The Earth Dragon Awakens
The Wish Flower is analyzing the wishes it collected from you to determine which ones it can grant.
The Wish Flower is filtering out wishes it cannot grant.
The Wish Flower is selecting the wish with the highest priority among those it can grant.
“Now what’s gonna come out?!”
Han Ji-woo waited with bated breath for the next message, his heart pounding.
The five pets, clueless about what was happening, simply stared at the Wish Flower beside their master. Their wide eyes suggested they had a hunch something amazing was about to go down.
That’s when it happened.
Your Luck stat brightly illuminates your path.
“Huh?”
It was a message triggered by a critical hit from the Luck stat he’d borrowed from Seol Ara. Only then did Han Ji-woo realize he hadn’t returned it yet. He quickly shouted,
“Return the Luck stat to Ara!”
The rental of Luck stat has ended. Luck stat has been returned to Seol Ara.
“Whoa, that scared me. But... did the Luck stat just do something?”
While Han Ji-woo blinked in confusion, things kept moving forward.
The Wish Flower has finished analyzing. We will grant your highest-priority wish.
The awaited message appeared, and the Wish Flower glowed even brighter before slowly sinking into the ground.
“What’s this?”
Last time, a universal fermenter had appeared where the light orb vanished. But now, something different was happening. Whatever it was, with the Luck stat kicking in, it had to be something great.
As Han Ji-woo watched in anticipation, the ground began to rumble. Then something burst up from below.
“Urk!”
A thick, tree-trunk-like thing emerged before him, clawing through the soil and standing tall. Wondering what the hell it was, he stepped back a few paces—and realized.
“...An earthworm?”
That’s right. Half-buried in the ground with only its upper body exposed, it was a massive earthworm. Above its head floated the name Toryong.
“Oh ho? Hmm~? Aha!”
Toryong glanced around before spotting Han Ji-woo and leaning in close, peering right in his face. Bald head, round eyes, and below them a big mouth that somehow screamed chatty—it was bizarre. Not lips like a human’s, just a straight black line.
“You’re the one who woke me up, right? Right?”
Toryong’s voice was cute but with a slightly flighty edge.
“If the Wish Flower woke you, then yeah, I guess?”
“Wish Flower? Oh! So that’s it! I was just a normal earthworm when some mysterious power surged through me, turning me like this. And it was the Wish Flower? Amazing! But what’s a Wish Flower?”
“...Don’t talk like you know everything if you don’t. You’re confusing people.”
“Sorry, sorry. Anyway, the moment I turned like this, I knew—I have to follow you! My master, my lord~! Is there anything for your reborn self, Toryong, to do?”
Han Ji-woo fell deep into thought.
“Lord have mercy. What the hell do you tell an earthworm to do? ‘Wriggle so I can step on you’?”
Chatting with an earthworm was a first, and it left him utterly flustered. No clue what it could even do. Best to just ask straight up.
“Tell me what you can do.”
“Great question! Basically, I can make the soil super fertile. It’s already fertile now, but even more so! I can keep it in top condition year-round. Wanna see?”
Toryong swiveled its head, eyeing the crops in the field.
“Oh ho~ They’re in great shape! But crops from my super-fertile soil are even better! Best taste, best size, best nutrition! Plus, infused with Toryong’s energy for special bonus effects!”
Stroking his chin as he listened, Han Ji-woo’s gaze drifted to the Dungeon Tree sapling.
“If the soil gets more fertile, will that tree grow faster too?”
Toryong followed his pointing finger, pulling itself fully from the hole to inspect the sapling up close.
“Hmm! Yes indeed. A Dungeon Tree sapling! Oh ho. What energy is this? Aha~”
As Toryong dragged its feet, Han Ji-woo lost patience.
“Will it grow faster or not?”
Ducking back into the hole to meet his eyes, Toryong beamed innocently.
“No idea!”
“Aigoo, what a profound answer after all that time, you worm!”
“No excuses~”
Han Ji-woo wondered. Is that really its ashamed face? Do you grin like that when you’ve got no excuses?
Stay calm. It’s an earthworm. Not human.
Brushing it off, he moved on.
“Then what’s that bonus effect you mentioned for the crops?”
Toryong spun in place with a twirl~ and chirped cheerfully.
“No idea on that either!”
“What do you know.”
Han Ji-woo shook his head when suddenly Lucy, perched on his head, leaped down. And then—
Nya~aah!
With a fierce cry, she landed a cat punch on Toryong’s cheek.
Smack!
“Ow!”
Toryong flopped sideways from the solid hit. Pao, watching, rubbed his own cheek as if he’d taken it, trembling.
“Why’d you hit me out of nowhere?”
Toryong sat up, dazed. Lucy just hissed in reply.
It had smacked him for annoying its master.
“Okay, okay, Lucy. That’s enough. You can’t just punch anyone.”
A sly smile hung on the hypocrite’s face as he said it.
“Master... your words and face aren’t matching...”
Ignoring Sasuri’s mutter, Han Ji-woo turned back to Toryong.
“Making soil fertile—that aside, anything else you can do?”
“Yes! I can fetch anything available underground!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yup~”
This might actually be useful.
“Something like ore would be nice. Iron ore or gold ore.”
“Both are deep underground~ Shall I fetch them?”
“Oh! You can?”
“But I’m limited to five underground items per day. You sure?”
“Kinda limiting. Oh well. One iron ore and one gold ore, please.”
“Right away~ Shall we travel?”
Toryong vanished into the hole like it was sucked in. Strangely, the hole sealed perfectly—no trace of digging.
“Huh?”
Han Ji-woo stomped the soil; it was firm, no give.
“That’s neat.”
Soon Toryong burst back up, two ore chunks erupting with it and clunking to the ground.
Han Ji-woo picked up one the size of two adult fists. It read Iron Ore and Gold Ore.
“You actually got them. These were really underground?”
“Buried super deep—only I could reach them! Toryong’s greatness~”
Toryong wiggled side to side in a boastful dance.
“Impressive. I acknowledge it!”
“Thank you~!”
“But you don’t make holes when moving, huh?”
“Disaster! A big guy like me would wreck these fields!”
“True.”
“Hard to explain, but I merge with the earth to move~ No risk!”
“You’re turning out to be one heck of an earthworm.”
“Praise makes even earthworms dance!”
Toryong’s dance grew wilder. Watching, Han Ji-woo had a brilliant idea.
“Toryong. Can you do something like this?”
“What’s that?”
“Like, soil microbes that ferment food.”
“Oh ho~ Brilliant idea! Toryong is impressed. Of course! Fetch some?”
“Ooh, yes!”
“Toryong sets off on trip two!”
It dove underground and popped back quick, a pill-sized capsule tumbling out.
Han Ji-woo scooped it up as Toryong explained.
“Inside? Don’t freak out! Exactly the microbes you wanted!”
But Han Ji-woo wasn’t listening.
“Pao! Break off some sugarcane!”
“Got it!”
Pao snapped a stalk and brought it.
Will this work?
Tense, Han Ji-woo opened the crafting window and added the sugarcane and capsule.
Sugarcane x1, Microbe Capsule x1
‘MSG’ synthesis possible
An amazing result. He couldn’t help but cheer.
“Eureka!”
While pondering what else to ask Toryong for, he recalled a video he’d watched out of curiosity long ago. It showed a company’s MSG production: fermenting sugarcane with microbes. It was an ad claiming their MSG was natural, not chemical, to correct misconceptions.
On a whim, he’d asked—and hit the jackpot.
Han Ji-woo hit synthesize. A capsule appeared. Thinking it was the microbe one at first—nope.
He pulled out a plate and dumped the contents. White powder poured from the split capsule, shimmering beautifully.
“Let’s see...”
Heart racing, he dabbed some. Up close, the grains were elongated, not round—just like the MSG he knew.
Taste the same? He touched it to his tongue.
“Oh, ooh!”
This was it. Umami exploding from the tip, flooding his mouth—overwhelmingly intense, almost cloying. But in food, it’d revive even dead flavors.
As he nearly teared up in delight, Toryong’s voice reached him.
“Oh ho! Don’t the crops look way better quality from my fertile soil? Right? Yeah?”
Its tone screamed try some!
Han Ji-woo approached an apple tree to pick one. But eyeing the apple triggered a window.
Using as fertilizer for Dungeon Tree accelerates growth by 0.1%. Effect stacks.
“Huh?”
He checked others. Same description.
“Using as Dungeon Tree fertilizer accelerates growth?”
His eyes stopped on a particularly large apple. Its window differed.
Apple grown absorbing especially much of Toryong’s energy. Permanently increases Vitality by 2 upon consumption.
“...!”
Jackpot. Not his first apple, but permanent +2 Vitality?
He checked other crops. All had the fertilizer acceleration option. The ripest ones granted permanent stat boosts.
“Ah... I get it.”
Now he understood why the Wish Flower summoned Toryong. After meeting Ibelius, he burned to grow stronger faster. The flower granted Toryong, who could add stat boosts to fruits. Bonus: MSG too.
The Luck stat’s crit probably helped summon him.
Yeah. The critical turned his wish even better.
“Unbelievable.”
As he carefully scooped the spilled MSG back into the capsule—
A rift tore open in space, something tumbling out.
“...Ferrofero?”
The uninvited guest sprawled on the ground was Ferrofero.