Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 197

Control Room. The air hummed with a faint magical energy.

“Ugh… so tired,” Aileen sighed, her shoulders slumping.

Her fingers ached from hours of pouring magic into the Dragonheart piece. It was delicate work, like painting with invisible ink.

“Nom!”

Quickly, she ate a glowing red tomato. Sejun had given her these special tomatoes – magic drinks in fruit form! They were perfect for getting her magic back.

Because she ate these magic cherry tomatoes every day, Aileen could work a little longer each time, imprinting magic.

Suddenly, a message flashed on the crystal ball in front of her:

[Tower Farmer Park Sejun has created the job: Herbalist.]

[The Black Tower’s fame has increased!]

“Khee hee hee! That’s my Sejun!” Aileen giggled.

She didn’t really understand why the Black Tower getting more famous was a good thing, but she knew Sejun had done something amazing. And that made her happy.

“No time to rest now! I need to work harder too! Wait for me, Sejun!”

Filled with new energy, Aileen focused on the Dragonheart piece again, her fingers glowing as magic flowed from her.

Kkueng!

[Daddy eats this too!]

Kkuengi emerged from the ground, handing Sejun a reddish kudzu root.

“Alright. Thanks.”

Sejun carefully examined the reddish kudzu root. He was always a bit nervous whenever Kkuengi gave him something these days.

[Flame’s Red Kudzu Root]

Driven by a desperate desire to survive, this kudzu root absorbed all the nutrients from the surrounding kudzu, evolving to the next level by absorbing the energy of hot fire.

Upon consumption, all stats increase by 20, or it could make all his skills much stronger in the future.

Upon consumption, fire attribute talent is enhanced.

Has a strong bitter and spicy taste.

Usage Restriction: Lv. 55 or higher, all stats 100 or higher

Rank: A+

“It’s getting worse and worse.”

He liked the part about enhancing the fire attribute upon consumption. But this time, it included a spicy taste instead of a sour one.

Just then,

Grumble.

Kkueng!

[Daddy, Kkuengi is hungry!]

“Just a moment.”

Sejun quickly took out a box of sweet potatoes from his subspace storage for Kkuengi, who had worked hard digging up herbs.

And then,

“Crop Enlargement. Here, Kkuengi, eat up.”

He used the skill to enlarge the sweet potatoes and gave them to Kkuengi.

Kkueng!

[Daddy, I’ll enjoy it!]

Crunch. Crunch.

As Kkuengi happily devoured the giant sweet potato,

“Kids, lunch time!”

Sejun called out to the hedgehogs.

Tap tap tap.

Ten thousand hedgehogs eagerly ran towards Sejun at his call.

Squeak! Squeak!

The hedgehogs stood in an orderly line before Sejun.

And then,

“Crop Enlargement.”

Scritch. Scritch.

Sejun cut the giant sweet potato and distributed a piece to each hedgehog.

Squeak!

The hedgehogs, having received a piece of sweet potato as big as their bodies, expressed their gratitude to Sejun and began to eat.

Crunch. Crunch.

The only sound around was that of sweet potatoes being eaten.

While everyone was eating,

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Sejun flattened the red kudzu root by pounding it with the blunt side of his hand axe.

Then, he mixed soy sauce, salt, and honey in a bowl to make a marinade for the kudzu root.

Dab.

“Hmm. Not bad.”

Smear. Smear.

Sejun, satisfied after tasting the marinade with his little finger, applied it to the flattened kudzu root. He planned to grill the Flame’s Red Kudzu Root like grilled spicy root vegetable.

Ideally, he would have preferred to soak it in honey for about three days and eat it as honey-soaked kudzu, but the promise of greatly enhancing his fire attribute talent moved him.

Currently, only half of the kudzu field on the 85th floor of the tower was burned. However, in the past two days, other lands, including where Sejun had planted kudzu, were rapidly being encroached upon by the kudzu.

This was because the fire had enriched the soil with nutrients. Therefore, it was necessary to burn the remaining kudzu quickly.

However, without Firebug’s flame buff, he couldn’t create a strong enough fire, and even if he set the kudzu on fire, it would quickly extinguish. If time passed and the kudzu encroached on the farm, he could lose the tangerine trees he had worked so hard to obtain.

‘That can’t happen!’

Sejun already had a grand dream in his mind: to curl up under a blanket inside an igloo made of ice cubes, using Theo and Kkuengi as heaters, and peeling tangerines he had harvested.

With the kudzu root that promised to greatly enhance his fire attribute talent appearing before him, he could only think about how to eat it.

‘I’d rather faint for a day than lose the tangerine trees!’

With such a determined mindset, Sejun was applying the marinade to the kudzu root to make it taste better when,

Kkueng!

[Daddy, Kkuengi wants that on his sweet potato too!]

Kkuengi held out his sweet potato to Sejun. It seemed he wanted to imitate Sejun after seeing him marinating the kudzu root.

“Just a moment.”

Since making the marinade wasn’t that difficult, Sejun quickly made some and applied it to the sweet potato.

However,

Crunch. Crunch.

Kkueng!

[Sweet potato is salty!]

Kkuengi quickly lost interest in the taste that didn’t quite match the sweet potato and went back to eating the raw sweet potato.

And then,

“Done.”

Once the kudzu root was evenly coated with the marinade, Sejun brought over some dried kudzu vines, lit them on fire, and began grilling the marinated kudzu root.

As the kudzu root was grilled to perfection,

[You have achieved the feat of creating the first Fire-Flavored Marinated Kudzu Root Grill in the Tower.]

[The recipe for Fire-Flavored Marinated Kudzu Root Grill is registered at Cooking Lv. 6.]

[Proficiency of Cooking Lv. 6 greatly increases.]

The cooking was completed along with the achievement message.

“Heh heh heh. Nice.”

Sejun, filled with anticipation at the normal-sounding title, checked the dish.

[Fire-Flavored Marinated Kudzu Root Grill]

The Flame’s Red Kudzu Root has been grilled with the skilled chef’s marinade properly infused, making it taste better.

The kudzu root has absorbed the heat, enhancing both the taste and effects of the kudzu root.

Upon consumption, all stats increase by 22, or the potential of all stats increases by 11.

Upon consumption, fire attribute talent is greatly enhanced.

Chef: Tower Farmer Park Sejun

Expiration Date: 140 days

Rank: S-

The dish was a great success. The name was normal, the amount of stats increased upon consumption had increased, and the description had changed to ‘greatly’ enhancing the fire attribute talent.

“Alright!”

Sejun quickly put the grilled kudzu root in his mouth. He was worried Kkuengi might snatch it away since it tasted better.

Crunch. Crunch.

Sejun was eating the grilled kudzu root secretly from Kkuengi.

“Ugh!”

The taste was hidden at first by the marinade, but then, BAM! A strong bitter spice exploded in Sejun’s mouth. His face flushed red.

‘That’s what they meant by the taste being enhanced?!’

Sejun had misunderstood that the enhanced bitter and spicy taste meant it tasted better.

Gulp.

Sejun hurriedly swallowed the kudzu root as the taste became increasingly bitter and spicy. He was able to swallow it easily because he had minced the kudzu root beforehand.

[You have consumed the Fire-Flavored Marinated Kudzu Root Grill.]

[The potential of all stats increases by 11.]

[The fire attribute talent you possess is greatly enhanced.]

[Talent: Fire Proficiency evolves into Fire Mastery.]

Still, it was worth the effort. The fire attribute talent had evolved.

“Heh heh heh.”

Sejun smiled and checked the evolved talent.

[Talent: Fire Mastery]

-A talent that allows you to skillfully use the abundant fire energy within your body.

-You can create a strong flame by snapping your fingers.

Snap.

Whoosh.

“Oh!”

When Sejun snapped his fingers after checking the talent, a flame the size of his palm was created. This was about the same level as when he received Firebug’s enhanced Affinity Flame buff.

“Alright. Let’s burn it all… Ugh!”

Gurgle.

Sejun, who was about to burn the kudzu field using his evolved talent, suddenly felt a churning in his stomach. His stomach was in chaos from the strong bitter and spicy taste.

“First, the restroom…”

Sejun went to the hole that Kkuengi had dug deeply to retrieve the red kudzu root earlier, hastily piled up kudzu vines to shield the surroundings, and relieved himself.

However, he couldn’t block the loud sounds.

Slither. Slither.

Kkuengi and the hedgehogs, who were eating sweet potatoes, quickly moved away from Sejun.

Three hours later.

“Ugh… my stomach still feels uncomfortable.”

Holding his slightly calmed stomach, Sejun prepared to set fire to the kudzu field. He quickly ate a Strength Potato to activate his stomach function, but it wasn’t very effective, perhaps because the kudzu root had already moved into his intestines.

“Kids, bury these.”

Sejun divided sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn with scallions among Kkuengi and the hedgehogs, instructing them to bury them under the kudzu field.

Wrapping the crops in scallions and burying them in the ground would prevent them from burning directly and allow them to be cooked well by indirect heat.

Sejun decided to roast the crops. He wanted to make fun memories for Kkuengi and the hedgehogs. They would be going down to the 83rd floor soon.

There was no need to worry about them not being able to find them later. Kkuengi had an amazing sense of smell.

After burying the crops to be roasted in the kudzu field,

Snap

Sejun snapped his fingers to create a fire.

“Alright, let’s set it on fire!”

As Sejun set fire to the kudzu field,

Whoosh.

Flames erupted, licking at the sky. Sejun waited for the flames to become strong enough that they wouldn’t be extinguished even by Kkuengi’s Kkueng-Fu, then had Kkuengi use Kkueng-Fu to spread the flames.

Kkueng!

As Kkuengi used Kkueng-Fu about 10 times, the flames spread in all directions, really burning the kudzu field.

And then,

“Let’s eat!”

Sejun and the animals dug into the ground where the flames had passed, searching for dinner.

Kkueng!

Squeak!

Kkuengi and the hedgehogs raced to find the buried crops.

“Move Earth!”

Sejun also used hoe to turn over the soil, searching for the crops buried underground.

After turning over the soil about three times,

“Found it!”

Sejun found an ear of corn buried in the ground.

Tap. Tap.

As he was about to brush off the dirt and eat the corn,

Squeak…

A hedgehog who hadn’t found anything to eat yet looked at Sejun enviously. How could he eat with those eyes?

“Here.”

Sejun gave the ear of corn he was holding to the hedgehog,

“Move Earth!”

And searched for crops again. This time it was a potato.

“Looks delicious.”

As Sejun was about to remove the scallion wrapping and eat the potato,

Squeak…

Another hedgehog looked at Sejun with drool dripping from its mouth. Why did I even start this…

“Here.”

Sejun handed the potato to the hedgehog. He couldn’t let a hedgehog go hungry when it was his own doing.

Nom.

Sejun simply filled his stomach with a piece of Aileen’s Healthy Fist Meat and

“Move Earth!”

Distributed the crops to the hedgehogs who hadn’t found anything to eat yet.

Thanks to this, he couldn’t eat with them, but

Squeak!

[Thank you, Sejun!]

Squeak

[Sejun, you’re amazing!]

He received the hedgehogs’ admiration.

And then,

Kkueng!

[Daddy, Kkuengi found an herb!]

“Good job, Kkuengi.”

Kkuengi pleased Sejun by digging up a kudzu root with medicinal properties.

After digging in the ground and eating dinner until late,

“Let’s sleep now.”

Sejun and the animals fell asleep, watching the kudzu field burning brightly in the distance.

The next morning.

Squeak!

[Then, we’ll be going down now!]

Led by Godori, the leader of the hedgehogs, the hedgehogs prepared to leave, each carrying a sweet potato on their backs. Sejun had provided the sweet potatoes.

Of course, he wasn’t planning to compensate them for their work with just sweet potatoes; he had a proper reward planned for later.

“Be careful!”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Thank you for helping Daddy! Be careful!]

Kkuengi also waved his front paws at the hedgehogs, following Sejun in seeing them off.

After sending off the hedgehogs,

“Let’s get to work too.”

Kkueng!

[Okay!]

Sejun and Kkuengi started working again. Sejun began planting kudzu seeds, while Kkuengi, now an herbalist, started searching for herbs.

…

..

.

[Job quest completed.]

[Level 61 is unlocked as a quest completion reward.]

[You have acquired 500,000 Tower Coins as a quest completion reward.]

[You have acquired the job combat skill – You are a Field! Lv. 1 as a quest completion reward.]

Day 330 of being stranded. Sejun completed his job quest and obtained his first-ever combat skill.