Chapter 78 – Discovering a Trace

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

“We’re home!”

When Se-jun, who had returned from the 75th floor of the tower, raised both arms and shouted,

Pyak!

Kkueng!

The Black Rabbit and Cuengi also shouted along with Se-jun. Although it had only been three days since they left, they were so glad to be home.

Kkueng?

Cuengi asked Se-jun what to do with the rock he was holding. He seemed to want to put it down quickly and go to his mother.

“Just put it down there.”

Kkueng!

Thud!

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi immediately slammed the rock down, and

Kku-e-eng!

ran toward his mother, the Crimson Giant Bear.

Pyak!

The Black Rabbit also ran to his family to let them know he had arrived.

“Shall I plant the pineapples first?”

Left alone, Se-jun took out 12 pineapple tops from his bag and planted them in the field. Then, he looked at the reinforced seed of the Corrupted Ent left sitting alone in the corner of his bag.

[Reinforced Seed of the Corrupted Ent (Purification Rate 50%)]

‘If it receives the Purification Flame once more, it will be completely purified.’

While Se-jun was looking at the seed,

Flutter. Flutter.

the black dragon statue flew over.

-Bwahaha! Park Se-jun, you punk! To not even be able to appraise an item, how incompetent!

Looking at the unappraised rock, Kaiser said in a triumphant voice.

-Bwahaha! I, Kaiser Pritani, the Great Black Dragon, will specially appraise it for you.

Although he had not been asked, Kaiser stepped forward first, wanting to show off his greatness. Since Aileen would surely be watching Se-jun through the crystal ball, he also wanted to appear as a cool grandfather to her.

As the black dragon statue sat on the rock like that,

Flash.

a strong light exploded from the rock.

Flash.

The light exploded once more.

At that moment,

[The tower administrator is upset that her grandfather made the first move when she was going to appraise the item for you.]

[The tower administrator says she won’t even talk to her grandfather anymore, so she asks you to deliver her words to him.]

Aileen, having been deprived of the opportunity to shine, was sulking at Kaiser.

“Lord Kaiser, Aileen says she won’t talk to her grandfather anymore.”

-…What?! Aileen! Let’s talk with Grandfather! Aileen~!

While Kaiser called out to Aileen anxiously, Se-jun checked the options of the appraised rock.

[Fragment of the Sacred Tombstone]

It is the ninth fragment of the Sacred Tombstone.

Divine power that benefits the surroundings flows out.

The more fragments you gather, the stronger the divine power becomes.

Grade: S

“Divine power that benefits the surroundings?”

He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, but he couldn’t feel much. Compared to the grade, the options of the item seemed lacking.

“Still, S-grade is great.”

Se-jun decided to be satisfied with placing the S-grade item in the front yard of his house for now.

Then, he looked around the farm to see if anything special had happened while he was away.

At that moment,

“Huh?”

Se-jun saw something that was not there before. A wooden pipe made of wood cut in half and hollowed out inside was connected from the fountain to the field.

Since the height of the fountain was 1 meter, the water in the wooden pipe flowed from the fountain to the field along the slope.

“Oh! Did the Gray Rabbits make a waterway?”

Even without him, everyone was doing well. Se-jun walked around the field, letting the animals know he had returned, and then went down to the cave. It was to check the crops in the storage.

“Flamie! I’m back!”

When Se-jun called Flamie, who was receiving warm sunlight in the center of the cave,

[Master! Welcome back!]

Flamie welcomed Se-jun with a cheerful voice.

“You’ve been well, right?”

[Yes! Master, but did something appear outside? A warm energy has been seeping into my body since a while ago. So I am overflowing with strength and feeling good!]

It seemed the S-grade tombstone did have an effect.

[Ah! My mood is good because I see you, Master, but it got even better because of the warm energy! Seeing you is much, much bigger!]

Flamie, in case Se-jun might misunderstand, spoke again to emphasize that her joy came from seeing Se-jun.

“Yes.”

Se-jun stroked Flamie’s leaves. Since she spoke so beautifully, it was impossible not to adore her.

After having a conversation with Flamie like that, Se-jun checked the crops in the storage and went to bed early.

***

In front of the portal connecting to the Black Tower.

“Hmm…”

Kaiser sat at the table with a serious expression, resting his chin on his hand, lost in thought.

‘Did he fight with Aileen again?’

Anton, who had returned from going outside to handle some business, thought as he looked at Kaiser’s serious expression.

“Patriarch, what is the matter?”

Anton asked, just in case, though he was sure it was nothing major.

“My son, I have discovered a trace of the Creator God.”

“Wh-What??”

At Kaiser’s unexpected answer, Anton’s poker face, which usually did not reveal emotions, broke.

“Bwahaha! I knew it. I was also very surprised at first.”

Kaiser laughed as he looked at Anton’s flustered face.

“Where is it?! The place where the trace of the Creator God was discovered?”

Anton asked excitedly. The Creator God was the being who had built the towers they managed. The dragons had been searching for traces of the Creator God for over 3,000 years.

3,000 years ago.

“You must find my traces and rebuild the world.”

Leaving those words, the Creator God completely vanished from the world. Because of that, their world was destroyed. No, many worlds were destroyed.

They wanted to know why the Creator God had created the towers, and why he had entrusted the management to them.

“The trace of the Creator God came from the Black Tower we managed.”

“What?!”

“It is a part of a tombstone, and they said Park Se-jun retrieved it from the lake on the 75th floor of the tower.”

“The tower?!”

Anton was flustered by Kaiser’s words. All this time they had been searching hard for the traces of the Creator God outside… and it was inside the tower?

It was truly right under their noses.

“Since it is a tombstone, what content was written on it?”

“Nothing. Not a thing.”

“What?”

“The tombstone found was the end part, so there was no content.”

“Ah… Ah! Is Park Se-jun safe?”

Anton asked urgently. It was a trace of the Creator God, of all things. An ordinary being could suffer harm just by being close to it.

Se-jun was the being who would help treat Aileen’s Dragon Heart. Nothing bad must happen to Se-jun’s well-being.

“Bwahaha! Who am I?! Am I not Kaiser Pritani, the patriarch of the great Pritani Family of Black Dragons? I…”

Kaiser began to talk about the time he appraised the rock Se-jun brought.

“The moment I appraised it, I felt the Creator God’s divine power wriggling inside the rock.”

“And then?”

Anton asked, swallowing his saliva.

“The moment the seal on the rock broke, I realized that Park Se-jun and the kids around him would all die. So I quickly came up with a plausible name and sealed it again discreetly. How is it? My quick wits? Bwahaha!”

Kaiser said, showing off.

“Phew. You did well.”

Anton said in relief. Although he hated seeing Kaiser show off, he had to admit what was right.

Resealing an object containing the Creator God’s divine power was no easy task. If it had not been for Kaiser, it could have been a disaster.

“My son, there is a more important matter than that.”

“What is it?”

“Our Aileen says she doesn’t want to talk to me, so you step forward and reconcile us.”

Kaiser, the possessor of immense power. However, appeasing his granddaughter’s anger was a difficulty close to Mission Impossible for Kaiser.

And

“I have busy work to do…”

It was the same for Anton.

***

The 2nd floor of the tower.

A land of over 1,000 pyeong, which used to be close to a wasteland, had turned green.

And people were passing between the fields, which were divided into 100 pyeong blocks.

“Welcome to our Gagel’s Experience Farm.”

Gagel’s guide said, guiding the hunters.

“Does cutting this really give experience points like a monster?”

A male hunter who looked to be in his mid-teens, armed with expensive equipment at the very front, asked as he looked at the wriggling cherry tomato.

The man had come here after paying 100 million won to use the Experience Farm.

“Of course. This is a plant-type monster our Gagel accidentally found, and thanks to the hard work of our research team, we have been able to grow it in large quantities like this.”

Because calling it a mutant could lead to bad public perception, Gagel was deceiving even their employees, calling the corrupted cherry tomatoes a plant-type monster discovered in the tower.

“Mr. David, please try cutting one.”

The guide said, pointing to the base of the cherry tomato for David.

Slice.

As David sliced the base of the cherry tomato with his sword, it cut smoothly, and

[You have defeated the Corrupted Cherry Tomato.]

[You have gained 33 experience points.]

He acquired experience points.

“Oh! It’s real?”

“Of course. Now, please experience why this is called the Experience Farm.”

The guide pulled out a torch and handed it to David.

“You just need to burn them all.”

“Great!”

Fwoosh.

At the guide’s words, David smiled brightly and began to burn the corrupted cherry tomatoes.

Burning all 100 pyeong accumulates roughly 5,000 to 7,000 experience points.

Gagel charged 100 million won in exchange for obtaining experience points from 100 pyeong of the farm, but wealthy hunters who wanted to safely and quickly gain experience points were waiting on reservations to use Gagel’s Experience Farm.

“How many days does it take for the crop to grow again?”

“A month is more than enough.”

“Thomas, increase the size of the farm by 100 times.”

“Yes!”

Looking at the blazing field, Michael instructed Thomas.

***

“Heave-ho!”

Se-jun opened his eyes and got up. Perhaps because he slept properly for the first time in a while, his body felt so refreshed.

Pyak!

At the sound of Se-jun waking up, the Black Rabbit came out of the wooden box house and greeted him.

“Yeah. Good morning.”

Se-jun stood up and wrote letters on the bedroom wall with a stick.

250]

The morning of the 250th day of being stranded dawned. In the future, he planned to mark the date on the wall of the brick house.

“Let’s go outside.”

When Se-jun came out with the Black Rabbit, the rabbits were coming up from the cave to the surface one by one.

Pyik!

Pyah!

Pyirik!

“Yeah. Good morning.”

Se-jun greeted the rabbits.

For breakfast, they had the chef’s soup that had been boiling for 24 hours and steamed potatoes.

And just as Se-jun was walking to the field to harvest cherry tomatoes,

Pyah!!!

Pyap!!!

cheerful screams of the rabbits were heard from behind, and then the rabbits quickly overtook Se-jun, riding in a wooden boat.

Splash!

Water splashed onto Se-jun as the boat the rabbits were riding passed by.

“Huh?!”

Is that… a flume ride?!

As the field grew too wide, to save the rabbits the trouble of moving to the field, they floated boats on the waterway and used them as a means of transportation.

“I’m jealous!”

He was so jealous. He wanted to ride the amusement… no, transportation!

Kkueng?

Se-jun was not the only one who envied the rabbits’ transportation.

Kkueng!

Cuengi shouted as he watched the rabbits riding the wooden boat. I want to ride it too!

Kkueng!

Cuengi climbed up to the fountain carrying a wooden board and boldly laid the board on the waterway and sat on it.

However,

Crack.

the pillars of the waterway, which were built without considering the possibility of Cuengi climbing onto the waterway at all, could not bear Cuengi’s weight, and

Boom!

at the same time Cuengi sat down, the wooden pillars broke like sorghum stalks, and a major accident occurred where the wooden pipe collapsed as it was.

Kku-e-eng…

When Cuengi, who fell along with the wooden pipe, looked at the broken waterway with a devastated expression,

Plop.

“It’s fine.”

Se-jun comforted Cuengi by putting his hand on Cuengi’s head.

Kku-e-eng…

[I also want to ride a boat…]

“Don’t worry. I will let you ride.”

Thanks to Cuengi, Se-jun was able to rebuild the waterway.

“Everyone, assemble!”

Se-jun called the Gray Rabbits and the Black Minotaurs, and started a major construction project to build a new, sturdy waterway.