Chapter 56 – Consulting on Worries

“Kyut, kyut, kyut.”

Iona hummed as she walked through the shopping district. Shopping in the shopping district for the first time in a while to buy daily necessities needed for the magic tower, Iona’s mood was extremely good.

As Iona was returning after finishing her pleasant shopping,

“Nyang, nyang, nyang.”

from the opposite side, a yellow cat walked over, putting a lot of strength into his shoulders.

And,

“What is it, meow?”

For a mid-tier traveling merchant, he fearlessly blocked her way.

“Do you not know who I am either? Step aside!”

“For that matter, do you not know who I am either, meow?!”

Elka, who was watching with amusement as the two little ones claimed to be great existences.

At that moment,

“…?!”

Elka discovered a toothpick-like red wooden staff that the adorable hamster was carrying on her back. An ominous black gem was embedded at the end of the staff, and gold characters were densely engraved on the black gem.

‘That is… the Staff of Calamity?!’

The Staff of Calamity was one of the legendary-grade items, of which there were only three in the tower, and it was the sacred tool of Iona, the president of the Mage Association who was called the Archmage of Destruction.

Does that mean that hamster is?!

While Elka was flustered, Theo looked at Elka and gave him a hint to explain quickly what kind of existence he was.

‘What should I do?’

One side was the subordinate of the Great Black Dragon, and the other side was the Archmage of Destruction, Iona. Both were tremendous existences.

Smack, smack.

Elka flicked his tongue, wearing a troubled expression between the two great existences.

If others had seen it, it was a situation that could be seen as a giant wolf looking down at a small cat and hamster and smacking his lips… but Elka, the chief of the Silver Wolf tribe, felt like his blood was drying up.

“Lady Iona, Representative Theo is the subordinate of the Great Black Dragon.”

Elka hurriedly revealed Theo’s identity. It was to prevent Iona from attacking Theo.

The Archmage of Destruction, Iona. It was known that with a single shot of her magic, a giant mountain would disappear and a river would be created. If Iona attacked Theo in a fit of anger, Theo would die instantly.

“Silver Wolf tribe, is that true? If it is a lie, you will not escape death for the crime of impersonating the name of the Great Black Dragon.”

“I swear on my tribe that it is by no means a lie.”

As Iona began to look intently into Elka’s eyes to see if he was telling the truth,

“Do not harass my subordinate, meow! Talk to me, meow!”

Theo stepped forward gallantly.

“Then prove if you are indeed the subordinate of the Great Black Dragon.”

“How, meow?”

“If you are truly the subordinate of the Great Black Dragon, take me to the Great Black Dragon.”

Iona intended to request the Great Black Dragon to resolve the Red Locusts that had invaded the 67th floor of the tower.

However,

“For free, meow?”

Theo said as if it was out of the question. He had a merchant’s intuition that he should not just accept.

“Is there something you want?”

“First, there are things I need to buy here, and Iona must pay for all of them, meow.”

“S… sure.”

At Theo’s response, Iona answered in embarrassment. She had thought he would demand something grand, but he was demanding something too trivial. Looking at Theo strangely, Iona joined the party.

Theo went to a general store other than the one he had gone to before. This was because if the owner recognized him as a mid-tier traveling merchant and gave him the items for free, there would be no reward in receiving the compensation from Iona.

Theo entered the general store and began to pick the items to buy.

The items requested by Se-jun were three large pots, a frying pan, and ten glass bottles, but since he would spend Iona’s money today, he added ninety glass bottles and, with personal desire, a straw hat similar to Se-jun’s.

“It is a total of 21.1 Topco.”

“Here…”

When Iona was about to pay the money,

“Give me a discount, meow!”

Theo began to negotiate three times. It was to follow Se-jun’s words to always negotiate three times when buying goods. Theo was a cat who had zero flexibility when it came to Se-jun’s instructions.

“Understood. Then, I will give them to you for 13 Tower Coins.”

“Pay quickly, meow!”

Theo, who negotiated three times like that, spoke while looking at Iona.

‘What is that cat?’

She thought he would demand something great, but he demanded something trivial, and at the shop, he went out of his way to negotiate the price three times to save her money.

While Iona was feeling confused looking at Theo,

“Puhuhut. Next is the blacksmith shop, meow!”

Theo, whose mood had improved wearing the straw hat he had just purchased, took the lead and moved to the blacksmith shop.

Arriving at the blacksmith shop, fortunately, it was another clerk, not the clerk who had let him do the draw for free last time.

“Give me a discount, meow!”

Theo negotiated three times this time as well, making Iona pay 12.5 Tower Coins as the cost for the equipment draw. Then, Theo examined the items in the draw corner.

“Shall I help you?”

Watching Theo quietly close his eyes and stretch out both front paws, Iona asked. Since Iona, who was a mage, could naturally use appraisal magic, she tried to repay Theo, who had saved her money in his own way.

However,

“……”

Theo did not answer and continued to concentrate.

At that moment,

Grab.

Theo grabbed an item. It was a small ring. Since there was nothing that stood out, he grabbed the one he felt most drawn to.

“I will appraise it for you.”

Iona, who had been ignored once, stepped forward to offer help again, but

“It is fine, meow.”

Theo refused. His whiskers strongly rejected it. He felt a sense of crisis that if he appraised and took this, for some reason, he might be hated by a scary existence.

“Kyung! Understood! You mean my help is not needed, right?!”

Instead, he ended up receiving the hatred of a slightly less scary existence.

Whimper.

The wolves followed, looking at the two with anxious hearts.

***

Kkueng!

Shake, shake.

Cuengi, who had become able to adjust his body size at will, came into the cave and woke Se-jun up by shaking his body.

“Mmm… Cuengi, are you here?”

Se-jun opened his eyes, went to the wall, added a stroke, and started the morning of the 224th day of being stranded.

Kkueng, kkueng.

Cuengi followed Se-jun around, holding a glass bottle with honey, and pestered him to give him honey quickly.

“Understood.”

Click.

Se-jun opened one glass bottle with honey and poured one glug of honey onto Cuengi’s front paw.

Lick, lick.

When Cuengi began to lick the honey diligently, Se-jun put the glass bottle back in its original position.

There were three more glass bottles full of honey there. Now, as the number of Poison Honeybees exceeded 1,000, the daily honey production reached about one and a half glass bottles.

Se-jun went to the pond, washed his face, and ate breakfast with the rabbits.

Since there was nothing special today, they had breakfast leisurely. The brick house was almost completed through the cooperation of the Architect Rabbit and the Black Minotaurs, and the crops were growing rapidly.

Se-jun started morning farming by harvesting cherry tomatoes as usual.

Snip.

[You have harvested 15 Magical Cherry Tomatoes at the same time.]

[Job experience points increase slightly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases slightly.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases by an additional 5%.]

[You have acquired 450 experience points.]

When Se-jun brought the cut cherry tomato branches to the front of the storage,

Pyang!

Pyap!

Pyat!

the baby rabbits, who had now completely got the hang of farming work, plucked the cherry tomatoes from the branches and stored them in the storage.

And he bundled several cherry tomato branches that had served their purpose into one and sent them up to the surface. The cherry tomato branches, along with the green onion leaves, would enter the stomachs of the Black Minotaurs.

“Whew. It’s finished.”

Although the cherry tomato field had now neared 1,000 pyeong, since Se-jun’s body was also different from before, the time to finish was similar to before.

Having finished harvesting the cherry tomatoes, Se-jun went up to the surface.

At that moment,

“Oh!”

he saw yellow flowers blooming in the peanut field.

Buzz, buzz.

The Poison Honeybees gathered busily to suck nectar from the peanut flowers. It seemed he would be able to eat peanuts before long.

“Hum, hum, hum.”

Se-jun, whose mood had improved at the thought of having new food, went to the green onion field, humming a tune.

“Wow. It’s a forest here now.”

The green onion field, where he did split-planting every time the roots divided, was now exceeding 2,000 pyeong.

Slice, slice.

Although he heard the sound of the Mother Rabbit and the Sickle Rabbit harvesting the green onions diligently, the leaves of the green onions were so thick that he could not see where they were.

If the green onion field kept growing like this, he thought there might be a rabbit getting stranded in Se-jun’s green onion field, just like people go missing in the cornfields of America.

“This is no time for this.”

Se-jun also hurriedly joined the green onion field and began to cut the green onion leaves.

Slice, slice.

How much time had passed like that?

Pyah!

The black rabbit called Se-jun. Let’s eat lunch!

Before they knew it, the Wife Rabbit, who had gone down to the cave, prepared a meal together with the Gray Rabbits and brought it up to the surface.

The menu was steamed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and grilled fish.

“Ugh. I’m full.”

When Se-jun, who ate lunch to his fill, sat down after making coffee in his tumbler,

Pyah…

Kkueng…

the black rabbit and Cuengi came to Se-jun’s side to take a nap.

“Cuengi, transform.”

Se-jun said with a stern expression, because if he was seduced by his small size and let him sit on his lap, he would suffer greatly later.

Kkueng…

Cuengi, who wanted to sleep on Se-jun’s lap together with the black rabbit, was disappointed, so he grew his body and slept with his belly pressed against Se-jun’s back.

Pyarolong.

Kkurolong.

Listening to the snoring sounds of the black rabbit and Cuengi, Se-jun used Make Dark Cloud to create a shade and raised the proficiency by moving the dark cloud here and there.

[The proficiency of increases slightly.]

While he was raising the proficiency of Make Dark Cloud like that,

[The administrator of the tower requests that she wants to eat something spicy.]

[A quest occurs.]

[Quest: Serve Spicy Food to the Depressed Aileen.]

Reward: Decrease in Aileen’s depression

On Rejection: Aileen, whose depression has reached its peak, changes to dark mode.

Aileen, who had not answered in the meantime, initiated a conversation.

***

“Open up—!”

Aileen shouted, blowing mana into the portal located in the administrator’s area. However, it was impossible to activate the portal with Aileen’s speck of mana.

“Eek!”

Aileen tried even after eating dozens of Magical Cherry Tomatoes at once, but it was to no avail. They were only delicious.

“Argh! I won’t do it!”

Aileen eventually gave up on portal activation that she had attempted for several days.

Instead…

“I will resolve it myself.”

She decided to leave the administrator’s area and resolve it herself like her grandfather.

However,

“Huh?!”

As soon as Aileen stepped out of the administrator’s area, she felt the world spinning and hurriedly returned to the administrator’s area.

With her Dragon Heart still beating weakly, she could not cover the mana consumed to maintain Aileen’s body outside the administrator’s area.

“Kuh-hing… admirable human… I want to eat something spicy.”

The depressed Aileen searched for Se-jun.

***

“Dark mode?”

Although he did not know what it was, he felt that Aileen should not enter dark mode.

“Wait a moment.”

Se-jun hurriedly went down to the cave with five semi-dried squids he had dried, and began to make stir-fried squid. He shook out and poured in the last remaining red pepper powder without sparing it.

While Se-jun was making the Spicy Stir-Fried Squid like that,

[The administrator of the tower requests counseling on worries while whimpering.]

“Counseling on worries?”

Aileen poured out her worries.

“So you’re saying Red Locusts invaded the 67th floor of the tower?”

[The administrator of the tower says yes.]

[The administrator of the tower says that if the Red Locusts are left alone, they evolve into a more powerful group.]

At Aileen’s words, Se-jun recognized the seriousness of the situation.

A swarm of locusts that devours everything and evolves…

“First, I will look if there is anything I can help with too.”

Se-jun gave her the completed stir-fried squid, comforting Aileen.

[You have completed the quest.]

[As the quest completion reward, Aileen’s depression decreases after eating the spicy food.]

‘What should I do?’

Slice, slice.

Throughout the afternoon, Se-jun thought about how to handle the locusts while cutting the green onion leaves. However, there was no proper method.

At that moment,

“Ouch.”

Se-jun’s hand, which was holding the green onion leaf to cut it, was slightly cut by the green onion leaf.

“What is this?”

When Se-jun examined the green onion leaf that cut his finger, its texture was completely different from other leaves. The feeling of touching iron. He was lucky. The green onion leaf was so hard and sharp that if things had gone wrong, his finger could have been cut off.

Could this be?! Sensing something strange, Se-jun pulled the root of the green onion.

[You have harvested a Sturdy Blade Green Onion.]

[Job experience points increase very slightly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases slightly.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4 increases by an additional 5%.]

[You have acquired 30 experience points.]

“Huh?!”

[You have achieved the achievement of creating a new breed in the tower.]

[The tower recognizes your exclusive cultivation rights for the new breed.]

[Without your permission, the Sturdy Blade Green Onion cannot be cultivated.]

[Job experience points increase significantly.]

While Se-jun was hurriedly checking the options of the second new breed, the Sturdy Blade Green Onion,

“I have returned, meow!”

Theo returned, bringing a hamster with him.