Chapter 398 – Baet-baet-i, I’m Sorry

[You have arrived at the 68th floor of the Black Tower.]

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..

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[Due to the effect of , all stats increase by 31.]

Se-jun, who had arrived at the 68th floor of the tower.

He shouldn’t let his guard down.

Just as he was turning his head to look around to see if there was any danger in the surroundings,

*Clank.*

“Chairman Park, I missed you, meow!”

Theo opened the door of the sub-space warehouse, came out, and clung to Se-jun’s face.

Hey! I can’t see!

Se-jun was about to scold Theo for blocking his vision at this critical moment, but—

“Puhuhut. There is nothing in the surroundings that would put Chairman Park in danger, meow!”

*Bubbububup.*

At Theo’s words, he quietly blew air with his mouth to blow raspberries on Theo’s belly.

“Puhuhut! It tickles, meow!”

While he was playing with Theo like that,

“But why aren’t the others coming out?”

when Se-jun looked inside the sub-space warehouse in wonder,

*Kkuro-rong.*

*Kki-ro-rong.*

*Ppi-ro-rong.*

*U-ro-rong.*

the other companions were sleeping soundly on the gold-covered warehouse floor. It seemed that the task of finding thumb bones and stamping yesterday had been exhausting.

“Vice President Theo, cover them with blankets.”

“Understood, meow!”

So, he had Theo cover them with blankets, and

*Clank.*

closed the sub-space warehouse so they could sleep comfortably.

At that moment,

[A core piece of Fenrir (0.5%) has been detected at a point 270km to the south.]

the message that a core piece of Fenrir was detected appeared.

Perhaps thanks to the 1% core of Fenrir that he had additionally absorbed, the detection distance had also increased, and he could also know the power of Fenrir contained in the core piece.

Hehehe. This was convenient.

Thanks to that, Se-jun, who no longer needed to wander around until a core piece of Fenrir was detected, leisurely inspected the farm.

In the farm, there were 500 trees, and each tree was hung with plenty of bright, vivid red fruits smaller than a bottle cap.

“What fruit is this?”

*Pluck.*

When Se-jun harvested the fruit,

[You have harvested an oriental cherry.]

[Class experience increases slightly.]

[Proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 8 increases slightly.]

[You have obtained 1 experience point.]

the message appeared.

“Ah. It’s oriental cherries.”

This place was an oriental cherry tree farm.

“This is delicious.”

*Pluck. Pluck.*

Se-jun harvested the oriental cherries, ate the outer flesh, and spat out the seeds, putting them in his pocket. It was to plant them in the farm on the 99th floor of the tower later.

Since he had as many as 15 drops of the Elixir of Harvest received as a quest reward, growing a single oriental cherry tree was nothing.

Right! He should also grow a sausage tree. Hehehe.

“Delicious~ sausage~”

When Se-jun sang a song, thinking of a recipe to eat sausage deliciously,

Chairman Park was excited, meow! He was also excited, meow!

“Delicious~ meow~ grilled fish~ meow~”

Theo also sang his favorite food song following Se-jun.

While Se-jun was harvesting oriental cherries while singing with Theo like that,

*Clank.*

Cuengi!

[Cuengi woke up!]

Cuengi opened the door of the sub-space warehouse, came out, and clung to Se-jun’s back as Se-jun was picking oriental cherries.

“Cuengi, did you sleep well?”

*Kkuhehehe. Cuengi!*

[Hehehe. Yes!]

At Se-jun’s question, Cuengi, who had slept well and woken up, replied while rubbing his face against Se-jun’s back.

Ppiyot!

[I fell asleep for a bit!]

“Since I slept laying on gold, it was a sweet sleep. Next time, I should sleep laying on gold.”

Subsequently, Ppiyot-i and Uren also woke up and came outside.

*Whimper! Whimper!*

Fenrir’s whimper was heard from inside the sub-space warehouse.

“What is it?”

When Se-jun went inside the warehouse,

*Whimper?!*

‘Why wouldn’t that come off?!’

Fenrir was struggling to take off the golden bracelet decorated with gems that was stuck around his waist.

How on earth did he sleep for that to get stuck around his waist?

“Did our Blackie flex?!”

Se-jun, teasing such Fenrir, grabbed the scruff of Fenrir’s neck and lifted him up. Then, the bracelet slid right off.

“Blackie, let’s go out now.”

Se-jun put Fenrir into the sling bag, slung the bag over his shoulder, went outside, and harvested oriental cherries with his companions.

A moment later.

Se-jun, who finished harvesting all the oriental cherries within the reach of his arms,

“Land Move!”

he used a skill to make the ground under the field rise up, and then harvested the oriental cherries on the upper part of the trees.

But—

“What’s this? Why are the oriental cherries here like this?”

Most of the oriental cherries that grew on the upper part of the trees had little wounds, as if someone had pecked at them.

At that moment,

[A quest occurs.]

[Quest: The oriental cherry trees want to take revenge on the cherry peck-and-run culprits who eat the oriental cherries for fun and only cause wounds. Catch the cherry peck-and-run culprits.]

[Reward: Recognition as the rightful owner of the land deed]

the land deed quest appeared.

“Cherry peck-and-run culprits?”

“Ah. Come to think of it, I haven’t been recognized as the owner of the land deed yet.”

Only then did Se-jun realize that he had not become the owner of the farm yet.

“Catching them is easy.”

Since the culprit would appear at the scene again, they only needed to hide and wait.

On top of that, they had a specialist in ambush.

“Baet-baet-i.”

(Baet-baet…)

At Se-jun’s call, Baet-baet-i, who was sleeping attached to Se-jun’s buttocks, replied in a sleepy voice. For Baet-baet-i, now was early morning.

“Baet-baet-i, I’m Sorry.”

There was the apology for waking him up, but he was also sorry for something else. I ate sweet potatoes in the morning…

Se-jun, feeling sorry in many ways, massaged Baet-baet-i’s body by wiggling his fingers.

(Baet-baet! Se-jun-nim, it’s okay!)

Thanks to Se-jun’s massage, Baet-baet-i replied in an energetic voice, having completely woken up.

“Ambush here, and if the kids eating oriental cherries appear, follow them and just let me know their location.”

Se-jun believed Baet-baet-i was the weakest after Flamie, he did not tell him to fight directly.

(Baet-baet! Yes! Leave it to me!)

Baet-baet-i greeted Se-jun and disappeared in midair. He had used his stealth skill.

“Then let’s go find the core piece.”

Once Baet-baet-i went into stealth, Se-jun took his companions and left the oriental cherry tree farm.

Se-jun and his companions. Or to be precise, if Theo, Iona, and Cuengi, who had strong energy, were nearby, the cherry peck-and-run culprits would not come.

So, Se-jun decided to retrieve Fenrir’s core piece since he was moving far away from the oriental cherry tree farm anyway.

“You guys, watch the farm from a distance and help Baet-baet-i if a fight breaks out.”

Ppiyot!

[Yes!]

“Yes!”

Instead, for Baet-baet-i’s safety, he had Ppiyot-i and Uren standby near the oriental cherry tree farm.

And—

“Toryong-i!”

Se-jun moved south riding Toryong-i with the remaining companions.

At the place 270km to the south like that, there was a giant lake.

And there, there was a giant fish with Fenrir’s core piece embedded in its flank.

[Cog, the Predator King of Uran Lake]

There were no other creatures in the lake. It seemed that Cog had eaten them all, just like his name.

“Meow! It’s a giant fish!”

When Theo cheered looking at Cog,

*Crash!*

Cog also spotted Se-jun and his companions, and created a water path while headbutting toward the place where they were.

“Chairman Park, lend me some money, meow!”

“Sure.”

Se-jun, who had an overflowing amount of wealth, readily agreed.

However, he did not tell Theo to take it directly. Because he would burn it all up.

“This much should be enough, right?”

Se-jun took out a handful of gold pieces from the sub-space warehouse and handed them to Theo.

“Puhuhut. Any wealth of Chairman Park’s will do, meow! Burn brightly, meow!”

*Flash.*

Along with Theo’s shout, the wealth disappeared, and Theo’s body shone with a golden light.

“Meow!”

When Theo swung his golden-shining front paw, a golden mana blade was shot, and—

it cleanly sliced out only the flank portion where Fenrir’s core piece was embedded.

“Puhuhut. Cuengi, catch it, meow! Tonight’s dinner is grilled giant fish, meow!”

Cuengi!

[Understood!]

At Theo’s words, Cuengi kicked off the ground, went over, and struck the head of Cog, whose Fenrir’s core piece was gone, and—

[Cuengi the Herb Collector has defeated Cog, the Predator King of Uran Lake.]

[You have obtained 30 million, which is 50% of the experience points obtained by Cuengi the Herb Collector.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have obtained 1 bonus stat.]

[Strength increases by 10.]

*Thud!*

Cog collapsed, and Se-jun’s level rose.

“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, here it is, meow!”

Theo brought Fenrir’s core piece to Se-jun.

“Vice President Theo, good job.”

Se-jun praised Theo and peeked at Fenrir. It was obvious that he would run wild to ask for it.

However, Fenrir did not care at all even when he saw the core piece.

‘Heheh. I should feed him that too later.’

Fenrir was now planning to push all the weak cores to Se-jun.

“Now, let’s return.”

While Se-jun, who obtained the level up, Fenrir’s core piece, and dinner ingredients like that, was returning to the oriental cherry tree farm,

‘Baet-baet. They have come!’

in front of the ambushing Baet-baet-i, the oriental cherry destroyers appeared.

*Caw!*

*Caw!*

Their identity was crows.

The crows pecked an oriental cherry once with their beak, then pecked another oriental cherry, then went to a new oriental cherry again and repeated the process.

They really only pecked and tasted. The oriental cherries had enough reason to hold a grudge.

While the crows were eating the oriental cherries like that,

(Baet-baet. To dare touch Se-jun-nim’s fruit. I will teach them a lesson.)

Baet-baet-i spoke in a frequency that no one could hear and moved quickly using Baet Step.

And in an instant, he moved behind the crows and hit the back of their heads, knocking them unconscious.

*Thwack. Thwack.*

In a literal blink of an eye, 500 crows fainted at Baet-baet-i’s attack and fell to the ground.

When the subduing of the crows ended like that,

“Baet-baet-i, we are here.”

Se-jun, who arrived at the farm, called Baet-baet-i.

(Baet-baet! You are here!)

Baet-baet-i appeared on his shoulder and welcomed Se-jun.

“Yeah. Anything… Huh?! What is all this?”

Se-jun, who entered the farm while greeting Baet-baet-i, was flustered looking at the crows fainted on the ground.

It was because Ppiyot-i and Uren had definitely said that there was no disturbance at the oriental cherry tree farm.

Then that meant the enemy didn’t even have a chance to resist…

“Baet-baet-i, who did this?”

(Baet-baet! I did it!)

At Se-jun’s question, Baet-baet-i puffed out his chest and looked at Se-jun with eyes saying ‘Did I do well?’ but—

‘Our Baet-baet-i was strong too…’

Se-jun’s eyes were full of disappointment.

When Se-jun fell into despair after realizing Baet-baet-i’s combat power like that,

[You have knocked out all the cherry peck-and-run culprits.]

[You have completed the quest.]

[As the quest completion reward, you have been recognized as the rightful owner of the land deed for the oriental cherry tree farm on the 68th floor of the Black Tower.]

[The skill of the land deed: Farm Information Lv. Max is activated.]

the quest completion message appeared.

“Puhuhut, Ppiyot-i, let’s stamp the print, meow!”

Ppiyot!

[Yes!]

In the meantime, Theo and Ppiyot-i obtained the crows’ footprints on the contract.

Thus, the crows became the managers of the oriental cherry tree farm on the condition of receiving 10 peanuts every day.

“Then, manage it well.”

Se-jun left the oriental cherry tree farm behind and

[The waypoint for the 68th floor of the Black Tower has been saved.]

arrived at the waypoint. Because the boss of the 68th floor of the tower was a general of the Lizard Kingdom who knew Theo, they passed through comfortably.

“Chairman Park, the time has finally come, meow!”

Theo said as he handed Se-jun the land deed for the 75th floor of the tower.

“Sure.”

‘Let’s make their Vice President Theo a Great Merchant.’

Se-jun, after nodding at Theo, put the companions into the sub-space warehouse and unfolded the land deed.

[You have arrived at the 75th floor of the Black Tower.]

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..

.

Se-jun, who arrived at the farm on the 75th floor of the tower like that.

[You have been recognized as the rightful owner of the acacia tree farm on the 75th floor of the Black Tower.]

[The skill of the land deed: Farm Information Lv. Max is activated.]

This time, he became the owner of the farm right away without any quest.

“Acacia?”

‘Did this have fruit?’

While Se-jun was pondering how to utilize the acacia trees,

*Clank.*

“Chairman Park, I missed you, meow! Iona, let’s set off, meow!”

Theo came out of the sub-space warehouse and called Iona, and

“Kkyut-kkyut-kkyut. Yes! Power of space… Teleport.”

with Iona’s magic, they arrived in front of the president’s office of the Traveling Merchant Association headquarters.

And—

“Failed.”

Theo, who visited Mason along with Se-jun, Cuengi, and Iona, could not pass the stage 1 promotion test.

“Why, meow?!”

“Is it because you really don’t know?”

“I don’t know, meow!”

“Sigh. Aren’t there two people with no reputation?”

Mason said as he looked at Se-jun and Cuengi. Se-jun and Cuengi had little reputation in the Black Tower.