With Ppuu having just come up from below, the new recruit and I went with it to check on the Leila.
The fruits, wrapped in leaves resembling purple cabbage, were already giving off a sweet fragrance.
Actually, sweet wasn’t quite enough to describe it.
The scent was delicate and fragrant without being overpowering.
“You could practically use this as perfume.”
It was just a thought that occurred to me, but maybe it was worth trying.
I wouldn’t even have to manufacture anything myself.
I could harvest the leaves and commission a perfumer to make something from them.
Weren’t there shops that made custom fragrances these days?
“Make sure you harvest those leaves separately too.
Don’t throw them away.”
Squirm!
Ppuu!
Well, that settled that.
The only problem was that I had no idea how to harvest a Leila.
I’d have to watch one of my experienced assistants demonstrate first.
“Which one of you wants to go first?”
Squirm?
Ppuu!
Ppuu pointed at the recruit.
The little slime promptly bounced over to a Leila and attached itself to the purple leaves.
Then it began peeling them away one at a time, with surprisingly delicate and careful movements.
Ppuu!
Ppuu made a noise that sounded like an exclamation of admiration and joined in the work.
“Can’t let myself lose to a bunch of slimes.”
Stealing glances at how they did it, I began harvesting a Leila of my own.
It wasn’t particularly difficult.
All I had to do was remove each of the overlapping leaves carefully, following their order.
“Slimes don’t have hands, so you have to be even more delicate about it.”
Only then did I realize that I found the work easy precisely because I had hands.
Watching the slimes handle a task like this without any hands at all made me appreciate them even more.
Following their example, I was the first to reach the actual fruit.
As the last leaves came away, an intense fragrance rose from the exposed Leila.
Gulp.
I swallowed without even realizing it.
I’d always liked fruit, but this was so remarkable that calling it simply a fruit almost felt inadequate.
“What do I do with it now?”
I could probably just pluck it, but I decided to wait, just in case.
Better watch the rest of my skilled assistant’s demonstration.
Snap!
Contrary to my grand expectations, the recruit simply popped the fruit free.
There was a thin stem at its base, and the slime appeared to have snapped it off.
“Then I’ll do the same.”
Snap!
I held the fruit and bent it gently sideways.
The stem broke, and the Leila came loose.
“Ooh.”
It had glossy purple skin.
Anyone who didn’t know what it was might mistake it for a gigantic purple acorn.
“At least it’ll be easy to store since the flesh isn’t exposed.”
The three of us diligently harvested the Leila, soon collecting thirty fruits.
Looking at the neatly stacked harvest made me feel rich in a way money alone never could.
“Now that’s a sight.”
I wondered whether these might have become items too, so I took a closer look.
[Mana-Infused Leila LV.1]
Contains a faint amount of mana.
Upon consumption, increases the user’s affinity with monsters for 1 minute according to their mana reserves.
Afterward, affinity increases permanently by a minuscule amount.
As far as I knew, ordinary Leila weren’t items.
Apparently, crops grown by me, or rather by my slimes, became something special.
And just like last time, the effect was completely unexpected.
Did affinity with monsters mean you could become friendly with monsters more easily?
‘Can’t see much use for that.’
I could at least think of several ways to put the carrots and tomatoes to work, but this was another matter.
“As long as it tastes good, that’s what counts.”
I picked up a Leila, trying to convince myself.
We’d finished harvesting.
Now it was time to taste the fruits of our labor.
“Go call the ones downstairs too.”
Ppuu!
While Ppuu went to fetch the others, I cracked open six Leila, including one for each slime.
As I split their hard outer shells and exposed the flesh, the sweet fragrance spread throughout the entire dungeon.
“Mmm.”
I swallowed repeatedly to keep myself from drooling.
By the time I’d finished preparing everything, Ppuu had returned with the other slimes.
“Okay, everyone!
You’ve worked hard!
Let’s eat!”
Squish!
Squirm~!
Mark Two, Dokdoki, Running, Ppuu, and the recruit.
Each of the five slimes received one Leila, and I took the sixth.
“There’s a lot of flesh in these.”
The whole fruit was nearly an armful, so the amount of flesh hidden inside the shell was considerable.
I knew the seed in the middle took up quite a lot of space too, but there was still more than enough to fill us up.
‘Forget feeling full.
My stomach might actually burst.’
I’d barely managed to restrain myself until the slimes arrived.
Now I immediately took a bite.
Juice burst out and filled my mouth.
At the same time, an entire army of incredible aromas surged up through my nose and attacked my brain.
Gulp!
Texture?
Flavor?
No, this went beyond either of those.
It was the ultimate form of culinary pleasure, and its secret was fragrance.
“Haa…”
I’d only taken a single bite, but I couldn’t escape its lingering sensation.
The Leila must already have passed down my throat and reached my stomach, yet my mouth still felt as though it was full of it.
Squish…
I wasn’t the only one.
The slimes had stopped moving too, apparently savoring the same lingering experience.
It was an entirely different reaction from the way they’d instantly devoured the carrots and cherry tomatoes.
“Huh?”
Then, all of a sudden, the lingering sensation disappeared.
The Leila’s fragrance vanished from my mouth so thoroughly that it almost felt cleansed.
That surprised me all over again.
‘It’s not really gone.
It’s more like I’ve just had something to cleanse my palate…’
Now I understood.
A different fragrance had suddenly covered the first one.
My mouth felt bright and refreshing, as though I’d just eaten something minty.
The Leila was made up of several different fragrances layered together.
“Whoa.
This stuff is amazing!”
I brought the Leila back to my lips.
The same amazement as the first bite washed over me, followed by that long-lasting sensation.
And then it happened all over again, each time I ate more.
Thanks to the refreshing fragrance that finished every mouthful, it never became cloying.
Every bite tasted like the first.
Before I knew it, I’d polished off an entire Leila and my stomach had grown round.
“Burp.”
Squuish…
The fruit had been so delicious that I just couldn’t stop eating, even after I’d had more than enough.
“Wait, this stuff isn’t actually addictive, is it?”
Ordinary Leila had already been declared harmless to the human body and were even known to be rich in nutrients.
But what about the mana-infused Leila I’d grown?
Maybe I should have these analyzed too.
Looking around, I saw that the slimes had also devoured Leila as big as their own bodies and were squirming contentedly with their bellies full.
“Save all the seeds.
We’re going to plant them again.”
Squuish…
“Speaking of which, shouldn’t the things we planted downstairs be showing some changes by now?”
I told the slimes to take a break, then headed downstairs alone.
To my surprise, one of the tomato plants already had flower buds.
“Those are tomatoes…
right?”
It looked a little different from the ones we’d grown upstairs.
It was much taller too, reaching almost to my chin.
The slimes had even lashed two supporting stakes together into one to hold it up.
“You figured out how to do all this yourselves?
You’re seriously the ultimate workers.”
I’d been going out so frequently lately that I’d left almost all the farm work to the slimes.
I hadn’t had time to pay close attention, and seeing how well they handled everything on their own made me proud.
Nearby, the other crops were beginning to show signs of growth too.
Some had only just sprouted, while others were already fairly well developed.
“The tomatoes are still the fastest.”
They might even be ready to harvest by tomorrow.
They looked strange compared with normal tomatoes, but if their detoxification effects proved stronger, I was already considering using them to treat Yeongseong hyung’s wife.
“So that’s the eggplant, and those are strawberries?
Wow, the cucumbers still haven’t grown any bigger than this?”
My sense of how quickly plants should grow was completely out of whack.
Even though they were already growing at an absurd speed, I found myself grumbling.
“Oh, Embergrill!
I’ve got high hopes for you too.”
Surprisingly, Embergrill, a plant native to dungeons, was growing quickly.
I had no idea what it was supposed to look like when fully grown, but judging by its current appearance, it seemed to be doing well.
Squirm?
I’d been inspecting the crops for quite a while when Mark Two, apparently tired of resting, poked its head out.
Even though I’d told it to take a break, it kept coming back, as if farming were a game rather than work.
“What, you’re done resting already?”
Squirm!
“All right, do what you like.”
As soon as I said that, Mark Two, Dokdoki, and Ppuu came downstairs.
They wandered through the fields and swam in the pond, spending their time peacefully.
“Looks like you aren’t as busy as you were before.”
It was nice to see them taking things easy.
I spread something on the ground, sat down, and watched them absentmindedly.
Before long, drowsiness began creeping over me.
A glance at the time confirmed it was just about bedtime.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Guys, if anything down here needs harvesting, wake me up so I can watch.
I’d like the experience.”
Squish!
Every day felt worthwhile.
I was helping Yeongseong hyung, getting to know a famous Awakened, and earning money at the same time.
Things were going great.
* * *
Riiing!
I woke to the sound of my alarm and a damp sensation.
When I stretched and sat up, I found Mark Two perched on my stomach.
“Oh, good morning, Mark Two.”
Squirm!
I’d asked it to wake me when something was ready to harvest, but the timing just happened to coincide with my usual wake-up time.
What a coincidence.
“Hmm.
Liquid Synthesis will be off cooldown in ten minutes.”
I followed Mark Two downstairs and found that the tomato plants had grown even taller.
More importantly, their fruits were gleaming like jewels.
“Okay, these are getting way too different.”
I’d compared the previous cherry tomatoes to jewels as a figure of speech.
But these really looked like gemstones.
They came in a whole range of colors: red, orange, yellow, and even purple and black.
“…Are these actually safe to eat?”
Mark Two had said it was harvest time, so I decided to help gather them.
Before I could start, though, the slime came wriggling back with something.
“Oh, you already picked one?”
And of all the colors it could have chosen, it had picked black.
I took the cherry tomato from Mark Two and examined it.
Ta-da!
[A new crop has been discovered.]
Please give it a name.
Now what was this?
The sudden system notification startled me.
Then I read its message and was surprised all over again.
“Oh!
I get to name it?”
[??
LV.1]
A crop infused with mana.
Harmless to the human body.
Upon consumption, grants poison resistance for 3 minutes.
Upon consumption, produces a detoxification effect.
Upon consumption, slightly increases mana for 3 seconds.
Because I hadn’t named it yet, its name was shown as question marks.
The description also included an unexpectedly considerate piece of information.
“Oh?
Since when do you tell me whether something is safe for humans?”
Was this a special service?
In any case, the effects weren’t ordinary either.
I pulled out my notebook to check what the previous cherry tomatoes had done.
[Mana-Infused Cherry Tomato LV.1]
Contains a faint amount of mana.
Upon consumption, grants poison resistance for 3 minutes according to the user’s mana reserves.
Afterward, poison resistance increases permanently by a minuscule amount.
Some effects were gone, while others had been added.
To me, though, the new tomato’s effects looked better in every way.
‘I read the analysis results as soon as Yeongseong hyung gave them back to me.’
The old cherry tomatoes were supposed to grant poison resistance based on the user’s mana reserves, but the actual efficiency was terrible.
Even if the Awakened with the greatest mana reserves in the entire world ate one, their poison resistance might only go up by about 0.1.
The permanent increase was far smaller still, practically too little to notice before or after eating.
“But this one should have a decent effect.
No, it has to!”
I firmly believed its results would be better, or at least desperately hoped they would.
Even though the mana-dependent scaling was gone, it only needed to grant a benefit greater than 0.1 when eaten to be an improvement.
“Should I try one before naming it?”
The system said it was harmless, so I immediately popped the tomato into my mouth.
It dissolved almost instantly, as if it had no skin, releasing an intensely concentrated tomato flavor that seemed to fill my mouth, throat, and stomach all at once.
“Whoa…”
At the same moment, a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Poison resistance has increased for 3 minutes.]
[Mana has increased for 3 seconds.]
An increase in mana.
Because I wasn’t a combat-type Awakened, I’d never been able to feel mana all that distinctly before.
But now I could.
“So this is mana?”
Whenever I used Liquid Synthesis or summoned a slime, I felt a strange loss of energy.
Now I experienced the exact opposite, as power surged through my body.
“Ah…”
Unfortunately, the sensation lasted barely three seconds.
“Still, this is huge!
I could actually feel the difference!”
I’d need to send it to the lab again to find out the precise figures, but I was certain there was something remarkable about this tomato.
And with Yeongseong hyung’s wife in need of treatment, discovering the mana-infused variety felt like a ray of hope.
“Right.
Let’s just call it a Mana Tomato.”
[Would you like to register the name ‘Just a Mana Tomato’?]
“N-no!
Mana Cherry Tomato.”
[Would you like to register the name ‘Mana Cherry Tomato’?]
“Yes.”
[The new crop has been named ‘Mana Cherry Tomato’.]
Was there a reward or anything?
I waited a little longer, but nothing else happened.
“…Maybe the name was too boring.”
Perhaps I should’ve called it something like Lee Gyuseong’s Delicious Tomatoes.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, another message appeared.
[A hidden quest has been created.]
Instead of a reward, I’d been handed more work.