abcnovels
Chapter 9: Getting Rewarded
Chapter 9: Getting Rewarded
TL: Hanguk
Morning of the 95th day of distress.
“Listen carefully, everyone.”
Peek?
Bbae bbae?
Bbae?
“From today, we’ll plant sweet potato shoots.”
Sejun made a significant announcement to the rabbits eating breakfast.
Bbae-ah…
Bbae…
The baby rabbits were greatly disappointed by Sejun’s significant announcement. Sweet potato shoots were one of the baby rabbits’ favorite snacks lately.
And that was also the reason why Sejun had to plant sweet potato shoots quickly. If left alone, the sweet potato shoots would disappear soon.
Although sweet potato shoots grow quickly and there’s no need to worry, planting them today would mean harvesting the sweet potatoes sooner.
“Instead, we’ll have roasted sweet potatoes tonight.”
Peek!
Bbae-ah!
Bbae-yee!
All the rabbits were excited about the roasted sweet potatoes.
“Shoop…”
Sejun also checked the soil around the planted sweet potatoes and found that the sweet potatoes were spaced apart. Of course, they didn’t harvest them immediately.
There was a looter targeting the sweet potatoes, watching carefully.
He found out about it on the day of the 4th Blue Moon lunch. Sejun wanted to eat cherry tomatoes differently than usual.
That’s when he remembered grilling oranges or pineapples on TV. So he decided to grill cherry tomatoes.
‘Cherry tomatoes will work, right?’
Even if it doesn’t, it won’t be inedible.
Sejun made a skewer with dried straw and started grilling three cherry tomatoes on it.
[The tower manager watches with great interest what you’re cooking today.]
A sudden message appeared.
“Huh?!”
[……]
There was no reply after that, but Sejun learned that the tower manager occasionally watched him.
And the grilled cherry tomatoes were incredibly delicious, as their sweetness was enhanced by the fire, just as it was on TV.
“Alright! Move! Move!”
After breakfast, Sejun and the rabbits started moving busily.
They had to finish the daily morning tasks of cutting the straw, watering the crops, pollinating the cherry tomato flowers, and harvesting before planting the sweet potato shoots in the afternoon.
The rabbits scattered to do their assigned tasks.
Swoosh.
The male rabbit watered the crops with an endless supply of water from the watering can.
Snap. Snap.
The female rabbit started cutting the straw with scissors.
“Just leave one straw untouched. I’m going to keep growing it.”
Sejun told the female rabbit. He was planning to let the green onion flower bloom and collect its seeds.
Peek!
The female rabbit nodded at Sejun’s words.
Until now, there was no need to collect seeds as the green onions grew well, but the roots did not become items when harvested.
Sejun thought it was because they hadn’t planted seeds, so he decided to grow green onions from seeds.
Peek!
The baby rabbits played by hanging on the cherry tomato tree and climbing it diligently. It looked like they were playing, but it was work in its own way.
When the baby rabbits climbed the tree, the cherry tomato flowers shook, and the pollen naturally scattered, allowing pollination to occur.
The rabbits worked in their respective positions while Sejun harvested cherry tomatoes.
Pluck. Pluck.
[You have harvested well-ripened Magical Cherry Tomatoes.]
[Your Harvesting Lv. 2 skill proficiency has increased slightly.]
[Your job experience points have increased slightly.]
[You have gained 10 experience points.]
…
..
.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have gained 1 bonus stat point.]
Sejun had reached level 8 before he knew it. Not only did he feel full just from gaining experience points, but his level also increased.
“Hehehe. How rewarding.”
Sejun raised his health with the bonus stat point and put more effort into harvesting cherry tomatoes.
Pluck.
Pluck.
Pluck.
Then
[Your job experience points have reached the maximum.]
[Your Tower Farmer (F) rank has increased.]
[You have become a Tower Farmer (E).]
[As your job rank increases, your job characteristics are strengthened.]
“Oh!”
Farming is indeed rewarding. As he worked, more and more things kept coming to him.
Sejun’s steps grew lighter as he harvested cherry tomatoes.
****
“Alright! Let’s get started.”
After finishing their morning tasks and eating a simple lunch, Sejun and the rabbits began planting sweet potato shoots.
“Everyone to their positions!”
They divided the work again.
Squeak!
Squeal!
The baby rabbits lined up next to the mother rabbit.
Snip. Snip.
As the mother rabbit cut the sweet potato shoots, the baby rabbits carried them to the newly made field.
Then, Sejun planted the sweet potato shoots one by one in the long, narrow holes he had dug at regular intervals.
Stomp! Stomp!
He put the sweet potato shoot in the hole and stamped the surrounding soil to finish planting.
And
Swoosh.
The father rabbit watered the plants to complete the process.
Even though they had many workers, it took longer than expected to plant the sweet potato shoots because there were so many. They planted 300, but still had a third of the shoots left.
“Let’s take a break!”
At Sejun’s command, the rabbits began to sip juice from cold cherry tomatoes that had been dipped in a small pond.
“I’m jealous.”
Crunch. Crunch.
Sejun chewed on a cold cherry tomato, enviously watching the rabbits drink the cherry tomato juice like a beverage.
“Phew.”
Taking a break while watching the rabbits, Sejun got up from his spot and approached the sweet potato field where the shoots had been cut.
Then
Pat. Pat.
He started digging up sweet potatoes, brushing away the soil with his hands.
“It would have been nice to have a hoe…”
He regretted not having any farming tools.
[You have harvested Power Sweet Potatoes.]
[Your job experience points have increased slightly.]
[Your Harvesting Lv. 2 skill proficiency has increased slightly.]
[You have gained 10 experience points.]
…
..
.
“Wow. There are so many.”
Sejun looked proudly at the harvested sweet potatoes. In total, he had harvested 15 sweet potatoes. For each sweet potato planted, he harvested about 5 sweet potatoes. Although the number was small, the potatoes were thick.
Sejun examined one sweet potato.
[Power Sweet Potato]
A sweet potato grown inside the tower. It’s delicious and full of nutrients.
Upon consumption, it breaks down 10g of fat in the body and increases strength by 0.1 for 10 minutes.
A maximum of 10 effects can be applied within one hour.
When a non-awakened being consumes it, it breaks down 10g of fat and promotes bowel movement.
Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Se-jun
Expiration Date: 30 days
Grade: E
“If I could take this outside, my mom would love it…”
Se-jun often saw his mother struggling to go to the bathroom due to constipation. He briefly thought of his home and moved the sweet potatoes.
He had to hide them before the plunderer saw them. In a cool corner of the cave, he laid down some straw, placed 8 sweet potatoes in a row, and covered them again with straw.
‘They won’t be able to see them like this.’
He moved the remaining 7 sweet potatoes to the fire and wrapped them in straw, placing them in the fire. By the time the work was finished, the roasted sweet potatoes would be ready.
At that moment,
Thud.
Something that was stuck to Se-jun’s clothes fell off.
“It’s a sweet potato sprout.”
It must have come along while moving the sweet potatoes. Se-jun picked up the sweet potato sprout, dug a hole in the field, and carefully planted it in the field. He didn’t know how many sweet potatoes this one sprout would produce.
“Grow big and strong.”
When he carefully planted it and watered it,
[You planted a sweet potato sprout.]
[The probability of the sweet potato sprout taking root increases due to the effect of Seed Sowing Lv. 1.]
[Seed Sowing Lv. 1’s proficiency increases slightly.]
“…So this is also considered seed sowing?”
Se-jun fell into thought for a moment. To raise the level of seed sowing, he had to plant it himself.
“Sigh… then… I have to do it all…”
After the break, the workload for Se-jun became much easier as he did the entire process of planting sweet potato sprouts by himself and the baby rabbits just brought the sprouts to the holes he had dug.
Sniff, sniff.
Instead, the baby rabbits were given the task of periodically monitoring whether the roasted sweet potatoes in the fire were burning.
When Se-jun finished planting all the remaining sweet potato sprouts,
Peep!
Peep!
The baby rabbits started crying out that there was a burning smell.
*****
“Is this how it’s done?”
The giant black dragon crouched in front of the fire, looking at the 30 charcoal-black cherry tomatoes skewered on the rapier, which looked almost like a skewer. The color was very different from what that human made.
‘Let’s just eat it. I won’t die.’
No poison could kill him, the all-powerful being. The dragon hooked the rapier on his teeth and pulled it hard.
Slurp.
The peel, which had almost turned into charcoal, rolled into the dragon’s mouth.
Chew, chew.
“…Ew!”
Contrary to his expectation, an extremely bitter taste arose.
“Ptui!”
The dragon quickly spat out what he was chewing. He couldn’t waste his taste buds on something so tasteless.
“Ugh… It’s bitter! What went wrong? That Human ate it happily…”
As the dragon wondered what was different from the human he had observed,
“Huh?!”
As the bitter taste subsided, a rich flavor different from the original cherry tomatoes was felt in his mouth. A new taste appeared.
“Oh! This is the taste. I need to peel it and eat it!”
Having gained a great realization, the dragon once again burnt the cherry tomato to a crisp and barely managed to peel off its skin using its claws, whining all the while. It would be more accurate to say that it simply crushed the cherry tomato and drank its juice.
“Slurp. Mmm. Delicious. So good.”
The dragon licked the cherry tomato juice off its claws and exclaimed in delight.
Having learned a new way to cook, the dragon proudly sat in front of the large crystal ball and began its hobby.
“What is this human doing?”
Originally, the crystal ball was a tool for the tower’s manager to check if the tower was running smoothly, but now it was being used for entertainment purposes.
The scene in the crystal ball began to show a cave where Sejun and the rabbits were eating dinner.
“Ah?! These guys!!! Eating roasted sweet potatoes without considering the great Black Dragon, Aelin Pritani!”
Black Dragon Aelin Pritani was excited.
****
Hooo.
Pwoo.
The rabbits diligently blew on the roasted sweet potatoes to cool them down and delicious meal happily.
Waang.
Sejun also took a big bite of the cooled roasted sweet potato.
‘As expected, it’s even more delicious after working hard.’
Sejun felt the sweetness filling his mouth as he ate the sweet potato.
At that moment,
[An additional quest has been generated.]
“I wondered… why it was so quiet.”
[Quest: Offer 1 Roasted Power Sweet Potato to the Tower’s Manager!]
Reward: None
Refusal: Death!
It seemed that the tower’s manager was indeed watching.
‘There’s just one roasted sweet potato left in front of me now.’
Again, there was no reward.
‘I guess I’ll have to give it.’
Sejun decided to put the quest on hold.
And when he reached out to eat the roasted sweet potato,
[The tower’s manager urges you to offer the roasted sweet potato quickly.]
[The tower’s manager says they won’t be able to stand it if you don’t give them the roasted sweet potato today.]
The tower’s manager’s strong obsession was felt.
‘It’s going to be hard to pass this time.’
Sejun decided to give the roasted sweet potato.
“Is there nothing you can give me as a reward?”
Instead, he changed direction and asked for a legitimate reward since he had to give it anyway.
[The tower’s manager is flustered.]
“Flustered?”
Why would asking for a reward be flustering?
Then,
[The tower’s manager changes the quest.]
[Quest: Offer 1 Roasted Power Sweet Potato to the Tower’s manager!]
Reward: 1 Job Skill
Refusal: Death!!!!!!!
Another job skill?
Although he wasn’t completely satisfied, he decided to be content with having negotiated a reward.
“I will offer you the roasted sweet potato.”
He didn’t have any expectations for the reward.
‘It’s probably skills like cutting grass, watering, stuff like that…’
[You have completed the quest.]
[As a reward for completing the quest, you have acquired the job skill – Seed Shop Lv. 1.]