I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 548

Was it because I usually saw only bizarre environmental activists across various media?

The environmental activists I knew threw paint at artwork or threw tantrums at slaughterhouses. They didn’t leave a very good impression.

I looked around the business card a bit more. It seemed she belonged to some organization.

I didn’t know what organization it was, but seeing the word ’animal’ suggested it was an animal rights group.

I wondered if Sera was also that kind of person, but seeing the Meat Forest and Wine Pool, she was at least closer to a realistic person.

On top of that, she was an exceptionally talented biotechnologist. Who else would think to make trees bear meat fruit and create chicken plants?

’It’s similar to how telling people to start recycling is far more realistic than blindly blocking roads to protest.’

Anyway, unlike nuisance groups, Sera was someone who devised realistic solutions. It felt almost rude to make a comparison.

Then I suddenly grew curious. What happened to those nuisance-causing people when the world fell into ruin?

Since human arrogance actually brought humanity to the brink of extinction, wouldn’t they have been even more triumphant?

’Or maybe they were struggling just to save their own skins.’

I tucked Sera’s business card into my bosom. It was a card, not paper.

Maybe it could be used as a key in the future. Things like this shouldn’t be recklessly discarded.

’By the way, what happens to this tree?’

I looked at the tree from which Sera had disappeared. What would become of this tree?

With Sera gone, I didn’t know if it would wither as well or remain maintained indefinitely.

Of course, since Sera was merely close to a ’record’, the tree itself might not change.

"Master. Can we eat the meat now?"

"For now, pick only what we’ll eat for lunch. The moment we pick it, it’ll start spoiling."

It seemed food supply wouldn’t be an issue moving forward. Of course, eating it too often wouldn’t be good either.

Since we couldn’t afford to grow lazy in abundance, I planned to go hunting periodically as well.

Although the meat growing here was delicious, butchering game directly was also a delicacy.

’First, I should hand out the chicken plants to the fixed-nicknames.’

First, I handed out the flowers bearing chicken to the fixed-nicknames one by one.

People who wanted to use them for research, people who wanted to cultivate them in vegetable gardens, people who just wanted to eat them, and so forth.

Even after sharing them with quite a few people, chicken flowers were still plentiful.

There was no need to harvest all of these. Now was the time to set off again.

We hadn’t encountered monsters along the way, nor was it an environment that delayed our time.

Perhaps because of that, there was still plenty of time before lunch, and our stamina was sufficient.

After acquiring the meat to eat for lunch, I set off with my party.

The ultimate goal of heading toward the World Tree remained unchanged.

"Wow. Now duck meat is blooming on top of lotus flowers?"

"Master. The water in the pond looks delicious too."

[What a truly magnificent forest.]

We came across a pond along the way. And atop the lotus flowers blooming on the pond, duck meat blossomed in full bloom.

Words that didn’t match were lined up, but it was real. Even as I watched with my own eyes, I was dumbfounded.

’Wait, no fish? Is it discriminating?’

Cheombeong!

The moment that thought crossed my mind, a massive fish leaped out of the pond.

It was easily twice the size of the fish caught in the river in front of my house.

Furthermore, it was a fish sparkling with a golden gleam, and it devoured the duck meat blooming on top of the lotus flowers.

It wasn’t that there were no animals in the forest. Befitting the Forest of the Four Seasons, monstrous creatures existed here too.

"Master. Are we catching that?"

"Later."

Right now, exploration was more important than hunting. If it wasn’t a threat to us, I passed over it lightly.

Afterward, we silently trudged along to exit the Meat Forest and Wine Pool. There were no beasts or monsters threatening us.

"Kueong."

"Master. Is that a pig, or a tiger?"

"Uh... a piger."

Instead, there were only animals bloated with fat like pigs. Right now was just such a case.

A tiger whose cheeks as well as belly were plump with fat lay sprawled on its back.

Befitting the Forest of the Four Seasons, its size was practically as large as a house. Judging by size alone, it was far bigger than the Saber-toothed Tiger.

The problem was that it was all made of fat. Moreover, it had zero aggressiveness.

Ppung!

Instead, it just let out a loud fart. It was the very picture of peaceful, carefree times.

Looking like: ’There’s food overflowing all around, why bother hunting?’Find the original chapter at novelрing.com.

It was lazy as could be, but this must have been the ideal paradise Sera envisioned.

’Still, strangely, there aren’t many animals around...’

Since it was the Meat Forest and Wine Pool, animal numbers should naturally be high. But they weren’t.

Excluding the pig-tiger we just encountered, there was even an ominous feeling.

There was definitely something more to this forest. Maybe they fattened up like pigs only to be eaten by another entity.

If they grew chubby with fat, their movements would naturally become sluggish, so it wasn’t wild speculation.

Pudeudeok!

Sure enough. Birds approached the pig-tiger lying sprawled out.

Birds we had seen before entering the Land of Water. Those birds grabbed the pig-tiger’s limbs one by one.

The pig-tiger realized this too late, but it was already grabbed. Soon, those birds took hold of the pig-tiger and soared into the sky.

Padadak!

"Hueoeong! Hueong!"

The pig-tiger disappeared over the distance at high speed. Perhaps the birds’ strength was quite formidable, as it couldn’t budge at all.

I stared at the sight silently, then nodded. As expected, the Forest of the Four Seasons was not a place where one could let their guard down.

It was best to treat the Meat Forest and Wine Pool strictly as a food warehouse. Settling down here might trigger who knows what catastrophe.

"You all saw that, right? Don’t even think about living here."

"Eueum..."

Lackey gave a reaction of genuine disappointment. Was he really planning to?

Continuing to walk silently, we soon reached the edge of the forest. To be precise, another forest altogether.

Why I concluded it was another forest was because meat no longer grew on the trees.

Except for that trap dug by the bugs before, forests generally didn’t have such rigidly defined boundaries.

"This forest is eerie again."

"A scary place, Master."

Rather, the atmosphere shifted too starkly. I stared at the forest ahead.

No matter what had happened, only haggard, bare trees were visible.

It felt almost as if its life force had been sucked dry directly. A place I didn’t even want to step foot into.

[The World Tree is visible up ahead.]

But we couldn’t just avoid it either. Because the World Tree was visible to the naked eye.

If it were up to me, I’d want to take a detour... but with the World Tree gleaming golden up ahead, it was difficult to make a decision.

’If I detour for no reason, a place even worse than here might pop up.’

When we tried to detour around the Land of Water, didn’t we run into a region where lightning poured down like rain?

A similar situation could occur now, so moving forward was better.

Of course, thorough preparation was needed. Just in case, I took the first step.

’No particular issue with smells, nor does mana feel like it’s draining.’

I wondered if this region itself was just strange. I gestured for the party to come over.

Since the land itself might just be weird, remaining vigilant should be enough.

Even if it was somewhat unpleasant, with the World Tree right under our noses, we couldn’t hesitate.

[The energy of death lurks here.]

"Can you feel it?"

[No. Places where undead used to overrun in the past were like this.]

"Sounds like you’re saying undead will pop up."

The moment I heard those words, I immediately contacted Don’t Abandon the Hero, Asella. To receive Holy Water.

[Don’t Abandon the Hero: If it’s Holy Water, I prepared it in advance!]

[Wild Grylls: Thank you. But shouldn’t Holy Water be used elsewhere?]

[Don’t Abandon the Hero: It’s fine! As long as it can be of help to Grylls-nim!]

Truly a kind person. I gripped the received Holy Water in my hand.

Undead are troublesome entities to defeat physically. Knocking them down means nothing if they just restore themselves.

Didn’t Manatology do the same before? It was fortunate we shattered their core immediately; otherwise, we almost got dragged into an endless fight.

Dalgeurak— dalgeurak—

Even as we walked slowly, an ominous sound echoed in my ears.

At that, I turned my head and looked toward the direction of the noise.

Just as Cain predicted, bones gradually gathered and began forming a single shape.

"Eut-cha."

Chieeeke!

So I splashed Holy Water right away. Splashing the Holy Water caused it to melt immediately.Follow the newest chapters on NovelPing.

What on earth was Holy Water that it was so fatal to undead? I grew slightly curious.

"Holy Water has holy power in it, right?"

"Indeed."

"Then how do you manifest holy power?"

"Believe in God."

Then I guess I’ll never be able to manifest holy power in my lifetime. It was unfortunate, but something I could move past.

Thus, whenever there was a sign of undead rising, I splashed Holy Water and pushed forward.

But even this work naturally had its limits. Weak undead were easy to handle, but anything beyond that wasn’t.

Dalgeurak! Dalgeurak! Jjeojeojeok!

Bones lumped together massively, soon generating to a height above my eye level.

Two thick legs and a torso. An unusually long tail and razor-sharp teeth.

[Keuaaaaa!]

"Are there undead dinosaurs too?!"

"I’m seeing one for the first time as well!"

Good lord, an undead dinosaur. What a horrific abomination.

Without even time to be flustered, I engaged in battle against the dinosaur made of bones.

An undead similar in shape to the carnivorous dinosaur we met before. Even its color was black, making it look even stronger.

In addition to that, a chilling blue energy surged from its eye sockets. Looking as if someone was controlling it.

’Could there be remnants of Manatology nearby again?’

Manatology was a pseudo-cult that survived until the very end of ruined Earth civilization.

A religion that created all sorts of bizarre entities because they worshipped the energy called mana itself.

In a way, they could be seen as the origin of necromancy, so the possibility wasn’t low.

ㄴAllfather) Commanding a dinosaur with necromancy. Whoever it is, they must be quite powerful.

ㄴNecromancy is Love) That’s entirely doable. As long as the bones are preserved intact.

"Shut up and say something useful!"

Even when splashing Holy Water, it regenerated so quickly that it drove me crazy. In the end, I opted for a second-best option.

Since ancient times, there was something extremely effective for exorcising evil spirits.

"Lackey! Prepare fire!"

"Got it! But how are you going to catch that thing!"

Well, that’s simple. I waited for the undead dinosaur to attack.

Soon, the beast let out a monstrous screech and thrust its maw toward me. Now was the right moment.

Kwak!

Just before it swallowed me whole, I grabbed its snout violently with both hands.

The undead dinosaur, unable to open or shut its mouth any further.

It tried to attack with its front legs somehow, but with the short forelimbs characteristic of carnivorous dinosaurs, there was nothing it could do.

"Now!"

"#$%#$#!"

Kwaaaaaa!

At my shout, Lackey cast a powerful fire spell. A giant pillar of fire erupted from the ground.

Before long, that fire pillar wrapped around the dinosaur’s entire body. The beast began writhing as if in agonizing pain.

But I held onto its snout to the very end. I had to hold out until it turned into dust.

’Good. At this rate...!’

Kwajik!

Out of nowhere, a huge beast’s foot crushed the dinosaur right where it stood.

Then it even rubbed it out like snuffing out a cigarette butt. As if stomping out a trivial existence.

Thanks to that, only the snout remained hanging in my hands, but that wasn’t what was important.

Just as I was blinking, having no clue what on earth had happened.

Keureureuk...

Ossak!

Chills ran down my whole body, and goosebumps broke out all over. Though it was clearly just a beast’s threatening growl, it was on a different dimension.

At this, I slowly raised my head upward. Past legs comparable to pillars that had stomped the massive undead dinosaur in a single blow, my eyes reached its torso.

A beast with pitch-black fur all over. And the heads beyond those shoulders...

"...Cerberus?"

It was a wolf with three heads, just like Cerberus, the guardian of hell.

Kwwadeudeok! Kwadeuk!

The middle head was currently crunching and devouring the pig-tiger we saw earlier.