Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 39

“Where are you going so early, Woo Cheon-sam?”

Woo Cheon-sa, who worked with Woo Cheon-sam, asked. For three days now, Woo Cheon-sam had been getting up before everyone else and heading out to the dusty wasteland.

“Getting some good breakfast!” Woo Cheon-sam replied, a happy grin on his face. He was excited about lunch every day now, when he could eat as much as he wanted. He’d almost forgotten about his debt, and even Woo Ma-wang’s orders seemed far away.

“Breakfast?!” Woo Cheon-sa’s eyes widened. “What kind of breakfast?”

“Good stuff! I dig in the ground with my horns, turn over the soil, and they give me food!” Woo Cheon-sam explained.

“Food sounds great! I want some too! Can I come with you?” Woo Cheon-sa jumped up, eager to join him.

“Sure! Let’s go together!” Woo Cheon-sam chuckled. He led Woo Cheon-sa, the newer minotaur, towards Sejun’s cave, ready for another day of work.

“Kkueng!”

Sejun woke up to the sound of a baby bear’s cry.

Scritch.

He marked another line on the cave wall, starting his 195th day of being stranded.

Sejun climbed up the rope to the surface to tell the Black Minotaur, Woo Cheon-sam, what to do for the morning. Then he said, “Huh?!”

“Moo!”

“Moo!”

Two Black Minotaurs were waiting for Sejun. There was another one. Sejun could tell them apart because of the different patterns drawn on their shoulders.

While Sejun was trying to figure out what was going on, Bob.

The Black Minotaur who had come with Woo Cheon-sam bowed his head to Sejun.

“Moo!”

“Woo Cheon-sam says his friend, Woo Cheon-sa, wants to work and eat here too, nyaa,” Theo said, holding onto Sejun’s leg.

“Okay. I can give food, but I can’t pay. Ask him if he still wants to do it,” Sejun said.

“Understood, nyaa.”

Theo told Woo Cheon-sa what Sejun said. Sejun didn’t need more fields yet, so he didn’t plan to pay for another minotaur.

“Moo!”

Woo Cheon-sa nodded, agreeing quickly, since he had come for the food. And so, the two Black Minotaurs started digging in the ground.

Thud.

Listening to the sound of the two Black Minotaurs digging, Sejun went back down into the cave.

He decided to divide and replant the green onion roots that he hadn’t taken care of.

To keep the field from drying out and to feed the two big workers, he needed to grow more green onion leaves.

He always had enough green onion leaves. He hadn’t needed to grow more. But he knew that if you cut green onions, the roots grow more. He could grow as many green onions as he wanted.

Sejun started to separate the roots of the green onions he had planted when he first got stuck there. The roots were now as big as a cup, and there were almost 30 of them.

Sejun took the green onion roots to the field that Woo Cheon-sam had dug up yesterday. He made a new field and planted the roots.

Sejun planted the green onions above ground so he wouldn’t have to carry the leaves from the cave.

Planting the green onion roots made the field above ground about 20 times bigger than the one in the cave.

[You have created a 200-pyeong green onion field.]

[You have gained 200 experience.]

If he kept dividing and replanting the roots, he would soon have a green onion field much bigger than it was now.

But there was one problem to solve.

Swish.

Sejun watched the rabbit watering cans water the green onion field. There were only a few watering cans, so they couldn’t water all the plants.

So, Sejun was getting water from the pond for some of the field in the cave, but that wasn’t enough.

While Sejun was thinking about how to get more water, Flash.

The Husband Rabbit’s body glowed. Like the Black Rabbit’s hammer, the Husband Rabbit’s watering can changed, becoming bigger.

“A second awakening.”

Sejun called it a ‘second awakening’ – that’s what he called it when the rabbits’ tools got better as they leveled up. Rabbits with a second awakening were much better than before.

Squeak…

The Husband Rabbit, after his second awakening, proudly showed off his new watering can.

“How is it? Can it hold a lot more water?” Sejun asked, excited.

Squeak!

The Husband Rabbit nodded, holding up two fingers. It could hold twice as much!

“Oh!”

Thanks to the Husband Rabbit’s second awakening, there would be enough water for now. With the water problem solved, Sejun’s farm grew again.

Day 197 of being stranded.

“Alright, let’s eat!”

Today, the baby rabbits came above ground for the first time to eat together.

As soon as they finished eating, “Kkueng!”

Kkuengi, happy to see baby rabbits younger than him, went to greet them.

“Ppyang!”

“Ppyap!”

“Ppyat!”

The baby rabbits weren’t scared of Kkuengi’s size and came to play with him.

“Kkueng!”

Kkuengi wanted to teach the baby rabbits what he knew, so he took them to the field and showed them how to plant. “If you plant it here, more will grow later.”

Sejun watched Kkuengi and the baby rabbits with interest while drinking coffee. Theo and the Black Rabbit were each napping on Sejun’s lap while he rested.

“Ppyang?”

One of the baby rabbits, after listening to Kkuengi, took out a dried sweet potato from his bag and planted it.

“Kkueeeet!”

Kkuengi scoffed at the baby rabbit. He seemed to have forgotten that he had planted dried sweet potatoes and piranhas, unable to remember his days as a tadpole.

As they were resting, Whirr.

The sound of baby poison honeybees’ wings was heard.

“Huh?”

Sejun was confused. Poison honeybees don’t let their young out of the cave because it’s dangerous. What was going on?

Sejun looked around, Whirr.

Seven tiny honeybees, their wings still soft and new, buzzed around the hive. They were smaller than the older bees, with delicate, almost see-through wings. The first baby poison honeybees had hatched from the second hive.

Sejun put the sleeping Black Rabbit and Theo on the ground and went to the baby poison honeybees.

Whirr.

The baby poison honeybees knew Sejun was the owner of the queen, so they didn’t avoid him, even without training. They came to him, acting friendly.

“Kids, let’s go get something good to eat,” Sejun said.

Sejun led the baby poison honeybees down into the cave and took them to the flowers, letting them drink honey.

Whirr.

The older poison honeybees seemed wary of the new bees, but they relaxed when Sejun was with them and went back to drinking honey.

And so, the baby poison honeybees from the second hive settled in. The honey production would increase, and Sejun finally had a way to expand his area, which he had been thinking about.

Sejun now had two honeybee hives working.

In the afternoon, he cut green onion leaves to cover the field and went down into the cave to harvest cherry tomatoes.

As Sejun was harvesting cherry tomatoes,

[You have harvested 8 ripe magic cherry tomatoes simultaneously.]

[Your job experience slightly increases.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 slightly increases.]

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

[You have gained 176 experience.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]

Sejun leveled up, reaching level 17. He still had enough strength and stamina, so he put the bonus point into agility to work faster.

As evening came, Roar.

The mother Crimson Giant Bear came to pick up her cub, and “Moo!”

“Moo!”

The two Black Minotaurs also finished work.

“Theo, isn’t it time for a trade?” Sejun asked, patting Theo’s head as he sat on his lap after dinner.

He would have let Theo play for a few more days, but it was time to send news to his family.

“I want to go, but I can’t, nyaa!”

“What do you mean?”

Theo told him about being attacked by wolves on the way there.

“The wolves asked about the straw hat and tried to eat me, nyaa.”

“This straw hat?” Sejun asked, touching the straw hat he was wearing.

Were there people farming on other floors too? It was a relic and had good effects, but it was only useful for farmers.

“That’s right, nyaa! So I can’t go, nyaa!”

“Don’t worry. How dare they attack our Theo! I’ll take care of it,” Sejun said, feeling angry.

How dare they try to hurt Theo! Sejun thought of a plan.

“How, nyaa?”

“We have Woo Cheon-sam, right? Theo, you can hire a guard, right?”

“I can, nyaa!”

“You can hire Woo Cheon-sam as a guard and go down and come back.”

Someone hired as a guard by a traveling seller can travel with the seller.

Sejun also wanted to go down the tower as a guard, but he couldn’t because of one rule.

To be a guard, you had to be born in the tower. You couldn’t change that. He later learned that it was the same for traveling sellers.

Some jobs, like traveling sellers and guards, were only for people born in the tower.

“Oh! That’s right, nyaa! If the wolves attack this time, I’ll fight them with Woo Cheon-sam, nyaa!” Theo said, feeling braver.

Purr.

And so, Theo decided to go down the tower with Woo Cheon-sam tomorrow and fell asleep on Sejun’s stomach.

The next morning.

Sejun offered Woo Cheon-sam three times his daily pay, 3 tower coins, to protect Theo as a guard.

But, “Moo!”

Woo Cheon-sam shook his head and refused.

“Why? I’m giving you three times the pay?!”

“Moo!”

“He says he doesn’t want to leave because he can’t eat if he leaves, nyaa!”

“What?!”

Food was more important to Woo Cheon-sam than paying off his debt.

“Alright. Then I’ll give you three meals a day,” Sejun said.

As soon as Sejun said he would provide all three meals, “Moo!”

Woo Cheon-sa, who was nearby, raised his hand. “Me too!” He really wanted to work for three meals a day.

“Hmm… okay. Then I’ll give you 3 tower coins and 3 meals a day, right?” Sejun thought that if there were two Black Minotaurs, one could protect Theo while the other fought, so Theo would be safe.

“Moo. Moo.”

Woo Cheon-sa shook his head. He didn’t need money. He wanted food.

“Alright.”

Sejun quickly cut green onion leaves to pack 10 days’ worth of food for the two Black Minotaurs.

“No. I need to pack 15 days’ worth,” Sejun said.

Sejun added 50% more green onion leaves to Theo’s pack.

If they were delayed, there might not be enough green onion leaves. Then Woo Cheon-sam and Woo Cheon-sa might get hungry and eat Theo.

“That would be a disaster. Should I get a contract saying they will never eat Theo?”

While Sejun was worrying, he packed 15 days’ worth of green onion leaves for the two Black Minotaurs into Theo’s pack.

It was a lot, but it only took up one-third of Theo’s pack.

“Oh! It fits a lot?”

“That’s right, nyaa. That’s because I am now a mid-level traveling seller, Representative Theo, nyaa!” Theo said proudly.

If Theo’s pack hadn’t gotten bigger when he became a mid-level traveling seller, this trip would have been just about carrying green onion leaves.

“Be careful!”

“Then I’ll be back, nyaa!”

On day 198 of being stranded, Theo, with the two Black Minotaurs, went down the tower, waving goodbye to Sejun.