Farming Games are All About Grinding-Chapter 78: Surprise

"Crack crack!"

A cave rat on the right seized the moment and lunged at Han Qiwu’s calf for a bite.

"Damn it!"

Han Qiwu, gritting through the pain, retaliated, finishing it off with two swings of his sword. Using the flickering firelight, he lowered his head to assess the situation.

No harm done, not even a red mark left behind.

"Whoa, is the heart-guard mirror this effective?" Han Qiwu was pleasantly surprised; he hadn’t expected the Defense +1 effect to be this good.

"I knew it, going tank build is the way to go."

Back at the blacksmith shop, Han Qiwu had considered crafting himself a full set of copper armor or some scattered copper protective gear pieces.

But Gongshu Zi had one clear rebuttal to shatter that idea:

"After putting it on, will you still be able to move?"

A single copper plate weighed over a hundred pounds. If Han Qiwu truly made himself full-body armor, he’d end up being just a punching bag.

Just putting it on or taking it off could probably take a solid half hour. frёewebηovel.cѳm

No way he could handle that.

Han Qiwu’s thought at the time: "If only I could switch gear sets with one button, like in those web-based games."

Shaking off his thoughts, Han Qiwu killed the other cave rat as well.

[Cave Rat Meat] ×2

Looking at the loot, Han Qiwu furrowed his brows.

"Oh right, cave rat meat can be used as fishing bait too. I completely forgot about the batch I got last time."

Making a mental note, Han Qiwu pulled out his Thorned Shield to prepare for the Slime battle.

"Boing!"

Five Green Slimes appeared from around the corner, wobbling as they began to charge at Han Qiwu.

"Hope they’ll drop some moss. Then I could have a pet accompany me while mining." Han Qiwu hid behind the Thorned Shield, waiting for them to finish charging.

"Boom boom boom boom boom!"

Five green projectiles slammed heavily against the Thorned Shield.

"-50"

"-34"

"-62"

"-34"

"-54"

As the Slimes made contact with the Thorned Shield, five damage records popped up above the Green Slimes’ heads.

"Wow, that’s a lot of damage."

Han Qiwu planted the shield vertically into the ground, maneuvered around to the front, grabbed his Soft Blade, and began stabbing.

"Squeak squeak squeak squeak!"

A rapid stream of critical hit numbers flashed continuously over the Green Slimes’ heads.

After a few minutes, Han Qiwu noticed the dagger seemed to have a hidden attribute: attack speed. After all, it was much lighter than the Longsword and shorter as well, making its stabbing speed extremely quick.

"Whew!"

As he continued stabbing, a burst of flame suddenly erupted from the blade of his dagger.

Caught off guard, Han Qiwu instinctively jammed the flame right into the Green Slime’s body.

"Something’s not right, time to retreat quickly!"

With the addition of that flame, the Green Slime’s body began to expand rapidly.

Han Qiwu: "You’ve changed, you’ve inflated."

Green Slime: "????? You’re the one who stabbed me carelessly, okay!"

"Boom!"

And with that, it exploded!

"-103"

"-126"

...

Aside from the now obliterated Exploding Slime, the other four Slimes also suffered triple-digit damage numbers over their heads, dying instantly.

"High attack speed truly is amazing; it makes triggering these passive effects much more frequent." Han Qiwu marveled while picking up the loot, shocked by the dagger’s ability to bury fire into a Slime’s body and cause an explosion.

Life is full of surprises! No need to spend money on those grenade-like Grape Bombs.

[Moss] ×1

[Slime Goo] ×3

The harvest wasn’t bad; Slime Goo could be used to make storage boxes, while Moss could make an incubator.

Just two more Moss, and the pet Slime would be ready.

With the monsters cleared, Han Qiwu settled in to mine peacefully.

"With today’s luck this good, surely I can descend several levels." Han Qiwu confidently began mining.

A minute passed.

Three minutes passed.

Ten minutes passed.

Han Qiwu: "??? Why is this so hard for me."

Turns out, mining without a luck stat booster really was like this.

When’s the next special event?!?!

After another five minutes of mining, Han Qiwu finally found the staircase to the next level.

[You’ve reached Level 22]

"Buzz buzz buzz!"

This time, as soon as Han Qiwu entered, he encountered stink bugs and roadblock pests.

Just like the cave rats on the previous level, both their size and levels had increased.

"Perfect timing! I was worrying about not having enough bait for fishing!" Han Qiwu swung his sword and charged.

"Slash slash slash!"

With the help of [Rare Stink Bug Venom Sacs], Han Qiwu swiftly dealt with most of the stink bugs on this floor.

Onward with the mining!

Three and a half hours later.

[You’ve reached Level 25]

[Cable Car Level Recorded]

Exiting the cable car, Han Qiwu collapsed against the rocky wall to rest.

Without the luck boost, swiftly uncovering staircases was ridiculously difficult.

Even worse, this level was empty in the middle—completely barren.

"Don’t play me like this!" Han Qiwu grumbled loudly, pulling out various bug meat and rat meat from his storage compartment to make fishing bait.

He heard the sound of running water.

Today doesn’t seem ideal for mining. Better stick to fishing for now.

If the next five levels didn’t go smoothly and got him stuck inside, it’d be problematic.

But then again, as the saying goes, fortune and misfortune often come hand in hand. With staircases being so rare, Han Qiwu had to mine through many points on every floor.

In his storage compartment alone, he now had over forty chunks of copper ore, along with six or seven pieces of amethyst and citrine combined.

Not bad.

After making the bait, Han Qiwu followed the sound of water and found a pond.

Taking out his fishing rod, Han Qiwu decided to test the effectiveness of rat meat bait first.

Turns out, he might not have luck in mining, but in fishing, he was thriving. In just five minutes, Han Qiwu caught a fish.

[Greenfin Filefish]

[Stamina +70]

[HP +35]

[Note: It only likes rat meat bait]

The Greenfin Filefish, also known as filefish, pigfish, breadcrumb fish, leatherfish, or mousefish, has a distinct flavor and tender texture.

Setting aside taste and texture for now, what pleased Han Qiwu most was its high stamina recovery.

points!

He’d definitely have to go after more cave rats later—not only could he complete bounty missions but also reel in Greenfin Filefish.

Switching to bug meat bait, he continued.

Over the next two and a half hours, Han Qiwu used up all his bait at the pond.

The total haul: [Greenfin Filefish] ×5, [Rockfish] ×3, [Stonefish] ×2.

Without the luck boost, Han Qiwu noticed these cave fish had a ridiculous skill called "Crazy Skip."

During normal fishing, suddenly the fish icon would spasm violently, jumping up and down. Within seconds, it’d escape.

No time for Han Qiwu to react.

If not for his fishing skill leveling up to Level 3, increasing the length of his bobber, he might not have reeled in even these ten fish.

"The higher the value, the greater the challenge." Han Qiwu comforted himself with a couple of words before taking the cable car back to the first mining level.

On his way back, Han Qiwu checked his forge materials: [Copper Ore] ×25, [Stone] ×25.

Having just one forge wasn’t cutting it anymore; he planned to ask the system to build an extra one.

Han Qiwu exited the mine at 3:32 PM.

He decided to visit the ranch, buy two more chicks, and check the prices of other animal-related buildings.

Just to see exactly how broke he really was......