Chapter 57
A Tiger Leaves Behind Its Hide When It Dies (4)
There had only been a handful of explosions in my life.
The first was when I threw a grenade during my military service.
That was when I learned just how powerful a weapon a grenade really was.
Other than that, there had only been one.
Oil had exploded while I was cooking and splattered all over me.
It was laughably insignificant compared to a grenade, but an explosion was still an explosion.
And the reason I was thinking about something so pointless was simple.
“Cough. Cough. What the…”
Never in my life had I imagined that instead of oil, I’d end up watching a heart explode.
Luckily, I’d sensed something ominous and reacted quickly.
Otherwise, I might have suffered serious injuries.
Still coughing, I looked toward where the heart had been.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
As if the explosion had never happened, the heart was still beating.
Everything around it, on the other hand, had been completely devastated.
Thank goodness I had already moved the jars of meat into the cave.
Otherwise, I probably would’ve cried.
“Kyuu! Kyuu!”
The explosion had been so powerful that even Wonmo came scrambling out of the cave.
His eyes were wide with shock.
He looked ridiculously adorable.
I told Wonmo that it was nothing and that he should go back inside and sleep.
Wonmo stared back and forth between me and the heart with a bewildered expression before heading inside.
‘Namu-Ppareumbo is… fine.’
At some point, Namu-Ppareumbo had climbed onto the barricade.
His ability to sense danger was exceptional, so he must have prepared himself in advance.
Other than the area around the heart becoming a complete disaster zone, everything else was fine.
‘Fuck. Even Chinese products probably don’t explode this much.’
Even the stuff people joked about exploding all the time in China probably wouldn’t do something like this.
It wasn’t as if someone had installed an explosive device inside the heart.
I couldn’t make any sense of it.
And what did I need at times like this?
The Gallery, of course.
Title: The Heart Exploded
Wild Grylls
(Photo of the intact heart and the completely wrecked surroundings)
I tried splitting the heart open like Allfather suggested, and it exploded.
But the heart itself is totally fine ;; Anyone know why this happened?
I never thought I’d live to see a heart explode ;;
└ Heavenly Demon: This is the first time this lady has heard of a heart exploding. It may have contained too much internal energy.
└ Wild Grylls: Does having too much internal energy make something explode?
└ Heavenly Demon: If the vessel cannot withstand what it contains, then yes, it will burst. However, considering that the tiger was able to live perfectly well with that heart, that does not seem to be the case here. What a peculiar heart.
└ SwordMaster: How did the tiger even contain a heart like that? That’s really strange.
└ Allfather: Did you happen to use aura when you tried to cut the heart open?
└ Wild Grylls: I had no choice because it was too hard. Is that a problem?
└ Allfather: Such a phenomenon should not occur except with a Dragon Heart… Strange. And the blast radius was also remarkably small.
└ Wild Grylls: How powerful is a Dragon Heart?
└ Allfather: It depends on the individual and its stage of growth, but the heart of an adult dragon can destroy a small city.
└ Wild Grylls: F-F-Fuck.
What was that supposed to be?
A biological nuclear bomb?
I let out a hollow laugh.
Unfortunately, though, what I had killed wasn’t a dragon.
It was a tiger.
A tiger the size of a bus.
If a dragon had attacked me instead, I probably would’ve died before I even got the chance to do anything.
└ Allfather: Still, this is strange. Even if the scale is smaller, this is a phenomenon normally exclusive to Dragon Hearts.
└ Heavenly Demon: A dragon would be equivalent to a yong in the Central Plains, would it not?
└ Allfather: Yes. That is correct.
└ Heavenly Demon: In the Central Plains, there is an idiom called Yonghosangbak, meaning a dragon and tiger locked in combat. It refers to two opponents so evenly matched that it is difficult to determine which is superior. Moreover, the tiger is a creature called the “Lord of the Mountain.” Would such a thing truly be impossible?
……
└ Heavenly Demon. You don’t know the difference between a dragon and a yong, do you?
└ Heavenly Demon: What difference is there? They are both dragons in the end.
└ (Picture of a Western dragon) This is a dragon, and (picture of an Eastern dragon) this is a yong. See the difference?
└ Heavenly Demon: They look rather similar. Are they relatives?
└ Ugh ;;
└ She really is ignorant, right?
└ Yeah, seems like it.
└ Allfather: That is actually an interesting perspective. Just as Heavenly Demon said, dragons and yong do have many similarities. From a racial standpoint, you could say they are related.
└ Seriously? I never knew that.
└ Really? Isn’t that still heavily debated in academic circles?
└ Allfather: It is similar to how termites are more closely related to cockroaches and mantises.
└ Ahahahahaha.
└ When you put it like that, it suddenly makes perfect sense lolol.
└ Allfather: In any case, as Heavenly Demon said, if tigers in the Central Plains are considered beings comparable to dragons, then perhaps this is not impossible. I’m already getting excited below the waist just thinking about it.
└ Why the hell are you getting excited below the waist? Lololol.
└ Leave him alone. He’s a professor. He probably got excited after finding a new research subject.
└ For professors, research material basically is sex lolol.
└ Wild Grylls: So what do I do with this thing? Just leave it alone?
└ Allfather: This may be an impertinent request, but could you lend me that heart for a while? I will only study it and return it afterward.
└ Wild Grylls: And after you finish researching it?
└ Allfather: I will process it so that you can absorb all of the mana contained within the heart. Having the research material itself is enough compensation for me, so there is no need to pay me separately. If anything, I should be paying you.
└ Wild Grylls: No. Just take it. I don’t want to look at that grotesque thing anymore ;;
└ Allfather: Thank you. These days, Mr. Grylls, you are making life quite enjoyable for me. Hahaha.
I immediately traded the heart to Allfather.
I was afraid to leave something that might explode again lying around, and I had no proper way to store it anyway.
It was better to hand something like that over to Allfather and let him use it for research.
‘And I got this in the process.’
Allfather also gave me a pill that would grant resistance to poison.
I had a lot to do today, so I settled for fasting pills for lunch.
After eating, I practiced my internal energy cultivation method as usual.
‘This is strange. Isn’t it faster than yesterday?’
The mana circulating through my body was behaving differently.
It felt considerably faster.
I found it strange, but I couldn’t identify anything that seemed problematic.
If anything, a refreshing sensation spread through my body, making me want to keep going.
‘Is it because I fought until I was almost dead?’
That was nothing more than speculation.
The basics were what mattered anyway, so I didn’t concern myself with speed.
After finishing my cultivation practice, all I had left to do was wait for Starlight Princess to upload her post.
‘I finally finished cleaning everything up, and one explosion means I have to do it all over again.’
First, I cleaned up the entire area that had been wrecked by the heart explosion.
Fortunately, it didn’t look like anything important had been seriously damaged—
“No. Fuck! My charcoal!!!”
Only then did I realize that all the charcoal I had painstakingly collected had been blown everywhere.
I wanted to cry.
I somehow gathered up the charcoal scattered around the area, but I could only recover about a third of it.
For a moment, I was tempted to just buy more from the Auction House, but I barely managed to restrain myself.
‘Right. I’ll be smoking meat soon anyway…’
Think positively.
A negative mindset was no good.
Still, I couldn’t help feeling bitter about it.
With a wry smile, I began preparing firewood.
How much work would it take to turn all this firewood into charcoal again?
A sigh escaped me naturally, but I decided to just accept it and move on.
‘I’ll use the charcoal I have left to clean the hide and my clothes first.’
I planned to use the hide as either a mat or a blanket.
Since this was my first time butchering anything, the quality of the hide wasn’t very good. On top of that, part of it had been cut by Heavenly Demon’s sword.
Giving this to Praise the Sun and receiving a new shield in return?
That would be shameless.
‘I should trim the hide down a bit. It’s too big.’
Its size would make washing and drying it inconvenient.
Some trimming was necessary.
Once I’d finished roughly cleaning the hide, I briefly connected to the Gallery.
I wanted to see whether Starlight Princess had uploaded her post.
‘She did.’
There it was, sitting right at the top of the board.
I opened it without hesitation.
Title: How to Smoke Meat (Cold Smoking)
Starlight Princess
(Picture showing how to set up a tripod)
(Picture showing a fire beneath the tripod)
(Picture showing meat hanging from the tripod)
Hello, Mr. Grylls!
Just as I promised earlier, I’ll explain how to smoke meat—more specifically, how to cold-smoke it!
The method you’re using, where you first salt the meat to draw out its moisture and then smoke it, is called cold smoking.
Just set up a tripod like in the pictures above, light a fire underneath it, and hang the meat from it. That’s all! Easy, right?
It would be better to cover the area around the tripod with cloth or something similar so the smoke doesn’t escape.
Another thing to be careful about is not drying the meat at too high a temperature. It only needs to feel warm.
If this helped, please leave a comment.
As I always say, thank you so much for saving me.
└ Wild Grylls: Thank you so much for explaining it. I’ll leave an upvote before I go.
└ Starlight Princess: Thank you, hehe. I’m glad it helped. If I get the chance, I’ll make you some more elixirs.
└ Wild Grylls: Uh… Do you need another mature mandrake?
└ Starlight Princess: No. They’re for Wonmo, haha.
└ Wild Grylls: Ah, right. I see.
They were for Wonmo, right?
I felt a little bewildered, but I didn’t think much of it.
Right now, setting up a smoker according to Starlight Princess’s instructions came first.
‘I’ll need some appropriately sized trees. If I can’t find any, I’ll make them myself.’
Cutting down trees was no longer difficult.
A few swings of the axe were enough.
I found trees that were just the right size and arranged them into a tripod.
To make sure it wouldn’t collapse, I tied the top securely with rope.
I also bought cloth from the Auction House to wrap around the outside.
I felt like I was spending a lot of money today.
I had originally planned to buy a blanket too, but now that I had the tiger hide, I could use that instead.
‘All I have to do now is hang the meat here.’
Finally, I tied the meat with rope and suspended it in the center.
Everything was ready.
But then I ran into an unexpected problem.
The quantity.
There was so much tiger meat that I couldn’t help but hesitate.
‘If I want to preserve all of it, I’ll have to smoke everything…’
And to do that, I needed to build more tripods.
‘Screw it. I’ll do it.’
If it meant being able to preserve the meat for a long time, there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do.
I built about five more tripods.
Honestly, even that wasn’t enough.
The only reason I stopped there was because I was running out of space.
Crackle! Crackle! Pop!
I lit firewood beneath each tripod and began producing smoke.
Soon, wisps of smoke rose and wrapped around the salted meat.
Once I covered the tripods with cloth, surprisingly little smoke escaped.
If I’d known this beforehand, I would’ve started doing this much earlier.
‘At least I know now.’
I blankly watched the meat gradually become wrapped in smoke.
What would have happened to me if I hadn’t gotten the Gallery?
Wouldn’t I have died long ago?
Why had I fallen into the Forest of Four Seasons, and on top of that, why had I obtained the Gallery?
Questions I couldn’t answer tangled together like a ball of thread.
But I had no intention of untangling them.
More precisely, I didn’t have the luxury to.
Survival was what mattered right now.
Escaping this place somehow came first.
‘I can’t get used to this.’
I reminded myself not to become so accustomed to something that I forgot how precious it was.
Hadn’t this whole ordeal already taught me just how safe civilization really was?
For now, I was only taking a short rest.
My determination to escape hadn’t weakened.
‘Get up. Get up and start digging up mandrakes.’
The dwarf would probably initiate another trade soon.
Even if I couldn’t give him the crab, I should at least give him a mature mandrake.
I had just finished trading with Allfather, so I now had to wait through another twenty-four-hour cooldown.
‘I wish they’d reduce the waiting time, if nothing else.’
The head moderator was stubborn, so convincing them would be difficult.
And even if I tried bribery, they probably wouldn’t accept it.
‘Isn’t there any way?’
Any way at all to reduce the trade cooldown, even slightly.
***
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion erupted along with a flash of blue light.
The blast itself was neither particularly large nor particularly small, but its power was terrifying.
It wasn’t enough to completely devastate the area, but it was more than sufficient to wreck everything nearby.
“Cough! Cough! Ahem.”
Yet the mage who had taken the explosion head-on merely coughed a few times and remained perfectly fine.
There was a little soot on his snow-white beard, but it was hardly worth mentioning.
The mage waved a hand through the air, dispersing the smoke.
Then he barely managed to open his eyes and look ahead.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
At the center of the explosion sat a heart far larger than a human head.
It continued pulsating as though the blast had meant nothing.
Its appearance was almost arrogant, as if to say an explosion of that level wasn’t even worth acknowledging.
Bang! Bang!
[Lord Kadir! Are you all right?!]
[You’re not injured, are you?! We heard something dangerous!]
Several people hurriedly pounded on the door.
Considering an explosion had suddenly gone off, their reaction was only natural.
“I am fine, so stand down. I was merely conducting a new experiment.”
The mage casually dismissed those who were worried about him.
Voices of concern could still be heard beyond the door, but the mage’s attention had already shifted elsewhere.
“My goodness…”
The mage stared at the heart in pure amazement.
It was still violently beating, almost as if proudly displaying its continued vitality.
“What a magnificent heart!”
A fierce thirst for knowledge gleamed in the mage’s eyes.