Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 141

Whoosh.

“Alright. All done, yes?”

Sejun used Kaiser’s scale to make a mark on Theo’s left back paw. He was very careful, even with small things, because he didn’t want to spoil Theo’s golden front paw.

And so, a black dragon tattoo was etched onto Theo’s left back paw.

“Chairman Park, thank you for the mark, nya!”

Theo crouched down, looking at the black dragon tattoo on his pink jelly paw pad, delighted. Compared to the tattoo that covered Sejun’s entire left arm, Theo’s tattoo was incredibly small.

“-If you have strong magic, the tattoo can be smaller. But you don’t have enough magic yet. When will your magic get stronger…?”

Sejun asked Kaiser because he was confused, but Kaiser just started nagging him. Sejun felt like he didn’t get a helpful answer.

‘I’ve grown too, you know!’

Sejun had become quite strong in his own right. As his magic power increased, the black dragon tattoo, which had gone past his shoulder, shrunk to the point where it no longer did.

But talking to Kaiser was like an ant telling an elephant it was strong. So, Sejun stopped talking. It would only make Kaiser nag more.

Kkueng!

“[Daddy, I want a mark too!]”

Kkuengi said, extending his right front paw to Sejun, who had returned after being nagged.

“Alright. Here.”

Sejun placed Kaiser’s scale on Kkuengi’s outstretched paw, and

Whoosh.

Kaiser’s scale seeped into Kkuengi’s paw, and a small black dragon tattoo appeared on Kkuengi’s thumb. A charmingly sized tattoo.

‘Our Kkuengi’s magic power is high, isn’t it.’

Thanks to that, he could tell that Kkuengi’s magic power was immense.

Kkueng!

“[Big Brother! I have a mark too!]”

Excited, Kkuengi showed off the black dragon tattoo on his thumb to Theo.

“Pfft. My mark is bigger than Kkuengi’s, nya! Just by looking at this, you can tell I’m the second-in-command here, nya!”

Theo was happy his mark was bigger than Kkuengi’s. He put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest proudly.

Kkueng?

“[Why is Kkuengi’s mark so small?]”

Kkuengi compared his mark with Sejun’s and Theo’s, feeling disappointed. The smaller the mark, the better, but here, things were reversed.

Just then,

“Chairman Park, let’s give Iona a mark too, nya!”

Theo, in high spirits, extended a favor to Iona.

“Alright. You do it.”

“Understood, nya! Here. Take this, nya!”

Theo, receiving Kaiser’s scale from Sejun, placed the scale directly on Iona’s body.

And then,

Whoosh.

Soon, the scale was absorbed into Iona’s body.

However,

“Nya?!”

Maybe because Iona was sleeping, something went wrong. So, Iona woke up with a black dragon tattoo on her back!

Sejun laughed. ‘Theo, this isn’t my fault!’

Kkuengi barked, ‘[Big Brother! Kkuengi didn’t do it either!]’

Sejun and Kkuengi abandoned Theo and ran away to the field.

“Chairman Park! Kkuengi! Let’s go together, nya!”

Theo hurriedly chased after them. We are one, nya!

A little later,

“Squeak! I slept so well.”

Iona stretched as she woke up.

“Sejun, I’ll head south then.”

“Ah… alright.”

As soon as Iona woke up, she led the wizards to subjugate the fire ants in the south.

And the wizards witnessed the black dragon tattoo on Iona’s back. None of them asked about the black dragon tattoo on Iona’s back. No, they couldn’t ask, trembling with fear.

‘Scary!’

Iona, who was already scary, had an overwhelming presence with the tattoo on her back. Thanks to that, Iona subjugated the fire ants with wizards who listened even better than usual.

In the end, because no one told her, Iona wandered around until the southern subjugation was over, unaware that she had a black dragon tattoo on her back. It was truly fortunate for Theo.

***

“Excuse me? The address here? Gangnam-gu, Seoul…”

The Golden Bat was flying around, trying to find the building. He heard an employee talking. Because of that, the Golden Bat quickly learned the address of where he was.

(Squeak! Sejun, I found it!)

Flap. Flap.

The Golden Bat flew around, flapping its wings in joy. Having easily found the building’s address, the Golden Bat had nothing to do and waited endlessly to return to the tower.

(I’m bored.)

As the Golden Bat was feeling bored,

(Happy, that person…)

A singing voice was heard from somewhere.

Squeak?

The Golden Bat flew towards the small karaoke room, following the singing voice. He liked singing because he used to sing songs to the trees on the 77th floor of the tower.

The Golden Bat flew around the small karaoke room. He watched people carefully. Then, he put 1,000 won into the machine and chose a song. But he only got two songs for that money. The singing was over fast.

(Squeak! This is fun! I was in the dark. Sejun brought me out~ Sejun~)

The Golden Bat, having sung all the songs worth 1,000 won, started singing his own self-composed song, caught up in the excitement. He still had 3,000 won left, but he didn’t want to waste Sejun’s money.

(Squeak. I feel good.)

As the Golden Bat was about to leave the karaoke,

Remaining songs: 1 song

(Huh?!)

He had clearly sung all the songs, but one song remained on the screen.

Squeak!

The Golden Bat happily sang one more song. But even though the Golden Bat kept singing, the one song didn’t decrease.

(This is magic!)

The Golden Bat happily continued to sing. He didn’t know that someone at the counter was adding more songs for him.

“Ah. This is healing.”

It was Hwang Min-ho, the karaoke owner, who was being healed by the Golden Bat’s singing.

At that moment,

Poof.

The Golden Bat, who was singing, disappeared. Along with the wireless microphone.

***

“Oh! It’s ripening well.”

Sejun carefully opened the green leaves around a corn cob and looked at the yellow kernels inside. He had walked past the cornfield and saw that the brown threads on some corn were turning brown. So, he checked and saw that the corn was ready to eat.

Tap. Tap.

Sejun began harvesting corn from the corn stalks that had fallen to the ground.

One hour later.

Gnolong.

Theo was clinging to Sejun’s lap, sleeping soundly,

Kkueng!

“[I want to eat steamed corn soon!]”

Kkuengi was eagerly peeling corn husks, anticipating the steamed corn that Sejun would soon make.

Crunch.

Kkueng!

Of course, Kkuengi ate about half of the corn he peeled. ‘[This is delicious even when it’s raw!]’ Kkuengi thought.

And

“Wow, that’s a lot of corn.” Sejun looked at the field. There was still so much corn left to pick. He thought for a moment, then got Miller’s hoe from beside the house.

“Move Earth,” he said. He swung the hoe to use his skill.

“I want to gather all the corn and sort it at once,” Sejun thought hard. “If my skill can do anything, it should do this!”

Ssssh. It was like the earth was swallowing the corn. On a small patch of land, the corn stalks slowly went down into the ground. Because he wasn’t moving a lot of earth, it didn’t use much energy.

A moment later, messages popped up in front of him: *[Harvested 102 Stamina Corn.] [Job experience slightly increased.] [Proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 6 slightly increased.] [Acquired 3060 experience.]*

Ssssh. Then, the corn stalks and the picked corn came up from the ground again. It was amazing! The stalks were neatly stacked in one pile, and the ears of corn were stacked in another pile, all by themselves.

“It really worked?!” Sejun’s eyes were wide with surprise as he stared at the neatly stacked corn and stalks. He looked like he couldn’t believe it.

Then, excited, he shouted, “Raise Earth! Let’s raise the earth again!” He used the skill again and again.

Ssssh, ssssh. The corn stalks disappeared into the ground, one patch after another.

“Raise Earth!” Sejun shouted again, using the skill on another patch of corn. He didn’t even need to think about it anymore; he just used the skill. After using “Move Earth” about ten times, messages started to appear: *[Harvested 97 Stamina Corn.]* … and more messages like that.

“Yes!” Sejun said. He understood now as he read the messages. *Something is listening to my thoughts,* he realized. He didn’t know what it was, but when he used the skill, something was doing exactly what he wanted, even if he wasn’t paying close attention.

Also, he noticed that when he used the skill while thinking about the same thing, it became easier, like the skill was learning what he wanted.

“But what is it that’s doing what I think?” Sejun wondered. Just then, he heard a flapping sound.

“Sejun! Sejun! I figured it out!” The Golden Bat flew into the house, carrying two boxes of chocolate pies. He had come back from Earth.

The next day, at lunchtime, Iona burst in, shouting in her angry language, “Kyuu-kyuu-kyuu! Who did this?!” She was furious, pointing at her back. She had just finished getting rid of all the fire ants near the place where she wanted to build her Magic Tower.

Killing the fire ants was much harder than she thought. It turned out the fire ant queen’s nest was right where she wanted to build! She had managed to kill the queen, but her beautiful white fur had been burned when the queen fought back fiercely. So, she had to cut off the burned fur and wash herself…

“Kyuu?” Iona tilted her head, looking at herself in a mirror made of ice. Had she cleaned herself properly? Then, she saw it – a black dragon tattoo on her back! Her eyes widened. She gasped and ran straight to Sejun.

The only times she had ever gotten a tattoo by accident were when Sejun and Theo were being mischievous nearby.

Sejun quickly guessed, “Theo did it. But… Theo went downstairs yesterday, didn’t he?” He remembered the Golden Bat telling him about an address. *(Maybe Theo went to Earth?)* Sejun thought. He decided to deal with Iona first.

“Nyang… I don’t want to go, nyang! I just got here, nyang! I want to stay with you longer, nyang!” Theo whined, rubbing his head against Sejun’s cheek and purring loudly. He really didn’t want to leave Sejun’s lap.

“Iona is coming,” Sejun said softly. “Are you sure you’ll be okay? I’m worried about you.”

“Nyang?!” Theo’s eyes widened. He suddenly remembered what he had done to Iona.

“If you go downstairs now,” Sejun said, “I’ll talk to Iona and calm her down for you.”

“Really, nyang?” Theo asked, his ears twitching.

“Don’t you trust me?” Sejun smiled gently.

“No, nyang! Of course, I trust you, nyang!” Theo shook his head quickly. He didn’t trust himself very much, but he trusted Sejun completely. So, Theo agreed to go downstairs. *(He had actually gone down to the 40th floor yesterday,)* Sejun remembered, *(to do something for me).*

Sejun turned to Iona. “Iona, please don’t be too angry,” he said calmly. “Theo shouldn’t have tattooed you without asking, but I think he meant well.”

“Kyuu—but this is too much!” Iona said, looking at the black dragon on her back again. She tried to rub it off with her paw, but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck there. *(Maybe it’s Kaiser’s magic,)* she thought angrily. *(That stuff is always permanent!)*

“Hmm…” Sejun thought. “Okay, how about this? I should have stopped Theo, so I’ll make it up to you. I’ll give you 1000 roasted peanuts every month for the next six months.”

“Ro… Roasted peanuts? One thousand?!” Iona’s ears perked up.

“Hmph! Do you think I’m that easy to bribe? Do you think I’d fall for something like peanuts?!” But her eyes were definitely looking at Sejun expectantly. She really loved roasted peanuts.

“Then,” Sejun added with a smile, “I’ll also give you… Theo’s tail usage rights for one whole day.”

“Kkyut? Theo’s tail usage rights?!” Iona’s eyes went wide and sparkled.

“Yes,” Sejun chuckled. “You get to decide where Theo goes and what he does for a whole day.” Usually, Theo was the one dragging Iona around. Now, she would be in charge!

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut! Okay!” Iona chirped happily. Just like that, her anger disappeared completely.

Theo arrived at the 40th floor of the tower. “Humans, I have arrived, nyang!” he announced loudly to the hunters at the camp, as he always did. He needed to hurry, do what Sejun had asked, and get back upstairs quickly.

“It’s Theo!” one of the hunters shouted. “The savior of the 40th floor is here!” The hunters who were waiting at the camp all cheered and rushed towards Theo. Everyone on the 40th floor had heard the stories about how Theo had chased away the dangerous Black Oaks and kept them safe. They thought of him as their hero.

“Nyang?! Humans, stay back, nyang!” Theo said, pushing the hunters away as they got too close. “Be grateful from a distance, nyang!” He didn’t like anyone being too close to him, except for Sejun, of course. Once the hunters had gathered around him, Theo began the auction.

“The first thing I’m selling today,” Theo announced loudly, holding up a red ear of corn, “is Stamina Corn! And this special corn… makes your hair grow thick, nyang!”

“What?! Corn that makes your hair grow thick?!” one of the hunters gasped. The hunters’ eyes widened with excitement when they heard Theo’s words.

Theo had sold other amazing crops before. There was Detox Leek that could cure liver cancer, and Strength Potato that could cure stomach cancer. And Agility Carrot that could restore eyesight. Every time Theo sold these special crops, and they were taken to Earth, people on Earth were slowly winning against diseases. So, this Stamina Corn that Theo was selling now… it could solve one of the biggest problems for humans: hair loss!

“100 Tower Coins!” shouted one hunter. “500 Tower Coins!” yelled another. “1000 Tower Coins!” someone else bid quickly. The hunters started shouting out prices without even asking any questions. The price went up and up very fast. It was clear they really wanted this hair-growing corn.