Got a Gallery in the Wild

Human bones were fairly easy to distinguish compared to those of other animals.

They could even be differentiated from humanoid apes.

They were simply easy to recognize.

The rounded back of the skull.

The square jaw.

This was definitely a human bone.

I could say it with certainty.

Title) I found human bones

WildGrills: (Photo of a human skull)

WildGrills: I found this skull in a place that seems to have originally been an Owlbear cave. This really is a human bone, right?

└HeavenlyDemon: It appears to be a human skull. Aren’t there more bones around it?

└WildGrills: There are too many bones nearby. It’s hard to distinguish them.

└Swordmaster: I think it’s human too.

└Yeah. Definitely.

└If that’s not a human bone, then what the hell would it be?

└Judging by how it was reduced to bones, it seems an extremely long time has passed.

└Were there people inside the Forest of Four Seasons??

└Probably. They just ended up dead like those bones.

└What if that’s Grills’ future?

└The chances are absurdly high lmao.

└He’s a great senior. Why don’t you hurry up and show some respect?

└Are you mentally ill? lmao.

└Damn. Is that really something you say to someone? Haha.

└Seriously, you destroy all motivation lol.

└Hahahaha

└Lol

└StarlightPrincess: You people are truly horrible. How can you say something like that while calling yourselves human beings?

└Be honest. You let out a little laugh too, didn’t you?

└StarlightPrincess: My emotions are too dried out to laugh.

└Eh~ It was just a joke. You took it too seriously.

└Fr. Your life must be so boring.

Even after asking the gallery, everyone agreed that they were human bones.

And very old bones at that.

Just looking at the fact that only the skeleton remained was enough.

‘It doesn’t seem like he died from a blow to the head.’

The skull was surprisingly intact.

There were no cracks or visible damage.

Just in case, I started searching for other bones.

But I quickly ended up giving up.

I’m not an archaeologist.

How was I supposed to distinguish human remains among such a mountain of bones?

Confirming that there had once been people here was enough.

‘Did this guy get dragged here by the Owlbear?’

I needed to explore further.

I left the skull on the ground and continued exploring the cave.

The cave was extremely large, so there was a lot to inspect.

“Here…”

Then I found a place impossible to ignore.

A space right beside the nest.

Two raised walls.

And behind them, a fairly wide area.

I slowly peeked my head over to look inside.

“……”

Bones.

A human skeleton rested quietly against the wall.

Unlike the bones devoured by the Owlbear, this one retained its complete shape.

I entered the space and began examining it carefully.

“Oh…”

The area behind the walls was larger than I expected.

And cozy too.

Even though time had passed and there were cobwebs and dust everywhere, it still felt comfortable.

And what stood out the most were the furniture and tools spread throughout the place.

Most were made of wood and had nearly completely rotted away.

But some barely retained their shape.

‘Is this a stone axe?’

A tool made by combining wood and stone, both on the verge of crumbling apart.

It seemed they had carefully sharpened the stone tip.

And judging by how it was tied to the handle, they probably handcrafted fibers to secure it.

Unlike me, who had the gallery’s help, there were traces here of someone who had started completely from scratch.

‘But these marks…’

I ran my hand over the “marks” carved into the ground.

They were extremely familiar.

Because they were exactly the same as the marks I made every day on the wall to record my survival.

Though normally those kinds of marks are made on walls, not on the floor.

Confused, I looked around.

‘That wall is also full, and that one too…’

The walls completely surrounded the space.

And they were covered with marks.

He probably ended up carving them into the floor because there was no free space left.

That showed just how long that person had survived.

“……”

An indescribable emotion hit me like a wave.

Even after surviving that long, he still ended up as a pile of bones.

I had the gallery, yes.

But could I really endure like this person did?

He survived much longer than I have.

And looking at all this, he was surely much stronger than me too.

But he died.

Without anyone remembering him.

Leaving behind only countless marks of survived days.

Alone.

I thought that perhaps this would be my future.

“Haah…”

I couldn’t express this feeling with words.

I didn’t know whether to call it despair or enlightenment.

If I had never seen this, maybe I would have continued clinging to hope until the end.

But after seeing it, everything became suffocating.

Will I really be able to get out of here?

Will I even be able to survive?

‘……I have to keep trying.’

There were marks carved not only on the walls, but on the floor as well.

He probably survived more than two or three years.

I didn’t know how he died.

So I started searching for some clue about the cause of death.

The Forest of Four Seasons was a place that forced even someone completely ignorant like me to grow stronger.

Someone who survived here for years couldn’t have died without reason.

“Hmm?”

While checking every corner, I found something unexpected.

A box placed at one end.

Despite the passage of time, it was still intact.

And judging by the thick layer of dust on top, it seemed no insects had entered it.

‘Still, just in case.’

I carefully pushed it with the tip of my sword.

Because something might jump out from inside.

Fortunately, it only moved slightly without showing any strange reaction.

‘What could be inside? Maybe he stored bottles like I do?’

With strange anticipation, I slowly opened the box.

Dust burst out and made me cough, but soon I could see the contents.

“……A book?”

There weren’t many things inside.

Just a few books.

Surprisingly, they seemed to have been preserved well, because the condition of the books was fairly good.

I carefully picked them up so as not to damage the worn covers.

There were letters written on the cover.

‘As expected, I can’t understand any of it.’

I don’t know a single language from this world.

Judging by the writing style, it seemed similar to European languages.

In situations like this, the gallery was the best option.

I took detailed photos of the entire place.

Title) I found a survivor’s shelter

WildGrills: (Photo of a hidden space between walls)

WildGrills: (Photo of a skeleton leaning against the wall)

WildGrills: (Photo of survival day marks carved everywhere)

WildGrills: (Photo of stone and wooden tools that seem to belong to the survivor)

WildGrills: (Photo of a book with letters written on it)

WildGrills: (Photo of the box where the books were stored)

There was a hidden place beside the Owlbear’s nest, so I went inside.

Inside I found a skeleton and survival marks everywhere.

But the most incredible thing is these books. Does anyone know what language these letters are?

└HeavenlyDemon: Those are definitely not letters from the Central Plains.

└Swordmaster: They’re not from the Mesiah Empire either. It’s my first time seeing them.

└DemonPrincess: They’re not letters from our country either.

└SunForEver: Not from Setan either. Nor Alvenheim.

└That looks like an ancient language.

└That photo isn’t enough. Upload more.

Everyone responded that they didn’t recognize it.

It was strange.

Since there weren’t that many countries, there shouldn’t have been that many languages either.

I guess it was better to follow the anonymous user’s advice.

I turned the page of the book.

The typical old, damp smell of books immediately came out, though it could still be opened without problems.

‘The pages are yellowed, but they can still be read.’

Now I just had to upload them to the gallery as they were.

Title) I wish someone could recognize them.

Uploading more pages from the book

(Photo of a page filled with text)

Does this help?

└HeavenlyDemon: It definitely doesn’t belong to the Central Plains either.

└Swordmaster: It’s not from the Mesiah Empire either. Could it be from the Iris Kingdom?

└AllFather: It’s not writing from the Iris Kingdom either. Though I feel like I’ve seen it before. Please wait a moment.

└StarlightPrincess: Could it be writing from the Holy Kingdom?

└HeroDontThrowAway: I never learned letters like these!

└Suspiciously, it doesn’t seem to be a language used by beastmen either.

└If nobody recognizes it, couldn’t it be from some ancient kingdom that disappeared?

└The chances are pretty high. At the very least, it definitely belongs to a nation from more than 50 years ago. No countries have been destroyed in the last 50 years.

└Grills, you found something incredible.

└WildGrills: And what’s the point? Nobody can translate it. But this is important to me.

└Why is it important?

└Because it’s a survival diary?

└WildGrills: Yes. If it’s a survival diary, it could help me tremendously. I absolutely need to decipher it.

Books could become bridges between the past and the present.

And if that bridge was destroyed halfway through, there was a high chance that countless records and technologies would disappear along with it.

It wasn’t for nothing that when people wanted to erase history, the first thing they did was burn books.

‘If it’s an ancient language, it’ll be even harder to decipher.’

In every country, things change with time.

And language was no exception.

Ancient and modern language always end up becoming different.

It was natural.

Nobody knows what kind of history might happen in between.

Even Korea suffered linguistic distortions during the Japanese occupation.

And if you compared the Hunminjeongeum created by King Sejong with modern Korean, the differences were obvious.

‘There are quite a lot of books here.’

As I flipped through pages, I checked the rest of the books.

All of them were equally well preserved.

And all of them were filled with unfamiliar letters.

How great would it be if I could decipher them.

They would undoubtedly help me tremendously.

‘It’s better if I upload everything.’

Anyway, the only possible translation method was through the gallery.

So it was more practical to upload them completely.

I carefully stored the books back in the box so they wouldn’t get damaged.

Then I put the entire box into the spatial bag.

Afterward, I continued searching to see if there was anything useful, but I found nothing else.

‘I guess the only notable thing is that necklace on the skeleton.’

The skeleton was wearing a necklace.

More precisely, a pendant.

It had a red gemstone embedded in it that looked fairly expensive.

Though even if I took it, it didn’t seem like it would be of much use to me.

So I left it where it was.

‘This person must have missed other human beings too.’

I looked at the skeleton sadly leaning against the wall.

More than loneliness, it conveyed misery.

He surely wanted to get out of here too.

But he never managed to fulfill that wish.

‘They say prisoners have their eyes gouged out before being sent here, but this person even wrote books.’

He was probably someone who ended up lost here.

Or someone with another story behind him.

I silently looked at the skeleton and then opened the gallery.

Afterward, I bought a proper sack and carefully began collecting the bones.

‘Please endure a little longer while I move you.’

Maybe it was because I always held memorial ceremonies for my parents.

Or maybe it was simply part of my personality.

But leaving him abandoned like this didn’t feel right.

The bones that were probably devoured by the Owlbear couldn’t be recovered.

But this skeleton was still complete.

I put the bones into the sack and left the hidden space.

Outside, Wonmo was playing with a butterfly near the nest.

“Wonmo. Let’s go.”

“Kyuu!”

The exploration ended here for today.

I needed to return to the cave and start uploading photos of the books.

The sooner we managed to decipher the contents, the more information I would obtain.

‘And while I’m at it, I’ll also hold a ceremony.’

I don’t know if the concept of ancestral funerals exists here, but I still had to do it.

Maybe this man would become my future.

But like they said in the gallery, he’s also my great senior.

And the legacy he left behind would surely become a huge resource for me.

After some time, I returned to my cave.

I organized the luggage and then looked around the area.

I was searching for an appropriate place to use as a grave.

‘I’ll bury him there.’

Though not right now.

First I planned to upload the books to the gallery.

I took out the box full of books and arranged it in a corner.

‘Did the gallery discover something?’

Some time had already passed since I uploaded the pages.

Surely by now they had some idea what language it was.

Thinking that, I entered the gallery.

└AllFather: Could you quickly upload more pages? This old man is so excited that the lower half refuses to calm down!

└Sir… ;;

└This old man becomes vulgar every time he sees something interesting.

└What the hell is so special about that?

└It seems it was written by the Immortal King’s brother. He was probably someone from the Valkhan Kingdom.

└What the fuck? Why the hell would that be there?

└Damn it. If that’s real, scholars all over the world are going to go crazy.

└Historians excited and academy students crying lmao.

It seemed that AllFather had managed to decipher it.