Chapter 45: Sweet Potato Pumpkin?

Minhyuk wriggled under his blanket and said, "It's dangerous outside the blanket!"

"Boy, you're the one who looks more dangerous!"

"?!"?Chew.?Minhyuk chomped hard at his sweet potato as he looked at Bran strangely. He went back to eating it, together with some well-ripened kimchi. He said, "Hehe, life is like sweet potatoes! Eating some dry sweet potato with some spicy and sour kimchi is the best!"

"Oh, there's something like that?" Bran asked. He had never seen kimchi his entire life. So he sat down in front of Minhyuk, and asked curiously, "Can I have a bite too?"

"Are you sure that it's just?one?bite?"

"Yeah."

Bran was the guardian of the dungeon and Minhyuk was aware that Bran's favor towards him would probably fall if he did not give him a single sweet potato. So, Minhyuk handed over a sweet potato to Bran. He carefully peeled off the skin and placed a piece of kimchi on top of it before taking a huge bite.

"This is how you eat it, right?"

"That's correct!"

Chomp.

Bran chomped on the kimchi and the sweet potato. The taste caused his eyes to widen.

'What, what in the wor...!'

Bran felt like he could hear some sort of heavenly harmony in his ears, as the sweet taste of the sweet potato met with the spicy and sour flavor of the kimchi, complementing each other in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch—

The crunch of the kimchi with every bite made the experience even more enjoyable. Bran exclaimed, "Wow… It's really delicious."

"Isn’t it the best?"

"Yeah! It's the best!?Chew, chew!"

[You have received Bran's favor.]

Bran was finally able to see the black sweet potatoes piled up at one side after he finished eating his sweet potato and kimchi.

'One, two, three, four, five... Gasp?! 17?!'

Bran was shocked to see that Minhyuk had dug up this much black sweet potato. It was completely unbelievable. After all, black sweet potatoes were crops that would not be uncovered easily. Generally, they would only appear after an appropriate amount of sweet potato had been harvested. Based on the number of black sweet potatoes that Minhyuk had harvested, Bran could tell that the boy in front of him had already eaten at least thirty sweet potatoes.

'How did this happen?'

In fact, players would really find it difficult to dig up one, let alone two, piece of sweet potatoes inside the dungeon in just an hour. Although Bran was unaware, Minhyuk was a player that was a cut above the rest in terms of DEX. This was the main reason why he could work faster than other players despite not having the farming skill yet. Besides, he had dug continuously without taking a rest, so his proficiency in the skill had increased to the point that it had already reached 90%.

"Huh?"

Bran suddenly found something strange. He asked, "Why are there no sweet potatoes around?"

"...Hmm," ?Minhyuk hummed, pretending to be clueless as Bran looked around the area. Based on Bran's estimate, there should have been around thirty sweet potatoes. Even if Minhyuk had eaten a few of them, there should at least be around twenty or so lying around here. So, the question was, where did all of them go?

Bran continued to look around until his gaze drifted back to Minhyuk. He said, "D…don't tell me you…"

"..."

"You ate all of it?!"

"Eyy, how can one person eat all of that?" Minhyuk responded dismissively, slowly wriggling inside his blanket to hide from Bran.

However, there was no way that the clever Bran could be tricked any further. Bran roared, "How can you eat all thirty sweet potatoes…?!"

"You said that I can eat anything that I dug up. A man should not take back his words, right? Besides, the sweet potatoes that you grew were all ve~ry delicious, so much so that I finished them all without realizing it," Minhyuk smiled, poking his head out of the blanket.

Bran thought,?'There's nothing I can do since he dug it himself…'

After all, that was part of the dungeon's rewards. However, none of the players before were happy with this reward even when Bran told them that they could eat as much as they could. Even though he knew this, Bran was still sullen. He sadly said, "My farm..."

[Bran's favor towards you has decreased.]

The few favor points that Minhyuk had worked hard to increase, went down in an instant. Minhyuk had no choice but to do something to increase his favor again. He said, "Then, let me make it up to you! I will make you something delicious with sweet potatoes later."

Bran just turned around without answering him. He thought,?'Don't tell me that he's still going to continue to eat them? Eyyy, there's no way a person can eat all of the sweet potatoes here.'

However, Bran knew that this was just his hopeful thinking. He trudged back to his hut and looked at the distant mountains. He sighed deeply, his expression looking like he had just understood the true meaning of life.

***

Minhyuk began to dig for sweet potatoes once again after he finished eating all of the sweet potatoes that he harvested before.

[You have earned 100% farming proficiency.]

[You have acquired the Novice Farming Skill.]

[You have gained 10 DEX.]

Minhyuk checked the notifications about his little successes.

(Novice Farming)

Passive Skill

Level: 1

Effects: You will be 4% faster whenever you gather or dig for materials and ingredients.

‘Then, this means that I can dig for more sweet potatoes at a faster pace!’?Minhyuk thought as he imagined himself eating all of the sweet potatoes in the field. If he had not set it as his goal before, then it would be his goal now. Then…

Thud!

Thud!

Another black sweet potato emerged from the field, it was the final black sweet potato. Minhyuk immediately picked it up and placed it in a box, before heading towards Bran’s hut. He said, "Bran, I finished gathering twenty black sweet potatoes."

"...That's really fast!"

[You have received Bran’s favor.]

Bran might not have appreciated Minhyuk for eating all of the sweet potatoes that he farmed, but the fact still remained that Minhyuk had given him a pleasant surprise. In fact, he was not confident that Minhyuk would be able to dig up all twenty of the black sweet potatoes within 24 hours, but he was able to finish it.

[You have completed the Quest: Dig Up 20 Black Sweet Potatoes.]

[You have completed the Secret Quest: He Who Cherishes the Little Things.]

[You have gained 1,000 Novice Farming EXP.]

[Your EXP acquisition rate has increased by 2x for one week.]

[Novice Farming has leveled up.]

[Novice Farming has leveled up.]

[Your DEX acquisition rate inside the 'Farming Dungeon' has increased.]

[For Player Minhyuk only. The effect of Ellie's Sword and the rewarded DEX acquisition rate have been stacked. Your total DEX acquisition rate has increased by 6x. This will only be applicable inside the Farming Dungeon.]

"Huh...?!" Minhyuk exclaimed. He was very happy to have completed this secret quest.

Bran smiled and said, "To be honest, I actually wanted to ask you a favor and help me farm..."

Bran’s smile turned bitter as he continued to say, "Who would want to come here and dig up sweet potatoes, and to top it all off, they could only dig up one to two per hour. You know? Who else would be so interested in farming sweet potatoes? Also, no one would feel rewarded by digging up sweet potatoes…"

This secret quest was very, very, difficult. Just as Bran said, who would even do this quest earnestly? Farmer? It was considered as the lowest among all of the non-combat classes. To be honest, there was virtually no one who would take ‘Farmer’ as their class. In fact, the percentage of people that took this class was far lower than that of chefs. Nevertheless, Minhyuk still did his best.

Of course, Bran would not forget how Minhyuk ate all of his sweet potatoes. However, he also knew eating the sweet potatoes that he had farmed and praising it as something that was more delicious than others was truly an act of sincerity on Minhyuk’s part. Bran knew that Minhyuk had completely met the qualifications.

[You have received Bran’s favor.]

"Thank you. I will cook a delicious meal made out of sweet potatoes for you later. You'll probably be surprised!" Minhyuk said happily. There was only one reason for his delight and that was…

'My DEX acquisition rate has increased inside this dungeon…!'

With the effect of Ellie’s Sword, he now had a total of 6x increase in his DEX acquisition rate. This meant that if other people could gain one point of DEX for every six hours of work, Minhyuk would be able to gain one point of DEX in an hour! Minhyuk also checked his leveled up Novice Farming skill.

(Novice Farming)

Passive Skill

Level: 3

Effects:

You will be 10% faster whenever you gather or dig for materials and ingredients.

?You have a 3% chance of obtaining better materials and ingredients.

'Oh…!'

Minhyuk was very moved.

‘My goodness! With this…! With this, there was a chance that I would be able to get a more delicious ingredient!’

“Boy, I want to ask you for an additional favor. You see, from now on, Sweet Potato Men will appear in the field.”

"Sweet Potato Men?"

“That’s right. They’re the ones that usually suck up the nutrients that the black sweet potatoes gather from the other sweet potatoes. Since you dug all of the black sweet potatoes up, the chances of these mobs coming out of the ground to attack you has increased. There’s not many of them, so you don’t need to worry too much. You only need to hunt ten Sweet Potato Men and one Sweet Potato Warrior.”

[Quest: Hunt 10 Sweet Potato Men]

Rank: D

Requirements: Available only to those who have completed the 'He Who Cherishes the Little Things' quest.

Rewards: For every Sweet Potato Man, the drops are: 1 million gold, a seed and an increase in DEX acquisition rate.

Penalty for Failure: Bran's favor will drop.

Description: Only for those who have completed the quest, He Who Cherishes the Little Things. Hunt 10 Sweet Potato Men and 1 Sweet Potato Warrior.

“Be careful. The Sweet Potato Warrior has a special ability that can help it recover its HP by eating the sweet potatoes nearby. That guy is also over Level 30, so it might be a bit difficult for you. Don’t strain yourself.”

"Yes. I understand. I'll accept the quest," Minhyuk said, accepting the quest despite Bran’s concern. The quest had extremely good rewards for every Sweet Potato Man that he hunted. Furthermore, there were a total of ten Sweet Potato Man that would appear. One Sweet Potato Man would give him one million gold, so a total of ten would give him ten million gold in drops alone. There was even some kind of unknown seed among the drops.

Bran continued to speak, "Oh yes, if you hunt a Sweet Potato Warrior, you'll definitely find something that you'll like. Hohoho."

"D, don't tell me…"

Bran nodded in answer.

"Oooooooooooh!" Minhyuk shouted, his body suddenly filled with strength and enthusiasm. He had a hunch that something delicious would definitely be dropped.

"As for the seeds, I’ll let you know once you hunt the Sweet Potato Warrior."

"Alright!"

Swoosh!

Minhyuk moved back to the field. He dug sweet potatoes up like a whirlwind. His entire focus was placed solely on this task.

[You have gained 1 DEX.]

Not long after, he heard the DEX notification.

Thud, thud, thud!

As Minhyuk diligently dug up the sweet potatoes…

"Gumaguma!"

A monster suddenly popped out of the ground. It looked like a peeled sweet potato and was around the size of an eight-year-old child. It looked adorable with the tiny sickle in its hands.

"Gumaguma!"

The Sweet Potato Man quickly narrowed the distance between them. Minhyuk, who was digging sweet potatoes, swung out his fists.

"Noisy!"

Punch!

"Guma, kueeck!" The Sweet Potato Man shrieked as it crashed directly into a wall. Minhyuk only used one punch to deal with it. Then, a green seed dropped along with some gold. He quickly picked up the drops.

[You have acquired one million gold.]

[You have acquired a seed.]

Minhyuk continued to dig sweet potatoes again. He was so determined since he believed that the Sweet Potato Warrior would definitely give him something delicious in the end! His appetite and desire for food made him focus intensely on his task. Then, he heard a notification.

[You have gained 1 Will.]

"Huh…?"

The notification broke Minhyuk's concentration. He checked the detailed explanation about the new?Will?stat.

[The Will to do things. Your fatigue will disappear whenever you’re very eager or very focused on something. This is a stat that can’t be increased with bonus points.]

"Oh…!" Minhyuk gasped in awe. The stat was great. Usually, players would only gain stats like these once they reached Level 50 and had reached certain conditions. However, fulfilling those conditions was never an easy task. Of all of the players playing?Athenae,?only 3% of the total population had these special stats. After checking the stat, Minhyuk continued to dig sweet potatoes again.

[You have acquired a sweet potato.]

[You have acquired a sweet potato.]

.

[...sweet potato.]

Minhyuk's hand began to get faster and faster. Along with his speed, his DEX continued to rise, which gave him confidence. He could now dig up around four sweet potatoes in an hour.

"Guma! Aaack!"

Minhyuk once again punched the noisy monsters whenever they appeared and started shouting loudly. Then…

[You have successfully hunted 10 Sweet Potato Men.]

[A Sweet Potato Warrior has appeared.]

Baaaaaaang!

An earth-shattering sound was heard along with the explosion on the ground. Minhyuk, who was still digging the sweet potatoes, finally stopped what he was doing when he heard the notification. The guy that he was waiting for had finally appeared. The Sweet Potato Warrior was much larger than the Sweet Potato Men. Instead of holding a sickle, it was wielding a spear in its hands.

"Huh?" Minhyuk muttered dumbly as he looked at it in surprise.

'What’s that?'

Compared to the Sweet Potato Men that Minhyuk had seen before, this Sweet Potato Warrior was something else. It was definitely a monster, but there was a glow that surrounded its body.

'It's glowing with a black light?'?Minhyuk thought. This was the first time that he saw a monster, not an ingredient, glow with light. On top of that, it was also the first time that he had seen a black light.

1. Sweet potato is ???(go-gu-ma) in Korean.