Chapter 198

Coming In (1)

While Ludwig was adapting to life with Grylls in the Forest of Four Seasons, the Kingdom of Iris was still struggling with the mage tower that had risen into the sky.

No one knew when the tower might fall, so the people’s anxiety grew with each passing day.

In response, the king of Iris issued the following proclamation:

[People of Iris, be at ease. We are safe.]

What an extraordinarily reassuring proclamation.

Authority meant nothing when no one knew when the disaster looming before them might strike.

The mage tower would have to come down before anyone could even begin to feel safe.

As their anxiety increased, the people grew more agitated. Some had even begun evacuating.

In this situation, what was Kadir—the man who was practically responsible for the entire incident—doing?

"Should I just run away?"

[You irresponsible bastard. Can you still call yourself the person in charge?]

"You’re one to talk. You failed when you were in charge."

[That cuts deep.]

Kadir was gradually losing his mind as the days passed.

He had desperately tried to analyze the sky whale’s ambergris, but every attempt had failed.

It was a by-product of an animal from the Age of Myth. Naturally, it was difficult to analyze using modern knowledge.

The ironic part was that only someone as capable as Kadir could have realized that analysis was genuinely impossible.

Anyone else would have continued clinging to the task, convinced that some method must exist.

The only reason Kadir had recently regained some free time was that he had finally accepted its impossibility.

Even with all my knowledge, I can’t analyze it at all... Just what kind of creatures did the gods keep around them?

And what kind of place was the Forest of Four Seasons, where such creatures lived?

Long ago, curiosity had driven him to set foot in the forest once.

He had escaped only because he had put no more than a foot inside. Had he entered with his entire body...

He didn’t even want to imagine it.

For a mage, losing the ability to use mana was tantamount to a death sentence.

Perhaps that shark was also a creature from the Age of Myth.

The shark-man corpse Grylls had sent him previously.

His analysis had revealed that it belonged to a species that shouldn’t be able to exist in this world.

He hadn’t understood what that meant when he first received it, but the sky whale’s existence had allowed him to form a hypothesis.

There was a high probability that the Forest of Four Seasons was home not only to the sky whale but to numerous other mythical animals.

That animal called a giraffe must be another example. Not even its fossils have ever been discovered.

An animal absent from every known historical record.

Whenever he thought about it, his loins stirred with excitement.

Of course, that excitement promptly faded whenever he looked at the ambergris steadily disappearing before his eyes.

Kadir leisurely sipped a cup of tea as he considered what to do next.

We have approximately one week before the mage tower falls. Perhaps even less.

The ambergris was shrinking more rapidly as time passed.

Once it disappeared completely...

He had no desire to imagine what would happen.

Should they prepare for the tower’s inevitable fall?

That would be difficult as well.

One wrong move could throw the entire capital into chaos.

Running away really would be the best option.

From a purely rational perspective, abandoning everything and fleeing would be ideal.

He could take the remaining ambergris and the Immortal King with him.

No one else knew what had caused this incident. As long as he kept his mouth shut, no one would ever find out.

But then that friend of mine would curse me to hell and back.

He couldn’t do that.

He would be too ashamed to face the previous Hero.

Even in death, the man would probably chase Kadir to the ends of hell and point an accusing finger at him.

Kadir let out a deep sigh and stared at the ambergris.

Even now, he could see it slowly crumbling away.

If I can’t analyze it... what am I supposed to do?

Throughout his life as a mage, Kadir had analyzed and organized everything he encountered.

He had never understood warriors who relied on instinct and intuition.

The Hero had been the same.

But now that a desperate, life-or-death crisis was approaching, Kadir found himself leaning toward instinct rather than reason.

I can’t control the ambergris. But what if I absorb all of it and control it from within...?

It was nothing more than a hypothesis.

An instinctive one, at that.

However, their window of opportunity was rapidly closing.

He could no longer afford to delay.

All-Father steeled himself and logged into the gallery.

He had no intention of revealing his identity.

He merely intended to ask for help.

[All-Father: Hello, Mr. Grylls. Are you there by any chance?]

[Wild Grylls: Yes, I’m here. Is something wrong?]

[All-Father: I apologize for asking, but could you send me some more ambergris? It is rather urgent.]

He needed Grylls’s help.

Very few people could help him overcome this crisis.

Grylls was one of them.

All-Father could only pray that some ambergris remained.

[Wild Grylls: I can send you some. How much do you need?]

[All-Father: Would a piece about the size of a fist be possible?]

[Wild Grylls: That much is fine. I’ll send it immediately.]

[All-Father: Thank you. Truly, thank you.]

[Wild Grylls: You said it was urgent. I take it the matter still hasn’t been resolved?]

[All-Father: To be honest, I was beginning to lose my mind and had nearly resigned myself to the situation. But I realized I could no longer postpone dealing with it.]

[Wild Grylls: I know exactly how that feels. Here’s the ambergris.]

***

Kadir had always thought that Grylls was a remarkably kindhearted young man.

That didn’t mean he was a pushover, however.

He believed that favors should be repaid in kind.

If Kadir resolved this crisis, he intended to grant any request Grylls might make.

Assuming I survive.

Kadir stared at the ambergris in his hand.

It was a piece the size of a fist.

What was he going to do with it?

Something that made his stomach churn merely to imagine.

Ambergris was a by-product of a sky whale.

Regardless of which end it emerged from, it had once been inside the creature’s stomach.

"...Hup!"

[...?]

Then Kadir swallowed it whole.

The Immortal King, who had been watching him, cried out in horror.

[You have finally lost your mind. Now you are even eating excrement.]

"Shut... up. Cough!"

Ignoring the Immortal King’s horrified voice, Kadir began to concentrate.

His reasoning was simple.

If he couldn’t analyze the ambergris, he would accept its energy into himself.

By understanding that energy, he might be able to control the ambergris—or move the mage tower.

I will become the ambergris itself. This sort of approach normally belongs exclusively to warriors, but...

There was no other solution.

Kadir focused with all his strength.

He paid no attention to the taste of the ambergris. Doing so would only break his concentration.

Perhaps the ambergris contained too much power.

Or perhaps a mere human was never meant to consume an object from the Age of Myth.

Crack—crackle—

Spiderweb-like fractures began appearing across Kadir’s skin.

At the same time, a vortex formed inside the laboratory, sending countless research documents flying through the air.

[Uwaaaaaagh.]

Unfortunately, the Immortal King was swept up alongside the research materials.

Apparently dizzy, he began making strange noises.

Drip—

A stream of blood trickled from Kadir’s mouth.

It was a sign that his insides had been damaged.

The spiderweb-like cracks across his body soon began glowing and pulsating with purple light.

Even someone with no knowledge of magic could tell that his condition was critical.

Yet Kadir didn’t utter a single groan.

He maintained his concentration.

And as a result of focusing with every ounce of his being...

Crack! Crackle!

The fractures spreading across Kadir’s body grew increasingly severe.

Boom!

Then he exploded.

***

[NecromancyIsLove: Save me.]

[Wild Grylls: Excuse me?]

[NecromancyIsLove: I don’t know what you gave him, but please save me.]

[Wild Grylls: Did something happen?]

A message had suddenly arrived from NecromancyIsLove, leaving me wondering what was going on.

Since he regularly said strange things, I decided not to pay it much attention.

He would probably say something else bizarre later.

Although I was a little worried.

"₩%₩"

"Like this?"

For now, receiving training from Ludwig was more important.

Perhaps the candied-sweet-potato incident from yesterday had been weighing on his mind, because he taught me with great care and sincerity.

Wasn’t it difficult when we couldn’t understand each other?

Honestly, it was.

Still, he physically corrected my posture whenever necessary, so training wasn’t completely impossible.

"You. Eyes. Good. Do well."

He even spoke bits of Korean from time to time.

"..."

We had met only three days ago, yet he had already learned that much.

I hadn’t even taught him separately.

I couldn’t tell whether the people of this world were all remarkably intelligent or Ludwig himself was simply gifted.

Kkobong learned the language on his own too.

In any case, the essence of the training was simple:

Start with the fundamentals.

If the foundation was unstable, everything built upon it would be unstable as well.

I agreed with that principle, so I quietly followed Ludwig’s instructions.

"S&$#"

"Like this?"

"0^&$"

"Hmm. Got it."

Ludwig instructed not only me but Kkobong as well.

Unlike with me, he didn’t physically correct Kkobong’s posture. He merely offered general advice.

Apparently, Kkobong’s martial art was highly profound, but he struggled because it wasn’t suited to his physical structure.

Therefore, Kkobong would have to develop and refine his own path.

As for Wonmo...

"Kyuu! Kyuu! Kyuu!"

"@=$. @=$. @=$."

He stood nearby, clapping and cheering.

He even danced excitedly.

Even without a translation, it clearly meant, Good job! Good job! Good job!

Thanks to that, the morning passed in an instant.

We ate wild boar for lunch.

Someone might ask why we didn’t eat the remaining sweet potatoes, but eating them too often wouldn’t be good.

I also shared some with the registered users.

Everyone had thanked me.

I should trade with Grow Big and Strong more often in the future.

It seemed as though another uneventful day was about to pass.

Whoooosh—

"Ah. Here we go again."

That was until the rain began.

I lamented as I watched it pour from the sky as though the heavens had split open.

Rain meant that winter would soon arrive.

Wonmo had recently been growing plumper, with both fat and fur thickening across his body. The rain made me certain.

A brutal winter would arrive within a few days.

I was glad I had prepared in advance.

I hope the other shelter doesn’t leak.

Just in case, I inspected the inside of Kkobong and Largo’s shelter.

Thanks to our meticulous construction, no rain leaked through the ceiling.

However, I realized that I had forgotten to install drainage channels, so I hurriedly added them.

I’m glad I collected the fish traps beforehand.

I had retrieved them the moment I saw the sky growing overcast.

The river would swell anyway, so we wouldn’t be going there for a while.

Once the rain stopped, though, it might be worth checking what kind of fish had crawled ashore this time.

If it was an eel, I would definitely catch it.

If it was a pufferfish, I would stay well away from it.

I just hope nothing strange comes crawling out.

Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to browse the gallery.

Ludwig seemed exhausted from today’s routine and was taking a brief nap.

I couldn’t disturb someone who was sleeping, so browsing the gallery was the better option.

***

[Breaking News: The Mage Tower Is Coming Down, Holy Shit]

[Live Footage of the Mage Tower Descending]

[Upvote If You Think Kadir Is Fucking Incredible, Lmao]

[How Did He Do It?]

***

The gallery was overflowing with posts about the mage tower.

From what I could gather, Kadir had taken control of the floating tower and landed it safely.

He had brought down an entire structure that had risen high into the sky.

He truly was an incredible person.

Even with the ambergris, that couldn’t have been easy.

I browsed around to see if there was any other news.

Most of the posts concerned the mage tower, but that had happened several hours ago.

I was searching for another topic when—

"Kyuu?"

An unfamiliar sound came from the entrance to the cave.

I turned toward it.

So did Ludwig, who had been resting with his eyes closed, and Wonmo, who had been rolling around on the floor.

Even the speedy sloth riding on my back turned its head toward the sound.

"Kyuueeng..."

Its body was predominantly gray.

Small wings protruded from its back.

It had a large snout and powerful hind legs, while its forelegs were comparatively short.

"Who are you?"

An unfamiliar visitor had entered the cave.

"Kyuuiiing..."

And its entire body was covered in wounds.