TL: Hanguk

“Hmm, where am I?”

Sejun opened his eyes, looking up at the ceiling of his bedroom.

‘Ah, I fainted.’

“Uh, uh.”

Chills ran down his spine as he remembered the excruciating pain before fainting. It was an experience he didn’t want to go through again.

Then,

(Sejun, you’re awake?!)

Flap, flap.

The golden bat, which had been monitoring Sejun from the ceiling, flew itself down and landed gently next to Sejun’s face as he opened his eyes.

(I’m glad you’re awake!)

Flap. Flap.

The golden bat rubbed its face on Sejun’s cheek, making a pleasant sound.

“Thank you for worrying about me.”

As SeJun tried to move his arm to pet the golden bat,

“Huh?”

His arm didn’t move. In fact, he couldn’t move his body at all.

“What’s going on?”

Could this be a side effect of his new talent? Suddenly, he was scared.

“Uh.”

Struggling, Sejun raised his head to look down at his body.

“What the hell?!”

Sejun was taken aback when he saw himself tightly tied up like a caterpillar with ropes. It was Cuengi’s handiwork to prevent Sejun from going outside and fainting again.

“Uh! Uh! Huh!”

Sejun tried to break the ropes, but it was impossible with his strength as the ropes were made from several layers of green onion leaves.

“Golden Bat, can you untie this?”

In the end, Sejun gave up trying to untie it himself and asked the golden bat for help.

But,

(Huh? Brother Cuengi said not to untie you under any circumstances!)

The golden bat looked troubled at Sejun’s request. It could be because of Cuengi’s threat, as Cuengi’s fist was big and strong.

‘Is my word more important? Or is Cuengi’s word more important?’ Sejun could have pressed the golden bat with such childish questions but refrained.

‘I’m an adult.’

It wasn’t that he felt like he’d lose to Cuengi.

“I should buy some seeds.”

Sejun gave up on untying the ropes and checked the seed shop window that had appeared while he was unconscious.

[Radish Seed x200 – 3 Tower Coins]

[Cabbage Seed x100 – 1 Tower Coin]

[Cheongyang chili pepper Seed x100 – 0.7 Tower Coins]

[Cucumber Seed x100 – 0.5 Tower Coins]

“All together that’s 5.2.”

It was slightly over the purchase limit of 5 tower coins.

“Let’s leave out the Cheongyang chili peppers.”

The Cheongyang chili peppers were already harvested and reseeded. There were about 200 seeds in one Cheongyang chili pepper, so it wasn’t a big loss.

Sejun purchased all the remaining seeds.

[You have purchased 200 radish seeds.]

[You have purchased 100 cabbage seeds.]

[You have purchased 100 cucumber seeds.]

[A total of 4.5 Tower Coins have been deducted from Park Sejun’s seed bank account.]

[You have earned 45 Seed Shop loyalty points.]

[You now have a total of 151 seed Shop loyalty points.]

Kaching.

Three small leather pouches containing seeds fell onto Sejun’s tied hands.

[Thank you for using the seed shop.]

[You can use Seed Shop Lv. 2 again after 30 days.]

“But what time is it now?”

(It’s dawn.)

“Is that so? Should I sleep some more?”

Sejun closed his eyes to sleep again.

But,

Flap, flap.

The golden bat was lying on Sejun’s chest, gazing at him with a satisfied look. The gaze was too burdensome for Sejun to fall asleep.

‘I should check my talent.’

While avoiding the gaze of the golden bat, Sejun looked at the ceiling and checked the talent: Magic Circuit that made him faint.

[Talent: Magic Circuit]

– A talent that allows you to construct a circuit throughout your body to efficiently use mana.

– Magic Power stat +5%

– Magic Power recovery speed +100%

– Effect of magic power-increasing items +50%

“Wow…”

The talent was so amazing that Sejun couldn’t close his mouth.

A 5% increase in Magic Power Stat meant that if he had a stat of 100, it would increase by 5.

And every single option, including magic power recovery speed increase by 100% and effect of magic power-increasing items increase by 50%, was amazing.

“Hehehe, Is this really my talent? Am I finally becoming stronger?”

Sejun was full of confidence after checking his talent.

‘With this…’

While thinking about how to use his newly acquired talent,

Snore.

Sejun fell asleep.

Zzzzzz.

The golden bat too.

***

“The secret passage is in very good condition.”

Iona used light magic to look around the secret passage and said.

“But where does this secret passage lead?”

Elka asked ChuChu.

Pi Ppi. (This secret passage is connected to the treasure vault of the Red Ribbon Kingdom.)

Squeak?! (Treasure vault?!)

At ChuChu’s words, the black rabbit asked in excitement.

However,

Pi Ppi. (There are no treasures in the treasure vault. They were all moved a long time ago.)

ChuChu shook her head. It was before ChuChu was even born, so she didn’t know where those treasures went.

“If it’s connected to the treasure vault, we should be able to go straight to the bottom of Grid’s mansion. From there, we’ll go up.”

At Iona’s words, the animals moved along the secret passage. There were traps along the way, but

“Wind’s power! Follow my command and drive them away! Wind Blow!”

All the traps were activated by Iona’s magic.

Thus they arrived at the treasure vault.

“Who are you?! How dare you raise your head in front of me?!”

The white dragon statue in the center of the treasure vault shouted at them.

***

“What’s going on? My right arm suddenly hurts.”

Kaiser said, as he rubbed the scar that ran from the front of his right arm to his elbow, that it was a glorious wound obtained from a fight with the Whitey Kellion 8,000 years ago.

He had suffered a major injury when his arm bone broke from a powerful punch to Kellion’s jaw, but Kellion had all his front teeth knocked out. It was a one-punch knockout.

“Hehehe. That guy is doomed to eat only soft things for the rest of his life.”

Kaiser laughed proudly, thinking about that incident. He heard that afterwards, Kellion, regretting the loss of his teeth, had made a dragon knights with the teeth he had lost.

“When a wound aches like this, strong liquor with sweet side dishes is the best. Hehehe. I should ask Sejun for some roasted sweet potatoes.”

Kaiser took out a bottle of fire carrot wine and moved the black dragon statue to find Sejun.

***

Swoosh!

The golden bat that had been sleeping on Sejun’s chest quickly woke up as it heard someone approaching.

‘It’s Brother Cuengi.’

Flap. Flap.

As the golden bat quickly hung itself on the ceiling, Cuengi entered.

(Nothing unusual during the duty!)

The golden bat saluted with its right wing.

Kreong.

Cuengi nodded and checked Sejun’s appearance. Fortunately, it didn’t get caught sleeping.

“Cuengi! Untie me quickly!”

Sejun, who woke up because of the noise, spoke to Cuengi. He wanted to get up and go to the bathroom.

Kreong!

Snap.

With a little effort from Cuengi, the rope snapped easily.

Sejun quickly went to do his business, and when he returned,

Kreong!

[I’m hungry!]

Cuengi rubbed his face on Sejun’s chest while tapping its stomach.

“Cuengi, don’t tie Daddy up like this next time, okay? It’s a bad thing.”

Kreong! Kreong!

[I didn’t know it was bad! I won’t tie you up next time!]

Cuengi nodded in response to Sejun’s words.

“Let’s eat.”

Sejun washed an empty pot and started boiling a new soup. The pots in the kitchen were all empty because he took a day off yesterday.

“Who will cut this?”

Sejun said as he took out the frozen purple locust meat. Theo had gone down to trade, so there was no animal to cut the meat thinly.

As Sejun pondered,

(I’ll help you!)

The golden bat offered its assistance.

“Are you sure?”

(Leave it to me!)

Sejun was initially worried because of the golden bat’s rickety appearance,

Swoosh.

As he watched the meat being cut smoothly, like pudding being sliced by the golden bat’s wings, Sejun once again realized that worrying about others in this place was utterly useless.

“That’s right. I just have to do well…”

“From now on, the golden bat will be the cooking assistant.”

Sejun entrusted the cooking assistant role to the golden bat. The reason was that, unlike Theo, it didn’t shed fur, so it was more hygienic.

(Thank you!)

Pip-pip.

The golden bat was thrilled, as if it were the honor of its family. Thus, the golden bat became an assistant cook.

Just then,

“I’m back, meow!”

Theo, who had just lost a job, returned.

And

Snuggle.

As soon as he returned, Theo clung to Sejun’s knee, and started rubbing his head vigorously. All other smells, disappear, meow!

While Theo was diligently rubbing his scent onto Sejun’s knee,

“You did well.”

Sejun said, stroking Theo’s head.

“This is a gift, meow! I bought it with my own money, meow!”

A while later, after thoroughly rubbing his scent onto Sejun, Theo held out a statue he bought from a street-wandering merchant, using his soft front paws.

“What kind of statue is this?”

“I don’t know, meow! I just felt drawn to it, meow!”

Theo proudly answered Sejun’s question. He didn’t know what it was, but it was natural for him to think it was great because he picked it.

Swoosh.

Sejun took the small statue from Theo and examined it.

“Oh?! It’s a rabbit statue.”

Although it was worn a lot, on closer inspection, there was a faint outline of a rabbit. Sejun, who confirmed what kind of statue it was, checked the options of the statue.

[Statue]

→ ???

→ Creator: Confidential

→ Grade: F

“Aileen, appraise this.”

[The Tower’s Administrator says to leave it to her.]

The rabbit statue in Sejun’s hand disappeared.

And then,

[The Tower’s Administrator says it’s a high-grade item.]

[The Tower’s Administrator brags that it was made by her aunt.]

“Aunt?”

After the appraisal, Aileen sent the rabbit statue back to Sejun. The seal broke, and the statue regained its original cute rabbit appearance.

“It’s not dangerous, right?”

Since a dragon made it, doubts arose first.

[The Tower’s Administrator says it is not dangerous at all.]

“Really?”

[The Tower’s Administrator tells you to trust her.]

Sejun rechecked the rabbit statue’s options.

[Treasure Vault’s Guardian Rabbit Statue]

→ A statue ordered and enchanted by the great black dragon Tara Pritani during her time as the guardian dragon of the Red Ribbon Kingdom, made by the dwarves and gifted to the royal family.

→ It controls the entry and exit of the royal treasure vault, allowing you to freely add or remove items from the vault.

→ Creator: Black Dragon Tara

→ Grade: S

→ Skills: [Inbound Lv. Max], [Outbound Lv. Max]

“The Red Ribbon Kingdom’s treasure vault?”

The Kingdom’s treasure vault?

“Shall we just see what’s in it?”

Sejun looked at the animals and grinned wickedly. Since he could put the items back, there would be no trace left.

“Great! Let’s rob the treasure vault!”

Kreong!

[I hope there’s food!]

(I want to see the treasures!)

The animals’ intentions were different, but they all agreed to take out items from the treasure vault.

“Alright. Outbound!”

As Sejun held the statue and spoke.

[Current list of items available for withdrawal from the Red Ribbon Kingdom’s treasure vault (total 1 item)]

Unregistered Statue X 1

A list of items that could be taken out of the treasure vault appeared.

“Ah. There’s only one?”

It looked like someone had already taken everything, leaving only the heavy statue.

“Let’s at least withdraw this one.”

Sejun selected the unregistered statue.

[Withdrawing 1 unregistered statue from the Red Ribbon Kingdom’s treasure vault.]

Thud.

A portal formed in the sky, and a white dragon statue fell.

A menacing energy emanated from the statue.

“You said this isn’t dangerous?”

[The Tower’s Administrator denies that only items she has appraised isn’t dangerous.]

Then

– Whitey bastard! How dare you come here!”

Kaiser, who had flown over excitedly for his side dish of roasted sweet potatoes, yelled at the sight of the white dragon statue.

*****

*****