Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 321

Vladivostok, Russia.

The harsh cries of crows filled the air. Caw. Caw.

“Ugh. So noisy.”

“What’s going on with those birds?!”

“This is a bad sign!”

People looked worried, watching the hundreds of thousands of crows forming two giant concentric circles in the sky.

The crows had been cawing like that for three hours already, enough to irritate anyone.

Just when people thought it couldn’t get worse,

“Hey?! They’re gathering over there again!”

“What?!”

People saw tens of thousands of crows flying in.

As if they were originally one flock, the crows naturally joined the massive group, together drawing two concentric circles.

More and more crows flocked in. Before long, their numbers exceeded a million.

And then,

[Н Э Ю Ц Ч Ð]

Between the two concentric circles drawn by the crows, blood-red letters, never seen before, began to faintly appear.

The unusual crow behavior caught attention. *Whirr Whirr Whirr*. The sound of helicopter blades filled the air.

But the crows, far from running away,

Caw. Caw.

Crows broke from the flock and flew straight at the helicopters, attacking the soldiers inside.

The crows attacked the soldiers with bloodshot eyes.

“Aargh!”

A short while later,

Boom! Crash!

Helicopters crashed in the middle of the city.

“Caw!”

“Run away!”

People were terrified by the strange crows and ran out of the city as fast as they could when even the helicopters were brought down.

Meanwhile,

Caw. Caw.

The crows continued to draw two concentric circles, and as the sky darkened, the blood-red letters were completed.

Then,

Whoosh.

The center of the inner circle became black. A scary red eye appeared in the darkness, looking around.

“-Hmm… This place is weaker than I thought…”

Blink.

The red eye blinked in bewilderment, and

Plop.

A single red tear dropped from the eye and landed on the ground. Then, the black hole vanished.

And then,

Whoosh.

The red tear spread out, swallowing all the crows around it.

The crows transformed into a giant black mass.

Crack.

Suddenly, with a *Crack*, the black mass changed. It became the monster Halphas, the Crow of Death, the Second Apostle of Destruction.

Halphas had sent a part of himself to Earth to control disasters.

Sending part of himself to another world made him weaker. This fragment was not very strong.

Of course, no one on Earth could defeat even this weak part of Halphas.

“-Heh heh heh. Be honored! You will face my army! I am Halphas, the Crow of Death! Come, disasters!”

As Halphas spoke, many holes, big and small, opened around him. *Flap. Flap.* Black locusts, completely black, started to come out in huge numbers.

Far away, in a peaceful place, Sejun was enjoying the rewards of his hard work, unaware of the danger that had just arrived on Earth.

“Cut! Ajax, thanks for your hard work.”

“Thanks!”

Sejun praised Ajax for helping him harvest all the pears.

Turning around, Sejun saw 10,000 pears neatly placed on the dry ground to evaporate their moisture. He didn’t want to lay out the other 490,000 pears right now, so he put them in his and Theo’s storage bags.

He chuckled, feeling proud. ‘Heh heh heh. I really picked a lot of pears!’

At that moment,

Suddenly, messages appeared in front of him:

[Your soul is filling up.]

[Your mental strength has increased by 1.]

“Ah. So mental strength increases at times like this.”

Sejun started to understand when his soul filled up. It seemed his soul filled up when he felt happy and proud after using his Top Farmer skills a lot, like when he harvested or collected seeds.

He wondered… “But is mental strength included in all stats?”

Sejun wondered if his special mental strength stat was also boosted by the Regressor effect. He checked his stats to see.

And then, he saw his mental strength: Mental Strength (12/500). ‘Too bad,’ he thought, feeling a little disappointed.

At that moment,

Kooeng!

[Daddy, Kooengi caught something to eat!]

Thud.

Kooengi came back, carrying lots of fish in his Kooengi-Bag. Kooengi had found the fish on his way back from seeing Fire by the river.

Kooeng!

[Looks delicious!]

*Splash!* He had made a shockwave in the water to catch them.

“I was hungry anyway, so this is perfect. Good job, Kooengi.”

Tap. Tap.

Sejun patted Kooengi and praised him.

Koohehehe. Kooeng!

[Hehehe. Let’s eat quickly!]

“Alright. Let’s see what kind of fish it is?”

As Sejun tried to identify the fish Kooengi had caught,

“Puhuhut. Sejun, these are rainbow trout, meow! Grilled rainbow trout is so delicious, meow!”

Theo recognized the fish and spoke. Truly a grilled fish enthusiast.

And then,

“Alright, maybe I’ll grill *you* next, Theo!”

“Puhuhut. Sounds good, meow!”

He only heard the last part. After all, Theo always said grilled fish was the best way to eat any fish.

A short while later,

“Hey guys, let’s eat.”

Sejun, having prepared three dishes—grilled rainbow trout, spicy rainbow trout stew, and rainbow trout sashimi—called the group.

“Puhuhut. Sejun’s grilled fish is the best, meow!”

Koohehehe. Kooeng!

[Hehehe. It melts in my mouth!]

“Hehe! Delicious!”

Piyo! Piyo!

[Wow! I like the peanuts Sejun roasted the best!]

Squeak!

‘Everything he gives me is delicious!’

The five of them happily ate the food Sejun had made.

Sejun also picked up his chopsticks and dipped a piece of rainbow trout sashimi in soy sauce.

“Hmm. Delicious.”

It was light and delicious.

However,

“It needs more flavor,” he thought.

So,

He quickly chopped up some green chili peppers, added them to the soy sauce, and ate the trout sashimi with the chili peppers.

Crunch. Crunch.

‘Ah, perfect!’ Sejun said, satisfied with the spicy taste.

Plop.

Fenrir, who had eaten 10 pieces of trout sashimi, waddled over to Sejun and lay down.

Squeak…

‘My belly hurts…’

He was asking for his belly to be stroked to help him digest.

Stroke. Stroke.

Sejun stroked Fenrir’s belly while eating grilled fish and spicy stew.

After Sejun stroked his belly for about 30 minutes, *Burp*. Fenrir burped loudly. Sejun blinked in surprise. Fenrir looked a little bigger!

And then,

Squeak!

‘Okay! More food!’ Fenrir thumped back to eat more trout sashimi.

Clang! The sound of the empty plate echoed.

A soft whine came from Fenrir. He looked up at Sejun, his eyes pleading. “More food?” he seemed to ask.

Fenrir quickly looked at the other dishes. Grilled fish, spicy stew – all gone! Another soft whine escaped him. His tummy was still full from the first serving, but he wanted more.

Fenrir sadly looked at the empty plates. Plop. Sejun gently placed a pear on the ground.

The pear was still wet. Not even a tiny bit of water had gone. “It needs really dry air to dry properly,” Sejun thought.

Sejun asked Ajax, “Can you try drying this with magic?”

“Yes, Bro! Dry!” Ajax shouted happily. He pointed his small hand at the pear Sejun held. Magic swirled around the pear, and it quickly became wrinkled and small. It was now a [Shriveled Pear]. Sejun frowned. “Oh no,” he said, reading the description. “Drying it with magic changed it. The good effects are gone.”

“This isn’t right,” Sejun said, disappointed. “I need to find a better way to dry them slowly, without magic.”

“Let’s pack these pears,” Sejun said. He carefully put the pears away. Then, he and his friends got ready to go back to the 99th floor.

Squeak!

[Departure!]

Kkuengi-ho flew towards the waypoint.

Sejun arrived at the glowing waypoint. “Okay, everyone, time to go into the warehouse,” he said. His friends knew what to do. They went into the special space he could carry with him.

Plop.

[The Black Tower’s 81st floor waypoint has been saved.]

He placed his hand on the red crystal to register the waypoint.

[Moving to the Black Tower’s 99th floor.]

Sejun felt a familiar sense of relief as he arrived back on the 99th floor.

One hundred thousand dwarf warriors stood ready. They wore helmets and strong armor. Each dwarf held a battleaxe or a heavy battle hammer.

Facing the dwarves was a huge field of cacti. They stretched as far as the eye could see, like a green, spiky army.

After a moment, a dwarf warrior stepped forward. “Lord Udon,” he announced, “we are ready!” Behind him stood the leaders of the five dwarf clans: Red Sand, Red Rock, Red Stone, Red Hammer, and Red Axe.

“Good. All troops, charge!”

Plop.

At the report of the dwarf warriors, Udon raised his axe and charged forward first.

“Attack!”

“Waaah!”

100,000 dwarf warriors followed behind him.

Udon, the farmer, led the charge! This was very different from the quiet Black Tower Sejun knew.

Scritch, scritch, scritch. The sound of movement came from the cacti field. They were pulling their roots from the ground, standing tall and ready to fight.

“Heave-ho! Giant’s Wood Chop!”

Udon reached the front line. He raised his battleaxe high above his head. BOOM! A giant red axe, bigger than a house, appeared from his weapon and crashed down on the cacti.

“Waaah! Die!”

Thwack. Thwack.

Udon and his army of dwarves fought fiercely. Thwack! Thwack! went their axes and hammers. Whoosh! Whoosh! Cactus thorns flew through the air. Ting! Ting! They bounced harmlessly off the dwarves’ armor. The cacti were not strong, and the battle was over in a few hours.

“Collect the cactus corpses and return!”

“Yes!”

After the dwarves returned,

Scritch scritch. Scritch scritch.

The cacti began to grow again in just a few hours.

But something was changing. Because the cacti had dried out so much of the Red Tower, they were evolving! Whoosh! Suddenly, fire burst from the tips of the cacti, where thorns used to be. The air grew even hotter.

[Arrived at the 99th floor of the Black Tower.]

As Sejun arrived at the 99th floor of the tower,

Moo.

[Welcome back, Sejun.]

Wooma King, who was guarding the waypoint, greeted him.

“Yeah. I had a good trip. Alright, come on out.”

Clang.

Sejun answered and opened the subspace warehouse.

Then, Theo, the cat, shot out of the warehouse like a furry bullet. “Sejun! I missed you, meow!” he cried, aiming for Sejun’s face.

But,

“Hmph. I knew you’d do that.”

Plop.

Sejun raised his leg and showed his knee to Theo.

“A knee, meow!”

Whoosh.

Slap.

Theo changed direction in mid-air and clung to Sejun’s knee.

Hehehe. Squeak!

[Hehehe. That was delicious!]

“Hehe. Sejun, the warehouse is so much fun!”

Tweet!

[That’s right!]

The others followed, happily chatting. “The warehouse is so much fun!” Ajax giggled. “And the snacks were yummy!” chirped Cheep. They had been enjoying roasted sweet potato jerky and rice cakes inside.

Whine. Whine···

‘Someone move me. I can’t move….’

Except for Fenrir, who had eaten too much to move.

“Our Blackie, you overate again?”

Sejun picked up Fenrir and stroked his belly while saying,

“Earth Dragon.”

He rode the Earth Dragon to the farm.

Burp.

Just as Fenrir burped,

-Master, we have arrived.

They arrived home.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Sejun thanked the Earth Dragon and got off.

Sejun thought about the best place to dry the pears. “Maybe in my room,” he said to himself. “It’s warm in there.”

Plop.

Sejun put 10 pears in the room and came out.

“Tier Grandpa, this is called a pear, and it becomes delicious when the moisture is removed.”

Ajax was explaining to Tier.

Tier, the old dragon, had been watching Theo chase his tail. But when Sejun arrived with the pears, Tier became interested. He always liked to see what new things Ajax brought from the warehouse.

-Really?

Tier picked up a pear and looked closely at it. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Sejun, you did it! You found what Lamter needs!” Tier quickly spread his wings and flew towards the fountain to call Lamter.

A short while later,

-Sejun! I’ll dry all of these for you!

Lamter offered to dry them himself.

-If you leave it to me, I’ll even give you money!

So, thanks to Lamter, Sejun not only got his pears dried, but also earned some Tower Coins.

Sejun smiled. He was happy to help the dragons, and it felt good to be trusted and appreciated by them.