Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 33

Theo had gone to the 38th floor. Sejun and the rabbits finished their morning work in the fields and were now eating lunch.

The rabbit couples ate inside the cave to be near their baby rabbits. This left Sejun and his rabbit children to eat with the baby bear outside, under the warm sun.

“Kooeng!”

The baby bear had eaten thirty piranhas quickly. Now, it looked sadly at Sejun’s grilled fish. “More, please!” it begged.

The baby bear was growing bigger and hungrier every day.

“Here you go,” Sejun said kindly.

He cut his own grilled fish in half and gave it to the baby bear.

“Kooeng!”

The baby bear dipped its head politely, taking the fish carefully. “I’ll enjoy it!”

“Wap.”

Crunch, crunch.

The baby bear put the grilled fish in its mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed it all at once, bones and everything.

Right after,

“Kooeng,” the baby bear whined again. It looked at the carrot the black rabbit was eating. “Hyung, give me that carrot.”

But,

“Ppyak!”

The black rabbit shook its head firmly. “No carrots for you!”

“Kooeng…”

The sulky baby bear turned away from the black rabbit. “Mean hyung…”

Lunchtime ended, and

Slurp.

Sejun walked slowly through the damaged field, sipping his coffee.

Yesterday, he had been too disheartened to even look at the field after it was ruined, but he couldn’t continue like that. He had to rebuild it.

“Fortunately, it’s not all destroyed.”

He had thought the entire crop was lost, but a good amount of it had survived.

As Sejun looked around the field,

“Huh?!”

About a kilometer from the cave, he saw several mounds of earth. They looked like giant molehills, but much bigger, about seven meters high. What were those? They hadn’t been there before. He became curious and walked closer to the mounds.

“What is this?!”

Near each mound were rectangular pits, about seven meters deep. Near each pit were two round marks in the ground. Sejun guessed that a monster with horns had pushed its horns into the earth and lifted the soil out.

“How strong must it be…”

Sejun was amazed by how strong the monster was. He looked at the highest point of the mound. The very top was a different color: black.

Thump. Thump.

Carefully, Sejun started to climb the mound. His feet sank slightly into the loose earth. He pulled out his dagger and used it to help him climb, pushing it into the ground step by step. He examined the black soil. It was different from the bad soil on top. Not crumbly, but soft, moist, and sticky.

This soil was clearly full of good things for plants! He couldn’t believe such rich soil was under the bad land on top. “If only I could mix them together,” he thought.

But without farming equipment like a backhoe or tractor, digging seven meters deep was impossible.

He could ask Mother Crimson Giant Bear for help. She might be able to do a little each day, but with the monster territories unstable because of the recent Blue Moon, she was busy patrolling.

Sejun decided to be happy knowing there was good quality soil beneath the ground.

After looking around the field, he went back to where they had lunch.

Ppyarorong.

Kkurorong.

He found the black rabbit and baby bear, who had been waiting for him, fast asleep in each other’s arms. They had become friends again.

“Alright, wake up.”

Sejun patted their fluffy bottoms to wake them up.

“Ppyak…”

“Kooeng…”

The black rabbit and baby bear stirred, bodies rising while eyes remained closed.

“Kids, what’s this?”

Sejun showed them dried sweet potato and honey.

“Ppyak!”

“Kooeng!”

They barely managed to open their eyes, begging Sejun for food.

Munch munch.

Lick lick.

The black rabbit and baby bear ate the snacks Sejun gave them, finally waking up.

“Alright, let’s work.”

He hadn’t given them snacks for nothing.

“Kooeng!”

The baby bear, now fully awake, plunged its front paws into the ground and plowed it lightly, moving backwards like a plow.

“Pya bya byak!”

The black rabbit flattened the ground with its hammer.

And then,

Thump. Thump.

The shovel rabbits dug up soil to make ridges.

Finally, when the small field was complete, Sejun planted sweet potato sprouts he had taken from the sweet potatoes planted in the cave.

[You have created a 10-pyeong pumpkin sweet potato field.]

[You have gained 20 experience.]

Having planted all the sweet potato sprouts, Sejun left the baby bear and rabbits to take care of the field. He went down to the cave.

It was time to harvest the corn properly. Sejun began picking corn in the field.

Thuk.

As he snapped off an ear of corn,

[You have harvested a well-ripened Stamina Corn.]

[Your job experience slightly increases.]

[Skill in Harvesting Lv. 4 slightly increases.]

[Due to the effect of Skill Increase Lv. 1, skill in Harvesting Lv. 4 increases by an additional 5%.]

[You have gained 20 experience.]

“I wonder what effects the corn has?”

Sejun looked at the corn’s details.

[Stamina Corn]

This corn, grown inside the Tower, is delicious because it has lots of nutrients.

Eating it breaks down 20g of fat in the body and increases Stamina by 0.2 for 10 minutes.

The effect can happen up to 10 times within an hour.

When someone who isn’t awakened eats it, it breaks down 20g of fat and makes their skin more elastic.

Grower: Tower Farmer Park Sejun

Expiration Date: 60 days

Grade: D

“Skin elasticity?”

It was vague, but Sejun thought it would be good, as the item description guaranteed 100% effectiveness.

“Mom would like this.”

Sejun decided to tell his family he was doing well again soon. This time, he would send them his produce too.

His produce was being sold outside in his name, and his family might feel left out if they couldn’t eat it.

Thuk. Thuk.

Sejun harvested more corn.

***

Tower, 38th floor.

“Why isn’t the wandering merchant coming?”

“Theo should be here by now…”

The hunters waited anxiously for Theo. They had received many requests to get magical cherry tomatoes this time.

These weren’t requests from friends, but from the super-rich, whose fortunes were more than hundreds of billions of won.

Outside the Tower, rumors about the magical cherry tomatoes had spread among the wealthy. They began eating them every morning like medicine to make them feel better.

They were people with lots of money. Rare and excellent products caught their attention. Right now, one magical cherry tomato was worth about 500,000 won on Earth.

There were many wealthy people willing to pay even more, but the price hadn’t increased because there were no sellers, so there were no transactions.

The situation was that there were plenty of buyers if someone would bring out the magical cherry tomatoes.

That’s why the hunters were ready to pay as soon as Theo arrived. But Theo didn’t come.

“Did we buy too cheaply last time, so he went to another floor?”

The hunters became more and more anxious. They decided they would spend enough money this time.

They couldn’t imagine that Theo was late because he was busy picking cherry tomatoes and cutting green onion leaves in the cave.

***

“Grrr. Hmm… Did I lose consciousness again?”

Aileen sometimes lost consciousness because she didn’t have enough mana. It hadn’t happened lately, and she thought she was fine since she hadn’t had any seizures…

Aileen rose from her seat with a sad look.

Swoosh.

“Huh?!”

Aileen was surprised by how her body felt.

Usually, when Aileen lost consciousness, it felt like her body was being switched off to survive. She would wake up feeling heavy and tired.

But now, her body felt incredibly light, as if she could fly.

“Why is my body so light? Ah! The cherry tomatoes!”

Only then did Aileen remember what had happened before she lost consciousness.

The magical cherry tomatoes filled with the Blue Moon’s energy!

As soon as Aileen got the five blue cherry tomatoes from Sejun, she put them in her mouth and chewed. They were so delicious, sweet and sour.

While she was enjoying the taste,

Thump. Thump. Thump.

She felt the Dragon Heart beating weakly and slowly. Then she lost consciousness and woke up now.

“Then, what about the Dragon Heart?”

Aileen quickly focused on her Dragon Heart.

……

The Dragon Heart was so still that it was hard to believe it had ever beaten. She couldn’t feel any mana at all.

“Did I expect too much?”

Feeling upset, Aileen went to the crystal ball to watch the human. He was probably eating something delicious without her.

Just then,

Thump!

“Ouch!”

Aileen bumped her head on something as she entered the room with the crystal ball.

“Ugh! What was that?”

Aileen stepped back and looked at what had hurt her. It was the doorframe.

“Why is that there?”

There was about a 10-meter distance between her height and the doorframe, so her head should never have been able to reach it unless she was flying.

“What’s going on?”

Sensing something was wrong, Aileen went to the lake where she bathed to see how she looked. The black dragon reflected in the water was larger than Aileen remembered.

“Huh?! I grew? Grrr.”

Aileen made a happy sound and looked at her reflection for a long time.

“Huh?! What was I going to do?”

Suddenly, she felt like she was forgetting something important.

“Ah!”

This was no time for this. Aileen hurried to the crystal ball.

“Of course! That human was trying to eat something delicious without me!”

Just in time, Sejun was taking steamed corn out of a pot in the crystal ball. Perfect timing. Aileen was lucky when it came to food.

***

Tonight’s dinner was corn, with steamed corn and grilled corn.

“Alright.”

Sejun took the pot off the small stove and began taking out the steamed corn one by one with tongs.

Just then,

[The Tower’s Administrator says they would like to taste the corn too.]

[The Tower’s Administrator says they would be happy with just one.]

[A quest has been generated.]

[Quest: Give the hungry Tower Administrator corn dishes.]

Reward: Great thankfulness

Rejection: Great sadness.

“Wait a little. It’s not quite ready yet.”

[The Tower’s Administrator nods, saying they can wait patiently.]

While the steamed corn cooled, Sejun went to the charcoal grill where the grilled corn was being made.

The rabbits were slowly turning the corn, which had been put on wooden sticks, over the charcoal made from wood brought by the baby bear. The outside of the corn was being grilled to a golden-brown color by the heat.

Next to the rabbits, a pile of thirty grilled corn ears had already been cooked.

“You can stop grilling now.”

“Ppiik!”

“Pyaa!”

“Ppyak!”

When Sejun said this, the rabbits began to take steamed corn and grilled corn to eat.

Sejun took five of each: steamed corn and grilled corn.

“Aileen, enjoy your meal.”

[You have completed the quest.]

[As a reward for completing the quest, the Tower’s Administrator is very thankful.]

“Alright.”

Sejun gave the corn to Aileen and began eating it with the rabbits.

Without Theo, the baby rabbits were eating corn next to Sejun.

“Pyaap!”

“Ppyap!”

The babies tried to eat the corn, but it was still too big and difficult for them.

“Let’s eat like this.”

Creak.

Sejun took the corn that the baby rabbit was eating and scraped off the kernels with a spoon, putting them in a bowl for the babies.

Munch munch.

The babies began to pick up the corn kernels in the bowl with their front paws and eat them.

A moment later,

“Pyaa!”

“Pyaam!”

“Pyaat!”

The baby rabbits showed their empty bowls and cried out to Sejun for more corn. It was quite a lot, but they had already eaten it all.

“Wait a moment.”

Sejun picked up an ear of corn and turned his head to get a bowl when,

“Pfft! What is this?”

He laughed when he saw the babies. They were wearing corn camouflage.

The babies had only eaten about half of the corn kernels. The rest was stuck to their fur.

“Pyaa!”

“Pyaam!”

“Pyaat!”

The baby rabbits were covered in corn kernels and asking for more.

“No wonder you’re short on food.”

Sejun picked off the corn kernels stuck to the baby rabbits’ bodies and put them in their mouths.

“Pya!”

“Pya!”

“Pya!”

The baby rabbits stuck out their snouts like baby birds, fighting to get the food.

“Hey! Wait! I won’t give any to rabbits that move.”

Sejun held one of the baby rabbits in his arms with a stern voice. He picked off the corn kernels stuck to its body, putting them in the baby rabbits’ mouths one by one.

“It was easier when Theo was here…”

For the first time, Sejun felt Theo’s absence. He missed CEO Theo.