I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 317

I decided to supply river water to the Hero, Asella.

For whatever reason, making Holy Water from the river water of the Forest of the Four Seasons was extraordinarily easy.

Even though melting the rock-hard ice was a chore in itself, it was something I could endure.

’It’s a relief, but... was it really because of that Dullahan?’

I browsed through the Gallery, looking for posts about the Wild Hunt phenomenon.

A parade of wraiths filling up the entire sky. Even watching it on video, the sheer presense was terrifying.

It felt like witnessing an overwhelming natural disaster that humanity could never dare stand against.

Knowing that this phenomenon might have been caused by me made it hard to believe easily.

The silver lining was that there hadn’t been any casualties yet.

Mainly because the wraiths were heading toward the Balkan Kingdom.

’Of course, once they arrive there, it’ll be a different story.’

The Balkan Kingdom seemed to be a total Land of Death, crawling exclusively with the undead.

The Holy Kingdom needed to deal with it somehow, but was neglecting it due to manpower shortages.

They were barely managing by constantly sprinkling Holy Water and erecting barriers; otherwise, it would have been catastrophic.

However, the moment such a massive number of wraiths joined the fray, the damage would snowball out of control.

’I have no choice but to keep supplying them with river water.’

I turned my head and looked at the group mining ice.

After hearing my story, everyone was swinging pickaxes with all their might.

Cain was no exception. His task in the Dullahan’s body was swinging a pickaxe.

[How is it that my workload seems to have increased?]

"Still, it’s better than doing it with that tiny statue body, isn’t it?"

[Sigh. Why must this vessel, chosen by Goddess Aris-nim...]

I ignored Cain’s grumbling. There was something more important than that.

The Wild Hunt was one thing, but the World Tree tunnel was another issue.

A tunnel that originally should have led to the squirrels’ territory.

Yet when I stepped inside, I encountered a sight I had never seen in my life.

’I got scared and did an immediate U-turn.’

Not knowing what might happen if I wandered around uselessly, I returned right away.

I ducked in and out several times after that, but the exact same scenery unfolded before me.

A blue backdrop and giant tendrils. Even a spot where those tendrils converged to look like a massive tree trunk.

Since nothing had been properly grasped yet, I planned not to use the tunnel for the time being.

’That doesn’t mean I can just leave it abandoned forever, though.’

I intended to film the scenery inside and post it in the Gallery.

Allfather or Let’s Grow Trees would probably form a hypothesis for me.

Though that would be a story for later, given the utter chaos caused by the Wild Hunt right now.

’I should keep supplying ice until tomorrow.’

As much as I wanted to melt it myself, I couldn’t.

Sending hot water might cause a disaster, and no matter how much I boiled it, leaving it alone for a moment caused it to freeze right back up.

Right now, my duty was to quietly mine ice and hand it over.

[Passing Dwarf: Made the gloves. It’s a bit crude for a first attempt, but should be usable.]

[Wild Grylls: Thx thx. Ah. By the way, got something to ask.]

[Passing Dwarf: What is it?]

[Wild Grylls: Do you happen to know of any metal so cold it freezes even aura?]

Naturally, I was talking about the Dullahan’s chain.

A metal as hard as Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron even without channeling mana.

Yet the moment mana was infused, it froze even aura—a truly unique metal.

[Passing Dwarf: You mean Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron?]

[Wild Grylls: No no, it’s not a figure of speech, it literally froze. Hold on.]

[Wild Grylls: (Video of the chain freezing solid the moment an Aura Blade touches it) This.]

[Passing Dwarf: Fascinating. I’ve never seen such a metal before either.]

Even the dwarf said he had never seen such a metal.

Considering a dwarf who specialized in metallurgy didn’t know it, it was definitely an extraordinary metal.

Perhaps it was an alloy like Mythricon. After all, rare metals were practically lying around everywhere here.

[Passing Dwarf: Still, I have one guess. It’s a legendary technique, but it involves fusing intangible ingredients with metal.]

[Wild Grylls: Intangible ingredients?]

[Passing Dwarf: You know those weapons from myths. Like a sword infused with fire, or an axe imbued with frost. It’s similar to those.]

[Wild Grylls: I don’t know much about myths here.]

[Passing Dwarf: Do you think it’s possible to fuse the screams of wraiths with metal?]

[Wild Grylls: I have no idea what you mean?]

[Passing Dwarf: ;;; Just think of it as the chill of wraiths dwelling inside that metal. It’ll be easier for you that way.]

[Wild Grylls: So you can’t make it, right?]

[Passing Dwarf: To physically manipulate intangible energy, you need to be at least a legendary artisan;;]Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.

I roughly understood what he meant. He meant that the chill of wraiths was sealed inside this metal.

A technique typical of myths, so to speak. In fact, countless mythical weapons were born that way.

The scream of a troll, the breath of a dragon, the tears of a banshee, and so on.

Since mythical creatures existed here, I wondered if mythical techniques could be reproduced too.

[Wild Grylls: I’ll help you, so why don’t you try making one too.]

[Passing Dwarf: I should be helping you, not the other way around. I’m just gonna drink my booze and be done.]

[Wild Grylls: Don’t you have any ambition?]

[Passing Dwarf: What ambition? I’m happy right now as is.]

[Wild Grylls: OK.]

Since he said he was happy, what more could I say?

There was zero benefit to bothering someone who was living comfortably.

I handed over some World Tree fruit to the dwarf and looked up at the sky.

Before I realized it, the sky had genuinely darkened. Meaning it was night.

"Mu-oh."

"You’re back."

When night fell, the Spirit Deer returned too. The fellow who ran off right away because he didn’t want to fight the Dullahan.

Well, since he wasn’t an official member of our Shelter, he had no obligation to fight.

In truth, we were only lucky that we had a hard counter to the Dullahan; physically beating it was impossible.

’In the future, whenever soul-related problems pop up, I’ll rely on Cain.’

The true usefulness of Cain, whom I had thought was just a great translation machine (?), was revealed.

As soon as pitch-black night descended, I lit a fire in the fireplace.

The cold, which had been so frigid it felt like it would freeze everything solid, seemed to recede just a bit.

’How’s the situation?’

Warming up my body, I checked the Gallery.

They were still making a fuss over the Wild Hunt phenomenon.

Among them, some were making useless chatter, claiming I caused it all, that I was the root of all evil, etc.

There were people blabbering nonsense, but I mostly just ignored them.

’Because I’m strictly a victim in this too.’

All I did was block the Dullahan’s intrusion.

Honestly, who could have known that defeating one Dullahan would trigger a Wild Hunt?

The real issue was the World Tree that attracted the Dullahan in the first place. That was the true root of all evil.

’By the way, is that really a World Tree?’

Looking at all the evidence so far, it’s not a World Tree, it’s a Blood Tree. I knew it ever since it absorbed the Immortal Herb’s core.

If I had known this would happen, I would have listened to Vanir, but it was already too late.

’I won’t end up taking damage from this too, right?’

The saving grace was that it only reacted to plants, which provided some comfort.

Along with convenient spatial teleportation. Ah, though I’ll have to verify that tomorrow.

’Getting items from Princess Chaenggu too...’

Since winter would end soon, I also received items from Princess Chaenggu.

What to do next was send a message to Let’s Grow Trees.

Thinking this person would know a lot about the World Tree, I reached out.

[Wild Grylls: Hello. Do you happen to have some time?]

[Let’s Grow Trees: Hello! What is it!]

A reply came back immediately. I straightaway asked about the World Tree.

[Wild Grylls: Well, I have a few questions about the World Tree.]

[Let’s Grow Trees: Should I give you more saplings?]

[Wild Grylls: No, not that. I was just curious. Do World Trees compete with each other?]

If the World Tree was a sort of server computer, it might have sent a Dullahan to eliminate an unidentified computer.

An unauthorized system, so to speak. A antivirus program.

Though that antivirus program not only lost but ended up getting hacked, but let’s gloss over that.

[Let’s Grow Trees: Yes! I don’t know how you knew, but World Trees do compete with one another! That’s why there’s only one World Tree outside the Forest of the Four Seasons!]

[Wild Grylls: Then what are saplings?]

[Let’s Grow Trees: We elves always prepare in fear that the World Tree might be lost! Saplings are part of that preparation!]

[Wild Grylls: In any case, it’s difficult for two World Trees to exist in the same space, right?]

[Let’s Grow Trees: Yes!]

As expected. It was semi-certain that the Dullahan was sent by another World Tree.

Another thing. Somewhere in the Forest of the Four Seasons, there must exist something that manages even those World Trees.

Even if the World Tree acts as a server computer, a separate system to manage it must exist.

Simply put, it meant there was a ’brain’ somewhere here. A brain controlling all World Trees.

It could be the Gallery Server Admin, or it could be something else entirely.

’Finding this will take a long time again.’

I let out a sigh.

Formulating hypotheses was fine and all, but it felt like doubts were only multiplying.

Well, tomorrow I planned to explore the world inside the tunnel.Get faster updates on novelрing.com.

And while I was at it, try out real-time video streaming too.

’There’s so much to do.’

I roughly tidied up and closed my eyes.

So many things had happened today that my mind and body were exhausted.

Just like that, a day passed, my stamina fully recharged, and I welcomed a new morning.

’Let’s see. But how do I turn this on?’

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I checked the real-time video streaming feature.

After fiddling around with this and that, I somehow managed to get it working.

Surprisingly, unlike when recording videos, my field of vision was completely clear.

When recording videos, all sorts of things were inconvenient, but now it was crisp.

’My eyes don’t feel tired either.’

I could open the Gallery even while streaming video.

When streaming video, a Gallery post was automatically created. Stating that I had begun a live stream.

Naturally, familiar fixed handles and anonymous users poured in comments like rain.

It wasn’t a live chat format like a broadcast.

’Still, this is great.’

Anyway, I wouldn’t have the spare energy to browse the Gallery during combat.

Although I did it occasionally, very occasionally, when it was urgent, but let’s gloss over that.

"Now then. Behold today’s Gallery Master."

"Gororong..."

I showed Wonmo and Tyranno fast asleep.

Glancing at the comments, wonderful reactions poured in heavily.

Most said they were cute, asked to make emotes out of them, asked to show Tyranno too, and so on.

It seemed that no matter where you went in the world, nobody disliked cute things. If someone hated them, that person was the weird one.

’It’s closer to a vlog than a stream.’

Except the length of the video was absurdly long.

I went about my usual daily routine while steadily checking the comments.

Just in case, I didn’t film Cain, who might cause trouble.

Capturing Cain’s image would cause a whole different kind of uproar.

’Let’s wrap up the live stream here for now.’

After finishing various preparations, the time to enter the World Tree tunnel arrived.

Yesterday I couldn’t check because I was too scared, but I couldn’t leave it abandoned forever.

Now was the time to muster my courage.

’Strapping Bbareumbo onto my back too.’

Lastly, I started the broadcast—no, the real-time video stream again.

Once it looked like people had gathered around, I explained the situation.

"You see this World Tree and this tunnel, right? This tunnel originally connected to another tunnel. But if I step inside right now..."

I took a step forward and walked inside.

The moment I entered, what met my eyes were the vivid blue scenery and tendrils I had seen yesterday.

"Keureuk?"

"..."

And a gigantic blue lizard. Fascinatingly enough, it only had front feet.

That lizard wore a puzzled expression, as if it hadn’t expected me to come out.

I looked at the lizard packed with hideous teeth, and naturally took steps backward.

"...Yeah. There’s a monster. What the fuck is that thing again? It wasn’t there when I went in yesterday?"

I immediately peered into the comments section, wondering if anyone knew what it was.

└ Allfather) Since it is related to the World Tree, it is presumed to be Nidhogg, but...

└ Wild Grylls) What is THAT again?

└ Allfather) It is a mythical creature that lives by gnawing on the roots of the World Tree. It is on par with the Sky Whale.

└ Wild Grylls) ;;;

Man, mythical creatures sure seemed to pop up at every turn.

└ Wild Grylls) Is it really strong?

└ Allfather) Within its own territory, it will likely be powerful enough to rival a dragon.

└ Wild Grylls) It won’t attack my Shelter, right?

└ Allfather) As it is a creature that rips through space to emerge, I cannot say for certain.

└ Wild Grylls) FUCK;;;

└ Allfather) Still, records indicate it is surprisingly gentle, so you need not worry too much. Provided you do not trespass upon its domain, that is.

Would what I just did count as trespassing on its domain?

It really seemed like I was in big trouble.

’I wonder if that thing likes delicious food too?’

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.