Chapter 56. Giving Advice

Chapter 56. Giving Advice

"Hum hum hum."

Iona hummed a tune as she walked through the shopping district. Her mood was exceptionally good as she shopped for essential items needed for the tower, something she hadn't done in a long time.

After finishing her enjoyable shopping, Iona was on her way back.

"Meow meow meow."

From the opposite direction, a yellow cat walked with its shoulders tensed.

And then,

"What meow?"

A middle-aged traveling merchant, fearlessly blocking her path.

"Who are you to not know who I am? Move aside!"

"Who are you to not know who I am, meow?!"

Elka found it amusing to watch the two little ones assert their importance.

Then,

"...?!"

Elka noticed a tiny hamster carrying a thin, red wooden staff on its back. At the end of the staff was a sinister black gem, with golden letters densely engraved on it.

'That's... the Staff of Catastrophe?'

The Staff of Catastrophe was one of the three legendary items in the tower, a personal item of Iona, the Grand Mage of the Mage Association, known as the Great Destroyer.

That means this hamster is?!

While Elka was flustered, Theo gave her a look, urging her to explain who he was.

'What should I do?'

On one side was a great black dragon's subordinate, and on the other, the Great Destroyer Iona. Both were formidable beings.

Click, click.

Elka made a difficult expression and licked her lips, caught between these two giants.

To others, it might look like a giant wolf looking down at a small cat and hamster, but Elka, the chief of the Silver Wolf tribe, felt her blood run cold.

"Milady Iona, Mr. Theo is a subordinate of the great black dragon."

Elka quickly revealed Theo's identity to prevent Iona from attacking him.

The Great Destroyer Iona. It was said that a single spell from her could make a mountain disappear and a river form. If Iona attacked Theo in a fit of anger, Theo would die instantly.

"Is this true, Silver Wolves? If it's a lie, you will all face the punishment of falsely using the great black dragon's name."

"I swear on my tribe that it is not a lie."

As Iona stared intently at Elka to see if she was telling the truth,

"Don't you dare hurt my subordinate! Talk to me, meow!"

Theo stepped forward bravely.

"Then prove that you are a subordinate of the great black dragon."

"How, meow?"

"If you are truly a subordinate of the great black dragon, take me to the great black dragon."

Iona intended to ask the great black dragon to deal with the Red Locusts that had invaded the 67th floor of the tower.

But,

"Free of charge, meow?"

Theo said with a dismissive tone. His merchant instincts told him not to agree too easily.

"What do you want?"

"First, get me something to eat, and Iona pays, meow."

"O... Okay."

Iona, surprised by Theo's answer, agreed. She had expected something grand, but it was such a trivial request. Iona looked at Theo strangely as she joined the group.

Theo went to a different general store, not the one he had visited before, to avoid the owner, a middle-aged traveling merchant, giving him things for free, which would make it pointless for Iona to pay.

Theo started choosing items to buy in the general store.

The items he was asked to get by Sejun were three large pots, a frying pan, and ten glass bottles, but since he was using Iona's money today, he added ninety glass bottles and a straw hat similar to Sejun's.

"Total is 21.1 tower coins."

"Give me a discount, meow!"

Theo started the three rounds of bargaining. He always followed Sejun's advice to bargain three times when buying something. Theo was a cat with no flexibility when it came to Sejun's instructions.

"Alright, then I'll give it to you for 13 tower coins."

"Give it to me quickly, meow!"

After three rounds of bargaining, Theo looked at Iona.

'What's with this cat?'

Iona was confused. She expected something grand, but he asked for something trivial, and in the store, he saved her money by insisting on three rounds of bargaining.

While Iona was confused,

"Hehehe. Next is the blacksmith, meow!"

Theo, wearing the straw hat he just bought, led the way to the blacksmith, feeling happy.

When they arrived at the blacksmith, fortunately, it was a different clerk, not the one who had given him free draws before.

"Give me a discount, meow!"

Theo insisted on three rounds of bargaining again, making Iona pay 12.5 tower coins for the equipment draw. Then Theo looked at the items in the draw corner.

"Can I help you?"

Iona asked, offering to help Theo, who was standing quietly with his front paws outstretched and his eyes closed. As a mage, Iona could use emotion magic and wanted to repay Theo for saving her money.

But,

"..."

Theo didn't answer and continued to focus.

Then,

Snap.

Theo picked up an item. It was a small ring. He picked the one that attracted him the most since nothing else did.

"I'll appraise it for you."

Iona, who had been ignored once, offered to help again,

"It's fine, meow."

Theo refused. His whiskers strongly resisted. He had a sense of danger that if he appraised and took this, he might be hated by a terrifying being.

"Fine! I get it! You don't need my help, meow?!"

Instead, she received the hatred of a slightly less terrifying being.

Squeak.

The wolves followed the two with anxious hearts.

***

Cue!

Wobble wobble.

Cue, who could now freely adjust her body size, entered the cave and shook Sejun awake.

"Ugh... Is it Cue?"

Sejun opened his eyes, went to the wall, and added a mark, starting the 224th day of his ordeal.

Cue. Cue.

Cue held a glass bottle of honey and followed Sejun, asking for honey.

"Alright."

Click.

Sejun opened a glass bottle of honey and poured a small amount onto Cue's front paw.

Lick. Lick.

As Cue started licking the honey, Sejun put the glass bottle back in its original place.

There were three more glass bottles of honey there. Now that the number of venomous bees had exceeded 1,000, the daily honey production was about one and a half bottles.

Sejun went to the pond, washed his face, and had breakfast with the rabbits.

Since there was nothing special today, he had a leisurely breakfast. The brick house was almost complete thanks to the cooperation of the architect rabbit and the Black Minotaurs, and the crops were growing well.

Sejun started the morning farming by harvesting cherry tomatoes as usual.

Snap.

[15 Magic Cherry Tomatoes harvested simultaneously.]

[Job experience increased slightly.]

[Harvesting Level 4 proficiency increased slightly.]

[Proficiency increase Level 1 effect: Harvesting Level 4 proficiency increased by 5%.]

[450 experience points gained.]

When Sejun brought the cut cherry tomato branches to the storage room,

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The young rabbits, now completely accustomed to farming, removed the cherry tomatoes from the branches and stored them in the storage room.

The used cherry tomato branches were bundled together and sent to the surface. They would end up in the stomachs of the Black Minotaurs along with the leek leaves.

"Phew. Done."

The cherry tomato field was now close to 1,000 square meters, but Sejun's body was different from before, so the time it took to finish was similar to before.

After finishing harvesting the cherry tomatoes, Sejun went to the surface.

Then,

"Oh!"

He saw yellow flowers blooming in the peanut field.

Buzz. Buzz.

The venomous bees gathered busily to suck the nectar from the peanut flowers. It seemed they would soon be able to eat peanuts.

"Hmm."

Feeling happy about the new food source, Sejun hummed a tune and went to the leek field.

"Wow. This is now a forest."

The leek field, where he had divided and replanted the roots, had now grown to over 2,000 square meters.

Snap. Snap.

He could hear the mother rabbit and the scythe rabbit cutting the leeks, but the leaves were so lush that he couldn't see where they were.

If the leek field continued to grow like this, it might be like people disappearing in American cornfields, and rabbits might go missing in Sejun's leek field.

"Not now."

Sejun hurriedly joined the leek field and started cutting the leek leaves.

Snap. Snap.

How much time had passed?

"Hey!"

The black rabbit called Sejun. Time for lunch!

His wife rabbit had already gone down to the cave and prepared lunch with the gray rabbits, bringing it up to the surface.

The menu was steamed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and grilled fish.

"Ah. Full."

After a satisfying lunch, Sejun sat down with a tumbler of coffee.

Snore...

Cue...

The black rabbit and Cue came to Sejun's side to take a nap.

"Cue, transform."

Sejun, worried that he would suffer later if he was fooled by her small size and let her sit on his lap, said sternly.

Cue...

Disappointed, Cue, who wanted to sleep on Sejun's lap with the black rabbit, grew larger and fell asleep with her belly against Sejun's back.

Snore.

Snore.

Sejun listened to the snoring of the black rabbit and Cue, used the Cloud Creation skill to make a shade, and moved the cloud around to increase his proficiency.

[Cloud Creation proficiency increased slightly.]

While increasing the proficiency of Cloud Creation,

[Tower administrator requests spicy food.]

[Quest has been issued.]

[Quest: Treat the depressed Eilin with spicy food.]

Reward: Decrease in Eilin's depression.

If refused: Eilin, in extreme depression, transforms into Dark Mode.

Eilin, who had been silent, finally spoke.

***

"Open!"

Eilin shouted, infusing mana into the portal in the administrator area. But with her tiny amount of mana, it was impossible to activate the portal.

"Ugh!"

Eilin tried eating dozens of Magic Cherry Tomatoes at once, but it was useless. They were just delicious.

"Argh! No!"

Eilin finally gave up on trying to activate the portal after several days.

Instead,

"I'll solve it myself."

She decided to go out and solve it herself, like a grandfather.

But,

"Whoa?!"

As soon as Eilin left the administrator area, she felt the world spin and quickly returned to the administrator area.

Her weakly beating dragon heart couldn't provide enough mana to maintain her body outside the administrator area.

"Keh... Clever human... I want spicy food."

The depressed Eilin sought out Sejun.

***

"Dark Mode?"

Although he didn't know what it was, it didn't seem good for Eilin to enter Dark Mode.

"Wait a moment."

Sejun quickly took five dried squids and went down to the cave to start making spicy stir-fried squid. He didn't hold back, using the last of his chili powder.

While Sejun was making the spicy stir-fried squid,

[Tower administrator requests counseling while sobbing.]

"Counseling?"

Eilin shared her worries.

"So, Red Locusts have invaded the 67th floor of the tower?"

[Tower administrator says yes.]

[Tower administrator says that if the Red Locusts are left alone, they will evolve into a more powerful group.]

Sejun realized the seriousness of the situation. A swarm of locusts that could evolve by eating everything...

"I'll look for a way to help."

Sejun comforted Eilin and gave her the completed spicy stir-fried squid.

[Quest completed.]

[Quest completion reward: Eilin's depression decreases after eating spicy food.]

'What should I do?'

Snap. Snap.

Sejun spent the afternoon cutting leek leaves, thinking about how to deal with the locusts. But he couldn't come up with a good solution.

Then,

"Ouch."

Sejun's hand, which was holding a leek leaf to cut, was slightly cut by the leaf.

"What?"

Sejun examined the leek leaf that had cut his finger. It felt completely different from other leaves, like touching metal. He was lucky; if he had been careless, his finger might have been cut off. The leek leaf was that hard and sharp.

Could this be?! Feeling something was off, Sejun pulled up the leek.

[Sturdy Blade Leek harvested.]

[Job experience increased very slightly.]

[Harvesting Level 4 proficiency increased slightly.]

[Proficiency increase Level 1 effect: Harvesting Level 4 proficiency increased by 5%.]

[30 experience points gained.]

"Whoa?!"

[Achievement: Created a new variety in the tower.]

[Tower grants you exclusive cultivation rights for the new variety.]

[No one can cultivate Sturdy Blade Leek without your permission.]

[Job experience increased significantly.]

While Sejun was checking the options of the Sturdy Blade Leek, the second new variety,

"I'm back, meow!"

Theo returned with a hamster.