“Farming was my fate...”
Go Nam-tae collapsed, his legs giving out.
His father’s back was vivid in his mind.
His father, who would head out to the fields every dawn as the sun rose.
His father had been diligent his whole life, saying that crops grow listening to the sound of the farmer's footsteps.
But far from being rewarded, year after year, his back bent further and his calloused hands cracked like dry twigs.
Despite that, he lived through the heat and cold without ever enjoying good food or decent clothes.
Go Nam-tae had fled to the city because he hated that life.
But he wasn't much different there.
He was poor, and life was hard.
After circling back to his hometown and being kicked out, now he was being told to farm in a labyrinth?
Go Nam-tae muttered toward the sky.
“Father...”
“Go Nam-tae is finally living up to his name.”
“...Are you happy now?”
‘Nam-tae’.
It was the name of a farming tool used to pack down soil.
When he learned the meaning, he wished he had changed his name.
His father would smile every time he called his son's name.
Go Nam-tae glared at the system and asked.
“You're telling me to farm on this land?”
For starters, the land was small.
It only peeked out from the yard to the stream, and a dense forest blocked every side.
The trees were so massive they looked like something out of a documentary about primeval forests, and the thorn trees among them looked terrifying just to approach.
Thick vines constricted twisted black trees, looking as if they'd been struck by lightning, like snakes.
But Toto answered without hesitation even to the confrontational question.
[The Boss's domain expands the more you use your abilities.]
“You want me to cultivate that?”
[....]
It was a silent affirmation that was not welcome at all.
His title was Boss, but his actions were those of a born servant.
No, even a servant would run away from a place like this a hundred times out of a hundred.
But Go Nam-tae didn't even have the option to run.
His head was filled with confusion, but his body was already heading toward the storehouse, ignoring his stomach as it growled and sent signals.
Screeech!
Inside the storehouse, which opened smoother than expected, a new world opened up.
“This place is still the same...”
Various farming tools filled the entrance.
Hoes, shovels, hand hoes, axes, saws, and even a scrap-metal cultivator.
And the bulging sacks visible inside must be seed pouches.
The storehouse had been unmanaged since his father went to the hospital, so white dust had piled up.
“My father.”
“He cherished all sorts of things like sacred relics.”
“It's a literal treasure trove.”
While grumbling, he was busy dusting things off.
A smile formed on his face as he pulled out various items.
His expression was particularly tender as he looked at the cultivator his father had cherished.
Toto spoke to Go Nam-tae, who couldn't take his eyes off it.
[As the Boss's power grows, it may become possible to use real-world machinery.]
“What...?”
“Is that true!”
Putt-putt-putt!
He could somehow easily imagine the cultivator roaming the labyrinth.
Well, it seemed much more realistic than carrying a house down 99 floors.
“What should I plant first?”
Go Nam-tae's eyes grew slightly misty as he rummaged through the seed sacks with strange excitement.
“Rice seeds...”
“I see.”
Go Nam-tae's father was the epitome of the saying, ‘A farmer dies pillowing his head on his seeds even if he starves to death.’
His father's heart was contained in the preserved seed pouches.
“Alright, this is number one.”
The first crop was decided without a second thought.
Aren't Koreans a people fueled by rice?
He would have to fill up the rice sacks first.
Turning around with the sack of rice seeds, Go Nam-tae didn't realize he was humming a tune.
[Please check the Boss's detailed skills that are activated by default.]
“Huh...?”
He was so surprised by the one-line trait that he didn't even know such a thing existed.
Detailed skills appeared on a light blue status window.
[Plowing, Sowing, Watering.]
“...!”
This was the very foundation of farming.
The basics, and the most labor-intensive parts.
It meant these could be handled with skills.
His lips twitched and began to part on their own.
“...Wait, if these are ‘basic,’ will other skills be added here too?”
[Of course.]
[Each will be activated as the Boss awakens them.]
‘Good...!’
His clenched fist punched the air.
Where did the man who said he hated farming go?
If he had lost his reason just a little more, he might have done an air uppercut and a butt dance.
“Then shall we go make the field first?”
He headed toward the planned site for the field with a pickaxe, without knowing that the pickaxe would dig up something else before the soil.
Just as he was about to look around the field, he had to stop in front of the stream.
“My god!”
The width of the stream was barely two paces.
In that narrow waterway, monstrous crayfish with claws as big as a forearm were swarming.
Click, click-click-click!
They glared at Go Nam-tae, clashing their claws loudly as if letting out a roar.
Their eyes were saying: ‘Welcome, you look delicious!’
Go Nam-tae breathed angrily and shouted.
“How dare you bite-sized things!”
Saliva pooled in his mouth as soon as he spoke.
Normally, Go Nam-tae wouldn't have thought this.
But a fierce hunger, the likes of which he had never experienced before, was screaming at him to catch them.
It was the moment he firmly gripped the pickaxe.
Whoosh!
A claw lunged out of the water, reaching for him as if flying.
Clang!
Sparks flew as he instinctively swung the pickaxe.
If he had been 0.5 seconds later, his leg would have been sliced.
Go Nam-tae recoiled in shock and jumped back.
Then, with only their eyes peeking out, they shook their claws in frustration.
Something strange happened immediately after.
The water churned as if boiling, and then, with a pop, a fountain of water shot up.
When the fountain stopped, a crayfish floated on the water, belly up.
“No way, is that...”
[Yes, it's the one that was just hit by the Boss's pickaxe.]
There had been a clashing sound, but it was just a graze.
Yet the crayfish had died from just that.
While he was marveling at it, another water bomb exploded.
It was the sound of the other crayfish pouncing on the dead one.
Soon, the legs and parts of the body of the dismantled crayfish floated to the surface.
‘Uh...’
Before he could even think, he dove into the struggle.
As soon as the pickaxe caught a claw, he pulled it.
But Go Nam-tae was disappointed when he checked the claw.
“...What, it's already empty?”
His efforts weren't... in vain.
Splash, splash!
A noisy struggle continued even over the empty shell.
‘Oh...!’
Go Nam-tae immediately broke the claw shell and threw it into the stream.
As expected, the greedy things swarmed and flopped like carp in a pond.
Bam!
He struck one and snatched it immediately.
“Wow...!”
An exclamation escaped him at the size of the intact crayfish.
It was about the size of an average adult man's torso.
[It is a Labyrinth Crayfish that lives in grade 1 water.]
[It has no parasites, so it can be eaten raw, but it's even more of a delicacy if grilled.]
As he walked away with a crayfish, the stream fell silent.
“Toto, is my domain only this far?”
[For now, yes.]
‘For now.’
It meant it could increase in the future.
Probably more so the more he farmed.
He threw a stone across the stream.
Thud!
Rattle.
The ground hit by the stone undulated and danced.
It seemed something was living in the ground beyond the stream as well.
Growl.
Hunger urged him on, as if telling him to find out about that later.
Hurrying to the yard's hearth with the crayfish, he was struck with fresh admiration.
The dry firewood stacked in front of the storehouse remained undisturbed.
If the house had flown here, shouldn't everything be a mess?
But the inside of the house, and even the broom leaning against the wall, were exactly the same.
Even the hearth and mortar installed in the yard had come along.
The entire inner yard had come with it.
If he had parked a truck in the yard, would it have come too?
...There was no way to know.
Even while thinking, his body was busily preparing to build a fire.
He split logs to make kindling and looked for a lighter on the kitchen range.
But even though it was full of gas, the lighter only made clicking sounds and couldn't even spark a flame.
The portable stove was the same.
The hungrier he got, the calmer his mind became.
Go Nam-tae calmly found a wooden board and a branch and began to rub them together.
Miraculously, smoke began to rise in less than a minute, and soon, the fire blazed up.
“It worked!”
A spoonful was added to his joy.
A blue window arrived like a gift.
[Skill has been activated.]
[Fire Making]
“How did this happen?”
[As I said, it was activated because the Boss awakened the skill.]
“...This easily?”
[Because you are the Boss.]
That was the end of the explanation.
What is a skill?
It's something Awakeners, especially Hunters, struggle and strive to get even one more of.
A single skill determines rank, salary differences, and even life and death.
Yet he got a skill just by starting a fire once.
But because the explanation was so simple, it was actually easier to accept.
Right, a ‘Boss’ should have something special about them.
The benefit of having the skill was immediate.
When he tapped the firewood with the branch he was holding, it caught fire immediately.
“Wow...!”
The corners of his mouth turned up naturally.
Where did the Go Nam-tae who said, ‘I won't be a Boss!’ go?
Once the fire was lit, everything went smoothly.
After placing the roughly dismantled crayfish on the wire mesh over the hearth, he stripped the meat from one leg to eat raw.
The moment he bit into the translucent white meat, it felt as if the taste buds in his mouth were standing on end.
“It's delicious...!”
An exclamation burst out.
His starving stomach rejoiced.
In the blink of an eye, one leg disappeared.
He finished off the undercooked leg, and the moment he bit into a cooked one, a cheer erupted.
“Ha...!”
Toto's words that it was just ‘even more of a delicacy’ were too modest.
He was too busy swallowing his compressed admiration along with the crayfish meat.
‘Thank you for living next to my house!’
He was so serious that he actually offered such a greeting to the crayfish.
By the time he came to his senses, half of that large crayfish was gone.
Nevertheless, he didn't feel overstuffed at all.
It felt like he could still eat more, but had simply stopped rationally.
“Wow, is this an Awakener benefit?”
He had heard that the amount of food an Awakener eats changes.
His stomach seemed to have followed suit.
Toto added a detailed explanation to that.
[For the Boss, food is the replenishment of mana.]
[The increase in mana is below a certain level, but you will never be unable to eat because you are full.]
“Wow.”
It was truly a ‘wow’ moment.
Go Nam-tae was someone who originally enjoyed eating.
Although he was restraining himself now, this was probably the first time he had ever eaten to his heart's content like this.
Strangely, the corners of his mouth kept lifting.
“Now that I've sated my hunger, shall I get to work?”
‘When I get home, I'm going to do nothing but sleep for months!’
Completely forgetting the resolution he had made just the day before, Go Nam-tae headed to the storehouse.
There were various seed packages besides the rice seeds.
Beans, corn, cabbage, radishes, chili peppers, and so on.
Just looking at the pictures of fresh cabbage and radishes on the envelopes made him feel good.
But since it had been a long time since his father managed them, he didn't know if the seeds would be intact.
‘Still, a few of them should sprout.’
Isn't it a farmer's job to grow and increase them little by little?
Though he hadn't realized it yet, Go Nam-tae's constitution had already finished adapting to that of a farmer.
Having secured the seeds, Go Nam-tae went to the planned field site with his pickaxe.
Once again... everything was massive.
But perhaps because his stomach was full, it didn't seem bleak.
“Hoo!”
Go Nam-tae took a deep breath and raised his pickaxe.
Thud!
The moment he struck the ground with the pickaxe, the earth split wide open.
Premium Chapter
wVVOUTIlBtyEueOzQTWFQIAtADafTBEUhAMZwUsbNpBZjAdilRAbhFQeQtEXxit
Login to buy access to this Chapter.