Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 70

The air grew still as midnight neared, a strange anticipation hanging in the quiet. Sejun looked up at the sky, where the Blue Moon was beginning to glow with an eerie light.

“Alright, everyone,” he called out, his voice low but clear. “To your positions!”

*Squeak!*

Rabbits darted to their assigned spots in the vast field, their little noses twitching in the night air. They knew what to do. Tonight was the night of the Blue Moon harvest.

The field was now huge, too big for Sejun to watch alone as the Blue Moon’s power touched the crops.

A short while later,

Kroooooh!

As the Blue Moon rose, Mom Crimson Giant Bear was the first to be affected, growing excited.

“Aileen!”

Sejun hurriedly called for Aileen.

Aileen’s voice echoed in his mind, calm and confident: “The Tower’s Administrator says to trust only in them.”

With Aileen’s message, a black dragon appeared in the sky.

And then,

Kuaaah-!

The black dragon’s roar echoed, and the monsters on the 99th floor of the Tower snapped to attention.

“The moon is beautiful tonight.”

Since there was no need to worry about the monsters or the location of the crops touched by the moon power, Sejun relaxed, enjoying the Blue Moon and Aileen, the black dragon, flying above—a first since he’d been stranded.

Slurp.

He even enjoyed a cup of coffee.

“Pet me more, nyaa.”

Theo kept asking for attention from Sejun’s lap, which was annoying, but Sejun didn’t dislike the warmth and soft fur.

After some time,

Swish.

The Blue Moon’s energy began to gather on the crops.

And then,

Squeak!

Squeaaak!

The rabbits pointed at the crops that had turned blue and called for Sejun.

“Alright. Shall we begin the harvest?”

Sejun followed the rabbits’ guidance and harvested the crops touched by the Blue Moon’s power.

And when he went down to the cave for the harvest,

“Master! I’ve grown!”

Blaze had soaked up the Blue Moon’s power and grown bigger than ever, reaching Sejun’s waist. Its leaves were now thick and strong.

Moreover, Blaze, who had been white and yellow while using the Flame of Purification and the Flame of Affinity, had absorbed the Blue Moon’s energy, and about half of its leaves had turned green.

“What happened?”

“I felt so much power when I received the Blue Moon’s energy!”

The Blue Moon’s energy had caused Blaze to grow and shortened the reuse time of Blaze’s flame buffs.

“Ah! Master! I found out the ability of the third leaf!”

“Oh. Really? What ability is it?”

“Just a moment! Hiyah!”

The last leaf that remained green turned blue, and a blue flame seeped into Sejun’s body.

[The Flame of Protection seeps in for 3 hours.]

[The Flame of Protection protects the target.]

A small flame, the color of a summer sky, danced around Sejun, pulsing gently with warmth.

“This is the Flame of Protection?”

He touched the blue flame, but it wasn’t hot.

“Yes! The Flame of Protection will protect Master!”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Sejun stroked Blaze’s leaves and praised it.

“Hehe. I feel good!”

Sejun, who had received the Flame of Protection buff from Blaze, harvested the remaining crops touched by the Blue Moon’s power.

As a result, he was able to harvest 52 magic cherry tomatoes and 2 stamina corns from the cornfield that was about to be harvested.

He shared the harvested magic cherry tomatoes with the animals, and Sejun took all the corn for himself, as he was weak in stamina.

“Aileen, take the corn.”

Sejun gave one of the two corns to Aileen, who couldn’t eat crops that increased magic power for the stability of the Dragon Heart for the time being.

Aileen’s voice echoed, filled with confidence. ‘The Tower’s Administrator says: Trust only in them. They are touched by your consideration in not forgetting them and taking care of them.’

After sharing the harvested crops like that,

“I should eat too.”

Sejun ate the last 10 magic cherry tomatoes and 1 stamina corn touched by the Blue Moon’s power. Thanks to that, his magic power increased by 3 and his stamina by 0.3.

“Huh? The Blue Moon is over?”

Before he knew it, the blue moonlight had disappeared, and sunlight was shining on the ground again. Thanks to Aileen, the 9th Blue Moon had passed safely.

“Aileen, thank you.”

Aileen’s voice echoed, filled with confidence. ‘The Tower’s Administrator says that you only need to trust them.’

Since there was still some time until morning, everyone took a short nap.

And then,

Whoosh.

“Ack! What, nyaa?!”

The blue flame fiercely attacked Theo, who was jumping happily onto Sejun’s stomach. It was the Flame of Protection.

“Nya?”

Whoosh.

The Flame of Protection attacked whenever he tried to get close to Sejun.

“Dare you try to take Park Sejun’s lap, nyaa?!”

Theo was furious at the appearance of a new competitor aiming for Sejun’s lap.

“Nya!”

Whoosh.

The confrontation between Theo and the Flame of Protection continued.

However,

Whoosh…

As time passed, the Flame of Protection’s buff time ended, and the blue flame faded.

“Puhuhu. It’s my victory, nyaa!”

Theo raised his chin and tail high, strutted on Sejun’s lap in the pose of a victor, and then climbed onto Sejun’s chest.

And then,

Tap. Tap.

Theo lightly tapped Sejun’s cheek a few times with his front paw.

“Puhuhu. Chairman Park, this is revenge, nyaa.”

It was Theo’s petty revenge. After finishing his revenge, Theo settled back on his stomach and fell asleep.

Cooore.

Purrrr.

Fortunately, nothing disturbed their sleep until morning.

“Ugh!”

Sejun woke up after sleeping for 4 hours and started his day.

“Representative Theo, move away a bit! It’s getting sweaty!”

“I don’t want to, nyaa!”

Sejun said, annoyed, while harvesting cherry tomatoes. For some reason, Theo’s lap obsession was even worse today.

He used to wander around other places once in a while, but today he had been stuck to him for hours without letting go.

“Sigh. Then go to the left knee.”

“Okay, nyaa!”

Sejun sighed and offered a compromise, and Theo finally moved to Sejun’s other knee.

As Sejun was harvesting cherry tomatoes with Theo clinging to him,

“Sejun, we have arrived.”

Elka arrived with 9 wolves. They pulled 5 carts full of dead Red Locusts. Elka and the wolves were carrying things between the 67th floor of the tower and here. They did this until Theo left to trade.

“Good work coming all this way. Let’s eat first. Kkueng, drag the carts to the front of the house.”

“Kkueng!”

At Sejun’s command, Kkueng transformed into a giant and grabbed two carts in each hand, dragging them to the front of the house.

Sejun poured hot soup from a big pot for the wolves.

“Thanks for the food, Sejun!”

While the wolves were eating, Sejun asked about the situation on the 67th floor.

“How is the 67th floor these days?”

“Well, the Red Locusts’ movement patterns have changed recently, and the Lizardmen and Free Mercenaries are struggling.”

Since most of their comrades were dying from the Blade Leaves before they could even fight, the Red Locusts were moving far more troops than before.

And the Red Locusts covered the Blade Leaves with their corpses. It was the Red Locusts’ specialty: overwhelming numbers.

As a result, the Red Locusts no longer had to worry about the Blade Leaves, and the allied forces on the 67th floor were once again in a difficult fight.

Thanks to this, the orders for Blade Leaves increased. These days the wolves were constantly hauling the stiff, red bodies of Red Locusts in carts in the morning and evening, and carrying boxes of dried Blade Leaves, which looked like thin, green swords, and pots of Chef’s Soup, smelling warm and spicy.

“Here is the payment for the Blade Leaves and Chef’s soup.”

Elka took out the money and handed it to Sejun. Even when Theo didn’t go uptown, Sejun’s balance was increasing thanks to the wolves. The problem was that there was nowhere to spend the money…

“It’s not dangerous, is it?”

“You don’t have to worry. The Red Locusts have never invaded near the Waypoint yet.”

“That’s a relief. Want another bowl?”

“Yes! Thank you.”

The wolves wagged their tails quickly and happily, some even licking their bowls clean in response to Sejun’s question.

“We’ll be going down now.”

“Alright. Be careful.”

The wolves, having eaten another bowl of soup, loaded the pots of sharp, green Blade Leaves and Chef’s soup onto the cart and went back down to the 67th floor.

Sejun moved Theo to his other knee. Then, Sejun went to find Woo Cheon-sam.

“Okay, meow.”

The wide mud field stretched out, brown and sticky under the sun on the 99th floor.

Moo~

Moo~

Thousands of Black Minotaurs were singing happily, scooping up mud and filling brick molds 2 meters wide, 1 meter long, and 1 meter high to make giant mud bricks, each one heavy and wet, shaped in a large wooden frame.

If they made just 10 of these and took them to Sejun, they could eat a pile of delicious Leaf Leaves instead of tasteless mud, so they were thrilled.

These giant mud bricks were being made to build a fortress to defend against the attacks of the Corrupted Ents, and had been in progress for several days.

“Aaargh!”

“Ugh!”

A little ways away from the Black Minotaurs, Oren and his subordinates were diligently scooping up mud and filling the brick molds.

Their once clean fur was now covered in mud, making them look like beggars. It took all of them to barely make 10 mud bricks a day, so they didn’t even have time to groom themselves.

“Sniff. How did I end up making bricks…”

Oren sobbed, tears mixing with the mud on his face. His back hurt, and he was so tired he could barely lift his paws.

When they woke up from their nap after eating their fill of grilled fish sold by the Gray Rabbits,

“Huh?”

“Eh?!”

The Gray Rabbits had disappeared, and fearsome Black Minotaurs were approaching them and starting to give them work.

And so, the 10 cats became slaves in the mud brick factory.

“Please, please let me go! I’ll get money from my house, anything! Just let me leave this mud!”

Oren and the cats grabbed onto the Black Minotaurs and pleaded, but

Moo.

They simply replied that it was not within their authority.

As the cats were making mud bricks for the third day, half-dead,

Moo!

“Yes?! You said an expert has come to appraise the items?!”

The cats were overjoyed at the thought of escaping this mud brick work.

And Sejun appeared before those cats.

“First, take out the items.”

Sejun stepped forward and said.

“Yes.”

Honestly, there was nothing to see, but it was a procedure to give them hope one more time.

Rustle, rustle.

The cats took out the items from their bundles.

“These items are all trash.”

“What?!”

The cats despaired at Sejun’s words after looking at the items roughly.

“All of them are worthless. You probably heard that they were enchanted items, right? You were tricked.”

‘Heh heh heh. How is it? Park Sejun’s harsh words? Go on, wail!’

Theo’s whiskers twitched with delight. He leaned closer to Sejun’s ear, purring with satisfaction as he listened to the cats cry.

“Sniffle.”

As Theo expected, the cats started to cry.

But the revenge was just beginning.

“As you all know, according to the contract you signed, you have to make 100,000 mud bricks to pay off the grilled fish. But think about it, how many bricks are you making a day?”

“10…”

Oren replied weakly.

“Right. Then it will take you at least 10,000 days to make 100,000 bricks. But can you work without eating anything during that time?”

“No…”

“Right. Then the debt will increase, and you will have to make more bricks. You’ll probably have to make bricks here until you die.”

The cats’ faces turned blue. According to Sejun’s words, their lives were over here.

“But I’ll give you a chance.”

Sejun held out eight new contracts.

“A chance?!”

“You’ll work as interns in our farm’s distribution department for 10,000 days to pay off the debt.”

The cats carefully examined the contracts. The contents of the contract were fine. They could carry goods in bundles for 10,000 days and even receive one grilled fish every day.

“We’ll do it.”

The cats hurriedly stamped their paw prints, afraid that this good opportunity would disappear.

“W-what about me?”

Oren, who was the only one who didn’t receive a contract, called out to Sejun urgently, fearing that he might be left alone.

“Here.”

Sejun held out a contract to Oren. One thing had been added to Oren’s contract.

The right for the head of the distribution department to take three items from Oren’s house at will.

Sejun had added this, trusting Theo’s golden paw, because he heard that Oren’s house was wealthy.

“Here you go.”

Oren stamped his paw print on the contract and handed it to Sejun.

There were plenty of expensive items in his house. He would have hesitated if he had been asked for a large sum of money, but giving away three items from his house wouldn’t greatly reduce his family’s wealth.

As the cats stamped their paw prints and handed the contracts to Sejun,

“Interns! Welcome, meow! I am Representative Theo of the distribution department, meow!”

Theo climbed onto Sejun’s shoulder, crossed his arms, and spoke arrogantly.

“Huh?! You’re Theo?!”

Oren, surprised to see Theo, pointed with his paw.

“Hey! You! Intern! Don’t you dare be rude to your boss, meow! I am Representative Theo now, remember that!”

Whap! Whap! Whap!

Theo got angry, hitting Oren with his paw.

“Interns, follow me, meow! There’s a lot of work to do, meow!”

Representative Theo’s exciting revenge had begun. And Sejun was able to escape from the damp knee.