Taro POV
"This… this is so good!"
The cooked beef tasted unlike any beef I had ever eaten. The meat was juicy and tender, and even without seasoning, it tasted heavenly.
"Now imagine if I put seasoning on this…"
Just thinking about seasoned beef made me drool. But remembering the starving clansmen back home, I quickly ate my fill and continued exploring the biome, trying to find more food.
After a few minutes of traveling, I finally came across a herd of sheep—about five of them. I quickly killed three to make myself a bed, then built fences around the remaining two so I could breed them.
"I don't even know your gender, but oh well."
I looked around and sighed. "I should build a temporary house. It's already getting dark."
I built a quick five-by-four house and placed a bed inside. Then I went back out, crafted a hoe, and suddenly remembered something crucial.
"I need a bucket of water!"
Luckily, there was a nearby lake where I could start my farm. It was only a few blocks away from my "house," so setting it up wasn't a problem.
I crafted a shovel and started digging for dirt blocks. Once I gathered enough, I ran back to the lake and began building over the water. I tilled the dirt with my hoe and then went off to gather seeds.
As I turned around, I suddenly heard a burrrr sound coming from my left.
I slowly turned my head and saw a green humanoid zombie shambling toward me.
"Oh shit!"
I sprinted back to my house and rushed inside, immediately clicking on my bed. The moment I lay down, I fell asleep—and woke up seconds later.
My body felt light, all my energy fully restored. I smiled as I looked out the window and saw a burning zombie standing motionless outside.
"That scared me. I don't want to risk anything yet, especially when I don't even know how to fight properly."
Once the zombie burned away, I went outside and gathered seeds. When I had enough, I planted all sixty-four seeds in my man-made farm built over the lake.
As I watched the wheat slowly grow, something suddenly occurred to me.
"Shit! I might've overslept in Minecraft!"
I quickly opened a portal back to the ninja world and checked the sand timer.
I raised an eyebrow. "It's only been five minutes?"
Realizing what that meant, a wide grin spread across my face. "I can train in Minecraft! Plus, I can farm so much food here. I need to make a bone meal farm fast."
If I built a bone meal farm, I could grow wheat in seconds.
With plenty of time left until morning, I opened another gate and returned to Minecraft. Time clearly flowed differently between the two worlds—when I came back, the wheat hadn't grown any further, and the blocky sun was still in the same position.
Excited, I upgraded my house a bit and built a basement where my mining would begin. But before mining, I needed more food.
While waiting for my crops to grow, I returned to the ninja world and grabbed some ropes. Back in Minecraft, I searched for mobs I could farm—chickens, pigs, cows, and more sheep.
I killed most of them, sparing only two of each so I could breed them. Using the ropes from the ninja world, I easily gathered them near my base. My small house was now surrounded by animals that would eventually be slaughtered for food.
By the time I finished, my crops had fully grown. I harvested all the wheat, crafted multiple chests, and placed them near the farm. Then I collected more dirt to expand it further.
After replanting everything, I fed the animals. As expected, they quickly produced offspring. I fed the babies as well, then stored the remaining wheat and seeds in the chests.
"Time for mining."
Just as I was about to start, a prompt suddenly appeared.
[Quest: The Children Yearn for the Mines!
Cobblestone – 0/100
Iron – 0/15
Gold – 0/10
Coal – 0/20
Penalty: None]
I raised an eyebrow. "So the quests are random?"
Shrugging, I ignored the system. All I cared about right now was getting iron tools.
Time passed, and I was nearly finished with the quest. All I needed now was five more iron and ten gold.
After strip mining for a few hours in Minecraft, I had only managed to find ten iron and no gold.
"This will be my last few blocks, then I'll head back up to check on the farm," I said as I mined straight ahead.
As I broke through another block, I suddenly froze. On the other side was a massive cave.
I crafted a stack of torches and carefully made my way inside. The cave was enormous, and monsters lurked everywhere.
I quickly placed down a crafting table, made a shield, and spread torches around to prevent hostile mobs from spawning nearby.
Despite the danger, I could see iron and gold veins scattered everywhere.
"I've hit the jackpot!"
I mined every ore I could find—even redstone. After a few minutes, the quest finally completed.
[Quest Completed!
Rewards: 3 Bronze Cards, 1 Silver Card.]
I barely paid attention to the rewards. My eyes were locked onto three glowing blue ores.
Diamonds.
There was just one problem. Standing atop them were two zombies.
I sighed. "I'll have to fight someday. Might as well be now."
I rushed toward them, letting out a battle cry. The two zombies turned and began shuffling toward me.
I raised my shield and let them strike it. When one got close, I swung my axe at its head. For a split second, its body flashed red as my axe split its skull.
"How is it still alive?"
I stepped back and struck again as it lunged forward, finally killing it. With one zombie down, the other was easy to deal with.
Once both were dead, the reward finally revealed itself.
The diamond vein was larger than I expected. I ended up with six diamonds in total. I didn't use them right away—I wanted to save them until I had enough for a full set of diamond armor. I hated mixing armor types.
"Well, that was a great mine. Time to head back up and check on the farm."
With that, I made my way back to the surface.