Player Farming in the Dragon’s Lair - Chapter 8

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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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8
The wall crumbled like soft earth—far too easily.
Stone dust scattered across the floor.
Woo Jin, startled, clenched his hand into a fist and tapped the wall experimentally.
It was definitely hard—a solid stone wall.
“Earth Cultivation.”
[Earth Cultivation Lv. 3 proficiency increases slightly.]
Crunch!
Crackle……
The wall gave way just as easily as before.
‘Just one skill—Earth Cultivation—and it does this?’
[Earth Cultivation Lv. 3]
– Description: Allows deep digging when cultivating soil. Also enables uniform excavation without stones or clumps.
Woo Jin reread the skill description.
He paused to consider whether tearing through the wall was really the right move.
He was currently in Dragon’s Lair.
Presumably, the Dragon Lord’s lair.
The odds of the Dragon Lord being somewhere nearby were high.
It was possible this wall had been protecting him all along.
‘…Maybe I should leave it alone?’
He’d already chipped away at it somewhat.
But he hadn’t broken through completely yet.
Still, human curiosity has always conquered reason.
Justifying himself with the thought that he couldn’t live trapped here forever, he resumed his excavation.
This time, instead of a small gardening spade, he’d brought a proper shovel—the kind used on construction sites.
“Earth Cultivation, Earth Cultivation!”
Crunch!
Crunch!
Trading his child-sized spade for a rough laborer’s shovel made the work gratifyingly swift.
Crunch!
[Earth Cultivation Lv. 3 proficiency increases……]
Then it happened.
Whoosh!
He learned what it felt like to swing a shovel through empty air.
Woo Jin nearly toppled forward before catching himself at the last moment.
The wall had given way.
The barrier separating the two spaces was about a meter thick.
Not particularly thin or thick. Woo Jin peered through the hole into the space beyond.
‘I don’t see anything.’
It wasn’t that dark.
Sunlight streamed in through gaps in the ceiling, so the other chamber clearly wasn’t sealed off completely.
Woo Jin moved cautiously forward one step at a time. His legs nearly buckled beneath him.
[Dragon Lord][Lv. 9999]
‘No, no, no, no!’
He clamped his mouth shut.
There was something to see after all.
The Dragon Lord’s body was so massive he’d mistaken it for part of the stone.
Woo Jin thought he was going to die.
But nothing happened.
“……?”
He looked more carefully.
A dragon the size of an apartment building, immense and singular.
Tilting his head back until his neck ached, Woo Jin saw its eyes were closed.
Was it sleeping?
Woo Jin exhaled with relief.
He hadn’t been discovered after all.
‘But they expect me to kill a monster like this.’
Floor 99 of the Tower.
Difficulty: Mythic.
The objective: slay the Dragon Lord.
Woo Jin shook his head slowly.
He understood it even more clearly now.
No matter what good item existed in this world, defeating the Dragon Lord before him was simply impossible.
Woo Jin walked softly back to his original space, and in doing so, he acquired a skill called Silent Footsteps.
[You have acquired Silent Footsteps Lv. 1.]
[Silent Footsteps Lv. 1]
– Description: You can move while making almost no sound.
An unexpected stroke of luck, one might say.
To think he could acquire a skill so easily.
Woo Jin scratched his cheek, bewildered.
‘Is it possible that skills are easier to acquire in Mythic Difficulty?’
It was a distinct possibility.
The skills Woo Jin had obtained so far:
Earth Cultivation, Seed Planting, Harvest, Cooking. And now Silent Footsteps.
The common knowledge was that to obtain skills, one had to acquire Skill Books, which could only be obtained randomly while climbing the Tower.
Naturally, the probability of acquiring a skill was extremely low.
According to official statistics released by the Tower Management Bureau, one Skill Book per every ten floors climbed.
That is, assuming they were combat skills.
Woo Jin currently possessed five skills.
By the statistics, Woo Jin held the same number of skills as an Adventurer who had climbed fifty floors of Normal Difficulty.
‘Ah, but what do I do about this hole?’
The moment Woo Jin realized the Dragon Lord was right beside him, anxiety crept into his mind. Now that there was a hole, wouldn’t every sound and food smell seep through to the Dragon Lord from now on?
Though admittedly, its eyes weren’t open.
.
.
.
He considered various methods.
Digging out the wall and using the fallen soil to fill the hole again.
Or finding cement and sealing it up completely.
And finally, the option of just giving up and leaving it as is.
Gurgle.
His stomach was growing hungry.
First things first — let’s eat, then think.
Woo Jin glanced around cautiously.
Through the opening, he could see the Dragon Lord’s skin.
‘Come to think of it, if I was going to be discovered, I would’ve been discovered long ago.’
Perhaps it was in some sort of hibernation.
In modern times, where neighbors in the same apartment building quarrel over noise between floors, it seemed unreasonable to think a mere meter-thick wall would prevent the Dragon Lord from hearing everyday sounds.
Unless it had fallen into sleep so deep that someone could carry it away without waking.
Woo Jin chose to think positively. The Dragon Lord was hibernating.
Come to think of it, the weather has been rather cold too!
“…Ah, forget it.”
Woo Jin scooped lake water into the Aluminum Pot and placed it on the Gas Burner.
He lit the flame and boiled the water.
He decided to eat Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small).
What if I get caught, you ask?
So what if I die?
What can I even do?
If the Dragon Lord decides to kill me, then I die.
Screech.
He opened the ramen cup’s lid halfway and poured in the seasoning packet.
He poured the boiling water over it and replaced the lid.
He slightly spread apart the Wooden Chopsticks and wedged them through to secure the lid, then waited three minutes.
Three minutes later.
Screech!
He peeled away the lid completely.
Hot steam rose in waves from the ramen cup.
He promptly snapped the Wooden Chopsticks apart and stirred the noodles in the cup, loosening them.
He gathered a large forkful of noodles.
Slurrrp!
“Ahh.”
The familiar, pungent MSG flavor of the Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small) spread across his palate. He drained the broth down to the last drop. Warmth bloomed in his chest.
It was just as he was nearly finished.
A presence made itself known.
Woo Jin’s instincts drew his gaze to the opening above.
His body went rigid.
Not literally frozen—just startled out of his skin.
And for good reason.
A pair of enormous eyes was watching him.
– What are you eating?
* * *
At the sound of that voice, Woo Jin swallowed hard.
He understood instinctively: those eyes belonged to the Dragon Lord.
“This… is cup ramen, sir.”
– It smells wonderful.
The Dragon Lord’s eyes still gleamed with interest.
Woo Jin swallowed again.
His first meeting with the Dragon Lord seemed to be going better than expected.
“Would you, perhaps, like some? I’ll make you a fresh bowl right away.”
– I shall wait.
“Yes, absolutely!”
Woo Jin set down his own Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small). A single chopstick’s worth remained, but that wasn’t the point.
The Dragon Lord had requested Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small).
To survive, Woo Jin had to pour everything he had into preparing it flawlessly.
Crack!
He peeled back the lid halfway, added the seasoning and hot water, then sealed it again. Woo Jin counted off exactly three minutes in his head, then opened the lid fully and separated the noodles with wooden chopsticks until they lay loose and inviting.
Dash!
He sprinted toward the Dragon Lord with the finished Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small).
Unlike moments before, the Dragon Lord now had his eyes open.
But at that size, this tiny cup of ramen wouldn’t even register—what was he supposed to do? The thought had barely formed when—
Slip.
The Dragon Lord’s body began to shrink.
Not shrinking so much as transforming entirely.
Into the form of a human.
A handsome man with long, deep crimson hair swept back from his face.
He wore only a single garment, something like a Korean aristocrat’s robe from the Joseon era—and beneath that simple dress was the Dragon Lord himself.
“It is called Polymorph.”
“…Yes, understood.”
“Let me taste it.”
The Dragon Lord accepted the Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small) that Woo Jin offered. He seemed well acquainted with chopsticks already.
Taking the wooden chopsticks, the Dragon Lord inhaled the aroma of the ramen, then lifted a generous bundle of noodles and brought it slowly to his lips.
Slurp.
The Dragon Lord’s eyes widened.
Then he began sucking down the noodles with single-minded intensity.
Woo Jin found himself an unintended spectator to the Dragon Lord’s meal.
When it was over, after the broth had been consumed in one long pull—
The Dragon Lord set the Yukgaejang Cup Ramen (Small) container down slowly.
“Delicious.”
He didn’t ask if it had suited his taste.
The way the Dragon Lord had eaten made it abundantly clear: he’d devoured every scrap with genuine delight.
The Dragon Lord settled himself onto a large stone and asked:
“So. How exactly did you find your way here?”
Woo Jin decided to be honest.
He saw no advantage in lying.
Uncertain where to begin, he started from the beginning.
From the day he became a civil servant at the Tower Management Bureau.
Two years ago, when he’d first entered public service.
How, while working as a civil servant, he’d unexpectedly undergone an Awakening.
Awakening meant he’d received a Tower Invitation message.
He laid bare the absurd fact that he’d cleared only Normal Difficulty up to the twentieth floor, pocketed a billion won, invested it in index funds and dividend stocks to pursue financial independence, only to open his eyes and find himself not on Normal Difficulty floor one, but on Mythic Difficulty floor ninety-nine—a truth he recounted without a trace of exaggeration.
The Dragon Lord, who had been listening quietly to the exchange, nodded slowly.
“It’s the truth, then.”
It seemed the Dragon Lord possessed some ability to discern truth from falsehood.
“…What becomes of me now?”
Either way, his life hung in the balance of the Dragon Lord’s will.
The objective of Mythic Difficulty, Floor 99, was to eliminate the Dragon Lord.
In other words, an Adventurer and the Dragon Lord were official adversaries.
The Dragon Lord fixed Woo Jin with a piercing gaze from above.
A Player Farming in Dragon’s Lair (Serialized)
Author │ Gae Byeok S
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 401, Ace Techno Tower 8-cha, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Gae Byeok S 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder. No part of this content may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this clause 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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