Chapter 281 – Can I Go with You, Master

[You have arrived at the 99th floor of the Black Tower.]

As soon as they ate breakfast, Se-jun and the animals arrived at the 99th floor of the tower through the tower’s 79th floor waypoint.

“Toryong-i.”

-Yes! Master!

Se-jun called Toryong-i and moved to the farm.

Upon arriving at the 99th floor farm of the tower like that,

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[It’s home! Mom, Cuengi is back!]

Dadadada.

Cuengi hurriedly ran to find Pink Fur.

And,

-Kahahahaha. It tastes good.

-That’s why Se-jun’s Samyangju is indeed the best.

-Agreed. Absolutely agreed.

“Hello.”

Se-jun went to greet the dragons who were gathered at the fountain, having a drinking party.

-Right. Welcome.

-Do you want a drink too, Se-jun?

-Ahem. This is the price for the Samyangju I received last time.

Ramter, who had received five bottles of Samyangju for free last time, handed 100,000 Tower Coins to Se-jun. As a dragon, he could not accept it for free out of pride.

“Isn’t it too much?”

-Ahem. Do not disregard my sincerity.

“Okay. Then, this is my sincerity.”

Se-jun took out two sets of 11-flavored makgeolli from his subspace warehouse and handed them to Ramter.

-No. This is…

Ramter could not refuse because of the words he had just spoken.

-Ahem. Then it can’t be helped.

Swoosh.

He took the makgeolli while pretending to be reluctant.

-But what brings you here?

Kaiser asked Se-jun, who was only looking around as if he had something to say after greeting them.

“I have something to say to the three of you.”

-What is it?

“In the future, I want to receive dragon blood in exchange for giving you black beans or Samyangju.”

-Dragon blood?!

Gooooo.

At Se-jun’s words, Kaiser raised his voice and gathered his energy.

-Why do you need that?!

-…A mere human…!

Kellion and Ramter also shouted in excitement.

“Uh…”

Se-jun was intimidated by the dragons’ heated reaction.

‘I will protect Chairman Park, meow!’ Fortunately, Theo was diligently absorbing the dragons’ energy with Energy Drain.

‘Right. Blood has to be drawn by wounding the body…’

Since they had given him claws, scales, and teeth without a second thought, he had spoken lightly, but asking for dragon blood seemed like crossing the line.

“I’m sorry.”

Se-jun apologized first, thinking he had requested too much.

Although he thought they had gotten quite close, Se-jun was a little… no, very disappointed by the dragons’ reaction.

At that moment,

-No. Se-jun, what did you do wrong to apologize?! Was it you?! Was it you who made our Se-jun apologize?!

Kaiser grabbed Kellion by the collar in anger.

-N… No! It wasn’t me?

-Then was it you?!

-It wasn’t me either!

When Kaiser’s fierce gaze shifted from Kellion to him, Ramter hurriedly shook his head, denying it for fear of being grabbed by the collar as well.

In fact, Kellion and Ramter were also quite flustered by Se-jun’s apology. Why was he suddenly apologizing?

The reason they were excited was not because Se-jun had crossed the line by asking for dragon blood. It was because the ‘weak’ Se-jun had asked for it.

What was the difference? Dragon blood contained concentrated dragon power, making it so dangerous that a weak and insignificant being could be obliterated just by touching it.

In other words, it meant Se-jun could die if he touched dragon blood.

‘Dragon blood is too dangerous for you, Se-jun!’

‘You’re too weak, so you’ll die if you touch our blood. Play with something else!’

‘How dare a weakling like Se-jun?!’

That was why the dragons had been excited.

Se-jun, who sold them delicious alcohol and the black beans needed to fight the Apostles of Destruction, was too precious to them. They could never let him fall into danger.

-But why do you need dragon blood?

Once the excitement subsided, Kaiser asked in a gentle voice.

“Well, I’m currently undergoing the trial of the 10th tower, and it requires me to collect 1L of dragon blood from each of the nine dragon tribes.”

-What?! The 10th tower?!

-Huh?!

-Eh?!

At Se-jun’s answer, the dragons looked at each other in great surprise.

They hadn’t solved any clues about the 10th tower… to think Se-jun was undergoing the trial of the 10th tower.

‘Did I do something wrong?’

As the atmosphere became unusual, Se-jun grew tense while watching the dragons’ reactions.

At that moment,

Tap. Tap.

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, don’t be scared, meow! You have me, Vice Chairman Theo, Chairman Park’s right arm, meow!”

Theo patted Se-jun’s leg with his front paw, comforting him.

“I’m not scared!”

Se-jun got defensive after Theo hit the mark.

“That’s not true, meow! I felt Chairman Park’s leg shaking because you were scared, meow!”

“No! I shook it on purpose!”

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park is lying, meow! I should tell Cuengi later, meow!”

“Hmph. Our Cuengi trusts his dad’s words more anyway.”

“That’s not true, meow! Cuengi trusts my words, his eldest brother’s…”

The topic of conversation shifted from whether Se-jun was scared or not to whose words Cuengi trusted more. Thanks to that, Se-jun’s tension completely vanished.

‘If the dragons say anything to me, I’ll ask Aileen to kick them all out.’

As Se-jun made up his mind like that,

-Kahahahaha. As expected of our Se-jun! Don’t worry. I will squeeze the blood out of the nine dragon tribes for you.

Kaiser, who had finished discussing with Kellion and Ramter to cooperate, spoke loudly. Judging by his attitude, he seemed ready to beat them to get the dragon blood if they refused.

-Se-jun, do you only need to collect the dragon blood?

“Yes.”

-Understood.

If it was just collecting the dragon blood, there was an easy way. He just had to put the dragon blood in a container that did not let the dragon’s energy leak.

Well… although they would have to use extremely sturdy materials for that, a dragon’s body was solid.

Using scales, horns, claws, teeth, and leather as materials, they would be able to make a container where the dragon blood’s energy would not leak.

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

After requesting the dragon blood from the dragons, Se-jun stopped by the brewery for a moment. He had something to give to the monkeys.

Ukki! Ukki!

“Yeah. Guys, you’re doing well, right?”

Se-jun received the monkeys’ greetings and said,

“Use this when making alcohol.”

He handed the Unbreakable Rod to the monkeys.

Since the length of the rod could be adjusted at will, they could stir well to the bottom of the jar, and it was light, making it easier to brew alcohol than with the Greatsword of Amplification.

Ukki! Ukki!

The monkeys were deeply grateful for Se-jun’s gift.

“Then, keep up the good work.”

Se-jun left the brewery and headed toward Flamie inside the cave. It was to use .

Se-jun had forgotten about Flamie after fainting while using his authority on Podori, which disrupted his flow. Today, he planned to use the authority on Flamie to make her grow big(?).

‘Flamie, wait. I’ll make you grow quickly.’

Se-jun quickly walked toward the cave.

“Flamie, have you been well?”

[Yes! Master, welcome!]

As Se-jun went down to the cave and greeted her, Flamie warmly welcomed him, waving her five leaves.

‘It’s really because she didn’t eat well when she was young.’

Seeing Flamie, who was still small in size, Se-jun’s heart ached.

Whenever he saw the small(?) Flamie, Se-jun felt guilty, thinking it was because he hadn’t taken good care of her.

Of course, she was cute because she was small, but he couldn’t leave her small forever.

“Be Fruitful.”

[Uh?!]

So Se-jun used his authority on Flamie.

Until now, had the effect of doubling the next harvest when used on a tree.

However, while using his authority on the ground to germinate the bird-bearing tree this time, Se-jun realized that the authority could be used differently.

And now, Se-jun used the authority with the thought that it would be nice if Flamie’s size grew twofold.

Naturally, thinking that Flamie’s size was everything he saw, Se-jun did not even take out the Bead of Life.

Just before Se-jun’s life force was about to be sucked dry like that,

[ is applied to the apple tree…]

The message suddenly paused as if it was buffering.

***

[Podori, why aren’t you eating much lately? Huh?!]

[Yes?! I’m eating diligently though?]

At Flamie’s words, Podori was startled and quickly absorbed the nutrients that he had been nibbling on.

[Right. You should have eaten like that in the first place. Eat more of this. That way, you’ll quickly become a World Tree.]

As soon as he finished one nutrient, Flamie handed him three.

[T… Thank you.]

Podori expressed his gratitude to Flamie in a tearful voice. It was absolutely not because he was touched.

‘Sigh. I want to quit being a World Tree.’

If he had known he had to eat this much nutrients to become a World Tree, he wouldn’t have become a candidate for the World Tree.

At that moment,

[Uh?!]

[Lady Flamie, what’s wrong?]

[It’s an emergency!]

Along with Flamie’s urgent voice, the gaze of Flamie that had been watching Podori disappeared.

***

‘Master is in danger!’

As Se-jun suddenly used his authority without any preparation,

Snap.

Flamie hurriedly snapped off her branch with her five leaves.

It was an instinctive movement to save Se-jun, not one made after thinking. Thanks to that, the range of the authority was reduced, decreasing the consumption of Se-jun’s life force.

[ is applied to the apple tree leaf.]

[The apple tree leaf grows twofold.]

“Uh?! Flamie!”

As Flamie’s branch, whose leaves were growing longer along with the message, broke and fell to the ground, Se-jun ran to catch Flamie.

At that moment,

Thud.

Flamie landed with a superhero landing, using four of her leaves like arms and legs.

“Uh?”

Se-jun felt something strange in Flamie’s actions.

However,

[Master…]

Not yet realizing the situation, Flamie got up, moving her leaves. She wanted to die as close to Se-jun as possible.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Thus, Flamie, who had never walked in her life, began to walk awkwardly toward Se-jun, moving the two lower leaves like legs.

Se-jun quietly watched Flamie. The superhero landing earlier was one thing, but it was a bit strange. Normally, trees did not walk just because they were broken.

Furthermore, he felt a deeper sense of vitality from Flamie’s body rather than any precariousness.

And he became certain.

‘Our Flamie can walk! Hang in there, Flamie!’

While Se-jun was cheering for Flamie’s baby steps like that,

[…?]

Flamie also felt something strange.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Strangely, she was able to move, and although her body was separated, she could still feel the sensations of her other roots.

‘That fellow Podori is slacking off again. I should scold him!’

‘Veronica broke her branch again. Sigh. She has so little talent for farming. If she only had even a hundredth of our Master’s farming skills, it would be easy to teach her.’

With such thoughts, Flamie walked toward Se-jun with the single-minded determination to die by his side.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Her footsteps gained more and more strength. Flamie became increasingly energetic.

And before she knew it, Flamie became used to walking, and

[Master, I can run!]

Pobobok!

She began to run around Se-jun.

“Flamie, are you okay?”

[Yes!]

Flamie realized that she did not die even if she was separated.

Thinking about it, Flamie was a being that had even surpassed the World Tree. She already possessed the ability to separate flowers or branches that the Corrupted Ents had.

She just didn’t know she had it because no one had taught her.

[Hehe! Master, can I go with you?]

“Of course. Let’s go together from now on.”

“Puhuhut. I, Vice Chairman Theo, will specially permit it, meow!”

Theo added a word to Se-jun’s response to take credit.

[Thank you!]

Flamie bowed her head, expressing her gratitude to Se-jun and Theo.

“Let’s go.”

When Se-jun stretched out his palm to Flamie,

[Yes!]

Hop.

Flamie made her leaves like a spring and jumped onto Se-jun’s palm.

Day 361 of being stranded. Flamie became able to travel with Se-jun.