WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 128: This Hellish (5)
──────
People did not all begin in the same place when entering the Forest of Four Seasons.
Unless they entered while holding hands, each person would start in a different location.
Even if they did hold hands, there was no guarantee they would end up in the same place.
People had been seen entering, but not a single person had ever come back out.
Only by being incredibly lucky could someone end up near someone who had entered before them.
“Ugh...”
A holy knight groaned and rose from the ground.
The helmet hid their face, but their attire made their affiliation clear.
They were a senior monitoring group member whom Ludwig had kicked into the Forest of Four Seasons.
Ordinary holy knights usually wore pure white armor, while monitoring group members wore armor that was nearly black.
It was originally armor worn by Inquisitors, but the group had since become the Pope’s private army.
“Goddammit. Where the hell am I now?”
The monitoring group member cursed as they looked around.
They knew where they were, but desperately wanted to deny it.
They clearly remembered Ludwig kicking them in the back and sending them into the Forest of Four Seasons.
‘Fuck...’
The surroundings were completely different from the Forest of Four Seasons they had seen outside.
Instead of a lush forest, the place was filled with nothing but dry, barren trees.
The entire area was gray, as if it had been covered in volcanic ash or ravaged by a forest fire.
That was not all. What about the ground?
The spot where the monitoring group member had fallen at least had solid earth, but everything else was swamp.
‘Am I lucky?’
Had they landed in the swamp from the start, they would have died the moment they entered. That did not mean they were safe.
What kind of place was this?
The Forest of Four Seasons, called a living hell.
A demonic realm said to have no survivors. The monitoring group member gulped.
‘It’s too soon to know. That guy Grylls was living just fine in here.’
No one could escape, but there was at least one survivor. That gave the monitoring group member hope.
They checked for injuries, then made sure their weapon was intact.
Other than the kick to the back, nothing particularly hurt.
[System] The Gallery cannot be accessed in this area.
Still, the monitoring group member could not access the Gallery. They were also one of its users.
They had seen enough to know just how useful the Gallery was in an environment like this. Seeing a message that they could not use it made them click their tongue.
‘So much for being accessible.’
The Pope had claimed that the Gallery could now be used even in the Forest of Four Seasons, citing Wild Grylls as evidence.
That propaganda had been effective enough to provide the impetus for dispatching investigation group personnel.
Once inside the Forest of Four Seasons, the monitoring group member realized it.
The Pope had told a blatant lie.
People said that everything that came out of the Pope’s mouth was a lie, except carbon dioxide.
The monitoring group member deeply agreed with that saying. Falling for his honeyed words had been their mistake.
‘I’m getting out. I’m way stronger than that bastard, so why wouldn’t I?’
The monitoring group member gritted their teeth. Within a few days, they would escape and cut off Ludwig’s head.
The Pope was the root cause of all this, but he was too strong. So the monitoring group member poured their resentment onto Ludwig, who was relatively weaker.
A textbook case of groveling before the strong and bullying the weak, born from pure selfishness.
‘First, I need to check my mana.’
Before setting off, the monitoring group member checked the mana inside their body.
A considerable amount had been depleted during the fierce battle with Ludwig.
They were only checking it, so there was no need to use the Mana Cultivation Method.
“...Hm?”
Then they noticed something strange. The monitoring group member slightly raised their brows.
Normally, their mana should have circulated at least a little. Yet it was not circulating at all.
No. It was circulating.
It was just moving absurdly slowly.
Wondering what was going on, they hurriedly activated their mana.
‘W-Why is my mana...?’
It still would not budge. They could barely feel it even when forcing it to move.
They even manifested aura just in case...
It was useless. No aura emerged either.
For all practical purposes, they had been dropped in here barehanded. Their chance of survival would be far lower than expected.
Thinking it might be due to an injury they had not noticed, the monitoring group member carefully examined their body.
Even so, they could not find anything unusual. In the end, they risked using the Mana Cultivation Method.
‘W-What is this...?!’
The moment they began cultivating, they realized why.
It was mana.
More precisely, not the mana inside their body, but the mana outside it. The density of mana was far too high.
The external mana was suppressing the mana within their body.
It was like the pressure in the deep sea crushing an object.
‘That’s impossible! That bastard Grylls was clearly...!’
The monitoring group member could not believe it. This was completely unexpected.
Grylls freely threw mana around whenever he had the chance, while they could not use any. It was hard to accept.
‘No. If I just have time...’
It was too early to despair. The monitoring group member steadied their wavering heart.
If external mana prevented them from using the mana inside their body, they only needed to fill themselves with external mana.
They had no idea how long that would take, but it was not impossible.
‘I need to find a safe place.’
The monitoring group member made a quick judgment. This swamp was dangerous.
There was no telling what kind of monster might leap out from within it.
The forest where Grylls was would be far safer.
Having reached that conclusion, they began walking to escape the swamp.
Shing-
They drew their sword so they would be ready for anything.
They could not use mana, but they still had their basic combat ability. They should be able to endure.
‘Archbishop Odon entered first... Where is he?’
The monitoring group member thought of Odon, who had entered the Forest of Four Seasons before them.
Like them, Odon had been forcibly sent in by Ludwig.
Unlike the monitoring group member, Odon specialized in support and possessed virtually no combat ability.
And this had just proven to be a place where mana could not be used. The more time passed, the lower Odon’s chances of survival would become.
‘The Archbishop can’t be helped, but I should find the others first.’
Unless something major happened, the monitoring group member decided to give up on the clergyman without hesitation. Their own combat power had already been cut in half. They had no leeway to protect someone with no combat ability.
Clergy could normally use divine power to heal, but that only applied when they had divine power to begin with.
Archbishop Odon’s divine power was practically nonexistent, so the monitoring group member had no expectations.
After all, Odon had risen to the position of archbishop by getting in with the right people.
To escape this hellish forest, they needed to join forces with people who had strength, not people who would only drag them down.
‘Still... If I run into him, I can’t exactly pretend I didn’t see him...’
Just as the monitoring group member finished sorting out their thoughts...
[...Please.]
A voice reached their ears.
At first, they thought they had misheard. The monitoring group member stopped walking and focused on the sound.
[...Help me.]
They heard it again, faintly this time as well. The monitoring group member urgently looked around.
They needed to determine where it was coming from.
“Is someone there?! If you are, speak louder!”
Shouting in a swamp was not a good idea.
Animals might hear and approach, but the situation left them no choice.
The monitoring group member shouted as loudly as they could, praying their voice would carry.
[I’m here! Over here! I’m right here!]
This time, they heard it clearly. The monitoring group member turned toward the voice.
It sounded slightly echoed, but they did not care. What mattered was the language it spoke.
It was not the language of another country.
It was the language of El Dorado.
‘And that voice... Archbishop Odon?’
The monitoring group member hurried toward the voice.
Perhaps they were lucky. It seemed the Archbishop had regained consciousness where he had fallen.
Just moments ago, the monitoring group member had been calling him useless, but he was still a human being.
‘Worst case, I can use him as a human shield.’
It was a truly treacherous thought, showing just how low a person could sink when desperate.
[I’m here! Is anyone there?!]
The voice grew closer and closer. Water rose over the monitoring group member’s feet.
It had only reached their ankles, so they did not pay it much mind. Confirming the voice came first.
When they finally reached its source...
“A-Archbishop?! You’re alive?”
[Oh, you’ve come...!]
The monitoring group member found the Archbishop. Odon looked surprisingly unharmed.
The strange sound of his voice was suspicious, but otherwise he looked far too fine.
[Come this way. I believe this is the exit.]
“What? The exit...?”
[Yes. Someone else helped me as well.]
Archbishop Odon spoke of an exit with a kind smile. The monitoring group member’s suspicion deepened.
The direction Odon pointed toward was a deep swamp.
The water where they stood was already slightly above ankle level, but that place was clearly deeper.
‘Before that...’
More importantly, something else was strange.
They only noticed it now.
Archbishop Odon was short. The water here was deep enough to cover someone’s ankles.
So why was Archbishop Odon standing on top of the water?
The strong could walk across water, but Odon was not one of them.
Something was wrong.
Beyond wrong, it was ominous.
“W-Who are you?!”
[Excuse me? What are you...]
“You wicked monster! Show yourself!”
The monitoring group member stepped back and aimed their sword, their voice trembling with fear.
Perhaps it sensed the fear in that voice. Odon, or rather, the thing imitating Odon, no longer hid itself.
Ssssh...
Odon’s form faded like a mirage.
What appeared in its place was, incredibly, a corpse.
A shriveled, desiccated corpse. A feeler was tightly wrapped around its neck, as if it had been strangled.
The monitoring group member instantly recognized the corpse.
It was obviously Odon.
‘W-What the hell is this...?!’
Rumble rumble rumble!
Whether they were horrified or not, an ominous sign arose in the swamp.
The ground began to shake as though there had been an earthquake.
Had it been Grylls, he would have fled the area without looking back.
But the monitoring group member had only just entered the Forest of Four Seasons.
They could only freeze in confusion until the monster made its move.
Splash.
A hand shot out from a deep pool of water.
It looked like a human hand, but its smooth amphibian skin stood out.
The hand was a musty, tree-like color, perhaps camouflage.
Splaash!!!
The monster pressed the hand against the ground and hauled itself fully out.
The monitoring group member could only stare in shock at the creature, which was several times larger than them.
Hideous teeth, a long torso, and a feeler growing from its head.
Odon’s corpse had been dangling from that feeler.
Whoosh!
A Swamp Angler with hands emerged from the deep marsh and reached its hand toward the monitoring group member.
The moment they saw it, they hurriedly stepped backward to escape.
But that led them to their death. As stated before, this was a swamp.
Splat!
“Ghk!”
Standing still in one place would quickly get someone swallowed by the bog.
The off-balance monitoring group member fell, and the Swamp Angler did not miss its chance.
Squeeze!
“Argh!”
The Swamp Angler grabbed the monitoring group member roughly with its human-like hand.
They struggled against the pressure squeezing their body, but it was meaningless.
Unable to use mana, they were destined to be eaten.
Crunch. Crunch.
As that happened, the Swamp Angler put Odon’s corpse, which it had snared with its feeler, into its mouth.
It chewed the body apart with sharp teeth.
Then it strangled the monitoring group member with its tentacle-like feeler.
Squeeze!
“Ghhhhh...”
With a wheezing gasp, strength soon began to leave the monitoring group member’s body.
Thunk!
The helmet, which had been rattling from their desperate struggle, fell to the ground.
Beneath the fallen helmet was nothing but a shriveled mummy, just like Odon’s corpse.
Droop.
When the Swamp Angler released its hand, the monitoring group member dangled from its feeler.
Having drained all their life force, the creature slipped back into the deep water.
It left only the feeler holding the monitoring group member above the surface.
[A-Archbishop?!]
Incredibly, the mouth of the monitoring group member, now shriveled like a mummy, moved and produced a voice.
It was grotesque, as though the feeler were controlling their body.
[You wicked monster! Show yourself!]
It was more than simple voice mimicry.
[Is anyone there?! There’s someone here! I need help!]
It imitated them as if it had pulled out their memories whole.
[Please, anyone, help me!]
The Forest of Four Seasons was a hellish place.
* * *
Tap! Tap! Tap!
“Phew. This should do it, right?”
I drove the Signpost into the ground and muttered with satisfaction.
It had taken so much time to make this Signpost.
Still, seeing it planted made me feel proud.
‘Hope they survive.’
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
