Summer of the first year, 14th-18th
Given the bloodshed you suffered the previous two days, you've decided to postpone your plan to mine and grind monsters, and adjust your mindset before going back into battle.
Now that your Iridium Axe has been upgraded, you plan to spend a few days leveling up your lame Foraging skill.
However, the blacksmith shop doesn't open until 9 a.m., so you can do other things before that, such as petting rabbits, harvesting blueberries and hops, and that pig—the rather cute piglet grows into a fat sow with wrinkled fat, sacrificing its good looks to gain the ability to dig truffles for its owner anytime, anywhere.
These truffles aren't very useful except for selling them for money. Theoretically, you only need to keep a few to get rid of the adult pigs. Similarly, the other animals in the barn have no other use and can all be sold off... But doing so seems a bit cruel. They could be happier roaming freely on your farm and grazing than being sold off to who-knows-where.
After thinking for a moment, you decide to fence off the entire lower left corner of the Four Corners Farm into a pasture when you have time, and then move the barn, hay barn, and pet bowl inside. Everyone will be happy this way, except that the dog's water bowl is a bit far away... No problem, you've completely forgotten to add water to the dog's bowl lately, so it should be able to drink directly from the fishpond... right?
A letter in your mailbox suggests you buy a bouquet of flowers to propose to someone, reminding you of how Gojo Satoru urged you to marry Nanami Kento. If you did that, aside from anything else, someone would help you refill your pet's water bowl and fix their fence—sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
No, no, no, I don't want to get married or anything like that!
You have no intention of getting married unless it's a real game, and the current situation has gone too far.
Another letter came from Shen, who wanted light beer and seemed to have a problem with Gus only selling beer. He emphasized that he wanted "light" beer, as regular beer didn't quench his thirst.
[Just drink some water to quench your thirst. There's a river right next to your house. (indifferent)]
Let me test you—
Pale beer is brewed with hops; I just reviewed this point yesterday.
[What if we aged a glass of Iridium Pale Ale in a cellar...]
【？？？】
[Don't be a buddy, think it through.]
You look at the distant plot of land that was accidentally planted diagonally opposite the mailbox, where there are exactly two hops that can be harvested.
So, P-type players aren't suited for speedrunning Stardew Valley. They were just casually planting seeds back then, but now they have to travel a long way to harvest hops, and they can even water their dogs while they're at it.
The layout of the Four Corners Farm is really not suitable for single-player games. The dog bowl is also way too far away. Even though there is only one farmer, it seems like you have to share the right to raise this dog with three other people.
You pick the hops and throw them into the barrel, then take the minecart to get your iridium axe and go into the forest to chop down trees.
Cutting down hardwoods is a major source of foraging experience, but the common trees in the coal mining forest are not to be missed either. Like chives, they grow back after being cut down, accumulating little by little.
The traveling merchant happened to be there today. You took a look and found that he wasn't selling anything useful, so you bought all the rare seeds and left.
Because of the character's size, you always thought the traveling merchant was a chubby uncle with a grinning face. But when you came in and took a closer look, you found out that he was a modern woman with big earrings and a hot figure comparable to Tsunade. You were too embarrassed to talk to him and would leave after buying things.
After chopping down hardwood, I chopped down pine, then maple. The sheer power of chopping down a tree with three axe blows was addictive. Before I knew it, I had been chopping from morning till dawn before rushing back to the farm.
Reach level 4 in foraging to unlock 2 new recipes.
You get up in the morning and go chopping trees again, focusing on hardwoods, and secondly on the farm in the lower left that is about to become a primeval forest. You keep chopping until evening, and stop when you have almost two sets of wood in your backpack.
Back in front of the house, the barrel next to the mailbox had already "buried" the light beer you wanted, so you decided to go to the bar to find someone to turn in the quest.
There was something different about the bar than usual. You walked to the bar and was about to take out a light beer from your backpack when you suddenly realized something.
Gus walked across the bar from the center: "I'll take your order right away."
Ah, it's the plot; this time it went so smoothly.
You were secretly surprised when you suddenly heard the sound of a door opening behind you.
"Good evening, Iridium Rabbit Foot! What a coincidence!" Elliot walked gracefully to your side, greeted you, and then said with a smile, "I just finished writing for eight hours and wanted to rest here for a bit."
He tucked a strand of hair that had fallen across his face behind his ear, braced his elbows against the bar, and turned to Gus, saying, "Bartender, two of the best ale!"
Guts has always been seen as a nice guy, but that doesn’t mean he has no temper. At the very least, he prefers the residents of Stardew Valley to call him by his name rather than “bartender.”
“Here you are, sir,” Gus said curtly.
Elliot was completely oblivious to Gus's emotions, after all, all his attention was now focused on you, his affectionate green eyes gazing intently at you, as if a thousand words were welling up in his heart but he didn't know where to begin.
There were no options displayed, but the scenario was all too familiar, so you naturally picked up your glass and suggested, "Um... To us?"
Elliot's smile widened, and he raised his glass to lightly clink it against yours, saying softly, "Good idea...to us."
He tilted his head back and downed the entire glass of wine in one gulp, his cheeks quickly flushing red. He burped, then suddenly burst into laughter.
Elliot raised his arms slightly, as if embracing a dance partner, and gazed lovingly into the void before him, murmuring, "From the brightest winter star to the glimmer of iridium, nothing can compare to my love."
Your heart skipped a beat, and you instinctively grabbed his sleeve, calling out, "Elliot?"
Elliot, his eyes still blurry with drunkenness, took a moment to process what was happening. He turned and hugged you tightly, his face filled with blissful murmurs, "We've done so well, Iridium Rabbit Foot. The farm is thriving, and our healthy baby brings us immense joy. I'm so happy."
You catch a whiff of roses and wine on him, momentarily stunned, but quickly ask incredulously, "A child? What child?"
Elliot's nose gently brushed against your cheek, his tone almost pleading: "Don't worry, darling. I've already fed Reo and Rita, and the little ones ate a lot! So... so it's okay to go back a little later..."
You were completely dumbfounded.
Just like how you habitually name yourself "Iridium Rabbit Foot," you also always name your children with Elliot Reo and Rita. That was the name you came up with when you first adopted a child with Elliot, and you just kept using it because you were too lazy to think of anything else. What can you do when the Stardew Valley random name pool is shared by both humans and animals?
What kind of bug is this? How can it cause file corruption?!
But compared to that...
"Ugh, let go!" You were being hugged so tightly you could hardly breathe. This guy clearly doesn't farm and spends all day writing, so why does he have such strong arms, and his pectoral muscles are even more... In line with everyone's conclusion from observing the textures, he's in the top two in Stardew Valley.
Elliot released his arm, but the glass in your hand was already half-empty, so you couldn't drink much more.
The story continues, but the others in the bar seem oblivious to what's happening here. You tilt your head back and gulp down the last two mouthfuls of drink at the bottom of your glass, then put the glass down. Elliot is no longer beside you.
You stare blankly ahead, your cheeks burning, until the drunkenness wears off and you come to your senses, then continue to deliver the light beer that Shen Er wanted.
“Ah, that’s the taste.” He looked very satisfied, holding his glass and sipping it carefully: “There are faint notes of citrus and pineapple, but the rich aroma of the wine ensures the harmony of the flavors… How much did you brew? Sell it to that fellow Pierre. Although he’s a shrewd businessman, at least he’ll still sell it in town.”
"Just this one cup, that's all." You're not short of money, brewing beer is just for completing tasks, but hearing his description makes me crave some light beer, so I plan to brew some to drink another day.
"Tsk, unreliable kid." Shen Er instantly lost interest in you, waved his hand, and continued his "business" of getting himself completely drunk.
You didn't take what happened in the bar too seriously. After all, people can travel into games, so what's so strange about switching save files? Are two adjacent folders harder to communicate with than two adjacent worlds?
But in any case, Elliot's hug felt very real and left a deep impression on you.
The next day, the corn ripened, and a total of 3 golden corn ears were received. The sacrifice of the golden corn crop can probably be completed ahead of schedule.
After finishing your farm work, you remember that the coal mine forest has been completely cut down and it will take time for it to grow back. Moreover, it won't be enough to max out your gathering level. So, you take out the hundreds of tree species you've collected so far from the wooden box and plan to start a desert greening project.
Thank goodness, Shen'er, after drinking some light beer, seemed to have more patience with you and didn't mention marrying Hui again. He silently sent you off to plant trees in the desert.
You walk into the yellow sand, quickly plant the tree, and then without a second thought, take the bus back to Stardew Valley.
I'll definitely be going to the desert mines to farm the automatic petting machines a lot in the future, but for now, I still need to practice with the dust sprites in the regular mines to level up.
After two days of hard work, your gathering level has reached level 5, on par with your combat level. Your accelerated leveling up has been quite effective.
You grit your teeth and go to Rime to buy 999 super bombs and 999 health potions, preparing to continue farming monsters and crystals tomorrow.
Rime was quite indifferent to your arrival this time—he seemed convinced that he couldn't get any important information about Ryoumen Sukuna from you, so he didn't have a single extra expression on his face, just making a deal and not chatting.
You left the mine, completely bewildered, with your combat readiness restored.
The 17th of summer is predicted to be unlucky by fortune telling, but it's actually a good day for grinding monsters.
After petting the animals early in the morning, you pack cactus berries into your backpack and go to deliver a birthday present to Gojo Satoru.
You can't afford to miss such a crucial moment in increasing favorability, but unfortunately your foraging level isn't high enough to find an Iridium cactus fruit to boost the other person's favorability.
Next, you return to the bus station, take a minecart into the mine, rush into the hordes of dust sprites, and start killing!
Around 10 p.m., you checked the progress at the Explorers Guild—the bugs were more than halfway through, the dust sprites were nearly halfway through, and the others were still far from complete.
Knowing that the Monster Slayer Hero achievement is the kind of achievement that can't be rushed, you turn around, walk out of the guild gate, and plunge back into the mine.
The second day was still an unlucky day, and since no one was celebrating their birthday, it was a perfect day to continue mining and grinding monsters.
So you went again, and this time you were busy all day. By the end you were a bit numb and didn't bother to check the exact number. Anyway, it wasn't enough to refresh the achievement.
Progress is mainly reflected in your mental state. You are no longer afraid of pain, and your first reaction when you see a monster is to face it head-on, rather than to dodge and retreat.
Even so, you still don't like grinding monsters, no matter what resources they drop for you. You just mechanically complete tasks, like someone who has been killing fish at RT-Mart for twenty years and whose heart has become colder than the fish-killing knife.
Since Dust Sprites are weak and easily bullied monsters, each contributing only 2 experience points, your combat level will only reach level 6 after all this effort, unlocking the Slime Egg Press. The Slime Hatchery recipe still needs to be upgraded by 2 levels. Fortunately, Iridium Ingots are still left over from upgrading the Iridium Axe last time, so building a Slime House will allow you to get the Slime Hatchery sooner. This provides the basic conditions for slime farming... wait a minute, domesticated slimes don't seem to count, so they can't be used for achievements; it's purely for fun.
Sigh, it seems I'll still have to stick to fighting the giant purple slime in the Skull Cave.
After you fall asleep in the early morning, you hear a loud witch's strange laugh. The voice isn't as shrill as in the original game, which is quite odd, but it doesn't matter as long as you can keep the Void Egg.
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