[Hidden Quest: Develop New Crops]
Discover or develop new crops.
New crops: 0/3
The more I learned, the more I discovered that the world of the Awakened contained things I’d never even heard of.
“What’s a hidden quest supposed to be?”
And this was something I’d never encountered online, either.
Dungeon transformations and double awakenings had at least circulated as rumors and urban legends, but this was completely new to me.
“Well, it can’t hurt.”
There didn’t seem to be any penalty for leaving the quest unfinished.
Besides, judging by its requirements, I could probably complete it naturally by continuing what I was already doing.
“…Oh, right.
My quests.”
The hidden quest reminded me of the awakening quests I’d forgotten about.
I’d been so pleased with harvesting the crops that I’d completely overlooked the quest requiring me to offer items as tribute.
[Awakening Quest: Offer Tribute]
Collect and submit the listed items.
Dungeon fruit harvested personally: 0/10
Mana-Infused Crops LV.2 harvested personally: 0/50
“I finally harvested the Leila, and now I’ve got to hand over ten of them.”
Of all my crops, only Leila counted as dungeon fruit.
Embergrill was a dungeon plant, but not a fruit, and everything else was originally from Earth.
We’d harvested thirty Leila and had just eaten six.
If I offered ten of the remaining twenty-four, I’d end up with less than half of the harvest.
“Well, I can always plant more.”
It had taken only about four days from planting to harvesting.
That was slower than the carrots and tomatoes, but it was still an insane growth rate.
The next question was what to do with the fourteen remaining Leila.
“Hmm.
I’ll think about that later.
First, let’s try Liquid Synthesis.”
My cooldown had just finished.
I asked Mark Two to bring me some of the Mana Cherry Tomatoes we’d harvested, then went back upstairs.
I peeled a Leila and squeezed out its juice, preparing it alongside juice from the Mana Cherry Tomatoes.
“And I’ll add the other half of yesterday’s carrot.”
After roughly balancing the proportions, I synthesized the three juices.
They swirled together and immediately produced a notification announcing success.
[Mana-Infused Fruit and Vegetable Juice LV.1]
Ingredients: Mana Cherry Tomato, Carrot, Leila
The limited number of ingredients has resulted in an incomplete product.
Upon consumption, the user can partially view information about monsters within their field of vision for 10 seconds, depending on their mana reserves.
Upon consumption, a detoxification effect occurs.
Upon consumption, monsters other than dungeon bosses lose their hostile reactions toward the user for 30 seconds.
“Whoa!
This is seriously amazing!”
The time available for viewing monster information had jumped from three seconds to ten.
The old description of detoxification depending on my mana reserves for three seconds had become much more straightforward.
But the most interesting improvement was the new effect from the Leila.
“Monster hostility is canceled for thirty seconds?!”
Honestly, it sounded almost unfair.
For thirty seconds, it was as though the person who drank it was invincible.
Of course, attacking a monster would probably make it hostile again.
But the effect would be incredibly useful to anyone researching or gathering materials in a dungeon.
‘Could be handy for escaping in an emergency, too.’
I’d made something even more remarkable than I’d expected.
And it was an item that might satisfy both Yeongseong hyung and Kang Hanul.
I glanced at the recruit, who was working hard nearby, hesitated for a moment, and eventually made another serving of juice.
I was short on carrots, so for the second serving, I synthesized Mana Cherry Tomato juice with the Leila juice left over from before.
The resulting effects weren’t much different.
“Hmm.”
Synthesizing slimes was important too, but I’d already promised to make this juice.
For now, there was no helping it.
With both servings complete, I started getting ready to go out again.
I collected more of Dokdoki’s poison.
Apparently even Dokdoki had limits to its mana, because it couldn’t produce poison indefinitely.
I also used my slime-summoning ability.
Then I packed some Leila and hurried to finish harvesting the Mana Cherry Tomatoes.
Perhaps because they were a different variety, the yield was smaller than I’d expected: roughly twenty kilograms.
Once everything was packed, I stepped outside and immediately called Yeongseong hyung.
Riiing!
“Yeongseong hyung?
I’m heading down now.
See you at yesterday’s café.”
I also contacted Kang Hanul and started down the mountain, curious to see how the two of them would react to my newly synthesized juice.
When I entered the café, Yeongseong hyung was already waiting, just like yesterday.
“You’re here already?”
“Mm.”
He nodded, unable to take his eyes off the bag on my back.
I smiled at his reaction and immediately took out a bottle of the fruit and vegetable juice.
“Hyung, the effects have changed a little.
Want to take a look?” The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Changed?”
I handed him the serving made without carrots.
He accepted it and tried to inspect it.
“What does it do?
I’m not Awakened, so I can’t…”
“I wrote the effects down here.”
Yeongseong hyung read the description I’d prepared and spoke carefully.
“This is insane.
It’s hard to believe something like this exists.
I’d like to analyze its effects.
How much of it would someone need to drink for it to work?”
“Probably about four-fifths.”
“Then I can send the remaining fifth to the laboratory.”
“That’d be safest, just in case.
But don’t worry about wasting any.
I can make more every day.”
“All right.
Thank you, Gyuseong.”
I hadn’t noticed before, but now I could see that the hand holding the juice was trembling ever so slightly.
My chest tightened.
More than ever, I hoped the item I’d created would be able to cure his wife.
“So that’s what was going on!”
A voice suddenly rang out from nowhere.
Yeongseong hyung and I turned in surprise to find Kang Hanul standing there.
I had no idea when he’d arrived, but his eyes were red and his entire body was trembling with emotion.
“I’ve been such a fool, Choi Yeongseong!
To think you were looking for those tomatoes because of what happened to your wife!”
He marched forward and pulled Yeongseong hyung into an enormous hug.
“I’ll give up my share too!
You take all of it!”
“What are you talking about?
Gyuseong said he can make more every day.
Don’t you need this for tomorrow’s dungeon expedition?”
“That blasted Grade 4 dungeon!
I’ll smash it apart with brute force!”
“Stop talking nonsense and take what Gyuseong’s offering.”
While they bickered, I took the rest of the things I’d brought out of my bag one by one.
There were two Leila, ten kilograms of Mana Cherry Tomatoes, and another batch of Dokdoki’s poison.
My bag had almost burst from the load.
Good thing it was an extra-large one, or I’d never have carried everything here.
“Oh?
Don’t tell me that’s…”
Kang Hanul spotted the Leila, widened his eyes, and practically tossed Yeongseong hyung aside as he approached.
I had to appreciate how uncomplicated the man was.
“Leila,” Yeongseong hyung said, looking interested as he recognized them too.
“Hold on.
Why are these showing up as items?”
“What?!”
Neither of them had expected that.
Ordinary Leila weren’t recognized as items, but the ones I grew, or rather the ones my slimes grew, were different.
“Whoa, monster affinity?”
“What?
They have an ability like that attached?”
While the two of them made a fuss, I brought out the other serving of fruit and vegetable juice, the one I’d promised to Hanul.
This was going to surprise him even more.
“Mr.
Hanul, this is the juice I promised you.”
“Hmm?”
He’d been stroking one of the Leila with fascination.
He took the bottle from me, read its description, and immediately began radiating an intense pressure.
Rrrrrumble!
“W-what’s wrong, Kang Hanul?
Why are you acting like that?”
“Uwaaaah!
I can’t hold back anymore!”
Grab!
He seized me by the shoulders and thrust his face close to mine, eyes burning with intensity.
“Little brother Gyuseong!”
“Y-yes?”
“Please join the Ara Hongryeon Guild!”
His completely unexpected request made my mind go blank.
My mouth stopped working too.
“I’m not asking you to answer right this second.
I know you must already belong to a guild, and I realize I’m putting you on the spot.”
“Ah…
Well…”
I had to say something, at least.
“I don’t belong to any guild.”
“What?!
You’re unaffiliated?!”
My body flapped backward and forward like a sheet of paper, and I barely managed to nod.
“Yeeeees.”
“Th-then please consider joining ours!
I’ll speak to our guild master personally and make sure they offer you a deal you won’t regret!”
“M-Mr.
Hanul, could you let go of me first…?”
“Wahaha!
Sorry, sorry!
Got a little carried away!”
Once he set me down, I finally had a chance to think about what he’d just said.
‘He wants me to join Ara Hongryeon?
Kang Hanul himself is inviting me?’
The guild had seemed to be losing a little of its former prestige lately, but nobody could deny that Ara Hongryeon was still one of South Korea’s five great guilds.
As the country’s very first guild, it held a symbolic status that made it an object of admiration among the Awakened, even if ordinary people didn’t always appreciate that.
“Gyuseong, take your time thinking about it.”
Yeongseong hyung spoke quietly while I was lost in thought.
“Joining a guild isn’t automatically a good thing.
Your ability isn’t suited to combat, either.
Joining Ara Hongryeon might not change much about your situation.”
“Ah, that’s true.”
Since he’d once worked as a researcher for Ara Hongryeon, I couldn’t dismiss his advice lightly.
“Ahem.
Why’re you throwing cold water on the idea?
Did you even look at the effects of this?
It shows monster information and eliminates their hostility!
It’s an unbelievable ability!
Gyuseong absolutely has to join Ara Hongryeon…”
“Calm down.
I’m only telling him the truth.
What would Gyuseong actually gain by joining a guild right now?
And that’s not a problem limited to Ara Hongryeon.
It’s the same with any guild.”
It seemed Hanul was focused on the benefits to his guild, whereas Yeongseong hyung was thinking about what would benefit me personally.
Naturally, I decided to take Yeongseong hyung’s advice.
“I’ll think about it a little longer.
You said I didn’t have to answer immediately, after all.”
“Of course.
Take your time, little brother.”
Hanul nodded and looked down at the juice again.
“Now I’m curious what this item should cost.
How much are you thinking, Gyuseong?”
“It’s the first time I’ve sold something like this, so I don’t know how to price it.
And I’m not a combat-type Awakened, which makes it even harder to judge its value.”
He considered my answer for a moment before speaking.
“The effects are outstanding.
I’m sure you realize that much.
But the duration is a little awkward.
No, calling it awkward doesn’t go far enough.
It’s too short.
So the amount I had in mind is…”
Hanul raised one finger to indicate the first figure.
“Ten million won.”
Then he raised a second finger.
“And if it helps us clear this dungeon, twenty million.”
“…Thank you.”
I hadn’t expected an amount anywhere near that high.
Until recently, I’d been buying potions, synthesizing them, and selling the results for a profit of only a hundred thousand won a day.
Now someone was suddenly offering me twenty million.
‘And Yeongseong hyung handed me twenty million out of nowhere yesterday.’
In the space of a few days, I was on track to earn forty million won.
That was still far short of what I’d need to buy the slime dungeon, my first major goal, but it felt like that goal was finally within reach.
“It’s a difficult figure,” Yeongseong hyung murmured.
“Enough, and yet perhaps not enough.”
Hanul shook his head.
“We still don’t know how powerful its effects really are.
I’m not denying that they’re unusual and useful, though.”
He had a point.
If viewing a monster’s information only revealed its height or weight, it wouldn’t be all that helpful.
But if it could show something more useful, like a weakness, my juice would become an extremely sought-after item.
“That’s true too,” Yeongseong hyung agreed.
While the two of them talked, I opened the bag containing the Mana Cherry Tomatoes.
“Oh, tomatoes…
But they look different from the ones you brought last time.”
“I improved the variety.”
The fruit and vegetable juice wasn’t the only thing I had high hopes for.
These were tomatoes that actually increased mana.
That alone made them extraordinary.
“And today, you two get an exclusive tasting.”
I dangled a temptation they couldn’t possibly resist.