Picking up the spade, he went back to shoveling fertilizer around. Slowly, he piled it up around the now hard-to-see plant.

Time passed. The ever-present fog swirled around Vivian as he piled the fertilizer up around the remaining vine. Without the sun to mark the time, it was hard to say how long he spent shoveling dirt around. His knees grew sore, and his leather gloves grew muddy.

At last, he sat back. Wiping his brow with the back of his hand, he surveyed his work. A little pyramid of fertilizer piled up around the droopy vine, while fresh black earth carpeted the floor around it. It’s over-fertilized, honestly, but I’ve got to supply it with SP, and my 5 SP aren’t going to cover that. Besides, I’m going to leave it behind for now. It has to get SP somehow, and the only way I know is to provide it with Human Fertilizer. I’ll have to take the over-fertilization risk to ensure it maintains its required stream of SP.

Vivian put a hand on his chin, looking down on the vine. If I got the [No More Human Meat] skill again, would I get bonus damage against this vine?

He waved his hand. Thoughts for later. In any case, the [No More Human Meat] skill isn’t that important. It’s just SPD and DEF against monsters that eat humans. I mean, that’s most monsters, but +5 SPD and DEF isn’t going to be huge in the long run…

Though… if have to clear the whole Tower, extra stats never hurt. +5 SPD and DEF can carry me for quite a while, and it’s against most carnivorous monsters…

Alright, mental note to head back there and pick up that skill before I move on. I mean, it’s a skill I can checkpoint, too, so… can’t hurt.

At the moment, I don’t know if I Checkpoint everything until I die, in which case, I Checkpoint skills I acquire after hitting level ten, or everything until I hit level ten, in which case, I'm out of luck until I hit level twenty, and I want to mainline EXP and skills to grow naturally up to level ten, then apply the Checkpoint to hit level twenty all in one go. Since I already know how to beat the cannibals, and I know they give me a Checkpoint-able skill, I can use [No More Human Meat] to check how the Checkpoint works.

Well… ‘I’ can beat the cannibals. Me and Kyung. Kyung, who’s here in the Garden…

He sighed, turning to look in the vague direction of where he’d last seen Kyung. I wonder if he’d let me recruit him now.

Standing, Vivian dusted off his hands. Alright. Objectives. Keep growing the vine. Recruit Kyung and get the cannibal skill. Find Noah again and challenge the Ruined Castle to go figure out what’s up with Kyung’s dad and me being ‘the’ Vivian, maybe. Beat Floor One and try to escape. Long term, defeat the Tower.

He lifted his eyes, looking at the belltower barely visible through the fog overhead. And there’s Belltower Heights. It’s mostly the next hunting ground after the Stone Spires over near the Starter Town, just high enough level to present a challenge to level ten-pluses, but not much more. Still, there’s a little more to it than that. There’s some Floor One plot-relevant characters, if you poke around hard enough. That, and if I recall correctly, there’s an Event there every now and again… but I don’t remember much more about it.

His eyes locked onto the bell. His brows furrowed.

“Oh, it’s him! It’s Kyung’s friend. Where’s the other party?”

Vivian turned. The girls appeared, Kyung trailing along after them reluctantly. He shot Vivian an exhausted look.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ohmigosh! Look at this gross thing,” one of the girls said, running over to the vine.

“Don’t touch that,” Vivian warned her.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I’m the gardener. I don’t like it when you touch the plants,” Vivian explained.

Giving a dismissive snort, she reached out toward the vine again.

“But also, it’s deadly poisonous,” Vivian added.

She yanked her hand back. “Why didn’t you say that?”

“He’s just a dumb NPC. It’s probably meant to be a joke. You know the Tower’s jokes suck,” one of the other girls replied, rolling her eyes.

“Excuse you. That was my joke,” Vivian returned.

“Ugh,” the girl said.

Vivian raised his eyebrows at Kyung. “You want to party up with me?”

“Would if I could,” Kyung muttered.

“You can. Do they even have a party-exit penalty? You have to pay for that,” Vivian said.

Kyung nodded. “Two levels.”

“Is there a discount on the two-level party exit penalty, or something?” Vivian muttered under his breath.

“Yeah. Only fifteen Gold this month,” the vine-touching girl said.

“Sarah, why are you talking to him? He’s an NPC,” the eye-rolling girl said.

Vivian waved his hand. “Kyung, quit their party. I can get you those levels back in a day.”

“Can you?” Kyung asked skeptically.

“I’ve hit level ten three times today,” Vivian said, shrugging. He paused. “Twice? Once and a half? Anyways. C’mon. Let’s go back and kill those cannibals again. That’s two levels at least.”

Kyung glanced at the girls.

“You can’t break party. You’re an NPC,” the eye-rolling girl said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“Break,” Kyung said shortly.

Vivian laughed. He thumped Kyung on the back. “A man after my own heart!”

Kyung caught his hand. “Touch me again and die.”

“Don’t threaten me with—I’d say a good time, but it’s rapidly becoming pretty normal,” Vivian said, shrugging.

Kyung harrumphed. He turned away, perfectly straight hair flipping on the breeze.

“Wait, Kyung! You can’t leave us,” the eye-rolling girl said, suddenly desperate.

“Yeah, you aren’t going to leave us in the Garden, all alone, are you?” Sarah chimed in.

“Girls, girls. Listen. You aren’t alone. You see all this fertilizer?” Vivian asked, gesturing at the rich brown earth around them.

“Yes,” the third, quiet girl said.

Vivian beamed. “It’s made of my old party! So hey, it could be worse… and you aren’t alone. How’s that for reassurance?”

The quiet girl paled and backed away. Sarah gasped. The eye-roller directly turned on her heel and fled. The rest of the girls followed after her. In a moment, they’d all vanished.

Kyung snorted. He shook his head at Vivian.

Vivian shrugged. “Hey, so about those cannibals…?”

“Let’s go,” Kyung declared. He marched off, back straight, gait measured.

“Are you secretly a general or something? Dang, I feel like I’m in the military,” Vivian commented.

Kyung cut him a look from the corner of his eye. “I face mandatory military service.”

“Ah, that’s right. Korea. So? Have you done it?”

Kyung wrinkled his nose.

“That’s a no, huh,” Vivian said, grinning. “So there’s no reason for you to be all upright—”

“Is it necessary?”

“Huh?”

“This babbling. Is it necessary?” Kyung asked.

“Ummmmmmm… yes, obviously,” Vivian said.

Narrowing his eyes, Kyung sped up his march.

Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t tease him too hard on day one. He’s very different from me. A real Type-A sort of guy, Vivian noted. Nodding to himself, he bobbled after Kyung, deliberately bouncing his steps more than normal as he walked.

Kyung’s eyes narrowed to slits.

Straightening, Vivian cleared his throat. “So, Kyung, how’d you end up in that party?”

“Five hundred Gold,” Kyung said flatly.

Vivian nodded. “Fair.”

“Which I didn’t get,” he added.

“Less fair,” Vivian said.

Kyung nodded. They walked in silence for a few beats.

“You?” Kyung asked.

“Ah? Oh. I partied up with a kid Mage because you need a Mage to beat the Ruined Castle, and I’m not about to give up on figuring out if your—” Vivian cut himself off. Probably shouldn’t admit that I’m doing this half to check the Rankings table for his dad. “—figure out if I can climb to Floor Two. A Party came to drag my Mage home, mafia-style, so I massacred them, and then I beat the Lady of the Lost, while I was at it,” Vivian said, nodding.

Kyung stared at him, disbelief in his eyes.

Vivian grinned back.

“…You live an interesting life,” Kyung said.

“I know, right? I think so, too,” Vivian agreed.

Kyung snorted. He shook his head and walked off.

“Hey, hey. Wait up!” Vivian hurried after him.