I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 247

Fortunately, since the amount of compressed aura wasn’t that large, the disaster didn’t last long.

However, the aftermath hadn’t entirely vanished. Though there were no casualties, the Shelter had turned into an absolute wreck.

I slowly tidied up the Shelter under the stinging glares of my companions. After all, they had almost suffered major damage because of me.

’I didn’t know it would turn out like this either.’

It wasn’t as if I didn’t have my own grievances. I had simply done what Ludwig told me to do.

Who could have imagined that my aura would spout out indiscriminately like a gun entering an overheated state?

As I cleaned up the Shelter while grumbling internally like that, lunchtime quickly approached.

"Ahjussi. Do you know why it did this?"

"Overheating symptom."

"Is that all?"

"For now?"

Asking Ludwig over lunch brought back the exact answer I had expected.

Listening to his rough explanation, it turned out that the overheating symptom itself was surprisingly common.

It was a phenomenon where trying too forcefully to compress aura backfired, making it impossible to control.

In my case, it was so extreme that the aura had erupted like a volcano.

"@#$%^&. #$%%#."

[He says it’s similar to pumping. You compressed the aura, and then control suddenly snapped, causing it to accelerate.]

"Then, if I use this properly, does that mean I can temporarily accelerate the aura inside my body?"

At my words, Ludwig stared at me with slightly surprised eyes.

He had a look on his face asking if I had really thought that far just from hearing his words.

Just as I was grumbling internally that he was underestimating me too much, he spoke.

"Correct. It is possible."

"Then how do I..."

"You’ll get hurt if you do that. Don’t."

"..."

Ludwig explained about the method I had come up with.

He said the method I mentioned could only be used by martial artists, specifically those with a high level of aura proficiency.

If one could pump and accelerate internal aura, overall physical capabilities themselves would rise.

The problem was not only that bodies capable of enduring it were rare, but also that physical exertion was extreme.

On top of that, since I had an abnormally massive amount of aura, there was no telling what might happen.

"You might explode. Don’t."

"..."

In the worst-case scenario, my body wouldn’t be able to handle it and could literally go peong! and explode.

For him to say something like that even after I underwent Body Metamorphosis, my aura situation must be quite out of the ordinary.

In the end, I had no choice for now but to focus on aura control. And hit the basic fundamentals while at it.

’Ahjussi will teach me well, right?’

I had it tough, but Ludwig would be suffering plenty as well.

Holding those thoughts, I logged into the Gallery.

It was to check on the dinosaur carcass that hadn’t been sold until the time limit I set.

’Right, it was a system where bidding right before the auction ends extends the timer.’

I recalled it gave a grace period of about ten minutes. Was it because of that?

The price of the dinosaur carcass, which originally would have been auctioned off for around 10 billion KRW, had multiplied several times over.

I knew that if a bidding war started, winning the auction took longer, but the number of extensions had been historic.

’Whoa. How much is this? 50 billion KRW?’

It was auctioned off for 50 billion Sera. Sera is the currency of Setan, the desert nation of dark elves.

On Earth, it held the position of the Middle East, overflowing with oil tycoons. Thanks to mana stones and gold, they made obscene piles of money.

Yesterday I wondered if a rich guy from Setan had jumped in, but I didn’t expect them to actually intervene for real.

’Let’s see. The person who bought this is... an Anonymous user.’

As expected, an Anonymous user bought it. Probably one of those rich Setan snobs.

You might ask if Praise the Sun would feel left out because of this, but don’t worry.

I had already gifted him a dinosaur hide a long time ago. One to the Dwarf, one to Praise the Sun, just like that.

Originally, I intended to give him the whole corpse, but he said processing it was a hassle and asked just for the hide or something.

’Come to think of it, has Passing Dwarf finished processing the hide yet?’

Suddenly remembering the dwarf, I sent him a message.

Now, exactly three days after sending the hide, there should be some progress.

[Wild Grylls: Hey. What are you doing?]

[Passing Dwarf: Drinking booze, why?]

[Wild Grylls: ;;]

Seriously, he’s not going to drop dead far from home from liver cancer at this rate, right?

I heard a story that dwarfs have a higher life expectancy than humans, but their average lifespan is similar.

The reason being that most of them die young from liver-related diseases.

With that thought, I suddenly got curious about Passing Dwarf’s age.

[Wild Grylls: By the way, how old are you?]

[Passing Dwarf: Why? So you can drop honorifics?]

[Wild Grylls: I’m already speaking casually to you.]

[Passing Dwarf: Ah. True point. Anyway, passed my teens long ago.]The source of this chapter is nov​elping.com.

[Wild Grylls: Do dwarfs start drinking at age 10?]

[Passing Dwarf: You can’t judge by human standards, right? Dwarfs mature fast into adults. I’ve been drinking since I was 12?]

[Wild Grylls: ;;;;;]

This race has far more alcoholics than I imagined.

Even Russia, where they chug vodka like water, wouldn’t go this far.

I briefly wondered if a dwarf who hated alcohol even existed, before cutting to the chase.

[Wild Grylls: Did you finish processing that hide I gave you earlier?]

[Passing Dwarf: Yep, all done. But instead of regular clothes, you’ll probably have to wear it like a robe?]

[Wild Grylls: A robe is that hooded cloak thing, right? Got it.]

[Passing Dwarf: Also, this thing has an invisibility trait, so it’ll probably come in handy.]

[Wild Grylls: Oh. Did you enchant it?]

[Passing Dwarf: Nope. The hide itself already possessed that property.]

Passing Dwarf added an explanation, saying it was a rather peculiar property.

Normally, something like this wasn’t an inherent trait of raw hide, but rather a magic ability of the living creature itself.

[Wild Grylls: Are you saying someone tampered with it or something?]

[Passing Dwarf: Can’t tell that far. Could just be because it’s the Forest of the Four Seasons. Anyway, sending it over.]

[Wild Grylls: K]

I received the dinosaur hide robe from Passing Dwarf.

As expected of something forged by dwarf craftsmanship. Aside from the scaly surface, it was shaped quite cleanly.

’Putting this on turns me invisible?’

Taking Passing Dwarf’s word, I put on the robe.

Next, as I quietly channeled mana into it, shockingly, my entire body began to slowly fade.

Eventually, it became so translucent that I couldn’t even see my own hands. I couldn’t believe it even as I looked with my own eyes.

"Oh..."

Shortly after gasping in admiration, I turned my head to search for prey(?).

Since it was right after lunch, Tyranno and Wonmo were fast asleep.

The only one left was Bbareumbo, who was standing still, spacing out.

Concealing my presence as much as possible, I crept up behind Bbareumbo.

Just as I reached out my hand to startle the fellow—

Pueok!

"Keuak?!"

Without even turning around, how the hell did he know? He swung his arm backward.

The problem was that the swung arm landed square in my groin.

The most horrific pain in the world—which any male had no choice but to empathize with—crept over me.

"Gueok... gueok..."

"..."

At the pain severe enough to bring tears to my eyes, the invisibility automatically deactivated.

As I collapsed onto the ground and writhed, Bbareumbo looked down at me with a pathetic expression.

Just as I wondered how he had noticed, another voice called out from behind.

"What are you doing?"

[It seems he is undergoing Body Metamorphosis once again.]

It was Ludwig and Cain. Both expressed confusion seeing me sprawled on the ground.

Seeing me clutching that spot, they seemed to have roughly pieced together what happened.

"#%^%^."

[He says if that area suddenly hurts, it must be severed.]

"Don’t say such terrifying things."

Setting aside the most heinous recommendation in the world, I explained the situation to them.

I explained that the robe crafted from dinosaur hide had an invisibility feature, and while trying to play a prank with it, I got hit.

Hearing that I tried to play a prank on Bbareumbo of all companions, Ludwig wore a truly pathetic expression.

For my part, it felt a bit unfair, because the invisibility feature itself was splendid.

[Setting aside how splendid it is, your basic stealth skills are rock bottom, so naturally you’d be caught. Do you think assassins train to suppress their presence for no reason?]

"Then are you saying this is useless?"

[That is not so. Rather, it will prove very useful. Well, unless a beast sensitive to smell shows up, that is.]

He added that the stealth robe would be useful when exploring alone.

Scouting focused operations would be much easier than everyone venturing out together.

’If I play it right, I might even be able to enter the gorillas’ territory.’

However, getting near the boss gorilla would be difficult.

Since that guy was on par with Bbareumbo in skill, he’d notice my presence immediately.

Still, it rendered exploration of the gorilla territory—which had been complete uncharted territory—actually possible.

[Before that, work on your aura control. The reason this fellow noticed your presence was partly due to your aura.]

"What does that mean now?"

[Even I can feel it right now—your body is overflowing with aura.]

Powerhouses above a certain skill level could gauge an opponent’s condition through aura alone.

And currently, I was in a state where my aura was excessive to an abnormal degree compared to others.

Meaning: unless I completely hid it, I shouldn’t even dream of infiltration.

[Of course, detecting aura is difficult unless one is quite a powerhouse. The problem is that such powerhouses are dime a dozen in this Forest of the Four Seasons.]This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.

"That sounds extremely unsettling, you know?"

[There is a high chance wild beasts will frequently appear to devour you. Right now, you are a piece of meat overflowing with rich nutrients.]

"Holy fucking shit."

In the end, it meant exploration was out of the question until I mastered proper aura control.

If I roamed around outside, there was a high probability of being caught by the senses of wild beasts.

Grumbling internally for a moment, I went back outside to train.

"You. Change it."

"Change what?"

"Your style."

The moment we stepped outside, Ludwig tossed out those words.

I didn’t understand what he meant by changing style at first, but soon realized.

"Change my combat style?"

Nod-

Ludwig nodded at my question.

I thought he meant abandoning the fundamentals I had honed all this time, but that wasn’t it.

"Spear. Your sword is a spear."

"A spear?"

"Only when using aura."

He meant to wield it like a spear strictly when utilizing aura.

Since the sword itself was already formidable on its own, why bother using aura needlessly?

He added the explanation that if I had to use aura, it would inevitably be a crisis situation.

’Well, thrusting is part of swordsmanship anyway.’

It wasn’t a bad option. In fact, it might be even more efficient.

Since ancient times, spear and shield had maintained a great balance of offense and defense.

Taking Ludwig’s advice, I handled the aura-infused sword like a spear.

"By the way, Ahjussi, did you learn spear arts too?"

"The basics of basics. Learn everything."

Just because someone was a knight didn’t mean they only used swords. Everyone had weapons suited to them.

Furthermore, in terms of sheer ’capability’, the spear was said to be the best.

It was thanks to spears that humanity, back when they were utterly weak, could hunt down massive monsters.

’Since spears can also be thrown.’

I learned basic stances starting from scratch under Ludwig.

Supposedly, it was a stance originally used when soldiers formed ranks.

Even though I was alone, if I mastered it, I would be able to hold out easily against most attacks.

"Thrust from that stance."

"Like this?"

"Do not overextend."

I listened to Ludwig’s instruction with total sincerity.

As time passed and my thighs began to tremble—

"Hold your ground."

"Huh?"

Kwaaang!!!

Ludwig suddenly unleashed a front kick straight at my shield.

And he didn’t kick with his good leg, but with his Mythricon prosthetic leg!

I almost lost my balance, but barely managed to hold on.

"Turn on your turn signal before coming at me, damn it!"

"Turn signal?"

Startled out of my wits, I shouted out loud.

I explained to Ludwig, who didn’t know what a turn signal was.

Soon after hearing the explanation about turn signals, he...

Kwaaang!!

"Gueok!"

Without warning, he kicked my shield a second time.

Because I was off-guard for a second, my stance collapsed completely, causing me to tumble backward.

Fuming less with anger and more with utter absurdity, I looked at Ludwig, who said:

"Hold your ground anyway."

"What kind of...!"

"Here. No traffic laws."

"..."

I let out a hollow laugh, but since he wasn’t wrong, I had no comeback and reassumed my stance.

Because somehow I had to complete this class change for my future to be easy.

Shashak!

"Huh?"

"Your back is open."

Pueok!

Ah, seriously.