Chapter 364: It's fifty-fifty, meow!
“Youngest, let’s head to our hideout first!”
“···Yes.”
Seeing the other skeletons immediately pulling out their swords when he didn’t answer right away, the King of Farming quickly responded.
As he followed them,
‘Fortunately, we’re going up at least.’
Watching them ascend the tower, the King of Farming felt slightly relieved.
Then,
“Listen carefully, youngest. In truth, our Crying Skeleton Gang is a secret organization that aims to overthrow the bone caste system and helps the skeletons suffering from it.” (TL: ‘Bone Rank’ caste system explained in chapter 150)
The eldest of the Crying Skeleton Gang, with a dog bone head, proudly explained their identity.
‘Overthrow the bone caste system? Secret organization? What does that have to do with me?’
At the dog bone head’s words, the King of Farming became so dumbfounded he wanted to cry. He had to carry out Goddess Leah’s orders, but it seemed he was getting entangled in something strange.
Noticing the King of Farming’s troubled expression,
“Ah! Seeing your crying expression, the youngest must have experienced something sad due to the bone caste system too!”
“Indeed, he has the face of someone who’s been wronged by the bone caste system.”
The other members of the Crying Skeleton Gang looked at the King of Farming’s face and were convinced he was one of their comrades.
‘No, I’m not!’
The Farming King inwardly shouted as he trudged behind them.
When they arrived in front of a dilapidated castle on the 20th floor of the tower,
“This is our hideout. Open the door! I, Koto, have returned!”
The eldest with dog bone head shouted.
***
Kueng!
[Dad, good night!]
Ppyak!
[Uncle, I’m going to sleep too!]
Exhausted from their intense training, Cuengi and Black Rabbit went to bed right after dinner.
And,
“Hyung, I think I need to release magic power in the tower. Please send me back.”
“Sejun-nim, I still have tasks left to do in the tower too…”
Ajax asked to be sent back to the tower to raise the magic power concentration on the 99th floor of the White Tower, while Veronica wanted to go back to plant the Detoxifying Green Onion.
“Alright.
After sending the two back, the only one left by Sejun’s side was Fenrir, who until just a moment ago was sleeping and had now woken up brimming with energy.
Kkihihit. Kking!
‘Hehehe. This is delicious!’
Fenrir ate a few bites of the bean soup Sejun made by mixing milk and beans, and intermittently did joyful jumps as he ate energetically.
“Hehehe. He’s eating well.”
Sejun watched Fenrir enjoy the bean soup with a pleased smile.
[Your soul is filled with the outpouring of praise.]
[Mental Strength increases by 1.]
[You have reached 100 mental strength stat points.]
[Your very faint will is starting to have a very subtle influence on the world.]
Mental Strength increased by 1 and reached 100.
“What? My very faint will…has a very subtle influence?”
Just say it’s too trivial to make any difference.
Sejun, who had been deceived by hopeful messages several times, didn’t fall for it this time.
Still, he did hold a celebration for reaching 100 mental strength stat points.
“Here, take this gift for being the 100th customer.”
Kking!
‘Yellow and chewy thing!’
Thanks to this, Fenrir received a piece of dried sweet potato.
After giving the gift to Fenrir, Sejun took a walk around the farm to help with digestion.
Then,
[The tower’s Administrator says that the purification of Fenrir’s core fragment is complete.]
Aileen sent Sejun the purified fragment of Fenrir’s core.
“Aileen, thank you.”
Receiving the core fragment, Sejun immediately checked its options.
[Purified Fragment of Fenrir’s Core]
→ This is a fragment of Fenrir’s core, the god hunting wolf and the 1st seat of Apostle of Destruction.
→ Contains 1% of the complete core’s power.
→ The power of destruction within has been completely removed, and the power that was in the core has been greatly reduced.
→ Upon consumption, all stats increase by 100,000.
→ If there are other fragments of Fenrir’s core nearby, they will be attracted to each other.
→ Usage restriction: All stats must be over 500,000.
→ Grade: Unmeasurable
“Wow···.”
Usage restriction requiring all stats to be over 500,000… This wasn’t on a scale that he could reach through his own efforts.
“I should give it to Blackie as a toy.”
So, he decided to give it to Fenrir, who gets excited whenever he sees a black orb, to use until he found a purpose for it.
Since it couldn’t be swallowed due to the usage restriction, it seemed like it would make a good toy.
“Aileen, but did you detect any other powers of destruction?”
[The tower’s Administrator says that’s right.]
Initially, Aileen had easily detected the power of destruction, so it seemed like beginner’s luck that she thought the rest of the core would be quickly found.
[The tower’s Administrator says that the power of destruction is definitely detected on the 80th floor of the tower.]
“As expected, I’ll need to go to the 80th floor of the tower.”
Sejun hoped that Theo would bring him the land deed for the 80th floor.
Just when Sejun was hoping Theo would do his best,
Kking!
‘My core!’
Feeling his core fragment, Fenrir, with a dried sweet potato in his mouth, hurriedly ran to Sejun.
“Blackie, did you come looking for this? Here, go play with it.”
When Sejun willingly gave the core fragment,
Kking?
‘I ran over in a hurry for now but… He’s giving it this easily?’
Fenrir was slightly taken aback.
Moreover,
······
He was torn between what to hold in his mouth, the dried sweet potato or his core fragment.
‘If I discard this yellow and chewy thing and bite the core…’
The butler guy might feel slighted.
This was clearly a test from the butler, curious to see how much he valued his food.
Kkihihit. Kking. Kking!
‘Hehe. The butler guy is somewhat clever. But I am Fenrir, the god hunting wolf and the 1st seat of the Apostle of Destruction!’
Such a test was too easy for him.
Ah.
Fenrir opened his mouth wide and bit into both the dried sweet potato snack and his core fragment at once.
And
······
After gazing at Sejun for a moment, he ran off somewhere.
“…Why is he acting like that?”
After Fenrir disappeared,
[The magical peanut are grateful for the farmer’s footsteps and lend their strength.]
[Magic power stat potential rises from 2891 to 2892.]
Sejun continued to walk around the farm.
Shortly after,
Thump… Thump…
Kking…
‘I’m sleepy…’
A drowsy Fenrir staggered back. His core fragment, now slobbery from how much he had chewed and sucked on it, was still in his mouth.
“Blackie, shall we go to sleep now?”
Sejun picked up Fenrir and put him into the sling bag,
Kkirorong.
Fenrir immediately fell asleep.
“Phew. I should sleep too.”
Sejun yawned deeply as he headed to bed. For some reason, his expression looked very solemn.
And
“I have insomnia. And if I eat this, I can sleep soundly!”
Holding medicinal mugwort, Sejun hypnotized himself into believing he was an insomniac, explaining why he had looked solemn.
He had steeled his resolve to eat the terribly bitter medicinal mugwort.
“Alright. Let’s go!”
Knowing that delaying would only make it harder, Sejun immediately chewed and swallowed the mugwort.
Gulp.
[You have consumed medicinal mugwort.]
[All stats increase by 20.]
[Your Lifespan increases by 3 months.]
[You have consumed a bitter-tasting medicine.]
[Talent: A Medicine That’s Bitter is Good for Stamina activates.]
[Stamina increases by 9.]
“Exactly what I need to sleep well…”
Thud.
After eating the mugwort, Sejun sank into slumber.
***
“Theo-nim, it’s over there!”
Piyot shouted while looking at a fork in the merchant passageway connecting the 70th and 60th floors of the tower.
“But why does Uren always wander around like that, meow?”
Theo suddenly became curious and asked Piyot as they entered the fork.
He himself could make money, so he couldn’t understand why Uren, who was always in danger, kept moving around.
Piyo!
[I just found out too, he goes around collecting the money he lent or was scammed out of!]
Piyot explained the reason why Uren was always busily moving around.
“Meow? Really, meow?! He was going around collecting money, meow?!”
Although he often spent more money traveling than he recovered, Uren stubbornly pursued and retrieved his money.
However, Uren, having a gullible nature, only succeeded in getting his money back in about one out of every hundred attempts.
For the other 99 cases, he either went and got scammed even worse, or ended up lending even more money.
While they were discussing why Uren traveled around the tower,
“Theo-nim, save me!”
Uren’s voice could be heard from afar.
“Puhuhut. Uren, wait for me, meow!”
Pachink!
Theo unsheathed his dragon claws.
“One-meow slash, meow!”
He slashed the air with his front paws, taking down the Jǫrmungandr Fragment.
Clang.
“Piyot, pick up the coins, and Uren, hand over the money, meow!”
Piyo!
[Yes!]
“Yes, I will give it to you!”
Theo quickly finished up the cleanup.
“Puhuhut. Uren, lead the way, meow!”
“What?”
“I, Vice Chairman Theo… no, I will help Uren collect his money, meow!”
Theo, sensing a strong scent of money from Uren today, decided to help Uren collect his money together.
“kkuik! If Theo-nim helps, that would be really great! The next bastard we’re going to see borrowed a hundred billion tower coins from me claiming he runs a sword farm and grows swords…”
At Theo’s words, Uren excitedly chattered about how he was scammed.
‘I can see all too well why you got scammed, meow!’
Theo realized that deceiving Uren was a faster way to make money.
But
‘Chairman Park said to earn money honestly, meow!’
Remembering Sejun’s words, he decided to earn money honestly (?).
“Puhuhut. Uren it’s going to be fifty-fifty split, meow!”
“What?”
“Where, meow?! Hurry up and lead the way, meow!”
“Yes! It’s on the 40th floor!”
Urged by Theo, Uren hurriedly led the way.
***
“Alright.”
[During sleep, 10% of your life force has been stored.]
[0.25% of the Life Orb has been completed.]
[Your magic power has accumulated 0.1 over 24 hours.]
[Your magic power has increased by 0.1.]
Messages appeared as soon as he opened his eyes.
“Hehehe. Nice.”
Pleased with the efficiency, Sejun smiled contentedly and got out of bed.
Sshuk.
He marked the date on the wall and started the morning of his 383rd day in the tower.
“Alright. Everything’s fine.”
He first went to the kitchen to check if the Meju was fermenting properly and was about to start cooking when
[The tower’s Administrator says that Grandma Brachio has come to buy your goods.]
[The tower’s Administrator asks you to package 20,000 crops each.]
Aileen spoke to him. Last time, she bought 10 of each crop, but it seemed she ran out quickly.
“Really? Alright.”
Sejun went to the storage and sent 20,000 crops each to Aileen.
After he finished sending all the crops,
[The tower’s Administrator says that Grandpa Kin has come to buy your goods.]
This time, the leader of the Blue Dragons, Kin, came and bought 30,000 crops and 1,000 bottles of Samyangju.
Sejun sent the goods again.
“There are a lot of customers this morning.”
Sejun took a brief rest and then…
When Sejun came out of the Void Storage with four out of five black beans from the Golden Box of Abundance,
-Sejun.
Ramter came looking for Sejun.
“Ramter~nim, hello.”
-Oh, do you have black beans?
“Yes. How many do you need?”
-Just give me three.
“Okay, that will be 300 billion tower coins.”
-Right. Here it is.
Sejun handed over three Transcendence Black Beans to Ramter and received a money pouch.
“Ramter~nim, since your cumulative purchase amount this month has exceeded 300 billion tower coins, your Dragon Market VIP status is extended for 30 days.”
-Huh? Extended?!
From his reaction, it seemed like Kaiser was the only one who knew about it. Well, he had expected as much.
“Yes. The monthly cumulative purchase amount…”
So Sejun explained how the VIP period could be extended and how cumulative purchase amount exceeding 5 trillion tower coins could qualify someone to become a VVIP.
-Puhahaha, there was such a thing?!
Amused by Sejun’s explanation, Ramter laughed heartily before quietly departing so that other dragons wouldn’t notice.
However,
“Aileen, from now on, please inform customers who visit the Dragon Market about how to become Dragon Market VIPs and VVIPs.”
Sejun, finding it tedious to explain every time, asked Aileen to take care of it.
The condition to become a Dragon Market VIP, apart from promoting the Dragon Market, was set so that one could achieve it by reaching a total cumulative purchase amount of 1 trillion tower coins.
[The tower’s Administrator says she understands.]
Thanks to this, all dragons using the Dragon Market became aware of the VIP and VVIP grades and how to maintain these statuses.
*****
5/5
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