Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 131

Gravity Magic Tower, 90th Floor.

Gonova returned quickly to the Gravity Magic Tower. He called a meeting and announced, “Master Iona of the Magic Tower is dead. There was an accident at the mana stone mine.”

“Vice Tower Master Gonova, what are you saying?”

“The Tower Master… that can’t be!”

“Tell us the location of the mana stone mine! We will go and confirm it ourselves!”

The mages from the Council of Elders did not believe Gonova. The Tower Master Iona they knew was not someone who could die from a mana stone mine explosion.

Besides, one mage said, “If Tower Master Iona died, the seal stone should be red!”

“Yes,” another agreed. “It’s still black!”

In the meeting room at the top of the Magic Tower, the black crystal seal stone on the ceiling stayed dark. This showed everyone that Iona was still alive.

But then, a low hum filled the room – ‘Gooooo…’ Red smoke started to twist and turn around the black crystal, as if arguing against the Elders’ words.

“That… what is that?” one mage whispered, fear in his voice.

“No… no, it can’t be… the Curse of Nightmare is back,” another said, his voice shaking.

“Tower Master Iona… is really dead…”

The mages of the Council of Elders, who had refused to believe Gonova, now understood. The red smoke meant Iona was gone.

The red smoke was the Curse of Nightmare. Every Tower Master of the Gravity Magic Tower carried this curse until they died. Now that Iona was dead, the curse had returned, without a master.

It was actually a piece of the Demon King’s soul, separated long ago, but the other mages didn’t know this secret.

The Curse of Nightmare was like a chain and a symbol for the Tower Master. It was passed down from the very first Tower Master of the Gravity Magic Tower. The curse trapped the soul of an old Demon King called Nightmare inside the Tower Master.

Anyone with the curse would have bad nightmares every night. But, in return, they could use the Demon King Nightmare’s powerful magic.

The first Tower Master, who built the Gravity Magic Tower, had trapped the ancient Demon King Nightmare at the top of the tower. Then, he made sure that every Tower Master after him would get the curse.

This was to stop the Demon King’s prison from breaking and to keep the Gravity Magic Tower respected.

*‘You fools! When I’m Tower Master, I’ll get rid of all of you!’* Gonova thought angrily. He watched the mages of the Council of Elders. They hadn’t believed him before, but now they accepted Iona’s death because of the Demon King’s soul.

Gonova had been unkind to them in the past, but he only felt they were disrespecting him.

“Since Tower Master Iona is dead,” Gonova announced loudly, “the laws of the Magic Tower say that I, the Vice Tower Master, will be the next Tower Master!” He confidently walked towards the red mist.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind, *“Heh heh heh. You are so greedy, you’ll take my curse? Foolish.”* It was the Demon King Nightmare.

“Yes! Give me the curse quickly, old Demon King!” Gonova said proudly. He thought the stories about the nightmares were just stories.

*It’s just a dream,* he thought. *What’s a few bad dreams if I become Tower Master?*

*“Well,”* Nightmare’s voice chuckled, *“I’m bored anyway. Take my curse then, you arrogant fool.”*

*Swoosh.* The red smoke rushed into Gonova’s body.

“Hahaha! I feel so much power!” Gonova laughed, amazed by the strong magic in his body.

“Council of Elders, listen to me! Quickly, get ready for my Tower Master ceremony!”

“Yes… Tower Master,” the mages replied, but they didn’t look happy. Gonova had the Curse of Nightmare now, and that made him the Tower Master by the Magic Tower’s rules, so they had to obey.

“Hahaha!” Gonova laughed again. He felt powerful watching the mages obey him without arguing.

*“Heh heh. This is what it’s like,”* he thought, enjoying his new power. Gonova loved being Tower Master. He enjoyed all the special treatment and attention all day. As night came, Gonova felt very tired.

He had been busy all day acting like the Tower Master.

“I’m tired. Time for sleep,” Gonova said. He knew he would have nightmares, but *it’s just a nightmare,* he thought. *It’s the price for being Tower Master.* Gonova closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Then, in his dream, he heard Nightmare’s voice again. *“The curse power is weak now, only a small part of my real curse. It will get stronger in a few days.”*

“Hmph! It’s just a dream!” Gonova scoffed.

*“Heh heh heh,”* Nightmare chuckled. *“Be arrogant now, while you can. Soon you’ll be screaming.”* As Nightmare finished, *Kraaah!* A monster made of shadows appeared, shaped like a man but twisted and dark.

“Hmph! Is that all you can do?! Fireball!” Gonova shouted, and a ball of fire flew from his hand, hitting the shadow monster. It disappeared easily.

*Kraaah!* But then, more shadow monsters appeared. And more. And they became stronger and stronger. As morning started to come, “Aargh!” Gonova screamed and woke up, sitting up quickly in bed.

Gonova was shaking. The nightmare felt so real. He remembered dying in the dream, and the pain was still with him. The shadow monsters had hurt him on purpose, making him suffer before killing him slowly. He could still hear himself begging them to stop.

“Ugh… I have to go through this every night? Get me some wine!” Gonova started drinking wine from the morning, trying to forget the horrible nightmare.

Sejun finished his breakfast and went straight to the banana tree. He placed his hands on its trunk. *[Farmer’s Warm Touch Lv. 4 is activated.]* *[While the touch is in effect, the banana tree’s disease is gradually healed.]* As Sejun healed the tree, *Flap flap,* the golden bat flew around, singing a cheerful song, just like yesterday, to give the banana tree more energy.

Then, *“Meow meow,”* Theo purred quietly. Since yesterday, he had been secretly moving away from the other animals. He felt a strong pull in his paws, a very, very strong pull. He wanted to find whatever it was, all for himself, without telling anyone.

*If I bring it to Park Sejun,* Theo thought, *Chairman Park will love me the most, meow!*

Theo imagined himself eating Churu on Sejun’s lap, getting lots of attention. He was heading towards the pull when, *Squeak! Kkueng!* Suddenly, the black rabbit and Kkuengi jumped in front of him, blocking his path. They had watched Theo looking at the volcano yesterday and become suspicious.

Theo was surprised. He thought he had been sneaky! But maybe just getting off Sejun’s lap was too obvious.

*Kkueng?* Kkuengi tilted his head. *[Where are you going, big brother?]*

“Puhuhut,” Theo chuckled. “I’m going to find treasure, meow! You guys can come with me, meow!” Since they had caught him, Theo decided to bring his friends along. Actually, he was a bit bored going alone. And maybe they could help him.

Squeak!!!

Kkueng!!!

The black rabbit and Kkuengi’s eyes lit up at the word treasure, and they nodded their heads vigorously. We’ll follow you!

“Follow me, meow!”

Squeak!

Kkueng!

And so, the black rabbit and Kkuengi followed Theo and arrived at the entrance of the volcano created by the explosion of the mana stone mine.

Squeak!

Kkueng!

The black rabbit and Kkuengi, thinking that the subtly shining blue stones around the volcano were treasure, ran and began to pick them up.

“That’s not treasure, meow!” Theo, who had been focusing on the pull, hurriedly stopped them.

The stones with a subtle blue light were those that had been permeated with mana when a large amount of mana from the mana stone mine was released, and they would become ordinary stones again in a day or two, so they were useless.

‘I’m glad I brought them, meow.’ When he arrived here, there were not one, but dozens of pulls. It seemed that several pulls had gathered and felt strong. If he hadn’t brought them, he would have been wandering around diligently alone.

“Follow me, meow!” Theo took them and moved to the nearest place following the pull of his front paws.

And then, “Black rabbit, break this, meow!” Theo said, pointing to a huge rock in front of him.

Squeak!

At Theo’s words, the black rabbit swung its hammer at the rock.

Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

Crack.

The rock cracked from the black rabbit’s hammering. And a golf ball-sized purple stone hidden inside the rock appeared.

“This is the treasure, meow!” Theo said, pointing to the purple stone.

“Now, what I’m saying is…”

Squeak!

Kkueng!

Before Theo could even speak, the black rabbit and Kkuengi shouted. A competition to see who can find the most treasure! Start!

The two, who had shouted that, became excited and began to smash the surrounding rocks indiscriminately.

“Puhuhut. It doesn’t come out just because you do that, meow. Victory is mine anyway, meow.” Theo scoffed at them and leisurely moved, following the pull of his front paws.

However, “Meow?” Theo’s leisure disappeared before he could even dig up a few purple stones.

Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

Wham!

The black rabbit and Kkuengi’s excavation speed was too fast compared to Theo. Especially Kkuengi was really a cheat.

Kkueng!

When Kkuengi slammed the floor with his fist,

Wham!

All the rocks within a 10m radius around Kkuengi turned to dust. Kkuengi was copying the technique used by the pink ferret.

Wham!

By hitting the floor like that and finding purple stones in the broken rocks, it was much faster than Theo finding them one by one.

In the end, the winner of the treasure hunt was Kkuengi, who found 23 purple stones. Theo found 15, and the black rabbit found 7.

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[I won! If Dad uses this, he’ll become stronger!]

Theo thought that Kkuengi had found the purple stones by smashing them indiscriminately, but Kkuengi also had his own sense of finding things.

That was a sense for things that would make Sejun stronger. It was an ability created by Kkuengi’s earnest desire to protect his weak Dad.

And so, Theo, the black rabbit, and Kkuengi, who had collected 45 purple stones, confidently returned to Sejun.

It was lunchtime when they returned.

“Where have you guys been?” Sejun, who was making lunch, asked.

“We brought something that will help Chairman Park, meow!”

Squeak!

Kkueng!

Rumble.

Theo, the black rabbit, and Kkuengi poured out the purple stones they had in front of Sejun. The sizes ranged from fingernail size to fist size.

“What is this?” Sejun picked up a golf ball-sized purple stone and examined it.

[Intermediate Proficiency Stone] When used, it increases the proficiency of the desired skill by 50 with the energy contained within the Proficiency Stone. Grade: C

“Huh?!” There was something like this?! He had never known that skill proficiency could be increased with such an item.

‘Thank you. Guys!’ Sejun praised the three who had brought the Proficiency Stones.

“Then give us Churu quickly, meow!”

Squeak!

[Please let me play with Uncle for a week!]

Kkueng!

[I want to eat rice on Dad’s lap too!]

Each of them said what they wanted at Sejun’s praise and ran to Sejun.

And then,

Thud!

Sejun had to take a break from work that day.

Kkueng…

[Dad, please get stronger quickly and play with me….] Kkuengi took care of the fainted Sejun and was sad.

“Welcome.” Gonova greeted the Tower Masters of the Flame Magic Tower, Destruction Magic Tower, and Meteor Magic Tower, who had supported him, with pleasure.

“Tower Master Gonova, why does your face look so haggard?” The other Tower Masters asked, looking at Gonova’s exhausted face.

‘Ahem. I’ve been busy lately…’

“Ah. Well, you must have a lot to do since you suddenly became the Tower Master.”

“Still, you must take care of your body while doing it.”

“Of course. You even have to become the president of the Magic Association. Isn’t that right?”

“Hahaha. It will be fine once the work is over soon.” While searching for a way to solve the nightmare, Gonova found a solution in Iona’s diary.

‘First, stall for as much time as possible to prevent stronger enemies from appearing.’

At that time, “I will prepare the meal.” The servants began to bring out the food.

And then, “Well, let’s eat first and talk.” Gonova, who was hungry, said to the other Tower Masters and opened the lid covering the food,

“······?!” An existence that should never be there was looking at Gonova.

“Kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-” It was the appearance of the awakened nightmare.