I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 690

During the early days of my survival in the Forest of the Four Seasons, I had formed connections with many fixed-handle users, some of whom were living on borrowed time.

The representative fixed-handle user among them was the Heavenly Demon, Yoo So-wol. She had personally mentioned that if I hadn’t found the Crescent Moon Spirit Herb, she would have met a sudden, tragic death due to Qi Deviation.

The other was Starlight Lady. Her body was on the verge of death due to a highly rare, incurable disease called the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.

Thanks to my gifts of a heap of Mature Mandrakes, she was now healthier than anyone, but back then, it was critical.

Because it was a disease where a person literally froze to death slowly. A disease where the internal meridians—that is, the mana circuits—gradually froze over.

There were three ways to treat this disease: absorbing Yang energy powerful enough to neutralize the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, a doctor performing direct surgery, or directly transferring Yang energy.

Among these, Starlight Lady chose the first. In truth, the second and third options had probabilities just as slim as the first.

Anyway, Starlight Lady was a truly lucky case, and even I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if I hadn’t discovered the Mature Mandrake colony back then.

"Lackey. Smoke this for now. It’s a World Tree Cigar, so it should at least be bearable."

"U-U-Understood..."

The problem was that we couldn’t use any of those methods in our current situation.

Since we were on a snowy mountain covered in snow everywhere, we couldn’t obtain ingredients filled with Yang energy, and the second and third options were likewise impossible.

For starters, my energy leaned more toward cold—that is, Yin energy—rather than Yang energy. Furthermore, since we were of the same gender, even the last resort was meaningless.

’Still, it should be better than Starlight Lady’s Nine Yin Severed Meridians. This is highly likely to be temporary.’

Unlike Starlight Lady, who had been slowly dying since birth, Lackey’s case was closer to an illness caused by the natural environment.

’Altitude sickness... or rather, the opposite.’

While altitude sickness is a symptom caused by thin oxygen, we had been breathing perfectly fine until now.

This was because our physical abilities and lung capacity had increased exponentially after overcoming numerous obstacles.

Even when a decent fight broke out, we might get wounded, but we never experienced issues with stamina or breathing.

But now, that advantage acted as a poison, causing him to inhale the harsh air of the snowy mountain directly.

Even with normal breathing rather than operating the Mental Cultivation Method, a tiny amount of mana is absorbed.

If he had a constitution like Ash, where mana filled up with every breath, it would have been even more severe.

"Lackey. Is it bearable?"

"I-It’s a bit better..."

That was why I made him smoke the World Tree Cigar to stabilize his breathing to some extent.

Along with operating his Mental Cultivation Method while smoking the World Tree Cigar. This way, the smoke would enter deep into his lungs.

Of course, since the symptoms had already manifested, it would be meaningless unless treated quickly.

For now, we were merely alleviating it, so we had to find a treatment filled with Yang energy.

[Starlight Lady: Grylls-nim. You can probably treat it with an Elixir.]

[Wild Grylls: Is treatment possible with an Elixir? Didn’t you say it didn’t work when you had the Nine Yin Severed Meridians before?]

[Starlight Lady: That was because it was the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, but the symptoms Lackey is suffering from should be different. Besides, since it’s an Elixir crafted from Mature Mandrakes, it will be full of Yang energy too.]

Thank goodness, the treatment itself wasn’t very difficult. The Elixir Starlight Lady had handed over to me was a potion whose main ingredient was Mature Mandrake.

Naturally, it had plenty of Yang energy, and upon hearing this, I immediately handed a whole bottle to Lackey.

Lackey also slowly poured the Elixir into his mouth with trembling hands. I prayed that it would be effective.

[Just drinking the Elixir will make it hard to cure. Ultimately, he must circulate his mana.]

"Lackey. Circulate it while keeping the cigar in your mouth."

Breathing is essential to operate the Mental Cultivation Method. However, since breathing on the snowy mountain caused these symptoms, he had to be careful.

So the best alternative chosen was to operate the Mental Cultivation Method with the World Tree Cigar in his mouth.

It seemed like a crazy thing to do, but it was the best we could do in our current situation, so there was no helping it.

We lit a bonfire to warm the cave, but there was no way this alone could withstand the harsh cold of the snowy mountain.

"Are you okay now?"

"Huu... My body is warming up. Master."

"That’s a relief. Just in case, drink a cup of this tea."

While drinking the tea given by Starlight Lady, we prevented Lackey’s hypothermia as much as possible.

Fortunately, as he drank things good for his body, he visibly improved bit by bit.

Of course, that didn’t mean we could move right away. If we left this place, the symptoms might recur.

’At least if he goes with the cigar in his mouth, it should be fine...’

The razor winds could be blocked by Lackey’s shield, but there was no way to do anything about the air.

If we had an oxygen tank, we could endure, but there was no way to obtain such a thing right now.

’Since we can’t buy oxygen tanks on the Gallery either...’

A place where the air is thin? Most of the time, only professionally trained people head to such places.

Since people themselves became stronger due to the existence of mana, the perception of ’why bother?’ was prevalent.

Still, if we wanted to make one, we could, but it would take time. Therefore, for now, we had no choice but to survive on the World Tree Cigar.

The problem was the remaining quantity of World Tree Cigars, which wasn’t very much.

Fortunately, since they were close to a cigar shape, they could be smoked for a long time.

At any rate, we needed spares, so I contacted the fixed-handle user who had given me the World Tree Cigars.

[Wild Grylls: Excuse me. Are you available to contact?]

[Let’s Grow Trees: (No Response)]You are reading on novelpin​g.com, the official source.

[Wild Grylls: Let’s Grow Trees-nim?]

[Let’s Grow Trees: (No Response)]

He wasn’t answering. In fact, I had contacted him a few times before, but he didn’t respond.

If he had died in an unfortunate accident, the contact itself wouldn’t have been possible.

Since the Gallery deleted all records of a person once they died.

But seeing that he wasn’t answering, he was likely ignoring me on purpose or had been imprisoned.

’It’s probably closer to the latter than the former...’

Honestly, looking at what this fixed-handle user usually did, he wouldn’t be able to complain even if he were locked up in prison.

Since he was one of the ’pointy-ears’ who enthusiastically cheered for tree planting, which was one of the Elf Queen’s policies.

However, considering he gave me World Tree Cigars without hesitation, it was half-certain that he held a high-ranking position.

’Could he have been purged after the Elf Queen entered the Forest of the Four Seasons?’

The possibility wasn’t zero. Looking at what the Senate was doing right now, the answer was clear.

Moreover, in any country, whenever a regime changes, they often disparage or completely nullify the achievements of the previous administration.

’But I can’t trade with the Senate. Those bastards are the biggest problem.’

I let out a sigh.

I could ask another elf to get some World Tree Cigars, but it felt a bit uncomfortable.

Since the situation in Alvenheim was what it was, it wouldn’t feel like a very good situation.

In the end, all we could do now was escape the snowy mountain before the World Tree Cigars ran out.

[Hmm...]

"Why are you acting like that?"

It was around the time Lackey’s condition had gradually stabilized and the time to depart was approaching. Cain was staring intently at something.

I wondered if something strange had happened to the makeshift cave.

[It is about this wall. Wasn’t it difficult when you tried to dig it out?]

"Yes. It was very hard for stone."

[If so, it is far from ordinary stone. Look at this.]

Cain picked up a fragment that had fallen to the ground and showed it to me.

Although there was a bonfire, the inside of the cave was still quite dark.

Thus, I activated my Eye Lantern and looked closely at the fragment.

Sparkle! Sparkle!

When I examined it here and there with the Eye Lantern, the fragment sparkled. If it were an ordinary stone, it would never sparkle like this.

I tilted my head, unable to identify the true nature of this fragment despite looking it over.

Still, I could roughly tell it was some kind of ’ore,’ but that was it.

"...Come to think of it, it didn’t break easily even with Mistilteinn. Could it be some amazing ore?"

[Considering the characteristics of a snowy mountain, we cannot rule out the possibility of it being Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron.]

"Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron?"

I had heard of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. After all, wasn’t the Sword of the Heavenly Demon that I frequently used crafted from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron?

It was an ore comparable to or even greater than Mithril, Orichalcum, and Adamantium.

Yet, there was a reason why it wasn’t included in the three major ores, which was due to its extremely difficult acquisition level.

Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, as the name suggested, meant iron that had harbored cold energy for ten thousand years, and the ’minimum’ condition to obtain it was a snowy mountain.

And it required extreme cold where the snow never melted all year round, just like the snowy mountain we were on.

Unlike the three major ores that could somehow be found in mines, it was excluded because its discovery conditions were hopeless from the start. In essence, it was practically a legendary ore.

"Surely you aren’t saying the entire mountain is made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, right?"

[It won’t be entirely Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron like the Orichalcum Cave. It is likely just mixed in as ore deposits.]

Just how extreme must the difficulty be for it to exist only in ore form even in the Forest of the Four Seasons?

Moreover, this was the Himalayas. A snowy mountain that had stood tall for millions of years, far transcending ten thousand years.

It was an environment where one would have no choice but to accept it even if Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron were scattered everywhere.

"Hmm..."

I toyed with the ore mixed with Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. If I had my way, I wanted to mine it and take it with me.

But not only did it not align with the goal of this exploration, it might also just increase our baggage.

’Besides, it’s only an assumption and not certain.’

For now, I sent a chunk of the ore to the dwarf for confirmation.

The dwarf grumbled about why I was giving him something like this again, but the unique curiosity of a Dwarf was not something that could be overcome.

In the meantime, I mined as much as I could. Since Lackey hadn’t fully recovered yet, I planned to mine until then.

You ask why I am suddenly mining when I said I would put mining aside earlier?

[Are you going to take all of this?]

"No? I’m going to ask Bbareumbo to store it for me."

[Ah. There was such a method.]New chapters come out on nоvelping.com first.

Bbareumbo is at home. Asking him would be more than enough.

Since I have no intention of ever returning to this hellish place, I plan to mine as much as I can.

Once I return, I can smelt it using the portable forge I obtained from Lucas. If I’m lucky, I might even be able to reinforce the Sword of the Heavenly Demon.

’Because I’ve used the Sword of the Heavenly Demon too roughly until now.’

Even though I cherished it by constantly sharpening the blade and wiping it with oil after use, a sword is ultimately a consumable.

Furthermore, as I dealt with all sorts of monsters in the Forest of the Four Seasons, it had begun to gradually wear down.

Since it was a sword given to me by the Heavenly Demon, it would be truly sad if it broke midway. I needed to prevent that.

"This should be about enough... Lackey. You’re fine now, right?"

"I am fine."

"That’s a relief. If you had said you were sleepy, I was going to slap your cheeks."

[It is a wise choice, but hearing you say it makes it sound strange.]

"At least I don’t use violence. I merely commit absurdities."

[...]

At my joke that wasn’t quite a joke, Cain stared at me intently before letting out a sigh.

I shrugged my shoulders and inspected the cold-weather gear. Fortunately, there was nothing to worry about.

"Lackey. You have to smoke that sparingly, okay?"

"Huu... Understood."

"I’m worried you might become a smoker at this rate."

[Free!!! Dom!!!]

After putting the World Tree Cigar in Lackey’s mouth instead of an oxygen tank, we moved our steps.

Having realized that just being on this snowy mountain was dangerous, we picked up our pace.

Fortunately, the direction the core pointed was also gradually heading down the mountain range, so the cold slowly weakened.

Of course, that didn’t mean we could let our guard down. I instructed Lackey to keep smoking the World Tree Cigar until the cold completely receded.

How long had we walked like that? The snow covering the mountain gradually disappeared, and the ground beneath was revealed.

At the same time, the cold and the razor winds retreated as well, which meant we were close to descending the mountain.

Chongchong- Chong-

Occasionally, rabbit-like animals could be seen. The wolves chasing them were a bonus.

Ppagak!

"Keeeeng!"

Of course, that wolf became a star beyond the sky with just a single back-kick from the rabbit.

I always think this, but you shouldn’t mess with small animals in the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Making that resolve, I moved my steps toward the gradually revealing ground. The weather was still cold, so I didn’t take off my cold-weather clothes.

"Heo..."

[It is a vast plateau.]

As soon as we descended from the snowy mountain, what welcomed us was an endlessly stretching plateau.

It was a plateau so vast that its end couldn’t be seen even beyond the horizon. I quietly pondered where this place was.

A plateau located right beneath the Himalayas mountain range could only be the Tibetan Plateau.

I also knew there was a desert near the Tibetan Plateau. I didn’t quite know the name.

’They say it’s one mountain after another.’

I let out a deep sigh and moved my steps. Or rather, I was about to move them.

Uuuung-

If not for the sound that suddenly echoed from above.

If it were an earthquake, it would be one thing, but hearing a sound from above raised curiosity rather than alertness.

It was strangely odd to be a sound made by a living creature, and it was certainly not the cry of a whale either.

"...That is?"

Looking up at the sky, what I saw was none other than a ship.

A massive ship was freely sailing through the sky.

Uuuuung-

While I stood dazed, the ship headed straight toward a certain location.

Just how fast was it that it was already about to disappear beyond the horizon in the brief moment I was dazed?

I hurriedly snapped out of it and checked the core. Even if we were in a rush, I needed to confirm if the direction was correct.

[Free!!!!!!]

There was no need to check. The core was shouting far more noisily than before.

The moment I realized this, I hurriedly shouted to my companions.

"Hurry, chase after that!!"

The end of our long journey was gradually coming into view.