Got a Gallery in the Wild

Putting aside the internal core and the other materials left behind by the Pumpkin Jack, the most urgent thing was to figure out what the hell that creature actually was.

I had no idea what Dad Raccoon had given me, but I also needed to ask him about it. There was a lot to do.

The first thing was to consult Ludwig.

I asked him what that thing’s real name was.

Pumpkin Jack was a name I had come up with on my own; it surely had another name.

“Pumpkin Jack.”

“Pumpkin Jack?”

It was quite a revealing name.

Similar to Jack-o’-Lantern, but different.

And at the same time, very straightforward.

Now that I knew its name, the best thing to do was ask the Gallery for the details.

Fortunately, I had already taken several photos and videos.

Lately, I had gotten into the habit of doing that, because too many unexpected things kept happening.

Title) What is a Pumpkin Jack?

WildGrills

(Photo of the Pumpkin Jack grinning maliciously)

(Video of the Pumpkin Jack jumping into the sky)

(Video of the Pumpkin Jack regenerating)

(Photo of the Pumpkin Jack’s internal core)

I planted a seed that Dad Raccoon brought me, and it suddenly turned into this thing ;;

No matter how many times we cut off its head, it kept regenerating, so in the end we found its root and killed it.

It also spat out a pretty strange internal core. Does anyone know what it is?

According to Ludwig, it’s called a Pumpkin Jack, but the name alone doesn’t really tell me what kind of monster it is.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) A pumpkin-shaped yokai. Well, considering egg-shaped ghosts exist, I suppose it isn’t that strange.

ㄴWildGrills) Egg-shaped ghosts really exist?

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) They’re creatures that usually appear in places overflowing with demonic energy.

ㄴWildGrills) Then they’re similar to monsters.

ㄴNo. Their nature is different. Monsters exist from the beginning; yokai are humans who became corrupted.

ㄴThe Changgwi are also yokai created from people devoured by tigers. That’s why they completely lose their minds whenever they see a tiger.

ㄴAren’t yokai stronger than monsters?

ㄴIn most cases, yes. In the Central Plains, most people die fighting other people, not monsters.

ㄴWhat are you talking about? LOL. In the end, everyone dies in front of a dragon.

ㄴAnd dragons can also die at the hands of humans, so yokai aren’t that powerful either. ;;

ㄴSwordmaster) Pumpkin Jacks are extremely rare monsters, so this is quite interesting. Normally, they only appear during a specific time of the year and only at night.

ㄴWildGrills) Only at night? It just fought me in broad daylight!

ㄴSwordmaster) That’s exactly why I find it strange. Though it’s also possible that I’m mistaken.

ㄴStarlightPrincess) Maybe it’s because they’re easier to find at night. They glow in the dark.

ㄴWildGrills) Instead of just glowing, this one was firing seeds at me like arrows.

ㄴStarlightPrincess) I can’t really say beyond that. It’s such a rare monster that there are hardly any records about it.

ㄴAllFather) There is a day known as the Day of Spirits. Pumpkin Jacks tend to appear frequently during that time.

ㄴWildGrills) Just the name alone sounds pretty ominous.

ㄴAllFather) It’s a day when numerous spectral-type monsters appear. Vengeful spirits, Dullahans, ghouls, zombies, liches—there are countless of them.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) That’s the day when priests are the busiest! I even took part in one of those battles a long time ago!

ㄴAnd what did you defeat?

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) A Death Knight!

ㄴHuff, that’s definitely a tough opponent.

ㄴIsn’t a Death Knight on par with a high-ranking knight?

ㄴSpectral monsters are especially vulnerable to holy power, so comparatively speaking, they’re easier to defeat.

ㄴSunForEver) So what are you going to do with that internal core? It’s so big that it looks awkward to eat.

ㄴWildGrills) For now, I’ll keep it. If I end up not being able to use it, I can always give it to StarlightPrincess.

ㄴSunForEver) Really? Then what are you going to do with that huge pumpkin? Are you planning to eat it all by yourself?

ㄴGrowGrow) By the way, pumpkins harvested in autumn and left to mature throughout the winter become much more delicious.

ㄴWildGrills) That seems to be the case.

ㄴSunForEver) Then save me some when the time comes. Haha.

ㄴDwarfPassingBy) Me too. Haha.

ㄴWildGrills) Sure, I’ll give everyone some.

ㄴAre you going to put it up in the auction house? Thanks, thanks.

ㄴMy mouth is already watering. LOL.

I had never said I was going to put it up in the auction house.

In any case, it was clear that it was an extremely rare monster.

I had no idea how Dad Raccoon had found that seed.

After reading through all the replies, I called Dad Raccoon.

I didn’t think Dad Raccoon had tried to get me into trouble, so I wanted to know why he had brought it to me.

“Kiee! Kieee! Kiee!”

“I didn’t know. The seed smelled good. I thought it would be good to eat.”

“I see.”

After listening to him, I realized Dad Raccoon had never imagined I would plant the seed.

When animals find something that looks tasty, they simply eat it.

Humans, on the other hand, plant the seeds.

Besides, Dad Raccoon had only seen my garden fairly recently.

It had all been the result of the difference between the way we think.

‘Though, in the end, the outcome wasn’t bad either.’

We had obtained the Pumpkin Jack’s internal core and an enormous amount of food.

The only thing that worried me was insects or other animals eating that gigantic pumpkin.

I could keep insects away with repellent.

But there wasn’t much I could do against other animals besides fighting them.

Knock. Knock.

‘At least the rind is really hard.’

That was a small consolation.

The pumpkin’s shell was so tough that ordinary teeth wouldn’t even be able to scratch it.

‘At noon we’ll steam the pumpkin that was attached to the root.’

Pumpkins aren’t tubers.

But for some reason, the main body hanging from the roots was a pumpkin.

It was the small one that Lackey had knocked unconscious with his punches.

Now it no longer had any vines.

Only the main body remained.

Although it was much smaller than the giant pumpkin, it was still more than enough to feed all of us.

Besides, there was a chance it might wake up again.

It was better to cook it as soon as possible.

‘I’ll steam it.’

It was almost lunchtime, and after all that work, I was starting to get hungry too.

Before I started cooking, there was one more thing I had to prepare.

“Yes. Right there. Stack them like that.”

“Here.”

“Exactly. Make sure they’re symmetrical.”

It was an oven.

Now that there were more mouths to feed, production efficiency had become important.

Preparing the ingredients didn’t take much time, but cooking did.

So if I built another oven, I could cut the preparation time considerably.

‘Since I’m at it, I might as well make it a little bigger.’

Just to be safe, I decided to build one larger than the previous one.

Naturally, I got the iron plates from DwarfPassingBy.

When I told him I’d give him some pumpkin as a drinking side dish later, he happily agreed.

With Ludwig’s help, we finished it in no time, and immediately afterward, we started preparing lunch.

‘Let’s see steamed pumpkin…’

A steamer would have made things easier, but unfortunately, we didn’t have one.

Still, steaming it wasn’t difficult.

All I had to do was put water at the bottom of the pot and place the pumpkin on top.

Keeping it elevated wasn’t difficult either.

I just had to place a small bowl inside the pot.

Since pumpkin was naturally sweet, I planned to serve it as dessert.

“Alright. Let’s eat.”

“Kyuuuu~!”

“Peeep! Peep!”

Halfway through the meal, I put the pumpkin on to steam.

That way, it’d be ready just as we finished eating.

Finally, after lunch, I took the pumpkin out.

Shine! Shine!

“Whoa…”

Until I had removed the seeds, it had been an ordinary orange color.

But after steaming it, it began to glow with an intense golden color.

I hadn’t even added any honey.

It was a pumpkin that anyone would swear was overflowing with sweetness.

Everyone stared at it with their mouths watering.

“Hold on. Not yet. It’s still very hot. Wait.”

“Kyuuuu…”

“Peep…”

At my warning, the two of them looked at me desperately.

It was as if they were silently protesting.

‘Hurry up and put that pumpkin on my plate!’

But I was the cook.

Before serving it, I had to taste it first.

Steam was still rising from it because it had just finished cooking.

Nom.

“Wow!!”

The moment I took a bite with the spoon, I couldn’t help but exclaim.

Was this pumpkin or honey?

The expression ‘honey pumpkin’ suited it perfectly.

After seeing my reaction, the others became even more impatient.

Wonmo, who was especially gluttonous, even started desperately scratching my knee with his little front paws.

“Alright, alright. Here you go.”

“Kyuaaa!”

“Peeeeep!”

I gave everyone an equal portion.

“Kyuaa! Kyua!”

“Peeep! Peep!”

“It’s hot! It’s hot!”

Ah.

I had forgotten to tell them to eat slowly because it was hot.

Still, once they got used to the heat, they truly began enjoying it.

Ludwig was no exception.

He simply gave me a thumbs-up to show how delicious it was.

And Sloth.

“…”

He ate it with his usual slow movements.

The funny thing was that today his hands were moving faster than usual.

To anyone else, he would still seem painfully slow.

But I could clearly tell that, compared to normal, he was eating at full speed.

‘Perfect.’

Wonmo went back into the cave to take his nap.

Tyran, who also seemed sleepy, followed him.

The rest of us stayed behind to finish cleaning up.

After the mess the Pumpkin Jack had caused, there was still quite a bit of work left.

When I finished, I took the internal core out of my pocket.

It was still emitting that intense orange glow and was still quite large.

‘What if I just eat it?’

So far, I had absorbed a great many internal cores.

Thanks to that, my aura had continued growing.

To the point that even Ludwig was starting to feel uncomfortable just looking at it.

If I absorbed this one too.

What would happen?

It would be difficult to swallow, but it was worth trying.

“Should I try it?”

“…”

Ludwig nodded.

To my surprise, he also thought it was a good idea.

After all, my fighting style mainly depended on increasing my raw strength.

If that strength kept growing, there was nothing wrong with that.

There would be time to think about the Aura Blade later.

For now, the important thing was to keep increasing my power.

If even Ludwig agreed, there was no reason to hesitate anymore.

‘The only annoying part is how huge it is to swallow…’

But I had to do it.

If I broke it before eating it, its size would decrease, but so would its effect.

I nodded and immediately sat down in the lotus position.

When Ludwig saw me do that, he silently raised his sword.

He seemed ready to protect me in case someone appeared while I was absorbing the core.

‘As always so reassuring.’

I smiled faintly and took a deep breath before putting the core into my mouth.

Then I tensed my throat with all my strength and forced it down.

The sensation of that enormous sphere sliding down my esophagus was rather unpleasant.

But eventually, it reached my stomach.

‘The energy of heaven…’

The moment I swallowed it, I fully recited the formula HeavenlyDemon had taught me.

I remembered it perfectly.

Every verse was long, but that wasn’t a problem.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The core’s energy slowly began spreading throughout my body.

The Pumpkin Jack’s internal core contained far more energy than the fish cores.

No matter how much I absorbed, it never seemed to diminish.

Thanks to that, my dantian eventually became completely filled with internal energy.

For a moment, I even thought I was going to explode.

‘Just in case faster…’

Uneasy, I accelerated the circulation of the cultivation technique even further.

If it hadn’t been for HeavenlyDemon’s teachings, this would probably have been extremely dangerous.

Finally, I absorbed all the core’s energy and slowly opened my eyes.

When I did, I had the strange feeling that the entire world was much brighter than before.

“Hmm.”

Ludwig noticed I had awakened and lowered his guard.

I nodded in thanks.

Then I looked around the cave.

The little ones were no longer there.

I could only hear them playing outside.

When I stepped outside, the sun was already setting.

Not only because winter was approaching and the days were shorter.

But also because absorbing the core had taken a very long time.

‘It doesn’t feel like much has changed.’

Aside from having much more mana inside my body now, I didn’t notice any major differences.

But there was no doubt that my overall strength had increased.

Satisfied, I wrote a post in the Gallery.

Most people were happy for me.

Only the anonymous users reacted with envy.

ㄴWhat if one day you go ‘Boom!’ and explode?

ㄴDidn’t something like that happen to someone once?

ㄴYeah. There was someone who had so much mana that their whole body ended up covered in cracks.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) That was me. But thanks to all of your help, I managed to survive.

That was more or less the conclusion.

As night fell, I started preparing dinner.

And then.

“Now what is this?”

“Kyuuuu! Kyukyu!”

“Peeeeep!”

It wasn’t until nightfall that I discovered the Pumpkin Jack’s internal core’s true effect.

Everything around me was illuminated as if it were daytime.

The problem was.

My eyes and my mouth.

An intense beam of light shone in the exact direction I was looking.

Even if I turned my head, the light continued pointing exactly where I looked.

“So now I’ve become a human flashlight?”

An incredibly bright light was pouring out of my eyes and mouth.

I had become a genuine human flashlight.

Being able to shoot light from my eyes?

This is completely.

“Laaaaaaaser Beaaaam!!!”

“Kyuuuuuu!!”

“Peeeeep!! Peeeeep!”

Ridiculous.

But it’s ridiculously fun!