Chapter 146
TL: Hanguk
"Just go away. This is not a place for draws."
The guard of the Lost and Found storage, Taru, tried to politely send away this cat merchant, Theo.
However,
"Let's start bargaining, meow!"
"I said no!"
This damn cat merchant wasn't taking no for an answer.
"How about 1 tower coin for one draw, meow?!"
And this outrageous price?!
'Look at this guy...'
At the price Theo was offering, Taru felt strangely offended; unknowingly, his hand tightened its grip on the spear he was holding.
Even if there was nothing valuable in the Lost and Found storage, 1 tower coin?! Then what does that make him, who had been guarding this place for over 100 years?
While Taru was feeling upset,
'The best merchants buy good items at the cheapest price possible, meow!'
Theo, who believed that maximizing profit by buying good items at the cheapest prices was the virtue of a competent merchant, only thought about getting the draw as cheaply as possible.
Ideally, he wanted to go in for free and take everything he liked, but Theo still had some conscience.
"This is not that kind of place."
Taru, holding back the anger rising from his chest, refused again nicely.
However,
"Then, 1.1 tower coins!"
Theo's bargaining had just started.
"No."
"Then, 1.2 tower coins!"
"I said no!"
"1.3 tower coins!"
"No means no!"
Taru continuously refused, and Theo kept bargaining, refusing the refusals.
'What a stubborn guy!'
Taru was annoyed watching Theo slowly raise the price bit by bit. He had heard that the best wandering merchants were stingy, but he didn't know it would be to this extent. It was too stingy.
And so, hours passed this way.
"10 tower coins!"
"Hey! That's too cheap!!!"
Eventually, Taru shouted in anger at the price Theo offered.
"You surprised me, meow! If it's cheap, you should have said so, meow! How about 20 tower coins for one draw, meow?"
Theo cheerfully doubled the bargaining price.
"1000 tower coins. Otherwise, you cannot enter."
Taru said firmly. If it was the place he was guarding, it had to be worth that much.
Taru thought that Theo, who had luckily drawn an item that Reken was eyeing last time, was surely hoping for another stroke of luck. So, he planned to teach this puny cat a lesson.
'If he spends 1000 tower coins to draw a useless item, he will come to his senses quickly.'
Probably, after spending 1000 tower coins to draw a worthless item, he would never come back to draw again.
"Give me a discount, meow!"
When Taru named his price, Theo tried to haggle three times. However, Taru had no intention of bargaining, standing his ground.
"Fine then, meow! Here are 3000 tower coins, meow!"
Theo's purpose was to do as Sejun instructed.
'Chairman Park told me to ask for a discount three times, meow!'
Theo confidently handed 3000 tower coins to Taru. There were three items he couldn't get last time. He planned to take all of them today.
“Three items?!”
Taru was taken aback by Theo's action.
"You cannot take three. You can only take one, no exceptions.”
He wanted Theo to be fooled once, but the amount was too large. Worried about Theo's loss, Taru returned 2000 tower coins.
And then,
Thump.
He opened the door to the massive Lost and Found storage.
Whoosh.
As the door opened, the torches inside the dark storage warehouse lit up.
"Why are there so many restrictions, meow?!"
As Theo grumbled,
"If you don't want to do it, just go back!"
"No, meow! Then I will go in, meow!"
As Taru tried to close the door of the Lost and Found storage again, Theo hurriedly entered.
10 minutes later.
"Meow! Meow!"
Theo came out carrying a shabby box.
"Is that what you chose?"
Taru naturally thought that Theo had chosen the item inside the box and looked inside.
However,
Clang.
It was empty.
"Don't tell me you're going to pick this box?!"
"Yes I am, meow! Then I will come again next time, meow!"
Theo put the box in his bag, with a satisfied expression, and left.
"Why would you even come back? I bet you won't show up again..."
Taru was convinced that Theo had chosen a trash item.
***
The Land of the Golden Dragon.
Thud. Thud.
Kaiser and Kellion arrived. As they entered, golden, red, blue, purple, green, and brown dragons had already arrived.
"Now that everyone is here, let's start the meeting."
As the two entered, Artemis Yul, the head of the Yul clan and the golden dragon presiding over the meeting, announced the start of the meeting.
However, due to the nature of the dragons, who do not interfere with each other, there wasn't much to discuss. The meeting formally proceeded with the agenda of waking the sleeping dragons and preparing to fight against the Black Moon.
And when the meeting ended and the dragons were about to leave,
"Have some of this food before you go. It is made from the crops harvested by the tower farmer of our golden tower."
Artemis offered food to the dragons. His intention was clear: to show off his competent tower farmer.
"Hehehe. I feel bad just accepting the food, so I should bring something out too. This is liquor brewed by the tower farmer of our red tower."
"Hmm, this is..."
The other dragons also started boasting about the things made by the tower farmers of their respective towers.
However,
"......"
"......"
Kaiser and Kellion only ate what the other dragons brought out without saying anything. Kaiser wanted to boast about Sejun's crops, but he held back for the sake of Kellion's pride.
Normally, he was like an enemy, but he did not want to hurt Kellion's pride by boasting about his own crops in this situation.
Then,
"Kaiser, Kellion, why aren't you bringing anything out? What delicious thing are you hiding so tightly? Let's share! Isn't that right? Hahaha."
Tier Peten, the head of the Peten clan and the purple dragon, said with a laugh. His eyes were full of disdainful glances.
·····
The atmosphere in the meeting room turned cold at Tier's words.
The heads of the clans did not leave their territory, but since other dragons interacted with each other, they roughly knew the situation of the other towers even if they did not know exactly.
The Black Tower did not have a tower farmer because of Kaiser's granddaughter, Aileen, and the White Tower was in a situation where no farming was done because Kellion's grandson, Ajax, suddenly became a tower farmer.
Knowing this, Tier still brought it up.
"......"
"Damn it!"
Kaiser glared at Tier without saying a word, and Kellion swallowed his anger and endured it.
'Hehehe. Let's see them get mad.'
Tier, who had always held a grudge against the two, secretly hoped they would get angry. If Kaiser and Kellion get angry here, he can pretend he didn't know their tower's situation and back out, leaving the two in an embarrassing situation.
Then,
"Tier, if they don't want to take it out, they don't have to. There's no need to force them."
Brachio Iorg, the female head of the Iorg clan and the green dragon, spoke to Tier in a cold voice, defending Kaiser and Kellion.
Her granddaughter, Ophelia, was also a tower farmer, similar to Kellion's situation. Of course, the green dragons are the most eco-friendly species among the dragons. It was an agricultural elite among the dragons.
However, Brachio was greatly surprised when she saw the crops of the Black Tower, which were given as rewards at the recent Green Tower harvest festival.
She was surprised that a tower farmer appeared in the Black Tower, and even more so by the quality of the crops they produced.
The crops of the Black Tower's tower farmer, Park Sejun, were still of low grade, but they were perfect. It was like catching two birds with one stone, both in taste and effect.
So she planned to have a separate conversation with Kaiser after the meeting ended... but Tier ruined the mood.
"Ahem. I might have been too hasty. Sorry. If you don’t want to share, you don't have to... If the two of you don't have anything to bring out, I was going to share some."
Tier continued to be provocative until the end.
"Let's disperse for today and meet again in three months."
Feeling the tense atmosphere, Artemis hurriedly ended the meeting. Whenever dragons hold a meeting, starting with the Yul clan, they gather once every three months on each clan’s land. This was the law of the dragons.
***
On the 301st night of being stranded.
"The rabbits, poisonous honey bees, and mushroom ants have all gone home..."
Sejun prepared for the 11th Blue Moon, which was about to start.
[The tower administrator says she is sorry for not being able to help.]
Aileen tried hard to charge the searchlight created by Kaiser with magic power, but it required two slots of magic power to operate. It was difficult for Aileen to even charge one slot with her magic power.
"It's okay. We have prepared enough for today."
Sejun said, looking at the farm guarded by the pink bear and five black minotaurs. Just looking at it was reassuring.
Whenever Flamie had been able to use the Flame of Purification, Sejun used it on the black minotaurs. As a result, all five of them were unaffected by the Blue Moon.
Moreover, with Cuengi also there, it was sufficient to protect the farm.
Then
Krueng!
[Dad, everything is fine!]
(Pip-pip. Sejun, everything is fine!)
Cuengi and the golden bat returned after patrolling the farm to check for any intruding fire ants or poisonous bees.
"Good job. Let's have a midnight snack."
Sejun prepared a midnight snack for the animals who had been working hard without sleep.
Krueng!
[Great!]
Hearing the word 'snack', Cuengi excitedly raised his short front paws in joy.
"I will make garaetteok (rice cake) for you today."
Yesterday, the wizards of the wizard tower, who couldn’t go outside during the Blue Moon, had bought snacks, and thus Sejun had some money again.
He used that money on Relic: Wealth-devouring Rice Dough. He put money into it, obtained rice flour, made rice cake dough, and stored it in the treasure vault of the Red Ribbon Kingdom. That's when he realized,
"Ah! I'm rich..."
If he sold just one of the gold bars in the treasure vault, he could get dozens of coins. Sejun had completely forgotten about the treasures in the vault.
"I'll use this to buy a new power later."
Sejun decided to use the treasures to buy new powers and closed the treasure vault.
As a day passed,
[Current list of items available for withdrawal from the Red Ribbon Kingdom's treasure vault (a total of 23,918,120 items)]
Chewy Dough 1kg X5
...
..
.
The dough had turned into chewy dough. The black rabbit had diligently pounded the dough and put it back.
"I will take out 5kg of chewy dough."
[Withdrawing 5kg of chewy dough from the Red Ribbon Kingdom's treasure vault.]
"Okay. Press it gently and slowly!"
Sejun said, putting the dough into the manual garaetteok machine held by Cuengi.
Krueng!
Having done it several times already, Cuengi skillfully started making garaetteok.
[Chewy Garaetteok have been completed.]
[Your proficiency in Cooking Lv. 4 has slightly increased.]
[Due to the effect of cooking level 4, the taste and effect of chewy garaetteok have slightly increased.]
The Garaetteok were completed. As the Black Rabbit's skills improved, the word 'slightly' that was attached to the Garaetteok's description disappeared.
"Okay. Let's eat!"
Sejun cut the garaetteok into bite-sized pieces and gave them to the pink bear, Cuengi, and the golden bat. Of course, honey was essential for garaetteok, so he took out a lot of honey as well.
"Here, you guys eat this."
Mmmm!
(Thank you for the food!)
The black minotaurs didn’t like the texture of the rice cakes, so they didn’t eat them. Instead, Sejun gave them a lot of cherry tomato stems.
By the time Sejun and the animals happily finished their midnight snacks,
"Oh?! It's the Blue Moon!"
A blue moon rose in the sky.
"Let's get to work."
Sejun stood up and said. They had to scatter and locate the crops affected by the energy of the Blue Moon.
Then,
"Chairman Park! I'm here, meow!"
Theo, who had just arrived, flew towards Sejun.
"Oh! Vice Chairman Theo, welcome!"
"Meow?!"
Theo was put to work as soon as he arrived.
*****
Chapter 146: Let's Start Bargaining, Meow!
*****
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