I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 636

I cleanly disposed of the Flesh Aberration that had been living like a parasite inside the Sky Whale’s body.

I was worried there might be new entities in other organs besides the heart or liver, but there was no time to inspect that far.

Still, the only remaining organ was the lung, so there was some leeway. Even if it hurt, the Sky Whale would come find me right away.

ㄴ Allfather) If you could just explore for ten more minutes...

"No."

ㄴ Allfather) Chief God-isiyeo. Please, so that the knowledge of the world can advance one step further...

"Uh-uh."

ㄴ Allfather) Even if only for this old man...

ㄴ Don’t Abandon the Hero) If you ask one more time, I’m going to ban you for a week!

ㄴ Allfather) My apologies. I have made a slip of the tongue.

Allfather pleaded pathetically, but Asella cut him off immediately.

Since I had no intention of granting his request anyway, I just laughed it off.

More importantly, escaping from here was the priority. I asked Lackey if Teleport was possible.

"It is difficult from the heart. The waves radiating from that heart are interfering."

"You deployed the shield just fine earlier, didn’t you? Same with the ice magic."

"Those are easier than Teleport. But with this, if we slip up, we might end up in a strange place."

If that was the case, there was nothing to be done. In the end, we had to move as far away from the heart as possible before we could Teleport.

Fortunately, we didn’t land in some random location, but arrived at a spot slightly away from my house.

Since the Sky Whale’s size was so massive anyway, finding it wasn’t difficult, allowing us to return quickly.

"Da... kwek!"

"Huh?"

The moment we stepped outside, Wonmo was about to welcome us with a bright smile, but suddenly froze.

To be precise, he came running over but quickly retreated. He even scrunched up his cute face and pinched his nose.

It wasn’t just Wonmo, who had a highly developed sense of smell, but the other kids were the same. Every single one of them fled backward with scowling faces.

"What’s wrong? Is the smell that bad?"

"Yeah. Dad smells."

"Peeeee-ing..."

It seemed the stench was worse than I thought.

We didn’t realize it because we were wearing gas masks stuffed with herbs, but the kids certainly did.

"I will be back in a moment."

ㄴ Sword Matstar) Ah. He’s really thorough about this.

ㄴ Princess Chaenggu) What a shame.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) Ahem.

ㄴ Don’t Abandon the Hero) If you harass him, it’s a three-day ban!!!

ㄴ Smart Demon) Seriously, these moderators;;

ㄴ Princess Chaenggu) But I’m of the Demon Race?

ㄴ Praise the Sun) Doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t do it even more? I heard your side is super conservative.

ㄴ Princess Chaenggu) It’s the body of my future husband, so what’s wrong with looking? lol

ㄴ Praise the Sun) That makes sense.

ㄴ Don’t Abandon the Hero) What do you mean that makes sense!

Asella-ya. You sure have a lot of trouble.

I decided to try out the bathhouse I had installed this time.

Since three of us had to wash at once, and there was already pre-heated water.

"Master. What are these flowers?"

"I put in World Tree petals and various other things. Fragrant, right?"

"I feel like the boiled chicken you made for us before, Master."

"...You didn’t put anything weird in your butt, did you?"

"Absolutely not."

Only after thoroughly washing our bodies could we completely get rid of the stench.

As for the laundry, well, if I just boiled them in hot water, the smell would probably come out on its own.

After washing up so cleanly, I faced the Sky Whale floating in the sky with a refreshed expression.

"You don’t hurt anywhere, right?"

"Buooo."

"It says its body feels lighter than before."

Of course it would. It had been freed from the Flesh Aberration that was sucking its lifeblood.

A blessing in disguise; if the Sky Whale hadn’t been abandoned, it would have been devoured long ago.

Rather, it was even more surprising that it maintained such a massive build despite being abandoned for hundreds of years.

Just look at the flesh giant located in the neighboring area. I still hadn’t even grasped how to deal with that one.

’Unless Lackey learns Hellfire or Meteor, wouldn’t it be difficult?’

Even if I went inside and stirred things up, I doubted whether I could defeat it.

The Flesh Aberration parasitizing the Sky Whale was a fusion of at least three people, but I couldn’t even begin to guess how many had fused into that other one.

Anyway, putting that aside.

"So, what reward are you going to give me?"

I asked the male Sky Whale, not the female.

This guy had said he would give me his treasure if I cured the female Sky Whale.

Since he was far from shameless, I figured he would give me something truly great.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) If a Sky Whale inhabiting the sea refers to it as a treasure... it would likely be something like a Deep Sea Dragon Pearl, Ten-Thousand-Year Blue Coral, Sea Demon Ink Essence, or a Black Tortoise Carapace Pill.

ㄴ Sword Matstar) They’re all in Zhongyuan terms, so I don’t know what they are. What are those?Follow the newest chapters on novelping dot com.

ㄴ Smart Demon) The first is obtained from a Sea Dragon, the second is literally coral. The third is from a squid, and the fourth comes from a tortoise shell.

ㄴ Allfather) For your information, Sea Demon Ink Essence can only be extracted by subjugating a Kraken.

ㄴ Necromancy is Love) There is also Ambergris, which a certain Archmage consumed by mouth. Though I believe that was excreted as feces.

Every single one of them is bizarre. But this is the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Even without that, the ocean is an environment as difficult to explore as outer space, and even Earthlings probably couldn’t conquer it properly.

Well, considering their technological prowess, they might have created an underwater city like Atlantis.

Anyway, I might receive one of those things mentioned by the regular users. So I was looking forward to it.

"Buooo~"

Understanding my words, the Sky Whale let out a quiet cry as if telling me to wait a moment, and flew up into the sky.

Seeing how he left his girlfriend here, it seemed he would return shortly.

Indeed, his flying speed was extremely fast, showing a clear determination to return immediately.

I decided to clean up and wait until he returned. Since I had already bathed, cleaning up amounted to nothing more than heating up some warm water.

[Did you find anything inside?]

"Well... there was indeed something that might shake Cain-nim’s faith, you know?"

[What is it?]

"There were structures built by humans inside that whale’s belly."

[Hah.]

I explained what had happened to Cain, who couldn’t accompany us this time.

It was surprising enough that there were structures built by humans inside, but even Manatology that had hibernated for hundreds of years.

The Forest of the Four Seasons is a place where all sorts of things pop up the deeper you dig, but the Sky Whale had an even stronger artificial aspect.

"Buooooo~"

While we were chatting, the male Sky Whale returned. Since it was a treasure, he must have quickly retrieved what he had hidden away tightly at home.

I looked forward to seeing what kind of treasure it was. Perhaps it could upgrade our combat power by another level.

"Puh."

Before long, the Sky Whale regurgitated something from his mouth.

Since he was a creature that shot water cannons, spitting back out what was in his stomach wouldn’t be difficult.

Koong!

Soon, a large and heavy object dropped onto the ground. It was so heavy that it got slightly embedded in the earth.

Fortunately, it wasn’t mixed with stomach acid and only had seawater on it, so approaching it wasn’t difficult.

I approached the object embedded in the ground with high expectations, and...

(Roughly sketched, blurry drawing of a radiation symbol)

"...?"

Seeing the large and beautiful ’radiation’ symbol stamped right in the center, my brain momentarily short-circuited.

Observing the entire object with a sense of dread, what on earth was this?

I only belatedly realized that a ’nuclear missile’—far larger in size than the small nuclear warhead I had found in the underground warehouse in the past—was now planted in my front yard.

"Hieeeeeeek!!!"

I let out a high-pitched shriek as if I had seen a ghost. My heart plummeted, and I could vividly feel the blood in my entire body turning ice-cold.

Who wouldn’t be horrified to have a nuclear missile sitting right in their front yard?

Moreover, this wasn’t even miniaturized; it was a size you’d expect to see on a submarine.

The moment this thing detonated, life as we knew it would end, and this entire region would be utterly devastated.

"S-Swallow it back! Why, why, why would you spit this out?! Take it back, quickly!!"

"Buooo...?"

When I snapped out of it and shouted at him to take it back, the Sky Whale tilted his head for a moment before swallowing the missile embedded in the ground.

Thanks to that, I breathed a sigh of relief, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. The fact that he presented this as a treasure meant there had to be a reason.

"Do, do, do you know what you just gave me?"

"Buoooo."

"He says it’s food that makes you stronger if you eat it."

Hearing the answer gave me a headache. I couldn’t understand in what way it was supposed to make someone stronger.

Could it be that inside his body, there was a nuclear fusion power plant instead of a factory?

It sounded crazy, but considering the female Sky Whale, it wasn’t impossible.

"Buo?"

"He asks if he should show you a demonstration."

"No. I’ll believe you, so don’t do it here."

Are you trying to turn my house into a radioactive wasteland?

I could guarantee that even if a nuclear explosion occurred inside him, the Sky Whale would likely be perfectly fine.

Seeing how he answered as if he had done it multiple times, I could be sure. This was a testament to the Sky Whale’s absurd durability.

What worried me more was the ’radioactive fallout’ that would spew from his blowhole.

One might say I was getting ahead of myself, but this is the Forest of the Four Seasons. A place where common sense is easily overturned.

’If mutants appear after being hit by that radiation, that’ll be a headache in itself.’

I’d rather just take his word for it; I couldn’t bring myself to ask for a demonstration.

"Buooo."

"He says this can also be used as a weapon. If detonated, it will cause a massive explosion."

"Have you... by any chance, used it a few times?"

"Buooo."

"He says he didn’t use it outside, but in his habitat."

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It seemed he had been firing them like torpedoes, as if he were a submarine. A wave of helplessness washed over me.

No matter how hard I struggled, a single click of that Sky Whale’s nuclear missile would reduce everything to ashes.

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) Come to think of it, I have seen something similar before. Is it a bomb that cleanly erases an entire city?

ㄴ Sword Matstar) Probably? Plus, I heard that the area becomes filled with toxicity.

ㄴ Passing Dwarf) What’s even more surprising is, didn’t they say that thing can be mass-produced? What on earth did the gods make?

ㄴ Starlight Lady) There was also something where even throwing a small stone-like object would absorb the entire area.

ㄴ Praise the Sun) Was there such a thing?

ㄴ Smart Demon) That’s the first I’ve heard of it.

ㄴ Starlight Lady) You should have been watching consistently haha

Did I show them something like that? I don’t remember well.

Regardless, I asked the Sky Whale for a different treasure. A nuclear missile was beyond burdensome; it was life-threatening.

Although the Sky Whale grumbled, he went back since he owed me a favor.

"Buooo."

"Oh! This looks decent."

What he gave me next wasn’t something weird like a nuclear warhead, but something that looked reasonably normal.

A coral that sparkled like a diamond. Even at a glance, it exuded an extraordinary aura.

Touching it, it was indeed as hard as a diamond...

"...What is this?"

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) Is that not Diamond Coral? It is known as a coral that, if consumed, makes one’s body as hard as diamond.

ㄴ Sword Matstar) There are many fascinating things in the sea.

ㄴ Passing Dwarf) Isn’t his body already harder than diamond?

ㄴ Praise the Sun) It would probably be fine to just keep it as an ornament.

I could just boil it thoroughly in a medicine pot and eat it. There was nothing bad about my body becoming harder.

Even if it wasn’t for me, giving it to the other companions would be plenty. I expressed my gratitude to the Sky Whale.

"Goodbye. Come find me if a problem arises next time."

"Buooooo~"

"Buooo~"

After warmly saying goodbye to the Sky Whales, I pondered what to do with the Diamond Coral.

Fortunately, nothing happened even when I left it outside.

Yes. At first, that is.

Seuseuseuseuk-

Until the World Tree grew greedy for the Diamond Coral.

Startled, I quickly moved the coral elsewhere.

At that, the branches extending from the World Tree drooped down as if disappointed.

Since it was the one that had protected my house all this time, I felt a bit sorry.

"Then I’ll give you just a little bit. Wait."

I struggled to cut the coral with my Mythricon sword.

It was so hard that I could barely chip off a piece only after utilizing Aura.

Soon, I handed over a portion of that coral to the World Tree. It didn’t get any greedier and accepted the piece I gave.

I looked forward to seeing what would happen in the future. Perhaps the range of the Gallery’s usage would expand even further.

’I’ll have to either put the rest in a medicine pot and boil it, or chew it up.’

Of course, it’s so hard that trying to chew it would probably break my teeth.

So I would have to boil it in a medicine pot until it softened, or find another way.

Right now, I didn’t even have proper alchemical tools here to experiment.

’Seeing how it sparkles, it might be worth quite a bit.’

Should I process it nicely and give it to the women I met outside? That’s a decent idea.

Originally, I wanted to forge swords and give them, but I had half-given up on that because it would stand out too much.

It would be better to process the Diamond Coral well and give it to them instead.

[Wild Grylls: Therefore, make sure to ask a jeweler you know to process it.]

[Passing Dwarf: Aren’t you being a bit too informal?]

[Wild Grylls: If we sell just one of these, you can eat and drink to your heart’s content?]

[Passing Dwarf: Good.]

I made a request to my excellent contact, the dwarf. He really is a good guy.

Afterward, I handed over some portions to Allfather and Starlight Lady for research purposes.

Having spent a grueling day today, all that was left was rest. I could go out for exploration in two or three days.

"You all worked hard today, so go rest inside."

"Understood."

"Master. Can I cook with this?"

"Now you’re trying to make a dish out of coral. Stop talking nonsense and put it down."

"Tsk."

Thus, an eventful day passed.

Cheombeongcheombeong!

"What kind of flood is this now?"

It hadn’t even rained at dawn, but my house was submerged as if a flood had hit.

’This damn forest.’

I couldn’t let my guard down for even a single second.