Chapter 12
12. Adventurous Mapping
The act of uncovering the map is called ‘mapping.’
This concept isn't exclusive to Farming World—it's a fundamental feature of most open-world games. The fun in such games often comes from exploring the unknown, from the anticipation of not knowing what lies ahead on your path. Because of this, mapping naturally became a crucial gameplay element.
That said, more than 80% of Korean players tend to focus on progressing through maps as efficiently as possible, prioritizing the shortest route forward.
And that's not strange.
Nobody wants to waste time idly while chewing on a bowl of rice and sweet potatoes just to pass the time in a game—everyone wants to grow quickly and easily.
Since so many players maintained this fast-paced playstyle, game developers had to adapt, designing open-world games in ways that would extend playtime. They introduced randomized map elements, assigning unique coordinates to key locations for each player. This prevented users from simply sharing major points of interest with each other.
Of course, there were still players who would extract the map files to uncover and navigate directly to key locations.
In Farming World, those who engaged in extreme mapping were called Adventurous Mappers.
At the end of the day, fully uncovering a map was recognized as content in itself, but doing so from the very beginning—exploring every corner, tearing apart the map, squeezing out every last bit of value before moving on to the next biome—was a level of dedication that even a Farming World veteran like me, who had played for over ten years, would find excessive.
Of course, this wasn't entirely meaningless.
In the long run, even if their growth was slightly slower, Adventurous Mappers ended up with more solid bases, and those who found enjoyment in this approach achieved satisfying results.
Farming World even had achievement quests specifically tailored for such players, ensuring that the time invested in mapping translated into a stronger sense of progression.
And that was exactly what I was looking at now—an explorer growth quest.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult quest.
As you could see, simply revealing 80% of the darkened map in the level 0 biome would automatically clear the quest. From there, the Explorer II quest would be given, requiring 80% map coverage of the level 1 biome, then level 2, and so on. Eventually, after progressing through this step-by-step questline, one would complete the achievement and become a Master Explorer.
Despite being relatively simple, this quest had insane rewards.
It practically showered players with rewards that were difficult to obtain in the level 0 biome.
Since reviving at my current level costs 1,000 Farm Points, completing this achievement sub-quest would grant me enough Farm to revive four times—including the one free revival I had received.
However, dedicating extra time to this quest in the level 0 biome wasn't an efficient enough reason to change my entire plan.
As expected, these achievement sub-quests couldn’t compare in efficiency to higher-level players backtracking to reveal lower-level biomes.
That said, it wasn’t completely unbalanced either.
Achievement Points.
In Farming World, these were considered the ultimate content, as they could be exchanged for highly valuable rewards.
Not only that—this quest also provided Farm Points and a significant boost to Farming Stats.
At first, Farming Stats were generously given through level-ups and early tutorial quests, making it seem like they were easy to obtain. However, once players moved past the early game, they realized that gaining Farming Stats became significantly harder. Many users found themselves hitting a growth plateau and only then returned to lower-level biomes to grind achievement and sub-quests.
On top of that, this quest also granted free Base Expansion.
This reward felt slightly better than those from previous achievement quests.
1 Achievement Point (1P) equaled 1M³ in Farming World terms.
Essentially, this was about 1 pyeong (a Korean unit of area), but unlike the standard 3.3m² measurement, Farming World also factored in height, which seemed to explain the different notation.
In other words, this quest would expand my base by approximately 10 pyeong for free.
That was actually pretty significant.
Right now, my hut was about 10 pyeong, so this meant my base would double in size.
A larger stronghold meant a wider safe zone, more space to store items, and additional room to set up workbenches or crafting stations.
Considering that only items inside the warehouse are linked within the base, the wider the base, the better—no exceptions.
Of course, to increase this base's P, I have to invest in Farming Points or set up a farm.
On top of that, the random base box is quite decent.
If I'm lucky, I could get something like an anvil or a furnace, which requires a lot of materials and rare resources.
"Hmm..."
I found myself contemplating a rather tempting achievement quest.
The fact that I'm even hesitating means my mind is already leaning towards completing this quest, which forces a plan completely opposite to the one I had originally set.
Adventurous Mapping.
I never thought I'd end up doing something like this.
It's not bad, though.
Above all, this is an SSS+-rank map, and since both Resource Rarity and Deposits are at SSS+, it's possible.
"Anyway, even the stuff that comes out of a level 0 biome is all money if I sell enough of it."
It's not necessary to go for B-rank or A-rank resources, gather minerals or plants that are hard to find in reality and sell them to make a fortune.
This world now revolves around dungeon resources.
Rare minerals and resources are valuable because they are rare.
Even among the more common resources, if they contribute to human life, they hold some degree of value and can be sold.
Take the 'Healing Herb' I planted in my front yard, for example.
'Healing Herb' is an E-rank crop, and when gathering basic resources (wood, weeds) that are E-rank or higher, there's a 1% chance of obtaining its seeds.
Once planted, 'Healing Herb' takes five days to grow and bear fruit, and that fruit plays a crucial role as an ingredient in what people commonly call 'potions.'
It's not some hidden, newly discovered property. It’s explicitly stated that simply processing Healing Herb itself can create a potion that restores a large amount of health, which is why many hunters, in reality, consume Healing Herbs or purchase healing potions.
Not only that but even after harvesting the fruit, the leftover leaves can be ground into an ointment that greatly aids in wound healing.
Not just like a regular ointment—depending on the grade of the Healing Herb, a single leaf is enough to heal minor scrapes within ten minutes.
That’s why Healing Herbs are traded at high prices.
Hunters, who often suffer deep wounds, buy them, and even hospitals that treat external injuries are desperate to buy Healing Herbs in bulk.
Surgery is fundamentally about treatment, so it’s accepted that scars are inevitable when skin is cut open and stitched back. However, using these dungeon-sourced Healing Herb leaves—whose effects science cannot explain—even an incision made by a scalpel can be healed without a trace, even if it's just an E-rank Healing Herb.
That’s why I initially planted just three Healing Herbs.
A few other seeds had also dropped, but Healing Herb was at least useful when sold to a farm, and in the farming world, healing potions were necessary when fighting monsters.
If I return after the tutorial ends...
I figured if I had some crops growing, I could quickly harvest them and make potions.
But now that I’ve learned that I can take crops grown in the Rift Dimension outside, things have changed.
"An E-rank Healing Herb, with both leaves and fruit intact, sells for 100,000 won each."
The seeds in the field, which hadn’t even sprouted after a day, all looked like money to me.
Should I make them myself in case of unexpected injuries vs. sell everything and turn it into 300,000 won?
"No need to hesitate."
This was exactly why I had shifted my path to Adventurous Mapping.
From what I see, just plundering level 0 biomes alone would be enough to earn a lifetime’s worth of money. I have no intention of settling down and stopping. But building a solid foundation through Adventurous Mapping doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Besides, the logout cooldown is seven days. Healing Herb's growth period is five days.
"I'll tidy up the yard, plant all the Healing Herb seeds I get, harvest them when they grow, and take them outside to sell..."
And since I don’t know what might happen, I’ll plant and grow any other seeds that come up too. Feeling pleased with the thought, I pulled out a few logs, laid them out in the dimming yard, and lit a fire.
In the farming world, I’d have to struggle to build a fire manually, but here, I could just click a button and let modern civilization handle it.
"Wow. Did you bring this from your dimension, Master? Is it a magic artifact?"
"Something like that."
I cut a piece of Big Rat meat in half, grilled it on a frying pan, and poured water into a pot to heat up some instant rice.
Chirrr—chirrr—
The sound of weeds swaying in the wind and insects buzzing everywhere made it seem like one hell of an adventurous dinner.
"Adventurous Mapping and Adventurous Camping, huh..."
It doesn't really suit someone like me, a T.
But I like it.
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(T/N): "T" most likely refers to the Thinking (T) trait in the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) personality system - prioritize logic, objectivity, and efficiency over emotions.