Got a Gallery in the Wild

When does a person feel the most rage?

When they come face to face with their parents’ killer?

When someone steals the person they love?

When a scammer takes away the money they struggled so hard to save?

All of those are valid answers.

And they all have something in common.

Something valuable was taken from you.

When someone takes something important from you without paying the proper price, it is inevitable to become furious.

And right now, I was feeling a comparable level of rage.

Was something important taken from me?

More than important, it was something directly tied to my survival.

Something I obtained through tremendous effort and suffering.

And it was stolen right in front of my eyes.

It would be strange not to lose my mind.

“Son of a bitch!!!”

I had never felt such fury before.

Not even when my parents died or when I saw the face of the person responsible for the accident did I feel something like this.

At least that bastard no, that person apologized and paid compensation.

But this shark-headed thing?

It swallowed the food I worked so hard to prepare!

And it even had a satisfied look on its face.

There was no way I wouldn’t get angry.

“Gruh?”

The shark giant looked at me with a confused expression as I charged toward him.

He still seemed unable to understand the situation he had gotten himself into.

“Roaaar!!”

Though apparently, his intelligence was not as limited as that of a real fish.

The shark giant sensed that my fury was abnormal and opened his jaws.

Sharp, tightly packed teeth filled his entire mouth.

If that thing caught me, it would be over.

But that was exactly where he made his mistake.

He already had a hunched posture, and when he tried to bite me, he lowered his body even more.

If he had been a quadrupedal animal like a tiger, maybe it would have been different, but because he walked upright, it was inevitable for him to lose balance.

Slash!

I easily dodged his bite by twisting my body to the left.

When his jaws closed, it sounded like two blocks of metal crashing together.

But after slightly losing his balance, his entire body was left full of openings.

‘Big guys are easy for me.’

My target was his legs.

If he lost one, his mobility would be severely limited.

It was a tactic I always used against enormous creatures.

Of course, there were exceptions sometimes, like the saber-toothed tiger or the orichalcon Guardian.

Slash!

“Guooooh!!”

But this shark was not one of them.

The HeavenlyDemon sword, wrapped in aura, cleanly sliced through his leg.

After losing one leg, the monster’s balance completely tilted to one side.

Just as expected, the shark giant fell forward.

He tried to support himself with his arms, since he had two legs and two arms like a human, but it was useless.

‘Now the head…!’

Whoosh!

Just as I was about to stab the sword into his head, I heard something strange to my left.

Sensing danger, I instinctively raised my shield without even looking.

Claaang!!

“Ugh…!”

A brutal impact crashed through the shield.

And my body was sent flying.

Fortunately, I had expected an attack like that, so I managed to cushion my fall while flying through the air.

‘The tail?’

When I looked at what had hit me, I saw a thick tail.

Just like a real shark’s, the tip was split in two.

It seemed this shark giant had all the characteristics of one.

“Kyuuuuuu!!”

“Groaaar!!”

But it didn’t matter.

It was a monster that had already lost one leg.

Wonmo even managed to climb onto its face and slash at it wildly without meeting any real resistance.

The tail could not even reach its face and only flailed around desperately.

Sometimes it opened its huge jaws to intimidate him, but unfortunately for it, Wonmo simply climbed on top of it.

Despite its size, it seemed like an easy enemy to deal with.

Though I still could not let my guard down.

‘Or is it because it’s outside the water?’

Maybe.

While the monster writhed violently, I approached cautiously.

And when I finally got close to its head, I shouted at Wonmo, who was still on top of it.

“Wonmo! Move away!”

“Kyuu!”

As always, Wonmo was smart.

He jumped away immediately the moment he heard my voice.

And I used the opening to drive the HeavenlyDemon sword into the shark giant’s head.

Stab!

The aura-covered sword penetrated easily.

The monster writhed for a moment after receiving the blow to the head.

And then it stopped moving completely.

Even the tail, which had still been flailing desperately, fell motionless.

Bright red blood began pouring out from its head.

Stab! Stab!

Just in case, I stabbed the sword into it several more times to make sure.

I did not know where its heart was, so the safest option was to completely destroy its head.

And so ended the dangerous yet strangely easy hunt of the shark giant.

I shook the blood off the HeavenlyDemon sword as a question arose in my mind.

‘What the hell is something like this doing here? Is there a sea nearby?’

Before, I had seen a bull shark that tried to attack a deer and ended up getting knocked out with a kick.

But that shark and this shark giant were completely different.

The bull shark at least was still a normal shark.

This thing was literally a humanoid shark.

I did not know whether something like this existed only in the Forest of the Four Seasons or if it was a “monster” like the mushroom men.

‘Though now that I think about it, that bull shark was strange too. There’s only a lake down here.’

Even though bull sharks can live in freshwater, their main habitat is still the ocean.

That meant there was probably an ocean beyond that enormous lake.

‘This is insane. Why would there be a sea inside a forest…? No, wait.’

Maybe it was not that strange.

Beyond the river, the environment constantly changed.

Sometimes there were deserts.

Sometimes snowy mountains.

Sometimes swamps.

So there was probably a sea somewhere in the forest as well.

Logic could go straight to hell.

“Haa…”

I still needed to investigate more, but it was a fairly convincing hypothesis.

The bull shark that moved back and forth between freshwater and saltwater.

And now the sudden appearance of this shark giant.

What I did not understand was why it appeared here specifically.

If it had come attracted by the smell, other animals should have appeared too.

‘Guess I’ll have to ask.’

No matter how much I racked my brain, I still knew far too little about this world.

So the only option left was to ask the gallery.

If anyone could solve this question, it would be Fathermon no, AllFather.

Title) Beastmen exist here too, right?

WildGrills

(Photo of the shark giant bleeding from the head)

Does this count as a beastman too? I mean, it’s still an animal.

Anyway, this bastard suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stole my lunch.

I got furious and killed it, but what the hell even was this thing?

└HeavenlyDemon) This one has seen people with animal faces before, but never one with a shark face.

└Swordmaster) At first glance it looks like a fish-man, though fish-men do not look like that either.

└WildGrills) Do fish-men count as beastmen?

└Swordmaster) They are monsters. Just like mermaids, who are technically “ningyo” and not fish-men, but are still considered monsters.

└Suspiciously) A beastman at least needs to have fur. That is literally a fish;;

└WildGrills) Well, fish are animals too, so that’s why I asked.

└Suspiciously) Did you try talking to him?

└WildGrills) Talking? That bastard stole the fish I worked so hard to prepare, so I killed him.

└Suspiciously) Nah, then you did the right thing. That definitely is not a beastman.

└AllFather) Even I have never seen a species like that before. Not even fish-men are such exact mixtures between human and shark what the hell is that?

└WildGrills) So fish-men do not look like this.

└AllFather) (Photo of a monstrous-looking fish-man) This is a fish-man.

└AllFather) (Photo of a mermaid with a fish lower half) And this is a mermaid known as a “siren.”

└AllFather) Neither of them looks like that shark.

└WildGrills) Uh so does that mean it’s a new species?

└AllFather) You could say that, though I am not completely certain. I do not know whether it is a simple mutation or if the Forest of Four Seasons is causing this.

Not even AllFather knew.

And neither did anyone else.

It was a completely unknown species, something never seen before in the world.

Very fitting for the Forest of Four Seasons, where all kinds of creatures appeared.

└Now that I think about it, the fast sloth was originally a normal sloth too, right? Sloths are not supposed to be able to walk.

└AllFather) Good observation. Indeed, due to the structure of their legs, a normal sloth could never walk. But this sloth is different.

└What a ridiculously weird forest. Better not even go near it.

└What the hell is going to appear next and what if some animal with an absurdly long neck shows up?

└Fighting something with a neck like that sounds fun lmao

└What a ridiculously stupid thing lol

Wasn’t that literally just a giraffe?

Could it be that giraffes do not exist here?

└WildGrills) Do horses with horns exist here?

└If you mean unicorns, of course they exist. Why do you ask?

└WildGrills) Just curious.

To me, a horse with a horn was far stranger.

I guess it was some kind of cultural difference or something.

Putting the nonsense aside, the problem now was what to do with this shark giant.

The best option was to give it to AllFather.

If I offered it, he would surely accept it happily.

‘It’s not like I’m going to make shark fin soup out of this thing.’

So I handed it over immediately.

And just as expected, AllFather became extremely excited.

I also wanted to hear the results of his research, so I had no problem trading it away.

[AllFather: Thank you for giving me a new research subject every day.]

[WildGrills: It’s not that big of a deal. If you think about it, I’m just getting rid of trash.]

[AllFather: Please, do not hesitate to throw all the “luxury trash” you want at me. Jojojo.]

“Luxury trash” sounded pretty strange.

[WildGrills: Though, AllFather, you said this was your first time seeing something like this too, right?]

[AllFather: Correct. I have lived for a very long time, but I have never seen a species like this. Just as with the saber-toothed tiger’s heart, it is obvious that the Forest of Four Seasons alters things.]

[WildGrills: And when do you think that change could start affecting me?]

That was the part that frightened me the most.

The idea of changing without realizing it.

I did not want to end up deforming into some bizarre thing.

[AllFather: Now that you mention it, you said you came from another world, Mister Grills?]

[WildGrills: Yes. Though nobody believes me. Do you believe me, AllFather?]

[AllFather: Let us say I will consider that possibility. Even for me, it is a difficult story to believe.]

It was a little disappointing, but I could understand it.

Still, the fact that he was at least willing to consider it was already pretty good.

[AllFather: Mister Grills, what do you think mana is? A force that helps people become stronger?]

[WildGrills: Isn’t it something like that?]

[AllFather: In theory, yes. Then allow me to ask you something. Do you think anyone can use mana?]

[WildGrills: They can’t?]

[AllFather: There is much academic debate regarding this, but personally I would say no. People speak of talent, but in the end it all comes down to the vessel that is, the body. Just as all animals and plants evolve, humans are also creatures that evolve.]

AllFather began speaking about evolution.

And I listened carefully.

All living beings had evolved to reach their current forms.

Humans were no different.

[AllFather: In the distant past, only the chosen could use mana. But over time, more and more people began to wield it.]

[WildGrills: That definitely sounds like evolution.]

[AllFather: Exactly. Nowadays, even those without talent can feel mana without too much difficulty. So let me ask you another question. In the world where you lived, was there anyone capable of sensing mana?]

AllFather’s question was incredibly sharp.

And the moment I saw it, I answered immediately.

I did not even need to think about it.

It was an absurdly simple answer.

[WildGrills: No. In my world, mana did not exist. Instead, science and technology were extremely advanced. There were bombs capable of destroying entire cities.]

[AllFather: Then nobody could use mana. Including you, Mister Grills.]

[WildGrills: Yes. The first time I felt it was after arriving here.]

[AllFather: Then everything fits perfectly.]

The conclusion AllFather reached, after countless hypotheses, was—

[AllFather: Mister Grills. Listen carefully.]

[WildGrills: I’m listening.]

[AllFather: It is possible that you are already undergoing a process of “evolution.”]

Those words left me completely shocked.