Chapter 79 – This Is My Territory, Meow!

Since he was making a waterway anyway, Se-jun decided to build a proper one.

And

“Now. First, we will lift the fountain and stack bricks underneath.”

For the first construction work, he decided to raise the height of the fountain where the flow of water started. That way, there would be thrill… no, acceleration when going down, allowing the water to be sent further.

However, to do that, they first had to lift the giant fountain with a diameter of 100 meters.

‘I need the help of Lord Kaiser or Lord Anton.’

“Excuse me…”

Se-jun spoke to the black dragon statue.

-What is the matter…

Kaiser’s voice, which was full of sulking, was heard.

‘Thank goodness.’

Honestly, Kaiser was easier to talk to than Anton. Se-jun had a winning card to easily get help from Kaiser.

“Lord Kaiser, by any chance, don’t you want to talk to Aileen?”

-Park Se-jun, how arrogant! Do you think I, Kaiser Pritani, the Great Black Dragon, would dare to ask you for a favor?!

Kaiser’s voice, angered by Se-jun’s words, was heard.

“No way. I have something to ask of you, and if you do that for me, I will solve the part you are uncomfortable with for you, Lord Kaiser, who has worked hard. On my own.”

-Ahem… Really? Go ahead and ask.

It was a trick like “three in the morning and four in the afternoon,” but wording things differently worked on Kaiser.

“Please lift the fountain.”

-Bwahaha. Understood.

Rumble.

At the same time Kaiser finished speaking, the fountain floated about 10 meters in the air.

“Now. Start working!”

Moo!

At Se-jun’s instruction, the Black Minotaurs began to stack mud bricks.

And

“Aileen.”

Se-jun called Aileen to resolve Kaiser’s discomfort.

[The tower administrator asks what is the matter.]

“Shall we talk while eating some Honey Jelly first?”

First, he put Aileen in a good mood with sweet food.

[The tower administrator rejoices at the sweetness of the Honey Jelly.]

After putting Aileen in a good mood like that, Se-jun began to bring up the main topic.

“Aileen, can’t you talk to Lord Kaiser now?”

[The tower administrator says that she hates her grandfather because he took away her opportunity to shine.]

“Aileen, what is the reason you want to show off by appraising items?”

[The tower administrator says it is… to show you her greatness.]

“Then there is no need to show off.”

[The tower administrator asks what you mean.]

“Because I already know very well what a great dragon you are, Aileen.”

[……]

“Aileen?”

Aileen hid herself again.

However,

-Bwahaha!

Looking at Kaiser’s laughter, it seemed Aileen was talking with Kaiser.

***

Patter, patter.

“Run faster, meow!”

Theo urged his companions. Theo was in a huge hurry.

‘I must finish the trade quickly and return to Park Se-jun, meow!’

Park Se-jun’s lap was in danger. Iona had let him drop his guard by pretending not to be interested at first, but before he knew it, she was occupying Se-jun’s lap.

‘Iona is a cunning hamster mage, meow!’

Thinking of Iona sitting on Se-jun’s lap when he woke up, Theo got angry again.

And

“Unforgivable, meow! Increase the speed, meow!”

Theo’s moving speed became as fast as his anger.

“Whew, whew. Representative Theo…”

“Let’s rest a bit…”

Thanks to that, only the interns were dying of exhaustion.

Under Theo’s leadership like that, the group ran toward the 38th floor of the tower without resting.

***

Se-jun, who had appeased Aileen who was sulky at Kaiser and reconciled the two, helped the Gray Rabbits apply mud between the mud bricks stacked by the Black Minotaurs.

So, after stacking one layer of bricks like that, lunchtime drew near before they knew it.

“I should prepare lunch.”

When Se-jun went to the cave to get ingredients for lunch,

[Master! I missed you!]

Flamie welcomed Se-jun fiercely, waving her leaves. Among Flamie’s leaves, more than half of the leaves that had used the Purification Flame and Guardian Flame had turned back to green.

Thanks to the divine power emerging from the Sacred Tombstone, the speed of Flamie’s leaves returning to their original state seemed to have accelerated.

Se-jun stroked Flamie’s leaves and went to the pond. In the pond, hundreds of piranhas hunted by the Black Rabbit and Cuengi were piled up high.

As the grilled fish to be given as daily wages to the guardians protecting the Blue Carp of Granier Village on the 75th floor of the tower increased, they were catching even more piranhas.

At that moment,

Splash.

Kkueng!

Cuengi came out of the water, lifting a giant fish.

And

Pyak!

Pyok! Pyok! Pyok!

on top of the giant fish’s head, the Black Rabbit was hitting the fish’s head diligently.

“Wow…”

Se-jun lost his words as he looked at the name of the underwater monster.

[Tuna]

Clap, clap, clap.

“Guys, good job!”

Se-jun clapped and praised the Black Rabbit and Cuengi.

A moment later,

“Let’s eat!”

When it was mealtime,

Moo!

the Black Minotaurs moved to the green onion field to eat the green onion leaves, and

Kuong!

the mother Crimson Giant Bear drank the chef’s soup from the large pot.

And

“Now, today’s lunch is tuna sashimi.”

Se-jun dismantled the tuna and began to slice it into sashimi. However, Se-jun had only ever eaten tuna sushi once in his life. Lacking the skill to slice it by cuts, he first sliced the thickest belly fat thinly.

“Shall I have a taste?”

As Se-jun put the red tuna sashimi in his mouth,

“Mmm…”

a rich oiliness was felt.

Melt.

Before Se-jun could even properly savor it, the tuna sashimi melted away in an instant.

“Wow!”

“……”

The animals were all staring intently only at him. Was it that delicious?

Slice, slice, slice.

Se-jun quickly began to slice the surrounding parts of what he had eaten. He wanted to share the emotion he felt with the animals as well.

“Here. This is it.”

Se-jun put two pieces of sashimi on wooden plates and gave them to the animals.

Pyik!

Pyah!

Pyak!

Kku-e-eng!

The reaction of the animals who ate the tuna sashimi was extremely good.

“Okay! Next is the back meat!”

Gaining confidence, Se-jun sliced the tuna’s back meat this time, as if he had become a Japanese chef.

Pyik!

Pyah!

Pyak!

Kku-e-eng!

This time too, the reaction was good.

“This time, the tail meat!”

“The flank meat!”

“The head meat!”

Se-jun, who did not know much about sashimi, sliced it as his hands went and gave it to the animals.

However,

Pyik…

Pyah…

Pyak…

as they continued to eat only tuna, the animals’ reactions grew weaker and weaker due to the greasiness of the tuna.

Kku-e-eng!

Except for Cuengi.

Kkueng?

Cuengi was throwing the sashimi into his mouth, asking if he could eat the rest since the rabbits beside him were not eating it.

Like that, the tuna was left with almost only bones.

Smack, smack.

Except for Cuengi, who was still smacking his lips as if it were not enough, everyone was rubbing their bellies and satisfied with their fullness.

“It is too greasy.”

After eating something so oily, he wanted to eat something refreshing. And he had saved something in case of times like this.

“Let’s eat pineapple!”

Se-jun brought five pineapples from the storage. Saved to eat together with the rabbits, these pineapples had conservation magic cast on them by Iona, maintaining their freshness even though the tops had been removed.

Pyak!

Kkueng!

The Black Rabbit and Cuengi, who had already eaten pineapple before, got excited. They instinctively knew that eating it now would be great.

And

Pyik?

Pyah?

At the reactions of the Black Rabbit and Cuengi, the other rabbits also began to have curiosity.

Slice. Slice.

As Se-jun gave one slice of pineapple on each plate,

Crunch.

The rabbits who ate the pineapple opened their eyes round. The sourness of the pineapple cleanly washed away the grease remaining in their mouths. And the sweetness that followed.

Lick, lick.

The rabbits finished the pineapples in an instant and even cleanly licked off the pineapple juice on their paws.

About two hours after such a perfect lunch ended,

“Lord Se-jun, we have arrived.”

Borori, who had returned after delivering the Blade Leaves and the chef’s soup to the 67th floor of the tower and collecting the carcasses of the Red Locusts, greeted Se-jun.

“Good job. How is the 67th floor of the tower?”

“Although we struggled at first as the patterns of the Red Locusts changed, it stabilized again as Lizardman warriors were reinforced from the Lizardman Kingdom on the 69th floor of the tower.”

“That’s a relief. But why is that like that?”

Se-jun asked, looking at the carcasses of the Red Locusts that the cat interns were pouring out of their bundles. Among the carcasses of the dead Red Locusts, many had blue mixed in their head parts.

“I also don’t know well. Lately, the Red Locusts have been changing like that.”

Borori tilted his head and answered.

At that moment,

-That is the Red Locusts degenerating into Blue Locusts. It is evidence that the population of Red Locusts has approached nearly 5 billion.

The black dragon statue, which had come down to the surface before they knew it, said as it looked at the carcasses of the Red Locusts mixed with blue.

“Degenerating?”

-Yes. Those bastards degenerate when their population decreases and evolve when it increases.

“Then, if the population decreases further, do they degenerate again?”

-That’s right. If the number drops below 3 billion, they turn into Yellow Locusts.

“Ah.”

-If you hold out just a bit longer, it will become easier to fight. When they degenerate into Blue Locusts, their size becomes smaller and their strength also weakens.

“I see.”

-Aileen, did you know this?

Kaiser asked Aileen.

-What?! You didn’t know?! You rascal! Didn’t I tell you to look at the alarms properly!

Kaiser began to scold Aileen for not knowing such information in advance.

But

-No… I didn’t shout…

-Aileen~!

[The tower administrator is sulking because her grandfather shouted at her, saying she won’t talk to her grandfather anymore.]

Less than an hour after Se-jun reconciled them, the conversation between the two was cut off again.

“Borori, once you go down, deliver the information you just heard to the Lizardman Great Warrior. It will be helpful.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Se-jun finished his conversation with Borori and began to stack bricks again. His goal was to stack the bricks up to 10 layers within 5 days.

***

“We have arrived, meow!”

Theo arrived at the 38th floor of the tower in 35 hours.

“The wolves rest, and the interns follow me, meow!”

“Yes…”

The cats answered in almost dying voices. If the wolves had not given the interns rides in the middle, they wouldn’t have even been able to come this far.

“Since you guys probably don’t know well yet, just watch today, meow!”

Theo warned the cat interns and arrived at the hunters’ camp.

“This is a place I built where only I trade, meow!”

Theo spoke proudly to the interns and entered the camp.

At that moment,

“Huh?”

Theo discovered something strange. At his trading spot, wild boar traveling merchants were trading with the hunters.

“What is this, meow?!”

Looking at the wild boar traveling merchants invading his territory, Theo grew furious.

And

“Move out of the way, meow!”

Theo went in front of the leader of the wild boar traveling merchants and shouted.

“Who are you?”

“I am mid-level traveling merchant Theo, meow! And this is my trading spot, meow! Move out of the way, meow!”

“Hmph! How dare a mere mid-level merchant! I am Utata, an excellent traveling merchant of the merchant group led by the top traveling merchant Tarik! Just get lost.”

Utata spoke at Theo’s words as if they were ridiculous. This was a place where hunters had built a camp themselves and a commercial district had been formed. Since such places were rare, Utata had no intention of backing down.

“Did you just ignore me, meow?!”

To think they ignored him, the subordinate of the Great Black Dragon and a deadly yellow cat! Theo was furious.

But he did not resolve it with force. A traveling merchant fought with a traveling merchant’s method.

And

“Humans! From today, I will not sell my goods to hunters who trade with this wild boar traveling merchant, meow!”

Theo knew very well what his weapon was. Theo’s weapon was Se-jun’s crops, which could not be obtained anywhere else and produced special effects.

“Bwahaha! Even if you do that, it’s only your loss! My goods are…”

Utata, who was laughing at Theo’s words, was flustered when he saw the hunters who were trading with him stop their transactions at a single word from Theo and leave in crowds.

“Puhut. Did you see that, meow? This is my territory, meow! Get lost, meow!”

Theo smiled as he looked at Utata.