Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was the second day since he had entered the Tower.

 

Morning had come.

 

Although he was inside a dark cave, there were spots where sunlight streamed in, as if parts of the ceiling had holes in them, so he could tell day from night.

 

“Brrr. It’s cold.”

 

The air in the early morning was on the chilly side.

 

It did not seem to be winter, though. It felt more like early autumn.

 

Growl!

 

‘First, let’s eat.’

 

To soothe his hunger, Woojin ate the one roll of gimbap and half a bottle of water left over from the two rolls of gimbap he had bought yesterday.

 

Munch, munch.

 

The gimbap was a little cold, but it still tasted amazing.

 

The crunchy pickled radish and burdock were sweet and salty, and the egg garnish was savory.

 

“Now I feel like I can live.”

 

His stomach was full, and his thirst was quenched.

 

For now, Woojin decided to explore his surroundings.

 

Yesterday, he had been too flustered and had simply stayed in place, but from today onward, he judged that it would be better to move around diligently if he wanted to survive.

 

And a few hours later.

 

‘This is bad!’

 

After exploring the inside of the cave for about an hour, Woojin discovered that there was no such thing as an exit here.

 

It was blocked off on all sides.

 

No, there were small holes here and there in the ceiling, letting sunlight in, but those could not be called exits.

 

The only fortunate point was that there was a small lake inside the cave.

 

It was not that he planned to swim through the lake to escape.

 

This could simply be the full extent of the lake, or it might be connected to some other huge lake, but what mattered to Woojin was that the water in this lake could serve as drinking water.

 

Bubble, bubble.

 

He filled the clear 500ml plastic bottle with water and drank.

 

Gulp, gulp.

 

“Ahh. The water tastes amazing.”

 

But what was he supposed to do now?

 

The cruel sense of reality pressed down on Woojin.

 

He organized the situation in his head once more.

 

This place was the Tower.

 

Mythic difficulty.

 

The 99th floor.

 

To escape, he had to clear the objective of this floor.

 

The objective was to kill the Dragon Lord.

 

His current level was 1, with basic stats.

 

He had no equipment.

 

He had 98 coins.

 

His possessions.

 

The short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and boxer briefs he was wearing.

 

A transparent 500ml plastic bottle filled with lake water.

 

The terrain here?

 

A cave blocked off on all sides.

 

‘If there’s one thing to be grateful for, it’s that I’m not in the same space as the Dragon Lord...’

 

Generally, when someone entered the Tower, the monster that served as the clearing objective, along with other interactable elements, would be connected to the place where the adventurer was summoned.

 

In other words.

 

The Dragon Lord existed beyond this cave.

 

He did not know whether there was a barrier blocking the way or what kind of structure this was, but it meant that the Dragon Lord was not in some completely different dimension.

 

Woojin thought about how he should act going forward in order to survive.

 

‘98 coins.’

 

He had to use the coins he had left to create an opportunity.

 

The only thing Woojin could place his hopes on was the “coins” that allowed him to use the Tower’s system.

 

Killing the Dragon Lord and returning to reality was far too absurd a dream.

 

Whether there was another method or not was something he would have to find out from now on, but the immediate problem Woojin was facing was the lack of food.

 

He had to secure food.

 

The method was simple.

 

Using the community and the auction house.

 

Since one coin was worth about ten thousand won in Korean money, Woojin had 980,000 won.

 

Having lived alone and twisted himself into knots trying to save money on food expenses, Woojin reviewed several options.

 

‘The best thing would be to buy cup noodles in bulk. Along with a gas burner to boil water, a pot, and disposable wooden chopsticks.’

 

He had drinking water anyway.

 

‘The 24-pack box of Yukgaejang cup noodles I bought recently was 40,000 won, so that’s 4 coins. If I assume I eat one a day, I can survive 24 days on 4 coins.’

 

If he set aside 10 of his 98 coins for the errand fee, gas burner, cheap pot, and wooden chopsticks...

 

528 days!

 

He could survive for a whopping 528 days!

 

A smile bloomed on Woojin’s lips, but he soon sighed.

 

‘Then what happens after 528 days? That just means I’ll be stuck dying with no way out.’

 

He needed a more reliable method.

 

A continuous way to secure food.

 

‘If only there were fish in the lake.’

 

Inside the utterly transparent, clear lake water, there was not even a trace of living creatures.

 

Flop!

 

Woojin lay down on the spot.

 

Roll.

 

He turned onto his side.

 

Then a certain weed entered Woojin’s sight.

 

[Weed Containing Mana]

 

- Grade: E

 

- Effect: Permanently increases Mana by 0.001 when consumed.

 

- Description: A nameless grass growing in the Dragon Lair.

 

“Weeds grow in caves too, huh.”

 

He muttered while yawning.

 

He lay back down in a proper position.

 

The sunlight pouring in through the holes in the ceiling dazzled his eyes.

 

“...Wait a second.”

 

Woojin suddenly sat upright. Then he plucked the weed with a pop and checked its description once more.

 

- Effect: Permanently increases Mana by 0.001 when consumed.

 

“Your mana goes up if you eat it?!”

 

He was shocked.

 

A weed that increased stats!

 

He had never seen anything like this in his life.

 

During his two years working as a Tower management civil servant, Woojin had seen all kinds of items, but he had never heard of or seen a weed that increased mana.

 

For an Awakened to raise their stats, the only real method was to invest points given upon leveling up.

 

And how did one level up?

 

By clearing the Tower.

 

Each time one cleared a floor, their level increased by one.

 

That was why an Awakened’s level equaled the number of floors they had climbed.

 

Each difficulty of the Tower had up to 100 floors.

 

In any case.

 

For Woojin, who could not clear the Tower and therefore could not raise his stats, discovering a means of increasing his mana, even if only by a tiny value of 0.001, was an incredible stroke of luck.

 

[You have obtained Weed Containing Mana.]

 

[You have obtained Weed Containing Mana.]

 

[You have obtained Weed Containing Mana...]

 

Forgetting even his hunger, Woojin excitedly pulled up weeds and collected them.

 

[You have learned Harvest Lv. 1.]

 

“Hm?”

 

He had obtained a skill.

 

Out of nowhere.

 

[Harvest Lv. 1]

 

- Description: Harvest crops. When harvesting, the rate of damage to the crop decreases, and there is an extremely low chance that the quality will improve.

 

Woojin confirmed that the Harvest Lv. 1 skill had appeared in his skill tab.

 

‘To get a skill, you’re supposed to obtain a skill book that can be acquired randomly while climbing the Tower, though?’

 

Furthermore, the chance of obtaining a skill was extremely low.

 

According to the official statistics released by the Tower Management Bureau, one skill book appeared for every 10 floors climbed.

 

In other words, there was a 10 percent chance of obtaining a skill for each floor climbed.

 

For Woojin, who could not even clear this floor, let alone climb the Tower, a skill was a luxury. Yet somehow, he had obtained one.

 

Even if that skill had nothing to do with combat and was a trivial crop-harvesting skill, Woojin was extremely happy.

 

“My first skill!”

 

For a moment, Woojin forgot that he had entered the absurd 99th floor of a ridiculous difficulty and felt deeply moved by the fact that he had become an Awakened and obtained his first skill.

 

Also,

 

[Harvest Lv. 1 proficiency has increased.]

 

[Harvest Lv. 1 proficiency has increased.]

 

[Harvest Lv. 1 proficiency has increased...]

 

[You have learned Harvest Lv. 2.]

 

He experienced his skill experience rising at a ridiculous speed.

 

“Heh heh heh. I pulled them all out.”

 

The exact number of weeds was 100.

 

Growl!

 

“Ah, I’m hungry.”

 

Woojin picked up one Weed Containing Mana, put it in his mouth, and chewed.

 

At the tough texture of the weed, Woojin frowned.

 

It was not just the texture.

 

“Ugh. It’s bitter.”

 

It was so bitter that eating it was difficult.

 

The moment he endured the urge to spit it out and forced it down his throat,

 

[You have consumed Weed Containing Mana and permanently increased Mana by 0.001.]

 

“Status window.”

 

Name: Lee Woojin

Level: 1

Stats

 

- Strength: 3

- Agility: 3

- Stamina: 3

- Mana: 3.001

  Skills: Harvest Lv. 2

  Coins: 98

  Difficulty: Mythic

  Floor: 99

 

“Heh heh. My mana really did go up. And I definitely got a skill too.”

 

As he rinsed the bitter taste from his mouth with water and looked over his status window, a smile formed on Woojin’s lips.

 

“...Wait a second! Can’t I just farm?”

 

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn.

 

Crops that were tasty and nutritious.

 

What if he planted crops, harvested them, and ate them?

 

Self-sufficient living was possible!

 

He could get seeds through the auction house.

 

Water? He could use the lake water.

 

On top of that, there was soil and sunlight here too.

 

Woojin immediately accessed the community.

 

- Buying seeds! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, strawberries...

 

He was in the middle of writing a post on the community when he stopped.

 

It was good to buy seeds, but what if the crops did not grow?

 

On top of that, Woojin had never planted or raised crops before. If he recklessly started this, he might end up losing coins for nothing and pointlessly exhausting his stamina.

 

‘I should start small first.’

 

And he also needed to secure food until the crops grew.

 

The first crop he would start with was... potatoes.

 

They seemed like they would taste good, and the difficulty seemed easy.

 

- Buying seed potatoes, one box of Yukgaejang cup noodles, a gas burner, 5 butane gas canisters, a pot, and disposable wooden chopsticks! I’ll pay 15 coins for everything together!

 

[An anonymous Awakened has requested a chat. Will you accept?]

 

“Yes.”

 

- Anonymous 3861: Hey.

- Anonymous 3861: Why are you buying this?

 

Woojin answered briefly.

 

Because if he honestly answered that he was trapped on the 99th floor of the Tower and needed to become self-sufficient for food, he felt like he would be treated as a crazy person.

 

- Me: Just because!

- Me: Are you going to sell it?

- Anonymous 3861: Are you planning to plant and grow potatoes?

- Me: Yep.

- Anonymous 3861: That’s unusual. You’re the first Awakened I’ve seen like this.

- Me: Are you going to sell it?

- Anonymous 3861: Yes. Also, if you’re planting potatoes, you don’t need potato seeds. You need seed potatoes.

- Me: Ah. I see... Then, by any chance...

- Anonymous 3861: Lol, I’ll get you seed potatoes. Would about 10 be enough? If you harvest them, you’ll probably get around 100.

- Me: Yep!!

- Anonymous 3861: Wait a bit. I’ll go get them.

 

Munch, munch.

 

To soothe his hunger, Woojin chewed on the Weed Containing Mana while waiting for the items.