Got a Gallery in the Wild

Fortunately, we didn’t end up fighting a life-or-death battle against the Guardian.

Just as every material had different properties, it seemed that Guardians also had different personalities.

Whereas the Orichalcum Guardian reacted aggressively to mana, the Earth Guardian showed no hostility.

It simply emerged from the ground, stared at us for a moment, and then left for another place.

“Huff…”

I let out a sigh of relief as I watched the Earth Guardian walk away.

The truth was, if we compared our strength alone, we clearly had the advantage.

Not to mention Ludwig—even I already had experience fighting a Guardian.

But there was no need to waste unnecessary energy, and besides, we might end up provoking other nearby creatures.

Especially since, even though we were the ones who had disturbed it first, it quietly left, so it didn’t seem to have a bad temperament.

“…Let’s keep going.”

“Mm.”

Once the matter was settled, we resumed our journey.

Thanks to this incident, I realized I shouldn’t casually touch just anything that glowed.

Especially if it was buried underground.

As I gathered medicinal herbs along the way, I continued toward the Orichalcum Cave.

A few beasts appeared during the trip, but they immediately fled.

‘There are a lot more of us.’

It had always been said that no one could stand against overwhelming numbers.

And besides, almost everyone in our group was fairly strong, so it was only natural that they didn’t want to come near us.

“Kyuuu! Kyuu! Kyuu!”

“Peep!”

“Oh, you two…”

Well.

Except for the two weakest ones.

I barely managed to separate Wonmo and Tyran, who were fighting over a rabbit they had just caught.

Apparently, they had both chased the same rabbit.

If they kept this up, we wouldn’t get anywhere.

“Do you want to lose your snacks again?”

“Kyuuuu…”

“Peeeeep…”

After making peace between them, we continued toward the Orichalcum Cave.

Perhaps because of the insect repellent, or because winter was already approaching, the insects didn’t bother us this time.

‘Now that I think about it, wasn’t this the chickens’ territory?’

I looked around.

If I remembered correctly, this was the black chickens’ territory.

They were almost as tall as Largo.

I remembered that Wonmo had run into them during one of his strange adventures, and all sorts of things had happened.

‘There’s no sign of them did something happen?’

Or maybe they were simply preparing for winter.

I figured there was no need to go looking for them.

— Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!!!!

Just then, a powerful rooster’s crow echoed throughout the forest, as if warning us not to go any farther.

It seemed to immediately detect when someone entered its territory.

“Kyuu!!”

The moment Wonmo heard that sound, he hurried over to me.

Then he clung tightly to my leg.

It was obvious he was still traumatized by what had happened back then.

And it was understandable.

After all, he had been surrounded by chicks much bigger than himself.

Even I would’ve wet myself if a flock of chickens had surrounded me.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. There’s no one nearby.”

“Kyuuuu… Kyuu…”

“$%^#?”

Seeing Wonmo trembling, Ludwig tilted his head curiously.

Judging by Wonmo’s reaction to the rooster’s crow, he seemed to realize something had happened here before.

“Yes. Wonmo got beaten up pretty badly by some chicks.”

“Chi… cks?”

“The ones that go peep, peep.”

When I imitated the sound of chicks, Ludwig finally understood and nodded.

As I gently patted the trembling Wonmo’s back, we continued walking.

Tyran watched us with a somewhat strange expression, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

“We’re here.”

“Hmm.”

After a while, we reached the Orichalcum Cave.

Ludwig carefully inspected the entrance, which looked like a completely ordinary cave at first glance.

Meanwhile, I took out the Light Crystal Sphere that KingLeor had given me.

Even though my eyes now emitted light, nothing was better than this for exploring caves.

Besides, there was no guarantee my eyes would glow every time I entered a dark place.

Maybe they only activated at nightfall, not simply because of darkness.

I needed to verify that as well.

Fwoosh!

I tapped the sphere a couple of times, and it immediately began emitting a brilliant light.

A moment later, the sphere started floating quietly in the air.

Behind me, I heard Ludwig let out an admiring exclamation.

KingLeor had already told me it was a rather valuable item.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Hmm.”

“Should we leave Largo outside?”

Because of her enormous size, Largo had to remain outside the cave.

Some people might think she could run away, but Ludwig didn’t seem worried about that.

Even so, just in case, I’d have to ask a dwarf to make some reins for her later.

With everything ready, I entered the cave while the Light Sphere floated above us.

Flash!

“Kyuuu! Kyuu!”

“Peeep!”

The moment I stepped into the dark cave, my eyes began glowing again.

The light followed the exact direction of my gaze.

It was a really strange sensation.

At least my eyes didn’t hurt.

If they had, I would’ve done anything to learn how to control it.

‘There might be animals that are sensitive to light.’

Caves were completely dark places.

Because of that, many creatures had poor eyesight or even atrophied eyes.

Well, this was a fantasy world, so perhaps there were animals with extraordinary vision.

But that didn’t change the fact that they would be sensitive to light.

“Let’s head down this way.”

The rope I had installed earlier was still there.

It wasn’t a completely vertical descent.

There were several places to brace your feet.

The rope was only there for safety.

“Kyuu. Kyuu.”

“Peep. Peep.”

Thanks to their small size, Wonmo and Tyran hopped down in little jumps.

Meanwhile, Ludwig, Lackey, and I descended slowly while holding onto the rope.

If any of us slipped there, we would most likely suffer serious injuries.

“Hop!”

It had been quite a while since we had last visited the Orichalcum Cave.

It was still as dark as ever.

We had already defeated the Guardian, but just to be safe, I decided to avoid using mana as much as possible.

“$%$…….”

“This is all orichalcum. Take a look.”

While Ludwig looked around the Orichalcum Cave for the first time, I gave him a general explanation.

The entire cave was made of orichalcum, and if he wanted, he could take as much as he liked.

That said, he had to be extremely careful when using mana.

There was no telling what might appear.

“Crunch! Crunch! Nom! Nom!”

“Kyuuu……”

Just as he had done before with mithril, Tyran started eating the orichalcum.

The best part of the scene was Wonmo’s expression as he watched Tyran, completely unable to understand what he was doing.

From Tyran’s point of view, it was like being surrounded by delicious snacks.

‘I don’t see anything glowing.’

Orichalcum was highly sensitive to mana, but it possessed very little energy of its own.

It seemed that only things containing large amounts of mana glowed like gold dust.

‘I’ll take a quick look around and then we’ll leave… Huh?’

Flash! Flash!

Just as I was about to leave after finishing my tests.

Something glowed behind one of the orichalcum pillars.

And it was much larger than the core that had been buried underground.

Was it capable of emitting such a brilliant glow even while surrounded by orichalcum, a mineral that absorbed mana?

Then it had to contain a terrifying amount of magical energy.

‘Hmm maybe I shouldn’t get close?’

They say curiosity killed the cat.

Thinking about it calmly, getting closer was dangerous.

Not long ago, we had almost caused a disaster by disturbing a Guardian.

But I couldn’t ignore that glow.

It would be best to get another opinion.

I called Ludwig, who was playing around with a stone.

“Mister, take a look over there for a moment.”

“Mm?”

“There’s something there. Shall we go?”

We still had trouble communicating perfectly, but we understood each other fairly well through gestures.

When I pointed, Ludwig turned his head in that direction.

He seemed to understand that something was there and remained deep in thought for a few moments.

I intended to decide whether to go forward based on his opinion.

“@#.”

At last, he nodded, indicating that we should go.

When I asked whether it was dangerous, he replied.

“Know. Not know. Big difference.”

“……”

There was a huge difference between facing danger while knowing about it and facing it without knowing anything.

I assumed that was what he meant.

And in fact, that was exactly the point.

I couldn’t help widening my eyes.

In such a short time, Ludwig’s Korean had improved tremendously.

Could it be that the people and animals here learned languages easily?

When I asked him, he simply shrugged.

Even he didn’t know.

‘Could it be because of the influence of the Forest of Four Seasons?’

Since it barely affected the body, perhaps it enhanced intelligence instead?

It was only a hypothesis, but it didn’t sound unreasonable.

After all, I myself was gradually evolving into something that could hardly still be called human.

Maybe I should start being careful.

Once we finished preparing, we started moving forward.

‘There’s a space behind this pillar…?’

Yes.

There was a hidden space concealed so skillfully that I had never discovered it before.

Then again, it was also true that I had never thoroughly explored the cave.

Orichalcum was so valuable that I had never felt the need to keep searching.

Besides, its eye-catching appearance completely distracted your attention.

‘The little ones should stay behind.’

I advanced first with my sword and shield in hand.

Ludwig walked right behind me.

Wonmo and Tyran would be protected by Lackey.

That was the best option.

We slowly circled the dark pillar and looked at what lay beyond it.

The hidden space was quite large.

I never would have imagined such a place existed.

“…A chest?”

“……”

And in the middle of that space rested a single chest.

Was it because my eyes were focused on it?

It shone so brightly that my eyes almost hurt.

Why would there be a chest there?

As I wondered that.

“Mimic.”

“Huh?”

“Mimic.”

In a tense voice, Ludwig identified the chest.

A mimic.

I had heard of them too.

Monsters capable of disguising themselves as treasure chests to lure in anyone who approached.

The truth was, finding a chest in the middle of an orichalcum cave was suspicious enough on its own.

“What should we do?”

“Hmm……”

Ludwig fell into thought.

Under normal circumstances, we would have simply ignored it.

But it was a mimic.

If we managed to defeat it, we would probably obtain an extremely valuable treasure.

It could contain gold and jewels.

Or perhaps an elixir.

If it was money, I wasn’t particularly interested.

But if it was an elixir, that was a different story.

‘And that glow doesn’t seem normal either.’

Besides, judging by the intensity of the glow, it seemed far more likely to be hiding an elixir than mere riches.

Ludwig seemed to think the same, because he slowly nodded.

He wanted to defeat it.

Understanding his intention, I asked for his advice.

“Do you know how to kill a mimic?”

Ludwig nodded.

According to his explanation, mimics were extremely slow when moving around.

After all, at their core, they were nothing more than enormous chunks of flesh.

However, their tongues were incredibly fast, and many adventurers lost their weapons because mimics snatched them away.

That was why attacking from a distance was essential.

And I could do that using my aura.

“So you mean I should attack it from a distance with my aura?”

“Correct.”

“Step back a little.”

With our strategy decided, all that remained was to put it into practice.

I told Ludwig and the animals to move back, then began circulating my mana.

Wooooong!

My enormous aura rose once more like a pillar.

Thanks to the Pumpkin Jack’s internal core, it seemed even larger than before.

‘When will I finally be able to use Aura Blade?’

I pushed that thought aside and began poking the mimic with my aura, as though practicing fencing.

To defeat it efficiently, it was better to attack its insides than destroy the chest itself.

Tap. Tap.

“Grrrrrr……”

After tapping the chest several times, a threatening growl echoed out.

So it really was a mimic.

I continued provoking it with little jabs.

Eventually, it lost its patience.

Slash! Slash!

The first thing to emerge through the small opening in the chest was an extremely long arm.

Then.

Swooosh.

Two thick, long legs emerged from beneath the chest.

It looked very similar to the Mushroom Man we had seen weeks ago.

As I stared at the scene, unsure what to say.

A huge tongue shot out from inside the chest.

And, of course, enormous sharp fangs appeared inside its mouth.

“Kuaaaaaaaah!!”

“……”

At the same time it roared, it began spitting saliva everywhere.

Fortunately, everyone else was behind me.

The only one who got showered in drool was me.

“…Mister.”

“……”

“Do mimics normally have legs too?”

Before Ludwig could answer.

“Kuaaaaaaaah!!”

The mimic, equipped with two arms and two legs, started running on all fours like a beast.

Nothing like that nonsense about being slow.

It moved at a terrifying speed, comparable to a cheetah’s.

“Aaaaaagh!!!”

“Hahahahaha.”

“Kyuaaaah!!”

“Peeeeep!!”

First, we had to run.

***

While the group struggled to survive inside the Orichalcum Cave.

“Peep! Peep!”

“Peep! Peep!”

“Peeeep! Peep!”

“……”

Outside the cave, Largo was completely surrounded by a flock of chicks.