**[There’s no fixed solution to this quest. The reward will change depending on what you do.]**
“How did you clear it?” Taesan asked.
**[The world I encountered had driven out the ancient god but was still overrun by monsters. Survivors were constantly on the run, being hunted down. I gathered them together, built a city, and eradicated the monsters. Took about... six months.]**
Lee Taeyeon had also once mentioned the 77th floor.
She’d described the people as distrustful of each other—not mere suspicion, but to the point that they couldn’t even see each other as fellow humans. In that chaotic world, it was kill or be killed, with everyone treating each other as enemies.
It was likely that the ancient god had corrupted their minds. Taeyeon had grumbled about using up a substantial amount of items just to survive.
**[Most people probably rely on force to resolve this quest. The objective is to bring stability, after all. Even if there are only a few survivors left in mental ruin, as long as they can survive, the quest will clear.]**
In that scenario, you only needed to meet the minimum conditions to complete the quest, regardless of the quality of life left behind.
**[What are you going to do?]**
“I’m not planning to do it that way.”
This world Taesan found himself in closely resembled a dying Earth.
It was an opportunity to test various ways to restore the Earth. Taesan wasn’t merely focused on clearing the quest—he wanted to explore a range of solutions.
As Taesan wandered around the city, a child spoke to him.
“You should leave.”
“Why?”
“This city is dying. You’re young and strong, so you should be able to make it to another city. They’d probably take you in there.”
“I’m not going.”
Taesan replied calmly. The child shook his head, unable to understand.
“They won’t treat you well here.”
The city of the abandoned was slowly withering, with no visitors from the outside. In this setting, Taesan, a young outsider, easily drew attention. Soon, everyone in the city knew about him.
The residents regarded Taesan with suspicion.
This was a place where nothing could be produced, only consumed until there was nothing left—a place abandoned and slowly decaying. For such a city, a strong young man was a liability. Not only did he need more food than others, but he also had the strength to intimidate them.
Still, they didn’t try to expel him.
Everyone in this place had been judged worthless and discarded. Thus, the people here formed a close-knit community. Though wary of Taesan, they didn’t exclude him.
That didn’t mean they were friendly, though. Only the old man and the boy conversed with him.
Taesan stood in a vacant lot on the city outskirts, staring quietly at the ground.
The land was polluted.
Even makeshift cultivation wouldn’t work here. In his previous life, there were items to neutralize soil pollution, allowing limited use of such land, but he had none of those items now.
“What are you doing?”
The old man approached, rubbing his back as he saw Taesan holding seeds and staring at the earth.
“Seeds? That’s quite a rare thing to have. But unfortunately, it’s impossible here.”
They’d tried before. After driving away the monsters, they had planted seeds in the soil.
But nothing had sprouted. The toxic soil was too much for the seeds to withstand.
“Don’t be stubborn. Leave this place, young man. This is our graveyard, no reason for you to be buried here too.”
The old man’s voice was somber.
Taesan didn’t reply.
He simply thought.
And then he made a decision.
A golden light began to glow in Taesan’s hand. The old man’s eyes widened.
“...Is that...?”
The old man, who had lived through a war with an ancient god, remembered.
The horrific monsters that filled the skies.
And the powerful golden light that crushed them.
The light in Taesan’s hand looked the same.
“Covering the whole city is beyond me.”
But a small lot like this—he could cover that much with his divine power.
Divine energy spread, covering the ground. The small lot became Taesan’s domain.
Any external forces he hadn’t permitted were excluded. The polluted soil was purified, slowly coming back to life.
“Ah... ah...”
Taesan then scattered the seeds.
When he completed a quest on Earth, he had brought along several seeds. The old man’s pupils dilated even further as he watched the scene.
The seeds began to sprout rapidly.
They broke through the soil, leaves forming. Soon, yellow kernels began to grow, encased in a layer of green husk.
Within minutes, dozens of corn stalks covered half of the lot.
The green of the plants stood proudly amid the gray, decayed city.
Taesan nodded.
“It works.”
He activated his makeshift cultivation skill within the divine domain he had created.
The crops grew successfully. With this, he could solve the city’s food problem.
Since the domain purified the soil, he could even expand it to make the city livable.
“...”
“Bring the people here.”
Taesan’s words finally broke the old man’s trance. He didn’t move.
Fortunately, he didn’t need to. People had already started approaching after noticing the golden light. When they saw the corn, they were stunned.
“What... what is this?!”
“It’s corn! It’s actually corn!”
People rushed forward, eyes wide with hunger. Taesan did not stop them.
Word spread rapidly, and soon the entire city gathered.
The people desperately tore at the corn. Though the lot wasn’t large enough to feed everyone, it didn’t matter. Wherever corn was taken, new corn grew in its place.
“Oh... oh!”
A boy who had rushed over late grabbed a cob of corn, peeling off the husk and stuffing it into his mouth.
“Ah...”
The kernels were raw and tough. They were hard to chew, and the taste was coarse.
But it was fresh.
It wasn’t covered in mold or half-rotten like everything else they’d eaten. This corn was fresh and vibrant.
The boy, barely old enough to remember his infancy, was reliving a long-lost memory of what real food was like.
“Ugh...”
He began to eat, tears streaming down his face. Others weren’t much different. They all cried as they ate the corn.
Once their hunger was sated, reason returned.
“Why is there corn here?”
“No, more importantly, what’s with the golden light...?”
Staring at the corn, they spotted the old man and Taesan standing nearby.
“Old man, what’s going on?”
The old man didn’t answer. He just looked at Taesan.
All eyes turned to Taesan. He opened his inventory, unbothered by their stares.
“This might be good too.”
Taesan planted black seeds in the remaining open space. The people watched, eyes wide.
Vines began to grow.
The fruits quickly swelled. Soon, sturdy watermelons filled the other half of the lot.
Now everyone looked as dumbstruck as the old man.
A stunned silence hung over the crowd.
---
After that, everything changed rapidly. Taesan was no longer just a young stranger to be wary of.
He became the ruler of the abandoned city.
A city that could produce nothing and was slowly dying now had a steady food supply. Not following Taesan would have been foolish.
**[Makeshift cultivation. That’s a fascinating skill. How did you think to acquire it?]**
The spirit spoke in awe. After all, the labyrinth was a place to conquer, not to live in. Since basic food was available for sale, the spirit had never thought to cultivate anything.
Only players like Taesan, who planned to return to Earth, had reason to obtain the skill.
Taesan turned to the boy.
“Are there any livestock around?”
“Uh, this way,” the boy stammered, leading Taesan. Every now and then, he glanced up at Taesan with a curious expression before finally asking,
“...Did you really come to save us?”
Seeing Taesan produce food, some people had cautiously started calling him a divine messenger.
The old man, who claimed he’d seen similar powers in the past, encouraged the idea.
Taesan replied simply.
“Something like that.”
The boy’s face lit up.
“I knew it!”
The boy led him to a small pen, where two emaciated pigs lay, barely able to breathe.
“We were barely keeping them alive by feeding them what little we had. But we’d just about given up and were planning to eat them soon. But now that we have corn, we might get some meat...”
The boy’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Taesan had been considering this as well.
Makeshift cultivation worked only for plants.
It wasn’t meant for livestock.
In his past life, meat hadn’t been a priority. Their focus had been on survival, not on being selective with food.
But for long-term living, they would need meat.
Lots of it.
Taesan looked at the pigs and took out various ingredients from his inventory.
Blue flowers, green leaves, and other materials gathered for alchemy and partial world manipulation. Most of these ingredients were meant for battle, but some, which couldn’t be used in combat, had been left over.
Among them were ingredients with growth-boosting effects, which he hadn’t found a use for until now.
But now things were different. Taesan brought out the materials.
“Huh?”
The boy watched as the ingredients blended together, emanating a strange energy.
Taesan focused.
He was now finally applying the alchemy
he had learned from the Gremlin.
*Vrrrr!*
The fusion of materials was complete, and the alchemical energy enveloped the pen.
One of the pigs, nibbling weakly on some corn, suddenly squealed.
“Oink!”
“Ah!” The boy covered his ears at the piercing sound.
“Huh...?”
The pig’s body began to swell with muscle, and its eyes glowed red.
It let out a loud grunt and lunged at the other pig. The boy was thoroughly confused.
“Huh?!”
“This method works. I can refine it even further.”
Taesan had confirmed that alchemy could aid in the growth and reproduction of livestock.
The issue was finding more animals. Given Earth’s desolation, locating livestock was next to impossible.
“Maybe as a reward from the labyrinth...”
This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
**[No one’s ever asked for livestock, but... I bet if you clear it, they might grant it as a favor. Ask for it when you finish the labyrinth.]**
With confirmation that livestock could be bred, Taesan summoned Minerva.
“Wow, this place is nearly dead,” she said as she appeared.
“Can you purify the air here?”
Polluted air affected life itself. Labyrinth players, with their enhanced bodies, could endure it, but newborns would not.
As the Spirit King of Wind, Minerva had control over natural elements. There was a chance it could work.
“Hm... it depends, but since the ancient god’s influence is nearly gone, I think I can manage.”
Minerva closed her eyes and focused. The air began to shift.
At that moment, people felt it. The air was changing. Breathing was becoming easier.
The polluted air was being purified.
“It’s working.”
“But I can’t cover a large area. The pollution is too severe. At most, I can purify the city.”
“For now, that’s enough.”
Soon, people realized all that Taesan had done.
And they began to follow him even more.
The city on the brink of ruin was being brought back to life by the hands of a single man, Taesan.