Chapter 40 of 100
Chapter 40. Harvesting Leeks.
8 min read2,101 words
Chapter 40. Harvesting Leeks.
On the outskirts of the first floor of the tower.
Ten Awakeners were waiting for someone. A moment later, a man with blonde hair and golden armor appeared from beyond the black wall.
Today was the day to harvest the E-grade magic cherry tomatoes planted by the Gageul Tower Farm Project team. Michael McLaren, the vice president of Gageul, personally visited the farm.
"Vice President, this way."
The team leader guided Michael to the headquarters of the Tower Farmer Project. On the first floor of the tower, buildings could be rented by individuals or groups for a fee.
"How is the acquisition of the land for the large farm going?"
"Currently, the slaves are driving out the goblin villages on the second floor of the tower and securing the land."
The people they called slaves were those whose debts Gageul had taken over and then forced into slave contracts using the tower's contract system, awakening them with tickets.
They were working to pay off debts that they could never repay in a lifetime and were not allowed to leave the tower.
While talking about the acquisition of the large farm land, they walked to the headquarters' courtyard, where Michael saw fields of cherry tomatoes hanging in clusters.
"Finally..."
Snap.
Excited, Michael approached the field and harvested a well-ripened cherry tomato to examine it. No matter how closely he looked, no description appeared.
"It's not an item."
Michael, who had been somewhat hopeful, was disappointed. However, he decided to value the fact that they had obtained the seeds to start the tower farm project.
'How does it taste?'
Michael put the cherry tomato in his mouth.
Crunch.
Squish.
The cherry tomato burst, and the juice inside splattered out.
"...?"
Munch.
Michael's expression stiffened as he cautiously chewed the cherry tomato.
And
Spit!
Michael spat out the cherry tomato.
And
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Michael's hand urgently harvested other cherry tomatoes and tasted them one by one.
But
"What's going on?!"
Michael shouted, throwing the cherry tomato in his hand.
"Vice President, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong?! This thing has no taste at all!"
"Really?!"
Upon hearing Michael's words, the team members who had grown the cherry tomatoes quickly began to taste them.
"This can't be... How can it taste like this..."
The team leader looked incredulous. Despite adding all the necessary nutrients, the cherry tomatoes had no taste.
Michael and the team leader left the tower and Michael instructed the team leader to analyze the cherry tomatoes.
Perhaps using the company's technology, they could improve the variety of the cherry tomatoes and enhance their taste.
A few hours later, the team leader returned with a report on the analysis of the cherry tomatoes harvested from the tower.
"How did it go?"
"All components are below standard. It's of the lowest grade and has no commercial value. Moreover, for some reason, there are no seeds inside."
"No seeds?!"
"Yes."
Without seeds, not only could they not improve the variety, but they couldn't even cultivate the cherry tomatoes.
"Hmm. When the trade opens on the 38th floor this time, secure all the D-grade magic cherry tomatoes by any means and replant them! Got it?!"
"Yes!"
If E-grade didn't work, Michael decided to pin his hopes on D-grade magic cherry tomatoes.
'If the grade is higher, it will be different.'
Thanks to Michael's instructions, Theo's sales were expected to reach a new peak.
***
After Theo left, Sejun spent the morning mowing grass and then prepared lunch.
Today's menu was piranha spicy soup, made by putting piranias, scallions, and carrots in a pot and seasoning with red pepper powder and salt. While organizing the items Theo had bought, Sejun found the red pepper powder in the pot.
"Theo, if you had such a precious thing, you should have told me earlier. Hehehe."
Thinking about how he would let Theo sit on his lap for 5 hours and let him eat churu to his heart's content when he returned, Sejun tasted the soup with a spoon.
Slurp.
"Ugh..."
The spiciness of the red pepper powder made Sejun's mouth tingle.
Squish?
The black rabbit cautiously tasted the ominous red liquid with its front paws. The black rabbit, which had to taste everything Sejun ate, did so.
Squish!!
After tasting the spicy soup, the black rabbit rushed to the pond and drank water in large gulps, as if its mouth was on fire.
Thanks to the black rabbit giving up and shaking its head, Sejun was able to enjoy the piranha spicy soup all by himself. Although it lacked the flavor of the spicy soup he had eaten outside due to a lack of ingredients, Sejun, who hadn't had a spicy dish in almost 200 days, ate the piranha spicy soup until the bottom of the pot was visible, and it was delicious.
"Phew. Ah. Spicy, spicy."
To soothe the spiciness, Sejun started making cherry tomato juice.
Squish! Squish!
As Sejun began to squeeze cherry tomato juice into an empty pot,
Buzz.
Honeybees flew over and injected honey into the pot. After completing the sweet cherry tomato juice, Sejun ladled some into a tumbler to soothe the spiciness.
[The tower's manager says he wants to drink cherry tomato juice.]
"I knew you would. Here, I made plenty. Quest given."
[Quest: Serve the tower's manager honey-infused cherry tomato juice.]
Reward: Eileen's affection
Refusal: Disappointment
"Here, take it."
The cherry tomato juice in the pot Sejun was holding disappeared, completing the quest.
[The tower's manager is pleased with the delicious and healthy cherry tomato juice.]
[The tower's manager asks why you didn't give him the crayfish you had last time.]
"I need to save it. Let's wait until next week to eat it."
[The tower's manager says he can wait well.]
Crayfish are not abundant, and after luring them with blood a few times, the number of crayfish that gathered decreased, and now only 1-3 crayfish gather when lured with blood.
Therefore, Sejun decided to eat crayfish only once a week to protect their population.
While Sejun was drinking cherry tomato juice and talking to the tower's manager,
Gooeng.
Gooeng approached Sejun with a glass bottle of honey. Honey, please!
"Alright."
Click.
Sejun opened the lid of the glass bottle Gooeng brought and poured a large amount of honey onto Gooeng's front paws.
The opening of the glass bottle was much larger than that of a water bottle, so one "gulp" of honey from the glass bottle was equivalent to about 20 "gulps" from the past.
Lick lick.
Gooeng quickly licked the honey flowing down its paws. Gooeng could eat so much honey because the number of honeybees had increased, significantly boosting honey production.
Currently, the two hives combined have about 400 honeybees. The honeybees patrol up to 100 meters from the cave.
The queen of the first hive, possibly stimulated by the appearance of the second hive, has increased the number of eggs she lays.
As a result, about 15 baby honeybees are born each day from both hives, and the number of honeybees is increasing rapidly.
Gooeng...
Meanwhile, Gooeng, having licked all the honey, lay down next to Sejun, and the black rabbit, sensing the situation, also came to Sejun's lap and fell asleep. Sejun had no time to feel empty.
Feeling the warmth of the black rabbit and Gooeng, Sejun took a nap and in the afternoon went down to the cave to harvest cherry tomatoes.
Harvesting the amount that he couldn't harvest in the morning, the harvest was quite large, but Sejun finished without any trouble.
And
Rip.
Sejun cut 10 shoots from the sun pumpkin sweet potatoes planted in the ground to fill the empty spaces where he had planted the leeks.
Plop.
Sejun planted the sun pumpkin sweet potato shoots in the holes he made with a dagger.
[Sun pumpkin sweet potato shoots planted.]
[The effect of Seed Sowing Lv. 3 increases the probability of the sun pumpkin sweet potato shoots taking root.]
[Occupation experience slightly increased.]
[Seed Sowing Lv. 3 proficiency slightly increased.]
[The effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1 adds 5% to the proficiency of Seed Sowing Lv. 3.]
After planting all the sun pumpkin sweet potato shoots, Sejun checked the leeks he had planted from seeds.
Until two weeks ago, they were as thick as scallions, but now they had grown to the thickness of two fingers.
"Can I harvest them now?"
Rip.
Sejun cut the leek leaves. However, no harvest message appeared.
"Is it because it's not a fruit?"
Thud.
Sejun, just in case, pulled the entire leek out.
[Detoxifying leek harvested.]
[The effect of Harvesting Lv. 4 allows the harvesting of one grade higher crops.]
[Occupation experience significantly increased.]
[Harvesting Lv. 4 proficiency significantly increased.]
[The effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1 adds 5% to the proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 4.]
[36 experience points gained.]
"Huh? One grade higher crops?"
Sejun quickly checked the leek's options.
[Detoxifying leek]
A leek grown inside the tower, rich in nutrients and delicious.
Detoxifies C+ grade or lower poisons for 1 hour upon consumption.
For non-awakeners, it enhances liver function to detoxify for 24 hours upon consumption.
Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Sejun
Expiry date: 135 days
Grade: C+
It lacked the popular fat-burning option outside the tower. Originally, it was D+ grade, but it had improved to C+ grade.
"Is it good? Well, if it's delicious, that's fine."
To Sejun, who had no need to detoxify from poisons, the detoxifying leek was just a delicious leek. Sejun left a few leeks for seed and harvested about 200 leeks.
***
At the headquarters of the Phoenix Guild on the first floor of the tower.
"Recently, the number of guild members going to the 38th floor of the tower has increased a lot. What's going on?"
The guild leader, Leon, asked while looking at the tower entry records. He had just returned after performing a quest on the 36th floor of the tower for three months.
"Recently, guild members have been enthusiastic about trading with the wandering merchant on the 38th floor, so they naturally spend more time in the tower."
The deputy guild leader, Catherine, answered.
"Wandering merchant?"
"Yes. Guild leader, look at this. Isn't it cute?"
Catherine showed Leon a photo she had taken with Theo.
"Cat?"
"Yes, Theo is a wandering merchant. And he sells these magic cherry tomatoes."
Catherine showed Leon the D-grade magic cherry tomatoes.
"Magic 0.2? It won't be much help in battle."
"You don't know. Take these to your wife, and you'll see a change in her attitude."
"Really?"
Leon was intrigued by Catherine's words. Honestly, he felt awkward about returning home after three months.
"Here, I got them with difficulty, so I'll give you 10."
"Thanks."
"More importantly, did you complete the quest?"
"I've just barely managed to gather three bottles of antidote."
Leon answered in a weak voice. The boss of the 38th floor, the Lethal Tarantula, had a pattern of releasing a strong poison gas as soon as the battle started.
Therefore, antidotes were necessary to tackle the boss, but there was no place to get antidotes that could detoxify the Lethal Tarantula's strong poison.
While struggling with the 38th floor, Leon met an alchemist researching spider venom on the 36th floor by chance.
He received a quest to bring 100 corpses of Poison Spiders that occasionally appeared in a specific area of the 36th floor in exchange for one antidote.
Together with the 1st and 2nd teams of the Phoenix Guild, they hunted Poison Spiders, and as a result, they completed the quest three times over three months and obtained three bottles of antidote.
One month to get one antidote. Since at least 20 people were needed to tackle the 38th floor boss, it meant that it would take 17 months to tackle the 38th floor boss.
"Phew."
"Go home and rest for a while."
"Alright."
After three months, Leon returned home and, thanks to the magic cherry tomatoes Catherine had prepared, received a warm welcome from his wife.
***
"Meow meow meow."
"There they come."
"Attack on the signal."
"Understood."
At the merchant passage connecting the 70th floor to the 60th floor, three silver wolves were ready to pounce as Theo whistled a tune and came out.
And
"Now!"
Rrrr. The three silver wolves ran out and surrounded Theo.
At that moment,
"...!"
"...!"
"...Chief?"
Following Theo, Black Minotaur Woo Chamsam and Woo Chansa came out of the merchant passage.
"Hehehe. Now it's my turn, meow!"
Theo laughed like a villain and looked at the silver wolves.