chance of dropping seeds.

The ‘Healing Herb’ planted like that takes 5 days of cultivation to bear fruit, and that fruit plays an important role as an ingredient for the so-called ‘potion.’

It’s not a rare effect that was hard to find, but the healing herb itself can be processed and made into a potion that greatly recovers stamina, so in reality many hunters consume healing herbs or healing potions to get them.

Not only that, but the leaves left after picking the fruit can be crushed well and used as an ointment, greatly helping wound recovery.

It’s not like a typical ointment — depending on the grade of the healing herb, using one leaf for wound treatment can heal minor scratches within 10 minutes.

So healing herbs are traded at a high price.

Hunters who frequently get wounds and deep cuts buy healing herbs, and even hospitals that treat external injuries are desperate to buy healing herbs in large quantities.

Surgery is basically accepted to leave scars after cutting and closing the skin for treatment purposes,
but using the healing herb leaves, which are dungeon resources not scientifically explained, even skin cut by a scalpel can be healed without a trace with just E-grade healing herbs.

That’s why I first planted about three healing herbs roughly.

Besides healing herb seeds, a few other seeds also dropped, which help when sold at the farm,
and healing potions are also needed when fighting monsters in the farming world.

If I come back after the tutorial ends, the plan is to quickly harvest and make potions from whatever has been grown for a few days.

But now that I know I can take the crops grown in the Rift dimension with me, the words change.

“Healing herb leaves and fruits, 100,000 won for one E-grade.”

The seeds in the field, still on the first day of planting and not even sprouted yet, all look like money.

Make it myself to prepare for possible injuries vs take everything and sell it for 300,000 won.

“No need to worry.”

That’s why I changed my route to romantic mapping.

To me, just farming the level 0 biome alone seems like it can earn a lifetime’s worth of money.

I have no intention of settling or stopping, but it didn’t seem bad to make a solid foundation while romantic mapping.

By the way, the logout cooldown is 7 days.

Healing herb growth period is 5 days too.

“While cleaning the yard, plant healing herb seeds as they come out, cultivate them when grown, take them out and sell…”

Also, plant and cultivate other seeds that come out just in case.

With happy imagination, I took out some firewood, laid it on the darkening yard, and lit a fire.

In the farming world, you have to suffer hard to start a fire, but here, I clicked it with the power of modern civilization.

“Wow. Did you bring this from the master’s dimension? Is it a magic artifact?”

“Something like that.”

I cut half a piece of Big Rats meat, grilled it in a frying pan, poured water in a pot, and heated ready-cooked rice.

Zzrrr- zzrrr-

With the sound of weeds fluttering in the wind and insects buzzing here and there, it seemed like it would be a romantic but shabby dinner.

“Romantic mapping and romantic camping…”

Not really suited for someone like me, a T type.

But I like it in my heart.