Got a Gallery in the Wild

The pumpkin monster, the symbol of Halloween—the Jack-o’-Lantern.

It was characterized by its slit mouth filled with sharp teeth and by its completely hollow eyes and nose.

And, just as the name “Lantern” suggested, its interior was empty, yet overflowing with light.

As far as I knew, it rarely harmed people and normally just played pranks on them.

“Kyahhh! Kyahhhhhh!”

“What the hell is that?”

But that only applied when it was small.

The pumpkin head standing before me was as enormous as a house.

It looked so threatening that it seemed capable of swallowing a person whole in a single bite.

Its scream didn’t help either.

It was exactly the roar one would expect from a monster.

It was certainly fitting for a fantasy world, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling worried.

‘How are we supposed to kill something like that?’

Unlike a beast, it was a plant.

It had no obvious vital point.

There was fire, considered the natural enemy of all plants, but the question was whether it would work on that thing as well.

Besides, there was something else that felt strange.

‘Dad Raccoon would never have given me something dangerous…’

Up until now, Dad Raccoon had always brought me medicinal herbs and mushrooms with excellent properties.

That was why I had planted that seed without suspecting anything.

And now a pumpkin monster appeared?

I couldn’t help thinking that maybe it only looked like that and was actually a harmless creature.

Boom!

It was just as I was thinking that.

To my surprise, the Jack-o’-Lantern leaped high into the sky.

I had no idea how something that massive could jump so high, but I didn’t have time to keep thinking about it.

“Huuuup!”

The Jack-o’-Lantern threw its head back.

“Tatatatatatata!”

And fired something from its mouth.

It was incredibly fast.

Not so fast that it couldn’t be dodged with the naked eye, so I calculated its trajectory and stepped aside.

Papapapap!

“Kyuuuu!”

“Peeep!”

The other animals also hurriedly dodged.

And when I saw what it had fired.

“S-seeds…?”

What the Jack-o’-Lantern had shot were seeds.

Seeds almost as large as the one I had planted.

But that wasn’t all.

Rrrr.

The seeds began burying themselves in the ground on their own.

The moment I saw that, I shouted in horror.

“L-Lackey! Pull them out! Hurry!”

“Understood!”

“Wonmo, Tyran, you two as well! If those things take root, we’ll be in serious trouble!”

“Kyuu!”

“Peeep!”

At my desperate command, my animal companions immediately began pulling out the seeds before they could sink into the ground.

Fortunately, they buried themselves rather slowly, so we managed to remove them all in time.

Boom!

But the Jack-o’-Lantern was still perfectly fine.

That enormous… body… well, pumpkin… fell back to the ground.

Slash!

At the same time, Ludwig charged straight at the Jack-o’-Lantern.

Wielding the Mythrilcon Sword, which I had no idea when he had drawn.

While we had been dealing with the seeds, he had been preparing to attack.

Shhh.

A green galaxy began flowing along the Mythrilcon Sword.

At the same time, a sharp Aura Blade enveloped the entire blade as though coating it.

Aura Blade.

The technique he had already shown me several times.

With the combination of the Mythrilcon Sword and Aura Blade, even steel should be sliced through without difficulty.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Ludwig swung his sword only once, yet the air filled with dozens of slashes.

Even with my dynamic vision, I could barely follow his movements.

He couldn’t even properly use the mana inside his body, and yet he was still this fast.

Just how powerful had he been outside the Forest of Four Seasons?

The more I saw, the more curious I became.

Plop! Plop!

Under Ludwig’s precise and efficient attacks, the Jack-o’-Lantern was reduced to pieces.

It was a creature the size of a house, yet only a handful of cuts were enough to tear it apart.

Just as I was about to think it was all over.

It floated.

The pumpkin fragments began rising into the air.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Little by little, they started coming back together.

Both Ludwig and I watched the scene with our eyes wide open.

When all the pieces had reassembled, the Jack-o’-Lantern’s distinctive face reappeared on the pumpkin.

“Kyahhhhhh!”

The moment Ludwig heard that scream, he stepped back with a bewildered expression.

And I felt exactly the same.

I had watched its interior carefully when Ludwig cut it apart.

‘But it was just an ordinary pumpkin…’

There had been absolutely nothing inside.

Only a few seeds.

I hadn’t found any core, magic stone, or anything of the sort.

Then.

Why the hell had it regenerated?

Boom!

As I continued wondering about it, the Jack-o’-Lantern launched itself into the sky once more.

Was it going to repeat the same attack?

Just as I raised my shield to prepare myself.

Crack!

“Huuuup…! Guek!”

The Jack-o’-Lantern threw its head back, but something struck it head-on, sending it crashing down.

Someone had knocked it down.

I turned my head to see who it had been.

“Gruuung.”

The answer appeared immediately.

Largo was holding a brick between her teeth.

Apparently, she had swung her long neck and launched it like a catapult.

She was, quite literally, a living catapult.

Thanks to her, she had saved us from a huge problem.

Boom!

The Jack-o’-Lantern landed on its back.

We couldn’t afford to waste that opportunity.

Ludwig and I ran toward it at the same time.

It was too busy trying to flip itself over.

With a body that enormous, it seemed to be having trouble regaining its balance.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Ludwig launched the first attack.

Just like before, he cut the Jack-o’-Lantern to pieces.

Then it was my turn to finish it off.

With my Aura Blade expanded to its maximum size, I unleashed a direct strike against the fragments.

I wasn’t trying to cut them.

I wanted to crush them completely.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The pumpkin pieces were reduced to an unrecognizable pulp.

It was a shame, but there was no other choice.

Putting out the fire in front of us came first.

Just like that, the Jack-o’-Lantern ended up not only chopped into pieces, but turned into a shapeless paste.

In that state, it shouldn’t be able to regenerate anymore.

I muttered to myself.

“…Did we defeat it?”

“Hey, idiot!”

The moment I muttered those words, Ludwig shouted a warning at me.

Startled by his sudden outburst, I looked at him, only to find him staring back at me with the expression of someone who had just heard a forbidden word.

Only then did I realize the slip-up I had just made.

It floated.

The pieces of the Jack-o’-Lantern, which had already been reduced to pulp, slowly began regenerating.

Why the hell was it still regenerating?

If it had at least been an animal, I could have understood.

After all, there was the saber-toothed tiger—a creature whose heart, comparable to a Dragon Heart, granted it extraordinary regenerative abilities.

But this wasn’t an animal.

It was a plant.

It didn’t have any part through which it could absorb nutrients.

‘Is it because of the soil? No. That can’t be it. It doesn’t have any roo…’

The instant I remembered that the Jack-o’-Lantern had no visible roots, an idea struck me like lightning.

Without wasting a second, I turned my head.

My gaze locked directly onto the garden.

The very place where that thing had grown.

It was a hypothesis that completely shattered common sense, but this was a fantasy world.

And on top of that, the Forest of Four Seasons—a place where not even the rules of this world worked properly.

Here, it was better to stop thinking logically and trust my instincts.

“Mister! Keep that bastard busy for a moment!”

“And you?”

“‘I think I’ve figured out how it works! And the rest of you too! Get behind me, just in case!’”

The moment I gave the order, instead of grabbing my sword or shield, I picked up a shovel.

And started digging where I had planted the Jack-o’-Lantern.

Then.

“I found it!”

It didn’t take long to uncover the Jack-o’-Lantern’s root.

I had no idea what kind of mechanism it used, but those roots continuously supplied nutrients to the enormous pumpkin.

‘So this world has Bluetooth roots now?’

At this rate, Bluetooth showers are going to appear too.

I shook my head to get rid of those ridiculous thoughts and firmly grabbed the thick rhizome.

Whoosh!

Plants also had a will of their own.

And this one was a monster.

The instant I grabbed the root, several vines burst out and tried to restrain me.

At first, they went straight for my neck, but I barely managed to dodge them.

“Lackey! Grab this!”

“Uooh!”

“The rest of you too! Each of you grab one!”

I gave instructions to Lackey and the other animals.

Once everyone had grabbed a root or vine with their hands or mouths, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Pull!!!”

“Kyuuuu!!”

“Peeeeeep!!”

I didn’t know whether the roots were buried too deeply or were simply unbelievably tough.

One person and four animals were pulling with all our strength.

And they still wouldn’t budge.

Meanwhile, Ludwig continued keeping the Jack-o’-Lantern occupied, though I didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.

Whoosh!

To make matters worse, another vine appeared.

It seemed to have realized I was the main target, because it wrapped itself directly around my neck.

The pressure gradually increased, and my vision began to blur.

But I didn’t let go of the roots.

I could clearly feel everyone else pulling with all their strength.

If we didn’t rip that thing out, there was no telling what other tricks it might have up its sleeve.

Crack!

Little by little, our efforts began to pay off.

I felt the unmistakable resistance of a root beginning to come loose in my hands.

I could also clearly feel it desperately struggling to stay buried.

But it was already too late.

The soil had already begun letting it go.

Even as my neck was being strangled, I shouted.

“Cough…! Now! Pull!”

“UOOOOOOH!!!”

Rrrrrrip!

With that final effort, the roots slowly began emerging from the ground.

At the same time, the vine strangling me tightened even more.

But it no longer mattered.

The entire root finally came out of the ground.

Rrrrip!

We had uprooted the Jack-o’-Lantern’s enormous, resilient root.

It writhed as though it were alive.

But that wasn’t the most surprising part.

“Kiiieeeehhh!!”

It wasn’t just an ordinary root.

It was a miniature Jack-o’-Lantern.

And it was radiating an intense orange light.

So the little one was controlling the big one?

Either way, we had found its weak point.

Now all that remained was to finish it off.

Whaam!

“Guek!”

I punched the tiny Jack-o’-Lantern hanging beneath the roots, and it let out a cry of pain.

Apparently, it could feel pain.

It was very similar to an adult mandrake.

That made things much easier.

I looked at Lackey.

“Lackey! Beat the hell out of this bastard!”

“Uooh!”

Lackey was far more experienced than I was in hand-to-hand combat.

And what did that mean?

Tatatatatatata!

“Guek! Guek! Gueeeek!”

He turned it into a punching bag.

As if venting all the stress he had built up, Lackey enthusiastically kept pounding it.

The more he hit it, the weaker the pressure from the vine around my neck became.

The same thing was happening to the enormous pumpkin head Ludwig was fighting.

Since the main body was getting beaten senseless, it could barely twitch anymore and was no longer able to move properly.

Plop.

After Lackey’s seemingly endless barrage of punches, the entire root went completely limp.

The main body’s screams also came to an end.

It seemed to have passed out.

When I looked at the little Jack-o’-Lantern, its mouth, nose, and eyes had vanished as if by magic.

Just as I thought it was enough and told Lackey to stop.

“Blegh!”

Something fell out of the main Jack-o’-Lantern’s mouth.

It was a sphere glowing with an orange light.

Anyone would have thought it was an internal core.

And it was fairly large as well.

Roughly the size of half a fist.

If someone tried to swallow it whole, they’d probably choke.

‘That internal core is already valuable, but what about this?’

I looked at the Jack-o’-Lantern’s main body.

I didn’t know whether it would have any use as well.

Now that it had spat out its internal core, perhaps it had become an ordinary pumpkin again.

Even so, it most likely still contained an enormous amount of energy.

I’d already seen it with the fish.

Creatures that possessed an internal core were usually extremely valuable.

“?#%@^?”

Once everything was over, Ludwig walked over to talk to me.

He pointed at something.

I followed the direction of his finger.

With the disappearance of the main body, the gigantic Jack-o’-Lantern head had turned into a completely ordinary pumpkin.

A gigantic pumpkin, of course.

What were we supposed to do with something that huge?

“Well, we’ll eat it.”

“Eat it?”

“Yes.”

Since ancient times, pumpkin had been one of the great delicacies of winter.

“What do you say we make steamed pumpkin later?”

Our pantry had just become a whole lot more plentiful.