Chapter 457: Now It Makes Sense.
[You have arrived at the 35th floor of the Golden Tower.]
As soon as Sejun arrived at the Golden Tower, he cautiously looked around, on guard.
Fortunately, there was nothing but trees around.
"Good. Nothing wro—"
Boom!
...
Sejun froze as a golden lightning bolt suddenly struck right beside him.
Boom!
Another lightning bolt struck.
Quickly.
He hurriedly crawled low to the ground, moving towards the nearest tree.
Lightning strikes the shortest path to the ground, which means it aims for the highest points on the ground.
In other words, being under something tall significantly reduces the chances of being struck by lightning.
Rustle.
Sejun moved faster than he ever had while crawling.
"Phew. Made it."
When Sejun arrived under the tree,
Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck about 5 meters in front of Sejun.
Sizzle.
Sparks flew from the rock that had been struck by lightning, and a golden lightning pattern began to form on it.
"Huh?! That's?"
It was a lightning stone.
So that's how lightning stones are formed. Interesting.
In that low-crawling position, Sejun witnessed the process of a lightning stone being created in real time.
"Oh?!"
What is this place?!
He belatedly noticed that lightning-struck wood and lightning stones were all around him.
They were everywhere in sight. He had expected many, but this was way too much.
"Hehehe. As expected, the name 'Golden Tower' is fitting."
Cautiously, Sejun moved while still lying on the ground, picking up lightning-struck wood and lightning stones as he went.
Clank.
"Meow! Chairman Park, look at this, meow! I, Vice Chairman Theo, have gathered a lot of pine nuts, meow!"
Theo, his arms full of pine cones, ran out of the Void Storage and stepped on the back of Sejun's head, and
Thud.
"Ugh."
Thanks to that, Sejun ended up face-planting into the ground.
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. Dad, Cuengi also gathered a lot of pine nuts!]
Thud.
Kikihit. Kking!
[Hehe. The Great Blackie has arrived!]
Thud.
Sejun's head was stepped on by Cuengi and Blackie, who followed.
These little...!
He couldn't really complain since it was an accident, so he just swallowed his anger.
"Chairman Park, raise your head, meow! There's no need to be ashamed of your ugly face, meow!"
"..."
Theo, oblivious to the situation, tried to comfort Sejun by patting the back of his head, only making him angrier.
"Puhuhut. Chairman Park, don't be discouraged, meow! I, Vice Chairman Theo, will definitely make sure you have a un-ugly face someday, meow!"
"It's not... ugly !"
"Admit the truth, Chairman Park, meow!"
In the end, Theo suffered the rice cake treatment as Sejun pinched his cheeks.
While Theo was getting his comeuppance from Sejun,
Boom!
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. There's a lot of lightning here! I can recharge my Thunderbolt staff!]
Cuengi was holding up the Thunderbolt staff, trying to get it struck by lightning as he watched the bolts falling from the sky.
Kihihit. Kking!
[Hehe. Guys, it's adventure time!]
"Yes, Great Blackie-nim!"
Kkiruk!
Thump thump. Thump thump.
Blackie, eager to explore with his subordinates, dashed off, only to halt when
Boom!
Boom!
More lightning struck around them.
Kking? Kking!
[Uh... I'm suddenly sleepy? Hey! Lift me up!]
As expected, it's dangerous outside the sling bag!
He started whining to Sejun.
And then,
Squeeze.
Sejun, who calmed down his anger while squishing Theo's cheeks, also healed his heart, which had been startled by the earlier lightning.
Thud.
He then put the whining Blackie into the sling bag.
"Cuengi, instead of doing it like that, try going up into the sky. You'll gather more lightning that way."
He instructed Cuengi to ascend into the sky.
Kueng!
[Got it!]
Following Sejun's advice, Cuengi used telekinesis to rise into the sky.
Boom!
Boom!
Thanks to this, all the lightning strikes within a 500-meter radius were absorbed into Cuengi's Thunderbolt staff and disappeared.
"Alright. Cuengi, the Thunderbolt staff is complete."
All the effort Sejun put into preparing for lightning turned out to be unnecessary.
Sejun's worry about the lightning vanished completely.
Of course, there were still occasional bolts that didn't head for Cuengi's Thunderbolt staff and instead struck the ground, but
Kuik!!!
The icon of misfortune, Uren, took all the hits.
Or was it because of Uren's misfortune that the lightning, which was originally supposed to hit the Thunderbolt staff, ended up striking Uren instead?
Either way, Uren was dangerous.
As Sejun thought about how he shouldn't stay too close to Uren,
"You saw that, right? If you shout spirit like this when you get struck by lightning, it doesn't hurt at all."
Uren boasted proudly, puffing out his chest a little.
It's not about shouting with spirit. That only works for you.
"Uren, always maintain a 100-meter distance from me."
"Yes!"
Sejun kept Uren nearby as insurance in case any lightning happened to fall.
A man who even utilizes misfortune.
"Hehehe. I'm pretty cool."
With the perfect lightning protection system now in place,
"Cuengi, Piyot, Paespaes, inform me if you find any suspicious spots or waypoints in the sky, and the rest of you, gather the lightning-struck wood and lightning stones."
Sejun got up from his crawling position and assigned tasks to the group.
And then,
"But why hasn't the Land Deed Quest appeared?"
He began inspecting the nearby trees to trigger the Land Deed Quest.
At that moment,
"Huh?!"
Sejun spotted a bare tree with lots of yellow lemons on its branches, which was unlike any of the other trees on the farm.
"What's this? Is this a lemon farm?"
Just as Sejun reached out to pick a lemon,
Kyaak!
The lemons—or rather, the armadillos disguised as lemons—unfolded their bodies and tried to bite Sejun's hand.
"Meow meow meow!"
"Kyoot kyoot kyoot. Subdue!"
[Guard Theo has defeated an Lighting Armadillo.]
[You have received 5,000 experience points, 50% of the experience gained by Guard Theo.]
[Guard Iona has defeated an Lighting Armadillo.]
...
..
104.28.193.250
.
Of course, the Lighting Armadillos were easily subdued by Theo and Iona.
[A quest has been triggered.]
[Quest: Defeat the Lighting Armadillos that are devouring the leaves and fruits of the grapefruit trees in the Grapefruit Farm on the 35th floor of the Golden Tower.]
Lighting Armadillos (700/10,000)
Lighting Armadillo Queen (0/1)
Reward: Recognition as the rightful owner of the Farm on the 35th floor of the Golden Tower.
The Land Deed Quest had appeared.
"Guys, we need to catch 9,300 more Lighting Armadillos and the queen..."
As Sejun was informing Theo and Iona about the quest,
"Theo-Kueng-Park 10,000-step Meteor Strike, meow!"
"Kyoot kyoot kyoot. Subdue."
Boom!
Theo and Iona began attacking the surrounding ground.
Lighting Armadillos (3,500/10,000)
Lighting Armadillos (5,700/10,000)
Lighting Armadillos (8,300/10,000)
The number of Lighting Armadillos being defeated rapidly increased.
"Meow!"
Boom!
[You have defeated 10,000 Lighting Armadillos and 1 Lighting Armadillo Queen.]
[You have completed the quest.]
[As a reward for completing the quest, you have been recognized as the rightful owner of the Land Deed for the Grapefruit Farm on the 35th floor of the Golden Tower.]
[Land Deed Skill: Farm Information Lv. Max is activated.]
Theo's giant footprints appear as far as 1km from the farm, marking the completion of the Land Deed Quest.
Thanks to this, Sejun's task ended quickly.
"I'm a bit hungry, so should we have a snack?"
He started grilling sausages for the group to eat.
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. It's sausage time!]
Cuengi, while still keeping the Thunderbolt staff floating in the sky with telekinesis, focused on the grilling sausages.
The other members of the group also gathered around the campfire, eagerly waiting for the snacks.
Uren, unfortunately, had to eat alone, separated from the group, but Sejun made sure to give him plenty of sausages.
"Uhehehe. This looks delicious."
Rather than being disappointed, Uren was actually pleased to be able to have all the sausages to himself.
A little while later,
Sizzle.
As the juice from the sliced sausages dripped onto the burning wood and quickly evaporated,
"Meow?!"
Kueng?!
Kyoot?!
Theo, Iona, and Cuengi all turned to look in the same direction.
A moment later,
Piyo?!
"Huh?!"
Piyot and Uren also turned their heads to the direction the trio was staring at.
Kikihit. Kking!
[Hehe. Guys, turn the sausages!]
"Yes!"
Kkiruk!
Everyone, except for Blackie, Eomdol, and Ggomi—who were too focused on the food to notice an approaching intruder—had their attention drawn elsewhere.
"Guys, what is it?"
As Sejun, who didn't know what was happening, looked in the direction his companions had turned,
"Huh?"
He saw a figure quickly approaching from a distance.
A tall, slender, and handsome man with long blonde hair.
An elf.
"Merchant of the Daemon family. Please, we beg of you, sell us some food!"
The elf, who had approached in no time, kneeled on one knee before Uren, his gaze fixed on the sausages, drooling slightly.
***
"We must find food no matter what!"
Hanson, the village chief of Karak Village, had ventured out in search of food.
The outside of the cave was extremely dangerous due to the constant lightning strikes, but
We can't last three more days with the food we have left.
With the village's food supply nearly depleted, and having been rationed to just one meal a day, the villagers had begun venturing outside to search for food.
At that moment,
"What is this?"
Why is lightning striking only in that one spot?
Hanson noticed that the lightning bolts seemed to be converging on a single point in the sky.
For some unknown reason.
"That must mean it's safe down there."
I should be able to find food more comfortably there.
Coincidentally, the location was also the habitat of Lighting Armadillos.
So, Hanson quickly moved toward the tree below the spot where the lightning was converging.
While doing so,
"Huh?!"
What's that smell?
He caught the scent of greasy sausages wafting from afar.
"Could it be the Daemon family's merchant group?"
The only ones who could leisurely eat food outdoors like this were the merchants of the Daemon family.
They haven't been seen around lately; I need to hurry and buy some food!
Hanson hurriedly sprinted toward the source of the smell.
There was no guarantee that the Daemon merchants would come to Karak Village, and perhaps if they stopped by another village and sold all the food, they might have just returned.
Hanson ran quickly toward the scent.
As expected, it was the Daemon family! And a direct descendant at that!
He spotted Uren, who had set himself apart from Sejun, eagerly waiting for the sausages to cook, and was convinced.
Pigs = Daemon family.
Pink pigs = Direct descendants of the Daemon family.
This was common knowledge for anyone living in the Golden Tower.
Hanson naturally assumed that Uren was the one in charge here and approached him, showing respect.
But,
"It's not me, though?"
Uren shook his head.
"What?"
"It's over there."
Uren pointed toward Sejun as he spoke to Hanson.
Sejun frowned as their eyes met.
'Oh no! Sejun-nim looks angry.'
"Hurry, go over there!"
Worried about being disliked, Uren hurriedly tried to send Hanson over to Sejun.
However,
"But... I need to buy food..."
Hanson was desperate to buy food and resisted.
"No, go over there and talk to Sejun-nim!"
While Uren and Hanson were having this little back-and-forth,
"Damn, he's really handsome. And tall too."
On top of that, there's something about him—should I call it the pinnacle of beauty? There's a perfection that can't be described in words.
Did he really have to have it all?!
Sejun looked at Hanson with a mix of envy and irritation.
Up until now, when Theo said his face was ugly, he couldn't really believe it, but after seeing Hanson...
Now it makes sense.
And that made him even more annoyed.
Tap, tap.
"Chairman Park, cheer up, meow! The first step to healing is accepting your condition, meow! Now that you've acknowledged your face is ugly, let's start fixing it bit by bit, meow!"
Theo patted Sejun's leg, trying to comfort him.
Of course, Theo's attempt at comfort didn't work at all.
"You—!"
"Chairman Park, don't be angry, meow!"
Sejun grabbed Theo's cheeks, giving him another "rice cake" treatment, stretching them out.
While Sejun was pulling on Theo's cheeks,
"Um, Uren-nim told me to buy food here..."
Hanson cautiously approached Sejun, trying to explain.
Growl.
A sound came from Hanson's stomach.
"Oh? You must be hungry. Here, have some of this first."
Sejun handed Hanson a well-grilled sausage.
Gulp.
Hanson swallowed hard as he looked at the grilled sausage.
He wanted to decline, but
"Thank you!"
Having eaten nothing all day, Hanson couldn't resist the temptation of the grilled sausage.
He began devouring the sausage in a hurry.
Hehehe. He ate it.
Puhuhut. He ate it, meow!
Sejun and Theo, who had somehow become of one mind, were quietly laughing while watching Hanson eat.
*****