Kenya, Africa.
Suk.
“Damn it. Why am I planting this?”
Having been saved by Theo and forcibly drafted into the Earth Defense Force, Ngũgĩ grumbled, looking at the sturdy blade green onions planted around him.
Around a thousand sturdy blade green onions had been planted in the vicinity.
Before leaving the tower.
“Hand over all the detoxifying green onions.”
Han Tae-jun had taken all the detoxifying green onions that Theo had provided to the Earth Defense Force. Believing Theo’s words that the Earth was facing destruction, Han Tae-jun planned to mobilize all resources.
Naturally, at first, the hunters, led by Lucilia, the guild leader of the Wizard Guild, had defiantly exclaimed, ‘Who do you think you are?!’
But they had met more than their match. Indeed, there were many hidden powerhouses in the world. Lucilia and the hunters had to surrender after being bombarded by Han Tae-jun’s magic missiles.
“That huge guy using magic…”
Ngũgĩ shivered, recalling memory of that time.
Within 24 hours of arriving on Earth, Han Tae-jun began to seize lands all over the world and founded the Earth Defense Force. He then designated land for the members to plant sturdy blade green onions.
Ngũgĩ hadn’t even seen the money from selling the detoxifying green onions, but he was hopeful because there was a bonus for each green onion planted.
‘Maybe this job is better… I don’t have to risk my life here.’
Suk. Suk.
As Ngũgĩ was planting the sturdy blade green onions with such thoughts,
Flutter.
A green locust, about the size of a fist, flew towards Ngũgĩ.
“What?!”
Ngũgĩ was startled to see the locust.
[Green Locust]
“What’s going on?!”
He could see the name above the locust’s head, just as he had seen it above the heads of monsters inside the tower.
Swoosh.
Ngũgĩ attacked and killed the green locust with his jungle knife, gaining experience points. It was indeed a monster.
“How is there a monster outside the tower? Is Earth really going to be destroyed?!”
As the chilling thought that Theo’s words might be true crept into Ngũgĩ’s mind,
Flutter. Flutter.
About 100,000 green locusts filled the sky, flying towards Ngũgĩ.
‘A swarms of Locust monsters…’
Non-awakeners probably couldn’t see the names above their heads and were unaware of this.
“Damn! I should have brought my weapon…”
Ngũgĩ regretted leaving his primary weapon, a bow, at home, since there was no need to carry it on Earth.
Swish. Swish.
He had no choice but to kill the green locusts with his jungle knife. They weren’t very strong, so there was no danger in killing them.
As he was busily killing the green locusts,
“What?!”
Thud.
Crunch. Crunch.
He saw the green locusts getting cut and killed as they approached to eat the leaves of the sturdy blade onions. Even as they died, they still tried to eat the leaves. It was a truly terrifying appetite.
And the sturdy blade green onions were killing the monsters faster than Ngũgĩ himself.
“So that’s why we were told to plant sturdy blade green onions…”
Ngũgĩ, who had gained a great realization, reported the situation to the Earth Defense Force headquarters. More sturdy blade green onions were needed.
***
As Sejun arrived at the western forest,
“Oh. there are so many now.”
Thump. Thump.
Thud. Thud.
The number of Ents had increased to 7,000. It was thanks to not being attacked by fire ants.
Thump. Thump.
The little Ents greeted Sejun, jostling each other to extend their heads.
[Seed… pluck… please…]
[Seed… pluck…give… you]
“Got it.”
There was a reason why the Ents asked Sejun to pluck the seeds that they could pick themselves.
[Farmer’s Touch Lv. 2 is activated.]
[The growth of the purified Ent accelerates while being touched.]
The Ents liked the feeling of growing faster when Sejun plucked their seeds, thanks to the Farmer’s Touch skill.
As Sejun was plucking the Ents’ seeds,
“It’s a duel, meow!”
Vroom. Vroom.
Theo was running around, wanting to have a rematch, grabbing at the branches the Ents were swinging.
And then,
Kreong.
The bored Cuengi dug into the ground and played.
As he dug deeper, it became dark without light, but
(Cuengi, brother, I will light a fire. Bat Light!)
The golden bat, which had not had a chance to show its abilities until now, used its hidden skill.
Flash.
A weak golden light emanated from the golden bat’s body, illuminating the surroundings.
Kreong!
[Good job!]
Thump. Thump.
Thanks to this, Cuengi was able to dig deeper underground with the help of the golden bat.
And when Cuengi had dug about 10 meters down,
Creak…
(Brother Cuengi, I hear a strange noise over there.)
The golden bat heard a suspicious noise.
Kreong?
[Which direction?]
(Over there.)
The golden bat pointed south with its wing,
Thump. Thump.
And Cuengi started digging a tunnel in that direction.
And when they had dug about 300 meters,
Thump.
Crash.
The wall collapsed.
And then,
Kreong?
(Huh?)
Kkwek?
Cuengi and the golden bat encountered black ants digging a tunnel from the opposite side.
***
“Hey guys, gather around!”
Sejun, who had picked all the Ents’ seeds and replanted them, called the animals. It was time to return.
“I’m already here, meow!”
Theo, who had tiredly returned to Sejun’s lap after chasing branches, proudly said.
“Right, meow! Take this, meow!”
Theo remembered the items he had brought from the wandering merchant association’s office and carefully took them out of his bag.
“Furniture?”
When Sejun looked at the items Theo pulled out, he found chairs, lights, and a desk. It seemed like they would be good for decorating the bedroom.
“You did well. But where did you buy it?”
“I didn’t buy them, meow. I just picked them up, meow!”
Theo, who had clearly stolen them, confidently said he had found them. He was indeed a scoundrel.
“Is that so? Well done anyway.”
“Thank you, meow! Now give me some Churu, meow!”
“Okay.”
Sejun put the items that Theo had brought into the void storage and fed Theo the Churu.
Chomp chomp chomp.
Almost 10 minutes passed by the time Theo finished eating the Churu, but Cuengi and the golden bat had not returned yet.
“Where have they gone?”
When Sejun got up to look for them,
Kreong!
Screeech!
Cuengi and the golden bat, who was perched on Cuengi’s shoulder, appeared from underground, singing.
And then
Kkwek!
Following them, about ten black ants, each roughly 30cm in size, came along, singing in chorus.
[Mushroom Ant]
“Mushroom Ant?”
Upon seeing the name above the black ants, Sejun looked closely at them.
‘How cute.’
Unlike fire ants, which have a sharp triangular face, the mushroom ants had a round face and blunt front teeth, giving them a cute appearance.
They looked completely non-threatening, rather innocent. Since they were called mushroom ants, they seemed to be a good fit for farming.
“Where have you guys been? And what’s with those ants?”
Kreong! Kreong!
[We met them while digging! They said they would give us something to eat called mushrooms if we saved them!]
(Sejun, these ants want to work on your farm!)
Kkwek!
At the words of Cuengi and the golden bat, the black ants vigorously waved their antennae up and down.
“Let’s go to the farm first.”
Sejun took the ants to the farm.
***
On the way to the farm.
“So they were originally slaves to the fire ants, but escaped?”
Sejun talked to the mushroom ants as they moved.
Kkwek!
In response to Sejun’s words, the mushroom ant moved its antennae up and down.
“There were that many fire ants.”
According to what the mushroom ant told him, the fire ant force was substantial. There were dozens of fire ant colonies, each comprising hundreds of thousands of fire ants.
Fortunately, there was no fire ant colony strong enough to unite the fire ants, so they did not usually invade other territories.
If all the fire ants had been unified into a single force, they might have ruled the 99th floor of the tower.
Then,
“Huh?!”
Kkwek!
They encountered other mushroom ants on the road.
And then,
“They want to work on President Park’s farm, meow!”
The mushroom ants somehow knew they wanted to work on Sejun’s farm.
Sejun didn’t know, but when he fell unconscious, the roots of Flamie, which had moved in anger, had freed some mushroom ants that were slaves to the fire ants by defeating a few fire ant colonies.
[If you have nowhere to go, head south and entrust yourselves to Sejun’s farm.]
Following the words of Flamie, who had released them, the mushroom ants were on their way to find Sejun.
Thus, by the time they arrived at the farm, Sejun had met more mushroom ants, and their number had exceeded 500.
“Let’s rest here for today.”
Sejun provided a vacant land for the mushroom ants to rest.
Kkwek!
At Sejun’s words, the mushroom ants lay down on the vacant ground, resting comfortably for the first time since they were born.
***
“Alright.”
Gulp. Gulp.
“Aha.”
Sejun woke up from his sleep and drank the water that Theo had left on the desk yesterday.
“President Theo, wake up.”
Sejun woke Theo up after drinking the water, but
“I’ll sleep for just 5 more minutes, meow…”
Since Theo never got up at once, Sejun placed Theo on his leg.
And then
Swoosh.
He added one more line to the wall and went outside.
As Sejun went outside,
Kreong!
Flap! Flap!
Cuengi and golden bat that were playing around after waking up early greeted Sejun in the morning.
“Let’s have breakfast.”
Kreong!
Cuengi responded loudly to Sejun’s words, “Let’s have breakfast.” Great!
While Sejun was preparing breakfast in the kitchen,
Squeak!
Squeal!
The rabbits also started to get up one by one and gathered in the kitchen.
Today’s breakfast menu was suyuk¹ (boiled pork). Originally, they were to have the usual soup, but upon accidentally finding wild boar meat in the treasure storage, Sejun quickly changed the breakfast menu.
“Hum hum hum.”
Sejun hummed a tune while tying the wild boar meat with detoxifying green onions and putting it in the pot.
And then
Bang! Kreong!
Bang! Kreong!
Following Sejun, Cuengi tapped on the table and sang. Daddy is making a new dish! It must be delicious!
Splish splash.
During Cuengi’s singing, Sejun put the whole bottle of carrot wine, including the carrot, into the pot. Alcohol is the best for removing odor. He also added enough water to cover the wild boar meat and then closed the lid to start boiling.
At that moment,
-No! That precious wine!
-If you were going to do that, you should have given it to me…
The two dragons who had come to the kitchen at mealtime to see if there was anything for them to eat lamented the carrot wine in the pot.
“But what do the mushroom ants eat?”
Sejun remembered the ants.
‘Should I go and check?’
The pork stew needed to boil for at least 20 more minutes to be ready. So Sejun left the kitchen and moved to where the ants were resting.
When Sejun arrived at where the mushroom ants were,
“Huh?!”
Kkwek!
Kkwek!
The ground, which was spacious yesterday, was now swarming with mushroom ants that had joined overnight.
‘There must be around 3,000?’
While Sejun was estimating the number of ants,
“Huh? The color?!”
Sejun’s eyes caught a difference in the mushroom ants from yesterday. The backs of the mushroom ants were a different color than yesterday.
Upon closer inspection of the mushroom ant’s back,
“Is that a mushroom?”
Sejun saw mushrooms growing on their backs. Each mushroom ant had a different type of mushroom growing on its back.
And then
Kkwek!
The mushroom ants were harvesting the mushrooms from each other’s backs.
At that moment,
Kkwek!
A mushroom ant growing a king oyster mushroom on its back approached Sejun and stopped in front of him.
And then
……
It just stood still.
“Do you want me to pick it?”
When Sejun cut a king oyster mushroom from the mushroom ant’s back with his dagger,
[You have harvested a king oyster mushroom.]
[You have 47,812 times left to complete the job quest.]
[Your job experience increases very slightly.]
[Your proficiency in Harvesting Lv. 5 increases very slightly.]
[You have gained 1 experience point.]
A crop harvesting message appeared.
“Oh!”
Sejun exclaimed in joy after seeing the message. There were about 100 mushrooms growing on the backs of the mushroom ants. Since they had grown like that overnight, he might be able to harvest them again in the evening.
He thought he might be able to complete the job quest today.
“Guys, stop!”
Sejun hurriedly yelled to stop the mushroom ants from harvesting the mushrooms.
*****
1) Suyuk (Boiled Pork), Read more here -> https://futuredish.com/suyuk-perfect-korean-pork-belly-slices/
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