Got a Gallery in the Wild

In the Four Seasons Forest, no one starts from the same place.

Unless they enter holding hands, each person appears in a different location.

And even if they do enter holding hands, no one can guarantee they will end up in the same place.

Many people had entered.

But not a single one had ever returned to tell the tale.

Only with extraordinary luck could you appear near someone who had entered before.

“Uugh…”

A Holy Knight let out a groan and got up from the ground.

He was wearing a helmet, so it was impossible to see his face, but his uniform identified his affiliation.

He was one of the veterans of the surveillance group whom Ludwig had kicked and forcibly sent into the Four Seasons Forest.

Normal Holy Knights wore white armor.

But the members of the surveillance group wore almost black armor.

Originally, it was armor used by the inquisitors, though those men had now become the Pope’s private soldiers.

“Damn it… Where the hell am I?”

The guard looked around while cursing.

In reality, he knew perfectly well where he was.

But he wanted to deny it with all his might.

He clearly remembered Ludwig kicking him into the Four Seasons Forest.

‘Damn it…’

He looked around.

This was completely different from the forest he had seen from the outside.

There was no lush woodland.

Only dry, twisted trees.

Everything was covered in gray.

As if volcanic ash had fallen or a forest fire had consumed the entire place.

And the ground was even worse.

He had landed on a small patch of solid ground.

But everything else was an immense swamp.

‘Was I lucky?’

If he had fallen directly into the swamp, he would have died the moment he entered.

Though that did not mean he was safe.

Where was he?

In the Four Seasons Forest.

The hell of the living world.

The cursed land where not a single survivor existed.

The guard swallowed hard.

‘I still don’t know that. That Grills guy was alive too.’

Maybe no one could leave.

But there were survivors.

That fact gave him a small glimmer of hope.

He then checked himself for injuries and inspected the condition of his weapons.

Apart from the kick he had received in the back, he felt no particular pain.

[It is not possible to access the gallery from this area.]

But he could not connect to the gallery.

He was one of its users as well.

And precisely because he knew how useful it was, he could not help clicking his tongue when he saw that message.

‘So that story about being able to use it was a complete lie.’

The Pope had used WildGrills as proof to claim that it was now possible to use the gallery even inside the Four Seasons Forest.

That lie had been used to convince people and send the expedition.

But now that he was inside, he understood the truth.

The Pope had lied shamelessly.

There was a saying that of everything that came out of the Pope’s mouth, the only true thing was the carbon dioxide.

The guard agreed completely.

He had been an idiot for falling for it.

‘I’m getting out of here no matter what. I’m much stronger than that bastard. How could I possibly fail?’

He gritted his teeth.

He would escape within a few days.

And then he would cut off Ludwig’s head.

Even though the true person responsible for all of this was the Pope, he was far too powerful.

So he vented his resentment on Ludwig, who was an easier target.

The typical attitude of bullying the weak and submitting to the strong.

The purest manifestation of selfishness.

‘First, I’ll check my mana.’

Before setting out, he decided to inspect the state of his mana.

He had consumed a great deal of it while fighting Ludwig.

He was only checking it, so there was no need to use a cultivation technique.

“…Hm?”

Then he noticed something strange.

His eyes widened slightly.

Normally, his mana should have been circulating, even if only a little.

But this time, that was not the case.

No.

It was circulating.

The problem was that it was doing so at a ridiculously slow speed.

Alarmed, he activated his mana.

‘W-why is my mana…?’

It was still practically motionless.

He had to force it just to notice the slightest movement.

He even tried to manifest his aura.

But it was useless.

The aura did not appear either.

It was as though he had fallen into this place completely unarmed.

His chances of survival were far lower than he had imagined.

He thought that perhaps he had suffered some internal injury and carefully examined his body.

But he found nothing unusual.

Finally, he decided to take the risk and practice a mana circulation technique.

‘W-what is this?!’

And the moment he began, he understood the reason.

The problem was the mana.

Not his own.

The mana outside.

The concentration of ambient mana was absurdly high.

The mana outside was suppressing the mana inside his body.

Like the pressure at the bottom of the sea crushing an object.

‘Impossible! That bastard Grills clearly…!’

He could not believe it.

This was a completely unexpected situation.

Grills used enormous amounts of mana whenever he wanted.

And he could not even move his own.

It was impossible to accept.

‘No… If I have time…’

It was still too early to despair.

He forced himself to remain calm.

If the external mana was suppressing his own, then he simply had to fill his body with that same external mana.

He did not know how long it would take.

But it was not impossible.

‘I need to find a safe place.’

He made a quick decision.

That swamp was dangerous.

He had no idea what kind of monsters might appear.

The forest where WildGrills was had to be much safer.

As he reached that conclusion, he began moving away from the swamp.

Shing.

He also drew his sword to be ready at any moment.

Even if he could not use mana, he still had his physical abilities.

That would have to be enough.

‘Archbishop Odon entered before I did… Where could he be?’

He thought about Odon, who had been thrown into the forest before him.

A priest who, like him, had been forcibly sent there by Ludwig.

But unlike the guard, Odon specialized in support and had almost no combat ability.

And now it had been proven that this place did not even allow the use of mana.

The more time passed, the lower his chances of survival would become.

‘Even if I can’t do anything for the archbishop, I should at least find the others.’

That was why he decided to abandon any thought of searching for priests unless something extraordinary happened.

He himself had lost much of his strength.

He had no room to protect someone incapable of fighting.

Normally, priests used holy power to heal.

But that was only possible if they possessed holy power.

And Archbishop Odon had almost none.

He had never expected much from him.

After all, he had reached his position solely because of his connections.

To escape that hellish forest, he needed to join forces with the strong.

Not with people who would only become a burden.

‘Though… if I happen to find him… I won’t be able to pretend I didn’t…’

Just as the member of the surveillance group finished organizing his thoughts…

[…,Help me.]

That was when it happened.

Something reached his ears.

At first, he thought he had heard wrong.

He stopped and listened carefully.

[…,please… help me…]

He heard it again.

Though it was still a faint voice.

The guard hurriedly looked around.

He needed to find out where the voice was coming from.

“Is anyone there?! If someone’s there, speak louder!”

Shouting in a swamp was not a good idea.

The noise could attract beasts.

But given the circumstances, he had no other choice.

Hoping that his voice would reach the other person, he shouted with all his strength.

[I’m here! Here! I’m here!]

This time, he heard it clearly.

He turned his head toward the source of the voice.

Although it seemed to be accompanied by a faint echo, he paid it no mind.

Because he had recognized the language.

It was not the tongue of any other nation.

It was the language of Eldorado.

‘And that voice is that Archbishop Odon?’

The guard desperately ran toward the source.

Perhaps he had been lucky and the archbishop had regained consciousness after the fall.

Just moments ago, he had thought the man was useless.

But he was still a person.

‘At worst, I can even use him as a human shield.’

It was a truly despicable thought.

It perfectly showed how a person could change when driven into desperation.

[I’m here! Isn’t anyone there?!]

The voice was getting closer and closer.

The water was already covering his feet.

It only reached his ankles, so he did not worry.

The first priority was confirming the other person’s identity.

And finally, he reached the place where the voice was coming from.

“A-Archbishop! You’re still alive?!”

[Oh… You’ve come…]

The guard managed to find the archbishop.

Surprisingly, he seemed to be in perfect condition.

His voice sounded a little strange, but otherwise he looked far too well.

[Come this way. I think this is the way out.]

“Huh? The way out…?”

[That’s right. Someone else helped me too.]

Odon smiled kindly as he pointed toward the supposed escape route.

That only made the guard’s suspicions grow.

Because the place he was pointing at was a deep swamp.

Even where he was standing, the water already rose slightly above his ankles.

And that place looked much deeper.

‘First of all…’

There was something even stranger.

Something he had only just realized.

Archbishop Odon was short.

And the water there was deep enough to cover a person’s ankles.

Then.

Why was he standing on the surface of the water?

True masters could walk on water.

But Odon was not one of them.

Something was wrong.

More than strange, it was terrifying.

“Y-you! Who the hell are you?!”

[Huh? What are you talking about…?]

“You damned monster! Show yourself!”

The guard backed away while pointing his sword at him.

His voice trembled with fear.

Perhaps the creature sensed that fear.

Because Odon.

Or rather, whatever had taken Odon’s appearance.

Stopped hiding.

Shhhk.

The figure of the archbishop faded away like a mirage.

And what appeared behind it was, astonishingly, a corpse.

A completely dried-up corpse.

It looked like a mummy.

Tentacles were wrapped around its neck as though it had been strangled.

The guard recognized that body immediately.

It was Odon.

There was no doubt about it.

‘W-what the hell is this?!’

Rumble.

Without caring about the guard’s reaction, the swamp began to shake.

As if an earthquake had struck.

If Grills had been there, he would have run away without looking back.

But the guard had only just entered the Four Seasons Forest.

He could only stand there, unable to react.

Splash.

A hand emerged from a deep pool.

It had a human shape.

But its skin was smooth, like that of an amphibian.

Its color was dull, similar to tree bark.

Perhaps it served as camouflage.

Splaash!!!

The creature planted its hand on the ground and completely revealed its body.

The guard was horrified.

It was several times larger than he was.

It had a mouth full of horrible fangs.

An elongated body.

And antennae sprouting from its head.

From one of those antennae hung Odon’s corpse.

Whoosh!

That monstrosity of the swamp, a giant anglerfish with hands, stretched one of its arms toward him.

The moment he saw it, the guard tried to retreat.

But that movement was precisely what doomed him.

Because one thing should not be forgotten.

This was a swamp.

Splash!

“Urgh!”

If you stayed in the same place for too long, the mud would eventually swallow you.

The guard lost his balance and fell.

And the creature did not let the opportunity slip away.

Crunch!

“Aaaagh!”

The human-like hand seized him with brutal force.

The guard struggled desperately as the pressure crushed his body.

But it was useless.

He could not use mana.

His fate was to be devoured.

Crunch. Crunch.

Meanwhile, the creature brought Odon’s corpse, which it held with its antenna, to its mouth.

Its sharp teeth mercilessly crushed the body.

Then, an antenna resembling a tentacle wrapped itself around the guard’s neck.

Craaack!

“Ghhhhh…”

The air escaped from his lungs.

Little by little, strength left his body.

Clank.

Because of the violent struggle, his helmet was knocked off and fell to the ground.

Inside the helmet, there was only a dried-up mummy.

As withered as Odon’s corpse.

Thud.

The creature released its hand.

The guard’s body remained hanging from the antenna.

After draining all of his life force, the monster sank back into the deep waters.

The only thing it left above the surface was the antenna from which the corpse hung.

“A-Archbishop?!”

Incredibly, the mummy’s lips began to move.

Its voice came from that dried mouth.

As though the antenna were controlling the corpse.

A horrifying sight.

“You damned monster! Show yourself!”

It was no longer merely imitating voices.

“Isn’t anyone there?! There’s a person here! I need help!”

It was as though it had torn away the complete memories of its victims.

“Someone help me, please!”

The Four Seasons Forest.

It was a hellish place.

***

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

“Fuu… This should be enough.”

I drove the sign into the ground and murmured in satisfaction.

How long had it taken me to make all these signs?

But now that they were in place, I felt proud.

‘I hope they manage to survive.’