I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 832

It was a confusing situation in many ways, but quite a few things were predictable.

The "will" Gas Mask had mentioned earlier meant pulling out the wedge driven into the World Tree.

And since the wedge had been pulled using even a Dragon Heart, the World Tree was bound to regain its vigor.

Lastly, once the World Tree regained its vitality, there was a high chance Aragon’s side would detect the signal.

Although I couldn’t confirm who that Gas Mask really was, or whether their name was Anette, I decided to let that slide for now.

"Grylls-ssi. I’m not sure if what I saw earlier was an illusion, but..."

"Aris fighting the dragon? I saw that too."

"Ah! Then this makes things much simpler! Will Lord Aragon send people after us?"

Even Elia, who usually couldn’t get enough of the World Tree, looked dead serious, having realized the gravity of the situation.

Back at the Evolution Laboratory, they had sent clones of the former Sword Saint, Friedrich, forcing us into a battle.

Large Field was a lab that even a dragon had aided, so its importance had to be far greater.

In other words, this signal could draw forces far more formidable than before.

The problem with Friedrich’s clones wasn’t just their individual combat prowess, but that reinforcements kept steadily arriving.

Right now was especially bad, as no one else could arrive in time to back us up.

"Whine..."

While I was weighing the gravity of the situation, a plaintive cry caught my ear.

Turning my head, I saw the shepherd staring mournfully at Gas Mask’s already melted remains.

It was a shame I hadn’t figured out Gas Mask’s identity, but it probably wasn’t Anette.

Having their Dragon Heart—practically their very essence—taken by someone else was a major factor, and the final memory looked closer to sacrifice.

"Are you okay?"

It was right as I was pondering who Gas Mask might be.

Wonmo, who had developed some empathy as he grew recently, walked up to the shepherd with a sad look on his face.

"Did your daddy die?"

"..."

Smart Demon: Whoa;;

Sword Matstar: Does Wonmo browse the Gallery too?

Passing Dwarf: That kid’s parent-roasting skills are already something else, huh?

Not a chance.

I felt momentarily dizzy at Wonmo’s devastating phrasing, but I couldn’t really blame him.

As everyone knew, Wonmo usually called me "Daddy," and to him, "Daddy" meant master.

That was why he offered what passed for comfort in his own way.

"I think so. He said he was sorry he couldn’t treat me better."

"Must’ve been a good daddy, like mine."

"Yeah. I was almost eaten by the bad guys too, but Master saved me."

"Was this always your home?"

At Wonmo’s question, the shepherd nodded with a pitiful look.

It seemed the shepherd had also nearly been devoured by the Elders before Gas Mask rescued him.

"Hey, friend. What would you do if you lost your master?"

"First, I think I’d eat Daddy to fill my belly."

"Wonmo?"

Heavenly Demon: Truly, a mindset to never part, even in death.

Don’t Abandon the Hero: I’m pretty sure Wonmo’s just hungry, though...!

Princess Chaenggu: That’s what you call pure love, right?

Suspiciously...: Pure wild instincts;

I felt like I’d just heard something chilling.

Of course, being an owlbear by birth, instincts were hard to suppress.

You could argue he could just be taught, but educating someone and having them internalize it are two completely different things.

Vwoooom!

Even as this mock comedy routine played out, the pillar of light surging from the World Tree persisted.

The World Tree’s vitality hadn’t fully returned yet, but that wouldn’t take long either.

"...First, let’s go clean up."

"What if enemies swarm in like last time?"

"We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it."

It sounded a bit irresponsible, but there was work to be done right now.

The residents of Large Field who had to evacuate because of the Flesh Dragon’s rampage.

The situation may have settled down, but things weren’t completely over yet.

"Master! Look at that!"

And that wasn’t all.

Right as I was wondering what to do with the Large Field residents, Lackey pointed upward.

I naturally assumed he was pointing at the pillar of light from the World Tree, but that wasn’t it at all.

Whoooosh!

Like a dehumidifier sucking up moisture, the fog blanketing the entire city was being absorbed into the World Tree.

It was originally fog shrouding Large Field to protect it, but now that the wedge was gone, it seemed to be drawing it back on its own.

Looking only at this, it might seem like Large Field had been liberated, but at the same time, they were about to face new threats.

’Like it or not, that fog was what kept Large Field safe from external threats.’

We still had no idea how many Manatology remnants lurked outside Large Field.

Their numbers had probably dwindled considerably during the fierce battle with the Flesh Dragon, but that alone wasn’t enough to be certain.

Daejeon was a massive city, and the fog had covered all of it.

Flash!

After absorbing a fair amount of the fog, a subtle change occurred in the World Tree.

Leaves that looked ready to drop like autumn foliage grew vibrant and green, revealing their true colors.

At first, I wondered if I was seeing things, but it gave off a brilliant glow, as if golden ink were slowly seeping through.

’It’s nice, but...’

I gathered my companions and prepared to return to Large Field.

Deep down, I wanted to watch what would happen once the World Tree finished transforming.

But as I said earlier, dealing with the residents of Large Field was the top priority, so I put that on the back burner.Find the original chapter at novelping dot com.

"Hey. Aren’t you coming?"

Before leaving, I called out to the shepherd mourning Gas Mask.

Wonmo was beside him offering what passed for comfort, but the sheer sorrow couldn’t be hidden.

At the question, the shepherd looked up at me, then answered, drooping down limply.

"...I don’t want to leave Master."

"Your master wouldn’t want you doing this either."

"Really?"

"He cared for you and loved you all this time, didn’t he? I’ll bury your master in a nice, sunny spot."

"Whine..."

I didn’t even know his real name, but either way, he had fought alongside me.

Showing proper respect to a fallen comrade would at least make the parting a little less lonely.

Above all, it would bring immense comfort to the shepherd.

After all, funerals were meant more for the living than the dead.

"What’s your name?"

"Master called me Pup."

"To think there’s someone who names worse than this human."

From the shadows, Heukgu sighed in mock lamentation.

Honestly, I thought Heukgu was a pretty good name.

Either way, I scraped together as much of Gas Mask’s remains as possible and headed toward Large Field.

Because they were melted down like slime, I had no choice but to bundle them up in a cloth to carry them.

"Come to think of it, Lackey. Do you know where that Gu-chil guy went?"

"I don’t know either. He’ll manage on his own."

"Probably, right?"

Frankly, whether he lived or died didn’t matter much to me.

If anything, I kind of hoped he’d died alone somewhere on the road.

His mindset was far too radical for us to take in.

’If only he didn’t have that loyalty to the Blood Cult...’

The problem was that he couldn’t let it go.

He was convinced his very survival in the Forest of the Four Seasons was thanks to Wi Ho-chang’s divine protection, so there was no reasoning with him.

And so, when we arrived at Large Field, most of the residents had already returned.

Large Field was half-destroyed after the Elders—that is, the Flesh Dragon—had gone on a rampage.

With Large Field’s technology, they could easily restore it, but there was a fatal flaw.

Namely, that most of Large Field’s technology had been held exclusively by the Elders.

Strictly speaking, the residents of Large Field had been "farmed," leaving plenty of glaring gaps in what they knew.

"The livestock facilities have completely collapsed."

"Is there anyone among the residents who can rebuild it?"

"I only know how to work machines, so..."

Plenty of people on Earth use smartphones, but very few actually know how to build one.

The Large Field residents’ situation fit that to a tee.

Looking only at this, I might seem like a villain from their perspective, but...

"The Elders were really the same as the monsters in the fog?"

"I’m telling you, they were! You saw it with your own eyes earlier!"

"Wait. Then when the elderly went to meet the Elders..."

"Good grief. Is that true?"

The truth that Large Field, which they had firmly believed to be safe, was actually a monster’s feedlot.

Combined with all the incomprehensible taboos imposed on them, they couldn’t deny it even if they wanted to.

Crucially, the live broadcast had aired in vivid detail, making the fallout unavoidable.

[What will you do with the residents now?]

Cain, who had helped Miren evacuate the residents, approached me and asked.

Now that the fog had lifted, Large Field was no longer a safe zone.

Yet we couldn’t just leave them here either.

I was the one who caused this mess, so shouldn’t I at least take responsibility?

"Is anyone injured? Please speak up, even if it’s something minor."

"I got hit by flying debris on my way past, so my head..."

"My leg got pinned under rubble..."

Before anything else, treating the wounded was the urgent priority.

Being dragon descendants, the residents had remarkable regenerative abilities, but there was a clear limit.

So I used Elixirs to treat the residents, leaving only a single bottle behind for dire emergencies.

Fortunately, thanks to a timely evacuation and the Flesh Dragon focusing solely on me, there were almost no critical injuries.

"Grylls-ssi."

It was around the time things had calmed down a bit.

Miren, having somewhat recovered from the shock, cautiously approached me.

He hesitated, but I could roughly guess what he’d come to say.

"What is it? Don’t worry, just say it."

"What should we do now? Now that the Elders are gone, rebuilding Large Field seems out of reach..."

"The other residents know this too, right?"

"Yes."

As mentioned before, there were around two hundred residents in Large Field.

More than half of them were thoroughly captivated by the stories I had shared.

But regardless, Large Field was their hometown, the place they had spent their entire lives.

It’s human nature to be reluctant to leave home, even when disaster strikes.

"Nobody really wants to leave here, right?"

"Actually, they all want to leave?"

"Huh? But it’s their home?"

"It gives everyone the creeps now. Besides, they’re all excited at the thought of wandering outside freely."

It was an answer I couldn’t quite wrap my head around.This chapter was copied from no‌velping.com without permission.

But considering they were dragon descendants, it made a weird sort of sense.

Didn’t they say even the dragons revered as gods roamed the world adopting all sorts of personas just to enjoy their "Amusement"?

They might do it to stave off the boredom born of immense lifespans, but the fact that they actively sought Amusement showed their nature.

’Born adventurers, then?’

That was very likely.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that we had to move them to a safe location.

"Mm... If possible, it’d be best to move to the area where I live."

"Could it accommodate this many people?"

"To be honest, it’d be pretty tough."

Even if we sent them to Goblan Village, extensive construction would be essential.

Not only that, the journey itself was an issue, and I doubted Nidhogg would just look the other way.

’Using the World Tree here is also unsettling...’

Furthermore, I had to see what kind of changes would unfold with that World Tree.

What would happen to the World Tree once it finished absorbing all the fog, what response the signal it sent would draw, and so on.

I wanted to wait until the World Tree’s transformation was completely finished before using it.

We were in no position to rush off blindly, so until then, I had to look after them myself.

"So we’ll stay here until we’re ready. Oh, and you can read all the books you want now."

"We can read books?"

"Yeah. What do you want to read?"

"There’s a lot I’d like to read, but... the languages are different, so it’s tough."

Looks like I’ll have to get some help from the Library Mimic, Alex.

For now, I set out to help the residents clean up and rebuild Large Field.

A thriving town had turned into a refugee camp in the blink of an eye, but thankfully, there were few complaints.

Whether it was because they knew they had been farmed by the Elders or just their innate disposition, I couldn’t say.

Plus, since their individual strength and abilities were so exceptional, no major issues cropped up.

"So, what should we do now?"

"Should we watch a movie or something?"

Right. On the surface, everything seemed fine.

But these were people who had lived suppressed under taboos directly dictated by the Elders.

They didn’t really know how to develop on their own.

Explaining this was rather tricky, but fortunately, one Fixed Nick offered a fitting analogy.

Allfather: The greatest challenge when a baby bird grows up is actually eating food on its own.

Heavenly Demon: Not flapping its wings?

Allfather: That is instinct. But if you look at fledglings that have just left the nest, most simply gape their beaks wide even with food right before them. This happens because the mother bird always fed them in the nest.

That fine professor, Allfather, had drawn an apt comparison.

The residents of Large Field had been fed like baby birds, but now they had to prepare to hunt for themselves.

It meant they needed to foster independence.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

"Our food is running low."

"Of all things, the food warehouse had to be destroyed..."

The food problem—the single greatest challenge refugees face.

The residents of Large Field each consumed an enormous amount of food.

To sustain that, they had run the livestock plants, but even those were now destroyed.

After pondering the matter, I ultimately decided to turn to the Gallery for help.

"Don’t worry about food. I can cover that for you."

"Are you going hunting?"

"Nope."

Answering a curious Miren, I purchased a food item from the Gallery.

It was just run-of-the-mill meat from the auction house, but the moment Miren and the other residents saw it, their eyes went wide.

"M-Meat, out of thin air?"

"How did you do that?!"

"You’ll find out eventually."

This was why I loved the Gallery.

"Alright. Shall we start cooking?"

Because I could fill not just my own stomach, but others’ as well.

"By the way, Miren. Do you know where Gu-chil went?"

"I have no idea either."

Where the hell did he run off to?

Contrary to Grylls’s assumption, Gu-chil hadn’t run away.

"W-Why me...?"

"Because there’s a lot I want to ask about that man."

He had simply been kidnapped by an unknown stranger.

The flash of light and visions bursting from the Dragon Heart.

And the moment the vision ended, he had been dragged away by someone wearing a gas mask.

The question of why on earth this was happening crossed his mind, but only briefly.

Because the moment Gas Mask pulled the wedge, a pillar of light enveloped him, teleporting him somewhere else.

The place he arrived at was an unrecognizable space, but...

"That man’s name, the way he speaks, his combat style, language, appearance. And lastly, what others call him. Tell me everything."

Gu-chil realized instinctively.

The moment he refused, his life would be forfeit.

"Tell me in detail, and I will grant what you desire."

"W-What I desire?"

"Yes. What you desire."

A figure in the darkness said calmly.

"Do you not wish to see your Sovereign again?"