Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 140

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈

Chapter 140: Combination (3)

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To properly understand what my aura could do, I bought water from the Auction House.

You might ask why I didn't just melt the ice stored in the box, but if things didn't go as I expected, I'd have to cut more ice again.

I didn't want to deal with that hassle, so I bought water just this once.

Then I poured the water into an iron barrel and placed my sword inside.

All I had to do was manifest my aura like before and wait for the results.

Crack!

The water rapidly cooled the moment I manifested my aura.

But it wasn't just the water freezing solid. Ice began spreading across the entire iron barrel.

If this kept up, I'd lose the whole barrel, so I hurriedly pulled out the sword.

It seemed the effect only applied to whatever touched the aura, since the ice didn't cling to the sword.

'Can't I control this?'

Freezing water was great. I'd gained a very useful ability.

But if I couldn't control it, it would be poison rather than medicine.

I didn't know whether my mana itself had changed, but I needed to figure this out properly.

'At least I think I can control the intensity by adjusting the amount of aura...'

Through experimentation, I learned I could control its intensity with the amount of aura.

But I had no idea how to turn the cold on and off.

I couldn't tell whether this was permanent or if it would eventually disappear.

After thinking it over and over, I decided to ask the Gallery.

[Post title] Let them come...

[Author] Wild Grylls

[Post] (Video of an aura-infused sword freezing a barrel of water)

[Post] My sword hungers...

[Post] Just kidding. Does anyone know why this is happening?

[Post] A whole tree froze while I was chopping wood, so I tested it. My aura has gained a cold attribute.

[Post] I can't even turn it on and off whenever I want. Does anyone know how?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: What a beautiful Sword Aura. It even sparkles. It’s more beautiful than what those Northern Sea people use.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Do people in the Northern Sea control cold?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: Most of them do. But they control cold through martial arts they have mastered. You don't know any martial arts that control cold, do you?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Nope. I only know the mnemonic verses you taught me.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: How strange. Perhaps your Internal Energy itself has taken on cold properties.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: I think Heavenly Demon is right. Aura with an element isn't unheard of, but most people need to master a special cultivation method for it. In your case, Grylls, I think your mana itself has taken on cold properties.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Can't I turn it on and off?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: I don't know. As I said, even Northern Sea Ice Palace practitioners only gain cold properties through martial arts in the end.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: This is my first time seeing something like this too, so I don't know. I've seen people control fire and lightning, but I didn't know mana itself could take on an element.

└ With performance like that, you basically don't need a stone icehouse or any of that crap anymore, do you?

└ For real, you wanted a refrigerator so badly you became one yourself lol.

└ Why do you keep getting stronger in such weird ways;;

└ It's ridiculous that someone can get stronger in such an original way lol.

└ [Starlight Princess]: As the others said, I think the essence mixed into your mana and made it cold-aspected. I never expected this either.

└ [Wild Grylls]: It's not bad, right?

└ [Starlight Princess]: If you hadn't been able to endure the cold, your mana would have frozen first. In the worst case, you could develop something like the Severed Meridian Syndrome I suffered from, so it'd be best to prepare in advance.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I'll keep that in mind.

└ [Allfather]: There are a few cases where mana acquired the properties of a specific element later in life. They are mentioned in ancient records.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Did those people go through something like I did?

└ [Allfather]: No. Most cases involved injecting essence directly into the mana circuits. The results were not particularly good.

└ [Wild Grylls]: What do you mean, not good?

└ [Allfather]: In cases where cold essence was injected, their organs froze solid as though they had developed Severed Meridian Syndrome. Those injected with fire essence couldn't endure the heat, and their mana circuits soon melted.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Whoa...

└ [Allfather]: To be safe, you should obtain more Adult Mandrake essence, as Starlight Princess said.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Why didn't you tell me earlier?

└ [Allfather]: Because you used Elixir alongside it. Elixir isn't some common Potion, after all. It heals you while your body absorbs and adapts to the essence, so there could be nothing better. I was referring to cases where only pure essence was used.

So it wasn't an ability I could call entirely good.

I'd been able to absorb it thanks to the mnemonic verses Heavenly Demon taught me. Otherwise, it could have been truly dangerous.

I'd only know after some time passed, but side effects could appear later, so I needed to prepare for that.

└ [AllHailTheSun]: With just that, you'll never have to worry about ice for the rest of your life. Can you give me one? I bet selling ice would make a killing.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Sorry, but I made it with the only Ice-Snow Flower I had. I also don't know what side effects it might have.

└ [AllHailTheSun]: I'm not going to drink it anyway, so I don't care about side effects. It's a shame you don't have any more Ice-Snow Flowers.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Who were you planning to feed it to?

└ [AllHailTheSun]: Someone. If you find more later, would you consider trading?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Let's talk after I find some. I still haven't gotten the ability I actually wanted.

I'd gained a cold attribute, but not cold resistance.

It could also become an ability that was more trouble than it was worth, so practice was essential.

Too much of anything was never good.

'Can I use this with my bare hands too?'

Would cold manifest if I poured aura into my hands instead of a sword?

Curious, I smashed the ice in the iron barrel with a hammer and refilled it with water.

Then I put my hand into the barrel.

Crack!

The water froze solid again. It seemed I could use it even barehanded.

'This could be useful when I don't have a weapon.'

I relied heavily on weapons. I barely knew any unarmed combat.

This ability would help me survive the worst situations.

Of course, as I'd said repeatedly, there was no telling what danger might come if I couldn't control it properly.

'I should focus on practicing control for a while.'

I was busy with sword training, practicing my cultivation method, and training this ability.

Was this why people said it was better to focus on one thing?

I only needed to master the cold well enough to control it.

'It's not like I'm going to cast Ice Age.'

Even in a fantasy world, something on that scale was probably impossible.

Sure, there were people who could slice mountains apart with swords, but I didn't count among them.

After cleaning up, I went back to chopping wood.

I couldn't use Sword Aura because of the cold, so I had no choice but to do it barehanded.

Still, my body had become tougher, so I gathered wood without much trouble.

'It's about time for dinner.'

Maybe because it was winter, but the sun seemed to set especially early.

As far as I knew, sunset times were affected by a planet's orbit, not its rotation.

If the sun was truly setting earlier, that meant this was a planetary-scale phenomenon, not something limited to this region.

'I've heard of the midnight sun, where the sun stays up all day.'

I didn't know. Since this was the Forest of Four Seasons, I could only accept it.

After that, I ate smoked tiger meat and warmed myself by adding Firewood to the fireplace.

Despite everything that had happened, our adorable Wonmo was still asleep.

It seemed he restored energy by sleeping whenever winter came.

'Well, he is still a baby...'

Other animals had become less active too.

The only crises I'd faced so far had been blizzards and avalanches.

I might have lacked experience, but I could prepare for all of them.

'I definitely need to make an emergency exit... It should be like a chimney, right?'

Considering the force of an avalanche, I'd have to build it from bricks.

The chimney had remained intact during the avalanche. At the very least, it wouldn't get swept away.

Damage was unavoidable, though, so I'd need to inspect it from time to time.

'What could be better than mud... other than cement?'

Was there cement in this world? Or something else that served the same purpose?

Even on Earth, many ancient structures had stood for ages without collapsing.

Castle walls in particular could barely be brought down even with cannon fire.

Ancient people had built civilizations by using everything they had, even while facing the limits of their technology.

The same went for me. I'd use everything I had to survive until the end.

'I should ask the Gallery, not the dwarf. They might not know if it isn't their specialty.'

The dwarf mentioned that often. They said they didn't know things outside their specialty.

Everything they had taught me so far was something they had researched personally.

[Post title] Does anyone know how to make bricks stick together better?

[Author] Wild Grylls

[Post] (Photo of a chimney)

[Post] I've been roughly smearing mud between them to hold them in place. Does anyone know a better way?

[Post] I'm asking because I want to build it sturdier after it collapses someday. Mud seems like it has limits.

└ [Starlight Princess]: From what I've heard, castles were built with a mixture of lime and sand.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Yeah, the registered user above is right. More precisely, there's something called cement. Mix that with sand.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Cement? The cement I know?

My eyes widened. There was cement in this world too?

I hadn't used the word because I didn't think it would exist, but there it was.

I never imagined that even its name would be the same, despite the materials being alike.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: What cement are you thinking of?

└ [Wild Grylls]: The kind you mix with other stuff and smear on. Then it hardens over time.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: You know exactly what it is. You've got plenty of money, so what have you been doing without using it this whole time?

└ [Wild Grylls]: I never imagined it would exist;; When was cement invented, though?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Dunno? It's been around for fucking ages, so I have no idea. One thing's certain, dwarves invented cement.

└ [Wild Grylls]: You're not lying, right?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Wanna bet?

└ [Allfather]: It is not a lie. Some say the dwarves' technological development was especially fast because of their discovery of cement. Of the three basic needs, food, clothing, and shelter, it made shelter sturdier.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Ah. Why'd you tell them? I could've squeezed something out of them. -_-

└ [Wild Grylls]: You would've just asked for alcohol anyway lol.

└ [Allfather]: Still, there are some suspicious aspects. It was too advanced for its era, so scholars have debated it extensively. That is why I called it a discovery rather than an invention.

└ [Wild Grylls]: You mean it suddenly appeared from somewhere?

└ [Allfather]: Yes. In a sense, the gift I gave you is a similar case. It cannot be made even with current technology.

The gift Allfather was referring to was the Subspace Backpack.

A bag that couldn't ignore mass but completely ignored spatial restrictions.

It saved an incredible amount of space, making it an excellent tool.

└ [Allfather]: Scholars have proposed that ancient relics happened to be preserved.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Ancient relics?

└ [Allfather]: Yes. From the era when the gods descended upon the earth. An age beyond even modern humanity's reach.

Was this the ancient civilization you often saw in novels and comics? Like lost technology?

A civilization that vanished for some reason, leaving only traces behind.

Earth had similar cases, so I wasn't surprised this world did too.

I didn't even have to look far. Take ancient Egyptian civilization. I couldn't even begin to imagine how the pyramids had been built.

'Though after you serve in the military, you start believing people really did stack those pyramids by hand.'

Anyway, I set that aside and returned to the main point.

Now that I knew cement existed, all that remained was figuring out how to use it.

The dwarf seemed to know the basics and explained them to me.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: If you're smearing it between bricks, mix it with sand, not dirt.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Why?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Dunno. My father told me to do it that way.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Okay.

└ That somehow sounds trustworthy lol.

└ Isn't that the same as doing whatever an Academy professor tells you?

└ Yeah, that's right. Undergrads just have to do whatever their professor tells them. Nobody knows why lol.

'Should I go to the lower part of the river or the sea?'

Everything around here was dirt, not sand. The only places with sand were farther down the river or at the sea.

Even in winter, I wanted to avoid the sea if possible. Going downstream would be much better.

I wasn't going to build it right away, but I planned to gather materials steadily from now on.

'The Auction House doesn't sell sand.'

After briefly looking through the Auction House, I left another comment for the dwarf.

Cement aside, there was something else I wanted to ask.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Hey. Are there weapons infused with elements too?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Yeah, they exist. A hammer with lightning attributes, or a sword that bursts into flames. Why?

└ [Wild Grylls]: How are those normally made? Naturally?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Usually, yeah? The lightning hammer was made after it got struck by lightning from the sky. Its original owner got struck dead by it, though lol.

└ [Wild Grylls]: What about fire? Did someone burn to death?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Nah. I heard that sword was stuck in the middle of a crater. Why are you asking?

└ [Wild Grylls]: I was wondering whether they can be made artificially. Like putting the essence I drank into a sword while it's being forged.

└ [Passing Dwarf]: There you go talking nonsense again lol. Find another Ice-Snow Flower or whatever first.

└ [FrostSword]: That's such a human thing to do, though? lol.

└ But even if you made one, it's not like you'd sell it.

└ [Wild Grylls]: It'd just be for decoration lol.

Like the dwarf said, I couldn't make one unless I found more Ice-Snow Flowers.

Even if I did find some, I had no intention of combining them with a sword.

'Unless I find two or three more, maybe.'

After exchanging trivial chatter like that, I ended the day.

Fast Sloth diligently stared into the fire even while I slept. I could probably leave it to Fast Sloth to add Firewood.