I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 617

Perhaps because I had squeezed out every ounce of strength I had, I could feel my muscles completely pumped and tight after reaching the floating island.

I hadn’t even felt this kind of sensation when training my External Arts during winter. My physical strength had grown so immense that normal exercise yielded minimal effects.

But seeing how I was now capable of dragging a floating island, I couldn’t consider that training completely useless.

I exhaled a long breath.

"Whew... This makes for quite a workout."

↳ Passing Dwarf) If THAT is a workout, then is what everyone else does just breathing exercises?

↳ Sword Matstar) Excuse me, but could you take off some clothes? I’m curious to see how well pump your muscles got ^^

↳ Heavenly Demon) I am curious as well. For it to make my savior catch his breath so heavily.

↳ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Don’t harass him before I ban both of you!

↳ Princess Chaenggu) Truly a power that every Demon race woman can’t help but fall for!

↳ Suspiciously... ) Same for us Beastfolk. If there were a god representing strength, he’d look just like that.

↳ Smart Demon) Is he even human—no, a person at all?

↳ Starlight Lady) He is recognized as the Herald of God, right?

↳ Praise the Sun) Forget Herald of God, was there any god even among gods who possessed strength like that?

My action, which went beyond eccentricity and hovered close to a miracle, caused numerous fixed-handle users to chatter excitedly.

Honestly, even I didn’t expect this to actually work. I just tried it out of curiosity to see if it might work, but to think it really did.

’So this is what they mean by "when your body is good, you don’t need to use your brain."’

I felt like I understood how Heracles felt—questioning why one would bother using their brain when everything could be solved with physical body power.

But the Forest of the Four Seasons had a mountain of things that couldn’t be resolved even with this level of physical weight class.

Especially since regenerating bastards weren’t just one or two, there were many times I had to use my head.

’Anyway, there should be a mechanism here, right?’

I was slightly worried since I had only guessed based on its connection to the whale’s shackles.

But seeing how the shackles regenerated and vibrated with sound as if infused with mana—

Believing there must be a way to cut the chains, I stepped into the floating island.

Fortunately, there were no robots or traps blocking my path along the way.

Wi-i-i-ing!

’...Did they by any chance develop mini nuclear reactors too?’

Instead, a device glowing brightly with blue light appeared before my eyes. Anyone could tell it was a generator.

Finding the generator was good, but I questioned whether destroying it was the right choice.

It was due to a subtle private message sent by Allfather.

[Allfather: Grylls-nim. I am sending this via private message. By any chance, do you know about the incident in the past where the Magic Tower soared into the sky?]

[Wild Grylls: Of course I know about it.]

[Allfather: It was resolved well back then, but if handled carelessly, that floating island could crash to the ground. Please be careful.]

Hearing that made me a bit worried. Destroying the device might cause this island to crash.

So, thinking it would be better to shut it down rather than destroy it, I looked around.

’If I knew this, I should have brought Cain along.’

Fortunately, stopping the generator’s operation wasn’t difficult.

Because the letters ’ON/OFF’ were clearly visible. It seemed to operate via a lever.

There was no security code concept either, so pulling the lever down produced a sound from the generator.

[Halting energy transmission.]

Fortunately, only transmission stopped; the floating island didn’t crash down.

I didn’t know what principle kept it operating even after hundreds of years, but considering the case of the Artificial Sun, I let it slide.

What was more important was the chain. If no sound vibrated through the chain, it was done.

’It’s quiet. Good.’

Now all that remained was breaking the shackle. I headed back to the whale’s fin and destroyed the shackle.

Kwaang!

Thus, I was able to break the shackle attached to the fin.

As the shackle broke, the chain naturally went chwa-reu-reuk! and drooped loosely downward.

’Time to do the rest.’Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping dot com.

I removed all remaining shackles on the other fin and the tail.

In return, having to pull floating islands like before meant mana consumption was inevitably extreme.

I managed to replenish it somehow with Elixirs, but over half was depleted. I’d have to circulate my Internal Cultivation Art when resting.

Anyway.

Chaekang!

With the tail shackle as the last one, I was able to grant freedom to the Sky Whale.

The tail had been tied up far tighter than other parts, making it no small ordeal to handle.

Perhaps because of that, the moment its tail shackle was released, the Sky Whale gently swayed its tail back and forth.

"Are you okay now?"

[Bu-o-o-o-o~]

Pusheeee!

Returning to where we originally were, I asked while looking into the Sky Whale’s eyes, and it answered vigorously.

The water spout bursting from its blowhole was much more powerful than before.

Now all that remained was for it to leave, but honestly, that wouldn’t be easy.

’Because it lived bound here for a long time.’

It’s commonly known as learned helplessness. People would understand if I mentioned circus elephants.

At first, they are tied with thick chains to learn helplessness, and once they conform to their fate, they won’t run away even if tied with a tiny string.

The Sky Whale was similar. It would probably take quite a long time for it to leave this place.

Still, it would be satisfied just by being freed after having its body so tightly bound.

Geureong-geureong—

Perhaps due to memories of its past hardships, tears welled up in the Sky Whale’s large eyes.

Flustered for a moment by the sudden tears, I watched as they dripped down onto the ground.

Tuk— tududuk—

Miraculously, the tears that fell to the ground were solid, not liquid.

I carefully picked up the tears and checked them. They were gems glowing with a soft blue light.

However, the concentration of mana inside them was extraordinary. Then again, it was natural since they were tears shed by a spiritual beast.

I already decided how to use them. I could boil them in a medicinal decoction pot later and drink it.

[Bu-o-o.]

The Sky Whale’s eyes curved softly into a warm smile.

Its skin was cracked and aged, but its smiling eyes were as pure as a child’s.

I patted its skin as a gesture of wishing it well and moved along.

My work here was done, so I just needed to head to the remaining location.

’The floating island won’t crash down, right?’

Even if it did crash, it was quite far from the Theme Park.

Thinking that, I walked toward the exit. Upon reaching the exit, we returned indoors.

"Before we set off again... what time is it now?"

I checked the time before moving on. Saving the Sky Whale took up no small amount of time.

Fortunately, it wasn’t late enough to end the exploration yet. We’d barely be able to reach the domain of the Chief God.

’There wasn’t much left to see in the mages’ domain anyway.’

Unlike the knights’, it was mostly tourist sights, and I wasn’t particularly interested in magic either.

Plus, most of it consisted of replicas or robots, so there wasn’t much worth taking.

"There’s a mural here too."

[It is the life story of Aragon-nim.]

Finally, the mural. Just as Aris had hers, Aragon’s mural existed here too.

Unlike Aris, who was a troublemaker, Aragon seemed quiet and rational, as there were many pictures of him studying.

The Chief God must have praised him often, as there was even a drawing of him patting Aragon’s head. Completely different from Aris.

Afterward, spreading magic to numerous people or fighting by the Chief God’s side...

Aside from his past, he didn’t seem much different from Aris.

’The drawings cut off with the Chief God entering eternal rest.’The source of this chapter is novel​ping.com.

The ending was similar too: the gods arguing with each other, and the Chief God at eternal rest in their midst.

The final section was blank, just like Aris’s. It was a depiction with no ending drawn.

[It seems either Aris-nim or Aragon-nim painted this mural.]

"Because of the past events that would be hard to know unless you were the party involved, right?"

[Precisely.]

This was something I had roughly guessed back during Aris’s mural as well. One of the twin siblings must have painted this.

Seeing how the past prior to meeting the Chief God was also depicted, it was practically 100% certain.

It was unfortunate, and at the same time, intriguing. For what reason had the relationship between the twin siblings fractured like this?

If we went to the domain of the Chief God, maybe we could verify it in more detail. Holding that thought, I moved forward.

"Now the only place left is the Chief God’s domain."

[Will we finally behold the venerable countenance of Him, which has remained hidden for so long?]

"Who knows. He’s never shown his face so far."

Whether due to secretiveness, the Chief God never showed his face.

The same went for the video detailing all of history. To the very end, it only showed his back, never his face.

’Even I only roughly know what his eyes looked like.’

It was when I fought the Bone Dragon. Back then, I roughly grasped the Chief God’s strength and outward appearance.

The Herculean strength to literally hurl mountains, and a gaze that seemed aloof from the worldly realm.

In particular, I could not forget that gaze even now. He had treated the being called the Tyrant Dragon King as mere prey.

It made me wonder just how ridiculously strong he must have been.

"Before we go, Cain-ssi."

[Speak.]

"You said you don’t know much about records regarding the Chief God either, right?"

[I do not. In fact, I don’t even know his name. The only ones who knew his real name were the twin sibling gods.]

Reluctant even to reveal his name, huh? Talk about extreme mystique.

Was it out of mere respect that others refrained from sharing it, or had he discarded his own name himself?

Since almost nothing was known, learning one thing only seemed to deepen the mysteries.

That made me all the more curious. Just who on earth was this Chief God that everyone guarded his identity so fiercely?

As I walked with those thoughts in mind, before I knew it, we exited the mages’ domain.

Having stepped out of the second attraction, the mages’ domain, all that remained was the third attraction.

And...

"Looking at it... this must be a statue of the Chief God, right?"

[Ohhh...! My goodness...! To behold the sacred countenance of the Chief God...!]

As soon as we reached the entrance, a statue of the Chief God stood prominently in place.

It was natural for the deeply devout Cain to react ecstatically. After all, this was the Chief God whose face was virtually unknown.

While Cain prayed, I slowly approached the statue of the Chief God. I hadn’t expected it to be standing right out in the open like this.

’The outward appearance is similar to what I saw before...’

The statue of the Chief God stood loftily with a bow slung across his back and a sword held in his hand.

Was it unable to portray proper facial features because it was a statue? Or was it made this way on purpose?

Aside from being of Asian descent, I couldn’t find any particularly notable characteristics.

’He seems kinda handsome though?’

More importantly, I checked the inscription beneath the statue first. Usually, dates or years were recorded beneath statues.

But something was strange. Forget a name—even a proper record of birth wasn’t included.

"What? Did they write it like this because he really just fell straight out of the sky?"

When I muttered to myself—

[Because the Chief God’s identity was completely erased by his country of origin.]

An unfamiliar man’s voice pierced into my ears.