Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 28

Maaah!

“Ummm…” Sejun woke up to the baby bear’s cry.

These days, Mama Bear started leaving earlier each day. Was she trying to leave her cub here sooner? Also, she was coming back later to get him. Sejun wondered what was happening.

Scratch.

Sejun got up and made a mark on the cave wall. He was keeping track of the days. This was the morning of his 175th day alone in the cave, starting with the baby bear’s cry.

Squeak!

Bbyaang!

Bbyak!

Whirr!

The rabbits and honeybees greeted Sejun good morning.

Sejun washed his face and walked to the dried sweet potato slices on the green onion leaves. He had used up all the dried sweet potato slices he made before, so yesterday he baked and sliced 50 new sweet potatoes to dry.

Yesterday, he had baked sweet potatoes for dinner. He enjoyed them with the rabbits. He also learned something new: sweet potatoes tasted even better after being picked and left for a while.

The sweet baked sweet potatoes were so good that everyone ate happily, not even noticing the soot on their faces.

Snatch.

Sejun grabbed a dried sweet potato slice and put it in his mouth.

Munch munch.

“Ummm…” The chewy slice was warm and sweet, like sunshine in his mouth. It felt like energy waking up his sleepy brain.

Gulp.

“Hum hum hum. Dried perfectly.”

Sejun was happy with how the sweet potato slices turned out. Humming, he put some aside for breakfast and the rest in a leather pouch.

Crunch crunch.

The rabbits were eating carrots, waiting for Sejun to give them sweet potato slices.

“Okay, let’s eat sweet potato slices.”

Sejun gave the rabbits three sweet potato slices each.

And he gave his wife rabbit twice as much, six. As his wife rabbit’s belly grew, her appetite became too good.

After having breakfast with sweet potato slices, he started the morning farming. Sejun cut the green onion leaves and immediately harvested cherry tomatoes.

“Oh, this is a big one!”

Scrritch.

Sejun cut the branch full of cherry tomatoes.

As Sejun cut the branch, a series of messages appeared in his mind: *You have harvested 10 ripe magic cherry tomatoes.* He felt a little more experienced, and his harvesting skill improved again. It even gained a new effect!

“Oh!”

Sejun quickly checked his skills when he saw the message about the new effect.

[Job Skill – Harvesting Lv. 4] -Makes fruits taste best, even if they are a little underripe or overripe. -Very rarely, you might harvest crops that are even better than normal.

Although the probability was very low, the thought of being able to harvest a higher grade… just imagining eating more delicious cherry tomatoes made him feel good.

“Do skills get new effects at level 4?”

Sejun wondered. He decided to see if it happened with other skills too, and went back to harvesting cherry tomatoes for his wife rabbit.

While he harvested cherry tomatoes,

Bbyak!

The black rabbit called Sejun. It was lunchtime.

“Alright.”

Sejun went to the pond and took the piranhas that the black rabbit had caught. He seasoned them with salt and pepper and grilled them over the fire. He only used salt for the white rabbits’ fish, as they couldn’t eat pepper.

As the grilled fish cooked,

Maaah! Maaah!

The baby bear smelled the food and cried, saying he was hungry. Sejun and the rabbits were used to this now, and quickly packed up their things.

“Time to go up!” Sejun said.

Maaah! Maaah!

The baby bear started to pull Sejun and the rabbits up. When they reached the surface, Sejun saw about ten branches piled next to the baby bear. They were as thick as his arm.

Sejun had asked the baby bear to bring these. He had shown the baby bear his arm and asked for branches about that thick. Since yesterday, the baby bear had been bringing a few each time. Sejun planned to make a ladder and other useful things, but he was too busy with farming.

When the baby rabbits were born, he would have more help. But Sejun had so many plans for planting, he knew the farm would get bigger quickly. He used to think farming only needed strength and energy, but now he realized speed was important too. So, he decided to improve his agility, to become faster.

Maaah?

The baby bear looked at Sejun with a proud expression, as if asking to be praised. Did I do well?

“You did well.”

Pat pat.

Sejun patted the baby bear’s bottom, which was already bigger than his height. And he began to eat lunch.

“Here, try this.”

Sejun gave the baby bear a baked sweet potato. Yesterday, the baby bear had left before dinner and missed the baked sweet potatoes. Sejun had saved five for him. Because of this, the tower’s administrator, that mysterious voice, had sounded annoyed, asking why Sejun was saving food just for the baby bear.

Nom.

The baby bear put the baked sweet potato in his mouth, peel and all.

Maaah!

He chewed and wiggled his body, showing how much he loved it. He ate another bite, and another, and another.

And

Maaah…

The baby bear held the last remaining baked sweet potato and pondered before getting up from his seat.

“Huh?”

Bbyak?

Sejun and the black rabbit, who had never seen the baby bear get up before finishing all his food, looked at the baby bear.

Thud.

The baby bear went to the field, dug into the ground, and buried his baked sweet potato in the ground. Then, he covered the baked sweet potato with soil and patted the ground.

The baby bear, who had learned about planting, thought that anything would grow if he just planted it in the ground, so he planted the baked sweet potato.

“Pfft!”

Sejun laughed at the baby bear’s silly action.

The black rabbit quickly hopped over to the baby bear. It was time for a lesson from his big brother.

Bbyak.

The black rabbit told him to dig up the sweet potato again.

Maaah.

The baby bear tilted his head, confused. He thought planting meant more food later.

Bbyak.

The black rabbit shook his head and nudged the sweet potato with his nose, then pointed to the unbaked sweet potatoes growing in the field.

Maaah!

The baby bear seemed to understand. He dug up the baked sweet potato, put it in his mouth, and went back to his seat.

Lunchtime ended nicely. Sejun let the baby bear and black rabbit rest their heads on his knees while he drank coffee and took a short break. “Now, get up.” Sejun woke up the baby bear and black rabbit, who had fallen asleep. They went to the field to plant the carrot tops that the rabbits had left, before going back down to the cave.

Just then,

“Huh? Why does the ground smell fishy?”

A strong fish smell came from the ground.

Thud.

Something felt wrong. Sejun dug where the smell was strongest.

“Gasp!”

Sejun was surprised by what he found.

Smile.

A piranha head was sticking out of the ground, grinning at him.

“Why did you bury this like this?!”

Sejun looked annoyed at whoever had done it.

Maaah!

The baby bear, full of energy after lunch, was digging up the ground with his front paws, like a machine. Maybe he was planning to plant piranhas too! The baby bear definitely needed another lesson.

Theo hurried to the shopping area. He was looking forward to getting a treat called Churu and sitting on Sejun’s lap later. “Kettle, blanket, five honey jars, tongs. Kettle…” Theo went into the general store, repeating Sejun’s list to himself so he wouldn’t forget anything.

“Puhuhu. I bargained well again, nyaa.” Theo had managed to bargain down the price by a little bit, saving 0.4 Tower Coins. The shop owner had asked for 2.1 Tower Coins, but Theo got it for 1.7 Tower Coins after trying to bargain three times.

In the afternoon, he taught the baby bear more about planting. Then, he harvested seeds from the carrot flowers, something he hadn’t had time for before. The rabbits had been asking him to do this because they were running out of carrots – their stored carrots were half gone.

Shake shake shake. Sejun shook the dried carrot flowers, and lots of carrot seeds fell out. *[You got carrot seeds! Skill improved!]* He kept shaking and collecting seeds. In the end, he had collected over 2000 carrot seeds.

Sejun and the rabbits planted half the carrot seeds in the cave and half in the field outside. When they finished planting all the carrots in the field, messages appeared: *[Carrot field created! Experience gained! Level Up! Bonus stat point!]* Sejun used his bonus point to increase his agility, making him faster at work.

So, on his 175th day alone, Sejun planted 2000 carrots and became a little faster.