Chapter 43. Running Away with the Goods

Chapter 43. Running Away with the Goods

Thud. Thud.

Umaoh, the king of the unicorns, started running quickly as he left the territory of the Black Minotaur. As the boss of the 99th floor, Umaoh had the duty to guard the waypoint and could not leave it for more than an hour a month.

Huff.

'This way, the smell of Ucheonsam is coming.'

Umaoh chased the smell of Ucheonsam and ran quickly.

While chasing the smell,

Hmm?!

'What?! Why is the smell of Ucheonsa coming with the smell of Ucheonsam? Could it be?! They have fallen in love? These guys!'

Everything made sense. Why they hadn't entered the territory for days. Ucheonsam must have lured Ucheonsa with delicious grass.

Now, there was no longer the Umaoh who was worried about his subordinates. There was only the Umaoh cursing the happy couple.

Hmmmm!

Umaoh roared in anger and moved violently, following the smell.

Then,

Huff. Huff.

Another smell mixed into Umaoh's nose.

This?!

It was one of the smells of the delicious grass that Umaoh had instructed Ucheonsam to find. The smell of the subordinates was also following the direction of the grass smell.

'Got them! These guys!'

Umaoh hurriedly ran towards the source of the smell. The closer he ran, the stronger the smell of the subordinates and the grass became.

And what Umaoh saw in front of him. In a place that was once a wasteland, a green field of leeks appeared. The two must be in there.

Breeding the race and eating delicious grass at the same time!

Trying to have both!

Give one to me!

Hmmmm!

Thud. Thud.

A red fur was visible next to the leek field, but Umaoh, who was determined to punish the happy Black Minotaur couple, didn't notice it.

The enraged Umaoh ran towards the leek field.

***

[99th Floor Boss Umaoh]

"Umaoh?"

Sejun was confused when he saw the giant Black Minotaur suddenly running towards the leek field.

Roar!!!

The mother Crimson Giant Bear quickly sent Gweungi to Sejun and blocked Umaoh's path.

Umaoh, the strongest on the 99th floor, didn't know if he could stop himself, but a promise was a promise. Since he had promised to guard this place, the mother Crimson Giant Bear risked her life to step in.

Then,

Rustle. Rustle.

Umaoh, seemingly uninterested in them, hurriedly pushed through the leek field, looking for something.

But finding nothing,

Munch. Munch.

He started chewing on the leek leaves without cutting them.

Crunch. Crunch.

The fragrant grass filled Umaoh's mouth. It was soft and chewy.

Hmmmm~

Umaoh, feeling too good, couldn't contain his excitement and cried out happily. He then sat on the ground and started pulling up the leeks by the roots, putting them in his mouth and swallowing them.

Crunch. Crunch.

In no time, about a quarter of the leek field was gone.

"What is this?"

Roar?

Gweungi?

Squeak?

Bam?

Sejun and the animals looked at Umaoh in amazement. The fear of Umaoh had completely disappeared. He was just a cow. A very large cow that loved leeks.

And a little while later,

Hmmmm...

Umaoh, seemingly regretful that he couldn't eat more, held a handful of leeks and ran back towards the waypoint.

"Is this the boss of the 99th floor?"

Sejun looked at the running Umaoh with a sense of futility. He regretted not thinking of going to the waypoint earlier.

"I should have brought leeks and found him sooner."

But now there was no need. Umaoh had made a mistake. He had destroyed Sejun's leek field and even ran away with the goods.

"He destroyed my field and even ran away with the goods."

The Black Minotaur clearly valued the honor of a warrior when Sejun talked to Ucheonsam. Umaoh must be the same, especially as the leader of the Black Minotaurs, he would value honor even more.

Sejun tapped his calculator in his head and smiled slyly. Turning a crisis into an opportunity, a good idea came to him.

Sejun wanted to run to the waypoint and negotiate with Umaoh, but to have a smooth negotiation with Umaoh, he decided to wait for Theo, who would translate, to arrive.

Eileen could also translate, but she sometimes fell asleep suddenly, which was a bit worrying.

Sejun started cleaning up the leek field that Umaoh had destroyed. Although it was a frustrating task, there was no sign of frustration on Sejun's face.

"Hmm hmm hmm."

He even whistled a tune and his face was full of smiles.

"First, I need to ask Umaoh to let me use the waypoint. Hehehe. And..."

Sejun thought about what he would demand from Umaoh and worked without feeling the effort.

***

The day after Umaoh had messed up the leek field.

Sejun quickly finished harvesting the cherry tomatoes in the morning and finished cleaning up the leek field, which he hadn't finished the day before due to the late hour, and started cutting the leek leaves.

Snip. Snip.

Cutting the leek leaves was done quickly. Thanks to (or because of) Umaoh destroying a quarter of the leek field yesterday, Sejun's work was greatly reduced.

"A little disappointing."

Sejun said as he sat on the ground, finishing his morning work.

Gweungi!

Gweungi, who had helped Sejun stack the leek leaves, brought a glass bottle. Honey, please!

"Sure."

Click.

As Sejun opened the glass bottle,

Puff.

Gweungi quickly extended her front paws and

Drip.

Sejun carefully poured a drop of honey.

Lick. Lick.

While Sejun watched Gweungi happily licking the honey,

[Level 1 Bumper Crop activated.]

[The 70 pyeong leek field is having a bumper crop.]

[Harvest will increase by 50% for the next week.]

"Leek field?!"

Crunch. Crunch.

Sejun heard the rough sound of life growing in his ears.

"Hey?!"

Sejun quickly looked at the leek field. The leek leaves, which had a golden hue, were growing back quickly.

The regret he felt earlier was canceled. Sejun could now harvest leek leaves three times a day from the bumper crop leek field.

And

Gweungi!

Gweungi, who could eat honey again, raised her hands and cheered. Hooray!

***

75th Floor.

Theo arrived at the Black Minotaur area and was heading to the general store to buy the glass bottles Sejun had asked for. The street was bustling with merchants today.

'I need to be careful not to get stepped on today.'

Just as Theo thought he needed to be careful not to get stepped on by the merchants,

Rustle.

The merchants parted to make a path for Theo.

'What?'

Theo was confused. The short Theo always had to dodge between the legs of the merchants to avoid getting stepped on, but today, the tall merchants didn't block his path at all.

'Hehe. They must recognize me as a mid-level traveling merchant.'

Theo held his chin high and walked proudly into the general store with the Black Minotaurs.

Theo entered the general store and

"Did you see that?!"

"Yeah, I saw it too. Wow! To see a Black Minotaur here."

"But how did he get into the store area? I thought there were no Black Minotaur traveling merchants."

"Maybe he's a free mercenary?"

"Wow, impressive. A traveling merchant who hired a Black Minotaur as a free mercenary. I'd like to see him once."

"Right. I need to make a good impression on such a big traveling merchant."

None of the merchants knew that the employer of the Black Minotaur had just passed by their feet.

Inside the general store

Clunk.

Theo placed 20 glass bottles on the counter.

Huff. Huff.

Behind Theo, Ucheonsam and Ucheonsa stood with three wolves on their shoulders, breathing heavily as they looked down at the store owner.

"How much?"

"U... 0.15 Tower Coins per glass bottle, so a total of 3 Tower Coins."

The store owner said in a very nervous voice.

"Give me a discount, nya!"

Theo tried the first discount.

"T... Then I'll give them to you for 1.5 Tower Coins."

'What?'

Theo was momentarily confused by the store owner's treatment, which immediately gave a 50% discount.

'Hehe. He must be trying to make a good impression on me as a mid-level traveling merchant.'

Although the price seemed to be sufficiently discounted, he still needed to try two more discounts as Sejun had instructed.

"Give me a discount, nya!"

"More here?"

The store owner answered in a voice that sounded like he was about to cry in response to Theo's second discount attempt.

"Or..."

"N... No! I'll give them to you for 0.5 Tower Coins!"

The store owner shouted with a pale face. Although the cost of one glass bottle was 0.1 Tower Coins, he didn't want to end up as a corpse on the shoulders of the Black Minotaur.

'What? I was about to say I'd leave if he didn't...'

Theo felt something was off and tried to discount again.

"Give me a discount, nya!"

"I didn't realize it. I'll just give them to you. Please spare me!"

The store owner prostrated himself on the floor and shouted.

"Uh... Thank you, nya."

Theo, confused, picked up the 20 glass bottles and left the store.

'Sure enough, Park Sejun's words are the truth, nya!'

Theo once again realized Sejun's greatness.

When Theo tried to discount three more times at the blacksmith,

"Just take them."

"Thank you, nya!"

The blacksmith also allowed him to pull equipment for free.

But

"Nothing catches my eye, nya."

Still, it was free, so he pulled something.

"Let's go, nya!"

Theo, having finished his tasks, went back up to the 99th floor with the Black Minotaurs using the merchant passage.

The store area that Theo and the Minotaurs swept through.

Rumors spread that the Black Minotaur had intimidated a cat merchant into a free mercenary contract and was causing havoc, making it harder to hire Black Minotaurs as free mercenaries.

***

When Sejun came down from the leek field, which had a bumper crop, after cutting the leek leaves three times and was about to have dinner,

"Huh?!"

The black rabbit was nowhere to be seen. Sejun realized he hadn't seen the black rabbit since lunchtime.

Squeak!

Bam!

The other white rabbits also noticed the black rabbit's disappearance and started looking for it.

Then,

Bam!

The black rabbit burst out of the water, releasing the breath it had been holding.

"Huh? I checked the pond too."

While Sejun was puzzled,

Bam!

The black rabbit, having caught its breath, pointed to a hole in the pond. Upon closer inspection, the hole in the pond had widened significantly.

Bam!

The black rabbit mimicked the action of hitting the wall with the end of its hammer. I broke it!

After the pond poisoning (or fish killing) incident, the black rabbit, noticing that piranhas and crayfish no longer came around the pond, had gone outside the pond to find prey.

"Hey! That's dangerous!"

The pond water was diluted and not poisonous, but Sejun knew that there were dangerous monsters like giant electric eels outside the pond, in addition to piranhas and crayfish.

But

Bam! Bam!

The black rabbit argued back. I'm a warrior too! Warriors must become stronger! It had the duty to protect Sejun, the family, and the fields as a warrior.

But...

The black rabbit knew. It was the weakest here, after Sejun.

Sejun, who didn't realize it was being treated as the weakest, was unaware.

So, when the piranhas and crayfish, which gave experience points, disappeared, it felt anxious and ventured outside the pond. Sejun's mention of giant electric eels outside the pond also played a role.

"Black rabbit, you..."

Sejun realized he hadn't understood the black rabbit's heart enough. You were that hungry for meat?

Bam!

The black rabbit nodded, thinking Sejun understood its intention.

Different Beds, Different Dreams

Day 206 of the ordeal. Although they had been living together for almost half a year, Sejun and the black rabbit still didn't understand each other.