I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 686

By offering up the fruit liquor I usually enjoyed drinking as payment, I was able to receive a massive favor from Lucas.

Of course, narrowing down the scope of searching for a needle in a desert to a playground unfortunately ended in failure.

He said that without a beacon directly connected to the mothership or a ghost ship, finding it would be tough.

Instead, he provided a device that could reliably pinpoint where the mothership was hiding.

Its instinctual habit of returning toward the mothership... Well, since it wasn’t a living creature, maybe calling it programming rather than a habit would be more accurate.

Either way, by utilizing this trait, we could figure out the location of the mothership situated somewhere inside the Forest of the Four Seasons.

It was still like looking for a needle in a desert, but just being able to get a direction was more than enough.

To put it in gaming terms, it was like giving you a rough direction and telling you to figure it out yourself once you reached that area.

[Wild Grylls: Hey. Try making do with this for now. This is something really important for your race.]

[Passing Dwarf: What’s this? Looking at it roughly, it seems to be a brewing recipe.]

[Wild Grylls: A recipe for liquor that’s effective against kidney stones and gout. Lucas gave it to me directly, so you can trust it and brew it.]

[Passing Dwarf: Whoa. With just this, wouldn’t our race’s lifespan increase a bit? lol]

[Wild Grylls: Even so, your livers will explode anyway, so your lifespans will probably stay about the same;;]

It was a chronic ailment for dwarves, who drank alcohol—especially beer—more often than water.

Kidney stones and gout were always brought up when ranking the most excruciating pains one could experience in life.

Kidney stones in particular were so insanely painful that people said you literally got to experience the trials of Hell firsthand.

Before medicine developed, people frequently died after committing all sorts of bizarre acts trying to cure kidney stones.

Even though this world possessed mana and magic, science wasn’t developed, making delicate work impossible.

Fortunately, whether because the Chief God and other deities had firmly instilled proper concepts of hygiene, they didn’t pull all kinds of crazy stunts.

[Passing Dwarf: Though yeah, since it’s a chronic disease for our race, we do have a specific way to treat it, yep.]

[Wild Grylls: What’s that?]

[Passing Dwarf: Channeling mana waves right into the kidney area. That gets rid of the stone inside lol]

[Wild Grylls: What? That’s surprisingly simple? Then doesn’t that mean you don’t need this?]

[Passing Dwarf: It’s because it’s f-cking expensive. You know how when you fought that gorilla back then, you broke its arm through its shield? Same principle, but it’s a hi-i-ighly advanced technique.]

[Wild Grylls: ;;;]

Of all things in life, to hear that they were using the notoriously difficult Internal Heavy Palm Technique to treat kidney stones...

What was hilarious was that if you messed up the control, your kidney would explode instead of the kidney stone.

Also, as mentioned earlier, kidney stones and gout were chronic conditions for dwarves. Meaning they suffered from them at every turn.

It was roughly similar to catching the flu in the United States and visiting a hospital, only to get slammed with millions of won in bills.

The problem was that kidney stones and gout weren’t on the level of a mere flu. I let out a dry chuckle.

[Wild Grylls: If you spread that recipe around, won’t you get backlash from the people making a fortune off treatments?]

[Passing Dwarf: Nah, they’re a tiny minority anyway so it doesn’t matter. Instead, I’ll be the one making a fortune lol]

[Wild Grylls: Thinking of making money off a recipe given directly by a god, what a wicked guy lol]

[Passing Dwarf: I’ll happily be a wicked guy, so hurry up and go find the Elf Queen lol]

I chuckled softly. He spoke like that, but in reality, there was a high chance he would just randomly spread it around.

After all, hadn’t he himself said earlier that it felt depressing when he couldn’t drink alcohol because he had no money?

Furthermore, the recipe I gave him wasn’t just ordinary booze, but a literal ’medicinal brew’. You drink alcohol, and it cures kidney stones and gout?

From the dwarves’ perspective, it would be no different from a miraculous elixir. Passing Dwarf would gain substantial social standing through this.

Even from the government’s perspective, they wouldn’t be able to recklessly draft a dwarf who had transformed into a master brewer.

’But this isn’t enough. If Alfheim decides to push forward with everything they’ve got, he’ll have no choice but to be drafted.’

This was merely buying time. Above all, even though I handed over the recipe, whether the dwarf could actually brew it remained an unknown.

Whether the ingredients could be obtained easily was uncertain, and he would also need a high-end brewery.

Thus, the only choice was to hurry up, find the Elf Queen, and suppress this chaos.

’Even if stopping the war itself is difficult, I need to mitigate it as much as possible.’

Reaffirming my firm resolve, I returned home.

Normally, I would have preferred to use the helicopter, but Lucas told me to avoid doing so if possible.

Apparently, being up in the air made it hard to grasp a sense of direction, and if machinery operated nearby, the core wouldn’t function properly either.

In the end, we had no choice but to walk on our own two feet like pilgrims. I had already taken this into account, so I had no particular complaints.

’I might need to budget at least two to three weeks.’

Returning home, I held a discussion with my companions. This journey would be far longer and more complex than before.

Furthermore, unlike before when we avoided dangerous areas, we would go unconditionally wherever the core led us.

"For the record, Cain-ssi, you’re definitely coming with us."

[You treat me like an escort knight.]

"..."

I swallowed the words, ’It’s just that, in a different sense from Lackey, you’re easy to order around.’

[Open that mouth right now. What were you thinking?]

"I didn’t think anything at all."

As the days passed, his sharp intuition seemed to increase. Or maybe I was just acting too transparently.

In any case, the party setting out on the pilgrimage was decided. Me, Cain, and lastly Lackey—making three in total.

Dolsoe was guarding the house, and the children were too dangerous to bring along, but as for why we didn’t take Bbareumbo...

"Bbareumbo. When I send a message, you shouldn’t reply sluggishly, okay?"Read the latest chapters at nоvelping.com.

"..."

"If you act slowly, the tree growing your food might die, you know?"

That was because Bbareumbo was one of the companions who, like Maengkkongi, had created a fixed username.

Lackey hadn’t made a fixed username so he could enjoy pleasure without responsibility, plus I was taking him with me anyway, while Dolsoe simply didn’t make one.

Since it was closely tied to private life, I couldn’t exactly force them to make one either.

"Dolsoe. You didn’t post any insults about me on the Gallery, right?"

"...I have done no such thing."

"Okay. I’ll believe you."

His answer was a beat late, but let’s let it slide.

Anyhow, the three of us—me, Cain, and finally Lackey—finished our preparations to set off.

We checked our gear, and packed food along with various necessities into the Subspace Backpack.

"Just in case, let’s pack winter clothes too. And take a whole heap of bug repellent."

"Master. You’re forgetting the most important thing."

"What is it?"

"Toilet paper."

"Ah. Right."

That almost turned into a disaster. As expected, Lackey really has good common sense.

If only I could do something about his cheeky personality, but that’s probably unfixable.

Thus, having finished all preparations, I placed the core on the ground.

It was an overall reddish sphere. A large yellow eyeball was embedded right in the center.

[Free!!! Dom!!!]

The core squirmed like an octopus and moved in one direction.

If it was heading toward the helicopter or Lucas’s flagship, I would have readjusted it.

But the place where the core was crawling while shouting "Freedom!" was neither Lucas’s flagship nor the helicopter landing pad.

It was toward the river—more precisely, toward the vast plains across the river. The region where all the animals had migrated due to the crustal shift.

"Let’s go."

[Free!!! Dom!!!]

Entrusting the noisily chattering core to Lackey, I set off.

Finding the Elf Queen, starting with a small group instead of everyone.

I wished from the bottom of my heart that it would end quickly, but I knew better than anyone that the probability was low.

What’s more, we might have to break through dangerous zones, so it was best to stay sharp.

"Take care of yourself, Master."

"Dad, bye-bye!"

"Pbee-eek!"

"Pbae-aek!"

Sent off by the remaining companions and children, I stepped onto the plains.

The plains were still composed of desolate land, but there was a difference compared to before.

Namely, trees were visibly sprouting here and there.

Since almost a month had passed since the crustal shift occurred, natural changes were hardly strange.

Given enough time, the plains would probably grow as lush with trees as the forest where I lived.

I didn’t know what kind of creatures would live there, but I prayed that weird ones wouldn’t migrate in.

Even after that, I kept walking while steadily finding the direction through the core. I didn’t forget to organize the information about the mothership along the way.

"Lackey. You said the mothership invaded back when you were living with the gorilla troop, right?"

"That is correct."

"And the Blood Demon stopped that mothership. Was it pierced through like when I did it?"

"Rather than pierced through, I understand it was heavily crumpled."

A long time had elapsed since then. Considering the period when the Blood Demon fled to the Forest of the Four Seasons after the Orthodox-Demonic War and the time he spent raising the gorilla brothers, it was about five years.

Since it took that long just to repair crumpled damage, it would take even longer now.

Of course, since a ghost ship went there, the possibility that the timeframe was shortened couldn’t be ruled out either.

[I am still astonished that the mothership was not built for combat.]

"A combat ship would probably shoot lasers and stuff."

Of course, even those combat ships were frequently wiped out by dragons during the Mythic Age.

Part of it was that the Tyrant Dragon King’s martial prowess was monstrous, but it was truly shocking how helplessly they were wiped out.

’I recall Starlight Lady mentioning she summoned a fighter jet before. She said Ash and Kadir took care of it, right?’

Currently, because the Forest of the Four Seasons was partially opened, Starlight Lady’s summoning magic had been temporarily put on hold.

Nah,

Well, rather than being put on hold, I heard she was researching new summoning magic. She said something about how it would be easier now that the Forest of the Four Seasons’ peculiar randomness had decreased.Read the latest chapters at NovelPing.

Of course, since the government directly ruled the opened regions, it would take time.

Moreover, since I’d slowly started finding a way out from this side, taking our time was perfectly fine.

’By the way, this place is way broader than I thought.’

It happened while we were aimlessly walking across the plains following the direction indicated by the core.

Although I had felt it before, the plains were ridiculously vast. To the point where no matter how much we walked, there was no end in sight.

Had it not been for the newly sprouted trees along the way, I would have mistaken it for wandering around the same spot.

"Chrrrsk."

"First off, let’s catch and eat that lizard over there. Be careful just in case."

Time passed, and before dinner, I chose to hunt in order to save as much food as possible.

Since creatures were slowly beginning to gather on the plains, there happened to be a moderately sized lizard.

Naturally, being the Forest of the Four Seasons, caution was required. Sure enough...

Puseuk!

Bright red blood shot like a bullet—not from the lizard’s mouth, but from its eyes!

Although it traveled at incredible speed, based on all my training up to now, I was able to dodge it effortlessly just by tilting my head.

I remembered reading in an encyclopedia when I was bored that among lizards, there were specimens that squirted blood from their eyes to threaten opponents.

Right around the time I wondered if this guy was one of those specimens, the blood it squirted struck a tree behind me.

Chiiiiiik!!!

The tree bark rapidly shriveled up. Shrinking while giving off acrid smoke and a foul stench was an added bonus.

It was similar to the Golden Frog that inhabited the river back in the early days of my survival in the Forest of the Four Seasons. The difference was that the Golden Frog used deadly venom, while that thing was acidic.

’...Seriously, what a trashy place.’

However, now that its hidden trick had missed, there was nothing left for the creature to do.

It was merely captured by us and turned into fine nourishment. It was surprisingly delicious.

"By the way, wouldn’t Master be completely fine even if hit by that?"

"Since he has Body-Protecting Gangqi, he’d be fine."

"He should conserve his Body-Protecting Gangqi, so getting hit with his bare body seems better."

"Back in the day, that remark would have gotten all your fur shaved off completely."

Thus passed an uneventful day since setting off on the journey...

[Free!!! Dom!!!]

"Hey. Go grab that bastard quickly."

Correction. The core kept squirming and trying to escape every chance it got.

Even when stuffed inside the Subspace Backpack, it dragged the whole backpack along with it, so we couldn’t drop our guard for a second.

Anyway, even though it was an eventful day right from the start, we eventually faced the end of the vast plains.

Hwiiiiiing!!!

"From here on, it’s a snowy mountain."

"It looks freezing cold."

At the end lay a snowy mountain where nothing existed except pure white snow.

Just like across the river back then, the space was sharply demarcated! On top of that, the core was crawling right toward it.

Although it felt a bit uncomfortable, as I mentioned before, it was time to step into dangerous territories as well.

Unless it was a hopeless place like a radioactive zone or a volcanic region, we had no choice but to explore.

"Lackey. Put on the cold-weather gear. And I’ll go scout ahead first."

"What if space shifts along the way?"

"Then there’s nothing we can do. You and Cain-ssi go straight back. I’ll explore alone if I have to."

Since I had a coordinate tracker, returning would take longer, but it wouldn’t be impossible.

Soon after, having squeezed into my cold-weather suit, I stepped onto the snowy mountain. To be honest, I was a bit scared, but it seemed alright.

’Surprisingly, the temperature isn’t bad either?’

Hwiiing!

It was just when I wondered if the wind was super cold. Right on cue, a breeze blew in.

I wondered if it was blowing a razor-sharp icy wind like winter in our forest.

Jjijijik! Jjijik!

"...?"

What the hell? Why are my clothes tearing? Nothing happened except the wind blowing?

It was the precise instant that thought crossed my mind.

Seogeok—

As the wind brushed past my face, the sound of something slicing echoed. At the same time, something warm trickled down my cheek.

Stunned, I wiped it with my hand, and bright red blood stained my fingers.

Since I hadn’t activated my Body-Protecting Gangqi and it had merely nicked the skin, there was no real problem.

Aside from the winter suit being ripped, that is.

"What kind of crazy place is..."

The snowy mountain was blowing literal ’blade winds’.