WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈

Chapter 57: Tigers Die and Leave Their Stripes (4)

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The number of explosions I’d experienced in my life could be counted on one hand.

The first was when I threw a grenade in the military. That was when I realized just how powerful grenades were.

Other than that, there was only one. The time cooking oil exploded and splattered all over me.

It was infinitely pathetic compared to a grenade, but an explosion was still an explosion.

The reason I was having such pointless thoughts was simple.

“Cough. Cough. What the...?”

I never thought I’d live to see a heart explode instead of cooking oil.

Good thing I sensed something wrong and reacted quickly. Otherwise, the damage could’ve been serious.

Coughing, I looked at where the heart had been sitting.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Despite the explosion, the heart was still beating.

Everything around it, on the other hand, had been completely wrecked. Nothing had survived intact.

It was a good thing I’d moved the jars of meat into the cave. Otherwise, I would’ve cried.

“Kyuu! Kyuu!”

The explosion had been strong enough to send even Wonmo scrambling out of the cave.

His wide, startled eyes were so damn adorable.

I told Wonmo it was nothing and that he should go back inside and sleep.

Wonmo looked back and forth between me and the heart with a bewildered expression before heading back in.

‘The Fast Sloth is... fine.’

The Fast Sloth had somehow latched onto the barricade.

It had an exceptional instinct for sensing a crisis, so it must’ve prepared in advance.

Aside from the mess around the heart, everything was fine.

‘Fuck. Even Chinese products don’t have their hearts explode.’

Not even products from China, where supposedly everything exploded, would do this.

It wasn’t like I’d installed an explosive device in the heart. I couldn’t make sense of it at all.

What did I need at a time like this? Ask the Gallery, obviously.

[Post title] The heart exploded

[Author] Wild Grylls

[Post] (Photo of the intact heart and the wrecked surroundings)

[Post] I tried to split the heart like Allfather said, and it exploded.

[Post] But the heart itself is fine;; Does anyone know why this happened?

[Post] Never thought I’d see a heart explode in my life;;

└ [Heavenly Demon]: I’ve never heard of a heart exploding before. Perhaps it contained too much Internal Energy.

└ [Wild Gryll]: Too much Internal Energy can make it explode?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: If there’s more than the vessel can withstand, it will burst. But considering the tiger lived just fine with it inside, that does not seem to be the case. What a fascinating heart.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: How did that tiger even keep such a heart inside it? That really is strange.

└ [Allfather]: Did you perhaps use aura when you tried to split the heart?

└ [Wild Grylls]: It was too hard, so I had no choice. Is that a problem?

└ [Allfather]: There should be no cases like that aside from Dragon Hearts... How strange. And the range of the explosion was quite narrow as well.

└ [Wild Grylls]: How powerful are Dragon Hearts?

└ [Allfather]: It depends on the individual and its stage of growth, but an adult dragon’s can blow up an entire small city.

└ [Wild Grylls]: That’s terrifying...

What was that, a living nuclear bomb? I let out a hollow laugh.

Unfortunately, I’d killed a tiger, not a dragon. A tiger as big as a bus.

If a dragon had attacked me, I would’ve died without even being able to try anything.

└ [Allfather]: But it is strange. Even if the scale is small, this is a phenomenon only seen in Dragon Hearts...

└ [Heavenly Demon]: Isn’t a Western dragon what you call an Eastern dragon in the Central Plains?

└ [Allfather]: Yes, that is correct.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: In the Central Plains, there is an idiom: “a dragon and tiger locked in battle.” It means rivals too evenly matched to determine who is superior. After all, the tiger is known as the “mountain lord,” so isn’t it possible?

└ Heavenly Demon, you don’t know the difference between Western dragons and Eastern dragons, do you?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: What difference is there? They are both dragons in the end.

└ (Photo of a Western dragon) This is a Western dragon, and (photo of an Eastern dragon) this is an Eastern dragon. Do you see the difference?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: They look similar. Are they related?

└ Sigh;;

└ She really is ignorant, right?

└ Yeah, seems like it.

└ [Allfather]: That is an interesting perspective. As Heavenly Demon said, Western dragons and Eastern dragons do have many similarities. From a species standpoint, they are relatives.

└ For real? I never knew that.

└ Really? That’s a matter of considerable debate in academic circles.

└ [Allfather]: It is the same principle as termites being more closely related to cockroaches or mantises.

└ Ah, lmao.

└ Putting it that way makes total sense lmao.

└ [Allfather]: Anyway, as Heavenly Demon said, tigers are considered comparable to dragons in the Central Plains, so it may not be impossible. I’m getting hard already.

└ Why are you getting hard? Lmao.

└ Leave them alone. They’re a professor. They must be excited about finding a new research subject.

└ For professors, research material is basically sex lmao.

└ [Wild Grylls]: So what should I do with this? Just leave it alone?

└ [Allfather]: This may be presumptuous, but could you lend me that heart for a while? I will only conduct the research I need, then return it.

└ [Wild Grylls]: And after you finish the research?

└ [Allfather]: I will process it so you can consume all the mana contained within it. I only need the research material, so there is no need for separate payment. If anything, I should be paying you.

└ [Wild Grylls]: No. Just take it. I don’t want to look at that hideous thing;;

└ [Allfather]: Thank you. Thanks to you these days, Grylls, life has become worth living again. Hahaha.

I traded with Allfather right away and handed over the heart.

I was too scared to leave it alone when it could explode at any moment, and I had no way to store it either.

It was better to give it to Allfather and let them use it as research material.

‘And I got this too.’

Allfather also gave me a poison-resistance pill.

I had plenty to do today, so I got through lunch with a Fasting Pill.

After lunch, I practiced the Inner Energy Cultivation Method as usual.

‘This is strange. It feels faster than yesterday?’

The mana circulating inside me felt different. Much faster, somehow.

I had my doubts, but I couldn’t find anything specifically wrong.

If anything, it only felt refreshing enough to make me want to keep going.

‘Is it because I fought until I was almost dead?’

That was nothing more than my own theory. The fundamentals were what mattered anyway, so I didn’t care about the speed.

Once I was done practicing the Inner Energy Cultivation Method, all I had to do was wait until Starlight Princess made a post.

‘I’d just finished cleaning up, and one explosion means I have to do it all over again.’

First, I cleaned up the area that had become a complete mess from the exploding heart.

Luckily, nothing looked like it had collapsed badly...

“No. Fuck, my charcoal!!!”

Only then did I notice that all the charcoal I’d worked so hard to gather had been blown away. I could cry.

I barely managed to gather the scattered charcoal, but even then, I only recovered around a third of it.

For a moment, I wanted to just buy some at the Auction House, but I barely restrained myself.

‘Right. I’ll be smoking meat soon anyway...’

Think positive. A negative mindset wasn’t good.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling bitter. I prepared firewood with a wry smile.

How much more work would it take to turn this firewood into charcoal?

A sigh escaped, but I accepted it and moved on.

‘With the charcoal I have left, I should wash the hide and my clothes first.’

I planned to use the hide as a mat or blanket.

Since it was my first time butchering anything, the hide wasn’t in great condition. There were also the parts cut by Heavenly Demon’s Sword.

Give this to AllHailTheSun and ask for a new shield? That would be shameless.

‘I should cut the hide up. It’s too big.’

It would be inconvenient to wash and dry otherwise. Trimming it was necessary.

Once I was roughly done cleaning the hide, I connected to the Gallery for a moment.

I wanted to see whether Starlight Princess had made a post.

‘She posted.’

It was sitting right at the top of the board. I clicked it without hesitation.

[Post title] How to smoke meat (cold smoking)

[Author] Starlight Princess

[Post] (Photo illustrating how to set up a tripod)

[Post] (Photo illustrating how to build a fire beneath the tripod)

[Post] (Photo illustrating how to place meat on the tripod)

[Post] Hello, Grylls!

[Post] As I mentioned earlier, I’ll tell you how to smoke meat, or more specifically, how to cold-smoke it!

[Post] Smoking meat after salting it and drawing out the moisture, like you did, is called cold smoking.

[Post] Set up a tripod like in the pictures above, build a fire underneath, then hang the meat from it. That’s it! Easy, right?

[Post] You should cover the area around the tripod with cloth or something similar so the smoke doesn’t escape.

[Post] Also, be careful not to dry the meat at too high a temperature. It should only feel warm.

[Post] Please leave a comment if this helped. As I always say, thank you so much for saving me.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Thank you so much for teaching me. I’ll leave an upvote before I go.

└ [Starlight Princess]: Thank you, haha. I’m glad it helped. If I get the chance, I’ll make more Elixir for you.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Uh... Do you need another Adult Mandrake?

└ [Starlight Princess]: No. It’s for Wonmo, haha.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Ah, okay. I see.

She meant it was for Wonmo... right? I was a little taken aback, but I didn’t dwell on it.

Right now, setting up the smoker the way Starlight Princess taught me was the priority.

‘I’ll need wood of a suitable size. If I can’t find any, I’ll cut and prepare it myself.’

Felling trees wasn’t difficult anymore. A few swings with an axe and it was done.

I found trees that were perfect for standing up and arranged them into a tripod.

I tied the top tightly with rope so it wouldn’t collapse.

I also bought cloth from the Auction House to cover the outside. I felt like I was spending a lot today.

I’d originally planned to buy a blanket as well, but I had the hide, so I used that instead.

‘All I have to do is hang the meat here.’

Finally, I tied the meat with rope and hung it in the center. The preparation was complete.

Then I ran into an unexpected problem. The quantity.

There was so much tiger meat that I couldn’t help worrying about it.

‘If I want to preserve it, I need to smoke all of it...’

To do that, I needed to set up more tripods.

‘Whatever. I’ll do it.’

What couldn’t I do if it meant keeping the meat for a long time?

I set up around five more tripods. Honestly, even that wasn’t enough.

The only reason I stopped was because I had run out of space.

Crackle! Crack-crackle! Snap!

I lit firewood beneath each tripod and made smoke rise.

Before long, smoke drifted upward and began wrapping around the salted meat.

Once I covered them with cloth, surprisingly little smoke leaked out. If I’d known this, I would’ve made these sooner.

‘At least I know now.’

I blankly watched the meat gradually put on its coat of smoke.

What would’ve happened if I didn’t have the Gallery? Wouldn’t I have died long ago?

Why had I not only fallen into the Forest of Four Seasons, but received the Gallery too?

Questions that showed no signs of being answered tangled together like a ball of thread. But I had no intention of unraveling them. More precisely, I didn’t have the energy to.

Survival was what mattered right now. Getting out of this place somehow came first.

‘I can’t get used to this.’

I repeated it to myself. Don’t let familiarity trick you into losing sight of what matters.

Besides, hadn’t this incident made me realize just how safe civilization was?

I was only resting for now. My will to escape had not broken.

‘Get up. Get up and dig up Mandrakes first.’

The dwarf would probably request a trade soon.

Even if I couldn’t give them crabs, shouldn’t I at least give them an Adult Mandrake?

I had just traded with Allfather, so I had to wait through the twenty-four-hour cooldown again.

‘If nothing else, I wish they’d reduce the waiting time.’

The Head Mod had a stubborn personality, so persuading them would be difficult.

And if I tried bribing them, they probably wouldn’t accept that either.

‘Isn’t there some way?’

Some way to reduce the trade cooldown, even a little.

* * *

KABOOOM!

A huge explosion erupted alongside a blue flash.

The explosion was neither particularly large nor small, but its power was terrifying.

It wasn’t enough to completely level the area, but it was more than enough to wreck everything nearby.

“Cough! Cough! Ahem.”

The mage who had taken the explosion head-on was unharmed, aside from a few coughs.

A little soot had stained the mage’s snowy white beard, but it was nothing significant.

The mage waved a hand and scattered the smoke.

Then, barely opening their eyes, the mage looked ahead.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

At the site of the explosion was a heart much larger than a human head.

The heart kept beating vigorously, completely unfazed by the explosion.

It looked almost proud, as though something like that wasn’t even worth its attention.

Bang! Bang!

[Kadir! Are you all right?!]

[Were you injured?! We heard an alarming noise!]

Several people urgently knocked on the door.

An explosion had suddenly occurred, so it was only natural.

“I’m fine, so stand down. I was only conducting a new experiment.”

The mage casually dismissed those worried about them.

Concerned voices still came from beyond the door, but the mage’s attention had already turned elsewhere.

“Good heavens...”

The mage stared at the heart with an awestruck expression.

The heart was still pulsing, as though showing off that it remained perfectly intact.

“What an extraordinary heart!”

A hunger for knowledge flickered in the mage’s eyes.

Footnotes:

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