Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Although it was a vegetable garden of only about 100 pyeong, I had divided it into sections and planted various things.

‘This was probably cherry tomatoes, right?’

The plant that sprouted looked like cherry tomatoes.

For now it was Earth’s cherry tomatoes, not dungeon plant seeds, and next to it I had also planted seeds of a plant called ‘Leila’ that was only found in dungeons.

“This is amazing, really.”

If it just grows vigorously like this, in about 100 days fruit will set. It’s not certain yet whether there are any problems, but just the fact that it sprouted was something to be grateful for.

...But?

“What is it?”

Am I seeing wrong?

In that short time it seems to have grown a bit more.

While rubbing my eyes and checking what this was, suddenly Mark Two touched me.

Wriggle-

“What’s wrong? Huk!”

Glancing back, I could discover the appearance of the sprout breaking through the soil in real time.

That too from the side where I had planted carrots, not the tomato line.

“A, no...”

More than that, the growth speed being identifiable by the naked eye was crazy. Is it because it’s a dungeon? Or thanks to Mark Two?

[Farming LV.1]

Promotes the growth of crops.

Increases the harvest amount.

I looked at Mark Two’s ability once more. It wasn’t a particularly eye-catching explanation. But with just that phrase, this crazy phenomenon occurs?

Wriggle!

Mark Two wriggled and touched me again.

It turned out that even in the spot where I was standing, a sprout was sprouting.

I hurriedly came out of the vegetable garden and watched this magical scene.

“Aaa...”

An emotion that couldn’t be expressed in words surged.

The sprouts growing as if time had been fast-forwarded were stretching in all directions.

Although the land was narrow so I couldn’t plant many, that alone was a spectacle.

“Does this make sense?”

Now it was certain.

It wasn’t that the timing to grow had just arrived, but thanks to Mark Two’s ability. If not that, this phenomenon itself couldn’t be explained.

“Ah! Tomatoes!”

I started installing the supports I had prepared in advance next to the tomatoes. Originally it would be right to install them much later after the tomatoes had grown to some extent, but the growth speed was not ordinary.

Having installed a total of 100 supports like that, I could confirm that before I knew it they had grown to my shins.

“This really doesn’t make sense.”

A shout of joy seemed about to come out on its own.

It’s only cherry tomatoes and carrots growing at most, but why am I this happy.

Honestly, even Leila, the dungeon fruit I hadn’t even expected, was growing steadily.

“I know that no one has succeeded in cultivating dungeon plants.”

According to information I looked up here and there for 3 years, I know that not a single person has succeeded in growing dungeon plants so far.

Then I would become the first person on Earth to grow a dungeon plant.

“Even wild Leila is so scarce you can’t eat it.”

If you had to compare, the fruit with a taste similar to Earth’s mangosteen was Leila. But it was much juicier, and that was why I was thinking of it as material for fruit and vegetable juice.

‘But will it grow into fruit and vegetables imbued with mana?’

One anxious point was the phrase ‘imbued with mana’ that came out in the quest.

They say most fruits, vegetables, and fruits that grow in dungeons are imbued with mana, but whether the crops I artificially grew, even if in a dungeon, would be imbued with mana was the key.

“Let’s see for now.”

Anyway, with this level of growth speed, I felt like I could confirm the results much faster than I expected.

Meanwhile Mark Two was crawling between the vegetable gardens and fiddling with something, and I didn’t know what it was doing, but it looked cute for no reason.

“Hehehe.”

Cute guy.

While watching the plants grow endlessly without knowing time was passing, whether it had finished exploring, Slime 1 approached me.

Wriggle-

“Ooh? Did you find something too?”

Wriggle!

At the wriggling that now seemed roughly understandable, I got up from the spot. Seeing me get up, Slime 1 started crawling as if guiding somewhere.

“Seems like there was something?”

A slight fear arose.

But seeing the slime was fine, thinking it probably wasn’t that big a problem, I gave a command.

“If the place you’re guiding is dangerous to me, stop in place.”

Wriggle-

The guy continued forward.

At that reaction, thinking it probably wasn’t dangerous, I followed the guy and arrived at a corner of the dungeon.

Wriggle!

“Here?”

It was pointing to a part that deviated from my expectation.

That was none other than the floor.

I thought if there was some change it would be on a place like the wall, but the floor...

‘Or maybe something was originally on the floor?’

Even before the dungeon alteration happened, I had never checked the floor around here.

Even calling it floor, I had only checked the dirt floor usable as a field, and never examined this kind of stone floor.

Squeak-

The slime squeezed its body into a strangely existing gap in the floor. Then it went down through that narrow gap really like a liquid.

“No, slime. I can’t do it like you.”

What do I do with this.

There is a pickaxe prepared for the field, but since I don’t know what’s below, I was a bit cautious.

Pop!

Whether it heard my words, the slime that squeezed out of the gap again bounced.

“What’s below?”

Wriggle!

“If there’s a monster, to the right, if not, to the left.”

The slime moved to the left.

It’s certain there’s no monster.

“Is there an item?”

The slime moved to the left again.

If there’s no item either, what on earth is below there?

“It’s not dangerous, right? This time if dangerous, to the left.”

Wriggle!

I decided to trust the slime moving to the right.

Having immediately taken the pickaxe in hand, I struck down on the scratch that was hard to even call a gap in the floor.

“Being an awakener is good.”

Basically, upon awakening, physical ability becomes better than ordinary people. Of course it was only a level of getting a bit better.

“But what is it? Is it because of dual awakening?”

For some reason I felt that my stamina wasn’t decreasing more than before. Since the cause was none other than dual awakening, I just passed it as that.

Clang! Crack!

As the gap gradually widened, finally below started to be roughly visible.

I lay prone on the floor and put one eye to look at what was there.

“It’s bright?”

For an unknown reason the space below was extremely bright. Thanks to that I could see what the space was like, and could confirm it was just wide with nothing.

“I’ll have to go down to know.”

I got up again and started pickaxing.

Thanks to stamina that didn’t tire, I continued the work without much difficulty, and when the crack grew to some extent, I could widen the hole much faster than at first.

“Ooh.”

Finally through a hole that had become a size where at least one of me could go down, I slightly lowered only my head and looked around 360 degrees.

“There are glowing stones embedded. They look expensive?”

Then suddenly, I could notice that the entire space below was dirt floor.

As it was, the place I lived only had about 100 pyeong of land usable as a field so I had no choice but to use only that, but if there was a space like this, it was different.

“How many pyeong is it? It’s extremely wide?”

It looked like at least over 1,000 pyeong.

Even looking at one side, water was flowing from a gap in the wall and a pond-like thing was naturally formed.

“...It feels like it’s urging me to farm.”

The environment was like that.

The problem was that the ceiling was on the high side, so once you went down, unless there was a ladder you couldn’t go up again at that height, but this was solved just by getting a ladder.

“...”

I fell into thought.

Actually, farming was just for the quest. It was a story that farming itself wasn’t important, but only a means.

However, now that I had awakened the Slime Lord ability and learned I could farm through slimes, it was a bit different.

‘Just change jobs to a farmer completely?’

Even if I was an awakener, I wasn’t an awakener who caught monsters.

Rather, since it had come to this, becoming an awakener specialized in this direction by utilizing the ability didn’t seem bad.

To begin with, this was a field that awakeners didn’t pay attention to at all. It would create my own competitiveness.

“Let’s see the results first and think again.”

It’s growing at a fast speed, but I haven’t seen the fruit yet. The decision can be made after seeing the crops.

But it was unavoidable that it was being reviewed positively. To begin with, the only thing I could do with slimes seemed to be farming.

“Well done. Slime.”

Wriggle!

I stroked the wriggling guy then lifted it with both hands completely.

The touch was strangely good and addictive, but yesterday I had been too out of it to feel it.

Stretch-

“Oh, as expected of a slime. It stretches a lot.”

Wriggle!

Holding the guy wriggling in my hand and coming back to the field, before I knew it the tomatoes had grown to my knees.

“It’s scary level.”

Mark Two was diligently crawling around the vegetable garden that had turned into a small jungle. To my eyes it only looked like it was wriggling and wandering, but it was emitting a somewhat serious atmosphere.

“But don’t you guys eat things like meals?”

Wriggle?

Fiddling with the slime that wriggled as if asking what that was, I realized I still didn’t know much about slimes.

As I always feel, information is important.

I wished I had learned a bit more about slimes when I went out, but since going out wasn’t a hard thing, I could sell my labor again.

‘I was too out of it due to the sudden events.’

From now on, learning step by step would be important.

Like that, I played with Slime 1 in my hand and blankly watched Mark Two and the vegetable garden.

Just watching was healing enough that sleep didn’t come, and in the end I stayed up all night.

“Huh.”

As a result of staying up all night, the tomatoes had risen to my waist before I knew it. It was growth to the extent that it wouldn’t be strange if they bloomed flowers right away.

“Come to think of it, while they grew that much I didn’t even thin the carrots and didn’t do stem pruning on the tomatoes.”

But it was perfect.

Probably what Mark Two was diligently doing was those processes.

“Amazing?”

Truly a perfect farmer, no, should I say worker, anyway it was amazing.

If the tomatoes grew this much, is it about time to harvest the carrots?

Honestly I don’t know well.

Unlike ordinary crops, the growth speed was too fast to gauge.

“Mark Two, when it’s time to harvest the crops, call me too. Don’t do it alone.”

Undulate!

Mark Two that wriggled as if answering was doing something diligently again in the Leila field.

It had stayed longer in the area where Leila was planted than carrots or tomatoes, and it seemed Leila’s management was more finicky.

“For Leila I need to know something.”

I just planted it.

That’s why it had the smallest area even within the vegetable garden.

Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!

The alarm sound rang.

Originally it was the sound that now was wake-up time.

I turned off the alarm and checked the ability’s cooldown.

It was about time the reuse time came around again.

“Try combining Slime 1 with a potion, and if not then with Mark Two...”

Something about slimes combining into one was odd.

Is it because two become one?

As a bit of time flowed like that, soon the cooldown came around.

“Hoo. Here I go, Slime 1!”

In one hand the potion again, in one hand Slime 1.

While taking a deep breath like that, suddenly water fell from the ceiling.

“Hm?”

The moment I looked up, something fell onto my face with a plop sound.

“What theee!”

Startled, as I shook off my face, something with a familiar touch bounced and fell to the floor.

“Slime?”

Why is a slime from the ceiling?

Looking up, through a small crack that had formed in the endlessly high dark ceiling, sunlight was coming in.

“Where did you come from?”

I wondered if I had used the Slime Lord’s ability, but that wasn’t it. It literally just dropped from the ceiling with a thud.

“Ah!”

Come to think of it, the first slime was like that, and the guy that had suddenly increased when I woke up the previous day was like that, so I wondered where they came from, and it seemed they were created this way.

“This is a jackpot?”

A slime dungeon that increases by one a day.

Since they can be used as labor through the Slime Lord’s commands, more slimes the better. Completely thank you.

“Wait a moment. You go a bit far away.”

Wriggle-

Just in case liquid synthesis might be used wrongly again, I sent the guy that fell from the ceiling far away.

And feeling it had gotten far enough, I immediately used liquid synthesis.

[The target to use the ability on is unsuitable.]

“As expected.”

Awakening abilities didn’t have detailed explanations.

It was the same not just for me but for all awakeners, and in the end through trial and error one had to learn the limits of the ability or the exact usage method oneself.

“Mark Two!”

Wriggle?

Slime 1, it was fun.

I put down the potion and lifted Mark Two with that hand.

Certainly Mark Two was heavier.

“Synthesis!”

[The target to use the ability on is unsuitable.]

“Huh?”

What.

It clearly shows liquid synthesis possible on Mark Two?

“Uh, no way.”

Is it that LV.1 can only synthesize with LV.1.

LV.2 with LV.2?

It was certainly a plausible method.

“Then...”

I called the guy that fell from the ceiling again.

Using liquid synthesis again like that,

[Slime LV.2 has been completed.]

A new Mark Two was born.

“Then tomorrow I’ll have to try synthesizing Mark Two with the new type Mark Two.”

Putting the newly created guy down on the floor like that, the guy looked around then clung to me again.

“Cute. Huh?”

Wait a moment.

[Slime LV.2]

It is an ordinary? slime.

‘Liquid Synthesis possible’

Ability: Poison LV.1

“Why is your ability like that?”