Chapter 9

Chapter 9

If the Dragon Lord said one word, “Die,” then Woo-jin would have to die.

Cold sweat ran down Woo-jin’s back.

Still, he had offered a bribe, cup noodles, so surely he would not kill him immediately without mercy, right? Right? That would be too heartless.

“I will not kill you. However, do not expect help from me. In other words, do not bother me.”

“Gasp. Thank you!”

Do not bother me.

That probably meant exactly what it sounded like.

Do not speak to him.

Do not show interest in him.

To Woo-jin, that was actually better.

If the Dragon Lord had demanded that he do this or that in exchange for sparing his life, things could have become extremely difficult.

But the Dragon Lord had decided to leave Woo-jin alone.

And so, their living environments came to be separated by one slightly(?) collapsed wall.

Day 10 since entering the Tower.

He had gained a neighbor.

---

The morning of Day 11 since entering the Tower.

Woo-jin opened his eyes inside the warm, soft duck-down sleeping bag, wriggled around a little longer, and only opened his eyes properly after thirty minutes had passed, yawning as he did.

“Haaam.”

After opening the zipper and crawling out of the sleeping bag, he drank a cup of water.

They said drinking water in the morning was good for you.

Slide.

He checked on the Dragon Lord through the hole in the wall.

The Dragon Lord had returned to his original enormous dragon form, not the human body he had taken through Polymorph.

When Woo-jin sneaked over and took a look, the Dragon Lord had curled his body into a circle and closed his eyes.

He did not know whether the Dragon Lord was sleeping or simply had his eyes closed, but in any case.

‘Hehe. This is much better.’

The fear of the unknown, of not knowing when or where the Dragon Lord might appear and threaten him, had vanished.

And that was not all.

He was no longer alone in this space.

Even if he communicated while looking at the community, if he had continued living alone in the Dragon Lair, loneliness would surely have found him someday. But now that he had a neighbor(?), he felt reassured.

He went over to the cherry tomato patch where he had cut off the suckers.

The parent cherry tomato plants, which had been pruned after all their fruit had been harvested, were still fresh and lively.

From the thickened stems, new leaves were stretching out again.

Between the leaves and stems, tiny green beads the size of fingernails had started to form.

Woo-jin crouched down and examined one plant closely.

Something he had read in the book passed through his mind. Had it said that if the suckers were removed, nutrients would not be dispersed, making the fruit sturdier?

It seemed those words had not been false.

“I should eat breakfast.”

Breakfast was two boiled potatoes and water.

Potatoes were a representative famine-relief crop.

A famine-relief crop referred to a crop that could be eaten in place of staple foods like rice during a poor harvest or famine.

As he filled a meal with potatoes like this, he found himself wondering how people had survived in the past when there was nothing to eat.

‘Huh.’

When he went to the place where he had stored the potatoes, he could see that some of them had sprouted. Not all of them were like that, but sprouts were growing from inside several potatoes.

Judging by appearance alone, it was hard to tell them apart from seed potatoes.

Woo-jin checked the “potato” section of the farming book.

There was also content written there about sprouted potatoes.

【If harvested potatoes are stored as they are, sprouts will emerge after a certain amount of time. At this point, sprouted potatoes may become unsuitable for eating, but they can still be used for cultivation. When using sprouted potatoes as seed potatoes, cut and plant them based on the sprouted portions.】

“Oho?”

For now, he would eat first, then try planting potatoes.

As always, Woo-jin poured lake water into the aluminum pot and began boiling it.

He brought over two potatoes.

Before putting them in the pot, he was brushing off the dirt when,

‘Is it okay to eat alone?’

Good food was meant to be shared.

Especially among close neighbors, that was considered a virtue.

Woo-jin slipped beyond the wall and checked on the Dragon Lord.

His eyes were still closed.

- In other words, do not bother me.

The words the Dragon Lord had said yesterday came to mind.

Woo-jin scratched his cheek.

He should not wake him by pointlessly talking to him.

Step, step.

He returned to his room(?).

He decided that unless the Dragon Lord spoke first or asked him to share food, leaving him alone would be best.

Bubble, bubble…….

He put the two potatoes he had brushed the dirt off earlier into the pot.

After boiling them for about twenty minutes, he took them out.

[Cooking Lv. 1 proficiency has increased.]

[You have learned Cooking Lv. 2.]

“Hot, hot.”

He was rolling the hot potatoes around in his hands to cool them when it happened.

[You have learned Fire Resistance Lv. 1.]

How baffling.

But that was all the better.

[Fire Resistance Lv. 1]

- Description: Slightly increases resistance to the fire attribute.

Woo-jin checked his Status Window.

‘Come to think of it, I got a skill called Cold Resistance last time too.’

It was to check how much his fire resistance had increased.

The resistance displayed in his Status Window had not changed. The same went for Cold Resistance.

However, he could tell for certain that his resistance had increased.

Because after he confirmed the message saying he had acquired the skill, the heat contained in the potato he was holding immediately felt “less hot.”

‘Were there skills like this?’

For adventurers climbing the Tower, resistance was an extremely important stat. Naturally, if skills like Fire Resistance or Cold Resistance existed, people would have been very interested, and there would have been a great deal of related information posted in the community.

However, there were no posts about Fire Resistance, let alone resistance skills for other attributes like cold or poison.

It seemed this was a skill Woo-jin was the first among adventurers to learn.

To think it increased fire resistance just because he had picked up and put down a hot potato to cool it.

“Ah, it’s delicious.”

He had not added sugar or salt, so how could it be this savory and delicious? He did not get tired of it at all.

After polishing off two boiled potatoes in an instant, then drinking cool water, he felt he had nothing in the world to envy.

After lazing around for a while and digesting, Woo-jin decided to get to work in earnest.

It was time to plant the sprouted potatoes in the ground and grow new potatoes.

He went to the field he had prepared for growing potatoes.

There were ten sprouted potatoes.

With the farming book open beside him, Woo-jin picked up one sprouted potato.

Several pale-green sprouts were branching out from it.

“So I divide it based on these.”

After reading over the sentence written in the book once more.

He took out the gardening shears, opened them, and used one blade like a knife.

He carefully cut the potato, making sure at least a minimal amount of potato flesh remained with each sprout without getting too greedy.

Thock.

The potato split in half.

Moisture gathered on the cut surface.

When he laid the potato pieces out on the ground, one potato had turned into two or three seed potatoes.

He boldly excluded pieces that looked too small.

It was written in the book too.

If the pieces were too small, the germination rate would drop.

Step.

Woo-jin went to the field he had prepared in advance.

The soil had been tilled and turned over once yesterday, so it was soft.

When he pressed it with his hand, it felt moderately moist.

He dug holes at regular intervals.

At a suitable depth that was neither too deep nor too shallow.

Thock.

Thock.

[Seed Planting Lv. 3 proficiency has increased slightly.]

[Seed Planting Lv. 3 proficiency has…….]

He carefully placed the potatoes so the sprouted portions faced upward, then covered them with soil.

Before he knew it, one row of the field had been neatly filled.

He then moved on to the second row.

Using the Seed Planting skill, he began planting the seed potatoes.

.

.

.

It was already time for lunch.

The menu was the same boiled potatoes. Instead, he added one Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

If he was going to farm, he needed a full stomach.

[You have consumed a Tower Resistance Potato and permanently increased all resistances by 0.002.]

[You have consumed a Tower Resistance Potato and…….]

He ate the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, too.

When he tore the lid completely off, the spicy ramen smell hit him at once.

That was when it happened.

Sssshhh!

From beyond the wall, he suddenly heard something that sounded as if it were being dragged across the floor. Woo-jin automatically turned his head toward the place the sound had come from.

It was where the Dragon Lord was.

Step.

Wondering if the Dragon Lord had woken up, Woo-jin decided to visit the neighbor’s place for a moment and check.

‘He looks the same. Then what was that sound earlier?’

Woo-jin returned and began eating the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

He ate all the noodles at high speed and even gulped down the broth.

“Khhh. That was good.”

After finishing the cleanup in an instant, Woo-jin got inside the duck-down sleeping bag and zipped it all the way up.

His back was warm, and his stomach was full.

The weather outside was chilly, but the sunlight was shining warmly.

On top of that, the duck-down sleeping bag wrapped around him cozily.

“Hehehe.”

Woo-jin lay there browsing the community.

[Requesting a chat with Anonymous 3861.]

[Anonymous 3861 has accepted the chat.]

- Me: hi hi

- Anonymous 3861: hi

- Me: What are you doing?

- Anonymous 3861: lol

- Anonymous 3861: Well, I’m preparing something in my own way.

- Anonymous 3861: What are you doing?

- Me: I’m browsing the community in my sleeping bag.

- Me: And this morning, I pruned the cherry tomato suckers, and since some of the potatoes had sprouted, I planted them in the field.

- Anonymous 3861: Oho lol

- Me: Did you eat lunch?

- Anonymous 3861: Yep. These days, I’ve been eating cherry tomatoes and potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Partly to raise my stats too.

Woo-jin continued talking with Anonymous 3861.

Anonymous 3861 said that, in order to make raising stats by eating Woo-jin’s crops more efficient, they had tried blending a whole pile of cherry tomatoes in a blender and drinking them as juice.

The result?

The moment the cherry tomatoes were blended, the effect of increasing Magic Power disappeared.

There was no choice but to eat the cherry tomatoes one by one in their original form, but the problem was the potatoes.

- Anonymous 3861: The potatoes have to be eaten as they are too.

- Anonymous 3861: When I boiled them, the effect that raises resistance disappeared.

- Me: ?

- Me: No it didn’t?

Woo-jin tilted his head.

Because up until now, Woo-jin had boiled the potatoes and eaten them.

And each time, he had enjoyed the effect that increased resistance.

“...Ah, no way.”

[Cooking Lv. 2]

- Description: Creates dishes using ingredients. The taste of completed dishes improves slightly.

Woo-jin boiled one potato.

[You have made Boiled Potato with Cooking.]

Woo-jin opened a Personal Trade window with Anonymous 3861.

[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.

- Me: Does it not show up like this for you?

- Anonymous 3861: What

- Anonymous 3861: How do you do that??