Chapter 303 – Then, Have I Been Crawling Until Now

The great Purple Dragons who ruled over poison.

They had one concern.

Poison melted into their breath every time they breathed, and into their aura every time they raised their power.

Therefore, nothing was intact around them.

To the extent that even other dragon clans avoided the Purple Dragons who spewed poison.

Thus, there was no way beings far weaker than dragons could withstand the power of the Purple Dragons.

All living and non-living things, unable to withstand the poison of the Purple Dragons, died or broke.

In that way, the surroundings of the Purple Dragons became desolate, and the Purple Dragons lost objects to give their hearts to and were disheartened.

However, as time passed, the Purple Dragons became accustomed to not giving their hearts, and it became only natural.

Eventually, the Purple Dragons lost the way to give their hearts.

As the poison possessed by the Purple Dragons became more toxic, they began to accumulate even stronger poison in their bodies.

And the accumulated toxic energy gradually condensed, transforming into heart poison (), which took root in the hearts of the Purple Dragons.

The heart poison was so toxic that it could even poison the Purple Dragons who ruled over poison.

It was so stealthy that none of the Purple Dragons knew they were poisoned.

The hearts of the Purple Dragons poisoned by the heart poison became narrow-minded and eccentric, thinking only of themselves.

The Purple Dragons envied and were jealous of other dragons, and naturally, their relationships with other dragons deteriorated.

On top of that, a vicious cycle continued where the heart poison accumulated faster every time they fought with other dragons.

***

Ssaaaa.

As the detoxification ability of the Detoxifying Green Onion disappeared,

[The Detoxifying Green Onion has slightly detoxified the heart poison.]

The message appeared.

And,

Woong. Woong.

Something reacted violently in the heart.

“Heart poison?!”

Only now did Tier discover the heart poison crouching in his heart.

Tier was shocked by the energy of the poison felt in his heart.

He was a Purple Dragon who ruled over poison and was their leader.

“To think that I, of all dragons, was poisoned…”

The heart poison had already encroached upon a significant portion of Tier’s heart, making it not strange at all if it ran wild at any moment.

“If I had continued in this state…”

I would have become a mad dragon. It was terrifying to think that he, a great Purple Dragon, would become a mad dragon.

“I must eat more of this!”

Tier hurriedly moved the purple dragon statue, lifted the plate of roasted green onions, and poured them into his mouth.

***

[You have achieved the achievement: Detoxifying Heart Poison with Detoxifying Green Onion.]

[As a reward for achieving the achievement, you can harvest Detoxifying Green Onions that are one tier higher for one week.]

“Heart poison?”

While Se-jun was puzzled by the message that suddenly appeared in front of him,

Clatter.

The purple dragon statue poured the plate containing the roasted green onions into its mouth.

“It’s Lord Tier.”

Thanks to that, Se-jun was quickly able to tell who was afflicted with the heart poison.

Kkueng…

[Cuengi also has to eat…]

Cuengi, who couldn’t do anything because the opponent was a dragon, only stomped his feet.

There was nothing he could do other than stare at the disappearing roasted green onions with regretful eyes.

Ah. There was one thing he could do.

Kkueng!

[Dad, Cuengi’s roasted green onions disappeared!]

Tattling to Se-jun.

Stroke. Stroke.

“Cuengi, understand. They say Lord Tier is sick and needs to eat a lot of green onions.”

Se-jun praised Cuengi while stroking his head.

Kkueng?

[Are the dragons also sick?]

“Yeah. So, let’s understand, Cuengi.”

Kkueng! Kkueng!

[Cuengi understood! Then Cuengi will give the dragon more green onions so he can get well quickly!]

“That’s it. Our Cuengi is good.”

Se-jun praised Cuengi. My baby is doing great!

Kkuhehehe.

Cuengi, excited by Se-jun’s praise like that, scooped up an armful of raw green onions from his subdimensional warehouse,

Thud.

Kkueng!

[Lord Tier, eat a lot of green onions and get well quickly!]

Supporting Tier, he piled the green onions generously on the plate.

-…!

At Cuengi’s pure heart sincerely wishing for his recovery, Tier’s heart flinched.

-…Thank you…

Tier expressed his gratitude in a low voice that could not be heard.

Trying to say words he was not used to made him feel awkward and tickled his heart.

However, there was something Tier was misunderstanding.

“Chairman Park, it’s 105 stalks, meow!”

Theo, who had accurately checked how many stalks of green onions Tier had eaten, told Se-jun.

“Hehehe. Vice President Theo, well done.”

“Puhuhut. I know, meow!”

Although Cuengi’s heart in delivering the green onions was pure, the mastermind behind it was not.

“Hehehe. Lord Tier, this is all on credit.”

In that way, thanks to Cuengi, Se-jun raised sales on credit without Tier himself knowing.

“Let’s eat now. It’s all done.”

Se-jun scooped kimchi egg porridge into bowls and had lunch with the animals.

And,

“Lord Tier, I hate you.”

Veronica, who didn’t know the reason, stared with resentful eyes at Tier, who had eaten all the roasted green onions,

Slurp.

“…!!”

But after eating the kimchi egg porridge, she quickly fell in love with it.

***

“Phew. This is as far as it goes.”

Tier, who was diligently detoxifying the heart poison by eating the Detoxifying Green Onions, said in a regretful voice.

Although he could reduce the size of the heart poison with the green onions, he could not completely root it out.

Still, if he continued to eat them, he could prevent the heart poison from growing.

In that way, Tier escaped to some extent from the crisis of the heart poison.

“It can’t be that other Purple Dragons are like this too, right?”

Tier, just in case, went to find his son, Poi, who was nearby.

“Why did you come?!”

Poi asked in a voice full of irritation upon seeing Tier.

“As expected…”

As soon as Tier saw Poi, he felt the fierce energy of the heart poison wriggling in Poi’s heart.

“Poi, let’s eat first and then talk!”

“No. What…?”

Thrust!

Tier forced the Detoxifying Green Onion into Poi’s mouth without any explanation.

Mmpf! Mmpf! Mmpf?!

Munch. Munch.

Poi, who was resisting at first, quietly began to chew the Detoxifying Green Onion as his chest felt refreshed.

A moment later,

“Summon all the Purple Dragons!”

“Yes! Father!”

Poi, who heard the explanation from Tier, replied in an obedient voice and began to summon the Purple Dragons.

And,

“We must obtain more of this green onion!”

He moved the purple dragon statue to find Veronica. To trade with Se-jun, Veronica was needed.

***

Slurp.

Se-jun drank coffee after eating lunch,

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Se-jun-nim, happy first anniversary of survival. This is my gift!”

Iona handed Se-jun a glass bottle containing a blue liquid.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Se-jun thanked Iona while examining the glass bottle.

[Essence of Advanced Mana]

It is an essence that has taken shape as pure mana condensed.

Upon consumption, mana increases by 100.

Upon consumption, mana-related talents are greatly enhanced.

Expiration Date: None

Grade: S

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Hurry and drink it!”

“Yeah.”

Gulp.

At Iona’s urging, Se-jun immediately drank the Essence of Advanced Mana. The essence tasted like nothing.

Hwaaa.

Instead, a cool and refreshing sensation was felt along his throat.

And,

[You have consumed the Essence of Advanced Mana.]

[Mana increases by 100.]

[Talent: Overflowing Mana Circuit is greatly enhanced.]

[Talent: Overflowing Mana Circuit evolves into Accumulating Mana Circuit.]

The message appeared. The mana-related talent was enhanced and evolved.

“Accumulating Mana Circuit? *Gasp*! Huh?!”

Se-jun was suddenly flustered by the feeling of mana entering his body along with his inhalation.

And he hurriedly checked the talent, Accumulating Mana Circuit.

[Talent: Accumulating Mana Circuit]

It is a talent that allows the mana circuit to draw in surrounding mana through breathing and accumulate it.

-Permanently increase Mana by 0.1 every 24 hours

-Mana stat +50

-Mana recovery speed +300%

-Mana potential +1000

“Huh?! Mana rises just by breathing?!”

While Se-jun was amazed by the description of the talent,

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Se-jun-nim, congratulations! You have finally taken your baby steps in mana!”

“This is baby steps?”

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Yes!”

Iona answered as if it were natural. Then, have I been crawling until now?

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. Later, when Se-jun-nim’s talent grows and you can connect to the mana stream, your mana will increase even faster!”

As Se-jun took his baby steps in mana, Iona, who was even more excited, chattered in an excited voice.

“Mana stream?”

“Kyut-kyut-kyut. It refers to the nine great currents of mana flowing through the world! For your information, I am connected to three mana streams.”

“Oh. I see.”

Se-jun obtained new information while listening to Iona.

And,

‘Oh! Then, if I connect to three mana streams, will I become as strong as Iona?’

Se-jun fantasized. Of course, that was out of the question.

Because one doesn’t become stronger just because they have more mana.

Se-jun built up new knowledge while talking with Iona like that.

“Now, I should work.”

Se-jun moved to the green onion field.

He had planned to just take a good rest today, but suddenly a reason to work arose.

It was because of the reward that allowed harvesting Detoxifying Green Onions that were one tier higher for one week.

“Hehehe. I can’t miss out on S-grade green onions.”

Se-jun moved while smiling.

And,

“Earth Movement.”

Thrust.

After a long time, he did a mass harvest using Myler’s Hoe.

Rumble.

The ground rose up, and the Detoxifying Green Onions planted in the ground were pulled out.

[You have harvested 3,000 Detoxifying Green Onions.]

[Your class experience increases significantly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 8 increases significantly.]

[You have acquired 300,000 experience points.]

[Experience points do not accumulate because you have not completed the class quest.]

It was a pity that experience points did not accumulate because of the class quest, but still, his heart was not sore thanks to the S-grade green onions.

In that way, Se-jun harvested about 100,000 S-grade Detoxifying Green Onions without resting.

Kke-ek!

Kke-ek!

While the mushroom ants diligently moved the harvested Detoxifying Green Onions into the subdimensional warehouse,

Flap. Flap.

-Wait! Veronica will buy all of that!

Tier shouted as he flew over urgently,

“Yes! I will buy them all!”

Veronica shouted, following behind him.

“Are you really going to buy this? This is expensive.”

Se-jun started to build up a pretext to charge a high price.

But,

“Yes! Of course it would be expensive.”

“…?!”

Veronica was so soft, unlike her appearance, to the point that no build-up was needed.

-So, how much is it?!

Tier as well.

‘Puhuhut. Chairman Park, both of them are suckers, meow!’

‘Hehehe. Vice President Theo, let’s handle them well!’

‘Got it, meow!’

Se-jun and Theo conversed with their eyes, showing insidious smiles.

And,

“Puhuhut. Veronica, this Detoxifying Green Onion is 15,000 Tower Coins each, meow!”

Theo called a price for the Detoxifying Green Onion that was 100 times what they sold it for to hunters.

“Hehehe. Then, since there are 100,000 S-grade Detoxifying Green Onions here, it is 1.5 billion Tower Coins.”

Se-jun smiled and kindly calculated how much was needed to buy all the Detoxifying Green Onions.

“1.5 billion Tower Coins? Um… Lord Tier, what should we do?”

Veronica looked at Tier at Se-jun’s words.

-Of course we must buy them! Buy them quickly!

Tier, without hesitating, made Veronica purchase all of the S-grade Detoxifying Green Onions.

-Also reserve 2 million Detoxifying Green Onions to be harvested in the future.

In addition, Tier gave all the money he had to buy black beans to Veronica, reserving the Detoxifying Green Onions.

Right now, detoxifying the Purple Dragons’ heart poison was a more urgent priority than black beans.

After finishing the green onion transaction like that,

“Hehehe. We made money!”

“Puhuhut. It’s all thanks to me, meow!”

The two rejoiced at selling the Detoxifying Green Onions at a high price.

“Yes. So, go down and buy some food.”

“Meow?!”

“We should enjoy the party a bit more.”

Se-jun, who became too lazy to cook, sent Theo down.

Day 366 of entering the tower. The party was not over yet.