TL: Hanguk
In the outskirts of the Tower’s 1st floor.
Ten awakened ones were waiting for someone. After a while, a man with blond hair and golden armor appeared from beyond the black wall.
Today was the day to harvest the E-class Magical Cherry Tomatoes planted by Gagel’s Tower Farm Project Team. Michael McLaren, the Vice Chairman of Gagel, personally visited the farm.
“Vice Chairman, this way.”
The research team leader guided Michael to the headquarters of the Tower Farming Project. On the 1st floor of the Tower, individuals or groups could rent buildings if they paid for them.
“How’s the acquisition of the land for the large farm going?”
“Currently, our slaves are driving out the goblin villages on the 2nd floor of the Tower and securing the land.”
The ones they referred to as slaves were the awakened ones who were forced into slavery contracts using the Tower’s contracts, after Gagel took over the debt of the people who wrote promissory notes, and then awakened them with tickets.
They were working tirelessly, unable to leave the tower, in order to pay off debts they could never pay off in a lifetime.
While talking about securing the site for the large farm, they arrived at the headquarters courtyard, where they saw a field full of cherry tomatoes.
“Finally…”
Plop.
Excited Michael approached the field, harvested a well-ripened cherry tomato, and inspected it. Even after a close look, no description appeared.
“So it’s not an item.”
Michael, who had been somewhat hopeful, was disappointed. However, he decided to take pride in securing the seed to start the Tower Farming Project.
‘I wonder how it tastes?’
Michael put the cherry tomato in his mouth.
Pop.
Squish.
The cherry tomato burst, and its juice gushed out.
“…?”
Munch munch.
Michael’s expression hardened as he chewed the cherry tomato carefully.
And then
Spit!Belonging to .
Michael spat out the cherry tomato.
And then
Plop. Plop. Plop.
Michael’s hand hastily harvested other cherry tomatoes and tasted each one.
However,
“What the hell is this?!”
Michael yelled, throwing the cherry tomato in his hand.
“Vice Chairmen, what’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter?! This thing doesn’t taste like anything!”
“What?!”
At Michael’s words, the research team members who grew the cherry tomatoes hurriedly began to taste them.
“This can’t be… How can it taste like this…”
The research team leader looked incredulous. They had injected all the necessary nutrients, but the cherry tomatoes tasted like nothing.
Michael left the Tower with the research team leader and instructed him to analyze the cherry tomatoes.
Even so, using the company’s technology, they might be able to improve the taste of the cherry tomatoes by breeding new varieties.
A few hours later, the research team leader came back with an analysis report on the cherry tomatoes harvested from the tower.
“How did it go?”
“All the components are below the standard. They are of the lowest grade and have no commercial value. Moreover, for some reason, there are no seeds inside.”
“No seeds?!”
“Yes.”
If there are no seeds, not only is it impossible to improve the variety, but it’s also impossible to cultivate cherry tomatoes altogether.
“Phew. When the trading happens again on the 38th floor, secure all the D-grade magical cherry tomatoes by any means necessary and cultivate them again! Got it?!”
“Yes!”
Michael decided to pin his hopes on D-grade magical cherry tomatoes if the E-grade ones were not suitable.
‘The higher the grade, the better it should be.’
Thanks to Michael’s orders, Theo’s sales were expected to hit record highs once again.
***
After Theo left, Sejun prepared lunch throughout the morning.
Today’s menu is spicy piranha soup with piranha, green onions, and carrots in a pot, seasoned with red pepper powder and salt. Sejun found red pepper powder while organizing the items Theo had bought.
“Theo, should have told me earlier that we had such a precious item. Hehehe.”
Sejun thought that when Theo returned, he would let Theo sit on his lap for five hours and let him eat churu to his heart’s content. Sejun tasted the soup with a spoon.
Gulp.
“Ugh…”
The spiciness from the red pepper powder made Sejun’s mouth feel numb.
Squeak?
The black rabbit cautiously dipped its paw into the ominous red liquid and tasted it. The black rabbit had to try everything Sejun ate to satisfy its curiosity.
Squeak!!
After tasting the spicy soup, the black rabbit hurried to the pond and gulped down water as if its mouth was on fire.
Thanks to the black rabbit, who gave up on the spicy piranha soup after trying the due to its spiciness, Sejun could enjoy the soup all by himself.
Although the taste was lacking compared to the spicy soup he had eaten outside, the spicy taste after almost 200 days made Sejun eat the piranha soup clean.
“Slurp. Haah. It’s so spicy.”
To soothe the spiciness, Sejun began making cherry tomato juice.
Squish! Squish!
As Sejun started to squeeze cherry tomato juice into an empty pot,
Buzz.
Poisonous honeybees flew in and dropped honey into the pot. Sejun then completed the sweet cherry tomato juice and scooped it into a tumbler with a ladle to soothe the spiciness when,
[The Tower’s Administrator says they wants to drink cherry tomato juice as well.]
“I knew you’d want some, so I made plenty. Give me a quest.”
[A quest is generated.]
[Quest: Serve cherry tomato juice to the Tower’s Administrator.]
Reward: Aileen’s Favor
If refused: Disappointment
“Here, take it.”
The cherry tomato juice inside the pot Sejun was holding disappeared, and the quest was completed.
[The Tower’s Administrator is pleased with the tasty and healthy cherry tomato juice.]
[The Tower’s Administrator asks why you haven’t given them the crayfish they had last time.]
“We have to save that. Let’s wait and eat it next week.”
[The Tower’s Administrator says they can wait.]
Perhaps because there weren’t many crayfish, after luring them a few times, the number of them gathering gradually decreased, and now only about 1-3 come even when lured with blood of their comrades.
So, Sejun decided to eat the crayfish only once a week to conserve its population.
While Sejun was talking to the tower’s administrator and drinking cherry tomato juice,
The baby bear approached Sejun with a glass jar containing honey. Give me honey!
“Okay.”
Sejun opened the lid of the glass jar brought by the baby bear and poured 1 spoon of honey on the baby bear’s front paw.
The opening of the glass jar was much larger than the opening of the water bottle, so 1 spoon of honey in the glass jar was about 20 spoons from before.
The baby bear hurriedly licked the honey flowing down its paw. The reason why the baby bear could eat so much honey was that the number of poisonous honeybees increased and the amount of honey harvested greatly increased.
Now there are about 400 poisonous honeybees combining two hives. Now the poisonous honeybees patrol up to about 100m away from the cave.
And stimulated by the appearance of the second hive, the queen of the first hive also increased the number of eggs she laid.
Thanks to this, about 15 baby poisonous honeybees are born from both hives every day, and the number of poisonous honeybees is growing faster.
Meanwhile, the baby bear, who had licked all the honey, lay down next to Sejun and prepared to sleep. Sensing this, the black rabbit, also came to Sejun’s lap and fell asleep. There was never an empty spot on Sejun’s lap.
Feeling the warmth of the black rabbit and the baby bear, Sejun took a nap and went down to the cave in the afternoon to harvest cherry tomatoes.
He harvested a lot because he also harvested the amount he couldn’t harvest in the morning, but Sejun finished harvesting without difficulty.
And then,
He cut off 10 sprouts from the golden sweet potato planted in the ground. He planted them in the empty space left in-between the the green onions planted on the surface.
Sejun planted a sprout of the golden sweet potato in the hole he made with his dagger.
[You have planted a sprout of the golden sweet potato.]
[Due to the effect of Seed Sowing Lv. 3, the chances of the golden sweet potato sprout taking root increases.]
[Job experience increases very slightly.]
[The proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 3 increases very slightly.]
[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 3 increases by an additional 5%.]
After planting all the sprouts of the golden sweet potatoes, Sejun looked at the green onions he had planted from harvested seeds.
Two weeks ago, it was as thin as a green onion, but it had already thickened to the size of two fingers.
“Can I harvest it now?”
Snip Snip
Sejun cut the leaves of the green onion. However, a message indicating he had harvested did not appear.
“Is it because it’s not fruit?”
Thunk.
Sejun pulled out the entire green onion, just in case.
[You have harvested Detoxifying Green Onion.]
[Due to the effect of Harvesting Lv. 4, you have harvested a crop of one grade higher.]
[Your Job Experience increases significantly.]
[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases significantly.]
[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases by an additional 5%.]
[You have gained 36 Experience Points.]
“Huh?! A crop of a higher grade?”
Sejun quickly checked the options of the green onion.
[Detoxifying Green Onion]
A green onion grown inside the tower, providing ample nutrients and delicious in taste.
When consumed, it detoxifies poisons of grade C+ or lower for 1 hour.
For non-awakened people, it enhances the detoxifying function of the liver for 24 hours when consumed.
Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Sejun
Expiration Date: 135 days
Grade: C+
It didn’t have the popular fat-dissolving option outside the tower. Also, the grade, which was originally D+, had increased by one grade and became C+.
“Is it good? Well, it’s fine as long as it’s delicious.”
For Sejun, who had no chance of being poisoned, Detoxifying Green Onion was just a delicious green onion. Leaving a few green onions for seeding, Sejun harvested about 200 green onions.
***
Phoenix Guild’s headquarters on the first floor of the Tower.
“Recently, the number of times our guild members are going to the 38th floor of the Tower has increased a lot. What happened all of a sudden?”
Leon, the guild leader of the Phoenix Guild, asked while looking at the tower entrance records. He had just returned from performing a quest on the 36th floor for three months.
“Recently, guild members are getting more into trading with a wandering merchant on the 38th floor, so naturally, their stay time in the tower is getting longer.”
The vice guild leader, Catherine, replied.
“A wandering merchant?”
“Yes. Guild Master, look at this. Isn’t it cute?”
Catherine showed a photo she took with Theo.
“A cat?”
“Yes. It’s a wandering merchant named Theo. And he’s selling these Magical Cherry Tomatoes.”
Catherine showed Leon a grade D Magical Cherry Tomato.
“0.2 magic power? It won’t be much help in battle.”
“You don’t know. Take this to your wife. She will treat you differently.”
“Really?”
At Catherine’s words, Leon was intrigued. Honestly, he was careful because he felt awkward going home after three months.
“Alright. I’ll give you 10 of these, which I got with difficulty.”
“Thanks.”
“More importantly, were there any results from the quest?”
“I’ve barely collected three bottles of antidote now.”
Leon replied in a weak voice. The deadly tarantula, the boss of the 38th floor of the tower, had a pattern of emitting strong toxic gas as soon as the battle began.
Thus, an antidote was needed to defeat the boss, but there was no place to obtain an antidote that could neutralize the potent poison of the deadly tarantula.
While struggling with the 38th floor strategy, Leon coincidentally met an alchemist studying spider venom on the 36th floor of the tower.
And he accepted a quest to bring 100 corpses of poison spiders that occasionally appear in a specific area of the 36th floor of the tower and receive one antidote.
As a result of hunting poison spiders with the 1st and 2nd teams of the Phoenix Guild, he completed the quest three times in three months and obtained three bottles of antidote.
One month to obtain one antidote. At least 20 people are needed to defeat the boss of the 38th floor of the tower, which meant it would take 17 more months to defeat the boss of the 38th floor.
“Phew.”
“You should go home and rest first.”
“Okay.”
Leon, who came home after three months, was able to receive his wife’s warm welcome thanks to the Magical Cherry Tomatoes that Catherine had prepared.
***
“Meow, meow.”
“He’s coming.”
“Attack when I give the signal.”
“Yes.”
Three silver wolves were ready to pounce, watching Theo humming a song coming from the merchant’s passage connecting the 70th floor to the 60th floor.
And then,
“Now!”
With a growl, three silver wolves ran out and surrounded Theo.
Just then,
“…!”
“…!”
“…Chief?”
Following behind Theo, the black minotaurs Woo Cheon-Sam and Woo Cheon-Sa came out of the merchant passage.
“Puhahaha. Now it’s my turn, meow!”
Theo, laughing like a villain, looked at the silver wolves.
*****