Farming Games are All About Grinding-Chapter 48: Bountiful Harvest

Lucky that I didn’t waste too much time on the previous level.

Han Qiwu felt like his luck was always on a bit of a knife’s edge—it wouldn’t even surprise him if he had to dig through the entire mine before finding the staircase.

Man, if I could just build my own staircase, this whole mine would be mine to roam free!

[You have arrived at Mine Level 4]

"Squeak squeak!"

"These cave rats are seriously annoying. Next time, I’m bringing some rat poison to see if it works," thought Han Qiwu while alternating between walking and attacking.

At this moment, Han Qiwu finally realized why they had given him a sword.

When swinging the sword, so long as he hit the mine rats directly, it could cause a slight knockback effect on them.

"Maybe this is the weapon’s hidden effect," Han Qiwu mused to himself, continuing to swing and slash his sword. With some woodcutting experience under his belt, he was trying to see if the effects of the Strengthening Skill could be integrated into his attacks.

After clearing out all the mine rats on this level, Han Qiwu transformed into an emotionless miner once again. Taking a closer look, he noticed that he’d encountered two types of ore so far: one was brown rock, and the other was a vein of copper ore with a reddish-copper veneer.

"I’ll break the copper ore veins first, and if no staircase pops up, I’ll go for the brown rocks," Han Qiwu internally mapped out his plan, swinging his pickaxe over and over.

[Copper Ore]×2

[Stone]×1

[Amethyst]×1

"??? Amethyst? You can find this here too?" Han Qiwu paused his mining, taking the amethyst out of his storage compartment.

[Amethyst]

[Obtained from: Amethyst Veins]

[Sale Price: 50 gold coins]

[Note: A mysterious amethyst, often required for various rituals]

In the flickering torchlight, the amethyst shone within as if ignited, radiating an enchanting brilliance.

"Amethyst vein?" Han Qiwu recalled the chunk of ore he had just broken open. Its brown exterior had indeed looked slightly different.

"Let’s hunt for another one." Han Qiwu took out his phone, ready to snap some photos.

Before long, Han Qiwu found another similar amethyst vein. Comparing it to the earlier photos, he noticed that the amethyst veins had faint purple speckles on them.

Smash!

[Amethyst]×1

So it really was true. This mine wasn’t ordinary at all.

Han Qiwu decided to set aside thoughts of his haul for now—he’d sort it all out after leaving the mines.

As he entered a side passage on Level 4, two more rats suddenly appeared.

Once inside, Han Qiwu quickly dispatched the mine rats with his walk-and-swing technique, then turned back to smashing the copper ore veins.

After six swings, no staircase showed itself.

Moving on to the amethyst veins!

Three more swings later,

still no luck.

Wait, something felt off. Han Qiwu glanced at his stamina—it was down to just 13 points.

Then he looked at the time: 7:36 PM.

"?????"

How did it get to 7:30 so fast?

Time flies when you’re mining, huh?

Han Qiwu opened his storage compartment to check what items he had left to recover stamina.

All he had were the river fish he caught at noon and some wild chili peppers.

Yeah... that was a bit of a problem.

The fish he caught couldn’t be eaten raw.

And no, it wasn’t because of parasites—it was because they’d taste terrible.

Deciding whether something could be eaten has never been about parasite counts; it’s all about flavor.

"Stamina definitely needs recovering. If I collapse from exhaustion and die, it’ll be a real headache. Okay, I’ve got fish, chili peppers, and a torch..."

Han Qiwu had made up his mind.

You’re the one!

Grilled Carp!

Thankfully, he’d prepared a few torches in advance, so he wasn’t afraid to use them now. But he’d definitely need to make two more after this.

Han Qiwu took out two homemade torches, planted them into the ground, and grabbed a stone from his storage compartment to use as a cutting board.

The stones he stored were polished, clean, and smooth.

"Even though I didn’t bring a kitchen knife, an axe should do fine." Han Qiwu pulled out his axe and, with one clean chop, removed the carp’s head.

Perfect.

He had considered using his sword, but that thing had just been used to kill rats and was rusty as hell.

The axe was a much better choice.

Using the axe, Han Qiwu also dismantled Torch 4, pulling out a clean piece of wood to make a skewer for grilling.

The following steps were simple: evenly sprinkle some wild chili pepper on the skewered fish and wait for it to cook.

Carp is practically royalty among freshwater fish—abundant, prolific, and thriving everywhere.

Of course, that’s probably because carp had barely any fishy odor, a reasonable bone structure, and plenty of meat.

In short, it’s easy to farm and convenient to eat.

Ten minutes later, the grilled fish, neatly prepared and sliced, was ready.

Maybe it was due to the tuna oil used as fuel, but the fish carried a unique aroma.

"Next time I go out, I need to pack black pepper, cumin, chili powder, and maybe some crushed peanuts," Han Qiwu thought greedily.

Shame his storage compartment barely had enough room.

Whatever—finish eating and get back to mining for money.

How else could he afford upgrades?

The fish meat was tender and fragrant, while the wild chili peppers were crispy, spicy, and fresh—a match made in heaven.

Oh, some rice to go with this would’ve been divinely perfect.

In the quiet mine, the crackling of the burning torches was the only sound accompanying Han Qiwu’s meal.

One grilled fish and two wild chili peppers restored 65 stamina points.

Ah, so satisfying.

After cleaning up, Han Qiwu returned to mining.

Life works in mysterious ways—on his very next swing, he uncovered the staircase.

Han Qiwu: "...System, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? If you’d told me earlier, I could’ve just smashed the staircase out and skipped the whole meal!"

The system ignored Han Qiwu completely.

Fine, no point being mad at it—moving on to the next level.

[You have arrived at Mine Level 5]

[Cable car progress recorded]

As soon as he entered Mine Level 5, Han Qiwu had braced himself for a fight, but after glancing around...

This level had no monsters at all. Instead, lying in front of him was a pair of straw sandals, and beside those were a few upright barrels of wine.

Han Qiwu bent down and picked up the straw sandals.

[Wilted Straw Sandals]

[Level: 2]

[Movement Speed +1, Attack Speed +1]

[Note: Congratulations on reaching Mine Level 5. Don’t worry, these are brand-new shoes.]

"New shoes? Even if they’re new, who knows if they’ve got athlete’s foot or something," Han Qiwu muttered, conflicted. He didn’t want to give up the bonus stats, but he didn’t want to risk his precious feet, either.

"Wait, what size are these sandals?" Han Qiwu measured the sandals against his own shoes. They were absurdly small—barely half the length of his foot.

"Since this is a system item, being one-size-fits-all should be a standard feature, right?" Han Qiwu suddenly realized.

Without hesitation, he sat down and slipped the straw sandals directly over his sneakers.

Sure enough, these sandals lived up to that old saying by Mr. Ben Shan.

Whatever size shoes you have, these sandals will be the size you need.

And whatever size feet you have, these sandals will fit perfectly.

Watching his newly improved character stats, Han Qiwu swung his sword with satisfaction.

Yep, his movement speed and attack speed were noticeably faster now.

He took a couple of steps to test—he could jog now, and even perform a high jump.

Approaching the wine barrels nearby, Han Qiwu suddenly recalled an arcade game mechanic. Without hesitation, he slashed at them with his sword.

Sure enough, two steaming hot buns floated up, looking exactly like the classic ones from "Meteor Butterfly Sword." Beside them, a large liquor bottle also floated in the air.