Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The morning of Day 12 since entering the Tower.

Woo-jin woke beneath warm sunlight.

“Haaam.”

He had slept well.

When he slightly turned his head and looked beside him, he saw Blackie sleeping inside the Yukgaejang box.

You said you hated it because it was shabby, but you’re sleeping just fine.

Ziiip.

He opened the zipper of the sleeping bag and came outside.

After putting on his slippers, he did some light stretching.

The inside of the cave was chilly, but it did not feel particularly cold.

[Cold Resistance Lv. 1]

- Description: Slightly adapts you to cold environments, making you feel the cold less.

It seemed this was largely thanks to that.

The very, very tiny amount of resistance he had gained by eating potatoes probably helped too, right? Or maybe not.

Without waking Blackie, Woo-jin checked the crops he had planted.

In particular, Woo-jin was curious about the state of the Sweet Potato Slips he had planted yesterday, so he immediately walked over to the sweet potatoes.

“Hehe. They’re growing well.”

When he had planted them yesterday, the stems had been limp and drooping, but overnight, they had lifted their heads sharply.

The leaves that had been lying weakly on the soil were stretching out stiffly as if they had drunk their fill of water, and their color had changed from pale green to a slightly deeper green.

According to the farming book, 【You Can Do It Too! First Steps to Vegetable Gardening】, when sweet potato slips were planted in May, new shoots could be seen after about two weeks.

But in the Tower, in just one day, not only had new shoots appeared, but the leaves had grown vigorously.

‘They really grow fast. Very nice.’

At this rate, would he not be able to harvest them tomorrow?

In the farming book, the farmer uncle had taken about five months to harvest sweet potatoes, yet in the Tower, he was already looking forward to harvesting them after only a few days.

“Nyah.”

He heard a sound behind him and turned around. Blackie had come out of the box and was stretching with his backside pushed far back.

Their eyes met.

“Did you sleep well, Blackie?”

“It was not bad, nyah.”

“Really? So it wasn’t good... Then I should just throw the box away.”

“Wh-what are you talking about, nyah! If you’re going to throw it away, give it to me, nyah!”

Woo-jin chuckled.

“I’m joking. Anyway, aren’t you hungry?”

Blackie’s eyes sparkled.

“I’m hungry, nyah! I want Churu, nyah!”

“No. Churu is a special treat.”

“You’re too much, nyah!”

“But what do you usually eat?”

“Me, nyah?”

Blackie quickly ran toward the Administrator Passage.

A moment later, what Blackie brought back in his mouth was a sack labeled <Bulk Administrator Snack>.

‘Don’t tell me?’

Woo-jin’s guess was correct.

The sack was full of what looked like cat kibble.

[Bulk Administrator Snack]

- Type: Consumable

- Grade: F

- Description: A bulk snack supplied for administrators assigned to the Tower. It does not taste good, but eating it fills the stomach.

“You were eating kibble?”

“That’s right, nyah.”

What was this?

How was what he ate any different from a house cat?

Woo-jin picked up one piece of kibble and sniffed it.

He bit it in half with a crunch and tried eating just a little.

“It doesn’t taste like anything?”

“It’s just for filling the stomach, nyah.”

“I see. Do the other administrators live on only this too?”

“No, nyah. If an administrator’s grade goes up, they can eat better snacks, nyah.”

“Administrator grade? There’s something like that too. What are you?”

“I’m F Grade, nyah. The lowest, nyah.”

At that moment, Blackie caught his breath.

Because just yesterday.

- Whoa! You must be incredibly capable!

- You were assigned alone to the highest difficulty, right? Doesn’t that mean you’re incredibly outstanding?

- Th-that’s right, nyah! This great me is the most outstanding administrator of all, nyah!

- I knew it. An administrator of Mythic difficulty. That’s amazing.

He remembered having said that.

Blackie had completely forgotten that he had lied to look impressive to an adventurer who knew nothing, and now he had made a slip of the tongue.

“Huh? Then yesterday…….”

Seeing Woo-jin tilt his head, Blackie felt utterly pathetic.

“Nyah, nyah, nyaaaah.”

“Wh-why are you crying all of a sudden?”

“The truth is, I lied, nyaaaah.”

“About what?”

“Sniff. Didn’t I say I was the most capable, nyah? Actually, I’m dead last, nyah. That’s why I’m F Grade, nyah. I’m sorry I lied, nyah.”

Woo-jin shrugged.

“Well, that can happen. Anyway, it’s true that you’re the only administrator here, right? Isn’t it?”

“That’s true, nyah! I can swear it, nyah!”

“Then to me, you’re the No. 1 administrator.”

Blackie blinked.

Had there ever been anyone in his life who had treated him this kindly?

“Nyaaaaaah!”

“Why are you crying again?!”

Woo-jin patted Blackie on the back and soothed him until he stopped crying.

He was a total crycat.

“Thank you for saying that, nyah!”

“Let’s do our best from now on. Together.”

---

Today’s breakfast.

He decided to have a reasonable amount of boiled potatoes.

They increased his resistance and tasted good, killing two birds with one stone.

[You have made Boiled Potato with Cooking.]

[Cooking Lv. 2 proficiency has increased.]

He boiled three potatoes.

Two were his. One was Blackie’s.

Of course, if Blackie said it was not enough, he was willing to boil more.

Woo-jin peeled the potato and placed it in front of Blackie.

The cat no longer whined for Churu. He seemed to have accepted that Churu was a special treat.

“What is this, nyah?”

“Boiled Potato. Try it. It’s good. Do cats not eat potatoes?”

“...That’s not the problem. How does a potato have a resistance bonus, nyah?!”

[Boiled Potato]

- Grade: D

- Effect

- Taste Bonus +10%

- Permanently increases all resistances by +0.002 when consumed.

- Description: A Tower Resistance Potato that has been boiled. It is piping hot.

In the Tower, the value of resistance was extremely high.

Because resistance here was survival itself.

Almost all monsters possessed ‘attribute damage,’ and when resistance was high, attribute damage was reduced.

That was why, when adventurers bought all kinds of equipment items to secure resistance, they prioritized buying items with a great deal of resistance attached.

Aside from that, if one could obtain ‘resistance’ skills such as Fire Resistance or Cold Resistance, that would be the highest priority. But among the countless skill books one had a 10 percent chance of obtaining every time one cleared a floor, getting a resistance skill book felt like winning the lottery.

That resistance.

To think it could be obtained merely by eating potatoes?

Of course, the value was extremely faint, but if it accumulated, it would become a level that could not be ignored.

That was why Blackie was so shocked.

It was his first time seeing anything like this.

“I don’t know either. When I planted potatoes and harvested them, they came out like that. I think it’s because I have farming skills.”

“F-farming skills, nyah?”

The countless skills that existed in the Tower.

Among them, there were some non-combat skills, but were there farming skills too?

POP!

He checked the administrator manual.

Because it had a skill list.

‘They exist, nyah!’

Soil Tilling.

Seed Planting.

Harvest.

They were skills neither adventurers nor most administrators paid attention to. When studying the manual, most people simply skimmed over them as things that existed.

‘If you farm with farming skills, things like this come out, nyah! No, but how did this adventurer obtain skills, nyah?’

He could not understand it.

To obtain a skill, one had to clear a floor.

Then, there was a 10 percent chance of obtaining a skill.

Woo-jin, who had been summoned to the Tower and arrived on the 99th Floor of Mythic difficulty, naturally could not have cleared even a single floor, and having no skills should have been normal.

“Wait a moment, nyah!”

Scurry!

Blackie ran back to the Administrator Passage again.

What he brought this time was a small magnifying glass.

[Adventurer Status Window Magnifying Glass]

- Type: Administrator Item

- Grade: S

- Effect: Allows you to peek at the Status Window of a designated adventurer.

- Description: One of the basic tools provided to administrators assigned to the Tower. It allows them to check an adventurer’s Status Window.

[Scanning Adventurer ‘Lee Woo-jin’s’ Status Window.]

I can see it!

Your Status Window!

Name: Lee Woo-jin

Level: 1

Abilities

- Strength: 3

- Agility: 3

- Stamina: 3

- Magic Power: 3.07

- Resistance: 0.022

Skills: Soil Tilling Lv. 3, Seed Planting Lv. 3, Harvest Lv. 2, Cold Resistance Lv. 1, Cooking Lv. 2, Stealthy Footsteps Lv. 1, Fire Resistance Lv. 1, Dark Adaptation Lv. 1

Coins: 6,353

Difficulty: Mythic

Floor: 99th Floor

“Nyah, nyah, nyah?!”

What is this?

“There are one, two, ...eight skills, nyah?!”

“Yeah.”

“How do you have skills, nyah? And how did you raise the skill levels, nyah?!”

Woo-jin blinked.

“I just got them. I was surprised too. As for the skill levels, they went up quickly when I used the skills.”

Raising skill levels was extremely difficult.

Because they were damn hard to level.

The skill levels held by adventurers in Normal difficulty were usually 1. At most, around 2.

“Isn’t it because this is Mythic difficulty?”

Even in Blackie’s opinion, there was no other explanation.

But this was the first he had ever heard that the difficulty of obtaining skills and the difference in proficiency growth varied depending on the Tower’s difficulty.

“And why do you have so many coins, nyah?”

“I earned these by selling crops to an anonymous adventurer.”

The more Blackie looked at him, the more absurd yet fascinating this adventurer became.

That was when Blackie’s eyes caught sight of the hole in the wall.

Not the one toward the Administrator Passage, but the one on the opposite side.

He went to take a look.

“Nyah, nyah, nyaaaah!”

The Dragon Lord was there!

Blackie hurriedly ran away and hid, sticking himself tightly behind Woo-jin.

“What’s wrong?”

“Th-the Dragon Lord is there, nyah. Come to think of it, Adventurer, how are you alive, nyah……?”

“Ah. We talked a few days ago, and he said he’d let me live as long as I don’t bother him. And he told me not to expect help from him.”

Blackie blinked as if he could not believe it.

Was it luck, or was it ability?

In any case, he was a fascinating adventurer.