Chapter 356: I Never Thought I'd Live Up to 800 Years...
"Transport."
Curious about the options of the new variety, Sejun used 8 million Tower Coins for inter-tower transport.
Then,
Paat.
A bright pillar of light fell in front of Sejun, revealing heaps of red and blue mugwort.
And on top of the pile of red and blue mugwort, there was a single white mugwort placed alone in a noble manner.
"Is that the Medicinal Mugwort?"
Sejun picked up the white mugwort to check its options.
[Medicinal Mugwort] → This mugwort has grown by absorbing the overflowing life force and magic power of the Green Tower.
→ It cannot grow anywhere that doesn't overflow with both life force and magic power.
→ When consumed, all stats increase by 20.
→ When consumed, lifespan increases by 3 months. (Only up to a maximum of 1000 years.)
→ As the medicinal mugwort has strong medicinal effects, it is recommended to consume only one per day.
→ It tastes extremely bitter.
→ Usage restriction: Stamina over 1000, Magic power over 1000
→ Cultivator: Black Tower's Tower Farmer, Park Sejun
→ Shelf life: 150 days
→ Grade: A
"Hehehe. I never thought I'd live up to 800 years..."
It seems like Ophelia must be a really responsible dragon. She even sent these to make sure he could live the 800 years.
Although it was described as extremely bitter, having trained daily with bitter coffee, he wasn't afraid.
"Thank you, Ophelia."
Sejun expressed his gratitude to Ophelia, who was going berserk with her breath attacks in the Green Tower, and inspected the red and blue mugwort.
"Oh. The red mugwort restores consumed life force, and the blue mugwort restores consumed magic power? These are like potions!"
Was she looking out for him in case he died before completing the 800 years?
"Ophelia, I didn't see it before, but you're really kind."
Sejun thought of Ophelia not as a farmer but as a responsible and kind Green Dragon and decided to take more care of her in the future.
If Ophelia knew, she would blow her top.
"Then should I send more mugwort seeds to improve her farming skills?"
As if taking care of her meant giving her more work, Sejun sent a lot of mugwort seeds to Ophelia.
After checking the options of the mugworts,
Chew. Chew.
Sejun picked up the Vibrant Life Mugwort and the Vibrant Magical Mugwort and put them in his mouth and chewed them to replenish his depleted life force and magic power.
A Life Orb could save his life, but it wouldn't fully restore Sejun's overall life force, only about 10%.
Thus, being a safety-first person, Sejun quickly filled up his life force and magic power. He never knew when or where he might face a life-threatening situation.
"I was just being cautious earlier, and still I nearly died."
Gulp.
Sejun swallowed the mugwort, recalling the moment he was hit by Krueger.
[You have consumed Vibrant Life Mugwort.]
[3% of your consumed life force has been restored.]
[You have consumed Vibrant Magical Mugwort.]
[1% of your consumed magic power has been restored.]
[You have consumed a bitter medicine.]
[Talent: A Medicine That's Bitter is Good for Stamina has been activated.]
[Your Stamina increases by 1.]
It was bitter, but the sweetness was stronger, making it bearable to eat. Plus, there was a Stamina boost of +1.
"Hehehe."
Sejun chuckled contentedly as he continued to eat the mugwort.
Kueng?
[Dad, does it taste good?]
"Hyung, is it tasty?"
Kking?!
'Hey! Are you eating it all by yourself?'
Seeing Sejun's expression, his companions showed interest and ate the mugwort.
And their reactions were divided into two types.
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. It's bitter, but sweet! It's like kudzu honey!]
"Uh-huh. Yeah! It's bittersweet!"
Cuengi and Ajax managed the slight bitterness and enjoyed the sweetness.
Kkwek. Kking! Kking!
'Ehup. Hey! This is really bitter! It doesn't taste good!'
Fenrir could not forgive even a hint of bitterness.
Kking? Kking!
'Hey! Why are you eating that? You shouldn't eat that!'
When Sejun ate something that didn't taste good, Fenrir tried hard to stop his servent, but...
"Blackie, eat this and stay still."
The roasted sweet potato jerky became more important than stopping the servent.
Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.
He focused on eating.
After Sejun ate 20 pieces each of the red and blue mugwort,
[You have consumed Vibrant Life Mugwort.]
[2.7% of your consumed life force has been restored.]
[You have consumed Vibrant Magical Mugwort.]
[0.9% of your consumed magic power has been restored.]
[You have consumed a bitter medicine.]
[Talent: A Medicine That's Bitter is Good for Stamina has been activated.]
[Your Stamina increases by 1.]
The efficacy of the mugwort decreased by 10%. The effect decreased due to continuous consumption of the same crop.
Although the effect diminished with each intake, Sejun kept eating.
After eating about 30 pieces of mugwort, his mouth completely adapted, and the talent A Medicine That's Bitter is Good for Stamina did not activate. He tried rinsing his mouth with water, but it was useless.
"Alright. It's full."
After eating 100 pieces each of the red and blue mugwort, his life force and magic power were fully restored.
The amount recovered by the mugwort was low for magic power, but that was due to his inherently high basic magic power recovery rate.
"But this would be hard to eat in a hurry, right?"
To fully recover, one would need to eat two fistfuls of mugwort at once...
When Sejun's life force and stamina dropped, it was often in urgent moments. There was no time to leisurely chew on mugwort.
"I should try making it into a juice so I can drink it later."
As Sejun thought of more convenient ways to consume mugwort,
Click.
He opened the Golden Box of Abundance, took out the black beans inside, and put in the medicinal mugwort.
Ophelia had harvested the medicinal mugwort before its seeds could develop, leaving no way to obtain seeds.
If he left it in for just one day, four more medicinal mugworts would be produced, so he planned to put it in once every 4 days to secure 4 days' worth of medicinal mugwort.
After storing the Golden Box of Abundance and the remaining mugworts in the void storage, Sejun went back to harvesting Korean blackberries with his companions.
[You have harvested Korean blackberries.]
[Your job experience have increased very slightly.]
[Your Proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 8 has increased very slightly.]
[You have gained 1 experience point.]
...
..
.
While Sejun and his companions were busy harvesting Korean blackberries,
"Meow meow meow."
Sejun heard Theo's humming. Clearly, Theo was still playing around despite him saying to go down for work.
"Vice Chairman Theo, it's time to go."
Sejun expressed his discomfort by shaking his leg as he spoke.
However,
"Puhuhut. Where are we going, meow?"
Theo looked at Sejun with an innocent expression, having forgotten about his own work.
"Hey! It's time to go to work! Or else you'll be demoted..."
Finally, the angry Sejun resorted to drastic measures,
"Meow! I remembered, meow! Vice Chairman Theo, will do a good job, meow! I'll work really hard, meow!"
Frightened by the mention of demotion, Theo hurriedly gathered his belongings. The threat of demotion was very effective.
"Chairman Park, then I'll be off, meow!"
"Alright. Be careful."
Sejun saw off Theo, who was leaving in a hurry. He should have done it sooner.
With Theo gone, Sejun diligently harvested the Korean blackberries.
"I'll make blackberry wine with these. Hehehe."
It would surely be popular among the dragons.
***
50th Floor of the Blue Tower.
"Already on the 50th floor."
Zelga, wearing a blue hood, appeared.
Zelga had planted seeds of the Drought-Inducing Watermelon, restoring lands that had been submerged in water, and in just one day, he had descended from the 70th floor to here.
"Alright. I need to plant these quickly and move down."
As Zelga was about to plant the Drought-Inducing Watermelon seeds in the sea,
Koogung.
Water erupted, revealing a giant green serpent, the 12th Apostle of Destruction, the serpent that summons tsunamis, Leviathan.
-Kukuku. Be swallowed by the giant tidal wave.
The sea roiled as dozens of tidal waves, each 10 meters high, surged towards Zelga.
"Hmph! How dare a water snake attack me with water?"
Ridiculing Leviathan's attack, Zelga took off the hood he was wearing to prevent the moisture from leaving his body.
Splash.
"Riding the Currents!"
Zelga entered the water and rode the swift currents,
"Diverting the Tidal Wave!"
He swiftly moved, diverted the approaching tidal waves, and in an instant, he was in front of Leviathan,
"Parting the Sea!"
Along with the sea, Leviathan too was split in half. Zelga was stronger underwater, as befitting a merman.
After defeating Leviathan and submerging the Drought-Inducing Watermelon seeds,
[You have planted the Drought-Inducing Watermelon seeds.]
[The Drought-Inducing Watermelon seeds absorb water without regard to others.]
...
..
.
The seeds quickly absorbed the water, and the sea disappeared as he hurriedly harvested the Drought-Inducing Watermelons.
And then,
[You have planted the Water-Absorbing Watermelon seeds.]
...
..
.
He planted the Water-Absorbing Watermelons.
The sea had disappeared, but with lots of rain still falling from the sky, if left alone, the water would fill up again.
"Okay. This should be enough."
Having planted the Water-Absorbing Watermelon seeds all around, Zelga went down to the 49th floor.
***
Dadada.
Theo quickly left to do the work.
"For now, I should go to the 79th floor, meow!"
He was feeling bored and decided to stop by the Kingdom of Kov and bring along Piyot and he could also check if there was anything to take from the royal palace...
As Theo was heading from the 73rd floor to the 79th floor of the tower through the merchant's passage,
"Meow?"
He picked up a black orb that had fallen on the ground. Theo picked up Fenrir's core fragment from the ground as if it were just a pebble. His luck was good today as well.
"Puhuhut. Chairman Park will be happy if I give it to him later, meow!"
Theo placed Fenrir's core fragment in his bundle and continued up the tower.
A while later,
"Puhuhut. I've arrived, meow!"
Theo arrived in Aebro, the capital of the Kingdom of Kov.
"Where is Piyot, meow?"
Theo looked around, searching for Piyot.
Piyo! Piyo!
From afar, he heard the loud cry of Piyot.
"Puhuhut. Over there, meow!"
Theo ran towards the direction of the sound.
***
At the playground of Skyschool, the messenger bird school.
"The messenger bird Pirururur Yotra has achieved excellent grades..."
Piyot, who graduated top of his class in messenger bird training, was receiving an Outstanding Trainee Certificate from the headmaster of the messenger bird school.
Piyo! Piyo!
[I'm Pirururur Yotra, messenger bird from 55th trainee class! I will become a great messenger bird in the future!]
Having received the certificate, Piyot shouted loudly and returned to his seat.
'It wouldn't be so bad just being a messenger bird.'
Lately, Piyot had been contemplating his career path a lot.
Whether to stay in the Kingdom of Kov and comfortably work as a messenger bird or to make painstaking efforts to become the right front paw of the great black dragon's subordinate, the golden cat Theo Park, even though it's not guaranteed?
'Well... Theo~nim probably wouldn't care about someone like me anyway...'
After the graduation ceremony, Piyot left the school gates with other messenger birds he had trained with.
Then,
"Piyot, I'm here, meow!"
Theo called out to Piyot while waiting at the school gate.
Piyo! Piyo?!
[Theo-nim! Did you come to see my graduation ceremony?!]
Flap flap.
Excited by Theo's appearence, Piyot flew around him frantically and asked.
"That... Yes, meow! I, Vice Chairman Theo, knew today was the graduation of my right front paw, Piyot!"
Theo tried his best to tell a lie that he wasn't even good at, as he couldn't lose the trust of his right front paw.
Piyot?!
[I'm Theo~nim's right front paw?!]
Piyot was surprised by Theo's answer. Theo had already considered Piyot his right front paw, but Piyot was the only one unaware of it.
"Puhuhut. Yes, meow! Piyot is my right front paw, meow! And once you're my right front paw, you're my right front paw forever, meow! You can't escape, meow!"
Theo sternly warned, fearing that Piyot might refuse.
Piyo! Piyo!
[Of course! Since I'm Theo-nim's right front paw, I'll forever be Theo-nim's right front paw!]
Indeed, I should definitely be Theo-nim's right front paw! Piyot firmly decided on his career path.
After finishing this conversation, Theo said,
"Puhuhut. Piyot. First, lead me to the king, meow!"
Piyo! Piyo!
[Yes! Follow me!]
Piyot took the lead to the royal palace of the Kingdom of Kov.
Theo was planning to look for the land deed for the 80th floor that Sejun wanted, as well as gather a lot of wealth.
'Now that I think about it, I didn't see my left front paw this time, meow...'
Theo thought about his left front paw, which had been missing for some reason. Although he doesn't know it yet, Theo's left front paw was Uren.
*****