Translated by Demonic Dog
Read it only at utoon.net
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Chapter 33 – Feeling the Absence
After Theo left for the 38th floor, Se-jun and the rabbits finished their morning farming and ate lunch.
The rabbit couples ate in the cave because of the baby rabbits, and only Se-jun, the offspring rabbits, and the baby bear had their meal on the surface.
Kkueng!
The baby bear devoured 30 piranhas and cried, staring blankly at Se-jun’s grilled fish with a lingering look. I want to eat more!
As he grew quickly, the amount he ate also gradually increased.
“Here.”
Se-jun cut the grilled fish he was eating in half and handed it to the baby bear.
Kkueng!
The baby bear bowed his head and received the grilled fish. I will eat well!
Chomp.
Crunch. Crunch.
The baby bear put the grilled fish into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed it whole, bones and all.
And,
Kkueng.
The baby bear cried, this time looking at the carrot the Black Rabbit was eating. Brother, give me that.
However,
Pyak!
The Black Rabbit firmly refused. I can’t give you the carrot!
Kkueng…
The sulking baby bear turned his body away from the Black Rabbit. I hate you, brother…
After lunch ended,
Slurp.
Se-jun sipped his coffee and walked through the ruined fields.
Yesterday, when the carefully made fields were ruined, he lost his energy and couldn’t even think of inspecting them, but he couldn’t keep doing that. He had to rebuild the ruined fields.
“Fortunately, not everything was ruined.”
He thought the entire crop was ruined because the fields were messed up as a whole, but there were quite a few surviving crops.
While Se-jun was looking around the fields like that,
“Uh?!”
Several dirt piles about 7 meters high were seen about 1 kilometer away from the cave. What was this? It was something that hadn’t been there before. Se-jun approached the dirt piles out of curiosity.
“What is this?!”
Beside the dirt piles, there were neat square pits about 7 meters deep. Judging by the two round marks where the pits started, it seemed like a horned monster had dug into the ground and lifted it.
“Just how strong must they be…”
Se-jun stared at the highest part of the dirt pile, astonished by the monster’s strength. Only the tip had a different color. It was black.
Thud. Thud.
Se-jun climbed up by carefully stabbing his dagger into the dirt pile and inspected the black soil. It was different in texture from the barren soil on the surface. It was not crumbly, but soft, and had a moderate viscosity as it held moisture.
It was clearly soil full of nutrients. To think such soil was underneath the barren land. If only he could flip the earth and mix it…
However, in the current situation without farming equipment like excavators or tractors, digging up the ground 7 meters deep was something he couldn’t even dare to attempt.
If he asked the mother Crimson Giant Bear, it might be possible to do a little every day, but the mother Crimson Giant Bear was busy patrolling as the monsters’ territories were shaken due to the recent Blue Moon.
For now, Se-jun decided to be satisfied with the fact that he knew high-quality soil existed underground.
After looking around the fields like that, when he returned to the place where they had eaten lunch,
Pyarorong.
Kkurorong.
The Black Rabbit and the baby bear, who were waiting for Se-jun, had fallen asleep hugging each other, having reconciled at some point.
“Alright, let’s wake up.”
Se-jun woke them up by tapping the fluffy butts of the Black Rabbit and the baby bear.
Pyaa…
Kkueng…
The Black Rabbit and the baby bear only raised their bodies while keeping their eyes closed.
“Guys, what is this?”
When Se-jun pulled out the dried roasted sweet potatoes and honey,
Pyak!
Kkueng!
The two barely opened their eyes and begged Se-jun for the food.
Munch, munch.
Lick, lick.
The Black Rabbit and the baby bear woke up completely while eating the snacks received from Se-jun.
“Guys, let’s work.”
He hadn’t given them the snacks for no reason.
Kkueng!
The baby bear, who woke up, dug his two front paws into the ground and walked backward like a plow, lightly tilling the soil,
Pyabyabyak!
and the Black Rabbit flattened the ground with his hammer.
And,
Thud. Thud.
the shovel rabbits dug up the soil to make ridges.
Finally, when a small field was completed, Se-jun planted sweet potato shoots he had cut from the sweet potatoes planted in the cave.
[You created a 10-pyeong honey sweet potato field.]
[You obtained 20 experience points.]
After planting all the sweet potato shoots, Se-jun left the baby bear and the rabbits, who were making the fields, and went down to the cave.
It was now time to harvest the corn in earnest. Se-jun began to pick corn from the field.
Snap.
When he snapped off the corn,
[You harvested a well-ripened Corn of Stamina.]
[Your job experience increased slightly.]
[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increased slightly.]
[Due to the effect of Proficiency Boost Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increased by an additional 5%.]
[You obtained 20 experience points.]
“Shall I see what kind of effect the corn has?”
Se-jun examined the options of the corn.
[Corn of Stamina]
A corn grown inside the tower that absorbed sufficient nutrients and was delicious.
Upon consumption, it breaks down 20g of body fat and increases Stamina by 0.2 for 10 minutes.
The effect stacks up to a maximum of 10 times within an hour.
Upon consumption by a non-awakened person, it breaks down 20g of fat and improves skin elasticity.
Grower: Tower Farmer Park Se-jun
Expiration Date: 60 days
Grade: D
“Skin elasticity?”
Although it was vague, he thought it would be good because the description on the item guaranteed a 100% effect.
“Mother will like it.”
Se-jun thought that he should send news of himself to his family again soon and deliver his crops together this time.
Since his crops were being sold under his name on the outside while his own family couldn’t eat them, they might feel disappointed.
Snap. Snap.
Se-jun harvested corn again.
***
The 38th floor of the tower.
“Why isn’t the traveling merchant coming?”
“It is past the time for Theo to come…”
The hunters anxiously waited for Theo. The hunters had received many requests to obtain the Cherry Tomato of Mana this time.
This time, it wasn’t from acquaintances, but requests from wealthy magnates whose assets easily exceeded hundreds of billions of won.
Outside the tower, as rumors about the Cherry Tomato of Mana spread among the wealthy, they began eating the cherry tomatoes, which gave life vitality, like medicine every morning.
They were people overflowing with money. Rare and good products caught their attention, and the current market price of a single Cherry Tomato of Mana on Earth had risen to about 500,000 won.
Even then, there were plenty of wealthy people willing to pay more, but because there were no sellers, the price hadn’t risen due to the lack of transactions.
As long as they could bring out the Cherry Tomato of Mana, there was an overflow of people willing to buy.
Therefore, the hunters were ready to pay as soon as Theo arrived. However, Theo did not come.
Could it be that he went to another floor because we bought them too cheaply in the last transaction?
The hunters began to grow increasingly anxious. And they thought they should spend enough money this time.
They couldn’t have imagined that Theo was running late because he was diligently picking cherry tomatoes and cutting green onion leaves in the cave.
***
“Grr. Mmm… Did I lose consciousness again?”
Aileen sometimes lost consciousness due to lack of mana. She thought she was fine since such things hadn’t happened lately and she had no seizures, but…
Aileen stood up from her spot with a bitter expression.
Slide.
“Uh?!”
Aileen was flustered by her body condition, which was different from usual.
Usually, when Aileen lost consciousness, it felt like her body forcibly turned off the switch for survival, and when she woke up, her body felt as heavy as a thousand geun.
However, now her body was so light it felt as if she could fly.
“Why is my body so light? Ah! The cherry tomatoes!”
Only then did Aileen remember what had happened before she lost consciousness.
The Cherry Tomato of Mana containing the energy of the Blue Moon!
Aileen immediately put the five blue cherry tomatoes Se-jun had given her into her mouth and chewed them as soon as she received them. It was sour and sweet, so delicious.
While savoring the taste like that,
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
she had felt the beat of the dragon heart, which began to beat continuously, though weakly and slowly, and lost consciousness before waking up now.
“Then what about the dragon heart?”
Aileen hurriedly focused on her dragon heart.
“……”
The dragon heart was silent, to the point that the fact it had beaten was unbelievable. And no mana was felt at all.
“Did I expect too much?”
Aileen approached the crystal ball to watch the human in disappointment. He was surely eating something delicious alone while she was gone.
At that moment,
Thump!
“Ouch!”
Aileen’s head bumped into something as she entered the room with the crystal ball.
“Ugh! What is it?”
Aileen shrank back and looked at what had hurt her. It was the ceiling of the doorway.
“Why that?”
There was a distance of about 10 meters between her height and the doorway ceiling, so unless she flew, her head could never touch the doorway ceiling.
“What is going on?”
Feeling that something was strange, Aileen went to the lake where she bathed and examined her appearance. The black dragon reflected in the water had grown larger than the appearance she knew.
“Uh?! I grew? Grr.”
While Aileen made a pleasant sound and stared at her appearance for a long time,
“Uh?! What was I trying to do?”
She suddenly felt like she was missing something important.
Ah!
This was no time for this. Aileen hurriedly ran to the crystal ball.
“I knew it! That human was trying to eat something delicious without me!”
Just in time, Se-jun was taking steamed corn out of the pot in the crystal ball. Exquisite timing. Aileen was lucky with food.
***
Tonight’s dinner consisted of dishes using corn: steamed corn and grilled corn.
“It’s done.”
Se-jun removed the pot from the fire and began to take out the steamed corn one by one with tongs.
At that moment,
[The administrator of the tower says she also wants to taste the corn.]
[The administrator of the tower says it would be nice if you gave her just one.]
[A quest has occurred.]
[Quest: Give corn dishes to the hungry administrator of the tower.]
Reward: Great gratitude
Upon Rejection: Great disappointment.
“Wait just a moment. It’s not quite ready yet.”
[The administrator of the tower nods, saying she can wait patiently.]
While the steamed corn was cooling down, Se-jun went near the charcoal fire where the grilled corn was being made.
Over charcoal made from wood the baby bear had brought, the rabbits were slowly rotating and grilling the corn, which was skewered with tree branches. The outside of the corn was grilled golden brown from the heat.
Beside the rabbits, 30 already grilled corns were stacked high.
“We can stop grilling now.”
Squeak!
Pyaa!
Pyak!
At Se-jun’s words, the rabbits began to grab and eat steamed corn and grilled corn one by one from their spots.
And Se-jun picked up five steamed corns and five grilled corns each.
“Aileen, enjoy.”
[You completed the quest.]
[As the quest completion reward, the administrator of the tower is deeply grateful.]
“Okay.”
Se-jun gave the corn to Aileen and began eating corn with the rabbits.
In Theo’s absence, the baby rabbits were eating corn by Se-jun’s side.
Pyap!
Pyap!
The babies made efforts to eat the corn, but for them, the corn was still too big and difficult to eat.
“Let’s eat like this.”
Scrape.
Se-jun took the corn the baby rabbit was eating, scraped off the corn kernels with a spoon, put them in a bowl, and gave them to the babies.
Munch, munch.
The babies began to pick up and eat the corn kernels in the bowl with their front paws.
After a while,
Pyaa!
Pyaam!
Pyaat!
The baby rabbits showed their empty bowls and cried to Se-jun for more corn. It was a fairly large amount, but they had already eaten all of it.
“Wait just a second.”
When Se-jun picked up a corn and turned his head to fetch the bowl,
“Pfft! What is this?”
A laugh burst out of him upon seeing the babies’ appearance. The babies were camouflaging themselves with corn kernels.
The corn kernels the babies ate were about half. The rest were stuck to their fur.
Pyaa!
Pyaam!
Pyaat!
The baby rabbits were protesting for more, with corn kernels covered all over their bodies.
“No wonder it’s not enough.”
Se-jun plucked the corn kernels stuck to the baby rabbits’ bodies one by one and put them into their mouths.
Pya!
Pya!
Pya!
The baby rabbits stuck out their mouths like baby birds and fought each other to eat.
“Uh-uh! Wait! I won’t give it to any rabbit that moves.”
In a stern voice, Se-jun held one baby rabbit and plucked the corn kernels stuck to its body one by one, putting them into the baby rabbits’ mouths.
“It was more comfortable when Theo was here…”
This was the first time Se-jun felt Theo’s absence. He missed Representative Theo.