Chapter 56: Giving Advice on Troubles

TL: Hanguk

“Tweet tweet.”

Iona was humming a tune as she strolled through the shopping district. She was in a great mood as she was shopping for necessities in the shopping district for the first time in a while.

On her way back after a delightful shopping,

“Meow, meow, meow.”

A yellow cat came strutting towards her, a sense of pride in its gait.Rread latest chapters at n/ov(e)lbin(.)co/m

And

“What’s this, meow?”

A cat, despite being an intermediate wandering merchant, fearlessly blocked her path.

“Don’t you know who I am? Step aside!”

“And you, do you know who I am, meow?!”

Elka, watching the two tiny creatures assert their own importance, found the situation amusing.

Just then,

“...?!”

Elka noticed a small, staff-like red-colored wooden stick strapped to the cute hamster’s back. At the end of the staff was a black gem, ominous in its appearance, covered in densely engraved golden letters.

‘Is that... the Staff of Disaster?!’

The Staff of Disaster was a legendary item, one of only three in the tower. It was the signature weapon of Iona, the head of the Wizard’s Association, known as the destructive wizard.

Could that hamster be?!

As Elka was taken aback, Theo gave him a hint to quickly explain who he was.

‘What should I do?’

On one hand, there was the follower of the great black dragon, and on the other, there was the destructive magician, Iona. Both were formidable beings.

Slurp. Slurp.

Caught between two giant beings, Elka awkwardly licked his lips. From an outsider’s perspective, it looked like a giant wolf licking its lips at the sight of a tiny cat and hamster... but in reality, the Silver Wolf Tribe’s chief, Elka, was feeling quite anxious.

“Miss Iona, Theo here is a follower of the Great Black Dragon.”

Elka quickly disclosed Theo’s identity, hoping to prevent Iona from attacking Theo.

The destructive wizard, Iona. It was known that with one blast of her magic, she could obliterate a mountain and create a river. If Iona were to impulsively attack Theo, he would be dead on the spot.

“Silver Wolf Tribe, is this true? If it’s a lie, all of you will not be able to escape death for the crime of impersonating the Great Black Dragon’s name.”

“I swear upon my tribe that it is not a lie.”

As Iona began to intensely scrutinize Elka to verify the truth,

“Stop tormenting my subordinate, meow! Talk to me, meow!”

Theo boldly stepped forward.

“Then prove that you really are a follower of the Great Black Dragon.”

“How so, meow?”

“If you truly are a follower of the Great Black Dragon, then take me to him.”

Iona intended to ask the Great Black Dragon to solve the problem of the Red Locusts that had invaded the 67th floor of the tower.

However,

“For free, meow?”

Theo spoke as if it was out of the question. He had the merchant’s intuition that he couldn’t just accept it.

“What do you want?”

“For now, there are things to buy here and Iona should pay for them all, meow.”

“Oh... Okay.”

Iona was taken aback by Theo’s response and answered. She had thought he would say something significant but he was just talking about trivial things. Iona looked at Theo strangely and joined the group.

Theo went to a different general store, not the one he had been to before. If the owner, an intermediate wandering merchant, recognized him and gave him things for free, it wouldn’t be rewarding to receive payment from Eona.

Theo entered the general store and began to select items to buy.

The items that Sejun had asked for were three large pots, a frying pan, and ten glass bottles. But today, since he would be spending Eona’s money, he added 90 glass bottles and a straw hat similar to Sejun’s, filled with a little personal touch.

“That will be a total of 21.1 Tower coins.”

“Here...”

As Iona was about to pay,

“Give me a discount, meow!”

Theo started to haggle three times. When buying goods, he always followed Sejun’s instructions to haggle three times. Theo was a cat with zero flexibility when it came to Sejun’s instructions.

“Alright. Then, I will give it to you for 13 Tower Coins.”

“Hurry up and pay, meow!”

After haggling three times, Theo said to Eona.

‘What’s with that cat?’

She had expected him to ask for something grand, but he was demanding something trivial. And in the store, he went out of his way to save her money by haggling the price down three times.

While Iona was confused looking at Theo,

“Puhuhut. Next is the blacksmith’s shop, meow!”

Wearing the straw hat he had just purchased and in high spirits, Theo led the way to the blacksmith’s shop.

Fortunately, when they arrived at the blacksmith’s shop, it was a different clerk, not the one who had let him draw for free last time.

“Give me a discount, meow!”

This time as well, Theo haggled three times and made Iona pay 12.5 Tower Coins for the equipment draw cost. Then, Theo started to examine the items at the draw corner.

“Should I help?”

Seeing Theo quietly closing his eyes with his front paws outstretched, Iona asked. As a wizard, Iona could obviously use appraisal magic, and she wanted to repay Theo who had somewhat saved her money.

However,

“......”

Theo did not answer and continued to focus.

Just then,

Thump.

Cuengi, who wanted to sleep on Sejun’s lap with the black rabbit, was disappointed and increased his size to sleep against Sejun’s back.

Byeong...

Kkoo-eung...

Listening to the snoring of the black rabbit and Cuengi, Sejun used the ‘Create Thundercloud’ skill to make shade and moved the clouds here and there to increase his proficiency.

[Your proficiency in <Create Thundercloud> has increased slightly.]

While he was raising the proficiency of ‘Creating Thundercloud’,

[The tower’s administrator requests something spicy to eat.]

[A quest has been generated.]

[Quest: Serve spicy food to the depressed Aileen.]

Reward: Decrease in Aileen’s depression

Rejection: Aileen, in extreme depression, transforms into dark mode.

Aileen, who had not answered for a while, started talking.

***

“Open up-!”

Aileen blew mana into the portal in the administrator’s area and shouted. However, it was impossible to activate the portal with Aileen’s tiny mana.

“Argh!”

Aileen tried even after eating dozens of magical cherry tomatoes at once, but it was no use. They were just delicious.

“Kuak! I can’t!”

Eventually, Aileen gave up trying to activate the portal she had been attempting for several days.

Instead...

“I’ll solve it myself.”

She decided to leave the administrator’s area and solve it directly, like her grandfather.

But

“Huh?!”

As soon as Aileen left the administrator’s area, she felt the world spinning and hurried back to the administrator’s area.

With her Dragonheart still weakly beating, there wasn’t enough mana to sustain Aileen’s body outside the administrator’s area.

“Kuhing (Crying)... human... I want to eat something spicy.”

A depressed Aileen sought out Sejun.

***

“Dark mode?”

He didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like Aileen shouldn’t go into dark mode.

“Just wait a moment.”

Sejun hurriedly took five half-dried squids he had prepared and went down to the cave to start making spicy stir-fried squid. He spared no effort in adding all the remaining chili powder.

While Sejun was making spicy stir-fried squid,

[The tower’s administrator requests advice on some troubles.]

“advice?”

Aileen spilled out her troubles.

“So, you’re saying that a Red Locust has invaded the 67th floor of the tower?”

[The tower’s administrator confirms it.]

[The tower’s administrator says that if the Red Locust is left alone, it will evolve into a more powerful group.]

Sejun realized the seriousness of the situation from Aileen’s words. A swarm of locusts that evolves by eating everything...

“First, I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Sejun comforted Aileen and gave her the finished spicy stir-fried squid.

[You have completed the quest.]

[As a quest completion reward, Aileen’s depression decreases after eating spicy food.]

‘What should I do?’

Snip, snip.

Sejun spent the entire afternoon cutting onion leaves, thinking about how to deal with the locusts. However, there was no apparent solution.

That’s when...

“Ouch.”

Sejun’s hand was slightly cut on the onion leaf he was holding to cut.

“What is this?”

When Sejun looked at the onion leaf that cut his finger, its texture was completely different from the others. It felt like touching metal. He was lucky. The onion leaf was so hard and sharp that he could have cut off his finger if he had made a mistake.

Could it be?! Sejun, feeling strange, pulled out the root of the onion.

[You have harvested a Sturdy Blade Onion.]

[Your job experience slightly increases.]

[Your proficiency of Harvest Lv. 4 increases slightly.]

[Due to the effect of Proficiency Increase Lv. 1, the proficiency of Harvest Lv. 4 increases by an additional 5%.]

[You have gained 30 experience points.]

“Huh?!”

[You have achieved the achievement of creating a new species in the tower.]

[The Tower recognizes your exclusive cultivation right for the new species.]

[No one cannot cultivate a sturdy blade onion without your permission.]

[Your job experience increases significantly.]

As Se-jun was quickly checking the options of the second new species, the sturdy blade onion,

“I’m back, meow!”

Theo returned with a hamster.

*****