Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 316

Sejun stepped onto the 70th floor and immediately recoiled. “Ugh!” he gasped, clapping a hand over his nose. The air was thick and heavy, filled with a smell like old gym socks mixed with rotten fruit. It was truly awful. *Seventieth floor,* a voice echoed in his mind, along with other strange messages. *Farm floor. Twenty-nine levels descended. Stats increased.* He shook his head, trying to ignore the odd game-like notifications. Right now, all he could focus on was the stench. “What *is* that smell?” he muttered, wrinkling his nose. “Smells like… poop?”

Then, his eyes adjusted to the bright light, and he saw them. Rows and rows of trees stretched out before him, their leaves a dazzling, sunny yellow. It was a beautiful sight, almost magical, but the terrible smell ruined it. “Huh,” Sejun said, his voice softer now. “Ginkgo trees?” He recognized the fan-shaped leaves. “This is a ginkgo tree farm?”

“So, this smell is…?”

Sejun looked at the ground and saw countless ginkgo nuts scattered about.

“Heh heh heh. Looks delicious.”

Peeling off the outer layer and roasting the seed inside is quite the delicacy.

“I need to call the others quickly.”

Just as Sejun was about to open his subspace warehouse – a kind of magic bag where he kept his things – a quest appeared.

[Quest: The farm is poorly managed, causing a severe stench. Collect all the fallen ginkgo nuts to eliminate the odor.]

[Reward: Recognition as the rightful owner of the Black Tower’s 70th floor farm.]

“Well, this is good.”

Sejun said with a smile after seeing the quest. He was planning to pick them all up anyway.

Clang.

“Hey guys, come on out.”

Sejun opened the subspace warehouse and called out to his companions.

However,

Clang!

The door closed again.

“What’s going on?”

Clang.

Sejun opened the subspace warehouse door again, and then-

“Use this to cover your nose, meow! President Park must have pooped, meow!”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[The poop smell coming from Daddy is too strong!]

“Even though I like Sejun, I should stay away for a while.”

Piyot!

[Theo! Give me one too!]

Kking?!

‘What did you eat?!’

He saw his companions hurriedly covering their noses with the green onions Theo had given them. Those guys!

“It wasn’t me!”

Sejun, indignant at his companions’ misunderstanding, retorted.

“It’s coming from here!”

Plop.

Since you shouldn’t touch ginkgo fruit pulp with your bare hands, Sejun used Maggi’s dagger, which Theo had brought, to stab one of the ginkgo fruits and show it to them.

Thanks to showing them the real culprit, the ginkgo fruit with its coppery smell, Sejun was cleared of the misunderstanding that he had pooped.

The misunderstanding was resolved, but the companions, still covering their noses with green onions, did not come out.

Because they didn’t want to step on the smelly ginkgo nuts.

Besides, there was another reason they didn’t want to go out.

Kkuhehehe. Kkueng!

[Hehehe. Delicious!]

“Hehe. Delicious.”

Kking! Kking!

‘There’s so much to eat! I’m not leaving here!’

Kkuengi, Ajax, and Kamangi were sitting on the floor, diligently eating the roasted sweet potato jerky Sejun had made.

“Kkuengi, Ajax, put the ginkgo nuts in here.”

Sejun said, opening the mouth of the leather pouch to the two of them.

Sejun also didn’t want to touch the ginkgo nuts.

So, he asked Kkuengi and Ajax, who could use telekinesis and magic, for help.

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Okay! Lifting up!]

“Yeah! Levitation!”

At Sejun’s request, Kkuengi and Ajax chewed on their roasted sweet potato jerky and levitated the ginkgo nuts into the leather pouch.

It was an enormous amount, but the leather pouch seemed to have no end.

It was the leather pouch that the dragons gave Sejun to hold the money they gave him.

It had space expansion and weight reduction magic cast on it, so Sejun was using it to store his crops.

1 hour later

[You have cleanly collected 100,231 ginkgo nuts that were scattered in the ginkgo tree farm.]

[You have completed the quest.]

[You have been recognized as the rightful owner of the 70th floor ginkgo tree land deed.]

[The land deed skill: Farm Information Lv. Max is activated.]

The quest was completed as he put all the fallen nuts into the leather pouch.

As soon as the land deed quest ended,

“Now I need to go find some sweet potatoes.”

Sejun decided to find the sweet potatoes, which was his original goal.

“First, you guys look around and see what’s there.”

Sejun asked Kkuengi, Ajax, and Piyoti, who could fly, to scout around.

While the three were scouting around,

Thud.

Sejun took out the leather pouch with the ginkgo nuts and a pair of brown gloves from his subspace warehouse.

[Poisonproof Gloves]

Gloves made of specially treated leather for use when handling poison.

You will not be poisoned even if you touch poison of B grade or lower.

Usage Restriction: Lv. 30 or higher, Magic Power 100 or higher

Maker: Leather Craftsman Wilson

Grade: B+

The gloves were one of the items Theo had stolen from the black market.

Slip. Slop.

Sejun put on the poisonproof gloves and began to take out the seeds from the ginkgo nuts. Heh heh heh. I’m going to roast them.

As Sejun took the seeds out of the ginkgo nuts,

[You have obtained a ginkgo seed.]

[Your job experience slightly increases.]

[The proficiency of Seed Harvesting Lv. 8 slightly increases.]

[You need to use the Seed Harvesting skill 633,716 more times to complete the job quest.]

A message appeared.

“Ah. This is also seed harvesting.”

He had completely forgotten about it because he was only thinking about roasting the ginkgo nuts.

“Killing two birds with one stone. Hum hum hum.”

Thanks to that, Sejun was humming and happily shelling the ginkgo nuts.

At that moment,

(Huff!)

The golden bat, who had been holding its breath for over an hour to avoid the smell of ginkgo, took a ragged breath and revealed itself.

Its stealth had been broken because it was out of breath.

“Oh?! Golden Bat, you were there?!”

Sejun was surprised to find the golden bat suddenly appearing next to him.

He thought it was hiding somewhere, but it was next to him? He hadn’t felt it at all.

(Huff. Huff. Yes…)

“Pfft. Golden Bat, quickly put this on, meow!”

Theo made a green onion nose plug and handed it to the golden bat.

(Thanks.)

The golden bat covered its nose with the green onion nose plug that Theo had made.

After a little time passed,

Swoosh.

The golden bat naturally went back into stealth. Stealth was more comfortable for the golden bat.

However, since the green onion was not part of the golden bat’s body, it remained visible,

‘It’s on its leg.’

‘Now it’s on Theo’s back.’

Sejun could tell where the golden bat was hiding.

As Sejun was looking for where the golden bat was hiding and shelling the ginkgo nuts,

Kkueng!

[Daddy, there’s a forest and a waypoint over there!]

“Sejun, there’s a rocky mountain over there!”

“Bleep!”

“[Sejun, there’s a lake over there!]”

The three scouts returned, reporting what they had seen: a forest, a rocky mountain, and a lake.

“Then let’s go to the forest,” Sejun said, reaching a conclusion.

After all, the forest is the most similar environment to where sweet potatoes grow, and there’s even a waypoint there.

“Puhuhut! It’s an adventure, meow!” Theo, excited about exploring a new place, clung to Sejun’s leg, raised his front paws, and shouted.

And so, Sejun and his party set out for the forest.

They reached the edge of the forest. Tall trees with thick leaves blocked out much of the sunlight, making it cool and shady. The air smelled damp and earthy.

Suddenly, Kkueng’s stomach rumbled loudly. It was lunchtime.

“Wait here a moment,” Sejun said. “Lunchtime!”

He quickly gathered some dry branches and twigs and started a small fire. Flames danced upwards, crackling merrily. Today, they were having skewers!

Now that they had found ginkgo nuts, Sejun decided to make special ginkgo skewers, along with other tasty kinds. He carefully threaded ginkgo nuts onto thin wooden sticks. Then, he prepared rice cake skewers, fish skewers that smelled wonderfully of the sea, and colorful fruit skewers.

“Hehehe,” Sejun chuckled to himself. “I can’t wait to see Kkueng and Ajax’s faces when they taste these!”

From his bag, he pulled out a container filled with stir-fried sausage and vegetables. But he wasn’t going to heat up the whole thing. Instead, he carefully picked out just the sausages. Slide. Slide. He alternated juicy sausage pieces with chewy rice cakes on more skewers. Sotteok-Sotteok! His special treat.

As the skewers were completed, Sejun placed the ginkgo skewers, rice cake skewers, fish skewers, and Sotteok-Sotteok skewers over the fire and grilled them.

Once the skewers were cooked to some extent,

“Hey guys, let’s eat,” Sejun called to his companions.

“Here. This is a fish skewer.”

He naturally gave the fish skewer to Theo, who loved fish.

“Wait a moment.”

He gave Sotteok-Sotteok skewers to Kkueng and Ajax, who had similar tastes to him.

“Puhuhut. As expected, President Park’s heartfelt grilled fish is delicious, meow!”

Kkuhehehe. Kkueng?!

“[Hehehe. What is this?! It’s delicious!]”

“Everything Sejun makes is delicious!”

While the three of them were enjoying the skewers,

Slurp slurp.

The golden bat was stuck to the fruit skewer, mindlessly sucking the juice.

Everyone enjoyed the skewers.

Bleep… Bleep..

“[Bbuing… I’m the only one without a skewer…]”

Only Bleep didn’t have a skewer. Bleep watched the others eat, his little eyes wide and sad. He held his peanut tightly, looking longingly at the skewers.

At that moment,

“Here. This is for Bleep.”

Sejun gave Bleep a peanut skewer made by sticking five peanuts on a needle. Every time he stuck a peanut on the needle, the peanut split, so it took longer than expected to make the skewer.

Bleep! Bleep!

“[Thank you, Sejun! Theo, I have a skewer too!]”

Flap. Flap.

Bleep flew next to Theo with his peanut skewer and ate together.

“Hehehe. Delicious.”

Sejun also enjoyed the meal with his companions.

At that moment,

Rustle.

“How dare you enter the territory of Igrus?! Who are you guys?!” The sound of grass moving revealed two kangaroos emerging from the forest, aiming spears at Sejun and his party.

But the timing was terrible. Of all times, they had to appear during mealtime.

Kkueeeeng!

“[Don’t mess with us during mealtime!]”

“Don’t you dare mess with us!”

Plop.

The two, unlucky as they were, received Kkueng and Ajax’s aura head-on and fainted.

A short while later.

Slap. Slap.

“Wake up, slaves, meow!” Theo, having finished his lunch, woke them up.

Black ink was already on their front paws. Theo had stamped them while they were unconscious.

“Umm…”

“Where is this?”

As the kangaroos woke up,

“Lead me to where Igrus is,” Sejun said.

The place where the leader, Igrus, was located was likely their base. There was a high probability that sweet potatoes would be there.

“Alright. I will guide you to Igrus. Follow me!”

‘This is actually good.’

‘We can defeat them if it’s the boss.’

The two thought that Igrus could defeat them and led Sejun to their base.

However,

Kkueng!

“[Kneel!]”

Igrus’s knees buckled far too easily under Kkueng’s telekinesis.

“P-Please spare me!”

Naturally, Igrus could not defeat Sejun’s party, and

“Puhuhut. Put your stamp on the contract, meow!”

Stamp.

He stamped Theo’s contract.

As the situation was settled,

“Show me your food storage.”

Sejun asked to see the kangaroos’ food storage to find sweet potatoes.

However,

“Food storage? We don’t have anything like that.”

The kangaroos didn’t have a food storage.

It was natural. There were plenty of fresh leaves to eat in the forest, so there was no reason to pick them in advance and let them wither.

“Then have you ever seen anything like this growing in the ground?”

Sejun took out a sweet potato and showed it to the kangaroos.

“No. We don’t dig in the ground, so…”

This was for a similar reason as before.

There were plenty of leaves to eat right in front of them, so there was no reason to get food from the ground.

“I understand. Alright, guys, let’s go.”

In the end, Sejun left Igrus’s base with his party without any gains and walked towards the red pillar of light.

He was thinking of registering the waypoint on the 70th floor of the tower and then deciding whether to return to the 99th floor or stay here and continue searching for sweet potatoes.

Sejun arrived in front of the red crystal.

He placed his hand on the red crystal and registered the waypoint.

At that moment,

Sniff. Sniff.

Whine!

‘I smell something similar to the yellow and chewy thing!’

Fenrir, who was sticking his head out of Sejun’s pocket, smelled the sweet potato.

And then,

Whine!

‘It’s mine!’

Hop.

He jumped out of Sejun’s pocket to eat it all by himself and

Pitter-patter.

Ran after the smell.

And then,

Plunge.

Whine?

The floor collapsed, and Fenrir was swallowed into the darkness.