I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 848

Unfortunately, our fight with the Sword Master crab ended without a clear winner.

Even Wonmo had suffered a defeat, so it was only natural for me to step in myself.

Or was it just that smart, being a crab capable of fencing?

Skitter!

The second it caught any sign of me stepping up, it burrowed straight into the deep pile of sawdust.

I was so dumbfounded that I just stared at the spot for a good while before finally coming to my senses.

"There really are so many fascinating things here."

"Tell me about it."

Unable to deny Miren’s words, I readily nodded.

Of course, calling it fascinating was only possible because we had the strength to protect ourselves. Just look at how I was in my early days of survival.

I was wary of loose pebbles on the road, even falling leaves—let alone living creatures.

Memories of desperately clawing and scraping just to stay alive, even with steady help from the Gallery, came flooding back.

’Right. No reason for others to suffer like I did.’

The Forest of the Four Seasons was an area that was almost certain to open up someday.

Exploration couldn’t be put off forever just because it was an unknown land.

?Internal Cultivation Master Robert) (Rough status of ecological survey thrown into chaos by a single hedgehog) Huh?

"Ahem."

Of course, thorough preparation would be needed for that.

If the barriers fell overnight like the Berlin Wall, there was no telling what kind of chaos would ensue.

Chewing on that thought, I thoroughly surveyed the sawdust-covered area.

We had to stay vigilant, since another threatening creature like that Sword Master crab earlier could pop up at any moment.

"Do you think something huge is sleeping under that mountain-sized pile over there?"

Miren pointed at the sawdust mountain, curiosity plain on his face.

Considering that crabs slept buried in sawdust, the chances of a crab sleeping under there too were exceptionally high.

It was bound to be a colossal bastard at a glance, so nothing good would come from poking it.

"Probably. So let’s leave it alone and head somewhere else."

"Would even you find it tough to defeat something that big, Grylls-nim?"

Is this punk trying to provoke me?

Yet looking at Miren’s face, he genuinely seemed to be asking out of pure innocence.

"In the past, it would’ve been rough, but now I’m not so sure. Besides, each creature’s combat power varies."

"So you have taken down something huge before?"

"We teamed up to take down a massive lizard once."

Right, I hadn’t told him that story.

I filled Miren in on the subjugation of the frilled-neck lizard as we walked.

Just in case, I took a wide detour around the mountain of sawdust.

There was no telling what might happen if we stirred it up for no reason.

Above all, this was basically a scouting run, so there was no point in wasting stamina.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

Of course, that was assuming we didn’t provoke it.

So why the hell was the sawdust mountain suddenly heaving, and why was the earth trembling?

Sighing at the thought of another hassle, I quietly drew my weapon.

Crabs had extremely hard carapaces, so Mistilteinn would be far more useful than the Sword of the Heavenly Demon.

"Th-the tremors are way bigger than before?!"

"When you feel tremors this big, draw your weapon or prep your magic right away."

"Y-yes!"

Krrrr!

The moment he answered, the dead center of the sawdust mountain’s peak began to rise, bit by tiny bit.

A fistful. Then two.

Then larger and larger.

Finally, sawdust erupted in every direction like an explosion.

BOOOOM!

With a roar like a collapsing mountain, a torrential cloud of sawdust blasted into the air.

What emerged from beneath was the shell of a colossal crab...

"Wh-what is that?!"

"Uh... a turtle?"

...No, it was a turtle shell.

In short, a tortoise as massive as a mountain had just woken from its slumber.

Thud—thump—

Without even bothering to shake off the thick mound of sawdust piled on its back, the beast plodded away somewhere.

Judging by the shape of its feet, it was definitely a land tortoise, not a sea turtle.

"Nothing good comes from picking a fight with something like that, so let’s let it go."

"Y-yes..."

As a rule of thumb, it’s best to leave turtles alone.

Turtles are already known for longevity, and that one even had a beard.

I had no idea why it had a beard, but it had clearly lived a long, long time in the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Either way, with the giant tortoise lumbering away, we had our opening to move again.

Aside from things like that, I figured most of what was sleeping in the sawdust were crabs.

"Master. Look at this."You are reading on novеlping.com, the official source.

"What is it?"

"Delicious grub."

"Get that away from me."

I stand corrected.

Plenty of oversized bugs like grubs lived here, too.

I did my best to ignore Dolsoe, whether he was catching squirming grubs or not.

"Wonmo. Eat."

"Looks so good!"

"Is it tasty?"

"..."

What a dizzying conversation.

Part of me wanted to say, ’Spit that out, it’s yucky, yucky.’

Still, grubs were practically a delicacy to Wonmo, so I let it slide.

"Dad. Can I roast this over a fire?"

"Do whatever you want."

Was it because time had passed and he was slowly moving past the stage of a savage—no, a savage animal(?).

Or had he realized cooked food tasted better than eating it raw?

Either way, Wonmo chose to cook the wriggling grub rather than swallow it raw.

"We need to gather firewood to start a fire. Wonder if this burns well?"

"Hm? Hey, HEY!"

And then this idiot Miren tried to set fire to the sawdust.

The moment I saw what he was doing, I jumped in panic and scrambled to stop him, but—

Fwoosh!

Too late.

Did he just lack a brain, or did he have zero sense of danger?

Miren went ahead and lit the pile of sawdust anyway.

Bang-bang-boom! Bang!

A spectacularly flashy fireworks show played out—not in the sky, but right across the ground.

Anyone with basic common sense knows that sawdust is extremely flammable and carries a massive risk of dust explosions.

On top of that, he hadn’t just sparked a lighter; he’d ignited it with magic.

Bang-bang-boom! Bang!

The fire Miren sparked spread in all directions, setting off a spectacular sea of flames.

Spreading flames would be bad enough, but it was chaining into explosions. Absolute chaos.

In this situation, there was only one thing I could do.

CRRRASH! Hurriedly throwing up a tall wall of ice to protect us.

Stabbing Mistilteinn into the ground, I channeled mana through the entire earth via Unity of Self and Object.

From there, I caused ice walls to shoot up, shielding us from the violent blasts.

"...Miren."

"...Y-yes, sir."

"Can we use our brains next time?"

I had plenty to say, but he clearly seemed contrite, so I let it drop.

Even as we spoke, a chorus of explosions echoed beyond the ice wall.

Given the sheer amount of sawdust piled up, it would take quite a while for the detonations to stop.

?Heavenly Demon) The fireworks I saw at the festival are unfolding right on the ground.

?Smart Demon) Don’t go getting any ideas about using sawdust for fireworks, either.

?Sword Matstar) Sounds like you speak from experience?

?Smart Demon) My father was a carpenter. I tried it once for fun and caught absolute hell for it.

?Heavenly Demon) You were quite the brat yourself back then, I see.

?Passing Dwarf) All that’s missing over there is some booze!

While the dust explosion played out, I shot the breeze with the fixed nicks.

Once the explosions significantly subsided, I quietly brought down the ice wall.

"...Wow."

"Looks so good!"

Thanks to over twenty minutes of fire and explosions, bright-red, perfectly cooked crabs filled my sight.

The silver lining was that the flames hadn’t spread to the nearby forest.

Looking at these guys who’d been living peacefully until now, it was genuinely a bit tragic.

"Slurp! Dad?"

"...Let’s take a few and eat them."

Just to be safe, I’d cook them again once we got home.

One careless bite and you could catch parasites.

Before long, I gathered the crabs scattered across the ground and stuffed them into my Subspace Backpack.

And so, having wrapped up this quasi-expedition, we returned home.

Miren, perhaps replaying his mistake in his head, spent the whole walk walking on eggshells around me.

"Stop walking on eggshells. Things happen."

"I... I’m sorry."This chapter was taken from nove⁠lping.com without permission.

"At least you apologize. Some people just talk back like they own the place."

"Who’s that?"

"Someone. A certain punk."

I couldn’t bring myself to say it was the albino gorilla who whined about candied sweet potatoes every single day.

That guy had actually become quite popular among the residents lately.

Anyway, upon returning home, what met my eyes was...

Bzzzzzzt! Crackle!

"Aaaargh!"

"Ow! That stings!"

"...What the hell is going on here?"

A jellyfish floating in midair, and residents scrambling to dodge the lightning it hurled down.

Never mind that the jellyfish was the size of a whole house—the real question was where the damn thing came from.

"Oh! Master! Good timing!"

As I was trying to figure out what was happening, Lackey hurriedly called out to me.

I turned to him and demanded an explanation.

"Residents read a book about fishing! So they went fishing!"

"...And you didn’t stop them? You never know what’ll pop out when you go fishing around here."

"I thought it would be fine if it wasn’t ice fishing!"

"Haah..."

Why is it that whenever people gather in groups, their collective IQ plummets off a cliff?

Someone could write a dissertation on this, but dealing with the situation came first.

’Seeing how Bbareumbo is just sitting there watching, it can’t be that serious.’

Bbareumbo’s reaction was consistent as always.

Just staring blankly, watching the show.

Seeing him munching on a Fasting Pill at the same time, he clearly felt he didn’t need to lift a finger.

Crackle!

"How do we deal with something like that? It’s completely shrouded in lightning!"

"Tell me about it."

"Even you don’t know, Grylls-nim?"

"It’s my first time seeing a creature wrapped in lightning from head to toe."

I don’t know why a jellyfish that belongs in Bikini Bottom is hovering right in front of us.

Still, it wasn’t like there was no solution, so I decided to take action.

"Hey. Park Kkobong. You let this happen, so you deal with it."

"Me?"

"Who else? You have to take responsibility."

Of course, not me—Lackey himself.

Realizing it was his fault, he scrambled to bring down the lightning jellyfish somehow.

Fortunately, after throwing all sorts of magic at it, he somehow managed to knock it out of the sky.

"Watch out for its tentacles! It stings if they touch you!"

Was it because he was originally a hunter, or because he’d suffered through so much alongside me?

Lackey came up with a pretty solid solution and finished off the lightning jellyfish.

"Dad. Can we eat that?"

"I don’t think so."

Instead, I should check for an Inner Core.

There might be an Inner Core imbued with the energy of lightning.

Eating it might boost lightning resistance or something.

"Hm? What happened while I was gone for a bit?"

"Speaking of which, Elia, where did you wander off to?"

"I had something to take care of over by the goblin village."

"You weren’t planting trees, were you?"

"Actually, I was! Most of the goblin village is built of wood, you know. Trees need to be planted steadily. So I planted some with the villagers."

"..."

I was left dumbfounded by Elia’s brazen reply. She wasn’t wrong, so I couldn’t even scold her.

I let out a sigh laden with mixed feelings. ’I really need to send her out of the forest sooner rather than later.’ She was genuinely too much to handle.

While Grylls was busy lecturing the residents.

In the sawdust region that had been wiped out entirely by Miren’s blunder, only golden, thoroughly roasted crabs remained.

If it had been a town, it was no different from being burnt to cinders and reduced to ruins.

-Quite the spectacular fireworks show.

And there was a being stepping foot into that very area.

The entity looked around the area, then turned its head.

Its gaze locked onto Grylls’s home.

It moved as if about to head straight there, but then paused.

-No. Since I’m paying a visit, I should at least bring something to eat.

Shaking his head, he turned his steps in the opposite direction.

And then. Flap! Soon, spreading the massive wings on his back, he soared high into the sky.

Rumble—

As he took flight, a faint rumble of thunder rolled across the air. Even though not a single cloud marred the sky.