Solo Farming In The Tower Chapter 828 101: (3)+Accidentally Running a Hotteok Stand (1) / 825
Previously on Solo Farming In The Tower...
TL: Hanguk
As Flamie joyfully found a simple method to lessen her strength,
"Hahaha! Finally…!"
Under the Foundation Stone of the World, Azathoth chuckled wildly while softly caressing the staff crafted from Flamie's root.
Grade: ★★★★★★★★★★★
Armed with this 11-star treasure, I can at last shatter that detested Foundation Stone of the World!
Hold on tight. Creator God, you who trapped me! I'll reach you shortly!
Azathoth, seething with vengeance toward the Creator God,
From this point forward, you shall be known as Azathoth Number Zero!
Yet,
[The Nameless Staff rejects the name you gave it, saying it lacks sincerity.]
The staff turned down the name Azathoth assigned to it.
"What?!"
Never had an item spurned a name he conferred…
Could it be due to its 11-star nature?
"Fine. I'll name it later."
Eager to swiftly return to the outer world, Azathoth grasped the staff and rose upward.
"Everyone, follow me! We're leaving this place now!"
he called out to his followers. This location had been fully subdued by Azathoth long ago. All beings here served under him.
While Azathoth and his followers moved toward the Foundation Stone of the World,
Rumble.
From overhead, a root far thicker than the previous one came down.
To siphon Azathoth's power,
Flamie had dispatched an avatar holding 0.3% of her might this time.
A superior material than earlier!
Khehehe. Now, I'll create a shield!
"Become a shield!"
Azathoth's eyes gleamed as he contacted Flamie's root and yelled.
Pop!
In that instant, Flamie's incarnation changed into a wooden shield.
[Hehet. Just 300 more instances like this, and I can play with Sejun-nim!]
Flamie, feeling even happier, dispatched another incarnation.
"Become a ring!"
Pop!
"Become a bracelet!"
Pop!
Azathoth kept forging various items from Flamie's avatars.
However.
"Huff. Huff. Huff…."
Following the seventh item, he started breathing heavily. Flamie's power proved so vast that forming items from it demanded tremendous effort.
So weak.
I'll need to train him afterward.
Disappointed, Flamie started to restrain Azathoth by encircling her root around his bronze armor.
Her intention was to employ the slave contract obtained from Theo to bring Azathoth into Sejun Company and assign him to oversee item creation for the <Reconstruction Project>.
Incidentally, she planned to diminish her power slightly via training aimed at enhancing item crafting skills.
[Hehe.]
As Flamie giggled contentedly,
[Huh?!]
Abruptly, the bronze armor fell apart feebly. Its interior stood utterly vacant.
[Where did he go?]
Flamie swiftly scanned the area.
"Run!"
Snared by Flamie's stare, a tiny tarantula the size of a palm, covered in soft purple fuzz, ditched all his items and
Swoosh.
launched spiderwebs before fleeing in terror.
Azathoth's actual form remained quite diminutive. He had used bronze armor as a disguise to prevent disdain from his subordinates.
[Where do you think you're going?!]
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Flamie's roots sealed off Azathoth's path of escape entirely.
[Stamp it!]
She extended the slave contract.
"N-no! I refuse!"
Azathoth rejected it on instinct.
[Then there's no choice.]
"W-what?! Put me down! No! I said no!"
Squeeze.
"N-no…."
Ultimately, Azathoth got fully enveloped by Flamie's root, and using all eight legs plus his body, he imprinted a distinct mark on the contract.
[Hehe. Azathoth, welcome to Sejun Company.]
In this way, Flamie enlisted her initial covert permanent staff member to Sejun Company: Azathoth.
He now bore the vital duty of squad chief at the Sejun Company Item Factory, responsible for every item production in the <Reconstruction Project>.
[Now then. Azathoth, there's no time to dawdle. Please start by producing 100 D-grade shields.]
With numerous pending orders, [System Eok-Samchiri] promptly issued a request to Azathoth, yet
"No! I refuse!"
Azathoth refused to craft items without resistance.
[Azathoth! Why won't you listen when I ask nicely?!]
Smack. Smack.
After enduring several strikes from Flamie's fiery root whip,
"Uwaaah! Okay! I'll do it!"
He toiled diligently.
"Making D-grade items, seriously…."
While muttering complaints loudly.
***
Christmas D-10
Afternoon at the Kindergarten of Destruction.
Squish. Squish.
"Teecher-nim, is your shoulder feeling better?"
"Yeah. It feels really good."
"Teecher-nim, what about your feet?!"
"Oh! My feet feel great too."
"Teecher-nim, how about your legs?!"
"Of course it feels good when our Jjokjjok is massaging them."
Today, like always, Sejun enjoyed a blissful moment getting a complete body massage from the Children of Destruction, pretending it was for Christmas gifts.
For reference, Jjokjjok, who arrived at the Kindergarten of Destruction earliest, abruptly rose two days prior and at last could speak.
Because of that, they threw a slime meat feast two days back to mark Jjokjjok's ability to walk and talk.
They devoured plenty of slime roast, boiled slime, spicy stir-fried slime, and sweet and sour slime.
A bit later.
Phew-
Phew-
All the kids who had been zealously massaging Sejun dozed off. Their stomachs bulged full, and the floor stayed cozy, making sleep unavoidable.
"Good job."
Sejun gently lifted the children with his companions, carried them to their rooms, tucked them under blankets, and stepped outside.
'But… is Santa Sejun preparing well for Christmas?'
Sejun gazed at the sky through the window.
Right then.
"Oh?! It's snowing!"
Snowflakes started drifting down from the heavens.
"Aileen, let's go out for a bit."
"Okay!"
Sejun strolled the snowy streets alongside Aileen and the group.
Do they sell fish-shaped buns around here?
Since he abruptly longed for fish-shaped buns. Viewing the snow stirred his craving for one, especially one prepared by another person.
After roaming the area for more than 30 minutes hunting for fish-shaped buns,
"Oh. There it is!"
They spotted a fish-shaped bun stand. At the Kindergarten of Destruction, Iona had set up an alert spell to notify them instantly if the children stirred.
"Owner, give me all the red bean and custard fish-shaped buns you have."
"What?!"
"We'll eat what you have ready first, and then we'll eat more, so please make them quickly. Everyone, try one each for now."
When Sejun distributed red bean and custard fish-shaped buns to the group,
"Puhuhut. I'll enjoy this, meow! Meow?! Ptooey, meow! Chairman Park, this is strange, meow! It clearly looks like grilled fish, but it's not grilled fish, meow! There's something weird inside! It's sweet, meow! This fish tricked me, Vice Chairman Theo, meow! I'm angry, meow!"
To begin with, Theo grew furious at the red bean and custard fish-shaped buns that misled him.
"Vice Chairman Theo, calm down. I'll grill you some real fish later. And if you're not going to eat that, give it to me."
"Puhuhut. Understood, meow!"
Theo settled upon hearing Sejun's promise.
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. What a fascinating taste."
Iona quietly relished the flavor of the fish-shaped bun while consuming it.
Kuehehehe. Kkueh?!
[Hehehe. Owner, are there no more?!]
Cuengi fixed his gaze on the fish-shaped bun mold the owner used for cooking.
Kihihit. Kking! Kking?! Kking!
[Hehe. Butler! Let's put roasted and dried sweet potatoes in here! What do you think of Blackie's idea?! If we make and sell this, we'll hit the jackpot!]
Blackie proposed crafting roasted sweet potato fish-shaped buns.
"Yum."
Hehe. If Sejun makes this…
Aileen munched her fish-shaped bun, picturing its flavor if Sejun prepared it.
Thanks to Iona's illusion magic, they appeared as humans in their twenties, so the fish-shaped bun owner merely thought the talk a tad peculiar.
Moreover, Aileen toned down her looks to an ordinary face to dodge notice.
A short time later.
"Um… we've run out of ingredients, so I think I'll have to close up shop for today. Thank you for buying everything."
Sejun and his group forced the fish-shaped bun owner to shut down ahead of schedule. It resulted from Sejun and Cuengi's voracious appetite.
Ah. I forgot the kids' snacks.
Sejun suddenly remembered they had feasted without reserving any for the children.
Guess I'll have to find another fish-shaped bun stall.
He continued hunting to purchase fish-shaped buns for Taecho and the Children of Destruction.
Meanwhile, the snowfall intensified and started blanketing the ground.
Hehehe. I'll build a snowman with the kids later.
Wishing for deeper snow accumulation, Sejun pressed on seeking a fish-shaped bun stall, but none appeared.
"Let's just eat some hotteok for now."
"I don't want that, meow!"
"Alright. Vice Chairman Theo, have some Churu instead."
"Puhuhut. Sounds good, meow!"
Instead, they went to a hotteok stand. The seller was a kindly elderly woman.
"Owner, please make me 300 hotteok."
"What?!"
At Sejun's request, the hotteok stall owner mirrored the earlier fish-shaped bun vendor's shock.
"We'll eat 300 here and take 100 to go, so please make plenty."
Sejun tacked on another 100 to the order for the hotteok stall owner and awaited the hotteok preparation.
By the moment Sejun and his group had devoured around 50 hotteok,
"Ma'am, are you alright?"
Sejun inquired, noticing the owner sweating heavily. Initially, he assumed it stemmed from the hot griddle work, but her periodic winces suggested bodily discomfort.
"I'm sorry. I'm really slow, right? Actually, my shoulders and back aren't in great shape…."
The hotteok stall owner expressed regret in reply to Sejun's concern.
"No, not at all. If you don't mind, can I give you a massage?"
"What?"
"Puhuhut. A massage from me, Vice Chairman Theo, is expensive…."
"Cuengi. Please give the lady a massage."
Kueng!
Upon Sejun's bidding, Cuengi levitated and commenced kneading the old lady's shoulders and back.
"Oh my, that feels amazing. Young man, your massage skills are outstanding."
The old lady's face lit up clearly.
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Power of healing…."
Iona additionally applied a healing spell to the old lady's form.
Once the massage concluded,
"Why am I so sleepy? I just got a massage and was going to make hotteok…."
Relaxed by the massage, the old lady grew exceedingly tired.
"Ma'am, why don't you head home and rest today, and let me borrow your stall just for a day? I need a lot of hotteok. I'll pay you for it."
Sejun suggested to the old lady.
"Huh?"
"Would about 5 million won be enough?"
"No way! You even gave me a massage. Just use it."
Five million won sufficed to launch a fresh hotteok stall, yet the old lady generously removed her apron, passed it to Sejun, and departed home sooner than planned.
And thus, Sejun took over the hotteok stall.
"First, crushed peanuts…."
He blended magical roasted peanuts with sugar,
Pababak.
Then rapidly filled the dough with the blend, set them on the griddle, and compressed them using a hotteok press.
As the griddle proved too compact, he retrieved an extra one from his void storage.
"Cuengi, match the temperature with the other griddle."
Kueng!
He loaded additional hotteok for cooking.
"Puhuhut. Chairman Park, I, Vice Chairman Theo, shall do the pressing, meow!"
Smoosh.
While Theo compressed the hotteok using his front paw, meticulously cleaned by his tongue, a clear cat paw mark appeared on the hotteok.
Since the illusion magic merely altered their looks to human shapes, the hotteok Theo handled distinctly showed the cat paw pattern.
"Everyone, go ahead and try one."
"Okay!"
Kueng!
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Yes."
As Sejun grilled rapidly, Aileen, Cuengi, and Iona started munching the hotteok.
Kking!
[Butler! Put roasted and dried sweet potato inside the hotteok!]
Blackie attached to Sejun's leg, pleading.
"Alright. Just wait a second. Vice Chairman Theo, chop this up."
"Puhuhut. Understood, meow!"
Sejun passed the roasted and dried sweet potatoes, and Theo sliced them with his claws.
"Great."
Sejun combined the sweet potatoes with sugar, packed them into dough, and arranged them on the griddle.
Then.
"Puhuhut."
Smoosh. Smoosh. Smoosh.
Theo pressed the hotteok with vigor.
At that moment,
104.28.193.250
"Hello, owner. Can I have three hotteok, please?"
A customer arrived.
"Puhuhut. Welcome, meow!"
Theo instinctively greeted the customer.
One hotteok: 1,500 won.
Three hotteok: 4,000 won.
Without spotting the listed prices.
A brief time afterward.
– Discovered cat paw print hotteok! Super cute! It's 4,000 won for 3 and tastes amazing! If you're near Oksoo Station, make sure to stop by!
The customer shared pictures of Sejun, Theo, the stall, and the hotteok with that description on Stargram, and likes surged quickly.
– Oh. I'm nearby. Gotta check this out!
– Cat paw print hotteok?! Heading there right now!
– I've been craving hotteok. I'm going too!
Customers started crowding Sejun's hotteok stall.
*****
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