Overwhelming Efficiency
Overwhelming Efficiency
I was definitely farming quietly on the farm.
I was waiting for Miroa to return, planning to start 'work' as soon as the water pipe job was done.
But it seemed things had progressed faster than expected.
Pat! Papat!
Countless affinity increase messages appeared before my eyes.
[New Achievement: Friendly Resident (Stage 1)]
I also achieved a new achievement.
It's a basic step-by-step achievement given each time you build overall village affinity.
'Affinity. Affinity, huh...'
I was really just staying still, and now I've become 'liked.'
I like the party member function; it's very efficient.
Since it allows auto-hunting even while doing other work.
The gifts from villagers will also become substantial later.
Some of the gifts are even essential for future plans.
Well then, shall I finish my own work too?
Waiting for Miroa to return, I picked up the hoe again and started farming.
Ppasak-!
Whether it's due to game system calibration, the soil dug very well with just a few swings of the hoe.
A perfectly square field appeared before my eyes.
As if drawn with a ruler.
'How can this be.'
It's immensely satisfying.
One common sense about healing farming games shared by Koreans.
That in the early game, you must quickly and desperately earn money.
I, who was Korean in my past life, think the same way.
'Because it all comes back as a snowball later.'
How dare you relax and heal in a healing game?
Even if it were a real game, I couldn't stand it, but now it's reality.
Especially now, there's no time to rest.
I need to earn as much money as possible until the village spring festival on March 13th and then invest a lump sum.
Right after visiting the hot spring early in the morning, I immediately started the work I had planned.
Thanks to quickly clearing the weeds on the first day, a spacious area appeared in front of the mansion.
If not for that, there wouldn't have been room to even step foot, let alone farm.
I picked up the hoe and tilled the ground by hand.
Ppasak!
It seems that just digging the ground doesn't give experience, but instead, you can achieve an achievement.
[New Achievement: Secured Farmland]
[You have reclaimed 10 or more plots of farmland. You can sow seeds and grow crops on the reclaimed farmland. (Reward: Farming Experience)]
Quickly achieving these and sweeping up rewards is also key to the early game build.
Afterwards, I took out parsnip seeds from the storage and planted them.
They were quest rewards from the first day; I planted all 15 of them as if cleaning them out.
Then a status window appeared before me, revealing an amazing fact.
[Parsnip seeds will be fully grown and harvestable in 4 days.]
4 days!
So that means it only takes 4 days for the crops to fully grow.
This was something I had checked several times through the status window last night.
[TIP: Normal crops can be harvested in as little as 4 days, or at most within 2 weeks.]
Still, seeing it before my eyes is astonishing.
If it were original farming?
'Wouldn't it take at least 4 months at the fastest?'
It's common sense that if you sow in spring, you harvest in autumn.
On the other hand, I can grow fresh vegetables in just a few days.
It's like bringing the speed of a healing game to real farming.
'Even a fairly high-level magic would find this difficult.'
Even by fantasy standards where magic exists, it's an enormous cheat code.
Even if forcibly implemented, it's only temporary.
Crops growing without any cost is certainly amazing.
It's also one of the reasons I decided to come here as soon as I received the letter.
As soon as I saw it, I thought, 'Ah, this is a healing game.' Because I got that feeling.
Even if I misjudged, it's still a peaceful rural farming village.
I could just cool my head and rest for a while.
'I thought no way, but it was real.'
Since it's come to this, I plan to utilize the system as efficiently as possible.
If I rake in money here from farming, wouldn't I not need to do things like magical research?
I went to the Academy and worked hard on magic research to uphold our family's name, but rather than that, isn't it enough to just earn a lot of money?
Now, nothing can bother me.
'Now I am free.'
Even if my body is a bit tired, my spirit couldn't be fresher.
I'll work like crazy, smiling brightly.
And it was around that time.
'Something's coming?'
Something was approaching at tremendous speed, and looking closely, it was Miroa.
Hwoong-!
A single leap that drew out all speed.
With that, she easily jumped over the farm fence that could even stop a bear.
Miroa, who lingered in the air for a moment, finally landed softly like a butterfly.
Right next to me.
"Miroa Avis, completed all orders and returned."
"Was it necessary to sprint at full speed like that?"
Nod.
She nodded as if it were obvious.
Miroa adjusted her clothes briefly and asked.
"Nothing unusual happened, Master-nim?"
Her voice was very calm, as if she wasn't even out of breath.
"Rather, I want to ask if anything happened on your end, Miroa."
"I merely carried out as Master-nim commanded. Nothing was added or omitted."
For having run at full power, the report was anticlimactic.
"So there was nothing special?"
"That is correct. However, all the blocked water pipes were cleared and water came out again. Knowing it was thanks to Master-nim's magic, everyone was extremely delighted."
"That's good."
Then it's on to the next step.
I set down the hoe with a thud and dusted off my hands.
What had been blocking the water pipes until now were the slimes.
Since the landslide turned the entire area upside down, their numbers would also be large.
Where did all those guys go?
"You still have stamina left?"
"I dare say I could even confront a yeti."
"Let's do a job together."
Today's farming is done for now.
Now there's work to do on the hunting side.
When I told her about the slimes, Miroa listened seriously, nodding.
"Is it a battle?"
"Well."
It doesn't seem like something that deserves such a grand name.
"Rather, it might be more appropriate to call it disposing of remnants."
"No problem."
A little later, at a spot on the village's back mountain, thick with oak groves.
It was a place where a thick, round water pipe running from the water source down to the village was exposed above the soil.
Until morning, the slimes had been tightly blocking this pipe.
Auto-hunting low-level monsters like slimes is simple, but their remnants would flow through the pipe and cause the same problem again.
They could contaminate the drinking water or block the downstream pipes again.
Even worse, cases where they revive around an intact core are not uncommon.
'Just breaking them won't solve it.'
So what I added was a spell to induce coagulation.
I designed a point here for all the slimes to gather.
'Rather, to be able to cram them all into one place.'
That place is right here.
Jabak.
I lightly cleared away the dirt pile pushed by the landslide and found an old iron inspection hatch located in the middle of the pipe.
Simply put, it's like an entrance made for a plumber to inspect or work inside.
The valve was tightly locked, but fortunately, its condition was good.
With some force, I was able to open the inspection hatch right away.
"Miroa. Get ready."
Sswaaaaa-.
Slime debris came rushing out satisfyingly.
Slime mucus used for basic crafting.
And the broken cores of slimes used in magic materials, spirit techniques, and alchemy.
I can't just let these precious things spill on the ground.
Chwak!
Miroa quickly placed a large bucket underneath.
And one more thing to note: the continuously rising hunting experience.
The reason being:
"[Scavenger: You can occasionally obtain a portion of experience from the remnants of already defeated monsters.]"
Because you can gain experience even without killing them directly.
As the word 'occasionally' suggests, the probability is low, but the quantity pouring out was so massive.
All the slimes from the entire neighborhood that had gathered in the water pipe were flowing out as a pulp.
[Obtain a portion of Slime defeat experience.]
[Obtain a portion of Slime defeat experience.]
[Hunting level increases.]
"Master-nim."
Furthermore, some were still squirming as if alive.
With Miroa right next to me, there's no need to be tense.
"Miroa. Destroy the living ones thoroughly."
Sreung-.
Rather, it was a job closer to herding and hunting.
The slimes, dragged out unknowingly by the water flow, met their deaths one after another like sausages.
[Defeated a Slime.]
[Hunting level increases.]
[Chain Kill Combo! (Hunting bonus experience +20%)]
......
[New Achievement: Slime Massacre (Stage 1)]
[You have gained knowledge by hunting a large number of slimes. Increases the chance of obtaining rare rewards when defeating slimes. (Reward: Hunting Experience, Skill 'Slime Expert Lv.1')]
Even though slimes are weak, they are still monsters. Can hunting really be this easy?
Come to think of it, I recall a famous game from my past life.
An online RPG game where if you just hold down one key on the keyboard and keep jumping, the hunting happens automatically, and repeating that for hours was the entire gameplay.
I'd heard that some people sold the in-game currency earned that way to make real money and buy rice.
Seogeok. Chwak!
Miroa was repeating a similar motion.
Standing tall in the same posture, she could kill slimes and collect rewards with just a simple swing of her sword.
Of course, Miroa can't see the status window or system, but the byproducts piling up in the bucket are still rewards.
"Uuuu... Master-nim..."
Miroa's expressionless eyes began to grow vacant.
"Doing this is making my head go blank... I think... my brain is melting."
After that, we did a lot of auto-hunting and secured the necessary materials.
A few days later.
At the Academy in the center of the Empire.
Ailiya, holed up in her lab again, was deeply immersed in magical research.
It was a bit different from usual.
She hadn't slept for several days already.
"Ail! You'll really die!"
"It's fine. I'm from the northern bloodline, so I'm sturdy. I won't die from just two nights awake."
"It's not two, it's three days."
"Three days is 3 days? Or was it 4..."
"You're crazy! Crazy!!!"
The spirit Goggle-i tried to stop her from beside her, but Ailiya couldn't stop.
Her mindset was to sleep when dead.
More than that, analyzing the damn awesome magic before her was more urgent.
"The mage named Rii. He was even more amazing than I thought. A spell that improves the efficiency of all magic. It wasn't just a grandiose title."
Ailiya, drowsy with sleep, quickly poured out her words.
"The thesis asserts two things. First, that you can boost the efficiency of all magic at once."
"Th-that's possible?"
"He says it's possible right now. It's even been actually implemented, so you'll see when you look."
She thought there would naturally be theoretical grounds and core ideas.
But he had even completed the implementation of a usable spell.
As someone who has researched magic passionately in her own way,
Ailiya was convinced as soon as she saw Rii's actual magic.
"This itself is already a revolution. Because it can literally improve the efficiency of all magic."
People in this world seem to not realize it, but magic is incredibly useful.
They just aren't using it properly.
If we create more useful spells and add efficiency improvements?
No. Even applying it to the few existing useful spells would be the same.
"The Empire's civilization itself would change."
Civilization itself would completely change.
Cars that were pushed out by horse-drawn carriages due to fuel efficiency issues could be properly made, heating could be done with magic, and farming could be simplified, maybe solving the food problem.
But the thesis doesn't end there.
Goggle-i asked with a trembling voice.
"And the second?"
"The possibility that this magic can continuously improve even itself."
In other words, a singularity in the magical world.
Excitement began dripping from Ailiya's voice.
"What if you improve the magic that improves? Then it would improve even better, right? You could keep churning out more and more efficient spells? This possibility is the core of the thesis."
"That can't be..."
Goggle-i was astonished by the explanation beyond common sense.
Ailiya staggered for a moment, then looked up at the spirit above her head and asked.
"So, I'm asking you. Goggle-i."
"Uh, yeah."
"Did you find out where the mage named Rii went?"
"Well..."
"I think I gave you three whole days."
After thinking for a while, Goggle-i finally answered.
"I actually came to talk about that. I heard from a carriage operating company... that the mage named Rii has already gone down to the countryside."
"The countryside? His family's territory, right?"
That might be fortunate, maybe.
It's fairly common for a mage to go down to their hometown to clear their head.
But Goggle-i shook her head.
"No. Not the Solanium family territory, but to a place no one knows... a remote mountain region that takes over 15 days by carriage."
"What? Why there?"
"I don't know. I don't know, but... I'm about to have a really scary thought..."
Could it be that the mage named Rii...
Went to a place no one knows to die?
"Ah."
Ailiya's pen dropped to the floor with a thud.