Translated by Demonic Dog
Read it only at utoon.net
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Chapter 81 – Encounter
Early morning on the 254th day of being stranded.
—Park Se-jun, wake up.
A calm voice woke Se-jun.
“Mmm… Anton-nim?”
—Park Se-jun, corrupted ent branch scouts have appeared outside.
“What? Branch scouts?”
Se-jun, who had thought the corrupted ent died from the black dragon statue’s breath, was puzzled.
—The one I killed was merely one of them.
“Ah.”
As Se-jun understood the situation and gathered his gear to get up,
Pyak?
The black rabbit, who was sleeping in the wooden box house in the corner of Se-jun’s bedroom, also woke up, grabbed its hammer, and followed Se-jun.
As Se-jun left the brick house and moved to the west,
“There aren’t that many?”
Five hundred small branch scouts were visible. It was definitely a small number compared to before.
“Let’s go!”
Pyak!
Just as the black rabbit was about to fight alongside Se-jun,
—Black Rabbit, you stay still. Today, only Park Se-jun fights.
Anton stopped the black rabbit.
Pyak?
—Park Se-jun is too weak. He needs to grow stronger.
Pyak!
At Anton’s words, the black rabbit nodded its head vigorously in agreement.
—Yes. You know it well too. So, just watch.
Pyak!
Following Anton’s words, the black rabbit sat on the ground and watched Se-jun.
Then,
Cuengi!
Cuengi, who had woken up from the noise and saw Se-jun fighting alone, rushed over. Dad was in danger!
And,
—Stop.
Pyak!
Cuengi?
After hearing about the situation from the black dragon statue gesturing toward him and the black rabbit, Cuengi also sat next to the black rabbit and watched Se-jun.
Thus, Se-jun faced the branch scouts alone.
Thud!
The hand axe Se-jun threw embedded itself in the middle of the branch scout’s torso.
[You have defeated a corrupted ent’s small branch scout.]
[You have gained 25 experience points.]
Stab.
At the same time, Se-jun stabbed the approaching enemy with the dagger in his left hand.
[You have defeated a corrupted ent’s small branch scout.]
[You have gained 25 experience points.]
However,
Crack.
Another enemy approached from Se-jun’s right and swung its wooden arm to attack him. There was not enough time to pull out the dagger and counterattack.
Whoosh.
“Retrieve.”
Se-jun retrieved the hand axe while dodging the branch scout’s attack.
And,
Thud!
With the hand axe in his right hand, he struck the waist of the branch scout that had just attacked.
[You have defeated a corrupted ent’s small branch scout.]
[You have gained 25 experience points.]
Se-jun was showing unrivaled dominance against the small branch scouts.
‘I’m pretty strong!’
While Se-jun was happily defeating the enemies, infatuated with his own strength,
Pyarorong.
Curorong.
Watching Se-jun’s tensionless battle, the black rabbit and Cuengi fell asleep out of boredom.
And,
—Mmm… there is still a long way to go.
Watching Se-jun’s battle, Anton’s worries grew. It was so terrible that he had no idea where to start.
At dawn that day, Se-jun emerged victorious against 500 small branch scouts.
***
The office of Grid, the great landlord of the 55th floor of the tower.
“What? The Silver Wolf tribe canceled the contract?!”
“Yes. What should we do?”
“Leave them be. They probably rejected the request trusting the red locust meat on the 67th floor of the tower, but they will regret it soon.”
Although it would be enough food for the few months the red locusts remained alive, without food, the red locusts would eventually eat each other and naturally die out.
And the food shortage Grid had been waiting for would begin. However, that alone was not enough to get Grid what he wanted. Therefore, Grid planned to cause a great famine once again.
“How is the purchasing of monster carcasses going with Tarik?”
“The purchase of the first batch of 50,000 monster carcasses is complete, and Tarik-nim is personally leading the wandering merchants of the merchant group to the 67th floor of the tower.”
“Good.”
Grid had once briefly seen it on the 55th floor of the tower in the past. The sight of red locusts turning purple when they evolved to the next stage.
And the carcasses of purple locusts contained a strong poison, making them inedible to anyone and even polluting the land.
“Now, we just have to wait. Keh-keh-keh.”
Grid laughed so loudly that the roots of his hideous molars were visible.
***
“Heave-ho.”
Se-jun, who had fought until dawn, overslept and woke up.
Swish.
He drew a stroke on the wall to mark the date and stepped outside.
Ku-ung.
Moo.
Outside, the mother Crimson Giant Bear and the Black Minotaurs were in the middle of waterway construction, stacking bricks.
“Hello, Flamie.”
Se-jun went down into the cave and greeted Flamie.
[Master! Good morning!]
Flamie greeted Se-jun, waving its leaves.
“Flamie, I need the Flame of Affinity.”
Se-jun planned to examine the situation in the western forest now that the branch scouts were active again.
[Yes. Hyaah!]
A yellow flame appeared from Flamie’s green leaves and seeped into Se-jun’s body.
[The Flame of Affinity permeates you for 3 hours.]
[The Flame of Affinity helps the user control fire and strengthens the power of fire.]
“Guys, let’s go!”
Pyak!
Cuengi!
At Se-jun’s call, the black rabbit and Cuengi, who were hunting in the pond, followed him.
“Cuengi, transform!”
Cuengi!
At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi grew giant. He planned to ride Cuengi instead of the mother Crimson Giant Bear, who was helping with the waterway construction.
Cuengi!
Cuengi lay down and let Se-jun and the black rabbit board. Before they knew it, Cuengi’s size had easily exceeded 10 meters.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
Riding Cuengi and running like that, they arrived at the entrance of the western forest in 40 minutes.
And,
“When did they grow like this?”
Se-jun was surprised to see the rotten branches already filling the entrance of the western forest again.
Se-jun did not know it, but until now, the corrupted ents had been busy replacing the rotten branch guards that Se-jun had burned, so they could not send branch scouts to Se-jun’s cave.
Clang!
Se-jun struck his dagger and hand axe together to create a spark. Then he threw the created spark onto the rotten branches. Though they had grown a lot, he just had to burn them again. In fact, he was grateful since it was an opportunity to gain experience points easily.
Whoosh.
Se-jun’s spark began to burn the rotten branches.
[You have defeated a corrupted ent’s rotten branch guard.]
[You have gained 10 experience points.]
…
..
.
Pyak!
Whoosh!
Cuengi!
Whoosh!
Instead of the mother Crimson Giant Bear, the black rabbit and Cuengi created wind. The two had steadily eaten honey jelly and strengthened their magic-related talents. They created a sufficiently strong wind.
Whoosh!
With the help of the two, the fire grew rapidly, and thanks to that, Se-jun’s experience points accumulated quickly.
While Se-jun was gaining experience points like that, yellow flowers walked out of the western forest.
[Corrupted Ent’s Sticky Flower Soldier]
Ptu! Ptu!
The sticky flower soldiers began to spit sticky fluid to extinguish the fire.
“I can’t let that happen.”
Thud!
Se-jun hit the head of a sticky flower soldier with his hand axe.
[You have defeated a corrupted ent’s sticky flower soldier.]
[You have gained 1,200 experience points.]
It was the appearance of a monster that gave substantial experience points.
“Guys, attack!”
Whoosh.
Se-jun, who felt sorry for only having them assist him, moved the fire left and right to clear a path for the black rabbit and Cuengi to reach the sticky flower soldiers.
Pyak!
Cuengi!
The black rabbit and Cuengi ran along the path Se-jun created.
And,
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Thud!
They began to defeat the sticky flower soldiers.
As the battle continued like that,
[You have leveled up.]
[You have gained 1 bonus stat point.]
[The Flame of Affinity fades away.]
Simultaneously with Se-jun’s level up, Flamie’s Flame of Affinity buff ended.
“Let’s run!”
Se-jun and the animals quickly ran away.
The place Se-jun left behind.
Wuuuooooh!
The roar of the corrupted ent, enraged by the disappearance of its guards, echoed through the western forest.
***
The 67th floor of the tower.
“Tarik-nim, thank you for coming like this!”
The Lizardman Great Warrior Tamuro warmly welcomed Tarik.
Tarik was the owner of the giant Chow Merchant Group. Tamuro was overjoyed that someone like him had personally come all the way here.
“Tamuro-nim, this is a small token of my sincerity. Please accept it.”
Tarik handed Tamuro a black plaque engraved with “10000.” It was a check that could be exchanged for 10,000 tower coins at any time at the Chow Merchant Group.
“Oh my. To go this far…”
Unlike his troubled voice, Tamuro slipped the plaque Tarik handed him between his armor.
“Tamuro-nim, we would like to go out by ourselves and collect the locust carcasses, would that be possible?”
“Of course. Since you are the Wild Boar tribe, you can also fight. It would be convenient for us if you did so.”
“Thank you. Let’s go.”
Tarik went out with the wandering merchants who followed him, and returned ten hours later.
Although there was no big difference in the amount of red locust carcasses outside compared to the time they were gone, Tamuro did not pay much attention to it.
***
The shopping district on the 75th floor of the tower.
“It’s urgent, meow!”
Theo ran to the forge to do the gacha. No matter how urgent it was, he had to do what Se-jun had ordered.
To get the job done quickly and leave, he had his party wait at the entrance of the shopping district.
Having arrived at the forge, Theo looked at the gacha corner first before purchasing a gacha ticket. It was to see if there was anything worth drawing.
However,
“There’s no pull, meow.”
There was no item that pulled his front paw. Theo left the forge empty-handed.
And on his way back to the shopping district entrance where his party was waiting,
“Pyupyu!”
A familiar voice reached Theo’s ears.
‘This is?!’
As Theo hurriedly stopped his steps and looked toward the source of the sound, he saw Iona frantically looking around while calling out someone’s name.
‘Whew. I’m not too late yet, meow.’
Theo felt relieved seeing his competitor right in front of him. Se-jun’s lap was safe.
“Fuhuhu. I must go up first quickly, meow!”
Theo laughed and tried to leave quickly, but
“Pyupyu! Where are you?!”
“Meow…”
His feet would not budge. He was conflicted. He wanted to quickly sit on Se-jun’s cozy lap and eat Churu, but he could not bring himself to leave Iona behind when she was desperately searching for someone.
“Iona! What’s wrong, meow?!”
Theo eventually decided to help Iona.
“Representative Theo, please help me! My disciple, Pyupyu, has disappeared!”
When Theo appeared, Iona explained her situation to him.
“Pyupyu? What does she look like, meow?!”
“She is a white rabbit wearing a red ribbon and big glasses.”
“Understood, meow! I will have my subordinates help, meow! It will be faster if many of us search, meow!”
Theo hurriedly ran to the entrance of the shopping district.
“You guys help Iona find a white rabbit named Pyupyu wearing a red ribbon and big glasses, meow!”
“Yes!”
The wolves and interns scattered and began to search for Pyupyu.
Then,
“Hello, Theo-nim.”
Jeras, an agent of the Secret Inspection Bureau who was patrolling the area, greeted Theo warmly. Jeras was feeling proud of his own eye for recognizing a genius merchant, watching Theo’s sales figures rapidly increase these days.
“Oh! Jeras! Help me, meow! We are looking for a white rabbit named Pyupyu, meow!”
Theo, who wanted to quickly find Pyupyu and go up to the 99th floor of the tower, asked Jeras for help out of nowhere. It was a situation where every hand was needed.
“Pyupyu?”
“Yes, meow! Let’s search together quickly, meow!”
Theo dragged Jeras along, and in his confusion, Jeras abandoned his mission of secret patrol and joined the search for Pyupyu.
However, even after several hours had passed, they could not find Pyupyu.
‘I want to quickly sit on Park Se-jun’s lap, meow.’
As Theo was longing for Se-jun’s lap,
Tingle.
Theo’s front paw activated. A powerful pull.
Tap.
Theo placed his front paw on the bundle of a wandering merchant he did not know at all.
“What?!”
The wandering merchant glared at the opponent who dared to touch his bundle.
And then,
“Uh?!”
“You?!”
Theo and Scaram locked eyes.