Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 56

Iona hummed a happy tune as she walked through the busy shopping district. She was in a good mood because it had been a while since she last bought things for the Magic Tower.

As Iona was returning from her delightful shopping trip,

A fluffy, golden-yellow cat with bright green eyes confidently walked towards her, puffing out its chest as if it owned the street.

And then,

“What is it, nyang?”

The cat, who seemed like a simple merchant, boldly blocked her way.

“Do you not know who I am? Step aside!”

“Shouldn’t *you* know who *I* am?” Theo retorted, puffing up his fur.

Elka watched with amusement as the two little ones insisted they were important figures.

Just then,

Elka spotted a red wooden staff, resembling a toothpick, carried on the back of an adorable hamster. At the end of the staff was an ominous black gem, pulsing with a dark light, and covered in swirling golden letters that seemed to writhe and shift.

‘That’s… the Staff of Calamity?!’

The Staff of Calamity was one of the three legendary items in the Tower, the sacred artifact of Iona, the head of the Magic Association, known as the Great Destruction Mage.

Does that mean that hamster is…?!

Elka’s heart raced. ‘What should I do?’ she thought, her mind spinning.

One was a subordinate of the Great Black Dragon, and the other was Iona, the Great Destruction Mage. Both were formidable beings.

Smack. Smack.

Elka licked her lips, looking perplexed between the two colossal figures.

People watching might have just seen a big wolf looking at a small cat and hamster. But Elka, the chieftain of the Silver Wolf tribe, felt a chill of fear.

“Iona, Theo is a subordinate of the Great Black Dragon.”

Elka hastily revealed Theo’s identity, hoping to prevent Iona from attacking him.

Iona, the Great Destruction Mage, was known to obliterate mountains and create rivers with a single spell. If Iona attacked Theo in a fit of anger, Theo would be instantly dead.

“Silver Wolf tribe, is that the truth? If it is a lie, you will all face death for impersonating the name of the Great Black Dragon.”

Iona began to stare intently into Elka’s eyes to discern whether she was telling the truth.

“Don’t bully my subordinate, nyang! Talk to me, nyang!”

Theo stepped forward boldly.

“Then prove that you are indeed a subordinate of the Great Black Dragon.”

“How, nyang?”

“If you are truly a subordinate of the Great Black Dragon, take me to the Great Black Dragon.”

Iona was planning to ask the Great Black Dragon to resolve the Red Locusts that had invaded the 67th floor of the Tower.

However,

“For free, nyang?”

Theo said as if it were out of the question. He had a merchant’s intuition that he shouldn’t just agree.

“What do you want?”

“First, Iona will pay for everything I want to buy here, nyang.”

“O-okay.”

Iona answered, flustered by Theo’s response. She had expected him to ask for something grand, but he was asking for something so trivial. Iona looked at Theo strangely and joined his party.

Theo went to a different general store than the one he had visited before. This was because if the owner recognized him as a mid-tier wandering merchant and gave him items for free, there would be no point in receiving compensation from Iona.

Theo entered the general store and began to pick out the items he wanted to buy.

Sejun had asked for three large pots, a frying pan, and ten glass bottles, but since he was using Iona’s money today, he added ninety glass bottles and, out of personal desire, a straw hat similar to Sejun’s.

“That’ll be 21.1 Tower Coins.”

“Here…”

Just as Iona was about to pay,

“Bargain, nyang!”

Theo began his three-time bargaining. It was to follow Sejun’s words to always bargain three times when buying something. Theo was a cat with absolutely no flexibility when it came to Sejun’s instructions.

“Alright. Then I’ll give it to you for 13 Tower Coins.”

“Hurry up and give it, nyang!”

Theo, who had bargained three times, said to Iona.

‘What is that cat?’

She had expected him to ask for something grand, but he asked for something trivial, and in the store, he even bargained three times to save her money.

While Iona was confused looking at Theo,

“Puhu! Next is the blacksmith, nyang!”

Theo, who was in a good mood wearing the straw hat he had just purchased, took the lead and moved to the blacksmith.

Fortunately, when they arrived at the blacksmith, it was a different clerk than the one who had let him draw for free last time.

“Bargain, nyang!”

This time as well, Theo bargained three times, making Iona pay 12.5 Tower Coins for the equipment draw fee. Then, Theo looked at the items in the draw corner.

“Shall I help you?”

Iona asked, watching Theo, who had his front paws out and was quietly closing his eyes. As a mage, Iona could naturally use appraisal magic, so she wanted to repay Theo for saving her money.

However,

Theo didn’t answer and continued to concentrate.

Just then,

Grab.

Theo grabbed an item. It was a small ring. Since nothing caught his eye, he grabbed the one that appealed to him the most.

“I’ll appraise it for you.”

Iona, who had been ignored once, offered her help again, but

“It’s okay, nyang.”

Theo refused. His whiskers strongly rejected it. He had a sense of crisis that if he appraised this and took it, he might incur the wrath of a terrifying being.

“Hmph! Fine! You don’t need my help, right?!”

Instead, he incurred the displeasure of a slightly less terrifying being.

Squeak.

The wolves followed them, watching the two with anxious hearts. Unaware of the strange events unfolding in the shopping district, Sejun was just waking up back in his cave.

Kuaeng!

Wiggle wiggle.

Kuaeng, who could now freely adjust his body size, entered the cave and shook Sejun’s body to wake him up.

“Umm… Kuaeng is here?”

Sejun opened his eyes, went to the wall, added a stroke, and began his 224th day of being stranded.

Kuaeng. Kuaeng.

Kuaeng followed Sejun closely, holding a glass bottle of honey, urging him to give him honey quickly.

“Alright.”

Click.

Sejun opened a glass bottle of honey and poured one dollop of honey onto Kuaeng’s front paw.

Lick. Lick.

As Kuaeng began to lick the honey diligently, Sejun put the glass bottle back in its original place.

There were three more glass bottles full of honey there. Now that the number of Poison Honeybees exceeded 1,000, the daily honey production was about one and a half glass bottles.

Sejun went to the pond, washed his face, and ate breakfast with the rabbits.

There was nothing special to do today, so he ate breakfast leisurely. The brick house was almost completed with the cooperation of the architect rabbits and the Black Minotaurs, and the crops were growing vigorously.

Sejun began his morning farming by harvesting cherry tomatoes as usual.

Scritch.

[You have harvested 15 Magic Cherry Tomatoes simultaneously.]

[Job experience slightly increases.]

[Proficiency in 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 450 experience.]

Sejun took the cut cherry tomato branches to the front of the storage.

*Snip!* *Snip!* *Snip!* The sounds of small scissors filled the air.

The baby rabbits, now expert farm helpers, carefully picked the bright red cherry tomatoes from the green vines. They gently placed the tomatoes in small baskets, ready to take them down to the cool cellar.

The tomato vines, their job done for now, were gathered into bundles. These would be taken above ground soon. Sejun would give them to the Black Minotaur to eat, along with the leafy green onion tops.

“Phew. Finished.”

The cherry tomato field was very big now, almost a thousand pyeong. Sejun was getting tired easily now from working so much. Even though the field was bigger, it took him about the same time to finish as before.

Having finished harvesting the cherry tomatoes, Sejun went above ground.

Just then,

“Oh!”

He saw bright yellow flowers like tiny suns blooming in the peanut field. Bees buzzed around them, busy collecting nectar. It seemed peanuts would be ready to eat soon.

“Hum hum hum.”

Pleased that there would be new food, Sejun hummed a tune as he went to the green onion field.

“Wow. This place is a forest now.”

Sejun smiled, feeling proud of how much the green onions had grown. But then he remembered how much work it was to harvest them all.

The green onion field, where he had replanted each divided root, now exceeded two thousand pyeong.

Scritch. Scritch.

He could hear Mother Rabbit and Sickle Rabbit diligently cutting green onions, but the leaves were so lush that he couldn’t see where they were.

If the green onion field continued to grow like this, a rabbit might get lost in Sejun’s green onion field, like getting lost in a very tall forest.

“This is no time for that.”

Sejun also hurried to join the green onion field and began cutting the green onion leaves.

Scritch. Scritch.

How much time had passed?

Pyak!

Black Rabbit called Sejun. “Lunch is ready!”

Before he knew it, Wife Rabbit had gone down to the cave and, together with the Grey Rabbits, prepared a meal and brought it up to the surface.

The menu was steamed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and grilled fish.

“Ugh. I’m stuffed.”

Sejun, having eaten his fill of lunch, poured coffee into his tumbler and sat down when,

Pyaak…

Kkueng…

Black Rabbit and Kkueng came to Sejun’s side to take a nap.

“Kkueng, transform.”

Sejun spoke with a stern expression, knowing that if he were fooled by its small size and let it sit on his lap, he would suffer greatly later.

Kkueng…

Disappointed that he couldn’t sleep on Sejun’s lap with Black Rabbit, Kkueng reluctantly grew in size, stuck his belly to Sejun’s back, and fell asleep.

Pyarorong.

Kkurorong.

Sejun listened to the snores of Black Rabbit and Kkueng, used Cloud Creation to make shade, and moved the dark clouds here and there, increasing his proficiency.

[Proficiency in >Cloud Creation> has slightly increased.]

As he was increasing his proficiency in Cloud Creation,

[The Tower’s Administrator requests something spicy to eat.]

[A quest has been generated.]

[Quest: Serve something spicy to the depressed Aileen.]

Reward: Aileen’s depression decreases.

Failure: Aileen, with her depression at its peak, transforms into Dark Mode.

Dark Mode sounded scary, like Aileen would become very angry and dangerous.

Aileen, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

***

“Open-!”

Aileen shouted, pouring very little magic power into the portal in the administrator’s area. But with Aileen’s very little magic power, it was impossible to activate the portal.

“Eek!”

Aileen tried eating dozens of magical cherry tomatoes at once, but it was no use. They were just delicious.

“Kraaah! I’m not doing it!”

Aileen eventually gave up on activating the portal, which she had been trying for days.

Instead…

“I’ll solve it myself.”

Like her grandfather, she decided to leave the administrator’s area and solve it herself.

However,

“Huh?!”

As soon as Aileen left the administrator’s area, she felt the world spinning and hurriedly returned.

The faintly beating Dragon Heart could not supply enough magic power to maintain Aileen’s body outside the administrator’s area.

“Kuh-hing… You wonderful human… I want something spicy.”

Aileen walked slowly, her head down. Her voice was quiet and sad when she spoke to Sejun, because she was feeling depressed.

Sejun knew that spicy food sometimes helped people feel better when they were sad.

***

“Dark Mode?”

He didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like Aileen shouldn’t go into Dark Mode.

“Wait a moment.”

Sejun hurriedly took five dried squids that he had dried and went down to the cave to start making spicy stir-fried squid. He spared no expense, shaking out the last remaining chili powder.

While Sejun was making spicy stir-fried squid,

[The Tower’s Administrator tearfully requests counseling.]

“Counseling?”

Aileen poured out her worries.

“So, Red Locusts have invaded the 67th floor of the Tower?”

[The Tower’s Administrator says yes.]

[The Tower’s Administrator says that if the Red Locusts are left unchecked, they will evolve into a more powerful group.]

Sejun realized the seriousness of the situation from Aileen’s words. A swarm of locusts that eats everything and evolves…

“First, let me see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Sejun comforted Aileen and gave her the completed stir-fried squid.

[Quest completed.]

[As a reward for completing the quest, Aileen’s depression decreases after eating the spicy food.]

‘What should I do?’

Scritch. Scritch.

Sejun spent the entire afternoon cutting green onion leaves, thinking about how to deal with the locusts. But there was no good way.

Just then,

“Ugh.”

Sejun’s hand, which was holding a green onion leaf to cut, was slightly cut by the leaf.

“What?”

Sejun examined the green onion leaf that had cut his finger, and the texture was completely different from other leaves. It felt like touching metal. He was lucky. If he had been careless, his finger could have been cut off. The green onion leaf was so hard and sharp.

Could this be?! Feeling something strange, Sejun pulled up the root of the green onion.

[You have harvested a Sturdy Blade Green Onion.]

[Job experience has increased very slightly.]

[Proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 4 has slightly increased.]

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

[You have gained 30 experience.]

“Huh?!”

[You have achieved the feat of creating a new species in the Tower.]

[The Tower acknowledges your exclusive cultivation rights for the new species.]

[The Sturdy Blade Green Onion cannot be cultivated without your permission.]

[Job experience has greatly increased.]

As Sejun was hurriedly checking the options for the second new species, the Sturdy Blade Green Onion,

“I’m back, meow!”

Theo returned with a hamster.