Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 176

Pablo stepped out of the hidden doorway on the 49th floor of the tower.

He looked around the quiet space. “I’ve arrived,” he said, his voice echoing slightly.

He glanced back at the entrance from Lindgren, the glowing flower garden on the floor below. “I hope they’re keeping up,” he muttered to himself, walking slowly so the Black Wolves could follow.

Suddenly, Pablo stopped. “Huh?!” He noticed something was wrong with Lindgren.

Some of its bright petals were sliced clean through, like someone had taken a sharp knife to them. “What is this? Could it be?!”

A worry flickered in his mind. Could the secret hideout on the 49th floor be in danger already?

He quickly pushed the thought aside. This hideout was much stronger than the one on the 33rd floor; it couldn’t be destroyed by simple force. “Let’s go and see,” Pablo decided, and moved towards the secret hideout managed by Akiro.

Just then, he felt it. “Huh?! Akiro?” Pablo sensed Akiro’s energy approaching him.

However,

“Meow, meow, meow.”

“Koo-ehng!”

(Flap flap)

Pablo stopped in surprise. Blocking his path were strange figures: a large, brown bear stood growling, a black cat hissed, a bat flapped its wings, and a hunter with a strange, blank look in his eyes stood in front.

And then he noticed something strange about the hunter. He could feel Akiro’s energy coming from a bronze coin the hunter held.

‘Akiro is… dead?!’

Pablo’s mind raced. If Akiro was dead, then these creatures must be enemies.

“Die!” So, without a moment’s hesitation, Pablo attacked Sejun, but—

“Koo-ehng! Koo-ehng!”

Wham!

He was struck by a punch from the bear beside the hunter and began to weaken.

And then,

“Fool! You dare to strike me? You will regret this!”

Left with no choice, the Hydra’s third head, which had been hiding within Pablo’s body, revealed itself.

Sejun looked at the red dragon with a hint of annoyance. “Another Apostle of Destruction?” he wondered. There was no sign of fear.

He had already seen how the golden dragon died at Koo-ehng’s hands. The red dragon would be no different.

“Create storm clouds. Make it rain.”

Still, just in case he might get burned by the fire, he made it rain to reduce the fire’s power.

“Throw lightning!”

Flash! Bang!

KABOOM!

He launched a surprise attack, throwing three consecutive bolts of lightning, but—

Fwoosh.

The lightning vanished as if devoured by the flames. As expected, Sejun’s attacks were useless.

“You! How dare you insult me with such pathetic attacks?!”

The red dragon was furious at Sejun for attacking him. Or rather, for the attack being so weak that it was insulting?

Sejun was offended by the red dragon’s words. If he wanted a strong attack, he would get one!

“Koo-ehng! Rising Dragon Fist!”

While Sejun diverted the red dragon’s attention, he shouted to Koo-ehng, who had moved directly below the red snake.

“Koo-ehng!”

[Understood!]

Wham!

Following Sejun’s command, Koo-ehng crouched down and then sprang up, using the recoil to jump. The recoil created a massive hole in the ground.

And then,

“Koo-ehng!”

[You can’t ignore Koo-ehng, Daddy!]

Wham!

Koo-ehng powerfully uppercutted the red snake’s jaw for ignoring Sejun.

-Kuh-ugh!

That was the end of it.

Thud.

With a final shudder, the red dragon’s fiery form flickered and dissolved into red dust, which fell to the ground like ash.

Wham!

Koo-ehng landed heavily on the ground, dust and small stones flying up around him, bringing the situation to an end.

“Well done, Koo-ehng.”

Sejun praised Koo-ehng and stroked his head.

“Koo-ehng!”

[Koo-ehng will punish anyone who bullies Daddy!]

Koo-ehng rubbed his head against Sejun’s hand.

“Yes, yes.”

Such a devoted son. While Sejun was stroking Koo-ehng’s head, praising his admirable words, the red snake’s corpse completely turned to dust.

And then,

Clink.

Another bronze coin fell.

Thwack.

Sejun picked up the fallen coin. The front side depicted the same nine-headed Hydra as the previous coin, but the back side had the number 3 instead of 7.

“Let’s go.”

Sejun checked the bronze coin and then moved back to the waypoint with the animals.

“Wait here for a moment.”

Sejun sent the animals into the subspace warehouse and stood before the red crystal.

Thwack.

As he touched the red crystal,

A message appeared, along with the waypoints he could travel to.

Sejun selected the 99th floor of the tower and teleported.

Hegel, seeing that Pablo was moving as if deliberately leading them on, suspected a trap. “We’ll stop the pursuit here,” he said.

He stopped the pursuit and returned to thoroughly search the enemy’s hideout. The cliff had collapsed, destroying most of it, but some things remained.

While searching,

“Hegel! It seems we’ve found something,” the wolves called out to Hegel.

“Where is it?”

“Follow us.”

Hegel followed the wolves to a place where the Black Oaks were diligently clearing away stones. The stones were covered with the remains of snakes that had been crushed to death when the cliff collapsed.

After clearing away a few more stones,

“What is this?”

The corpses of snakes crushed to death were visible. There were an enormous number of them. At least a million.

‘What were they doing with these snakes?’ Hegel wondered.

Just then,

“Hegel, may we eat these snakes? Slurp,” one of the Black Oaks carefully asked Hegel, wiping his drool. Behind him, the Black Wolves and Black Oaks were looking at Hegel with sparkling eyes.

“Hmph. Check if they are poisonous before eating.”

“Yay!” The Black Wolves and Black Oaks cheered at Hegel’s permission.

Thanks to the Three-Headed Society, the Black Wolves and Black Oaks were able to enjoy a snake meat feast and continue their search happily.

However, as Pablo had already destroyed all the important facilities on the 33rd floor before the cliff collapsed, all they obtained from the search, which lasted several days, were snake meat and a few items with a suspicious smell.

“Return!”

“Yes!” At Hegel’s words, the Black Wolves and Black Oaks, who had eaten their fill of snake meat, replied energetically.

And so, Hegel led his subordinates up the tower to rejoin Urchi.

“Thank you.”

Moo!

Sejun gave a leek to the black minotaur who had taken him from the waypoint to the farm as a sign of gratitude.

As soon as he arrived at the farm,

“Koo-ehng!”

[Mommy, Koo-ehng is here!]

Koo-ehng ran towards the pink fur and leaped into the air.

Koo-uhng!

The pink fur also spread her arms to welcome Koo-ehng. A touching reunion between mother and son.

Wham!

A rather loud explosion was heard, but the pink fur nonchalantly took Koo-ehng’s charge and hugged him. As expected, mothers were strong.

And then,

“-Kahaha! Our Sejun is here!” Kaiser greeted Sejun enthusiastically.

It was thanks to Sejun defeating the seventh head of the Hydra, an Apostle of Destruction. Of course, the fact that the makgeolli was almost running out was also a reason.

“Yes. Kaiser, could you appraise this as well?”

Since it would end up with Kaiser anyway even if he left it to Aileen, Sejun didn’t want to trouble Aileen and immediately showed Kaiser the newly acquired bronze coin.

“-This?! Could it be that another Apostle of Destruction has appeared?” Kaiser’s face hardened as Sejun took out the new, unappraised bronze coin.

This confirmed it. The Apostles of Destruction clearly knew how to enter the tower.

“Yes. I met another one on the way here.”

“-I understand. Rest for now. I’ll appraise it quickly.”

Kaiser swallowed the bronze coin and began the appraisal.

And then,

“Little Flame, how have you been?” Sejun went down to the cave and greeted Little Flame.

[Master!] Little Flame waved its leaves, greeting Sejun enthusiastically.

“Oh? Another leaf has grown?” Sejun said, looking at the four leaves on Little Flame’s stem.

[Yes! Look at this! Ta-da!] Little Flame proudly fluttered its fourth leaf.

“I want to grab it, meow!”

“Vice Chairman Theo, no.” Sejun hurriedly grabbed Theo when he tried to grab Little Flame’s leaf.

“But what is the ability of the fourth leaf?”

[It’s faster to show you than to explain. Yap!] With Little Flame’s shout, the fourth leaf turned red, and a red flame seeped into Sejun’s body.

“Huh?! Increase potential?!”

[Hehet. How is it?] Little Flame’s body leaned towards Sejun, as if wanting Sejun’s praise.

“It’s the best.”

The effects remained to be seen, but it was the ability Sejun needed most, as he was stuck against a wall.

Pat. Pat.

Sejun stroked Little Flame’s leaf, which had done a commendable job. The Farmer’s Warm Touch skill activated, slightly increasing the recovery speed of Little Flame’s leaves.

[Hehet. Feels good!] As Sejun stroked and praised Little Flame,

“Chairman Park, do it for me too, meow!” Theo, not wanting to lose to Little Flame, his younger sibling, lay down on Sejun’s lap and proudly showed his belly.

There were too many competitors these days, meow! Theo was living a tiring life.

“Alright.”

Sejun stroked Theo with his left hand and Little Flame with his right, creating a healing time for everyone.

About three hours passed like that,

“Oh!” The Flame of Growth had worked.

While Sejun was rejoicing,

Flap. Flap.

“-The appraisal is complete,” Kaiser flew over and handed over the bronze coin.

“Thank you.”

As Sejun was about to examine the appraised bronze coin in detail,

“-There’s not much difference from the previous one,” Kaiser said.

“Is that so?”

“-Yes. More than that, the situation is not good. Take this with you, just in case,” Kaiser handed over a bracelet.

It had a luxurious black luster with golden letters engraved on it. It was clearly no ordinary item.

“Thank you.”

Sejun readily accepted the bracelet from Kaiser, put it on, and checked its options.

“Return?!” Sejun looked at Kaiser with a puzzled expression.

An item with a return spell, made using even his horn? Sejun was a little disappointed, as he had expected a more practical magic.

Of course, it would be good to have as a survival tool, but he had Theo and Koo-ehng, so there was no need to run away.

“-Don’t be complacent! The Apostle of Destruction you just defeated is only a small fragment of the main body,” Kaiser said in a stern voice, as if reading Sejun’s expression.

“What?! A fragment of the main body?”

“-Yes. It was ambiguous at first, but after appraising it one more time, I knew for sure. The Apostles of Destruction are separating their energy and infiltrating the tower.”

Of course, that alone wouldn’t be enough to deceive the tower, but if mixed with other energies, it would be possible to disguise it to some extent.

“-It means you may encounter an Apostle of Destruction with even stronger energy.”

Gulp.

A stronger enemy? Sejun swallowed hard at Kaiser’s words.

And then,

[Hoo! An Apostle of Destruction…]

Little Flame from below