Farming Games are All About Grinding-Chapter 100: The Secret Realm

Upon hearing the system prompt, Han Qiwu felt a bit helpless.

Master, are you hard of hearing now that you’re up in age?

How did one and a half hours turn into just one hour?

So you already had the task planned out in your mind?

And yet, the rewards for this task are really tempting.

Forging Skills.

Just listening to the name tells you it’s something extraordinary!

Really want it.

"Yes."

After accepting the task, Han Qiwu decided to hone his crafting skills a bit more here.

If he failed the task and missed out on the rewards, it would be a disaster.

At the moment, there’s no iron ore, so he couldn’t practice forging further.

Weighing the items he could craft with what he had on hand, Han Qiwu decided to make some equipment he’d need for mining: torches and grape grenades.

As for ladders, forget it—better leave those for the system to handle.

If something went wrong with the ladders and he ended up directly in someone else’s bathroom upon using them, it’d be a problem.

When checking his materials, Han Qiwu suddenly realized he had already gathered all the materials needed for a Slime Disposable Incubator.

[Slime Disposable Incubator]

[Materials: Stone ×200, Coal ×1, Moss ×5]

Better leave this to the system too—if something went wrong, it’d just waste more time.

Two minutes later, Han Qiwu’s storage grid contained a round, chubby incubator.

[Slime Disposable Incubator: Can be used to hatch Slimes]

The incubator’s appearance resembled a basketball, inscribed with mysterious patterns. Using it was very straightforward.

Open it, put the egg in, close it.

Done. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

But the egg was still at home, so he’d have to wait until he got back to use it for hatching.

"Hopefully it’ll be a combat pet I can bring into the mines. Even if it doesn’t do much else, slowing down enemies would be helpful," Han Qiwu silently hoped.

Stowing the incubator, Han Qiwu walked into the forge room.

Han Qiwu had manually crafted torches before.

Although the torches he made last time were absolutely abysmal, with experience behind him, this time he’d surely produce good ones!

He hadn’t crafted grape grenades before, though, so this was the perfect chance to give it a shot and see if he could fix their current flaw of only detonating on the spot.

No one could stand running around with grenades only meant for self-destruction!

Two and a half hours later.

[Improved Torch (Silver Star Quality☆)]

[Crafted by: Han Qiwu]

[Effect: Disperses darkness over a wider range]

[Burn Time: 15 hours]

[Note: Clearly, your craftsmanship is becoming more refined]

[Improved Grape Grenade (Silver Star Quality☆)]

[Crafted by: Master Shuzi, Han Qiwu]

[Effect: When used, detonates all mining nodes within a 5×5 radius centered on the user. If any mine creatures are within the blast range, the grenade deals some damage to them.]

[Note: The defining characteristic of grape grenades cannot be altered]

Han Qiwu crafted five improved torches, but only managed to make three improved grape grenades.

The torches were fine, but improving those grape grenades was an absolute headache.

Even with Master Shuzi’s assistance, all they could do was expand the damage range.

According to Master Shuzi, the design of the grape grenade was downright hopeless!

Not much else he could do—until his mining level increased, Han Qiwu would have to make do with this stuff.

He wasn’t about to design his own grenades, right?

Who even knows how to do that?

Overall, this trip had been very fruitful. Even though there weren’t any numerical changes yet, Han Qiwu could clearly feel that after learning forging from Master Shuzi, the master’s attitude toward him had grown increasingly amicable.

Teachers always like students who enjoy learning!

Packing up his items, Han Qiwu glanced at the time: 6:21 PM. It was getting late—time to head home and mess around with trees, hatch eggs, and play with the Little Prince.

On the way home, Han Qiwu deliberately chose a coastal road, riding his bicycle while soaking in the seaside view of the sunset.

As he took in the sights, Han Qiwu suddenly noticed on the map that the Little Prince was located just south of him, not too far away.

"Little Prince? Still wandering around this late without heading back?" Han Qiwu grew curious and pedaled toward the location.

Pedaling along, Han Qiwu noticed the scenery around him was rapidly changing, as though he had stepped into a time-space tunnel.

[You’ve discovered a 1-Star ☆ Secret Realm]

[Secret Realm: Contains segments from different times and places, inaccessible to outsiders. Entry is limited to once per day, with a random duration each time.]

[Note: Most of the time, secret realms can only be opened by certain types of pets.]

[Today’s permitted duration: 2 hours]

Han Qiwu felt thrilled—he hadn’t expected to stumble upon such a discovery just wandering around.

"A secret realm? Limited time access? Judging by the setup, there must be good stuff inside."

After seeing the prompt, Han Qiwu stopped his bike and looked around, finally noticing the differences in his surroundings.

Within the secret realm, everything—from the distant seawater to the sandy beaches and forests farther away—was confined within a specific range.

"The Little Prince has this kind of skill? Gotta reward him with some honey later." Han Qiwu was in a great mood and started following the map indicator to locate the Little Prince.

With the benefit of his extra-long vision, Han Qiwu spotted a bear-like shadow wriggling on a tree trunk from afar with just one glance.

As he got closer, Han Qiwu realized the tree the Little Prince was climbing was a mangrove tree. Upon surveying the area more closely, he saw mangroves, red eggplants, horned fruit trees, and wood olives—plants unique to mangrove ecosystems—appearing in abundance.

But unlike real-world mangrove forests, every plant here grew to absurd sizes and was thriving.

"Could this be an ancient mangrove ecosystem?" Han Qiwu was a bit stunned. Mangrove ecosystems are rare and fragile along coastal areas, requiring pristine environmental conditions; they act as transitional zones between land and sea. Due to pollution and exploitation by greedy profiteers, many such ecosystems have already vanished in real life.

Han Qiwu had once come across a research paper about mangroves while browsing academic papers on the web. According to the speculation in the paper, ancient mangrove systems were likely composed of gigantic plant species, boasting stable and diverse ecosystems.

Walking further in, Han Qiwu took a closer look at the surroundings and grew more delighted the more he saw. "Even if these mangroves here in the secret realm can’t attract migratory birds, it doesn’t matter. Just the treasures in this sea alone are already plentiful. Let’s not even mention the benefits—placing crab cages here will surely yield fantastic results. Might not even need bait!"

Once the potatoes were cooked, he’d try out what it felt like to explore as a potter!

He said this because he’d long remembered from school days that mangrove ecosystems—marked by tropical and subtropical estuarine wetlands with salty and brackish water—offer habitats and feeding grounds for countless fish, shrimp, crabs, waterfowl, and migratory birds, making them rich in biological resources and diverse species.

Mangroves are gifts from the planet and deserve everyone’s care.

Han Qiwu was busy snapping pictures on his phone when a loud sound interrupted him.

"Thwap!"

"Roar!"

Perhaps the Little Prince hadn’t gripped the tree branch securely enough and plummeted straight down from the tree.

Fortunately, the ground here was fluvial mud, and the Little Prince’s tough hide and thick flesh ensured that a spill like this caused no harm.

What’s more, the first thing this rascal did upon landing was shove whatever was in its paw straight into its mouth.

And judging by its expression, it was enjoying the snack a lot.