Third Floor (3): The Mole Workers Arrive
“This is starting to pick up speed as I go.”
The further along I got, the more the knack came to me, and I managed to harvest all five ears of corn. Sawing in zero gravity was tricky, but at some point I found my rhythm and finished before the sun went down.
After safely completing the corn harvest, I came back down to the ground and pulled a corn out of my inventory.
“This is even worse than the carrots.”
Who uses a saw to peel corn husks? I diligently cut through the husk with the saw, and with a thud the corn husk fell, kicking up a cloud of dirt.
“Finally peeled one.”
If I hadn’t drunk that ether, I wouldn’t have even been able to touch this corn. This giant saw was a C-grade item in its own right. Not fully automatic like a chainsaw, but it cut better than most saws.
“But why does this feel like cutting wood?”
Not even processed plywood—more like sawing straight into a tree trunk. After hacking away at the outer husk for a long while, the yellow kernels packed tightly inside came into view.
The problem was the size.
“…This is really corn?”
The corn itself was even more massive than the Gold Carrots. Each strand of silk on top was as thick as a finger, and the kernels inside…
I could only sigh. Please unlock the workers already…
“Tier, I need to call the other spirits.”
Normally, regular corn kernels are about the size of a fingernail. But the Sticky Corn I’d just harvested was so huge you could wrap both arms around it. Perfect size for hugging while you sleep, actually—soft and chewy, too.
“I knew it would grow big, but this is ridiculous…”
Nothing but sighs. I didn’t know for sure, but it looked like I’d need as many spirits as when I pruned the lettuce trees. No—even more than that.
“You know there are five of these, right?”
“Kkyu…”
Tier whimpered weakly, looking uncertain. Even I could tell—no matter how much magic these palm-sized creatures used, this looked tough…
“I’ll give you plenty of corn. Or Frost Strawberries or Marshmelons.”
“Kkyu, kkyuu…”
She said it wasn’t about whether I gave her a reward or not. She added that plenty of spirits had applied to come here in the first place.
“Kkyu, kkyuu.”
“Ah.”
There was a minor problem and she couldn’t call them. Didn’t sound minor at all.
“The carrot leaves did this…”
Spirit catnip—the Gold Carrot leaves—had spread throughout the Spirit Kingdom, and they were busy dealing with the situation. Even though she’d issued a control order, it had slowly crept out bit by bit.
Of course she said it wasn’t as serious as a drug problem, but if addiction had already set in, wasn’t that basically the same as drugs…?
“Kkyuh.”
For that reason, calling a large group of spirits like before would be difficult for a while. And yet she’d somehow managed to set up three shifts. Power really was power.
“Then what am I supposed to do with this?”
Just in case, I checked the quest window. Intermediate quests often unlocked features. The gallery had opened as an intermediate quest, and the inventory had been an intermediate quest reward too.
At some point I’d started getting them all at once, but this wasn’t the time for that. There was no way the two of us could strip these giant corn kernels by hand. Especially when one of us was palm-sized—smaller than the kernels.
I checked the quest window with hope in my heart.
“There it is!”
“Kkyu?”
Stage 1: Harvest Crops — CLEAR
🎁 Reward 1: Hire Workers
Unfortunately there was no overachievement this time—but who cares about overachievement when you’ve got workers!
“I got workers too!”
I’d finally escaped the “only one without workers” club. At last! I was going to see those mole-looking workers!
“Kkyu.”
Tier said “we survived” with a strangely complicated expression. This wasn’t the time to feel disappointed… But Carrot had said spirits don’t farm—they only give blessings. Why was she disappointed she couldn’t work?
Anyway, I decided to hire a worker right away.
Ten tokens for eight hours. I already knew, but it was incredibly cheap.
“Let’s call one first.”
I needed an estimate—how many I’d need, how well they worked. I had no idea.
“Kkyu, kkyu.”
She said she’d keep them in line so they wouldn’t mess around.
“Alright, I’m counting on you.”
She nodded and perched on my shoulder. Arms crossed, legs crossed. Fully entering drill-sergeant mode. Worker under spirit under Spirit Princess. At least they wouldn’t slack off.
Hired 1 Worker
Cost: 10 tokens
When I pressed the hire button, a worker popped out of the air with a faint light.
“A mole?”
The summoned worker was exactly as Carrot had described. Looked just like a real mole—but it was standing on two legs. And it was about twice the size of a spirit, so about two palm-widths. Its belly stuck out a little. It was even wearing gloves. Red cotton work gloves.
“…?”
Cotton work gloves? On a mole? Looking closer, it was also wearing a brown safety helmet. I decided not to ask why it wasn’t yellow. Looking at it this way, it didn’t look like a mole so much as a professional laborer. Carrot’s description that it looked like a mole was accurate. It was definitely a mole, but also not a mole.
“Gung.”
“So you’re Gung.”
When spirits go kkyu kkyu it’s adorable. Why does this one have a cave voice? It looks pretty cute, though.
Then Tier’s drill-sergeant time began.
“Kkyu.”
“Gu, gung?!”
“Kkyu, kkyu.”
“Gung!”
“…”
You know who I am, right? Let’s do this properly.
With just two words, the mole worker snapped to attention. Just what kind of being was Tier? The more I learned, the less I understood…
“Worker. Turn around.”
“Gu, gung…!”
I felt like I was looking at a fresh private. But after a moment of crisp, disciplined movements, it froze solid at the sight of the Sticky Corn as big as a spaceship.
“There are four more of these. About the same size.”
“Gung?!”
“We’re going to separate all the kernels. You have to pull them off.”
The worker looked back and forth between me and the corn, then buried its head in the ground. It looked exactly like it was saying, I didn’t hear anything!
“I didn’t say you had to do it alone. How could one person handle all this?”
“Gung…”
When I told it I wasn’t dumping this on it alone, life returned to its eyes. Yeah, it really was that hopeless. If I told it to do it alone, it’d just get itself fired.
“Give me an estimate. How many do I need to call to process all of this in one day?”
“…Guung.”
The worker clutched its head with one hand and pointed at the empty air with the other, calculating.
“Kkyu.”
But after hearing one word from Tier, it flailed its hands in a panic, breaking out in a cold sweat, and finally spoke.
“Gung!”
“A thousand?”
The worker nodded desperately. And looking at the size of the corn, that number seemed about right.
“Alright. A thousand.”
So moles sweat too, I thought as I filled in the remaining 999.
Hired 999 Workers
Cost: 9,990 tokens
Even hiring a thousand only cost ten thousand tokens. Insane value. I’d probably be seeing them a lot—even if Tier might get a little sulky about it. Hiring them with money was easier on the conscience than asking for help every time I needed it.
As the throng of summoned workers chattered gung, guung noisily, Tier stepped forward.
“Kkyu!”
Quiet! With just one word, a thousand noisy workers fell silent in an instant.
“…?”
One of them even fainted…
Looking down at the now-quiet scene with her arms crossed, Tier passed the floor to me.
“Ahem, ahem. If you look behind you, there’s an enormous corn. Just separate the kernels from the cob.”
And when the workers turned around—
“…Gung.”
Isn’t this a bit much? I think so too.
“There are four more. Should I set them all out, or do you want to do them one at a time?”
“Gung.”
At the representative worker’s word that they’d do them all at once, I set the ultra-giant Sticky Corns down in the empty spots of the field. The workers, moving busily with blank expressions, worked better than I expected.
“…How are they cutting that?”
The husk I’d spent ages sawing through—dozens of them stabbed into it with their claws, and the yellow kernels appeared in an instant. Numbers really were power. Maybe their claws were special.
Come to think of it, spirits could use magic strong enough to cut hard carrot skins, right? …I should’ve just asked Tier to cut it instead of sawing.
The workers bustled about until the sky grew dark. With Tier’s tireless efforts—raising her voice on-site without even going home—they finally finished just before the sun fully set.
“Kkyu!”
Tier puffed out her chest and pointed at the mountain of Sticky Corn kernels piled on top of the husks.
“You’re the only one for me, Tier.”
The workers made faces at that, but I’ll give you snacks too. Don’t feel too left out.
“You can clock out early.”
And I let them leave early. Amid the gung, gung cheers, I also handed out snacks—corn kernels, one for every four of them. They were twice the size of a spirit, but the kernels were as big as my torso.
After sending the workers off with early leave and snacks, I stored the corn kernels in my inventory.
“…This isn’t going to run out of slots, is it?”
Each slot seemed to hold up to a hundred tons, but this was five ears of corn much bigger than the carrots. And once I stored them—
“Huh.”
Approximately 42,007 kernels of about 50 kg each. After giving snacks to the workers, the remaining mountain of corn kernels took up a mere twenty-one inventory slots.
The inventory was ridiculously huge…