Player Farming in the Dragon’s Lair - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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14
Thirteen days since arriving at the Tower.
Woo Jin had been crouched in front of the sweet potato field since morning.
The sweet potato vines that had been spreading their leaves luxuriantly until yesterday had now grown to knee height.
The soil beneath the stems was beginning to swell slightly upward.
“Is this about right?”
Woo Jin gently brushed away the soil with his hands.
The damp earth flowed smoothly between his fingers.
As he dug a little deeper, a sweet potato emerged from the soil.
[You have harvested a Tower’s Strength Sweet Potato.]
[Harvesting Level 2 Proficiency has increased.]
[You have learned Harvesting Level 3.]
[Tower’s Strength Sweet Potato]
– Grade: D
– Effect
– Upon consumption, permanently increases Strength +0.002
– Description: A sweet potato cultivated in the Tower by someone. Eating it should make you a little stronger.
[Achievement – “Tower’s Novice Farmer” has been unlocked.]
[As a reward, you will gain Experience Points from farming activities.]
“Wow!”
Woo Jin cried out in surprise.
At his voice, Kkakmang padded over.
“Adventurer, what’s wrong?”
“This is huge! I can raise my Experience Points now!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can level up! Hehehehe.”
“Say something that makes sense.”
Kkakmang shook his head in disbelief.
There was only one way to raise your Level in the Tower.
It was to clear a floor of the Tower.
Each time you ascended a floor, your Level rose by one.
Normal Floor 1 gave you Level 1, Normal Floor 10 gave you Level 10, and so on.
But Woo Jin’s target floor was set at Mythical Tower Floor 99, and clearing it was absolutely impossible, so his Level was destined to remain at 1 forever.
But raise his Level?
That made no sense.
Gaining Experience Points was unheard of.
In the first place, ascending the Tower was synonymous with gaining a Level.
Of course, the concept of Experience Points existed, but it was a term that didn’t apply in practice.
“Has this cat been deceived his whole life? I just harvested a sweet potato and got a message about unlocking an Achievement, okay? And as a reward, farming activities give Experience Points.”
Kkakmang checked the administrator’s manual just in case, but there wasn’t a single line mentioning that you could gain Experience Points from farming-related activities.
Whether Kkakmang believed him or not was beside the point.
Woo Jin examined the sweet potato he’d harvested.
Eating it would raise his Strength by 0.002.
If he ate 1,000 of them, it would raise his Strength by 2.
‘Do the other vegetables raise Ability Stats too?’
First, he should harvest more.
Woo Jin began digging up sweet potatoes.
[Harvesting Level 3 Proficiency increases infinitesimally.]
[Harvesting Level 3 Proficiency…….]
And then.
[You gain Experience Points from harvesting.]
[You gain Experience Points from harvesting…….]
[Your Level has increased.]
“Level up!”
While harvesting sweet potatoes, his Level rose.
And not just once—twice!
In other words, Woo Jin’s Level was now 3.
“Status window.”
Name: Lee Woo Jin
Title: Tower’s Novice Farmer
Level: 3
Ability Stats
– Strength: 3
– Agility: 3
– Stamina: 3
– Mana: 3.07
– Resistance: 0.022
– Remaining Stat Points: 2
Skills: Soil Preparation Lv. 3, Seed Planting Lv. 3, Harvesting Lv. 3, Cold Resistance Lv. 1, Cooking Lv. 2, Silent Steps Lv. 1, Fire Resistance Lv. 1, Dark Adaptation Lv. 1
Coins: 6,353
Difficulty: Mythical
Floor: 99
When Woo Jin harvested all the sweet potatoes, the total came to exactly four hundred.
Each potato vine yielded four sweet potatoes, and with one hundred vines planted, the math worked out perfectly.
Eating them all would raise his Strength by 0.8.
He hadn’t tasted them yet, so he couldn’t speak to their flavor, but remembering the potatoes and cherry tomatoes, they’d surely be palatable.
How could sweet potatoes possibly taste bad?
“J-just like that, I really leveled up! I’m Level 3 now!” Kkakmang exclaimed.
“Heh. What do you think? You believe me now, don’t you?” Woo Jin answered.
“How is this possible? I even got an Achievement!”
“I told you. A message appeared.”
Woo Jin gathered the harvested Tower’s Strength Sweet Potatoes to one side.
Then he moved on to harvest the Tower’s Cherry Tomatoes and Resistance Potatoes as well.
“Harvest, harvest!”
[Harvesting Lv. 3’s Proficiency has increased slightly.]
[Harvesting Lv. 3’s Proficiency has…….]
The seed potatoes he’d cut and prepared from an earlier sprouted batch, which he’d planted and left to grow, had thrived. He set about digging with his hoe, eagerly unearthing potatoes one after another.
Experience Points climbed steadily.
[You gain Experience Points from Harvesting.]
[You gain Experience Points from Harvesting…….]
His Level rose again.
Woo Jin then began harvesting the cherry tomatoes.
With cherry tomatoes, as long as he tended the secondary shoots that kept sprouting, the plant would produce new fruit continuously.
“Harvest, harvest!”
[Harvesting Lv. 3’s Proficiency has increased slightly.]
[Harvesting Lv. 3’s Proficiency has…….]
[You gain Experience Points from Harvesting.]
[You gain Experience Points from Harvesting…….]
His Level climbed once more.
He’d thought the Harvesting skill itself might rank up, but unfortunately it remained stuck at Level 3.
Still, he couldn’t complain.
Woo Jin’s current Level was 5.
He had 4 remaining Stat Points to distribute.
He could choose to allocate all four among Strength, Agility, Stamina, or Mana.
Woo Jin distributed one point to each stat evenly.
His Ability Stats, which had lingered at an average of 3, now became 4.
With the stats rising, his body felt ever so slightly more energized.
“Kkakmang, I’m Level 5 now.”
“T-this is unheard of! Is this cheating?” Kkakmang marveled.
“Cheating? The real cheat is that I’m in a Mythical difficulty dungeon at all,” Woo Jin replied.
True enough.
If anyone was cheating, that was it.
Though not in his favor.
At any rate.
“Let’s have lunch.”
Today’s lunch was, naturally, sweet potatoes.
The Dragon Lair had a crisp, cool atmosphere perfect for roasted sweet potatoes. The smell of winter roasted sweet potatoes was something else entirely.
The question was how to cook them.
That was the problem.
‘If only I could find some fallen leaves or something.’
Roasted sweet potatoes taste better when cooked over fallen leaves.
But not a single tree was visible in this place, let alone fallen leaves.
All there was were patches of grass.
Grass patches……
Shoots from the cherry tomato plants.
Potato leaves.
Sweet potato vines.
“…Hmm. Give it a try?”
These things were piled up in mountains.
They might make excellent kindling?
Rustle! Crackle-crackle!
He brought back an armful.
If he ran short, he’d just grab more.
Woo Jin lit the gas burner, then picked up a leaf and held it to the flame.
“Huh. Burns pretty well.”
“Adventurer. What are you doing?”
“Roasting sweet potatoes to eat.”
He placed the burning leaf among the pile of grass he’d gathered earlier. The fire began to spread.
It caught faster than expected.
Woo Jin quickly brought five sweet potatoes and tossed them in.
The sweet potatoes nestled among the burning leaves.
Crackle, crackle!
Whenever the fuel ran low, he added more leaves bit by bit, keeping the fire alive.
“Huh, that smells delicious, meow!”
The skin of the sweet potatoes above the fire slowly began to change color.
Time passed, and the once-unchanging potatoes gradually released a subtle sweetness into the air.
As the rich, caramel-like aroma mixed with the smell of burning leaves, saliva gathered in his mouth.
Fine steam seeped from the sweet potato surface, and one side of the skin cracked open slightly, revealing the golden flesh within. With each passing moment and the heat shriveling the skin more, the aroma grew stronger.
“Ah, that smells incredible.”
Woo Jin found himself drooling slightly without meaning to.
He adjusted the flames and flipped the sweet potatoes.
Each time the skin touched the fire, it made a soft crackling sound, and the sweet aroma slowly spread through the cavern.
Kkakmang had by now crouched in front of the fire, unable to tear his eyes from the roasting potatoes.
His tail swayed gently.
That was when it happened.
Crack!
Suddenly a loud sound echoed through the cavern.
“An—an earthquake?!”
The sound faded.
Then it came.
A deep, resonant voice echoed throughout the Dragon Lair.
“What are you doing?”
“Meow-meow-meow-meow!”
Kkakmang bolted behind him and hid.
Woo Jin bowed politely in greeting.
“Hello.”
The Dragon Lord seemed pleased with the courtesy, nodding in approval. Or perhaps not.
In any case, the Dragon Lord’s gaze was fixed on the roasted sweet potatoes.
He remembered how delightfully the Dragon Lord had savored the Yukgaejang Cup Ramen before.
Could he be interested in trying this as well?
Either way, as someone living as a tenant(?) in the Dragon Lair, Woo Jin had reason to make a good impression on his landlord.
“I’m making roasted sweet potatoes. Would you care to try one?”
There wasn’t really a proper place to sit.
Most of this place was stone floor.
But the Dragon Lord didn’t mind and casually sat down on the ground the way Woo Jin had.
[You have prepared Roasted Sweet Potato through Cooking.]
[Cooking Proficiency Level 2 has increased.]
[Roasted Sweet Potato]
– Grade: D
– Effect
– Taste Bonus +10%
– Upon consumption, permanently grants Strength +0.002
– Description: Roasted Tower’s Strength Sweet Potato. Still piping hot.
I rolled the roasted sweet potato out with a wooden skewer.
At a glance, it looked impossibly hot.
I snuffed out the fire hastily and let it cool before picking it up with my bare hands.
In the process, my Fire Resistance Proficiency rose.
Click.
I split the roasted sweet potato in half.
Steam curled upward from the golden flesh inside.
It looked absolutely delicious.
“Here you go.”
Dragon Lord accepted the roasted sweet potato.
Now it was Kkakmang’s turn.
“Well then, I shall eat heartily.”
Kkakmang still seemed nervous, watching Dragon Lord cautiously.
While I rolled the roasted sweet potato in my hands with soft hisses of heat, Dragon Lord took a bite of his, then another.
Gulp.
Gulp.
Dragon Lord finished one roasted sweet potato in moments.
I showed him another one I was holding.
“There’s more.”
“Much obliged.”
He consumed another roasted sweet potato just as quickly.
“Delicious.”
Dragon Lord’s gaze turned toward Kkakmang.
“Are you an Administrator?”
“Y-yes! I’m, well, no! I’m Administrator number 350!”
Dragon Lord nodded.
Then he looked at me.
“I have business at the Temple and shall be away for a time. I mention this merely as precaution — do not wander beyond that wall.”
He meant we should stay where we already were.
“Understood.”
The moment I answered, Dragon Lord vanished.
Kkakmang stood dazed, all color drained from his face.
“Kkakmang. What’s wrong?”
“Dragon Lord was a Constellation?!”
What was that supposed to mean?
A Player Farming in the Dragon Lair (Ongoing Series)
Author │ Gaebyeok S
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ Room 401, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒGaebyeok S 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. The content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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