Vladivostok, Russia.
Caw. Caw.
“Ah. So noisy.”
“Why are those things acting like that?!”
“Ugh! Such bad luck!”
People were annoyed as they watched hundreds of thousands of crows flying in the sky, forming two giant concentric circles.
The crows had been crying out like that for already three hours.
It was understandable that people were getting annoyed.
As the people were getting annoyed,
Caw. Caw.
“Huh?! There they gather again!”
“What?!”
People saw tens of thousands more crows flying in, joining the giant flock as if they were originally part of it, and together they formed two concentric circles.
The crows kept flocking in, and before long, their number had surpassed a million.
And then,
[Н Э Ю Ц Ч Ð]
Faint, blood-colored letters began to appear between the two concentric circles formed by the crows.
As the crows’ behavior became ominous,
Thump. Thump.
Several helicopters filled with soldiers approached, shooting at the crows with machine guns.
However, far from running away,
Caw. Caw.
Some crows broke away from the flock and dove at the helicopters, attacking the soldiers.
The crows, with their eyes turned blood-red, attacked the soldiers.
“Aargh!”
A moment later,
Boom! Bang!
Helicopters crashed in the city center.
“Kayak!”
“Run away!”
Seeing the abnormal behavior of the crows and the helicopters being taken down, people hurriedly fled the city.
In the meantime,
Caw. Caw.
The crows continued to draw the two concentric circles, and as the sky darkened, the blood-colored letters were completed.
Then,
Whoosh.
In the center of the middle circle, a chilling red eyeball appeared, peering out from the darkness.
-Hmm… This dimension doesn’t seem to be anything special…
Blink.
The red eyeball blinked in wonder, and then,
Drip.
A single drop of red tear fell from the hole to Earth, closing the hole.
And then,
Swoosh.
The red tear spread out, swallowing up all the surrounding crows.
The crows turned into a giant black mass.
Crack. Crackle.
In an instant, this form changed into the second seat of the Apostles of Destruction, the Crow of Death, Halphas,
Halphas had sent a fragment of himself to Earth to directly command the calamities.
Sending a fragment to another dimension came with significant restrictions, so it was a very weak fragment.
Of course, there was no one on Earth who could oppose a fragment of Halphas.
-Kukukuk. Be honored to face the army led by me, the Crow of Death, Halphas. Come forth, calamities.
With Halphas’ words, dozens of small holes appeared around,
Flap. Flap.
Black locusts, their bodies entirely black, started pouring out.
***
“Done! Ajax, good job.”
“Yep! Hyung!”
Sejun, having harvested all the pears, praised Ajax for his help.
Turning around, Sejun saw 10,000 pears neatly placed on the dry ground to evaporate the moisture.
The remaining 490,000 were, due to laziness, temporarily stored in Sejun and Theo’s bag.
“Hehehe. We picked a lot.”
Sejun wore a proud expression.
At that moment
[Your soul feels fulfilled.]
[Your Mental Strength increases by 1.]
A message appeared.
“Ah. So, this is when mental strength increases.”
Sejun roughly grasped when the soul becomes filled.
It seemed that the soul gets filled after using Tower Farmer skills like Harvesting or Seed Harvesting, feeling a sense of accomplishment or pride.
“But does mental strength also include in all stats?”
Suddenly curious if mental strength stat also increases due to the Retrogressor effect, Sejun checked his stats.
And then,
Mental Strength (12/500)
“That’s a pity…”
He confirmed that the special stat, mental strength, is not included in all stats.
Just then,
Kueng!
[Daddy Cuengi brought food!]
Thud.
Cuengi appeared, his boat laden with fish.
Cuengi discovered fish on his way upriver after meeting Flamie.
Kueng!
[They look delicious!]
Bang!
He caught them by creating a shockwave in the water.
“I was getting hungry anyway, good job, Cuengi.”
Tap. Tap.
Sejun patted Cuengi’s bottom as a form of praise.
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. Let’s eat them quickly!]
“Alright. Let’s see what kind of fish Cuengi caught.”
As Sejun was about to check the fish Cuengi had caught,
“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, these are rainbow trouts, meow! Rainbow trout is delicious when grilled, meow!”
Theo recognized the fish and spoke up, being an enthusiast of grilled fish.
Then,
“Alright. Vice Chairman Theo, I’ll grill them for you.”
“Puhuhut. Sounds good, meow!”
He only noted the latter part. After all, this was someone who believed grilled was the best way to enjoy any fish.
A while later,
“Guys, time to eat.”
Sejun called his companions over after preparing three dishes: grilled rainbow trout, spicy rainbow trout stew, and raw rainbow trout sashimi.
“Puhuhut. Chairman Park’s grilled fish is the best, meow!”
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. It melts in the mouth!]
“Yum! Delicious!”
Piyiyi! Piyo!
[Pffft! I like the peanuts fried by Sejun the best!]
Kking!
‘Everything he gives us is delicious!’
The five enjoyed Sejun’s cooking.
Click.
Sejun also picked up his chopsticks to dip a piece of rainbow trout sashimi in soy sauce and ate it.
“Mm. Delicious.”
It was savory and tasty.
However,
“It’s getting a bit bland.”
After continuously eating the savory trout sashimi, he craved something spicy.
So,
Slice. Slice. Slice.
He hurriedly sliced some Cheongyang chili peppers, added them to the soy sauce, and ate them together with the trout sashimi.
Crunch. Crunch.
“Ah, this is it.”
Sejun smiled in satisfaction with the spicy taste when
Thud.
Fenrir, having eaten ten pieces of trout sashimi, struggled to walk over to Sejun and lay down in front of him.
Kking…
‘My stomach hurts…’
Asking to be petted to help with digestion.
“Did our Blackie eat too much?”
Pat. Pat.
Sejun petted Fenrir’s belly as he ate the grilled fish and stew.
After about 30 minutes of being petted by Sejun,
Burp.
Fenrir belched, growing slightly bigger.
Then,
Kking!
‘Great! Time for round two!’
Thump. Thump.
Fenrir headed back to eat more trout sashimi.
However,
Empty.
The plate that had held the trout sashimi was now clean.
Kking?
‘What else is there to eat?’
Fenrir hurriedly checked the grilled and stew dishes.
But,
Kking…
‘Gone…’
All the other dishes had disappeared too. Fenrir’s digestive speed was too slow for a second round.
As Fenrir looked sadly at the empty dishes,
Click.
Sejun checked the pears he had laid out on the ground.
But,
“They’re still the same.”
Not a single drop of the pear’s moisture had evaporated. It seemed a much drier climate was needed.
“Ajax, wanna try drying these?”
“Yep! Hyung! Dry!”
At Sejun’s words, Ajax used magic on the pears Sejun was holding.
The moisture rapidly evaporated, causing the pears to shrivel.
[Shriveled Pear]
Quickly drying them with magic changed their name and removed the option to increase strength and stamina.
“This isn’t it either.”
It seemed he would need to find or create a drying place later to evaporate the moisture.
“Let’s take the pears and head back.”
Sejun and his companions prepared to leave for the 99th floor of the tower.
And then,
Kueng!
[We’re off!]
Cuengi’s boat flew towards the waypoint.
A little later,
“Guys, get in.”
Upon arriving at the waypoint, Sejun put his companions into the void storage and then,
Click.
[The 81st floor of the Black Tower waypoint has been saved.]
He placed his hand on a red crystal to register the waypoint and then,
[Moving to the 99th floor of the Black Tower.]
returned to the 99th floor of the tower.
***
Red Tower, 51st floor.
There were 100,000 dwarf warriors gathered, armed with battle axes or battle hammers and wearing helmets and armor.
At the forefront of these dwarf warriors stood Udon, the Red Tower’s Tower Farmer, clad in red armor.
Opposite the dwarfs, an extensive area as far as the eye could see was filled with cacti forming a colony.
A short while later,
“Lord Udon, we are ready!”
Red Sand Tribe, Red Rock Tribe, Red Stone Tribe, Red Hammer Tribe, Red Axe Tribe.
The dwarf chieftains leading the five tribes reported to Udon.
“Good. All troops, charge!”
Click.
Udon was the first to run forward, raising his axe, following the dwarf warriors’ report.
“Attack!”
“Waaaa!”
100,000 dwarf warriors followed behind him.
The idea of a Tower Farmer leading the charge was a quite different atmosphere from the Black Tower.
As the dwarfs charged,
Crunch. Crunch.
The cacti, which had rooted themselves in the ground to absorb moisture, uprooted and stood up.
“Urat-cha! Giant’s Lumberjack Strike!”
Udon, who had reached the cacti, raised his battle axe above his head and swung it down powerfully.
Then,
Boom!
A gigantic red axe, 10 meters in size, extended from the battle axe and fell towards the cacti.
“Waaaa! Die!”
Thud. Thud.
The dwarfs following Udon attacked the cacti.
Swoosh. Swoosh.
The cacti shot their thorns at the dwarfs in retaliation but,
Ting. Ting.
They couldn’t penetrate the armor and shields.
“Giant’s Axe Strike!”
“Die!”
Udon and the 100,000 dwarfs rampaged against the cacti.
Since the cacti were weak, the battle ended in a few hours.
“Collect the cacti corpses and return!”
“Yes!”
After the dwarfs returned,
Crunch. Crunch.
Not long after, new cacti began to grow again.
However, these cacti were different from before.
Cacti that had evolved after fulfilling the conditions by desertifying more than half of the Red Tower.
Whooosh.
Instead of thorns, they spewed fire, and the surroundings began to heat up even faster.
***
[You have arrived at the 99th floor of the Black Tower.]
Upon Sejun’s arrival at the 99th floor,
Moo.
[Did you have a good trip, Sejun~nim?]
The Minotaur King, guarding the waypoint, greeted him.
“Yep. It was a good trip. Guys, come out.”
Clank.
Sejun replied and opened the void storage.
Then,
“Chairman Park, I missed you, meow!”
Theo dashed out, leaping towards Sejun’s face.
However,
“Huh. I knew it.”
Click.
Sejun raised his leg toward Theo and showed him his knee.
“It’s my knee, meow!”
Swoosh.
Slap.
Theo, changing direction in mid-air, clung to Sejun’s knee.
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. It was delicious!]
“Yippee. Sejun hyung, the storage was so much fun!”
Piyo!
[Right!]
Meanwhile, other members of the party emerged from the void storage after snacking on roasted sweet potatoes and rice cakes, except for Fenrir, who had eaten too much to move.
Kking… Kking…
‘Could someone move me? I can’t move…’
“Our Blackie, overate again?”
Sejun picked up Fenrir to soothe his belly and then
“Toryong.”
rode on Toryong to head back to the farm.
Burp.
By the time Fenrir belched,
-Master, we have arrived.
they had arrived home.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Sejun thanked Toryong and got down to the ground.
“Let’s try placing a few in the room?”
Click.
The room had underfloor heating, which seemed ideal for evaporating the moisture from the pears.
After Sejun placed 10 pears in the room and left,
“Grandpa Tier, these are called pears, and they say it tastes better when the moisture is evaporated.”
Ajax was seen explaining to Tier.
Tier, who was keeping an eye on Theo, came over when Ajax took out a new crop from the void storage, curious to see.
-Really?
Tier examined the pear.
-Oh! As expected of Sejun! I knew you’d bring something Ramter needed!
After checking the pear’s option, Tier hurriedly flew to the fountain to call Ramter.
A little while later,
-Sejun! I’ll dry these for you!
Ramter, having checked the pear’s options, offered to dry them himself.
-I’ll even pay you!
Thanks to this, Sejun not only got his pears dried but also earned some tower coins.
Moreover,
‘Indeed, That’s our Sejun.’
He received plenty of love and trust from the four dragons.
*****
