Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 19

Day 154 of being stranded, morning.

Sejun groaned, “Oof!” as he sat up, his muscles stiff from sleep.

Scritch scritch went the charcoal as he marked another day on the cave wall. Day 154. Another day stranded.

Just then, a buzzing sound filled the air behind him, the whirring of Poison Honeybee wings. Whirr! Whirr! They were already awake and busy, heading out to collect honey. Sejun watched them, noticing how quickly they moved these days. “They must be making honey for new babies,” he thought. It seemed the Poison Honeybee Queen was laying eggs again.

As Sejun watched the Poison Honeybees,

Squeak!

Squeak!

Squeak!

The rabbits hopped out of their burrow in a neat line, their noses twitching excitedly as they greeted Sejun. Each of them held a leftover carrot from yesterday.

The carrots were nearly the same size as the rabbits themselves. They had eaten half of their body-sized carrot until their bellies were full yesterday. Sejun wondered how the small rabbits could eat so much carrot.

But the rabbits were simply frustrated with the remaining carrot. So, they stared at the carrot with resentment, took it into their burrow, and brought it out again in the morning.

Perhaps they had eaten the carrot during the night, as the size of the carrot they brought out was much smaller than when they took it in.

Crunch crunch.

The rabbits, emerging from their burrow, rubbed their eyes and began to finish the carrots they had left over from yesterday.

“Is it that good?” Sejun looked at the Black Rabbit as if he were amazed.

Squeak!

The Black Rabbit nodded at Sejun, as if to say, Carrot is life!

Thanks to that, Sejun was also swept up in the atmosphere and had a simple breakfast of cherry tomatoes and carrots before starting his morning farming.

Sejun had a lot to do today. He had to harvest cherry tomatoes and carrots.

But today, the Poison Honeybees and rabbits were even busier than Sejun.

The cherry tomato field was starting to bloom with yellow flowers. The Poison Honeybees buzzed around them faster than ever, flying further to collect honey from the new blossoms.

And the rabbit couple kicked their children out of the burrow.

Squeak!

Squeaa?!

They were making their children independent. The six rabbits, evicted from their home, began to build their own burrows.

“Why bother with independence?” Surely not?! Not more baby rabbits again?!

Sejun hoped it wasn’t so.

Cherry tomatoes quickly lose their grade if the harvest time is missed, so Sejun quickly harvested the cherry tomatoes first.

After finishing the cherry tomato harvest, Sejun went to the carrot field and began harvesting carrots.

Pluck.

[You have harvested a well-ripened Carrot of Agility.]

[Your job experience has slightly increased.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 2 has increased very slightly.]

[You have gained 12 experience.]

Luckily, it was an E+ grade carrot from the start.

Pluck. Pluck.

Sejun began harvesting carrots in earnest.

Squeak! Squeak!

When Sejun piled up the carrots he had diligently pulled out, the Black Rabbit carried one carrot on each shoulder under the guise of physical training and moved them to the storage.

The carrot storage was made yesterday by digging a square pit next to the cherry tomato storage and laying fern leaves.

Squeaa…

The Black Rabbit went back and forth about 10 times, then his energy seemed to run out, and the speed of his carrying decreased rapidly.

Thud. Thud.

Roll roll.

He tried to push the carrots with his feet to the storage, hoping his mother wouldn’t notice, but he was caught by his mother and had to listen to her nagging.

“He he he. I knew it.”

While Sejun was watching the Black Rabbit being scolded and laughing,

[You have acquired 1mL of honey from the cherry tomato flower.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 1 has slightly increased.]

[You have acquired 1mL of honey from the cherry tomato flower.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 1 has slightly increased.]

…

..

.

The Poison Honeybees were filling the water bottle with honey.

And

[You have acquired 1mL of honey from the cherry tomato flower.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 1 has slightly increased.]

[The proficiency of Beekeeping Lv. 1 has been filled, and the level has increased.]

The level of the Beekeeping skill has increased.

Sejun looked at the Beekeeping skill that had leveled up.

The skill level went up, but ‘small increase’? Sejun wasn’t sure what that really meant. Instead, there was something that had definitely changed. The number of beehives that could be held increased from (1/1) to (1/2), adding one more.

It wasn’t yet, but if the Poison Honeybees were to swarm later, then he would be able to own two beehives.

“Good job.”

Sejun praised the Poison Honeybees, who had diligently sucked honey, by patting their plump tails.

Trudge trudge.

Meanwhile, the Black Rabbit, who had been scolded by his mother and returned feeling depressed, discovered Sejun patting the tails of the Poison Honeybees.

Squeak?! Squeak!

The Black Rabbit also held out his bottom to Sejun, as if to say, What about me?! If it’s a plump bottom, I’m not second to anyone!

“Alright.”

Sejun patted the Black Rabbit’s bottom, which had rolled in on its own, and they had a brief healing time together.

Crunch.

Crunch.

While chewing carrots.

And

“Where are you going?” As soon as the break was over, he caught the Black Rabbit, who was trying to sneak away to the pond, and made him carry carrots again.

As Sejun was putting his heart and soul back into harvesting carrots,

[You have harvested a well-ripened Carrot of Agility.]

[Your job experience has slightly increased.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 2 has increased very slightly.]

[You have gained 10 experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]

He leveled up and became level 10. Sejun increased his Stamina with the bonus stat. As his Stamina increased, he felt his heavy body lighten up a bit.

[A quest has been generated.]

“What?! Can’t you see I’m busy?” Sejun protested to the Tower’s Administrator without checking the message content.

[The Tower’s Administrator is upset, saying it wasn’t him.]

“Huh?! It’s not you?” Sejun belatedly checked the quest message in detail.

[Job Quest: Expand the farm to 50 Pyeong or more.]

[Reward: Level 11, 10 Tower Coins, 1 additional Job Trait]

Come to think of it, he seemed to have heard of it. The job quest at level 10. He had to pass that quest to get a new job trait and move on to the next level.

Other hunters’ quests were usually about subjugating a few monsters, but since he was a farmer, the quest content seemed to be different.

“Expanding the farm is easy.” It wasn’t difficult for Sejun as he had already expanded the field several times. It would just mean more work.

[The Tower’s Administrator says he’s upset, saying, ‘See, I told you so!’]

“Sorry. I’ll make you cherry tomato juice later instead.” Sejun appeased the Tower’s Administrator.

He hurriedly finished harvesting the carrots and started making the field.

The rabbits made the space with shovels, and Sejun planted cherry tomatoes. He ended up planting too many cherry tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes were the only ones he could harvest seeds from right now, so there was no choice.

As he planted, he barely managed to finish planting cherry tomatoes before going to bed. The number of cherry tomato seeds planted was 1000. He got a little greedy while he was at it, so the scale became a bit larger.

[You have completed the quest.]

[You have become level 11 as a quest completion reward.]

[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]

[You have acquired 10 Tower Coins as a quest completion reward.]

[You have acquired 1 job trait as a quest completion reward.]

[You can gain experience each time you create 1 Pyeong of rice paddy or field as a job trait.]

Until now, he only gained experience when harvesting crops, but now he could also gain experience by creating fields or rice paddies.

“Nice!” Sejun was satisfied with the newly acquired job trait.

That night, as Sejun expected, the rabbit couple seemed ready to have more babies.

But while the rabbit couple was creating a hot atmosphere for the deed, an unexpected intruder appeared.

Krooong. Hrrrk.

Krooong. Hrrrk.

Squeak?!

Squeak?!

The rabbits, hearing the strange noise echoing through the cave late at night, thought a monster had invaded and rushed out of the burrow.

And

Krooong.

Phew.

Realizing it was Sejun’s snoring, who was tired from hard labor, they had to nudge and push Sejun until he rolled onto his side before returning to the burrow.

Thus, unintentionally, Sejun interfered with the rabbit couple’s deed.

Day 155 of being stranded.

Today was an important day, the day the seed shop opened. Sejun got up, drew a line on the wall, and went to the pond to wash his face.

Squeak…

Squeaa…

Squeaaak…

The rabbits came out with tired faces, as if they hadn’t slept well.

“What? What were you doing instead of sleeping?”

Squeeeeak!

Squeaaaa!

Squeak! Squeak!

The rabbits were furious at Sejun’s words. Especially the rabbit couple, who were furious, saying, It’s all your fault!

“Haha. Sorry.” Sejun appeased the angry rabbits by offering them carrots, which calmed their anger.

He started the morning farming, humming.

While Sejun was humming and focusing on harvesting cherry tomatoes,

[The seed shop is now open.]

[3 types of seeds to be sold today are randomly displayed.]

[You can only purchase seeds once at the current grade.]

The seeds that could be purchased today appeared.

[100 Seed Potatoes – 5 Tower Coins]

[100 Strawberry Seeds – 0.5 Tower Coins]

[1000 Lettuce Seeds – 0.1 Tower Coins]

“Lettuce is a pass since there’s no meat.” What was left were seed potatoes and strawberries. He had a lot of money, so he didn’t consider the price.

“Ah. I’m torn.” Sejun imagined himself eating potatoes and strawberries as he pondered which one to buy.

He imagined the smell of roasted potatoes, wrapped in smoky fern leaves. He could almost feel the warmth in his hands as he peeled back the skin, revealing the soft, white potato inside, steam rising up.

“Krooooh!” Just imagining it made him feel warm in his stomach.

He pictured bright red strawberries, shining like jewels in the sun. He could almost taste the burst of sweet juice as he bit into one.

“Sigh.” Sejun wiped the drool from his mouth and looked at the seed shop window.

“What should I buy?” Sejun pondered for a long time, then reluctantly chose seed potatoes. He was craving carbohydrates too much these days.

[You have purchased 100 seed potatoes.]

[5 Tower Coins have been withdrawn from Seed Bank Park Sejun’s account.]

[You have earned 50 Seed Shop Mileage points.]

[You have accumulated a total of 56 Seed Shop Mileage points.]

[Thank you for using the Seed Shop.]

[You can use Seed Shop Lv. 1 again in 30 days.]

Thud.

A sack containing 100 seed potatoes appeared in front of Sejun.

“Nice.” Sejun hurriedly finished harvesting cherry tomatoes and carrots and began planting seed potatoes.

He had asked the rabbits to make the field in advance, so he only had to plant the seed potatoes.

“You can cut it like this.” Having seen it somewhere, he asked the rabbit with the sickle item to cut the seed potatoes into quarters. If you look closely, you can see the spot where the sprouts come out, so you just need to cut it so that the spot is included.

Sejun planted the seed potatoes that had been quartered in that way.

[You have planted a seed potato.]

[The probability of seed potatoes sprouting increases due to the effect of Seed Sowing Lv. 2.]

[The proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 2 has increased very slightly.]

…

..

.

Even though Sejun was getting good at farming, planting 400 potatoes was hard work. His back started to ache, but the rabbits helped by watering the field.

Swish.

The potato planting was completely finished when the rabbits with watering cans watered the potato field.

“Ugh. I’m so proud.” While Sejun was proudly looking at the field where 400 seed potatoes had been planted,

[You have created 10 Pyeong of potato field.]

[You have gained 10 experience.]

1 experience per Pyeong. It wasn’t much, but it felt like a side income was coming in.

“Isn’t it amazing? My farming skills to plant 400 potatoes with 100 seed potatoes?”

Squeak?!

Sejun said boastfully, but the Black Rabbit looked at him with disdain. What farmer doesn’t know that?!

He was only ignored for saying something unnecessary.

Day 155 of being stranded, potatoes began to grow in Sejun’s field.