Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

Day 10 since entering the Tower.

Inside a soft, cozy duck-down sleeping bag.

What a morning it was, waking with warm sunlight!

“Nnnnghhhh.”

He opened the zipper, sat up, and stretched.

Woo-jin had no time to stay half-asleep. He immediately put on his slippers and walked over to the cherry tomato patch.

The cherry tomatoes, damp with dawn dew, were all ripe and red.

[Tower Cherry Tomato]

-Grade: E

-Effect: Permanently increases Magic Power by +0.001 when consumed.

-Description: A cherry tomato from the Tower cultivated by someone. Eating it seems likely to increase Magic Power, if only by a very tiny amount.

“Ooh!”

Woo-jin carefully reached toward the nearest cherry tomato stem.

The sensation at his fingertips was firm.

The fully ripened tomato popped free from the branch.

[Harvest Lv. 2 proficiency has increased.]

[Harvest Lv. 2 proficiency has…….]

Woo-jin gathered the harvested cherry tomatoes to one side and slowly moved along the field.

They varied in size, but they were so glossy that they looked delicious just to look at.

“Hehehe.”

When he had harvested about half of them.

Woo-jin plopped down on the dirt floor.

Not because he was tired, but because he wanted to taste the cherry tomatoes he had grown himself.

Now that he thought about it, these things.

They increased Magic Power by 0.001, just like the Weed Containing Magic Power.

Pop.

After removing the stem, he popped the round little cherry tomato into his mouth.

Using his front teeth, he burst the cherry tomato in his mouth with a ‘pop.’

The uniquely sweet-and-sour juice of the cherry tomato wet his tongue.

[You have consumed a Tower Cherry Tomato and permanently increased Magic Power by 0.001.]

“Hehe. It’s delicious.”

He had been taught that vegetables should be washed under clean running water before eating, but Woo-jin simply sat there and ate the cherry tomatoes as they were.

The reason vegetables were washed was because things like pesticides might be on them, but the cherry tomatoes Woo-jin had harvested were pesticide-free and organic.

There was no problem with eating them right away without bothering to wash them.

[You have consumed a Tower Cherry Tomato and permanently increased Magic Power by 0.001.]

[You have consumed a Tower Cherry Tomato and…….]

He ate as many as twenty on the spot.

Having unintentionally made cherry tomatoes his breakfast, Woo-jin continued harvesting them.

He harvested all the cherry tomatoes.

-Tower Cherry Tomato ×1,480

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

1,480.

If he ate them all, his Magic Power would increase by a whopping 1.48!

If one ignored items that increased Magic Power and considered only stat distribution through pure leveling, it was worth about 1.5 levels.

Considering that one generally gained 1 level each time they cleared the Tower, it could be called quite a high number.

‘Anyway, I picked all the cherry tomatoes, but what do I do with them now?’

Only green stems remained in the field.

Even though he had harvested all the cherry tomatoes, the stems and leaves were still full of vitality.

Woo-jin opened You Can Do It Too! First Steps to Vegetable Gardening.

As he read the section on cherry tomatoes, Woo-jin realized he had missed something important.

【This is the most important task when growing cherry tomatoes. New shoots constantly grow between the leaves and stems. These are called suckers. If left alone, they reduce the growth strength of the fruit, so it is best to remove them continuously.】

“...Ah.”

A few days ago, after planting the cherry tomato seedlings and setting up the support stakes, he had thought he was finished. He had unconsciously missed it.

Woo-jin read the contents carefully again.

“So you can also propagate them by cutting off the suckers and planting them in the soil.”

It seemed cherry tomatoes would continue growing from the existing parent plants too.

For now, Woo-jin decided to just prune the suckers.

Snip, snip.

He cut off the suckers with the gardening shears.

The shoots that had been dense as underbrush were trimmed, leaving everything looking neat.

He filled the watering can with lake water and sprinkled it over the cherry tomato patch.

“Grow nice and strong again.”

Shhhhh.

.

.

.

It was lunchtime.

Today’s lunch menu?

Boiled potatoes and cherry tomatoes.

They tasted good, and more importantly, they raised his stats.

Each potato increased all resistances by 0.002.

Each cherry tomato increased Magic Power by 0.001.

After eating moist, savory boiled potatoes.

He cleansed his palate with sweet-and-sour cherry tomatoes.

And so Woo-jin’s current stats were as follows.

Name: Lee Woo-jin

Level: 1

Abilities

-Strength: 3

-Agility: 3

-Stamina: 3

-Magic Power: 3.05

-Resistance: 0.014

Skills: Soil Tilling Lv. 2, Seed Planting Lv. 2, Harvest Lv. 2, Cold Resistance Lv. 1, Cooking Lv. 1

Coins: 178

“Hmm. Very nice.”

He had eaten a meal, and his stats had gone up too?

His mood improved.

Woo-jin, who had been thinking about taking a gloriously long nap, accessed the community.

When he had nothing to do, browsing the community was the best way to kill time.

Only Awakened could use the community.

Well, to give an example, it felt something like Blind, the anonymous app for office workers.

[Requesting a chat with Anonymous 3861.]

There was no response.

Woo-jin remembered what Anonymous 3861 had said.

-Don’t mention it. In exchange, show me the harvest later. Also, I’ll be busy with my schedule for five days, so I won’t be able to contact you.

‘Will I be able to contact them in two days?’

He had tried requesting a chat because he wanted to show off the fine cherry tomatoes he had grown himself, but they continued to be absent.

The community posts could be scrolled up and down with a sensation like touching a smartphone screen, and new posts appeared at a remarkable pace.

-Breaking news. Kang Min-woo decides to challenge the Tower on Hard difficulty.

-? Wait, this is actually real?

-Honestly, I think it’s time Korea challenged Hard difficulty too. Kang Min-woo, fighting.

“Oho.”

It was interesting news.

Kang Min-woo was the Awakened with the highest record in Korea.

He was the one and only person in Korea who had cleared the 100th floor of the Tower on Normal difficulty.

It had not even been long since he had cleared the 100th floor of the Normal Tower, but it seemed he was already challenging Hard difficulty almost right away.

-I support you, Kang Min-woo ^^7

Woo-jin left a short post.

Woo-jin was a fan of Kang Min-woo.

In truth, was there anyone living in South Korea who was not a fan of Kang Min-woo? Aside from a small minority, most people liked him.

‘He’s handsome, he has outstanding character, and he’s polite. He doesn’t lack a single thing.’

As another man, he could not help admiring him.

He felt like someone who lived in another world.

That was when it happened.

[Anonymous 3861 has accepted the chat.]

Anonymous 3861, who had said they would be unreachable for five days, accepted the chat even though five days had not yet passed.

Woo-jin wondered if they had tapped it by mistake, but that was not the case.

-Anonymous 3861: hi

-Anonymous 3861: You doing well?

-Me: Hey.

-Me: I harvested cherry tomatoes.

-Me: I’ll show you.

[Requesting a Personal Trade with Anonymous 3861.]

[Anonymous 3861 has accepted the trade.]

Woo-jin registered Tower Cherry Tomato ×1.

-Me: What do you think?

-Anonymous 3861: You really harvested them fast.

-Anonymous 3861: Can I try one?

[The trade has been completed.]

-Anonymous 3861: It’s delicious…….

-Anonymous 3861: How many of these do you have?

-Me: A little under 1,500.

-Anonymous 3861: Give me all of them and I’ll give you 1,500 coins.

1,500 coins meant 15 million won in cash.

Woo-jin let out a gasp.

That meant they were buying them for about 1 coin each.

When it came to coins, the more, the better.

There was no reason to refuse.

He could harvest cherry tomatoes again anyway, so he decided to sell the whole batch.

[Registering Tower Cherry Tomato ×1,459.]

[The trade has been completed.]

[1,425 coins have been settled.]

After the 5 percent fee was deducted, he obtained 1,425 coins.

-Me: Thank you, valued customer.

-Anonymous 3861: lol

-Me: But aren’t you buying them for too much?

-Me: Buying something that only raises Magic Power by 0.001 for 1 coin each is a bit much.

-Anonymous 3861: If I thought like that, I wouldn’t have given you all those things. Also, can I buy the potatoes you have left too?

-Me: I’ll give them as a freebie. One sec.

Woo-jin gave Anonymous 3861 fifty potatoes.

He planned to leave the rest aside and plant them in the potato field again once they sprouted.

***

After the conversation with Anonymous 3861 ended, Woo-jin, who had obtained a lump sum(?), browsed through the items listed on the Auction House one by one.

[Training Iron Sword]

-Grade: D

-Effect

-Attack Power +5

-Durability +20%

-Description: An ordinary iron sword used by novice knights for training. It has no special effect, but it is very sturdy and will not chip from most impacts.

-Immediate Purchase Price: 150 coins

[Worn Leather Armor]

-Grade: E

-Effect

-Physical Defense +5

-Light Weight (No movement penalty)

-Description: Leather armor filled with traces of having been patched and repaired several times. Its defense is low, but it is light and easy to move in, so trainees and poor travelers often wear it.

-Immediate Purchase Price: 30 coins

The items listed recently varied from F Grade to C Grade.

Even if he did not buy anything from the Auction House, there was a certain enjoyment in browsing item options.

The hobby he had used to kill time while working as a Tower Management civil servant, looking through items posted on the internet, had continued even here.

‘There’s nothing to buy.’

It was not a figure of speech. There really was nothing to buy.

At this point, things like weapons or armor were useless to Woo-jin.

Was he going to use them to fight the Dragon Lord?

No, that would absolutely never happen.

Besides, where even was the Dragon Lord in the first place?

His gaze swept around him.

A cave blocked off on all sides.

It felt as though he were trapped alone inside a huge room.

But was it large enough for a dragon to be there?

It was not that either.

It just felt like... an extremely large space for one person to live in alone.

Step.

Woo-jin walked.

He was blocked by the wall.

He pressed his ear to it.

He could hear nothing.

Was there even something beyond this?

A wall made of stone that looked incredibly hard.

As a joke, Woo-jin hit the wall with the trowel.

No, it was less like hitting it and more like trying to dig it out.

“Soil Tilling.”

CRUMBLE!

Rattle, rattle…….

[Soil Tilling Lv. 3 proficiency has increased slightly.]

“Huh......?”

Why is this so easy to dig?