Chapter 122 – Was This Made to Be Used

The meeting room of Gagel.

“What happened to the locust swarms appearing in Africa? It seems we need to reduce their numbers a bit now.”

Knowing that Gagel was deliberately reducing the food supply to some extent, pressure began to come from the political circles of the United States and Europe as food prices continued to rise.

“Starting tomorrow, we plan to spray the newly developed insecticide, which is harmless to humans, in large quantities over the African continent using drones.”

At Chairman William’s question, the director responsible for African food replied.

“Good. And the compensation?”

Although they were moving due to pressure, obtaining practical benefits no matter what was Gagel’s business style. Therefore, Gagel secretly negotiated with African governments to receive a price.

“We have agreed to receive farmland and mines from each government.”

Since it would not have been surprising if riots broke out immediately due to the food problem, the African governments accepted all of Gagel’s demands to maintain their regimes.

“Well… not bad. The insecticide is definitely safe, right?”

“Yes! You don’t have to worry. It is an insecticide that causes no issues for humans no matter how much they consume, but even a small intake disrupts the body balance of locusts.”

“Alright. Next, Vice President, report.”

“Yes!”

At William’s call, Michael began his report.

“Currently, we have cleared all the skeleton graves on the 2nd floor of the tower to turn them all into experience farms, and we are working to expand the experience farms to the 3rd floor of the tower.”

“What about sales?”

“Current sales are 10,000 Tower Coins per day. That is approximately 10 million dollars…”

Michael continued his report in a confident voice, not even knowing what he was doing.

***

The Administrator’s Area of the Black Tower.

Chew, chew.

Aileen was chewing, her cheeks stuffed so full they bulged, with the Songpyeon Se-jun had given her.

It was not that Se-jun had made a huge Songpyeon and given it to Aileen, but rather that Aileen was using Polymorph magic to assume a human form.

Now, Aileen could use Polymorph magic without burden in the Administrator’s Area, where the mana concentration was high.

Gulp.

“Hehehe. It’s delicious! Yum. Yum.”

Aileen stuffed two Songpyeon in a row into her mouth. At first, she thought that transforming into something like a human was a disgrace, but when she transformed into a human to meet Se-jun, she found the human form was far better than she had expected.

Originally, if she were in her dragon form, she would have had to chew about 2,000 Songpyeon to feel her mouth was full, but in her human form, she could fill her mouth with just two Songpyeon.

“Hehehe. I must repay him too.”

She wanted to repay him with cooking, but Se-jun always said he would do the cooking.

‘Hehehe. Se-jun thinks of me so much. I should save my cooking for later.’

Aileen decided to save her cooking for later to deeply touch Se-jun in the future. It was absolutely not because she lacked confidence in her cooking.

And,

“I should also cast magic on my scale and give it as a gift.”

She decided to gift Se-jun a one-of-a-kind, special item. Aileen, who had been so envious of Kaiser casting magic on a scale and giving it to Se-jun, could now make one herself since she had surplus mana.

“Cancel Polymorph.”

Thud.

Aileen returned to her original form.

“Where is it?”

Aileen rummaged through her belongings, looking for the box where she collected the scales that had fallen out during her infancy. Dragons also tended to collect their own scales and teeth, knowing they were excellent materials.

“Ah! Here it is.”

Aileen picked up one of the scales.

And,

“Ouch!”

She bit her finger to make a small wound. Aileen did not yet possess the skill to engrave magic using only mana like Kaiser.

Drip. Drip.

Aileen smeared the falling red drops of blood onto her claw, and,

“I must finish before the blood hardens!”

Scratch, scratch.

She began to quickly engrave the magic circle with her claw.

***

“I should plant this again.”

Se-jun collected the seeds from the screaming pineapple that the golden bat had left behind after sucking out the juice, and planted them in the field.

[You have planted a Screaming Pineapple seed.]

[Job experience increases slightly.]

[The proficiency of Sowing Lv. 6 increases slightly.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Sowing Lv. 6 increases by an additional 5%.]

Since it was a new breed, he planned to grow it for now. As long as he did not do the harvesting himself, there would be no major issues.

After planting the seeds like that,

“Now, let’s do the dishes.”

Se-jun began to clear the dishes he had eaten with the animals.

At that moment,

[The tower administrator says that she enjoyed the Songpyeon you gave her.]

[The tower administrator says she also has prepared something for you.]

“Huh?! Prepared something? Surely… it isn’t food, right?”

He prayed that it was not food. Se-jun had not forgotten the pond poisoning incident caused by the health soup Aileen had given him in the past. No, he could not forget it. Because that incident had been a huge shock to Se-jun.

[The tower administrator says it is an item, not food.]

“An item? Whew.”

Although Se-jun breathed a sigh of relief that it was not food,

[The tower administrator says she is sorry for disappointing you.]

[The tower administrator says she will prepare food next time.]

Aileen thought Se-jun was disappointed.

“No! No! I’m absolutely not disappointed! Don’t ever cook in the future, Aileen! I will do the cooking for the rest of my life!”

Se-jun strongly denied it and firmly put a wedge in it so Aileen could not even bring up the word “cooking” in the future.

At that,

[……]

“Aileen?”

For some reason, Aileen did not reply again.

Instead,

“Huh?”

A black heart-shaped necklace filled with unknown letters was placed in Se-jun’s hand.

“This is?!”

The solid black heart was small, about the size of a thumb joint, and quite cute.

However,

‘It isn’t something strange, right?’

He got an ominous feeling from the unknown red letters written on the black heart.

Still, since a trustworthy existence had given it, Se-jun examined the necklace closely.

[Young Dragon’s Scale Necklace]

The Great Black Dragon, Aileen Pritani, engraved a magic circle on her baby dragon scale using dragon blood.

It was very clumsy because it was her first time making it.

Destroying the scale activates highest-grade healing magic.

Use Restriction: Park Se-jun, recognized by Aileen Pritani, Strength 100 or higher

Creator: Aileen Pritani

Grade: B+

Unlike the scale Kaiser had given him, it had to be worn, did not activate automatically, and had a lower magic grade, but it was all fine.

It was the first item Aileen had made. Moreover, since she had even used her blood, he was grateful and happy just to receive it. But there was one problem.

“Was this made to be used?”

Se-jun’s current Strength stat was 17.8, and to destroy Aileen’s scale, a Strength of 100 or higher was required. Aileen seemed to have given it for him to use when his life was in danger, but to Se-jun, it was just a collectible accessory.

“I will appreciate the thought.”

When Se-jun hung the necklace Aileen had given him around his neck,

“Chairman Park, let’s go to sleep now, meow!”

Theo said as he came out of the kitchen with Iona.

“What about the dishes?”

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. We finished it all!”

Under Iona’s leadership, the animals finished the dishes.

“Really? Good job. Let’s sleep now.”

“Great, meow!”

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Yes!”

Se-jun took Theo and Iona and went to sleep.

***

“Heave-ho.”

Se-jun got up,

“Nyang…”

Equipped Theo on his lap,

Scritch.

He drew a line on the wall and started the morning of his 279th day of distress.

“Kke-ek!”

“Kke-ek!”

Diligent mushroom ants, who got up at dawn and had already harvested the mushrooms on their backs and were heading to the fields, greeted Se-jun. Since there was no longer a reason to hang on to the number of harvests, Se-jun let the mushroom ants harvest freely.

“Yes. Hello. Are you going to eat breakfast?”

“Kke-ek!”

At Se-jun’s question, the mushroom ants replied by moving their antennae up and down.

Since yesterday’s lunch, the mushroom ants had been pruning in the cherry tomato field and solving their meals at the same time.

For Se-jun, it was killing two birds with one stone since he could prune the plants and solve the mushroom ants’ meals at the same time.

And besides pruning, the mushroom ants also helped with other farming work. Since their original work was similar to farming, when the rabbits taught them a few more things, the mushroom ants quickly became capable farmers.

While Se-jun was greeting the mushroom ants,

Purr.

Kyu-purr.

Theo and Iona were still snoring and sleeping soundly.

“I should eat breakfast first and try to make Garae-tteok today. Where is the rice dough?”

Se-jun looked for the Rice Dough that Swallows Wealth that he had received from Kellion. The rabbits had taken care of the rice dough and kept it safely in a corner of the kitchen.

Se-jun went in front of the rice dough.

“Huh?!”

The shape of the rice dough was slightly different. Did it feel a bit larger?

“What is this?”

Se-jun examined the state of the rice dough.

“Huh?!”

There was additional content.

[Artifact: Wealth-Swallowing Rice Dough]

…

..

.

Its ability has increased by swallowing a huge amount of wealth.

When the Wealth-Swallowing Rice Dough swallows wealth, you can choose between rice dough and rice flour. (1 Tower Coin for 1 kg of rice dough, 0.5 kg of rice flour)

Use Restriction: Lv. 50 or higher, Mana 50 or higher

Creator: Ppuk-ppuk

Grade: AA+

“A huge amount of wealth?”

He had only used 10 Tower Coins? Se-jun had no idea in his dreams that Kaiser had consumed 10 million Tower Coins.

Even without this, he was worrying about whether he had to dry the rice dough and turn it back into powder because the doughs for rice cakes and Makgeolli were different, or if he should use another method, but the problem was solved all at once.

Kaiser had lost 10 million Tower Coins, but thanks to that, they could make more delicious Makgeolli, so it was a win-win for both Se-jun and Kaiser.

“Now, let’s eat breakfast.”

Since they had eaten all the food made yesterday, they solved this morning’s meal with dried roasted sweet potatoes and cherry tomato juice for the first time in a while.

And after mixing the rice flour with a little water to make it clump slightly and steaming it, the dough for making Garae-tteok was completed. However, it still lacked stickiness.

It was natural. The final process to add stickiness remained.

“Cuengi, strike it hard!”

“Cueng!”

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi raised his branch over his head and tried to strike the rice dough with all his strength.

‘Oops!’

Se-jun realized that he had used too strong a word because he was excited.

“Sto—”

So, just as Se-jun was hurriedly trying to stop Cuengi,

“Pyak!”

The cry of the black rabbit was heard from afar.

Cueng?!

At the black rabbit’s cry, Cuengi hurriedly turned his head toward where the sound came from. Black Rabbit hyung?!

“Pyak!”

Moving quickly, the black rabbit appeared next to Cuengi in no time, wearing a fancy gold outfit. Hyung was here!

Cueng!

Cuengi welcomed the black rabbit warmly. Hyung!

“Black Rabbit, you’re here, meow?”

“Kyut. It’s been a long time.”

(Black Rabbit hyung-nim! Hello!)

A reunion after almost ten days. While the animals were exchanging greetings with the black rabbit they had not seen in a long time,

“Black Rabbit, I’m glad to see you, but… what about the 55th floor of the tower? Nothing is wrong, right?”

Se-jun asked worriedly.

“Pyak!”

[I came to get carrot seeds.]

At Se-jun’s question, the black rabbit climbed onto Se-jun’s shoulder and replied. The black rabbit had come on a seed errand to plant carrots on the 55th floor of the tower.

“Alright. Since you’re here, beat this for me instead.”

Se-jun said, pointing to the rice dough. Se-jun had often wondered how chewy the rice cake would be if it were pounded with the black rabbit’s hammer.

“Pyak!”

Ppyok! Ppyok! Ppyok!

At Se-jun’s words, the black rabbit began to beat the rice dough, putting emotion into it as if releasing stress.

‘Black Rabbit, you… had a hard time, didn’t you?’

Indeed, reconstructing a kingdom could not have been easy. Se-jun thought that he must revitalize him with nourishing food before he returned to the 55th floor of the tower.