Farming in the Tower Alone [EN]: Chapter 701

The Forest of Creation.

“Master Fire! It’s him!” shouted Puppet Flame Herb, pointing towards Puppet Ice Herb and Puppet He Shou Wu. “That naughty one! Even though he’s the youngest, he went against his older brothers! He even froze Master Sejun’s precious crops!”

Puppet He Shou Wu slyly moved to the side, distancing himself from Puppet Ice Herb while simultaneously closing the gap with Puppet Flame Herb.

“How dare you freeze and kill the crops that Master Sejun worked so hard to grow?!” Fire roared.

The enraged Fire moved its massive roots and, with a resounding *thump*, struck Puppet Ice Herb on the head.

“Hieeeng!” Puppet Ice Herb whimpered, clutching his head in pain.

“Sausage!” Fire called out, watching Puppet Ice Herb.

“Yes!” Sausage replied in a joyful voice, wiggling its roots as it approached.

“Give him extra food.”

“Yes!” Puppet Ice Herb received special treatment from Sausage, getting twice the nutrients compared to the others.

Night on the 99th floor of the Black Tower.

Bat Bat flitted around the dark room, its wings making soft *whoosh* sounds as it opened shimmering portals in the air. He was searching for the worlds of Kpies and Tsuine, places whispered to hold treasures hidden long ago.

Just then, Blackie came out, yawning widely. Usually, it was time for him to apologize with Sejun, but today, Blackie said he was too tired and wanted to rest.

“Bat Bat, my dear brother!” Blackie said with a grand yawn. “The Great Blackie has decided he needs… a little trip! To another world!”

Earlier that day, Kkuengi had grown the baby Puppet Flame Herb and received praise and cuddles from Sejun.

Blackie remembered Fooltop, his older self, grumbling about a useless Mandrake Stone he’d thrown away. ‘If I grow it,’ Blackie thought, ‘Sejun will have to cuddle *me*!’

Blackie intended to monopolize Sejun’s cuddles.

“Fooltop knows where to go!”

“Okay!” Bat Bat replied.

With Bat Bat’s help, they arrived in the world where the Mandrake Stone had been discarded.

“It’s this way!” Fooltop exclaimed.

Guided by Fooltop, they moved to find the Mandrake Stone.

As they approached, a wave of black smoke rolled towards them. “Step back!” a voice hissed from the smoke. “This is the territory of the Mandrake Stone!”

“How dare my own dung block my way!” Fooltop confidently stepped forward.

“Ugh… this poison… it’s too strong… even for my own… leftovers!” Fooltop groaned.

Too weakened, Fooltop couldn’t overcome the Mandrake Stone’s poison. The Mandrake Stone was dung created when he was Jormungandr. The current insignificant Fooltop couldn’t withstand it.

“Fooltop can’t even beat his own dung?” Blackie said.

Suddenly becoming a pathetic creature who couldn’t even beat his own dung, Fooltop was even ridiculed by Blackie.

“You lot! How dare you talk about dung to me?” Greatly angered by Blackie and Fooltop’s words, the Mandrake Stone attacked the group with black poison.

“Bat Bat! Everyone, let’s retreat for now!” Bat Bat hurriedly snatched up the Blackie Family with his feet and fled through the dimensional gate.

The Mandrake Stone’s poison was too strong for Bat Bat to handle. It was Jormungandr’s dung, after all.

Just as Bat Bat was almost at the dimensional gate, a sleepy voice mumbled, “Kkuengi? What are you doing?”

Kkuengi stumbled through the dimensional gate, rubbing his eyes. He didn’t notice the crisis of Bat Bat and the Blackie Family and come to save them; he smelled the faint scent of poison entering the 99th floor of the Black Tower through the dimensional gate and wanted to remove the poison before Sejun became endangered.

“Brother Kkuengi! Help the Great Blackie!” Blackie told Kkuengi everything that had happened.

“Okay! Brother Kkuengi will help!” Kkuengi decided to grant the youngest’s request.

He nonchalantly drank the black poison and went to where the Mandrake Stone was, grabbing it.

“What?! Let go! You!” Of course, the Mandrake Stone resisted.

“Stay still!” Kkuengi squeezed the Mandrake Stone.

“Hiek! It’s cracking! No! Please, ease up!” It quickly became quiet as Kkuengi applied force.

Kkuengi subdued the Mandrake Stone like that.

“Going home!” He returned to the Black Tower with Bat Bat and the Blackie Family.

“Eating!”

“Eat quickly!”

The baby Puppet Mandrake absorbed the Mandrake Stone and grew into a Puppet Mandrake, turning into black poison and disappearing.

“Then Kkuengi is going back to sleep!”

“Yes! Brother Kkuengi, sleep well!”

“Brother Kkuengi, sleep well! Brother Bat Bat, the Great Blackie will sleep well too!”

“Blackie, sleep well too.”

Once the work was done, Kkuengi and the Blackie Family went back to sleep as Bat Bat reopened the dimensional gate and searched for the world where the treasure was hidden.

The Herb Garden, now empty of everyone.

In the quiet Herb Garden, Baby Puppet Ginseng drooped slightly, his tiny root tapping against the soil. All his friends had gone on adventures, and he was left alone. “Isn’t he coming today?” he whispered, hoping to see Sejun.

Nearby, Corruption, a small, shadowy creature, was practicing snarling in a puddle of water. ‘Heh heh heh,’ Corruption chuckled to himself. ‘My scary face must have worked too well if Sejun is staying away!’ But under his tough act, Corruption was also hoping Sejun would visit.

The next morning.

Sejun’s eyes snapped open with a gasp. “Huh?” He felt a strange weight pressing on his stomach. As his vision cleared, words shimmered in the air before him:

*The baby Mandrake Doll has absorbed powerful poison and grown!*
*The Mandrake Doll is back in its place.*
*You are one step closer to your goal!*

Sejun blinked, still half-asleep. “Who did what?” he mumbled, pushing himself up.

A soft purr answered him. *Kkirorong.*

Kkamangi, usually so quick to brag, was curled up fast asleep on Sejun’s belly, completely missing his moment of glory.

Then Sejun realized, “Ah, it must have been Kkuengi.”

Sejun’s comment seemed to frustrate Kkamangi.

Kkuengi had once eaten the [Evil of Slaughter, Necma of Poison, created from countless poisons] in the Brown Colossus, so it was a reasonable guess.

“But why did he do it at night?” Sejun wondered.

“Ah… It must be because Kkuengi was worried about me,” Sejun thought.

Thinking about Kkuengi, everything made sense.

“Hehehe. I figured it out! I’m good!” Sejun said, pleased with himself.

“Rotten… Wait, meow…”

*Thwack!*

He was humbled by Theo’s paw to the face.

“Meow…”

“Squeak…”

Sejun took care of Theo and Iona, along with the Kkamangi family, and carried out his usual morning routine.

*Thud. Thud.*

Just before breakfast, Pink Fur appeared, carrying Kkuengi in his mouth.

“Our Kkuengi is here? You must be tired from waking up at night to raise the baby Mandrake Doll, huh?”

*Kkulorong.*

Sejun cradled the soundly sleeping Kkuengi.

*Kkuhehehe.*

Thanks to that, Kkuengi woke up in a good mood.

Squeak! Squeak!

“Butler! Praise Kkamangi! I brought the stone!”

Kkamangi, having his praise stolen, narrowed his eyes and barked fiercely as soon as he woke up.

Kkueng! Kkueng!

“Dad, Kkuengi didn’t raise the baby Mandrake Doll! Kkamangi did!”

Kkuengi took Kkamangi’s side.

“Ah, really? Sorry. I thought Kkuengi did it. Good job, Kkamangi.” Sejun, realizing the truth, quickly hugged Kkamangi.

Then,

Kkihihit. Squeak!

“Hehe. Butler! Kkamangi will help you in the future too! Butler, just trust in Kkamangi!”

“Yes, yes.” Kkamangi was cradled, wearing an arrogant expression.

A little later, after breakfast,

“Puhu! The great Hybrid Chairman, I’m off to earn lots of money, meow!”

“Kkyut kkyut kkyut. I’ll be off too!”

Theo and Iona went to work on the 37th floor of the Green Colossus.

“Let’s get to work too.” Sejun worked with Kkuengi and Kkamangi.

Kkihihit. Squeak!

“Hehe. Kkamangi worked overtime last night, so I’m going to rest!”

Kkamangi tried to slack off again today, but Sejun said, “Nope. Not happening. You guys are fine even if you stay up for several nights. Instead, if you harvest 10,000 sweet potatoes, I’ll give you one dried roasted sweet potato.”

Squeak! Squeak!

“Okay! Leave it to Kkamangi!”

The promise of a sweet potato made Kkamangi work harder than usual.

And then,

Kkuhehehe. Kkueng?

“Hehehe. Is there nothing for Kkuengi?” Kkuengi also asked Sejun with expectant eyes.

“Kkuengi, if you harvest everything in the cornfield and potato field, I’ll make you sweet potato taffy.”

Kkuhehehe. Kkueng!

“Hehehe. Sounds good!” Kkuengi eagerly ran to the cornfield at Sejun’s answer.

Cute fellows.

Sejun smiled as he watched Kkuengi and Kkamangi.

It’s always right to give one more treat to cute fellows.

Sejun secretly took out the Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste that Kkamangi had harvested from the Pouch of Abundance he had made with care, without the others noticing.

Having increased the number over the past two days, he had secured a total of 199 Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste.

Plop.

Sejun planted all 199 sweet potatoes.

Drip. Drip.

He used the Potion of Harvest he had on 15 of the sweet potatoes.

Snap.

The 15 sweet potatoes that absorbed the Potion of Harvest grew rapidly.

Crack!

Sejun grabbed the sweet potato vines and began to harvest the sweet potatoes.

[You have harvested 30 Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste.]

[Your job experience has slightly increased.]

[Your proficiency in Harvesting (Master) has slightly increased.]

[You have gained 3000 experience.]

The sweet potatoes harvested in that way totaled 512.

Sejun hid the harvested Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste from the others and took them to the kitchen.

“Make some sweet potato taffy and dried sweet potatoes with these.” Sejun instructed Sejun No. 12, handing over the Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste.

He was planning to surprise Kkuengi and Kkamangi with sweet potato taffy and dried roasted sweet potatoes made from the Royal Honey Sweet Potatoes of Supreme Taste for lunch later.

“Hehehe. Mission clear.”

Sejun, having successfully completed his solo secret operation, left the kitchen and went to the brewery.

“Fermentation.”

He used the Fermentation skill to make a lot of Samyangju. This was because Dalkom was scheduled to go on a field trip to Tartarus in three days.

According to the information Dalkom had obtained from Herr, in order to meet the God of Thieves, Rascal, one had to enter the underground prison where only serious criminals were held, a place where visiting gods were not allowed to enter.

So, he was preparing a bribe.

A little later.

“Finished.” Sejun, having finished brewing the alcohol, came out of the brewery.

“Huh?”

Wasn’t it about time for the Seed Shop to open?

It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t used the Seed Shop recently.

“What’s going on? Why hasn’t it opened?”

Could the gods have forgotten?

Then how many seeds have I missed out on because the gods forgot?

Who should I get compensation from for this damage?

Once he started questioning, the questions kept piling up.

And then, Sejun came to a conclusion: It’s definitely the Seed Shop’s fault!

“I’ll have to argue with Theo when he comes.” He decided to formally protest to the Seed Shop headquarters through Theo, who could communicate with Herr.

However,

“I’ll send the seeds to God Sejun.”

“Really?”

“Of course! I’m faster and more accurate than the Seed Shop. Just trust in me, the God of Merchants, Herr!”

The culprit was elsewhere.

Hehehe. I need to get a lot of seeds like this. That way, I can complete quests right away when they come up.

Herr was being greedy for seeds and was taking all the seeds from the Seed Shop headquarters, which was why the Seed Shop hadn’t opened.

Once again, Sejun started to get angry again. This time, it was quite a fierce wind.