Tudak, tudak.
“Hey, Dondyo. Move those five stone blocks over here!”
“Got it, Kakang!”
“Everyone, eat while you work! A snack has arrived.”
“It smells good today as well! Is it soup?”
Recently, Chiyon had become full of energy.
Thanks to the food and various supplies sent by Kyu-seong, every day was busy without a moment of quiet.
Because of that, monsters frequently sensed the commotion and attacked…
Ptooey!
Guaaargh!
Before Poispois’s paralyzing poison, all were equal.
As a result, Chiyon even had a separate pen to confine paralyzed monsters.
‘The Demon King instructed us to capture as many as possible and deliver them.’
Choro, who was inspecting the monster pen, wondered what Demon King Lee Kyu-seong was planning to do with these monsters.
He suspected that the Demon King would arm them and use them to attack other dimensions or regions that had not yet been conquered.
A truly terrifying plan.
However, Choro was now completely one of the Demon King’s executives.
“This is exciting! We must spread the Demon King’s power across all dimensions!”
And at the forefront of that would be himself.
Wasn’t it thrilling? To dye the world in Lee Kyu-seong’s name!
And he planned to ensure that the conquered lands, like Chiyon, would experience the grace of the Demon King.
Choro was confident that he would properly convey the greatness and mercy of Demon King Lee Kyu-seong.
“Hero! The repairs on the western wall are complete!”
“Good! Let’s go check it out! Oh, by the way, as I mentioned last time, I am no longer a hero.”
At Choro’s words, the little one who came to report tilted their head.
“Then what should we call you, Hero?”
“Hmm, call me one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.”
“D-Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings?”
“Just call me Choro!”
“Understood, Lord Choro!”
Not knowing what had really changed, Choro, now using his name as a title, headed toward the repaired wall.
There, many people were still working hard on the finishing touches, but the perfectly repaired wall stood out.
“Ohh, excellent! This was the most damaged area in the last battle, and now it’s completely restored!”
“As long as we have materials, repairs are no problem. Thanks to you, we survived!”
The representative of the repair team laughed heartily and then continued while scanning the wall.
“But the walls of Chiyon are too old and worn down. Not just the western wall, the entire structure needs reinforcement.”
“Understood. I will entrust everything regarding the repairs to Lord Ddonyo.”
“I will restore it perfectly!”
There were plenty of materials.
The only issue was that after repairing the walls, it would be difficult to renovate the houses inside, but that could be managed once more supplies arrived.
Since Kyu-seong had already promised unlimited support, there was no concern.
“I should go report to the Demon King soon.”
He planned to report at least once every three days.
The progress of Chiyon’s construction and various other matters.
Choro also had a concern he wanted advice on.
‘We can’t rely on support forever.’
At the very least, they couldn’t depend on Kyu-seong for food indefinitely.
In the end, they needed to be self-sufficient, but currently, they lacked farmland and farming equipment.
He had already discussed this issue with Verna and the ten-member scouting team.
Bbyorong?
“Oh. Hello.”
While lost in thought, something approached Choro and nudged his foot.
It was the first slime he had summoned.
Thanks to summoning one per day, there were now three slimes.
Of course, he had no idea what to do with them.
He simply summoned them because he could.
Still, he thought positively. Having already seen Poispois and the Angel Slime, Choro knew better than anyone the greatness of slimes.
Even if they had no practical use, they would serve as an important symbol of Chiyon.
After all, they were a blessing from the Demon King.
Bbyorong, bbyorong.
“Hmm? What is it?”
The slime gestured as if to follow.
Since Choro was surprisingly good at understanding slimes, he immediately trailed after the slow-crawling creature.
“This is…”
The sight before him was astonishing.
The other two slimes he had summoned were also there, and small plants were growing around them.
Something about their appearance seemed familiar—it was undoubtedly the grain that was their staple food.
“Did you grow these?”
Bbyorong!
Ofof…
How miraculous.
The Demon King must have foreseen this and bestowed such an ability upon him.
Of course, Lee Kyu-seong had no idea about any of this.
After a moment of praising the Demon King, Choro immediately informed Verna and the ten scouts of the discovery.
Soon, everyone gathered to witness the small farm created by the slimes and cheered.
“Long live the Demon King! Long live, long live!”
***
[The people’s faith in the Demon King has deepened further.]
This message popped up while I was on my way to check the apple trees.
It seemed something good had happened in Chiyon again.
‘I don’t know what it is, but everyone seems to be doing well.’
I expected that they would return today or tomorrow, so I planned to ask again if there was anything they lacked.
The Cats had also been diligently crafting equipment, so by now, they should have completed a full set of armor for all the soldiers.
Now, only weapons remained, and I needed to discuss what was necessary.
‘They might need spears, long swords, bows, and arrows. Or perhaps shields and daggers, depending on what the soldiers are accustomed to using.’
Considering the condition they first appeared in, they might never have handled proper weapons before.
They had looked too pitiful for me to imagine otherwise.
“Apples, apples, apples!”
Hearing Ara’s energetic shout, I thought about the others as I finally arrived at the farm.
The day before, when the slimes had asked me to check the apples, Ara, Cheong, my parents, and Jung So-yeon had all come to see the apple trees.
“Wow, are all of these fruit trees? Amazing!”
Jung So-yeon, seeing the fruit trees for the first time, marveled with sparkling eyes.
The vast orchard spread out widely, and unlike other crops, the trees had to be planted with significant spacing between them.
“Our Ara is excited.”
“Yes! The Great Lord-Lord has come to see the apples with Jung So-yeon-So-yeon!”
“Haha. From now on, we should visit the farm often with Ara.”
Father smiled warmly as he spoke.
Meanwhile, the slimes who were working—or rather, playing—in the field noticed us and approached to greet us.
“Hello? You all are so diligent.”
Gul-lerng!
The slime gestured toward the apple trees as if inviting us.
Taking a closer look, I noticed that small fruits had begun to form on the young trees.
“Oh, the fruits are starting to grow!”
They weren’t yet the size of the apples we were familiar with, but tiny little buds had formed.
Following the slime, we all approached to get a better look at the apples.
Their color was green, and they were about the size of jujubes.
In fact, they looked so much like jujubes that it wouldn’t be strange to mistake them for one.
Crawl!
“Oh! We can eat them!”
Ara, who had been nodding and conversing with the slime, suddenly plucked one of the apple buds and quickly popped it into her mouth.
Since Ara could eat anything, it didn’t really matter what she ate, but the way she spoke made it seem like we could eat them too.
“It’s edible!”
To emphasize her point, Ara shouted again.
“Can we eat it? Isn’t it still unripe?”
“Osok-Osok. It’s fine!”
Ara, chewing enthusiastically, plucked another apple and handed it to Cheong, who was standing beside her.
Cheong cautiously accepted it and took a small bite.
“Chomp, chomp. It tastes good, hehehe.”
Cheong smiled brightly as he spoke.
Since they were both kids who loved eating, I wondered if they were just saying that out of habit, but soon, I decided to try picking and eating one myself.
“Is it a green apple?”
“It looks delicious!”
Crunch!
Of course, Jung So-yeon.
Since she loved food, she immediately took a bite, and I watched her reaction for a moment.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she stared at the apple she had just bitten into.
“It’s delicious! Seriously! I’m not joking!”
“Oh?”
Hearing her words, I took a bite as well.
My parents, in contrast, had already started eating before even waiting for So-yeon’s reaction.
Crunch.
The moment I bit into the small apple, a fresh, tangy sweetness burst forth along with the juice.
“What is this?!”
It had felt firm to the touch, but once I bit into it, the juice overflowed in my mouth.
Had it been concentrated?
The sheer amount of juice pouring out as I chewed on the firm flesh meant that I didn’t even need to drink water separately.
Gulp, gulp.
Was I eating an apple or drinking apple juice? I couldn’t tell.
But was it bad? Absolutely not.
It was definitely a green apple—the crisp, fresh taste spread through my mouth like a refreshing herb.
Yet, it still retained the unique sweetness and flavor of an apple.
If this ripened and turned red, I had a feeling the taste would become even more intense.
Crunch, crunch.
As I savored the flavor, I noticed that others had silently begun wandering around the apple trees, devouring the fruits.
Ara, in particular, seemed like a vacuum cleaner, stuffing her mouth nonstop.
Ara, are you even chewing?
Watching her eat so happily made it impossible for me to hold back either.
Eventually, I, too, lost myself in eating apples for a while.
By the time I regained my senses, my stomach was already full.
“We ended up having apples for breakfast.”
“They say a morning apple is a golden apple. It must be good for our health.”
“Oh.”
If it’s supposed to be healthy, then I should check the item effects.
I was so caught up in eating that I hadn’t even thought about it.
[Magic-Infused Green Apple v.3]
-A green apple infused with faint magical energy.
-Despite being unripe, it is packed with abundant juice.
-Upon consumption, grants ‘Meditation v.2’ for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Even though it was the first time these trees were planted, the crop was already at level 3.
The slime farm had truly reached its stride.
It must have been thanks to the overall level increase in the slimes due to their liquid synthesis ability.
‘Mark2 once inspected level 5 crops.’
Anyway.
The ability of this apple was to grant meditation.
Since it was listed as an ability, it didn’t seem to just mean zoning out.
“So-yeon, what exactly does the meditation ability do?”
“Wait, this apple has a meditation ability?”
“….”
It seemed So-yeon hadn’t checked the effect of the apple either.
After following my lead and checking, she looked intrigued.
“This is… incredible!”
“Huh? It’s that amazing? What does meditation do?”
“Meditation increases an Awakener’s total mana capacity.”
“It raises mana capacity?!”
No way, that’s such a broken ability!
When I looked at her in shock, So-yeon chuckled.
“It’s great, but not that surprising. Well, maybe it is surprising.”
“Can you explain it in detail?”
“Meditation literally increases an Awakener’s mana pool. But even if you awaken the meditation ability, it’s completely useless. It’s known as a dud ability.”
“Oh!”
Unless someone was a rare case like So-yeon and me, who could undergo dual awakenings, most people only awaken one ability.
If someone happened to awaken meditation as their sole ability, they would just end up being an Awakener with a lot of mana and not much else.
Still, having a large mana pool should enhance physical abilities, so wouldn’t it be useful?
“The amount of mana meditation can increase is very small. For lower-tier Awakener, it’s helpful, but for someone at Level 4 or above, they would need to meditate for 12 hours a day for three years just to reach Level 5.”
“Oh. And it gets even harder after Level 5?”
“Exactly. That’s why, as far as I know, the highest-ranked Awakener with meditation is only at Level 5. In fact, there are probably only a handful of Awakener with this ability in the entire world.”
It really was a double-edged sword.
I gazed at the harvested apples with a conflicted expression.
“But you don’t have to be disappointed. Awakener are the kind of people who will do anything to get stronger. High-level Awakener who are stuck on quests or struggling to grow will go crazy over these apples just to increase their mana, even by a little.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Even I feel like I need them.”
Hearing So-yeon’s words, I started thinking that maybe these apples were more useful than I initially thought.
Since I didn’t have a strong desire to become stronger, I couldn’t fully relate.
“If you entrust these to the guild, it will cause a huge stir. I guarantee it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. At first, I didn’t think much of it either, but now that I reconsider, this is no small matter.”
At some point, So-yeon’s expression had become serious.
“Maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“Oh, never mind. Someone just came to mind.”
Someone came to mind?
I tilted my head in curiosity while looking at the apple.
Beside me, Ara was still happily swallowing whole apples and shouting.
“It’s delicious!”
Cliche Novel 