Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 43

Leaving the Black Minotaur’s territory, the Ox King began to run swiftly. As the boss of the 99th floor of the tower, he had a duty to guard the waypoint and couldn’t stray from it for more than an hour each month.

Huff.

‘I smell Woo Chun-sam from this way,’ the Ox King thought, chasing after the scent quickly.

While moving and chasing the scent, he suddenly paused.

Moo?!

‘Huh?! Why does Woo Chun-sa smell like Woo Chun-sam? Could it be?! Did they hit it off? Those rascals!’ he wondered.

Everything made sense. Why Woo Chun-sam hadn’t come into the territory for days. Clearly, he had seduced Woo Chun-sa with delicious grass.

The Ox King’s worry for his subordinate vanished, replaced by anger. Now, he was just the Ox King, cursing the happy couple.

Moo-oo!

The Ox King let out an angry roar and moved violently, following the scent again.

At that moment,

Huff. Huff.

Another scent mixed into the Ox King’s nose.

What is this?!

It was the delicious grass scent that he had ordered Woo Chun-sam to find! And his subordinates were heading in the same direction as the grass scent.

‘I’ve got you! You rascals!’

The Ox King hurried towards the scent. The closer he got, the stronger the scents of his subordinates and the grass became.

Then, the Ox King stopped short. Before him, where there had been only dry wasteland, now stood a vibrant forest of green. Scallions, tall and thick, stretched as far as he could see, their fresh, sweet scent making his mouth water.

‘They must be in there,’ he grunted to himself, his anger forgotten for a moment. ‘Breeding and eating *my* delicious grass! Trying to keep it all for themselves!’

A new feeling, greed, mixed with his hunger. *Maybe… maybe they’ll spare some for me?* he thought hopefully.

Moo-oo!

Thud. Thud.

He glimpsed a flash of red fur near the edge of the scallions, but his mind was fixed. Punish the traitors! Get to the grass! Reason vanished, replaced by a single, powerful urge. The Ox King plunged into the green forest.

[Boss of the 99th Floor, Ox King]

“Ox King?”

Sejun was flustered, watching the giant Ox King suddenly running towards the scallion field.

Kroooooh!!!

Mother Crimson Giant Bear hurriedly sent Kkuengi to Sejun and blocked the Ox King’s path. She had promised to protect this place, so Mother Crimson Giant Bear risked her life, even though the Ox King was the strongest on the 99th floor.

At that moment,

Rummage rummage.

The Ox King, as if he had no interest in them, frantically rummaged through the scallion field, looking for something.

But when there was nothing,

Munch munch.

He began to chew, putting the scallion leaves in his mouth without even cutting them.

Crunch crunch.

The fragrant grass filled the Ox King’s mouth. It was soft yet chewy.

Moo-oo-oo~

The Ox King, feeling so good, couldn’t contain his excitement and cried out joyfully. He sat on the ground and pulled out the scallions by the roots, putting them in his mouth and swallowing them.

Crunch crunch.

In an instant, about a quarter of the scallion field disappeared.

“What is it?”

Kroong?

Kkueng?

Squeak?

Ppyak?

Sejun and the animals looked at the Ox King as if he were a strange sight. The fear of the Ox King had completely disappeared. He was just a cow. A very, very big cow that liked scallions.

After a while,

Moo-oo···

The Ox King, as if sad that he couldn’t eat more, got up with his hands full of scallions and ran back towards the waypoint.

“That’s the boss of the 99th floor?”

Sejun looked at the Ox King running away in a daze. He regretted not thinking of going to the waypoint sooner.

“I should have taken the scallions and gone earlier.”

But now there was no need. The Ox King had made a mistake. He had ruined Sejun’s scallion field and ran off without paying.

“To ruin my field and thankfully run away without paying.”

When he talked to Woo Chun-sam, it was clear that the Black Minotaurs valued the honor of a warrior. Surely the Ox King would too. As the leader of the Black Minotaurs, he would value honor even more.

Sejun smiled slyly, calculating in his head. It was a blessing in disguise, and he had a good idea.

Sejun wanted to run to the waypoint right now and negotiate with the Ox King, but he decided to wait for Theo, who could translate, to ensure a smooth negotiation.

Aileen could also translate, but she sometimes fell asleep suddenly, so he was a little uneasy.

Sejun began to clean up the scallion field that the Ox King had ruined. It was annoying, but Sejun’s face showed no annoyance at all.

“Hum hum hum.”

He was humming and smiling, as if he was in a good mood.

“First, I have to ask the Ox King to let me use the waypoint. Hehe. And…”

Sejun worked without realizing how hard it was, thinking about what he would ask the Ox King for.

The day after the Ox King made a mess of the scallion field, Sejun quickly finished harvesting cherry tomatoes in the morning. He cleaned up the scallion field that he couldn’t finish yesterday because it was late, and began to cut the scallion leaves.

Scritch. Scritch.

Cutting the scallion leaves was quickly finished. Sejun’s work was greatly reduced thanks to the Ox King, who had removed a quarter of the scallion field yesterday (?).

“It’s a little disappointing.”

Kkueng!

Kkuengi, who helped Sejun stack the scallion leaves, brought a glass bottle. Honey, please!

“Okay.”

Click.

When Sejun opened the lid of the glass bottle,

Pat.

Kkuengi hurriedly put out his front paw, and

Glug.

Sejun carefully poured 1 glug of honey.

Lick lick.

While Sejun was resting, watching Kkuengi lick the honey deliciously,

[Year of Abundance Lv. 1 is activated.]

[The 70 pyeong scallion field is in abundance.]

[Harvest will increase by 50% for the next week.]

“In the scallion field?!”

Rustle. Rustle.

Sejun heard the rough sound of life growing in his ears.

“Huh?!”

Sejun hurriedly looked at the scallion field. The scallion leaves in the golden scallion field were quickly growing back up.

He took back what he said about it being disappointing earlier. Sejun was now able to harvest scallion leaves three times a day from the abundant scallion field.

And

Kkuengeeng!

Kkuengi, who was able to eat honey again, raised both hands and cheered. Hooray!

75th floor of the tower.

Theo arrived at the shopping district with the Black Minotaurs, on the way to the general store to buy the glass bottle that Sejun had asked for. The road was more crowded with merchants than usual today.

‘I have to avoid them carefully, meow,’ Theo thought, knowing he should be careful today so that he wouldn’t get kicked by the merchants.

Shuffle.

The merchants parted to both sides, making a path for Theo.

‘What, meow?’

Theo was flustered. He always avoided being kicked by weaving through their legs because he was short… Why weren’t the tall merchants blocking his path today?

‘Puhu! Did they recognize the mid-level wandering merchant, Theo, meow?’

Theo raised his chin and walked majestically into the general store with the Black Minotaurs.

Theo went into the general store, and

“Did you see that just now?!”

“Yeah. What I saw was right, wasn’t it? Wow! To see a Black Minotaur here.”

“But how did they get into the shopping district? I don’t think there are any Black Minotaur wandering merchants.”

“Maybe they’re a free mercenary?”

“Wow, that’s amazing. A wandering merchant who hired a Black Minotaur as a free mercenary. I want to see them once.”

“Right. We should at least get to know such a big-shot wandering merchant.”

None of the merchants knew that the employer of the Black Minotaur had passed under their feet.

Inside the general store,

Thump.

Theo put 20 glass bottles on the counter.

Huff. Huff.

From behind Theo, Woo Chun-sam and Woo Chun-sa, with three wolves slung over their shoulders, looked down at the general store owner, snorting.

“How much, meow?”

The general store owner said in a very frightened voice, “E-each glass bottle is 0.15 tower coins, so it’s 3 tower coins in total.”

“Discount, meow!”

Theo tried his first discount.

“T-then I’ll give it to you for 1.5 tower coins,” the owner replied.

‘What, meow?’

Theo was briefly flustered by the general store owner’s treatment, who had given him a 50% discount in an instant.

‘Puhu! They’re trying to look good because I’ve become a mid-level wandering merchant, meow.’

It seemed like he had discounted the price enough, but he still had to do the two more discounts that Sejun had told him to do.

“Discount, meow!”

“More from here?”

The general store owner replied in a tearful voice to Theo’s second discount.

“Or…”

“N-no! I’ll give it to you for 0.5 tower coins!”

The general store owner shouted with a pale face. The cost of one glass bottle was 0.1 tower coins, so it was a loss, but he didn’t want to end up as a corpse on the shoulders of that Black Minotaur.

‘What, meow? I was going to say I’d leave if you didn’t…’

Theo felt something was strange and tried to discount it one more time.

“Discount, meow!”

“I was ignorant and didn’t know. I’ll just give it to you, so please spare me!”

The general store owner shouted, prostrating himself on the floor.

“Oh…? Thank you, meow.”

Theo was bewildered and took the 20 glass bottles and left the general store.

‘As expected, Park Sejun’s words are the truth, meow!’

Theo once again realized Sejun’s greatness.

When he went to the blacksmith and tried to discount it three more times,

“Just take whatever you want.”

“Thank you, meow!”

He was also able to draw equipment for free at the blacksmith.

But

“There’s nothing that catches my eye, meow.”

Still, it was free, so he picked up anything.

“Let’s go, meow!”

Theo, who had finished his work, went back to the 99th floor of the tower with the Black Minotaurs, using the merchant passage again.

The shopping district that Theo and the Minotaurs had swept through.

Rumors spread that the Black Minotaurs were threatening the cat merchant to sign a free mercenary contract and were acting violently, making the conditions for hiring Black Minotaurs as free mercenaries more difficult.

When Sejun cut the scallion leaves three times in the abundant scallion field and came down to eat dinner,

“Huh?!”

The Black Rabbit was not visible. Come to think of it, Sejun hadn’t seen the Black Rabbit since lunchtime today.

Squeak!

Pyaa!

The other White Rabbits also realized that the Black Rabbit had disappeared and began to look for him.

At that moment,

Pyaak!

The Black Rabbit came up from the water, bursting out the breath he had been holding.

“Huh?! I definitely looked around the pond too.”

While Sejun was wondering,

Ppyak!

The Black Rabbit, catching his breath, pointed to a hole in the pond. Looking closely, the pond hole was quite wide.

Ppyak!

The Black Rabbit took the pose of hitting the wall with the end of his hammer. I broke it!

After the pond poisoning (?) incident, the Black Rabbit went out of the pond hole to find prey because the piranhas and crayfish did not come to the pond.

“Hey! That’s dangerous!”

Sejun, who knew that there were dangerous monsters such as giant electric eels outside the pond besides piranhas and crayfish, got angry, even though the pond water was diluted and not poisonous.

But

Ppyak! Ppyak!

The Black Rabbit protested. I’m a warrior too! Warriors must become stronger! He had a duty as a warrior to protect Sejun, his family, and the field.

But…

The Black Rabbit knew he was the weakest here, after Sejun.

Sejun didn’t know that he was being treated as the weakest.

So, when the piranhas and crayfish that gave experience points disappeared, he felt impatient and went out of the pond. Sejun’s saying that there was a giant electric eel outside the pond also played a part.

“Black Rabbit, you…”

Sejun realized that he didn’t know the Black Rabbit’s heart very well. Did you want to eat meat that much?

Ppyak!

The Black Rabbit thought that Sejun understood his intentions and nodded.

Same bed, different dreams.

206th day of being stranded. It had been almost half a year since they had lived together, but Sejun and the Black Rabbit still didn’t understand each other.