Chapter 85

Merman (4)

Because of the way the word sounds and how it’s portrayed in media, evolution might seem like a good thing at first glance.

But in reality, that wasn’t always the case.

If evolution proceeded in a strange direction, it could even threaten your life.

Besides, evolution itself was something that normally occurred over generation after generation of births.

No one knew what effects genes altered like this might have in the future, nor was it easy to predict how they would change.

Evolution was the process of living creatures changing to adapt to their environment.

The problem was that it couldn’t necessarily be viewed as something entirely positive.

‘Evolution, huh…’

I narrowed my eyes as I considered Allfather’s hypothesis.

Hearing someone else say it directly made it feel different.

I wasn’t the protagonist of some novel or comic, so the fact that I had been able to sense mana almost immediately was strange to begin with.

If Allfather’s hypothesis was correct, then my body was changing to suit the Forest of Four Seasons.

Earth was a civilization built entirely on steel, a world where not only magic but even mana itself didn’t exist.

[Wild Grylls: That doesn’t exactly sound like good news. Are you saying I could turn into something grotesque?]

[Allfather: Your overall form would probably remain humanoid. However, as you can see from the shark giant, it is possible that you could change in bizarre ways.]

[Wild Grylls: What are people who are naturally compatible with mana usually like? Their bodies don’t get distorted or anything, right?]

[Allfather: They retain the human form. In particular, most of them tend to have excellent physical constitutions. The vessel that contains mana must fundamentally be of high quality.]

I was around 175 centimeters tall.

Completely average.

And because I had practically lived on ramen, my body had been the skinny-fat type, with plenty of visceral fat despite looking thin.

But perhaps because I had been through so much hardship recently, I could feel the fat on my body gradually disappearing.

That much made sense.

But then there was something else.

The muscles that had been buried underneath were becoming noticeably more defined.

That part didn’t make sense.

‘Wouldn’t fat normally be overwhelmingly more useful for survival?’

I vaguely remembered hearing something about it.

Obesity had only become a major social problem within the last hundred years or so.

Before that, humans had lived while storing body fat.

Because doing so was advantageous for survival.

And evolution was closely tied to survival.

Something didn’t add up.

[Wild Grylls: Could losing fat and gaining an excessive amount of muscle be part of it too…? I don’t understand. Isn’t fat more important for survival than muscle?]

[Allfather: It is not that you are adapting to the Forest of Four Seasons of your own free will, Mr. Grylls. Rather, the Forest of Four Seasons is reshaping you to suit itself.]

[Wild Grylls: Is that even possible? It feels like every bit of common sense I know is exploding one after another;;]

[Allfather: It is merely a hypothesis. Nothing about the Forest of Four Seasons has been definitively established. I am simply analyzing what you have shown me.]

I rubbed my face with both hands.

Things were getting more and more complicated.

But there was one thing I knew for certain.

My survival was being threatened.

It wasn’t simply a matter of securing food and protecting myself from the dangers around me.

The forest itself was threatening my life in real time.

‘It’s still not confirmed, but…’

Considering everything that had happened, it was reasonable to infer that my body had already undergone changes.

My body had suddenly become naturally compatible with mana.

My physical abilities had begun improving to an almost abnormal degree.

And then there was the time my skin had peeled away and new flesh had grown underneath.

Unless it was the “evolution” Allfather had mentioned—and specifically evolution driven by this environment—none of those things should have been possible.

‘Is that how Namu-Ppareumbo evolved too?’

I glanced at Namu-Ppareumbo, who was still clinging to my back.

As always, he hung there with a completely relaxed expression.

Couldn’t he also be considered one of the products of this “evolution”?

‘The mature Mandrake is the same.’

It wasn’t just animals.

Plants were affected too.

Whether it was because they absorbed enormous amounts of mana or for some other reason, their growth was abnormally fast.

[Allfather: As I have repeatedly emphasized, nothing is certain. We will need more evidence.]

[Wild Grylls: Evidence… I guess I’ll have to explore first. Thank you for your help.]

[Allfather: I have hardly helped at all. You are the one who has endured all the hardship, Mr. Grylls. I wish you the best in everything.]

[Wild Grylls: It’s unsettling, but I’ll keep trying.]

My conversation with Allfather ended there.

The moment it did, I let out a sigh.

Was this what it felt like when something made sense even though you desperately wished it didn’t?

Everything that had happened so far was beginning to turn suspicion into certainty, and that certainty bred anxiety.

Humans naturally feared the unknown.

And I was genuinely afraid of how this forest might change me.

‘I don’t need to know the cause. I just need to escape…’

Realizing that simply surviving wasn’t enough left me completely deflated.

It almost made all the hardship I had endured until now feel meaningless.

‘All the more reason I can’t give up.’

I steeled myself once again.

It was still too early to despair.

At the very least, all the changes my body had undergone so far had been beneficial.

And Allfather’s hypothesis was still just that—a hypothesis.

Nothing had been proven yet.

‘I can’t be sure until I find more evidence, right?’

But before that, there was something far more important.

I turned my gaze aside.

Sitting there was the empty cast-iron pan.

The fish the shark giant had gobbled up.

The fish I had gone out of my way to coat with oyster sauce.

‘Food first.’

Koreans run on food.

I didn’t have any rice, but whatever. Food was important.

I used up the tiny bit of oyster sauce I had left.

It really was delicious.

Unlike before, when I’d only gotten a single bite, this time I ate the whole thing.

‘It’s almost annoyingly delicious.’

Maybe because of what I had just heard, even eating until I was full didn’t improve my mood.

But I needed to shake off this feeling as quickly as possible.

Negative thoughts weakened your resolve.

Like I said earlier, nothing had been confirmed yet.

Who knew?

Maybe the shark giant I had killed actually existed outside the forest too.

After finishing my meal and completing my internal energy cultivation, I began preparing to explore.

The place I planned to explore wasn’t downstream, but upstream.

I should be able to see a lot from there.

‘If I’m lucky, I might even find another branch of the river.’

I sincerely hoped so.

I hoped my expectations wouldn’t be completely crushed.

I made thorough preparations, including wiping the blood off the Heavenly Demon Sword with oiled paper.

Whenever my thoughts got too complicated, the solution was to work my body to exhaustion.

It had been an effective remedy since ancient times.

Title) Heading Out to Explore!

Wild Grylls

(Photo of me holding a sword and shield)

I’m heading upstream this time. Everyone wish me luck!

└ Heavenly Demon) Do your best. Always remember that this Lady is cheering for thee.

└ SwordMaster) You haven’t forgotten anything, right?

└ Heavenly Demon) Thy conscience?

└ SwordMaster) I was asking Mr. Grylls, you know? Haha.

└ Heavenly Demon) This Lady was merely teasing thee.

└ SwordMaster) If you’re bored, why don’t you have a sword debate with me?

└ Heavenly Demon) Gladly. Let us see what thou canst accomplish with those paltry skills of thine.

└ Starlight Princess) It’s always important to be careful. Even if you break your arms and legs, that’s fine, so please be careful.

└ Wild Grylls) That was encouragement, right?;;

└ Starlight Princess) Did that sound strange? I meant that you have elixirs, so you don’t need to worry.

└ Wild Grylls) Thank you;;

└ Look at her talking like that because it’s not happening to her lol

└ Isn’t she saying that because she survived?

└ Kinda suspicious~

└ Starlight Princess) You people are truly awful.

└ Praise the Sun) Huh? What? Where’d the shark go? Don’t tell me you gave it away?

└ Wild Grylls) Yeah. I didn’t really have anything to do with it, so I gave it away.

└ Praise the Sun) Ah, shit. Something came up and I missed my chance. I was going to put it on display.

└ Wild Grylls) Why would you display something that hideous?;;

└ Praise the Sun) It’s a rare animal. Perfect for a collection.

└ Wild Grylls) ;;

The moment I posted on the gallery, the comments filled up with equal parts encouragement and teasing.

I chuckled at how nothing had changed and prepared to set off with my two animals…

Except I didn’t.

“Namu-Ppareumbo. Make sure you keep Wonmo safe, okay?”

Mornings were one thing, but Wonmo always fell asleep after lunch.

He was still a cub, so there was nothing I could do about that.

Still, I wasn’t too worried.

‘I’ve got the fence up, and Namu-Ppareumbo is here. Perfect.’

Now I could finally leave.

I took one last look around the cave.

‘I should probably ask for more barricades.’

The shark giant had entered through a section where the barricades were spaced farther apart.

I had deliberately left a small gap there so I could come and go from the river, and the bastard had been just the right size to squeeze through.

Well, considering its size, even if there had been a barricade there, it probably would’ve just smashed through it anyway.

‘It’ll be inconvenient, but I’ll have to deal with it.’

I roughly picked out where I would install the additional barricades, then headed out.

Roooooar!!

When I eventually reached the river, the current was still raging fiercely.

I stared at it for a moment before raising my head.

And this time, on the other side of the river was…

“Whoa. Is that a volcano?”

A volcanic region.

Far in the distance, I could see a volcano belching out lava.

Fortunately, it was incredibly far away, so it didn’t affect me, but I couldn’t help marveling at the sight.

Not a single blade of grass grew from the cracked earth, and lava flowed through the fissures.

This forest truly never failed to amaze me.

It was enough to drive a man fucking insane.

‘I should just get used to space being completely screwed up, huh?’

I turned and began heading upstream.

The roar of the raging river.

The distant rumble of an erupting volcano.

Wonderful.

I had decided to start getting used to this sort of thing.

From now on, I’d just marvel at it and move on.

‘That bear I saw yesterday isn’t going to show up again, right?’

That didn’t mean I was letting my guard down.

There was always the possibility that some enormous beast might appear, so I stayed alert at all times.

There had to be animals that came to the river for water.

Splash!

Just like the one I was looking at right now.

Except…

On second thought, this thing hadn’t come here to drink.

Something had come flying out of the forest and fallen straight into the river.

What the hell had sent it flying?

Bob—

It didn’t take long to find out what it was.

Something surfaced in the violently flowing river.

It was a four-legged animal with spots and a long tail.

My knowledge wasn’t good enough to tell whether it was a leopard or a cheetah, but one thing was certain.

It was a predator.

‘…What the hell hit it hard enough to send it flying?’

The animal was swept downstream without putting up any resistance.

Judging from the looks of it, it had been knocked unconscious.

Just like the deer that had defeated the bull shark, could there be something similar in there?

With an uneasy feeling, I turned my head toward the side.

There was a section of forest where the trees were noticeably denser than everywhere else.

Yeah.

Let’s not even think about going in there.

“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!”

Because I could hear what sounded like monkeys from inside.

Of course, they might not actually be monkeys.

And it wasn’t just one.

There were several of them making those sounds.

I quietly walked past.

I didn’t even dream of entering that place.

Even ordinary monkeys were much stronger than humans.

“…Huh?”

After following the river for what felt like forever, I spotted something strange on the path.

It had eight legs, with a bulbous body rising above them.

A smooth-looking aquatic creature overall.

“…Why is there an octopus here?”

It was an octopus.

And one covered in purple spots.

At a glance, it looked obviously venomous, but there was something even more puzzling than that.

Octopuses normally…

‘…Don’t they live in the ocean?’

Why the hell was an octopus here?

As far as I knew, octopuses lived in the sea.

I didn’t know whether freshwater octopuses existed, but at least according to my knowledge, they didn’t.

Then again, maybe this world had octopuses that lived in freshwater.

‘No way… right?’

I suppressed my growing unease and continued farther upstream.

The farther I went, the stronger a certain smell became, sharply stimulating my nose.

The scent of wind heavy with salt.

And the stronger that smell became, the more anxiety filled my heart.

My steps gradually quickened until I was moving forward without even paying attention to my surroundings.

Eventually, I reached the end of the river.

And the end of the forest.

What came into view before my eyes was—

Roooooar—

A vast, impossibly blue ocean stretching farther than anything I had ever seen.

I stared at it.

“…What the fuck. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I couldn’t help but curse.