20th Floor of the Black Tower.

“Hey, youngest. Do you know why I, a lower bone rank, aimed to overthrow the bone rank caste system?”

Koto, the leader of the Crying Skeleton Gang and the master of the ‘Shoddy Skeleton Castle’ on the 20th floor, asked the King of Farming.

Chuk.

As he gently placed his right hand on the sword handle.

“No… I don’t know.”

How would I know that? The King of Farming shrank his neck, intimidated by Koto’s actions.

Honestly, he wasn’t curious at all.

He is a priest tasked with following the orders of the Goddess of Abundance, Leah. He didn’t have time to casually join a revolution right now.

‘Just let me go.’

The King of Farming swallowed what he really wanted to say. After all, a sword could fly towards his neck if he did.

“Of course. You’re the youngest. You wouldn’t know.”

Then why did you ask when you knew…

“Listen carefully, youngest.”

Koto began to explain with a voice filled with nostalgia.

“It was exactly 77 days ago…”

On the 99th floor of the Black Tower, the Wizard tower opening ceremony was held.

Since Iona, the destructive wizard, invited them, most of the named monsters in the Black Tower attended.

They couldn’t refuse, for fear of what might happen later.

Koto wasn’t personally invited, but he attended the ceremony to serve Ker, the ruler of the 93rd floor of the tower, and his son Ber, who were nobles.

And

“That’s where I met him…”

Ordered by higher-ranking skeletons, Koto commanded a common bone to offer bones.

“However, during a scuffle, I ended up losing my right arm bone to that common bone, and I was severely beaten with my own arm bone.” (TL: If you don’t remember the bone caste is like this -> Sacred Bone – True Bone – Noble Bone – Common Bone – Mixed Bone and True Bone and above are called nobles)

Later, other noble and higher bones intervened, but they ended up pulverized by a bear following the common bone and are still recovering.

“At first, I was angry about being hit by the common bone… but seeing other noble and higher bones turned to dust opened my eyes.”

Koto said he realized then.

“Ah. What does it matter if he’s a common bone? If one is strong, that’s all that matters… Such an outdated bone rank system is unnecessary.”

Thus, after returning to the 20th floor, Koto formed the Crying Skeleton Gang and began gathering like-minded comrades.

“That common bone was him. He executed the noble and higher bones and then vanished. And this right arm is the glorious arm he swung then. Would you like to touch it?”

Clatter.

Koto proudly extended his right arm.

“…”

He wanted to say no, but saying no would surely provoke Koto to draw his sword, so the King of Farming merely pretended to touch Koto’s right arm.

“How is it?”

Koto asked with anticipation.

“What? What is it?”

“Doesn’t it ignite your passion for overthrowing the bone rank system?

“Yes…”

The safe answer was predetermined.

Thus, the King of Farming learned the story behind the founding of the Crying Skeleton Gang.

“Soon, we will attack noble Dor’s Skeleton Castle on the 76th floor to overthrow the bone rank system.”

Koto shared his future ambitions.

At that moment,

“Koto~nim, floor-climbers are approaching!”

A lookout from the Crying Skeleton Gang reported the approach of hunters.

“Great! Let’s show the skills of our Crying Skeleton Gang!”

“Yes!”

Clatter. Clatter.

Following the shout, Koto and the other four subordinates collapsed their bodies. They were pretending to be dead.

Clatter. Clatter.

The King of Farming hurriedly followed suit and pretended to be dead as well.

And

‘Ah. Who beat him up?’

He resented the common bone who walked around with a bear, making Koto harbor such odd thoughts of overthrowing the bone rank system.

***

99th Floor of the Black Tower.

[You have harvested 20 Power Sweet Potatoes.]

[Your job experience increases slightly.]

[Your proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 8 has increased slightly.]

[You have gained 1400 experience points.]

Sejun finished harvesting walnuts and was now harvesting sweet potatoes.

And next to him, Black Rabbit and Cuengi sat on the ground with a thud, wrapping the sweet potatoes Sejun had harvested with leaves and putting them into the campfire.

They were in the process of making more roasted sweet potato snacks as their supply had run out.

Kyihihit. Kking!

‘Heheh. I’m also making the yellow and chewy thing!’

To help make roasted sweet potato snacks, Fenrir also pulled on a sweet potato vine planted in the ground with all his might.

However,

Snap.

The vine snapped before the sweet potato could come out, and Fenrir, unable to control his own strength, rolled around for a while.

Kking!

‘I won’t give up!’

Fenrir refused to give up. Fenrir rolled on the ground a few more times.

Kking!

‘I’m good at digging too!’

Thinking this wouldn’t do, he started digging up sweet potatoes from the ground. His whole body turned completely black from the dirt. A bath was definitely in order.

As everyone was busy with their tasks,

Gurgle.

Kueng!

[Dad, Cuengi is hungry!]

Cuengi’s stomach clock signaled it was lunchtime.

“We’ll have some roasted sweet po…”

Just as Sejun was about to suggest eating roasted sweet potatoes,

[10 plump drought-inducing watermelons have been stored in the temporary storage of the Blue Tower.]

[The temporary storage of the Blue Tower is full.]

A message appeared. It seemed that Zelga had harvested the drought-inducing watermelons.

Given that the storage was full with just 10 watermelons, they must be quite heavy.

Watermelons…

“Transport.”

Curious about their taste, Sejun immediately transported them. Transporting them from the Blue Tower, which was as far as the Green Tower, cost him 8 million Tower Coins.

Shortly after,

Poof.

A bright pillar of light fell in front of Sejun, and ten huge watermelons appeared.

“Wow. They’re really big.”

Sejun was startled by the watermelons that were 3 meters in size.”

But the surprise was brief.

Crack.

Sejun brought over the Amplifying Greatsword and sliced one of the watermelons in half.

Though the length of the sword was 2m long, the sword energy effectively compensated for the lack of length and cut through the watermelon. It was the effect of Intermediate Swordsmanship Lv. 5.

Then, he cut the half watermelon into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Due to its enormous size, he had to cut it into hundreds of pieces.

Though there was an option that said consuming it would raise all stats by 20, it was far too much for him to eat alone.

He decided to make watermelon punch later, and with that cooking skill will allowed him to gain effects proportionate to the amount eaten, but today he simply enjoyed the natural taste of the watermelon.

“Cuengi, eat this.”

Sejun gave an uncut half of the watermelon to Cuengi, who could eat a lot.

Kuehehehe. Kueng!

[Hehehe. Good!]

Crunch. Crunch.

Cuengi happily dug into the watermelon following Sejun’s suggestion and went inside the watermelon.

“Let’s eat too.”

Sejun shared the bite-sized watermelon pieces with Black Rabbit and Fenrir.

Ppyak!

[Uncle, it’s super sweet and refreshing!]

Kking! Kking! Kking!

‘Sweet! Refreshing! Delicious!’

“Try some too, Aileen.”

Sejun sent a whole watermelon to Aileen and enjoyed the delicious watermelon with his companions.

After filling up their stomachs with watermelon,

“Please try this.”

He gifted one drought-inducing watermelon each to Kaiser, Ramter, and Tier. It was meant as a suggestion to use these in the future.

-Oh! Is this only for VIPs?

-As expected, Being a VIP sure is nice.

-Hahaha. Poor Kellion.

Kellion was nowhere to be found, so he only gave it to the three of them, but he didn’t bother to mention it.

‘I’ll have to send some through Ajax later.’

After giving the dragons the watermelons,

“Now. Let’s take a bath!”

Sejun took his group to the bathhouse.

Black Rabbit, Cuengi, and Fenrir had all eaten watermelons, getting their fur sticky with juice, making it clump together and look messy.

Kking!

‘Hey! Look at the majestic swimming of the noble Fenrir!”

Thanks to that, they could watch Fenrir dog paddle joyously splashing water everywhere.

***

35th Floor of the Tower.

“Theo~nim, we are here.”

Uren brought Theo to a tree growing atop a sharp cliff.

“Uren, where is the scammer, meow?”

Theo looked around and asked.

“Ah… I don’t know where the scammer is, so we came here. This is the tree I was scammed with.”

Uren pointed at the tree and explained.

“Still, the fruit tastes quite good. Uhehe.”

Despite being scammed out of 300 billion Tower Coins because of the tree, Uren praised the taste of its fruits with a laugh.

It seemed like having an ultra-positive mindset might be one of the essential conditions for being a sucker.

Then,

“Puhuhut. Uren, that’s the spirit, meow! Because the culprit is bound to come back to the crime scene, meow!”

Theo, following what he learned from detective Sherlock Sejun, exclaimed as he recited this.

“So, search the area, meow!”

Theo formed round glasses with his front paws and searched the tree, and

Piyo!

[Yes!]

“Yes!”

Piyot and Uren, taking the lead from Theo, also formed glasses with their wings and hooves to search the tree.

However, Uren hadn’t mentioned one thing. It had been about 10 years since he was scammed.

Even if the culprit had come, they would have long gone by now.

So, there was nothing to find by searching the tree.

But,

“Puhuhut. Found it, meow!”

Theo, luckily, discovered the use of this tree.

“Chairman Park will like this, meow!”

Theo enthusiastically started collecting the jujubes from the jujube tree into his bundle.

As Theo picked the jujubes, Piyot and Uren also stopped searching and followed Theo in picking them.

While they were all happily picking jujubes from within the tree,

“Look! This is the tree that bears gold!”

A cunning voice came from beneath the tree.

‘A tree that bears gold? This is a jujube tree, meow!’

When Theo looked in the direction of the voice, a gray skunk appeared.

‘Theo~nim, that’s the guy who sold me this tree!’

Seeing the skunk, Uren signaled to Theo with his foot.

10 years. It was the right time for a scammer who had scammed Uren and disappeared to come out of their hiding to scam once again.

‘Puhuhut. Just as Sherlock Sejun said, the culprit came back to the crime scene, meow!’

Theo confirmed once again that Sejun’s words were the truth.

Then,

“But where is the gold, baa?”

A familiar voice was also heard. It was Mimyr, the Legendary Merchant Golden Sheep.

“That’s because it’s not yet the season for the gold to bear. You’ll have to wait a year.”

“Is that so? Then let’s talk again when the gold grows.”

“Wait a minute…”

Although the scammer called out, Mimyr left the cliff without any hesitation, her footsteps sounding in retreat.

“As expected, she’s not easily fooled. That pig back then paid right away…”

It seemed the scammer knew that fools like Uren, who are easily deceived, are valuable.

As the scammer was acknowledging Uren’s value,

Kwuik!

Thump!

Uren, who had been hiding in the jujube tree, leaped to the ground.

“Found you! Siron! You scammer!”

He shouted towards the gray skunk Siron.

“Ah? Uren~nim, it’s good to see you!”

Siron, a skilled scammer, was briefly flustered but soon embraced Uren as if truly pleased to see him.

“What?! Pleased to see me?! You dare say that after scamming me like that?!”

Uren pushed Siron away as he yelled.

“Ah… I’m sorry. Actually, I mistakenly sold you another tree at that time and have been looking for you.”

Siron said in an apologetic tone.

“Really?”

“Yes. Instead, I’ll give you this tree that bears gold. You must have heard just before, but gold will grow in just one year from now.”

Siron spoke as if he was giving Uren the tree, even though Uren had already paid for it.

And,

“But… I didn’t mention it to Mimyr~nim earlier, but there is a way to make it bear gold tomorrow.”

“Oh? Really? What is it?”

“You bury 1 ton of gold in the ground.”

He began a new scam.

“Puhuhut. He’s good, meow!’

Theo cheered for Siron from atop the jujube tree, who was raising his commission.

Swish.

Next to him, Piyot also pulled out a slave contract.

*****