I Harvested Tomatoes
“They’re nicely ripe.”
Yeong-ung smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the brilliantly red tomatoes.
Their surfaces were smooth and glossy.
When he lightly pressed one with a finger, he could feel a slight springiness.
‘Perfect.’
“They’re just right for harvesting. But before that…….”
He could not just leave tomatoes lying around the way he did sweet potatoes.
“Pepper. Let’s gather the sweet potato leaves to one side and spread them out.”
“Yip!!”
“Over here, like this…… That’s right.”
To keep the tomatoes from getting dirty, they layered several sweet potato leaves over the ground.
“Shall we start harvesting?”
“I’ll help too, yip!”
“Sure. This is how you harvest them…… like this.”
Yeong-ung kindly demonstrated how to harvest tomatoes in front of Pepper.
“You gently hold the tomato like this and twist.”
Pop, pop, pop!
Yeong-ung harvested the tomatoes with practiced hands.
When he had tried farming in real life, people had called him over to help harvest tomatoes before.
‘At least that part was good.’
They had certainly worked him hard, but it had also given him a chance to learn more about farming.
| [Harvesting skill used.]<br>[Harvesting Speed +10%]<br>[Stamina Consumption while harvesting -10%]<br>[Harvesting Skill EXP has increased slightly.]<br>[Water Tomato harvested.]<br>[Class EXP acquired.] |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Ding!
| [Remarkable achievement accomplished.]<br>[You are the first Revelator to personally harvest a tomato imbued with the power of spirits.]<br>[From now on, Water Tomatoes may only be cultivated by the Spirit Farmer, ‘Yeong-ung.’]<br>[Without your permission, no one else can cultivate or collect seeds from a ‘Water Tomato.’] |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
A new exclusive crop.
Yeong-ung liked that.
‘No one else can copy this, right?’
Just like Earth Sweet Potatoes, Water Tomatoes could only be cultivated by Yeong-ung.
That would be a tremendous advantage when he eventually built his farm.
Pop, pop, pop.
“Like this. Think you can do it?”
“Yip! I’ll try too!”
Pepper stepped forward confidently.
But unlike human hands, a fox’s front paws made harvesting difficult.
“Yiiiiiiip!! It won’t come off, yip!!!!”
“Whoa! Don’t squeeze too hard! If you do…….”
“Yip!?”
It burst.
Red tomato juice splattered all over Pepper’s body.
The strong smell of tomato filled the air.
“Yip…… I popped it…… yip…….”
“It’s fine. That can happen when you’re learning.”
It was perfectly understandable.
When Yeong-ung had first learned to pick tomatoes, he had failed to control his strength and burst several himself.
“Let’s wash you first.”
“Yip…….”
Maybe because Pepper knew it had made a mistake this time, it obediently endured the bath.
“Hmm. Instead of doing it the way I do, let’s try something different for you.”
“Yip?”
“Use your claws to cut this part. Think you can do that?”
Pepper’s claws were sharper than Yeong-ung had expected, so cutting the stem posed no problem.
“Yip! It cut!”
“That should work.”
“Yip!!”
“Just be careful not to damage the tomato.”
“Yip!”
The tomato harvest continued.
Pop, pop, pop.
| [Harvesting skill…….]<br>[Unripe Tomato harvested.]<br>[Class EXP cannot be acquired.] |
| -------------------------------------------------------------- |
“Hm? Ah. This one wasn’t fully ripe?”
There had been an unripe section on the side hidden from Yeong-ung’s view.
“So you don’t get EXP if you harvest an unripe crop?”
Farmers gained EXP when harvesting ripe crops, but received none for harvesting them too early.
He needed to be careful.
“Nothing I can do about this one. I should pay more attention.”
Yeong-ung set the unripe tomato aside and continued harvesting.
| [Harvesting skill…….]<br>[Harvesting Skill EXP has increased slightly.]<br>[Skill Level Up!]<br>[Harvesting LV. 1 -> Harvesting LV. 2] |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
“It leveled up?”
Yeong-ung checked the skill.
| [Harvesting LV. 2]<br>Grade: F<br>Classification: Passive<br>EXP: 0.11%<br>Description: Allows you to harvest crops more easily.<br>Improves the condition of harvested crops.<br>Effects: Harvesting Speed +13%<br>Stamina Consumption while harvesting -13%<br>Crop Condition Adjustment. |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
“Huh? It gained another option?”
Until now, leveling his skills had only changed their numerical values, but Harvesting had gained a new effect.
‘Crop Condition Adjustment?’
“Improves the condition of harvested crops……?”
Yeong-ung carefully considered the description.
Then he found another unripe tomato and picked it.
| [Harvesting skill used.]<br>[Harvesting Skill EXP has increased slightly.]<br>[Unripe Tomato harvested.]<br>[Crop Condition Adjustment applied.]<br>[Water Tomato harvested.]<br>[Class EXP acquired.] |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
“Ah…… so that’s how it works?”
When he looked at the tomato, the green portion was gone.
Apparently, this option corrected the condition of underdeveloped crops and allowed him to harvest them in a fully mature state.
“This is good.”
No matter how carefully Yeong-ung tended his crops, it was impossible for everything to turn out perfectly.
But with this skill, farming should become much easier.
“Good. Let’s keep going.”
Yeong-ung quickly harvested the tomatoes.
“Is that about it?”
“Yip!”
The tomato harvest was complete.
They had gathered roughly 550 tomatoes in total.
‘So the germination rate was about 55%?’
“Still low. Can’t be helped.”
Yeong-ung examined one of the tomatoes.
The plump, perfectly ripe fruit smelled fresh.
“Check!”
| [Water Tomato]<br>Grade: E<br>Description: A tomato grown under the devoted care of a Spirit Farmer.<br>It is imbued with Spirit Power.<br>Upon consumption, the options remain active for 60 minutes.<br>Grower: Yeong-ung.<br>Options: Low-Rank Detoxification.<br>Poison Resistance +10%<br>Purification Skill Effect +10%<br>Recovery Skill Effect +5%<br>Satiety +20% |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
‘Detoxification?’
“So eating this detoxifies you?”
It also increased poison resistance and enhanced the effects of Purification and Recovery skills.
“That’s impressive.”
If Earth Sweet Potatoes were perfect for tanks, Water Tomatoes were ideal for priests.
The options were absurdly good.
“Should I try one……?”
Yeong-ung gave the surface a quick wipe.
Since he had not used any pesticides, there was no real need to wash it with water.
‘There’s no fine dust here. No exhaust fumes either.’
There was no reason to wash it.
“Let’s see…….”
CRUNCH!
Yeong-ung took a large bite of the tomato.
“Mmm!?”
Delicious.
It tasted sweet and tangy, almost like drinking freshly made tomato juice.
The mellow fragrance of tomato filled his mouth.
It was incomparably better than any tomato he had bought in reality.
“This is seriously good. It’s sweet and refreshing, and the slight acidity is just right.”
Munch, munch.
The tomato’s distinctive flavor was exquisite.
Even the skin was fresh and pleasantly chewy.
| [Water Tomato consumed.]<br>[Due to the effect of the title, Greedy Farmer, the effects of the consumed crop are doubled.]<br>[Low-Rank Detoxification.]<br>[Poison Resistance +20%]<br>[Purification Skill Effect +20%]<br>[Recovery Skill Effect +10%]<br>[Satiety +20%] |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
“Whew…… that’s good.”
“Yip…….”
“Ah, you try one too.”
Yeong-ung handed Pepper a tomato.
Pepper seemed unable to take a large bite, so it sank its teeth into the tomato and began sucking out the juice.
Slurp, slurp, slurp!
“Yip! It’s delicious, yip!”
“Right?”
“Yip!!”
Slurp!
CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
Yeong-ung sat with Pepper and leisurely enjoyed the tomato’s fresh flavor.
The two of them ended up eating several tomatoes.
“Wow, we really got carried away.”
“Yip…….”
Pepper must have been full as well, because it patted its round belly.
‘And I still won’t gain weight from eating like this?’
Tomatoes were one of the most famous diet foods.
They were low in calories, nutritious, and contained little fat or cholesterol, so they were easy to eat without worrying too much.
But that was only when eaten in moderation.
No matter how low-calorie a food was, eating enough of it could still make you gain weight.
But in Overlord, there was no need to worry about that.
‘No matter how much you eat in a game, you don’t gain weight.’
“If it tastes good, it has zero calories”?
In reality, that was about as much bullshit as the saying, “It hurts because you’re young.”
But in Overlord, it was common sense.
No matter how much high-calorie food you ate, food consumed inside the game had zero real-world calories.
‘Wasn’t that why celebrities use Overlord when they’re dieting?’
In reality, they ate diet foods like konjac.
Then they logged into Overlord and ate as much of the food they normally could not indulge in as they wanted.
How could they fail to lose weight?
‘Wasn’t that why most celebrities played Overlord?’
“The world sure has gotten convenient.”
While thinking about this and that, Yeong-ung used a skill on a tomato.
“Seed Collection!”
| [Seed Collection skill used.]<br>[Collecting seeds from a Water Tomato.] |
| --------------------------------------- |
Ding!
| [Seed Collection successful.]<br>[1 Water Tomato Seed acquired.]<br>[Seed Collection Skill EXP has increased slightly.]<br>[Due to the effect of the title, 1+1 Seed Collection, an additional seed is acquired.]<br>[Class EXP acquired.] |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
He needed to collect seeds for the next crop as well.
Yeong-ung busily used the skill to collect tomato seeds.
| [Skill Level Up!]<br>[Seed Collection LV. 2 -> Seed Collection LV. 3] |
| --------------------------------------- |
The repetitive work eventually raised Seed Collection to Level 3.
“About…… 230 seeds?”
Because the success rate was low, he had not managed to collect that many tomato seeds.
Still, this was enough.
He could simply plant them and collect more seeds again later.
“But…….”
Yeong-ung looked at the large pile of tomatoes.
“I need somewhere to store these…….”
Leaving the tomatoes outside made him uneasy.
He needed a separate, secure place to keep them.
‘Tomatoes are supposed to be stored somewhere cool, dry, and out of direct sunlight, right?’
“Should I just move them inside the temple? But…….”
Ding!
“Hm?”
While he was thinking, a message window appeared.
| [Quest, ‘Tomatoes for the Altar!’ generated.] |
| ---------------------------- |
| [Tomatoes for the Altar!]<br>Grade: E<br>Description: Let us offer tomatoes at the altar inside the Temple of the Forgotten God.<br>If you offer tomatoes at the altar, you may find a way to solve your current problem.<br>Success Condition: Offer 200 tomatoes at the altar.<br>Success Reward: ??? Key, EXP.<br>Failure Penalty: An unknown being sheds tears. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
“…….”
A quest had suddenly appeared.
At this point, Yeong-ung could not help wondering.
“Who the hell is this unknown being?”
This time, apparently, it would cry.
The simplest assumption was that it was the owner of the Temple of the Forgotten God, but he had no information about it.
“Hmm…… Two hundred tomatoes.”
‘Does it matter?’
Even if he wanted to sell the tomatoes, he could not use the Auction House yet, so giving some away would not really cost him anything.
‘Should I just do it?’
“Pepper.”
“Yip?”
“Let’s move some tomatoes inside.”
“Yip!”
Yeong-ung stuffed his inventory full of tomatoes.
Because of its capacity limit, he could only fit one hundred inside, so the rest had to be carried manually.
He placed the tomatoes on top of the altar.
He had wondered how he would fit all two hundred there.
WHOOSH!
“……They disappear the moment I put them down?”
There was no need to stack all of them at once. They vanished one after another as he placed them.
By the time all two hundred had disappeared—
| [Quest, ‘Tomatoes for the Altar!’ cleared.]<br>[EXP acquired.]<br>[Level increased.]<br>[Level…….]<br>[Food Storage Key acquired.] |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
He had cleared the quest.
“A key?”
He had obtained a Food Storage Key.