Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 675

‘Heh heh heh. This sort of thing is our Vice President Teo’s specialty.’

Castle Victorius of Camous.

“Heh heh heh. Shall we leisurely watch those blighters die now?”

Camous used the waypoint to get to the castle basement. Then, he went up to the lobby and into the situation room.

However,

The pirates who should have been welcoming Camous were all frozen like ice, unable to tear their eyes from the situation room monitors.

And then,

“What?! Why are they surrendering?!”

Camous saw that all the pirate ships had raised the white flag.

Camous had just come from the basement. He didn’t see the planet-destroying turtles attack. That’s why he didn’t understand why the pirates were surrendering.

But with the experience he had gained from decades of pirate life, he knew one thing.

If I stay here, I’m done for!

Camous hurriedly ran to the treasure vault, which was located even further below the level with the waypoint.

He was planning to grab the treasure and run. He didn’t intend to take everything, nor did he need to.

Just taking a few of his best treasures would ensure he wouldn’t have to worry about money for the rest of his life.

Camous decided to take some treasure and escape using the waypoint.

*Creak.* The heavy door of the treasure vault groaned open.

*Whoosh.* Blue magical torches flickered to life along the walls, casting dancing shadows across mountains of gold coins, glittering jewels, and strange, ancient artifacts. The air smelled old and dusty, like forgotten secrets.

*Click.* Camous quickly found the third torch on the left wall and pulled it.

*Rumble.* Deep within the stone, something shifted. With a low growl of stone on stone, a section of the wall slid open, revealing a secret room. This was where Camous kept his most prized possessions, the treasures he valued above all others.

“Alright, Daddy’s home.”

Camous greeted his collections and hurriedly began gathering the most expensive ones first.

Having collected up to the fifteenth collection, Camous said,

“Sixteenth, I’m sorry. And to the rest of you, I’m sorry too.”

Each item in this room told a story of his pirate adventures, of daring raids and narrow escapes. He couldn’t bear to leave them all behind.

He gazed wistfully at the remaining collections with regretful eyes before reluctantly turning away.

Just then,

“Puhuhu. Camous, found you, nya!”

Teo appeared before Camous.

As soon as Camous disappeared from the Black Kkueng-i,

Huh?! Is that a magical power fluctuation?

Iona felt Camous’s magic energy. She followed it to find him quickly.

Thanks to this, the remaining pirate subordinates who hadn’t received their stamps were utterly helpless under the watchful eyes of the planet-destroying turtles, waiting endlessly.

How?!

Shiver.

Camous felt a chill down his spine at Teo’s appearance. At the same time, a sense of despair washed over him.

There’s no escaping…

“Haha. I’m definitely not trying to escape, but I came in advance to open the treasure vault…”

He desperately made excuses to survive, but Sejun and the others had already received a confession that Camous had ordered a full-scale attack on those pirates.

And then,

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Lying is bad! You must be punished!]

Kkuengi, who had learned from Sejun that liars should be punished, took out his Thunder Rod and approached Camous.

That’s right. You should be punished for lying. I taught him well, after all.

Sejun nodded, wearing a pleased smile as he watched Kkuengi, who only spoke the truth.

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[And you did many other bad things too! So Kkuengi is angry!]

He also tried to steal Sejun’s treasure and destroy the Black Kkueng-i. Lying was not his only bad thing!

Thwack.

Bzzzt.

“Kraaah!”

Thus began Kkuengi’s electrifying beating, and Sejun said to Camous as he was being pummeled,

“Traitors cannot be forgiven. From today onwards, Camous is the youngest member of >Grondra>.”

Camous was demoted from a great pirate to the very bottom. His life became very difficult.

And rumors spread among the pirates that betraying Sejun Company would result in demotion to the lowest rank, instilling a sense of vigilance that they should never betray.

For the pirates, becoming the youngest member was a greater humiliation than death.

The 99th floor of the Black Tower.

-Khahaha. Come on. Let’s drink!

-Cheers!

-Kheu. Good!

The Nine Dragons Association were having a great time drinking together.

-But haven’t the powers of the younger dragons gotten much stronger lately?

The Great Silver Dragon Chrisella asked the other dragons.

Then,

-That’s right. The power they emit is much greater than what it should be for their age.

-That’s why the dragons these days are having a hard time controlling their power.

The other dragons agreed with Chrisella’s words.

And then,

-It seems to be because Sejun’s crops are being eaten a lot.

-Actually… I’ve been using too much power lately.

-Me too.

-Same here.

The problem of power control was also being experienced by the leader-level dragons.

Great Dragons are born with almost unlimited power. They become stronger just by living and growing older.

As the speed at which their power increased by eating Sejun’s crops became too fast, they were unable to control their own power.

Also, the dragons took in almost all the magic power from Sejun’s crops. This made them much stronger, very quickly.

And the older the dragons were, the more severe the strengthening effect was from eating Sejun’s crops. It was due to the bloodline authority.

>Bloodline Authority: Power of the Holy Dragon> allows them to use 10 times the power of their stats.

Over time, the bloodline authority grows further into ‘Mature Holy Dragon’s Power,’ ‘Steadfast Dragon’s Power,’ ‘Ancient Dragon’s Power,’ and so on, increasing the effect of amplifying stats by a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times.

That’s why it becomes harder to control their power as they get older.

Furthermore, when they become leaders, their bloodline authority evolves into ‘Leader Dragon’s Power,’ with the effect of amplifying stats by 1 million times.

This means that if the magic stat increases by 1, the magic power increases by 1 million.

For reference, it is said that the first dragons, passed down in legends, had the authority to amplify their stats by a whopping 100 million times.

-It seems like we need training.

-I suppose we have to.

-At this rate, it will even affect the tower.

-It’s annoying to get stronger too.

The Great Dragons, who usually hated training, felt the need for training to control their power.

>Grondra>

“Alright, everyone, let’s pack up!”

“Puhuhu. Got it, nya!”

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut. Yes.”

Kkueng!

Squeak!

Sejun and his party began to loot Camous’s treasure vault.

Because there were so many items in both quantity and variety, it took quite a while to sort the treasures and store them in the subspace warehouse. Sejun and his party even ate meals in the treasure vault, working for a whole day.

While the party was engrossed in collecting treasure,

Hee hee hee. Squeak.

[Hee hee. Great Blackie-nim must also get stronger by burning treasure.]

Great Blackie-nim will now get stronger with money!

[>Talent: Alchemy to Become Stronger Than the Butler by Burning Treasure> has been awakened.]

Blackie, who had awakened a new talent, secretly began to burn treasure.

Just as Kkuengi has the talent to immediately imitate what he sees, Blackie, though not immediately, could grasp the principles and modify them for his own use.

[>Talent: Become Stronger Than the Butler by Burning Treasure> is activated.]

[According to the law of equivalent exchange, 7kg of gold is converted into 7 to all stats.]

[All stats have increased by 7.]

[According to the law of equivalent exchange, 5kg of gold is converted into 5 to all stats.]

[All stats have increased by 5.]

While Blackie was raising his stats by burning small jewels,

“Haaack! Blackie, you mustn’t burn the treasure, nya!”

Teo discovered him and got angry.

Squeak?! Squeak!

[Why not?! Big Bro burns treasure too!]

Blackie argued with Teo.

“Puhuhu. I, Vice President Teo, am allowed, nya! But Blackie isn’t allowed, nya!”

However, Teo didn’t try to persuade him with logic. It was just something only he was allowed to do.

Squeak! Squeak!

[No way! I’m going to do it too!]

Naturally, Blackie couldn’t accept it, and Teo shouted,

“Haaack! Haaack! Erase it quickly, nya!”

Grrrr. Squeak!

[Grrrr. Not erasing it!]

A sibling squabble broke out.

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut. Young Master Blackie, I’ll give you 10 dried sweet potato slices if you erase the talent.”

Squeak?!

[Really?!]

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut. Of course. Here you go.”

Hee hee hee. Squeak!

[Hee hee. Erased it!]

Fortunately, it was quickly resolved with Iona’s mediation.

Thus, Teo and Iona nipped the potential disaster of Blackie becoming stronger than Sejun in the bud.

After a few hours,

“Done.”

Finally, Camous’s treasure vault was emptied.

Sejun and his party scraped the floor clean, taking everything without leaving even a small gold fragment behind.

“Then let’s go to a place called the Pirate Bank now.”

“Puhuhu. Good, nya!”

As they walked towards the Pirate Bank, the streets became crowded and loud. Rough-looking pirates with scars and tattoos pushed past them. The air was thick with the smell of salt, cheap drinks, and something else… something like danger.

They went to the Pirate Bank to ask about how to get a card.

As they left Castle Victorius and moved towards the Pirate Bank,

“Nya?!”

“Vice President Teo, what’s wrong?”

“My front paw is being pulled, nya!”

Teo felt a pull on his front paw.

“Really?! Where is it?!”

“It’s over there, nya!”

As Sejun and his party followed Teo’s guidance,

“Welcome! Anything you pick is 1 Top Coin! Test your luck!”

The merchant, a skinny man with greasy hair, spread out a collection of truly awful things: broken swords, rusty pots, strange-smelling potions in cracked bottles, and dusty, unidentifiable objects.

It was a lottery shop that bought many unwanted items from pirates. They sold these items for very little money.

“Oh. It’s a lottery?”

Heh heh heh. This sort of thing is our Vice President Teo’s specialty.

“Okay, well, I’ll pick ten then. Here are 10 Top Coins.”

Sejun knew that Teo would pick a jackpot item, so he handed over 10 Top Coins for the merchant who would be in pain later.

“Thank you! Then pick 10.”

What a sucker. There’s only real trash here.

The merchant Hett said ‘thank you,’ but in his mind, he laughed at Sejun.

This was because Hett knew how to use appraisal magic and had already sold off any worthwhile items using his own appraisal magic.

So, among the items currently laid out, there wasn’t a single one worth more than 1 Top Coin.

Of course, that was Hett’s thought, and Sejun said,

“Vice President Teo, pick 10.”

“Puhuhu. Got it, nya!”

Teo had quite a few to choose from.

Teo picked 10 items in order from the ones he felt the strongest pull from, but after the fifth one, he just picked anything.

And then,

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut. Power of magic…”

Iona immediately used appraisal magic to appraise the items.

The appraisal order was from the last item Teo picked.

The first three were really trashy items that weren’t even worth 1 Top Coin.

And when she appraised the seventh item, an item worth about 10 Top Coins came out.

“Huh?!”

Lucky.

Hett just thought it was luck.

After that, when she appraised the sixth item, an item worth about 100 Top Coins came out.

And then,

Something’s strange?

When Hett felt something was wrong, the fifth to third items that Teo had picked were appraised, and Hett screamed each time the appraisal ended.

“Huh?!”

“No way!”

“Aaaargh!”

[Singing Archangel Statue] sculpted by the master artisan Odis, [Demon Slayer], number 78 out of the 100 Great Dimensional Daggers, [Bead of Detoxification], of which only 1000 were made by the famous Poison Clan Sacheon Tangga.

Items that would easily exceed 10 billion Top Coins even if only one was sold came out.

And then,

[Fragment of the Great Golden Dragon’s Heart]

When the second item Teo picked was appraised,

“I’m not selling it! Give it back!”

Hett rushed to snatch the item in Iona’s hand.

Squeak!

[Don’t touch my sister-in-law!]

I gave 10 dried sweet potato slices to the Great Blackie-nim!

Thud.

He was headbutted by Blackie and received some mental education.

Sejun watched Hett fall. *Well, he shouldn’t have tried to cheat us,* Sejun thought, but a small part of him did feel a little bad.

“Heh heh heh. I feel a little sorry.”

Sejun said, looking at the fainted Hett. But his expression didn’t look sorry at all.

And then,

Heh heh heh. I should eat this later.

He carefully put the small marble-sized fragment of the Great Golden Dragon’s Heart into his pocket.

He was planning to eat it with the care of the dragons, as he could die if he ate it alone carelessly.

While Sejun was taking the dragon’s heart fragment, Iona was appraising the stone tablet full of strange letters that Teo had picked first.

However,

“Kkyut?!”

Even with Iona’s appraisal, the stone tablet didn’t change at all.

At that moment,

[>Epithet: One Who Has Long Peered into the Beginning> has grasped the essence of the stone tablet.]

Sejun’s pupils turned golden.

And then,

Got it!

Sejun-nim has finally obtained the 2nd access code!

[System 371] cheered.