I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 205

Putting aside the Jack-o’-lantern’s Inner Core and its byproducts, identifying this creature’s true identity was far more urgent.

I didn’t even know what Papa Raccoon had given me in the first place, so I needed to interrogate him too. There was so much to do.

First, I should consult with Ludwig. I asked him about the identity of this thing.

The concept of a Jack-o’-lantern was just something I had arbitrarily attached to it, so it was bound to have a real name of its own.

"Pumpkin Jack."

"Pumpkin Jack?"

That was the name he gave me. I instantly caught on to roughly what it meant.

A name similar to Jack-o’-lantern yet distinct. At the same time, it was quite intuitive.

Now that I knew its name, asking the Gallery for a detailed explanation would be best.

Conveniently, I had already taken a few photos and videos.

Since so many colorful events kept happening so suddenly, taking pictures had become a habit of mine.

Title) What the hell is a Pumpkin Jack?

Wild Grylls

(Photo of the Pumpkin Jack grinning evilly)

(Video of the Pumpkin Jack leaping into the sky)

(Video of the Pumpkin Jack regenerating)

(Photo of the Pumpkin Jack’s Inner Core)

I planted a seed Papa Raccoon brought me and it suddenly turned into this thing;;

No matter how many times I chopped off that pumpkin head, it kept regenerating, so I barely managed to kill it after finding its root.

This thing spat out a weird Inner Core too, does anyone know what it is?

Ludwig says it’s called a Pumpkin Jack, but just hearing the name doesn’t tell me much.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) A Yokai with a face on a pumpkin. Considering Faceless Ghosts exist, perhaps this isn’t so strange after all.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) Faceless Ghosts actually exist?

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) They are commonly seen in places steeped in demonic energy.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) That sounds pretty similar to monsters.

ㄴㄴㄴ Their fundamental nature is different from monsters. Monsters existed from the beginning, but Yokai are corrupted humans.

ㄴ Changgwi also refers to a Yokai born from someone killed by a tiger. That’s why whenever they see a tiger, they fight like fucking crazy.

ㄴ Aren’t Yokai a step above monsters?

ㄴ Mostly, yes. In the Central Plains, people die far more often from fighting each other than from monsters.

ㄴ What nonsense lol. All of them get wiped out in front of a dragon anyway.

ㄴ Dragons get killed by humans too, so Yokai are definitely stronger;;

ㄴ Sword Matstar) Pumpkin Jacks are extremely rare monsters, so this is quite fascinating. They are monsters that only appear during specific seasons, and only at night.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) They only appear at night? But it was fighting right in broad daylight right in front of me?

ㄴ Sword Matstar) That’s precisely why it’s so mysterious. Or perhaps I am mistaken.

ㄴ Starlight Lady) It might simply be because they are easier to spot at night. They emit light in the dark, after all.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) Instead of emitting light, it was shooting seeds like arrows at me though?

ㄴ Starlight Lady) I wouldn’t know about that. It’s such a rare monster that very little is known about it.

ㄴ Allfather) There is an occasion known as the Night of Specters. Normally, Pumpkin Jacks tend to appear frequently on that day.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) Just hearing the name gives off an ominous vibe?

ㄴ Allfather) It is a day when spectral-type monsters appear in especially large numbers. Starting from vengeful spirits to Dullahans, ghouls, zombies, Liches, and so on. A great deal of them emerge.

ㄴ Don’t Abandon the Hero) That’s the busiest day for priests! I even fought in that back in the day!

ㄴ What did you hunt?

ㄴ Don’t Abandon the Hero) I hunted a Death Knight!

ㄴ Whoa;; You hunted something seriously tough.

ㄴ Isn’t a Death Knight on par with a high-tier knight in skill?

ㄴ Spectral-type monsters get hard-countered by holy power, so they’re surprisingly easy to take down for holy combatants.

ㄴ Praise the Sun) What are you going to do with that Inner Core? It looks pretty big, so it’d be awkward to eat.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) For now, I’m planning to store it. If all else fails, I can ask Starlight Lady-nim for help.

ㄴ Praise the Sun) Really? Then what about the pumpkin? Are you going to eat that massive thing all by yourself?

ㄴ Grow Big and Tall) For your information, if you harvest pumpkins in autumn and let them age through the winter, they become insanely delicious.

ㄴ Wild Grylls) Is that so?

ㄴ Praise the Sun) Then give me a little bit when that time comes lol

ㄴ Passing Dwarf) Me too lol

ㄴ Wild Grylls) Sure, I’ll give it all out.

ㄴ That means you’re putting it up on the auction house, right? Thx thx

ㄴ My mouth is already watering~ lol

I never said anything about putting it on the auction house though.

Either way, it was definitely a rare monster. Though I had no idea how Papa Raccoon managed to find it.

After checking everything, I called Papa Raccoon over. It wasn’t like he brought it to prank me, so why did he bring it?

"Ke-eng! Ke-e-eng! Keng!"

"I didn’t know either. Seed had good smell. So good to eat. Thought like that."

"Hmm."

Hearing Papa Raccoon’s explanation, it turned out he hadn’t expected me to plant the seed as it was.

Animals eat seeds if they look delicious, but humans plant those seeds in the dirt.

Besides, Papa Raccoon must have only recently seen my vegetable garden.

It was the result of a difference in our mindsets.

’Still, the result isn’t bad.’

I obtained the Pumpkin Jack’s Inner Core and even secured a massive supply of food.

I was a bit worried that bugs or other beasts might eat that pumpkin.

Bugs could somehow be dealt with using insect repellent, but for beasts, there was no other way than fighting them off.

Ttuk-ttuk-

’It sure is hard.’Enjoying the story? Read on at novеlping.com.

The only consolation was that the pumpkin’s skin was extremely hard.

Ordinary teeth wouldn’t even make a dent in it.

’I should eat the pumpkin attached to the root for lunch.’

Pumpkins aren’t root vegetables. But strangely enough, the main body attached to the root was a pumpkin.

This was the fellow that had lost consciousness after getting pummeled by Lackey.

With all its vines severed, only its main body remained dangling.

Compared to the giant pumpkin, its size was small, but it was more than enough for us to eat.

Furthermore, since it might wake up again, there was a need to process it quickly.

’I should make steamed pumpkin with this.’

Lunchtime was slowly approaching, and having exerted myself for the first time in a while, I was feeling hungry.

Before jumping right into lunch prep, there was one more thing to prepare.

"Yes. Right there. Stack it like that."

"Here."

"That’s right. Think of it as stacking them symmetrically."

It was building an oven. With more mouths to feed, production efficiency became important.

The ingredient prep itself didn’t take long, but the cooking time was too long.

So building another oven would cut down on the time.

’While I’m at it, let’s make it bigger.’

Just in case, I made its size bigger than the previous one.

Naturally, I borrowed the help of Passing Dwarf for the iron plates.

When I promised to give him some pumpkin as side dishes for drinking later, he willingly provided them.

Thanks to Ludwig’s assistance, after constructing it quickly, I immediately moved on to preparing the meal.

’Let me see. Steamed pumpkin...’

If I had a steamer, it would be easy, but unfortunately, I didn’t.

Still, steaming itself wasn’t difficult. Pour water into the bottom of a pot and secure the pumpkin above it—that was it.

The method of securing it was simple too. Placing a small bowl inside the pot was enough.

However, since pumpkin itself was sweet, I intended to serve it as dessert.

"Alright. Let’s eat."

"Ggyuuu~"

"Bbee! Bbee!"

Around the middle of the meal, I started making the steamed pumpkin.

That way, the steamed pumpkin would be done right when the meal finished.

Soon, as the meal came to an end, I took out the completed steamed pumpkin.

Banjjak! Banjjak!

"Oh..."

It had definitely been orange until I scooped out the seeds.

But after steaming it, it glowed with a golden sparkle. And it wasn’t like I had coated it in honey or anything.

The steamed pumpkin looked undeniably sweet. Everyone was drooling, completely mesmerized.

"Ssshp. No. This is hot. Wait."

"Ggyuuu..."

"Bbee..."

At my restraint, the kids stared up with desperate eyes.

It felt as though they were staging a silent protest: Hand over that steamed pumpkin into my mouth right now!

But I was the chef. Before serving, I stepped up to do a taste test.

Since it had just been steamed, steam billowed gently from it.

Umul-umul-

"Kiya!!"

The instant I ate a spoonful, an exclamation of delight burst from my lips.

Was this pumpkin or honey? The expression "honey pumpkin" was perfectly fitting.

Watching my reaction, the kids naturally went even wilder.

Wonmo, who had a fierce appetite, was straight-up scratching my knee frantically with his front paws.

"Alright, alright. Here you go."

"Ggyaaa!"

"Bbeeee!"

I handed out portions of steamed pumpkin to each of them. Completely equal amounts.

"Ggyaa! Ggya!"

"Bbi-ak! Bbi-aak!"

"It’s hot! It’s hot!"

Ah. Right. I had forgotten to tell them to eat slowly because it was hot.

Still, after adjusting a bit, they enjoyed it thoroughly.

The same went for Ludwig. He responded by giving me a thumbs-up.

Lastly, Bbareumbo...

"..."

He ate at his leisure with his characteristic sluggish movements.

The funny thing was that his hand movements were faster than usual.

To anyone else, it would still look painfully slow, but I could tell he was moving far quicker than his normal pace.

’Nice.’

Wonmo headed into the cave to take a nap, and Tyranno followed him inside, seemingly wanting to grab a good sleep too.

The rest of us finished cleaning up. The Pumpkin Jack had thrown such a massive rampage, after all.This chapter was copied from n‌ovelping.com without permission.

After clearing everything away, I took the Inner Core out of my pocket.

A sizeable Inner Core that still radiated an orange glow.

’Should I just eat it?’

The number of Inner Cores I had consumed so far was huge.

Thanks to that, my aura was growing larger by the day. Ludwig looking at me with a bewildered expression was an added bonus.

If I ate even this... what would happen? It would be hard to swallow, but it was worth a shot.

"Should I try eating this?"

"..."

Nod-

Seeking Ludwig’s advice, he surprisingly gave a response indicating it was fine.

Since I fought relying on raw stats and scale anyway, there was nothing bad about boosting my specs even higher.

I could take my time worrying about the Aura Blade; for now, let’s steadily increase my sheer scale.

With even Ludwig reacting favorably, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

’It bothers me that it’s big enough to be uncomfortable to swallow, but...’

Still, I had to force it down.

Breaking it apart before eating would reduce the size of the Inner Core, but it would also halve its effectiveness.

I nodded and immediately crossed my legs into a lotus position.

Seeing me sit cross-legged, Ludwig quietly raised his sword as well.

It seemed he was guarding me in case an intruder showed up.

’He really is dependable.’

I gave a faint smile, then exhaled deeply and popped the Inner Core into my mouth.

Then, flexing my throat as hard as possible, I forcibly swallowed the Inner Core.

The sensation of a massive ball sliding down my esophagus was hardly pleasant.

But somehow it reached my stomach, allowing me to breathe easier.

’The energy of the heavens...’

As soon as I swallowed the Inner Core, I recited all the incantations the Heavenly Demon had taught me. I remembered those incantations vividly.

Even though each incantation was long, it posed no problem.

Dugeun! Dugeun! Dugeun!

The energy of the Inner Core gradually began to disperse into every corner of my body.

The Pumpkin Jack’s Inner Core harbored far more energy than a fish’s Inner Core.

No matter how much it diminished, it felt like it just wouldn’t shrink.

Thanks to that, the internal energy in my dantian became completely filled to the brim. I wondered if I might end up bursting at this rate.

’Just in case, let’s speed it up...’

Feeling unnecessarily anxious, I circulated my Mental Cultivation Method even more fiercely.

If it weren’t for the incantations the Heavenly Demon taught me, it might have been quite dangerous.

Before long, having completely absorbed the Inner Core, I slowly opened my eyes.

Opening my eyes, I had the illusion that the world looked much brighter than before.

"Hmm."

Noticing that I had stood up, Ludwig disengaged his alert stance.

I gave him a deep nod of gratitude.

Looking around the inside of the cave, the kids weren’t there. Only the sounds of them running and playing outside could be heard.

Stepping outside, the sun was already setting.

Part of it was that the days were getting shorter as winter approached, but absorbing the Inner Core had also taken a long time.

’I can’t really tell what changed.’

Aside from the fact that the mana inside my body had grown vastly more abundant than before, there were no notable changes.

Still, the fact that my base specs had increased was definitely a good thing.

Delighted by this, I made a post on the Gallery.

When I posted on the Gallery, most users responded positively. Anonymous users were full of jealousy, of course.

ㄴ Won’t you just go POP! and explode like that?

ㄴ Wasn’t there a guy like that?

ㄴ There was someone whose whole body cracked because they had an abnormally massive amount of mana.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) That was this maiden. However, thanks to your assistance, I was able to survive.

Apparently, that’s how it went. Anyway, since night was falling, I set about preparing dinner.

And then...

"What the hell is this now?"

"Ggyuuuu! Ggyuggyu!"

"Bbeeeek!"

I was only able to realize the effect of the Pumpkin Jack’s Inner Core once night fell.

Because everything ahead was brightly illuminated as if it were daytime. The problem lay with my eyes and mouth.

Intense beams of light were shooting in whatever direction I looked.

It was the same even when I turned my head. The light continuously followed.

"Now I’m a human lantern, of all things?"

Light streamed from my eyes and mouth. And a ridiculously bright light at that.

I had become a human lantern.

To think I could shoot light from my eyes. This was totally...

"LASER BEEEAM!!!"

"Ggyuuuuu!!"

"Bbeeee! Bbeeee!"

Dumb as hell, but damn funny.