Chapter 238 – Receiving the Third Trial

“Ptooey. Move.”

“Meow.”

Se-jun spat out Theo’s fur that had entered his mouth, and grabbed the scruff of Theo’s neck as he clung to his face. Although it hadn’t been long since he brushed his fur, the amount of fur that went into his mouth was considerable.

At that moment,

“Huh?!”

Se-jun noticed that Theo’s fur was also sticking all over the freshly pulled rice noodles.

‘This won’t do.’

As Se-jun was contemplating what to do with Theo,

Kkueng? Kkueng!

[Big brother is here? Cuengi was pulling noodles!]

Cuengi showed off pulling the noodles to Theo, not minding that Theo’s fur was getting on the noodles. ‘Do I pull them well?’

“You pull them well, meow. But I can cut them thinner, meow!”

Shring.

Theo extended his Dragon Claws, and as he placed his claws against the noodles Cuengi had pulled, the noodles were cut and split in half by the descending Dragon Claws. ‘Puhuhut. How is my skill, meow?!’

Kkueng!

[Big brother is amazing!]

Cuengi, who could obliterate the noodles with force but lacked the ability to cut them thinly, looked at Theo with envious eyes, and

“This much is nothing to me, meow!”

Theo swelled with pride as he received Cuengi’s admiration.

“So what? The noodles are covered in fur…”

Se-jun fell into thought, looking at Theo with an expression that asked, ‘How do I deal with this troublemaker?’

And,

“I’ve decided. Cuengi, let’s take a short break while eating honey.”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Yes! Honey is good, and resting is good too!]

Se-jun, who decided to use a carrot tactic, let Cuengi eat honey, and

“Theo, come here.”

tapped his right knee and called Theo.

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, did you call me, meow?!”

As expected, Theo obediently climbed onto Se-jun’s lap.

Kkueng!

[Cuengi also likes Dad’s lap!]

When Theo occupied Se-jun’s right knee, Cuengi occupied Se-jun’s left knee, and

Lick, lick,

lick the honey off his front paw.

“Here. Theo, eat Churu.”

“Puhuhut. I understand, meow!”

At Se-jun’s words, Theo lay flat on his back, licking around his mouth with his tongue, anticipation building to eat Churu. ‘That fellow Chairman Park is trying hard to look good to me. I should give him a reward later for working hard, meow!’

Se-jun was giving Churu to hold Theo down and brush his fur, but Theo thought Se-jun was doing it to look good to him.

Chwap, chwap, chwap.

While Theo peacefully ate two Churus under his delusion,

Brush, brush.

Se-jun collected the fur diligently while scraping off Theo’s fur as much as possible. Although he had clearly made a baseball-sized Theo Ball just a few days ago, looking at the amount of fur coming out, it seemed like another baseball-sized Theo Ball would be created.

‘It really comes out a lot. It is good that I can sell it to Iona, but…’

A moment later,

Brush, brush.

……

While Se-jun was scraping off Theo’s fur in a state of empty mind,

“Chairman Park! I have something to give you, meow!”

Theo, who thought it was time to give the reward, stood up abruptly and shouted.

“Oh?! What did you say?”

Se-jun, who only then came to his senses, asked Theo.

“I said I have something to give you, meow!”

Theo replied, pulling out the ten coin pouches he received from Yuren from his bundle and handing them to Se-jun.

“Oh! How much did you earn?”

“Puhuhut. I earned a lot, meow! So Chairman Park, just trust me in the future too, meow!”

Theo replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Yes. As expected, there is only Vice President Theo.”

Stroke, stroke.

Se-jun praised Theo while stroking his head.

And combining the last fur gathered in his hand with the collected fur, he made Theo Ball No. 2.

“Oh! There are 100 million Tower Coins in each?”

Se-jun said, opening a coin pouch after finishing the brushing and confirming the amount inside.

“Then since there are ten pouches, it’s 1 billion Tower Coins?”

“Puhuhut. That’s right, meow!”

Theo answered confidently. He had said he found a good sucker, and indeed, the sucker seemed to have a lot of money.

“I should gather them into one.”

Shhh.

As Se-jun was pouring the money from the coin pouches into one pouch like that,

Tumble.

a slightly yellowish object rolled out from the last coin pouch along with a pungent aroma.

“Huh?! This?! It’s garlic?!”

Se-jun recognized the garlic as soon as he saw it.

Moreover,

[Six-Cloved Garlic of Agility]

because it even had a name, there was no way he could fail to recognize it.

“Six-Cloved Garlic of Agility?”

Se-jun picked up one garlic and examined it closely.

[Six-Cloved Garlic of Agility]

A plant wild in the tower, which is a six-cloved garlic producing six cloves.

It has the ability to ward off impurities, but instead, it is easily contaminated by surrounding energy and rots quickly, so it must be consumed as soon as possible.

Upon consumption, Agility increases by 1.

If all six cloves from a single whole garlic are consumed, all stats increase by 1.

It has a very pungent and spicy taste.

Shelf Life: 30 days

Grade: B+

Tumble.

“One, two…”

Se-jun poured the garlic inside the pouch onto the floor and began to count the number.

“One thousand fifty.”

A total of 1,050 garlic bulbs were contained inside the pouch.

“Good job. Well done, Vice President Theo!”

“Meow?!”

When Se-jun suddenly praised him, Theo, who was dozing on Se-jun’s lap, was startled. ‘Is there still something left to praise, meow? Then praise me more, meow!’

Theo waited for Se-jun’s next praise, but

“Eating this raw is tough, but if you roast it, you can eat it sweetly! Guys, hold on a moment.”

“Meow?”

Kkueng?

Se-jun lifted Theo and Cuengi, set them down from his lap, and hurriedly ran to the kitchen.

As Se-jun headed toward the kitchen,

“Chairman Park, where are you going, meow?! This is not my fault, meow! Let’s go together, meow!”

Theo, who discovered that there was no money in one of the pouches, misunderstood that Se-jun was angry and hurriedly followed Se-jun,

Kkueng!

[Is Dad cooking?]

Cuengi, thinking that Se-jun was preparing dinner, also ran to the kitchen following Se-jun with a honey glass jar cradled in his arms, excited at the thought of eating a delicious dinner.

***

The 99th floor of the Red Tower.

“Why is there still no word that the statue is finished?!”

Ramter, who wanted to quickly bring the statue to the Black Tower and buy Samyangju from Se-jun. Since there was no contact from Udon even after waiting, Ramter went to find Udon directly.

And,

“Huh?”

he discovered a giant statue that was not even 10% completed.

“What?! Who told you to make it this big?!”

“Yes?! You told me to make a statue that resembles the Great Red Dragon Ramter…”

“If you make it this big, how do we bring it to the Black Tower?”

With this size, it would 100% be caught by other dragons while being brought to the Black Tower, and then the Samyangju trade couldn’t be done either. That wouldn’t do!

“Udon, remake the statue small.”

“Yes.”

“And you have a spare of the armor you’re wearing, right?”

“Yes. But why the armor…?”

“I should send that first.”

“Yes. Here it is.”

Udon pulled out the spare armor he had made and handed it to Ramter, and

“Enchant.”

Ramter enchanted the red full-body armor with the necessary magic and sent it to the Black Tower.

***

“Here, try eating this.”

When Se-jun offered a roasted garlic clove to Theo,

“……”

Theo shut his mouth tight, shook his head, and rejected it with his entire body. It wasn’t that he was sulking about being misunderstood, he was just a picky eater.

‘As expected, he isn’t eating it.’

Se-jun thought he should mix garlic into Churu secretly behind Theo’s back later.

At that moment,

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Cuengi wants to eat that! It smells delicious!]

Cuengi, who had realized like a ghost that the pungent scent of the garlic had disappeared, handed over his bowl, asking for the roasted garlic. Huffing steam from his nose and stomping his feet, he was in a highly excited state.

Tumble.

“Here, take this.”

Se-jun grabbed a handful of roasted garlic, placed it in Cuengi’s bowl, and began to eat the remaining 100 or so roasted garlic cloves. He was planning to eat roasted garlic until his Agility reached 300.

Munch, munch.

“Huh?! What?!”

Although he expected the pungent taste to disappear by roasting, the garlic was much sweeter than he thought. It was understandable that Cuengi got excited. Thanks to that, Se-jun could eat the garlic happily.

[You have consumed the Six-Cloved Garlic of Agility.]

[Agility increases by 1.]

…

..

.

Once he ate the garlic, the message that Agility had increased appeared. However, eating six cloves did not increase all stats. Probably, he had to eat the six cloves divided from a single whole garlic bulb.

When Se-jun had eaten about fifty cloves of garlic like that,

[You have consumed the Six-Cloved Garlic of Agility.]

[Agility increases by 1.]

[You have consumed all six cloves of garlic from a single whole garlic bulb.]

[All stats increase by 1.]

The message that all stats increased by 1 appeared. Fortunately, it seemed there were cloves from the same whole garlic among the fifty cloves he had eaten.

But after that, there was no other instance of all stats increasing, and Se-jun was able to reach 300 Agility after eating eighty-four cloves of garlic.

And,

[All stats have become 300 or higher.]

[You have passed the first trial of the 10th tower.]

Se-jun passed the first trial.

[The second trial of the 10th tower occurs.]

[The Second Trial of the 10th Tower: Farming is the will of heaven. You never know when or what will happen. A prepared posture is always necessary. Stockpile 10 million tons of food.]

“What?! Ten million tons?”

Wasn’t this crossing the line too much? There was no space to stockpile 10 million tons of food, and the food already stockpiled would rot before they could stockpile that much.

While Se-jun was worrying about how to stockpile 10 million tons of food,

[The stockpiled food has exceeded 10 million tons.]

[You have passed the second trial of the 10th tower.]

The second trial was passed too easily.

“Huh?! Why…?”

Se-jun was puzzled as the second trial was passed in vain. This was because the tower’s system judged kudzu, which Se-jun treated as weeds, as food.

Therefore, the kudzu planted on the 85th floor of the tower was recognized as food, and the trial was quickly cleared.

[The third trial of the 10th tower occurs.]

[The Third Trial of the 10th Tower: A truly excellent farmer must possess many new varieties. Secure 15 new varieties.]

Thanks to that, the third trial began in a slipshod manner.

“This too?”

Se-jun waited to see if the third trial would also be passed easily by any chance, but the message that he passed the trial did not appear.

“Since the new varieties I created are nine, I have to make six more.”

‘Well, it will come out as I harvest.’ Se-jun decided to think about the problem of the trial later and hurriedly prepared dinner.

The animals, tired of waiting for Se-jun before he knew it, were sitting around the kitchen, eating sweet potatoes or carrots raw.

After eating dinner like that,

“Cuengi, press!”

Kkueng!

[I understand!]

Se-jun pulled 9,000 servings of rice noodles with Cuengi and fell asleep. The ruined noodles discarded due to Theo’s fur amounted to 1,000 servings.

***

The next morning.

Kke…

…ek…

A strange sound reached Se-jun’s ears.

“Huh?”

As Se-jun focused and listened closely,

Kke-ek.

it was the sound of a mushroom ant crying outside the house.

“Is it an elixir?”

As Se-jun followed the sound outside,

Kke-ek!

Kke-ek!

two mushroom ants were waiting for Se-jun with their antennae held straight up. And on their backs, mushrooms grown solely by themselves were visible. As Se-jun expected, they were elixirs.

“Telling me to eat it before I leave?”

Kke-ek!

Kke-ek!

The mushroom ants waved their antennae up and down at Se-jun’s words.

“Thank you.”

Pluck, pluck.

Se-jun plucked the mushrooms from the backs of the mushroom ants and stroked their heads.

Kke-ek!

Kke-ek!

Receiving Se-jun’s stroking, the mushroom ants returned.

“I should eat breakfast as shabu-shabu with this elixir and other mushrooms before starting.”

Se-jun went to the kitchen since he had woken up anyway and made breakfast.

A moment later, after eating breakfast,

“Then I’ll leave the farm to you.”

Kke-ek!

Se-jun asked the mushroom ants to look after the farm.

And,

“Vice President Theo, bring the rabbits well.”

He said, looking at Theo.

“Don’t worry, meow!”

Behind Theo, who answered boldly, about 1,000 rabbits stood holding bundles or bags. They were rabbits intending to go to the 55th floor of the tower using the express merchant passage along with Theo.

“Okay. See you later then.”

Se-jun disappeared as he unfolded the land deed of the 55th floor of the tower.

On the 354th day of being stranded, Se-jun went down the tower to participate in the Black Rabbit’s wedding.