Black Tower 40th floor.

A black pig stepped foot on the sword farm.

However, there was no one at the farm. Even the usual places where weasels usually stayed were carefully inspected, but they were empty too.

“Hmm… Is the rumor true? That Uren-nim got money from ‘Tolt and the guys’ and turned them into slaves…”

The rumor seemed credible enough to check since the scene corroborated the unbelievable rumor.

“If Uren~nim managed to get 100 billion Tower Coins from Tolt, then the remaining money would be…”

49.9 trillion Tower Coins.

Originally, Uren was just a pig born into an incredibly, no, enormously wealthy family.

From a young age, Uren showed potential as a pushover, readily lending money or getting scammed, with the amounts growing over time.

Before long, the amount Uren lent and lost to scams exceeded 1 trillion Tower Coins.

Then, the elders of the family insisted that Uren’s father, Yuto, could not just let this go on.

Though it was a trivial amount considering the family wealth, it was a scheme to build justification to usurp the next head of the family position.

But Yuto also thought it wasn’t right to just leave Uren be for his future’s sake.

“As the head of the Daemon family, I declare this. Uren, don’t even think about coming home until you’ve recollected all the money you’ve lent and lost in scams.”

Thus, pretending to acquiesce to the elders’ demands, Yuto kicked out Uren, empty-handed, by the solemn command of the family head.

The thought was that if the son suffered a bit, he would realize the value of money and his pushover nature would weaken.

Of course, he didn’t expect Uren to get back the entire 1 trillion tower coins.

If Uren managed to bring back around 100 billion Tower Coins, he planned to persuade the elders and allow Uren to come home, pretending to give in.

Of course, it would be tough for Uren alone, so he was prepared to send someone to help midway.

However, Yuto didn’t foresee what happened next.

Uren awakened the talent: Midas Touch, which could turn his weight in eaten food into gold.

Thanks to this, Uren exploded with naivety and, far from retrieving money, he ended up lending more and getting scammed even further.

Even if he wanted to help, Uren had become a full-fledged pushover too quickly, and it became difficult to approach him due to his misfortune.

Ten years after Uren was kicked out from home,

Uren, now bearing the empty title of ‘Legendary Merchant’, needed to reclaim 50 trillion Tower Coins to return home.

As a result, whenever news of Uren lending money or being scammed reached him, Yuto regretted his decision and fell ill.

So recently, he had been keeping news about Uren from reaching his ears.

And this black pig himself was a tracker hired secretly by Uren’s mother, Hamie, to hear news about Uren.

“That pushover young master finally managed to get some money back… Hamie~nim would be pleased.”

Black pig Dave rushed to find Hamie with the information he had gathered.

As Dave was about to deliver the joyful news about Uren to Hamie,

“I’ve buried a ton of gold!”

Uren, still getting scammed, shouted after burying a ton of gold under the jujube tree, just as the gray skunk Siron said.

“Alright. But the tree bears gold only when left alone, so let’s leave now and come back tomorrow morning. I’ll just do some pruning to ensure the gold grows well and then leave.”

Anyone could see it was a shallow ploy to take the buried gold once Uren left.

“Understood. Let’s go, Theo~nim. Tomorrow morning…”

Uren responded as Siron suggested and called for Theo.

Just then,

“Puhuhut. That’s enough, meow!”

Tak.

As Uren was clearly getting scammed, Theo, having finished calculating his fee, performed a heroic landing with a triple flip in the air from the jujube tree.

Piyo!

Tak.

Piyot also followed Theo and landed in a heroic pose.

“Puhuhut. Uren, now half of that gold is mine, meow!”

Theo, having landed stylishly, pointed at the spot where the gold was buried and declared boldly to Uren,

“What? Why?”

Uren asked with a clueless expression.

“Puhuhut. Because Uren, you got scammed again, meow! Half the gold is a 50-50 fee, meow!”

“I… it’s not a scam…”

Slap!

“Come to your senses, meow! This is a jujube tree, meow! Gold can’t grow on it, meow!”

Theo slapped Uren’s cheek as he exclaimed.

“Ah… that’s true! Gold on a jujube tree… I was scammed, wasn’t I?”

Uren, still half-doubting that he had actually been scammed.

“Puhuhut. That’s right, meow! Uren has been scammed, meow!”

As Theo informed Uren that he had been scammed,

“Hey! What bad luck! I was almost done scamming!!!”

Siron, who was interrupted by Theo’s arrival, started to flee hastily.

He ran exceptionally well, perhaps from much practice. Siron quickly distanced himself.

“Puhuhut. You can’t escape from Vice Chairman Theo, meow! Let’s go, Piyot, meow!”

Theo vanished from the spot as he finished speaking.

And he reappeared right beside Siron.

“Puhuhut. Caught you, meow!”

Grab.

Theo caught the fleeing Siron by the nape of the neck. It was Theo’s fast-moving technique, ‘Meow Blink.’

“Eek! Eat this!”

The grey skunk Siron, caught by the neck by Theo, powered up his buttocks using his escape technique.

Then,

Pwoooung!

A brown fart was released from Siron’s buttocks.

‘Kekeke. This is a stench no one can overcome!’

Siron imagined Theo’s face twisting in pain from the stench, smirking vilely.

However,

“Puhuhut.”

Theo, hit directly by Siron’s fart, was smiling calmly.

“Wha… how?!”

Siron was astonished to see Theo unaffected by his escape technique. Is there something wrong with my fart?

While Siron wondered if his fart smell was too weak,

Ppiyak!!!!

Piyot, following Theo, spat out curse words and quickly moved away. Indeed, there was nothing wrong with his own fart.

Then… that guy must have no sense of smell. Otherwise, it made no sense for him to withstand his fart.

It was bad luck. Of all people, he had to run into someone with no sense of smell. The worst possible match.

“Puhuhut. With just this level of fart, it’s impossible to beat Chairman Park’s shit smell, meow!”

But Theo scolded Siron with a tone as if saying, what are you trying to do with level of smell.

Having endured many of Sejun’s terrible shit smells to stay by his side, such a fart was nothing to Theo.

“What?! There’s a smell worse than my fart?!”

Siron, who took pride in producing foul smells, looked incredulous at Theo’s comment.

“Meow!”

Theo stretched his front paws towards the sky, and a gust of strong wind arose, blowing the stench away into the sky.

Ppiyak!

[Theo~nim, here you go!]

As the stench disappeared, Piyot flew over and delivered a slave contract to Theo.

“Puhuhut. Stamp it, meow!”

Theo pressed for Siron’s footprint as he captured the scammer Siron.

“Puhuhut. As expected, Chairman Park is amazing, meow!”

Theo praised Sejun for making it easy to catch Siron thanks to his shit smell.

Thus, Sejun scored a mysterious victory against Siron. However, it was probably best he didn’t know he had won.

“Puhuhut. Uren, this time it’s 0.5 tons of gold and 150 billion Tower Coins, meow!”

“Yes! I’ll give it to you!”

Uren took out the money and settled the account.

“What next, meow?! Guide me, meow!”

With money earned and spirits high, Theo urged Uren.

“Yes!”

At Theo’s urging, Uren started leading the way.

Uren’s next destination was originally the 31st floor of the tower.

He planned to go after the scammer who had sold him a completely ineffective stone, claiming it was a charm that protected against scams, for 50 billion Tower Coins.

However, seeing Theo’s skill in reclaiming money, Uren gained courage.

‘With Theo~nim, we can get the money back from those guys!’

Thus, he decided to seek out those he had almost given up on getting money from and had blacklisted.

‘I might even be able to go home now!’

Uren guided Theo with a bright smile,

‘Puhuhut. I’ll earn even more money and monopolize Chairman Park’s knees, meow!’

Theo, buoyed by the expectation of monopolizing Sejun’s knees for a long time, also followed with a bright expression.

‘Puhuhut. Theo~nim is smiling! He must be pleased with my assistance!’

Thanks to this, Piyot could also smile brightly.

***

Black Tower 99th floor.

Sejun, who took a bath, drank banana milk, and took a long nap.

“Transport.”

[25,000 Vibrant Life Mugworts and 20,000 Vibrant Magical Mugworts have arrived.]

He spent 8 million Tower Coins to bring mugwort from the Green Tower,

“Cuengi, let’s squeeze it.”

Kueng!

[Got it!]

Ppyak!

[I want to squeeze too!]

Cuengi and Black Rabbit made mugwort juice.

After producing 2.5 liters of Life Mugwort Juice and 2 liters of Magic Mugwort Juice,

“Here. Keep these. Use them when it’s dangerous.”

He prepared 10 bottles each of Life Mugwort Juice Potion and Magic Mugwort Juice Potion, adding a bit of water to the 17ml of mugwort juice to make it easier to drink, and handed them to Cuengi and Black Rabbit.

As Cuengi’s juicing skills improved, they could now recover 6% of life and magic power per 1ml of mugwort juice.

After preparing the mugwort juice potions for the two, Sejun mixed the mugwort juice with rice flour to make dough.

Since the Mushroom Ants couldn’t drink from glass bottles, he decided to make the juice into pills, which were easier to consume.

He shaped the dough, now turned red with Life Mugwort Juice and blue with Magic Mugwort Juice, into bite-sized pieces,

[You have achieved the feat of making life mugwort pills for the first time in the tower.]

…

..

.

[You have achieved the feat of making mana mugwort pills for the first time in the tower.]

…

..

.

Cooking achievement messages appeared. The cooking effect enhanced the effects of the ingredients, improving the effects of the mugwort pills.

“Use them when in danger.”

Kkwek!

After distributing a total of 2,000 of both types of mugwort pills to the representative of the Mushroom Ants,

Kking!

‘Hey! Give me some too!’

Fenrir, who had gently sat in front of Sejun, barked, asking for some too.

“Do you want some too, Blackie?”

Kking!

‘Give it here!’

“Alright.”

Sejun later gave some mugwort pills for Fenrir to eat,

Chomp… Ptui!

Kking! Kking!

‘This is bitter! I can’t eat this!’

Fenrir, tasting the bitterness, spat out the mugwort pills and barked fiercely. He couldn’t tolerate even a bit of bitterness.

“Puhuhut. Indeed, you don’t know the bitterness of life because you’re young.”

After scoffing at Fenrir, the oldest Apostle of Destruction who couldn’t handle bitterness, Sejun gave him a dried sweet potato to chew on.

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.

Kyihihit. Kking!

‘Heheh. As expected, the yellow and chewy ones are the tastiest!’

While Fenrir enjoyed the dried sweet potato, Sejun prepared dinner.

For dinner, he made rice flour dumplings mixed with the mugwort powder that Cuengi had made while juicing the mugwort.

Shortly after, Sejun skewered three mugwort dumplings each, piled them onto a plate, and brought it to the table.

Next to the plate, he placed a bowl filled with bean paste and honey so everyone could dip their dumplings if they wished.

With dinner preparations complete,

“Summon Ajax. Summon Veronica.”

He summoned Ajax and Veronica, who insisted on eating dinner only in the Black Tower.

Then,

“Guys, let’s eat!”

He called the group together for dinner.

Kueng!

[It’s so, so delicious!]

“Of course, it’s made by Sejun hyung~nim!”

“Right! Sejun~nim, your cooking is the best!”

“Yeah. Eat a lot.”

[Your soul is filled with overflowing praise.]

[Mental Strength increases by 1.]

‘Hehehe.’

As Sejun was encouraging his companions to eat more, observing the messages,

Kking!

‘I want to dip and eat too!’

Fenrir put the dumpling he was holding in his mouth into the bowl of honey.

Naturally, the dumpling sank, and Fenrir put his face into the bowl to retrieve his dumpling, resulting in honey sticking all over the fur around his mouth.

Kyihihit. Kking!

‘Hehi. It’s delicious!’

Fenrir gleefully licked the honey off his face, savoring the taste.

At that moment,

“Blackie, you need a bath.”

Seeing Fenrir, who quickly became a scruffy mess, Sejun commented,

‘No! I just had one!’

‘Bath’ was one of the few words Fenrir understood. Fenrir sneakily buried his face among the dumpling skewers, hiding his body.

Kyihihit. Kking!

‘Heheh. I won’t get caught this time!’

Fenrir was confident as he hid again, perfectly covering his eyes and ears while hiding this time too, but

“Hehehe. Blackie, are you hiding here?”

Sejun caught him by the nape and carried him off to the bath.

Kking?

‘I was sure I hid well, why do I keep getting caught?’

Today too, Fenrir was frustrated, not understanding why he got caught.

*****