The Core Diamond Millstone

Minhyuk lay back at his ease and gazed up at the sky. Warm noon sunlight settled gently over him. Cumulus clouds drifted past as unhurried as airships, and the sound of the waves tickled his ears, cool and steady as white noise.

It was a view that soothed the heart just to look at. What actually tugged the corners of Minhyuk's mouth upward, though, was something else entirely.

The potatoes were done growing. And these were no ordinary potatoes. They were children Minhyuk and the meerkats had raised with painstaking care, stitch by careful stitch, with their own small hands. Thirty percent of them, no less, would mature into E-rank (Special) potatoes.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stat boost was a full ten times greater. Their market value, ten times higher. And there was an extra special effect piled on top of that.

Heheheheh.

This had to be how it felt when a child you'd doted on got into Seoul National University. The thought alone left him thoroughly pleased.

"Guess I ought to get started today, too."

Minhyuk took up his wooden hoe and began the potato harvest—the happiest stretch of the whole farming process.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The total yield came to five hundred potatoes. Of those, one hundred and fifty-five were (Special).

Whoa. Attack power plus sixty percent? Here he'd thought it was a Strength potato, and it turned out to be a burst-damage potato. You'll sell for a tidy little sum, won't you.

He was planning to sell the bananas from the last harvest as well, so the profit ought to be considerable. Minhyuk asked Elia to appraise them.

Five coins apiece.

So an E-rank (Special) banana would be fifty coins each...

Even so, he had no intention of selling the (Special) bananas, so those stayed on hold. All 362 ordinary bananas would go. Of the potatoes worth four coins each, only three hundred. Of the (Special) potatoes at forty coins, only fifty.

Assuming everything sold, it was one hell of a deal—a whopping 5,010 coins.

Heh. You made it, Ji Minhyuk.

His first sale had brought in a measly two hundred coins. Now, selling just two kinds of crops, he could seize a fortune of over five thousand. At this rate, no one could fault the world for calling him a great landlord.

"Elia, there's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a lot to sell today. Will you be all right?"

"Uh-huh! I can do iiit!"

And a merchant this adorable, besides. Maybe he really was a rather blessed man.

"Take it easy today. You can come back partway through and rest with the meerkats."

"Okaaay. I'll come back later to eat!"

The harvest was finished, and Elia had gone. Time for the real work of cleaning up the fields.

In truth, cleanup didn't amount to much. The moment Minhyuk gave his fingers a light snap—

A clean, one-touch clear. The field, littered with the traces of harvest, was restored in an instant. Now that the privilege had risen to level 2, it tidied away not only the stems and leaves, but even the soil the wooden hoe had torn up.

Fwoosh—!

After that, all he had to do was bring the husband buffalo over with the Dimensional Leap Ring, and he was done.

Creak. Creak.

Yoked to the plow, the husband buffalo plodded along and turned the field. Until the work was finished, the time was entirely Minhyuk's.

Munch. Munch.

He sat on the sofa, eating a (Special) banana, and stared blankly out at the sea.

Splash. Splash.

The Meerkat Brothers were playing in the water with the Sea Otter inside the ocean Safe Zone—a patch of sea barely thirty square meters across. Hm? No. Looking again, they were sitting in on a crash course in swimming, courtesy of the Sea Otter.

"Hoeh— hoeh-hoeng—"

"Kkururung?"

"Kkuruk-kkuruk...?"

"Kkurung?"

At the Sea Otter's signals, the meerkats paddled their short little limbs, splash by splash. Perhaps because the two of them looked rather alike, they'd become fast friends in no time and now played together every single day.

Kind of bored... should I do something?

Minhyuk popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and turned it over. Exercise was planned for after lunch. Splashing around didn't particularly appeal. And he'd already checked the wheat field that morning...

"Ah! A millstone for milling!"

He shot up out of his seat. A millstone to turn wheat grains into flour. He had time to spare anyway. Better to make it ahead of schedule.

"...Wait. No."

He had been heading into the nearby jungle in search of a usable rock when he abruptly changed course for the little storage shed. This wasn't equipment for just any crop. It was gear for milling wheat into flour. And he was going to make it out of some perfectly ordinary jungle stone? Absolutely not.

"Let's see..."

Minhyuk looked over the SS-rank minerals glittering in every color. The candidates were impressively formidable.

Which to choose? Solar Topaz? A millstone imbued with the warmth of healing? Hmm. That felt a little off.

A millstone packed with the energy of the stars... I have a bad feeling it'd explode if I turned it.

So Astro Sapphire was out as well. A millstone steeped in bewitchment, or in divine authority, was just as ridiculous. Eliminate Celestial Emerald and Arcane Fluorite by process of elimination, and—

"You're the one."

Core Diamond it was. A millstone imbued with the vitality of life was, relatively speaking, the least absurd of the lot.

"Hup—!"

Minhyuk lifted an ore the size of a watermelon. He'd been steadily raising his Strength with wooden dumbbells and potatoes, so he could hoist it with ease. He set it down on the sand and set to Crafting with a carving knife.

Scrape. Scrape.

First he shaped the lower stone into something like a round tire, bored a hole for the central axle so it would turn properly, and carved a gentle slope so the flour could be pushed outward. The upper stone received the same care. He drilled an inlet for the grain, made a handle hole for a wooden stick, and once the two were assembled—

A custom millstone, sparkling like a jewel, stood complete. Minhyuk checked his item window.

Good heavens. An SS-rank millstone made of solid diamond. He couldn't say for certain, but surely this had to be the finest millstone in the world.

Around the same time, the Korea Hunter Management Bureau was living through busier days than it ever had before.

The first Korean ever to reach Floor 777 of the Tower. A player revered for his mystical crops. A man who employed, as his merchant, the elven imperial princess standing first in the entire Tower-climbing race.

Ji Minhyuk.

Tracking down his identity had been an exceedingly rough process.

There were roughly eighty thousand men in the Republic of Korea who bore the surname Ji. From among them, investigators sought out and verified, one by one, the 427 men with the given name Minhyuk.

The Ji Minhyuks of Korea amounted to two Hunters, 104 minors, and 321 ordinary adults. Among them, only one identity could not be confirmed.

Mr. Ji Minhyuk, an office worker employed at Geumseong Electronics.

More precisely, about three months prior he had vanished without warning, been fired for absence without leave, and fallen three months behind on the maintenance fees for his studio apartment. His coworkers testified that they had no idea where he had gone. The surprising part was that, even now, no missing-person report had ever been filed.

No doubt about it. This Ji Minhyuk is the player on Floor 777.

Exactly three months ago, those monstrous Uninhabited Island Cucumbers had begun circulating through the Tower's Free Market. And so the staff of the Awakened Management Division at the Hunter Management Bureau made for the address on Ji Minhyuk's official residency records.

Knock. Knock.

Several knocks drew no answer.

Crack—!

Assistant Manager Hwang Seokgu smashed the door in by force. Specialized investigators poured in behind him.

"Check everything carefully, all of you! Don't miss anything we can use as evidence."

Latex gloves on, Assistant Manager Hwang Seokgu began tearing through Ji Minhyuk's studio himself. The once-tidy home became a wreck in an instant.

They were still hunting for anything that might let them piece his identity together when it happened.

A bellow struck the back of his head like a bolt of lightning. Startled, Assistant Manager Hwang Seokgu whirled around. Some man in a robe of pure white was glaring straight at him.

...Huh?

He knew who that man was. Kang Seongjun, supreme leader of the Love Church.

"You dare profane His sacred image with those filthy feet?!"

He lifted his foot on reflex. A photograph peeled away from the sole of his shoe. It was Ji Minhyuk's ID photo.

So what if I stepped on a lousy photo. Why the hell is he throwing a fit?

Anger surged in Hwang Seokgu's chest. He was already sick of days on end of overtime, and now some outsider had barged in to make a scene. His patience had nowhere left to go.

The Love Church might be swelling at a ridiculous pace, but it was still a cult. They had no authority whatsoever to wreck the execution of state business. He was about to throw the man out on the spot—

"...!?"

Goosebumps rose over every inch of him. Team Leader Yu Hanju of the Awakened Management Division, and Director Go Hangil, placed in charge of the case—both of them were staring at him with eyes cold enough to sting. Like fanatics who had just witnessed blasphemy with their own two eyes.

C-come to think of it...

Team Leader Yu Hanju had overcome a panic disorder by eating Uninhabited Island Corn, and he remembered hearing that Director Go Hangil's daughter had been freed from her hearing impairment by Uninhabited Island Cherry Tomatoes.

B-both of them... devotees of the Love Church...?

No wonder Kang Seongjun had appeared at an investigation being conducted in absolute secrecy. Had the team leader and the director passed the information along themselves?

Gulp.

The air felt deeply, seriously wrong.

"I-I'm sorry... I... I wasn't paying proper attention..."

Hwang Seokgu bowed his head at once.

"Th-thank you..."

Kang Seongjun stepped in beside him, picked Ji Minhyuk's photograph up off the floor, and tucked it preciously against his chest.

At last...!

He had His photograph. Every time he led the faithful in worship, kneeling toward empty air had felt awkward. From now on, he could offer worship openly, straight toward Ji Minhyuk's divine countenance.

Good. Just keep going like this.

The player of Floor 777, revealed to be neither elf nor demon, but human. A Korean, at that. And now, for the first time, he had secured a genuine photograph of the man.

Heh heh. From here on...

All that remained was to expand the church's power, and quickly.

Lululala—

He was humming to himself, planting crop seeds alongside the meerkats, when—

Ding—!

"Huh?"

What was that, all of a sudden? Minhyuk set the seed potatoes down and checked his status window.

The newly added skill was Holy Power. He had absolutely no idea ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how he'd come by it.

Have the monkeys started worshipping me even harder...?

Think as he might, that was the only explanation. Well. Anyway.

Minhyuk gathered mana at his fingertips.

A pure-white radiance bloomed from his fingertips, as if from a magic wand. A gentle energy spread, brilliant and warm.

And that was all.

"And where, exactly, am I supposed to use this..."

That was when it happened.

Huh?

And what is this supposed to be?