Chapter 54. Evolving.

Chapter 54. Evolving.

75th Floor of the Tower.

The President's Office of the Wandering Merchant Association.

Mason, the President of the Wandering Merchant Association, a member of the Fox Clan.

Hannibal, the President of the Free Mercenary Association, a member of the Tiger Clan.

Iona, the President of the Mage Association, a member of the Hamster Clan.

The leaders of the three major forces that influence the entire tower gathered.

"Five days have passed since the Red Locusts appeared on the 67th floor of the tower. According to our information, two-thirds of the 67th floor have been devastated by the Red Locusts. Currently, the Lizardmen are desperately defending the area centered around the waypoint."

Mason spoke about the information he had gathered.

"Why isn't the Great Black Dragon taking action?"

Iona asked with a worried voice.

"To be honest, I don't know. But we can't just wait. If we do, another great famine like the one a hundred years ago might occur."

The great famine a hundred years ago began when the Red Locusts invaded the 55th floor, the tower's best granary.

Before that, there had been Red Locust invasions, but the Great Black Dragon always intervened, so the tower's inhabitants didn't consider it a major issue.

However...

This time, the Great Black Dragon didn't appear until several hours after the Red Locusts invaded.

As a result, the Kingdom of Red Ribbon, ruled by the rabbits on the 55th floor, was destroyed. Unfortunately, the Red Locusts appeared above the kingdom, causing a massive food shortage throughout the tower.

"You're right. It's only a matter of time before the waypoint is occupied. If the Red Locusts take over the 67th floor's waypoint, they will soon start moving up to the higher floors."

Hannibal strongly agreed with Mason.

If the Red Locusts occupy the 68th floor's waypoint, the next target will be the 69th floor.

On the 69th floor, the Lizardmen's kingdom owns the Draken Farm, one of the five major granaries in the tower. This isn't just a problem for the Lizardmen.

If food production decreases, the distribution of food will also decrease, prices will rise, and those who can't afford to buy food will starve or turn to banditry.

The collapse of the tower's overall order. They had already experienced it once and knew how serious the consequences could be.

"The Wandering Merchant Association will provide supplies worth 1 million Tower Coins."

"The Free Mercenary Union will dispatch 10,000 free mercenaries."

"The Seven Great Magic Towers Association will send 200 war mages."

Thus, the reinforcements to stop the Red Locusts on the 67th floor set out.

***

38th Floor of the Tower.

"When is that cat wandering merchant coming?!"

"Let's wait a bit longer. If he doesn't come today, we'll go back."

Five hunters were waiting for Theo on a path leading to the trading spot.

They were kidnappers who, after learning that the magic cherry tomatoes were selling for a high price outside, planned to kidnap Theo and find out the location of the farm.

Then,

"Meow meow meow."

The sound of Theo's whistling could be heard.

"He's coming."

The hunters quickly hid behind the wall.

And

'Now!'

Just as the hunters were about to pounce on Theo,

"Grumble. How dare you touch President Theo!"

"Grumble. Poor souls."

Two silver wolves, who had appeared behind them, growled with a slight aura of killing intent.

'What?!'

The hunters, shocked by the killing intent, fainted.

"Meow meow meow. Money is rolling in, meow!"

Theo, whistling, stamped the thumbs of the unconscious hunters on a contract.

'Hehehe. Since you targeted me, I'll take a lot of money!'

In Theo's mind, the formula 'those who attack me = those who give me money' had been formed.

'Hehehe. Park Sejun said my bounty is 10,000 Tower Coins, meow!'

"You guys, when they wake up, take 10,000 Tower Coins from them, meow!"

Theo planned to collect the bounty Sejun had set for him from the hunters.

"Understood."

Theo handed the hunters over to the wolves and moved the cherry tomatoes from the wolves' bags to his own.

"Then I'll be off, meow."

Theo moved to the trading spot.

***

Day 220 of the Stranding.

Moo!

Finally, the completed mud bricks and jet-black materials began to be delivered to Sejun's cave.

Beep!

Moo!

The architect gray rabbit indicated where to place the bricks, and the Black Minotaur placed them in the designated spots.

And

Swish swish.

Sejun and the gray rabbits applied mud around the bricks to fill the gaps between them. The outer wall of the first floor of a house about 30 pyeong in size was quickly completed.

They placed bricks at intervals and covered them completely with more bricks. The first floor of bricks below was for making a fire. Sejun had built an ondol (underfloor heating) in the house.

One might wonder why an ondol is needed in a place that isn't particularly cold, but with an ondol, the house's humidity can be reduced, and occasionally, when the body feels heavy, sweating it out can be incredibly refreshing.

After stacking a few layers of bricks, the house reached Sejun's waist height.

However, one being looked at it with displeasure.

Gweng...

It was Gweng. The door of the house was too narrow for Gweng to enter.

Daddy didn't even think about me... I want to shrink and enter the house...

While Gweng was feeling down,

Swoosh.

Gweng's wish came true, and his body began to shrink.

Gweng?!

Gweng looked at his shrinking body.

And

Gweng!

An excited Gweng flew towards Sejun. Daddy, I've shrunk!

But

Thud!

"Oof!"

Sejun, hit with the impact of a large truck, flew and landed in a leek field. Gweng had shrunk in size but remained the same in weight.

If the leeks hadn't absorbed the shock, he would have flown much farther.

Blink. Blink.

Sejun, who had briefly visited the other world, opened his eyes and felt the dampness.

Gweng!

Gweng was delighted to see Sejun open his eyes.

"Hmm... You... What happened?"

Sejun asked, seeing the shrunken Gweng. Gweng had shrunk to the size he was when they first met.

Gweng. Gweng!

[I don't know. I just got smaller!]

Then,

"Huh?"

Sejun noticed that Gweng's name above his head had changed.

[Crimson Giant Honey Bear]

"Honey Bear?"

Gweng had evolved into a Honey Bear.

"Can't you grow bigger now?"

Sejun asked, worried. He feared that Gweng's mother, the Crimson Giant Bear, might be angry and even kill him for what he had done to her cub.

Gweng!

Gweng shook his head and returned to his original size, or rather, grew to 5 meters, becoming even larger than before.

All this time, Gweng had been unconsciously making himself smaller because he wanted to stay with Sejun and shrink.

"Wow!"

Sejun looked at Gweng, who could freely change his size, in amazement.

"Huh?!"

Then, Sejun realized this was an emergency. The storage in the cave!

Until now, Gweng couldn't enter the cave, so it was safe. But if Gweng started going in and out of the cave, the crops in the storage would be at risk.

"Black Rabbit!"

Sejun called out to the black rabbit, looking down into the cave.

Splash!

The black rabbit, who had been hunting in the pond, came up to the surface.

"From now on, you'll go with Gweng. Got it?"

Splash!

Gweng!

The two answered energetically and ran off excitedly. Where are they going?

Sejun had meant to have the black rabbit watch over Gweng, but they took it as an invitation to play together.

With that, Sejun went down to the cave to prepare lunch.

Today's menu was stir-fried squid. When Sejun went down to the cave, there were already 30 squids caught and cleaned by the black rabbit. The black rabbit was indeed reliable.

Chop. Chop.

Sejun cut the squid into bite-sized pieces.

Then, he heated the pot and added the last piece of eel fat.

Sizzle.

The fat melted, releasing a fragrant aroma and turning into oil.

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Sejun cut the leeks and started making leek oil by stir-frying them in the oil.

When the leek aroma infused the oil, he added the cleaned squids and stir-fried them together.

After about 10 minutes, when the squids turned white, he added chili powder and other seasonings, along with carrots, and continued stir-frying.

A moment later,

[You have completed Spicy Stir-Fried Squid.]

[Your Cooking Level 2 proficiency has slightly increased.]

[The proficiency increase from Level 1 Cooking has added a 5% increase to your Level 2 Harvesting proficiency.]

[The recipe for Spicy Stir-Fried Squid has been registered in Cooking Level 2.]

For the white rabbits and gray rabbits who couldn't handle spicy food, Sejun prepared raw squid and salt. The spicy stir-fried squid was shared by Sejun, the black rabbit, and Gweng.

"Aileen, do you want to eat?"

Aileen, for some reason, wasn't responding well lately.

"Is something wrong?"

While Sejun was worried about Aileen,

Crunch...

Gweng...

The black rabbit and Gweng, who had finished eating, came to take a nap. Gweng, now able to sit on Sejun's lap, shared it with the black rabbit.

Snore.

Snore.

They fell asleep quickly.

When the rest period ended,

"Ouch."

Sejun's legs, which had been under Gweng, were numb and couldn't move for a while.

***

"Hey humans, I'm here, meow!"

Theo, who was about to earn 10,000 Tower Coins, appeared at the trading spot with a bright voice.

But

"Why are there so few, meow?"

The number of hunters waiting was less than expected, about 30.

Just as Theo's good mood was about to sour,

"Theo, please wait a moment."

"Yeah, my teammates are coming."

"It should take about 10 minutes."

"Are you daring to make the deadly yellow cat Mr. Park wait?! I'll wait for exactly one hour, meow!"

"Huh? Oh, okay."

For a cat who was angry, Theo was quite generous, willing to wait for an hour.

"Hey, it's me! Hurry up!"

"Hurry up! Theo is here!"

The hunters quickly contacted their teammates who were out hunting using their hunter phones.

As more hunters continued to wait here, the team leaders decided to set up a camp.

It was a waste of time to just wait, so 1-2 members from each team stayed here to wait for Theo while the rest went hunting.

Soon, the hunters who had gone hunting returned, and nearly 300 hunters gathered for the auction.

This auction also attracted the Royal Knight Guild and the Wizard Guild, who were closely following the Phoenix Guild.

"There are a lot of hunters."

Leon observed the gathered hunters. Thanks to Theo's one-hour wait, Leon, who had been on a quest for an antidote on the 36th floor, could also participate.

Since bringing the magic cherry tomatoes home, his wife's treatment of him had definitely improved, so he was determined to secure them.

'Hehehe. There are a lot of customers, meow.'

Theo smiled, looking at the 300 hunters.

Then,

"Today, I will auction 6,000 C-grade magic cherry tomatoes, 500 at a time, meow!"

"What?! C-grade?!"

The hunters were excited. It had been a month since D-grade magic cherry tomatoes were released, and the research results on their effects were just starting to come out, revealing their amazing efficacy. Now, C-grade?

"500 for 350 Tower Coins!"

Without even checking the options?

Leon called out a price without checking the options. He wanted to quickly secure the tomatoes and return to his quest. The auction for the magic cherry tomatoes started at 0.7 Tower Coins per tomato.

Then,

"500 for 600 Tower Coins, sold, meow!"

The first auction ended with Leon buying the magic cherry tomatoes at 1.2 Tower Coins each.

"Here you go, meow!"

Leon took the C-grade magic cherry tomatoes from Theo and checked the options.

"Huh?!"

Leon's eyes widened when he saw the option that increased magic power by 0.5. 0.5, not 0.3?! Eating 10 would increase magic power by 5.

Leon thought of the A-grade item, the Sharp Fang of the Poison Spider, which he had stored in his warehouse due to a lack of 5 magic points. Wearing the Sharp Fang of the Poison Spider would triple his hunting speed.

'I'll buy the rest!'

"500 for 650 Tower Coins!"

Leon, who had initially planned to buy only once, changed his mind and joined the auction again.

Seeing Leon's change in attitude after checking the C-grade magic cherry tomatoes' options, the hunters gained confidence and actively participated in the auction. Theo earned 8,900 Tower Coins from the auction.

After the auction ended and the hunters were about to go hunting again,

"I have one more item to sell today, the Leek of Antidote, meow..."

Theo, with an uncertain voice, took out the Leek of Antidote from his backpack.