Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 626

“Queng-ah, aren’t you going to eat?” Sejun asked, glancing at his small, furry companion. But his mind was elsewhere, focused on the list in his hands.

He was on the 99th floor of the Black Tower. From this height, the world outside looked like a child’s plaything. But Sejun wasn’t enjoying the view. He was grumbling to himself as he stared at the paper. “This is too much,” he muttered. “Really, Grave, this is too much.”

The paper listed the ways to help the Brown Tower grow stronger. It was a long list of challenges.

**[Brown Tower Growth Conditions (0 out of 8 complete)]**

* **Become a Tower Farmer of Grade A:** Not done.

* **Create 9 new types of plants:** Not done (0 out of 9).

* **Increase the Brown Tower’s spirit by 50%:** Not done (currently at 40%).

* **Grow 5 World Trees:** Not done (2 out of 5).

* **Collect 10,000 pieces of world energy:** Not done.

* **Find 9 magical artifacts:** Not done (2 out of 9).

* **Achieve 5 great accomplishments:** Not done (3 out of 5).

* **Increase Brown Tower entrances to 120:** Not done (65 out of 120).

Sejun sighed. None of the eight tasks were finished. “Not even one,” he said to himself. The only small good news was that he had already found two artifacts and achieved three great accomplishments. “Just eight more artifacts to go,” he thought, feeling a little hopeless.

The only good thing was that he had already gotten some artifacts and done some great things.

“Vice Chairman Tae, just 8 artifacts.”

“Puhuhut. Understood, meow!” Theo replied.

Theo asked the gods to help find the artifacts, and the gods sent them to Theo.

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, here they are, meow!” Theo said.

Theo gave the artifacts he received from the gods to Sejun.

“Thank you, Vice Chairman Tae. Good work,” Sejun said.

“Puhuhut. That’s right, meow! I, Vice Chairman Tae, did a good job, meow! Be very grateful, meow!” Theo exclaimed.

“Yes, yes,” Sejun responded.

Sejun stroked Theo’s head. Theo was taking credit for everything, but Sejun still praised him.

“Grave, here are the artifacts,” Sejun said.

He handed the 8 artifacts he received from Theo to Grave.

-Ghahaha. Thank you.

Just like that, two conditions were done! Sejun looked at the list again. “Now for the rest…”

Sejun thought about how to finish the other tasks.

“I need to take Orick around and help him become an A-grade tower farmer. That’s one,” he said to himself.

“I have vitality beans to help raise the tower’s spirit, so why isn’t it rising?” Sejun wondered.

Something must be stopping it, like what’s happening with the other towers.

If I find out what’s interfering, I can easily raise the spirit by 50%. That’s two tasks completed!”

Then, 5 tower growth conditions are met.

“I know I can do at least 2 great achievements, so that’s for sure. But I’m not sure if I can do more than that…”

After thinking about it, he was still missing two tower growth conditions.

Let’s go to the Brown Tower and figure out the rest, Sejun thought.

“Everyone, gather around,” Sejun called out.

Sejun called his friends to leave for the Brown Tower.

“Puhuhut. Gathered, meow!” Theo said. He had already been clinging to Sejun’s lap.

Queng!

[Mom, Queng is going!] Kkuengyi enjoyed the warmth in Pink Fur’s arms, kissed Pink Fur, and flew to Sejun.

Keeheeheet. Kking!

[Heehee. Butler! Let’s leave quickly!] The Blackie family ran over, carrying the sling bag to hold themselves.

As everyone got together,

“Then, I’ll be back,” Sejun said goodbye to the tower family and left for the Brown Tower.

[Arrived at the 99th floor of the Brown Tower.]

“Kekekel. Welcome, Sejun!” Orick, the Brown Tower’s tower farmer, greeted Sejun when he arrived.

“Yeah. Did you find out what I asked you to?” Sejun asked.

“Kekekel. Yes. But there were no monsters or anything that ruins the spirit in our Brown Tower, like you said,” Orick replied.

“Really?” Sejun wondered. Then why isn’t the spirit rising?

At that moment,

“Kekekel. Sejun, our Red Goblin tribe has prepared a feast for you on the 77th floor of the tower. Let’s go together. Here is the land deed for the 77th floor,” Orick said.

“Hehehe. Should we?” Sejun smiled as he took the land deed for the 77th floor from Orick.

He was sad that he couldn’t rest in the Golden Tower, but it looked like he could rest here instead.

However,

“W-What is this smell?!” Sejun exclaimed.

“Kekekel. This is our Red Goblin tribe’s traditional food,” Orick said proudly.

Sejun’s dream of a good rest disappeared when Orick introduced the food. He remembered that the Red Goblin tribe even rots good food before eating it.

And he remembered the bad feeling he had earlier…

[There is a lot of A-grade poison in the area.]

[Resisting with the talent: C-grade Poison Resistance.]

[Resistance failed.]

[Infected with A-grade poison.]

[Life force decreases by 0.5% every second.]

[Exposed to strong poison, talent: C-grade Poison Resistance is strengthened to C+ grade Poison Resistance.]

He was right. His talent got stronger, but he wasn’t happy about it.

“L-Leek!” Sejun shouted.

“Puhuhut. Here it is, meow!” Theo said.

Plop.

Kind Theo quickly put a detoxifying leek into Sejun’s mouth.

Crunch. Crunch.

Sejun quickly chewed the leek to get rid of the poison.

Ah. I’d rather go home and eat the food Aileen made, Sejun thought.

Sejun really wanted to go home.

Queng!

[This is not food!] Queng, who eats almost anything, cried out in great disappointment after thinking he was going to eat something delicious.

Even Queng didn’t want to eat it. It wasn’t food. It was food waste.

“I can’t do this. Grave…” Sejun was about to tell Grave that he wouldn’t do the request unless he stopped the Red Goblin tribe from making their traditional food.

“Huh?!” Sejun saw something shocking.

The Red Goblins touched their feet with the hands they used to touch the food. They scratched their butts, picked their noses, and then ate the food again.

“Grave, weekly hygiene education too…” Sejun said.

Sejun said that he would only help the Brown Tower become a great tower if the Red Goblin tribe stopped making their traditional food and had weekly hygiene lessons.

A little later,

The Red Goblins quickly cleaned up the food and listened to Sejun’s hygiene lesson because the Great Brown Dragon told them to.

Sejun wasn’t a hygiene expert, so he didn’t teach them very well.

But I’m still 100 times better than these guys, Sejun thought.

The Red Goblins didn’t understand hygiene at all. Anyone from Earth could come and teach them.

“What?! What’s wrong with eating something that fell on the ground?!” One of the goblins asked.

“Why do I have to eat it within 3 seconds?!” Another goblin said. They were shocked by the 3-second rule, which says it’s okay to eat something that fell on the ground within 3 seconds.

The simple hygiene lesson ended.

Plop. Plop.

[Planted vitality beans in the land containing magic power.]

[Job experience slightly increased.]

[Proficiency of Magic Seed Sowing (Master) slightly increased.]

“Kekekel. It’s nice working with you like this, Sejun,” Orick said.

“Orick, move your body instead of moving your mouth,” Sejun replied.

“Kekekel. I can move while talking,” Orick said.

“Just work quietly!” Sejun ordered.

“Kekekel. Then you should say it like that,” Orick responded.

Sejun planted vitality beans in the ground with Orick, who smiled slyly and annoyed him. Making Orick an A-grade tower farmer and raising the spirit at the same time was killing two birds with one stone.

After an hour, they had created many large fields of beans.

“Grave, has the spirit risen a bit?” Sejun asked Grave.

[The Brown Tower’s administrator says the spirit has risen to 40.5%.]

“Really?” Sejun said.

Then it’s about 0.1% for every many large fields of beans, so if I make even more fields…

Sejun looked at the numbers again. “Growing food here will take time,” he said, “but my calculations show it’s possible.”

Just as Sejun said this, a message appeared:

[The Brown Tower’s manager says the tower’s fertility has suddenly dropped to 35%.]

Sejun blinked in surprise. “Huh? Fertility dropped?”

The tower’s soil was even less fertile now than it was before they tried planting kidney beans. This was a bad sign.

Sejun frowned. “No, this doesn’t make sense. Why is the fertility still going down?”

This was strange. No one understood why the soil was getting worse.

Sejun wanted to figure out the problem. He decided to act like a famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Sejun said in a serious voice, like a detective, placing a luxurious red pipe, from which smoke was rising, in his mouth.

Lamter had given Sejun a special pipe called the [Flame Eater]. It was a 3-star item with a seed of fire essence inside, capable of absorbing all fire-attribute attacks.

Sejun grinned. “Right then! Time for Detective Sejun to solve this mystery!”

Theo puffed out his chest. “I, Theon, will be your amazing helper, Detective Sejun! Nya!” He licked the end of his pipe filled with a tasty cat treat.

Kkuengi barked happily. “Detective Kkuengi is ready for action, yo!” He held a pipe filled with sweet honey in his mouth.

Kkamangi squeaked excitedly. “Detective Kkappang is on the case! Hee hee!” He held an empty pipe in his mouth. Originally, it was filled with dried sweet potato pieces, but the Kkamangi family had eaten them all as soon as they received it.

When Sejun received the Flame Eater as a gift from Lamter, everyone wanted one too.

“Na, Vice Chairman Teo, also wants to have the same thing as Chairman Park, nya!”

Kkueng!

Kking!

Sejun asked Lamter to make pipes that had the same shape and color but no function, and filled them with what his companions liked.

And so, Sejun and his companions, with pipes in their mouths, set out to find the reason for the decreasing fertility.

First, they searched around the Red Goblin village.

“What’s that smell?”

Soon, they discovered something suspicious. A terrible smell was coming from the stream flowing beside the village, like rotten eggs mixed with old garbage.

“Is there something upstream? Detective Kkuenan, let’s fly.”

Kkueng!

Sejun flew into the sky using Kkuengi’s mind power and headed upstream.

“What is all this?!”

It was a huge pile of rotting food. It looked like the Red Goblins used it as a food dump.

No wonder the fertility is bad…

With such a huge amount of food waste rotting, it would be stranger if the fertility were good. In the end, the Red Goblins were the main culprits behind the bad fertility.

“How do I deal with this?” Sejun wondered.

Sejun noticed bubbles rising from the stagnant water flowing out of the food waste pile. Gas was being made as the food broke down.

“I can just blow it up.”

Snap. As Sejun snapped his fingers to create a fire to explode the food waste disposal site,

Pshhh.

The fire immediately went out. Instead, the outside of the Flame Eater, which had absorbed Sejun’s fire, glowed red.

“Ah. It absorbs fire.”

Sejun put the Flame Eater into his subspace inventory.

Snap. After making fire again,

Whoosh.

He lit a piece of firewood and threw it into the food waste disposal site.

Bang!

An explosion occurred with hot heat.

Kawa-koom!

A huge secondary explosion followed. The first explosion was the gas on the surface, and the second was the gas trapped underground.

Pat pat pat.

The huge explosion scattered food waste everywhere. Of course, Sejun was fine because he was protected by Kkuengi’s mind power.

“Heh heh. Case cl…”

Just when he thought the matter was over,

-Destroying my home?!!!

A small, round thing, the color of dirty mud, popped out of the trash. It pulsed with a sickly yellow light, and the terrible smell became even stronger, making everyone gag.

[A heinous stench hidden in the trash, the sin that corrupts the land, Dikein]

“…”

“Kkuengi, don’t you want to eat it?” When Sejun looked at Kkuengi,

Shake shake.

Kkueng! Kkueng! Kkueng!

“That’s not edible, yo! I don’t want to eat it, yo! Yuck, yo!” Kkuengi shook his head strongly.

“Well, that’s true…” The dung smell was too strong.

“Okay, then Kabui can eat it.”

Sharrarang?!

Kabui was greatly flustered by Sejun’s words.

“Why? Kabui uses the power of decay, so isn’t he similar to that thing?”

Sharrarang! Sharrarang!

“That’s not true! My level is different from that thing! Different!” Kabui vehemently refuted Sejun’s words.

Then,

Kking?! Kking!

“Kabui, are you yelling at our butler right now?! Kids, open Kabui’s mouth!” Kkamangi became agitated and forced Kabui’s mouth open, using the same method Sejun used when feeding him the Great Growth Elixir.

Sharrarang! Sharrarang!

“I don’t want to! Just kill it!”

This is why you have to behave properly in front of children.

Just when it was decided within the Sejun family that Kabui would eat Dikein,

-You dare humiliate me?!

Ptooey!

Dikein, enraged, spewed out a stench around him, and a yellow stench, visible to the eye, began to spread.

And then,

“Ugh! I can’t take it! Kkuengi, just get rid of it!”

Kkueng!

Bang!

[Superior Herbalist Park Kkuengi has defeated Dikein, a heinous stench hidden in the trash, the sin that corrupts the land.]

[Superior Herbalist Park Kkuengi has acquired 70 billion experience points, which is 50% of the acquired experience.]

Dikein was struck by Kkuengi’s Thunder Staff and vanished.

As Dikein, who had been spewing out the dung smell, disappeared, the fertility rapidly increased even though nothing was done.

[The Brown Tower’s manager says in a joyful voice that the Brown Tower’s fertility has risen to 55%, exceeding the target.]

Two of the Giant Tower’s growth conditions have been met.

“Heh heh. Case closed,” Sejun declared the case closed with a smug expression.

Sejun smiled. The tower was getting healthy again, and soon he would have many new workers. Things were looking good.

“Vice Chairman Teo, let’s hire employees.”

“Phoo-hoo-hoo. Understood, nya!”

Sejun began working on the great achievement. He wanted to hire people to help him. He thought it would be hard because not many people in the Brown Tower knew about his company and trusted him yet.

He thought it would take some time because Sejun Company didn’t have a high reputation in the Brown Tower.

“Are you the one?! The one who destroyed our food storage?!”

“Kill him!”

“Don’t let him live!”

People from all over the Brown Tower rushed towards him. It seemed it would be achieved quickly, thanks to the residents of the Brown Tower rushing in from various floors.

The place Sejun blew up was not only for the Red Goblin tribe but also a shared food storage.

“Heh heh heh. Kids, accept the employees.”

‘Seeing how excited they are about food, they must eat well.’ Sejun smiled as he watched the residents of the Brown Tower rushing towards him.

A little later, the Black Tower’s regular employee network and the Brown Tower’s regular employee network were merged into one.