Got a Gallery in the Wild

In my entire life, I never thought I’d end up getting hit in the face by a fish and, on top of that, almost kissing an eel.

The nosebleed stopped quickly, but the stinging sensation was still there.

Even so, looking at the barrels full of fish made me feel satisfied.

Especially that gigantic eel that was even larger than the huge fish.

Although the rain had caused several unpleasant situations, all of that was compensated for by this catch.

‘Let’s see… something that matches the drainage…’

After reinstalling the traps, I used the remaining time to check the auction house for drainage materials.

I just had to place proper materials over the dirt I had already dug out.

That was all.

Though first I had to find pieces of the right size and maybe reinforce the dirt walls again.

‘Surprisingly, there are so many varieties.’

Drainage systems are extremely important not only in cities but also in ordinary villages.

Even if it’s just a single structure, drainage is one of the first things that has to be installed.

Without it, every rainstorm could turn into a disaster.

‘I guess that’s why it’s so popular.’

The greatest advantage of the gallery was completely ignoring distribution.

In places where transporting goods was difficult, especially remote rural areas, dependence on the gallery was probably enormous.

Even high prices wouldn’t really be a disadvantage.

As someone once said, time is gold.

Essentially, the gallery allowed you to buy time.

‘And since I practically have unlimited time here, this always benefits me.’

After searching for a while, I found a suitable drainage system.

It had a trapezoidal shape, came in large quantities, and also had excellent reviews.

Perfect.

Just in case, I took out a measuring tape and roughly calculated the dimensions.

‘I’ll have to dig a little more.’

After widening the trench, I carefully installed the drainage pieces I bought from the auction house.

When I finished everything with patience and dedication, I poured water in to test it.

Trickle trickle.

“Mm. Perfect.”

The water flowed perfectly through the stone drainage channel.

I felt inexplicably proud, so I took several pictures and uploaded them to the gallery.

Title) Drainage completed!

WildGrills

(Photo of the carefully installed drainage)

(Photo of the drainage from another angle)

(Video of water flowing properly through the drainage)

I finished the drainage. Now I won’t have to worry about the rain anymore!

└HeavenlyDemon) Looking at this brings peace to the heart.

└Swordmaster) It’s strangely hypnotic. Did you buy it from the auction house?

└WildGrills) Yeah. I felt like it would take too long if I made it myself.

└DwarfPassingBy) Are you planning to live there forever or what? You even installed drainage.

└WildGrills) Nah. It’s just that the improvised drainage collapsed every time it rained.

└DwarfPassingBy) It turned out pretty clean. Of course, by human standards haha.

└WildGrills) Was that an insult?

└He’s insulting you while congratulating you.

└Dwarves are just showing off their pride lmao.

└Those dwarves only know how to build things lol.

└DwarfPassingBy) And what did you all do when we went on strike? Exactly, nothing haha.

└Shit, I still remember that.

└Please, anything but another strike!!

It seemed that, coming from a dwarf, that was practically a compliment.

And because of that, I felt even prouder.

The only experience I had with this kind of work came from the military.

And it wasn’t even something I did willingly.

I was just following orders, so I never felt any satisfaction from it.

After checking the drainage one last time, I looked around the entire cave.

‘Even so, I don’t think I can ignore what the dwarf said so easily.’

His comment about whether I planned to live here forever.

For him, it was probably just a simple joke, but for me it wasn’t so easy to take it that way.

‘Maybe not live here permanently, but I should at least consider it as a base.’

I hadn’t given up hope of escaping.

This forest wasn’t a place where a person could live normally.

Even ordinary plants and animals grew to absurd sizes or developed intelligence.

Everything here treated common sense as if it were worthless and constantly threatened my life.

‘Besides, this is a mix of fantasy and murim, so common sense works even less.’

Though, to be honest, even the people of this world didn’t understand the Four Seasons Forest.

As I looked at the cave, I let out a long sigh.

‘Well, I guess this is simply my fate.’

What kind of sin did I commit to wake up in a place like this?

Sometimes I even wondered if, while completely drunk, I had committed some monstrous crime.

But even so, it still felt strange that they chose me specifically.

‘God, this really is cruel.’

As far as I knew, gods existed here.

The Moderator [1] had even tried to convert me into a believer.

But one thing was believing they existed, and another completely different thing was worshipping them.

What had they done for me to deserve worship?

‘Even so, when I escape, I should ask them.’

Why did they throw me into this damned place?

What sin exactly did I commit?

And, most importantly, whether it would be possible to return to the place I came from.

That was the most important thing.

Because even if I managed to escape.

‘No. No. No. Don’t think like that.’

I shook my head hard.

Negative thoughts wear down your willpower.

Even though my previous life hadn’t been easy either, I still had good people around me.

And that alone was reason enough to return.

I still hadn’t been able to repay everything they did for me.

“Kyuu.”

“……Are you hungry?”

Just when my mind was filling with complicated thoughts, Wonmo slowly approached me.

He seemed to notice how I was feeling, because he moved cautiously.

When I asked him with a small smile, the little guy started rubbing his head against my leg.

I let out a quiet laugh and patted his head.

It seemed he had intelligently understood my mood.

‘Even if I manage to get out of here, I’m definitely raising Wonmo.’

Abandoning such an adorable and affectionate animal?

That kind of person would end up getting eaten by an owlbear.

After petting Wonmo, I checked the time.

It was already almost noon.

Curiously, my biological clock seemed more accurate than the gallery’s clock.

‘The ground is still wet. I should bring leather.’

Because of the torrential rain, the floor was still soaked.

I went to get the tiger hide I had placed on the cave floor.

Then I finished preparing everything to cook the fish and approached the metal barrels.

One contained three fish.

The other, a huge eel.

‘I’d never tasted eel before… and I’m going to do it in a place like this.’

Why had I never eaten eel before?

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.

I simply never could.

I didn’t have the money for it.

I lived surviving meal to meal on instant ramen, so eel was practically an impossible luxury.

The most delicious thing I had ever eaten in my life was beef.

I could still remember it clearly.

It would probably be a long time before I ate something like that again.

Though, well, these fish tasted like meat anyway.

‘I wish I had some seasonings.’

Since I normally didn’t eat fish, I had no idea what would pair well with it.

And in moments like this, what did one need?

The gallery.

Sometimes trying something new lifted morale and even increased combat power.

Title) Recommend seasonings for fish.

WildGrills

Any good seasoning for fish besides salt?

And don’t tell me I’m “living in luxury already.” I’ve got money to spare and I want to spend it.

└Swordmaster) Oyster sauce goes amazingly well with fish. You should try it.

└WildGrills) Does oyster sauce exist here?

└Swordmaster) Yeah. It’s a popular sauce in Zhongyuan. HeavenlyDemon probably knows it too, though she isn’t online right now.

└HeavenlyDemon) This one has never personally cooked in her life. Besides, she no longer even needs to consume food.

└Swordmaster) Ah… yeah. That makes sense.

└HeavenlyDemon) If you desire seasonings, this one can grant them to you. It will suffice to ask my subordinate for them.

└WildGrills) That’s not necessary. I’ll just buy them at the auction house.

└SunForEver) How about using what I give you instead of cheap sauce?

└WildGrills) What thing?

└SunForEver) Truffle powder.

└WildGrills) And what’s that?

└Idiot, that costs almost as much as gold;;

└Are you trying to put him into debt? lmao

└SunForEver) What a shame haha.

└WildGrills) ;;

In the end, I decided to simply buy oyster sauce from the auction house.

HeavenlyDemon even offered to give me a special sauce, but I barely managed to stop her.

Every time I did something, she ended up working her subordinate to death, and that even made me feel guilty.

She said she would consider giving him an internal core as compensation, though who knows if she actually did it.

‘I just hope HeavenlyDemon isn’t an exploitative boss.’

In any case, I decided to use oyster sauce with the fish.

It was absurdly expensive in the auction house and came in a very small quantity.

Considering I’d also be cooking the eel tonight, I’d probably use it all up.

Sizzleeeee—

‘I guess I just need to spread it over the meat.’

The problem was that I didn’t have a brush to apply the sauce.

So I used a spoon and spread it carefully.

“Oh. It smells good.”

The meat, which had been white before, turned a dark brown color once covered with oyster sauce.

Just looking at it made my mouth water.

I wanted to eat it as soon as possible.

“Nom nom nom nom.”

While the fish with oyster sauce slowly cooked, Wonmo ate lunch beside me.

As always, he was eating fish without internal cores.

Seeing him enjoy it so much made me feel happy.

‘Time to eat!’

It seemed ready, so I moved the iron pan with the fish away from the fire.

It was better to keep the campfire burning continuously to keep producing charcoal.

Then I picked up the chopsticks and tried a piece of the perfectly cooked fish.

“Kyaah!”

If fish seasoned only with salt tasted like meat, then fish with oyster sauce tasted directly like steak.

Of course, comparing it to a real steak might have been an exaggeration, but it really was that delicious.

The sweet and salty flavor mixed with a deep umami that filled my mouth.

And there wasn’t even the slightest trace of the typical fishy smell.

It was, literally, exquisite.

Probably the most delicious thing I had caught since arriving in the forest.

‘Being able to eat all this is a—’

Rumble!

—blessing.

That was what I was thinking when the ground suddenly began to shake violently.

A heavy sense of silence fell over the surroundings.

Even Wonmo, who normally lost his mind over food, stopped eating and raised his head.

Swish—

The sloth also sensed that something was wrong and clung to my back.

Boom! Booom!

The vibrations grew stronger and stronger.

I slowly put down the chopsticks and grabbed HeavenlyDemon’s sword.

I always kept the sword and the adamant shield beside me.

So I could react immediately to any situation.

‘It’s definitely something huge.’

Every step made the ground tremble.

It was, without a doubt, a creature as large as a Guardian.

Could it be that bear I saw before?

It didn’t seem like it.

Swordmaster had said something important.

Quadrupedal animals distributed their weight well, so they didn’t cause tremors while walking.

Only creatures or monsters that walked upright generated vibrations that strong.

And if something like that was causing such an earthquake.

It definitely had to be gigantic.

Completely tense, I equipped myself and stood up.

Booom! Boom!

The vibrations kept getting closer.

Booooom!

And finally, on the path leading to the river, a huge figure appeared.

Just as Swordmaster had said, it walked upright.

But its appearance was extremely strange.

It had pale gray skin.

A hunched posture.

It easily stood over three meters tall.

Below the head, its body resembled a human’s.

But its head and limbs were anything but human.

‘……A shark?’

Its face literally looked like a shark’s head attached to a giant body.

Countless sharp teeth protruded from between its half-open jaws.

It even had a fin sticking out of its back—or perhaps its neck.

Its nearly human hands and feet were connected by membranes like a frog’s.

A giant shaped like a shark.

Yeah.

That description fit perfectly.

“Grrrrrr……”

The monstrous shark face stared directly at me.

I immediately took a defensive stance.

It didn’t seem to have come with good intentions.

And I had already seen what happened with the mushroom men.

I couldn’t lower my guard.

Booom! Booom!

The shark giant slowly advanced with heavy footsteps.

Its hunched posture reduced its height slightly, but the pressure it emitted was terrifying.

And then.

Grab!

It grabbed the fish I had been eating with its hand.

The fish I had even put that expensive oyster sauce on.

“Huh?”

No way…

I didn’t even finish thinking it when—

“Crunch. Gulp. Chomp. Munch.”

It chewed the fish a couple of times and swallowed it whole.

I looked at the shark giant with a completely blank expression.

What the hell had this bastard just done?

I had worked my ass off to get that oyster sauce!

And I had barely tasted one bite!

And this asshole just swallowed the whole thing?!

“You…!!”

Now I completely understood how the sloth felt when someone almost stole his fasting pills.

“Son of a bitch!!!”

It was impossible to hold back my anger.

T/N:

(1): I already mentioned this in previous chapters, but regarding the genders of some characters, even if they are male or female, since they’re in the chat and there’s anonymity, the gender can vary.