Chapter 237

Harmless Animals (1)

This is the first time I’ve seen the Heavenly Demon get triggered.

I felt strangely intrigued as I read the post she had uploaded.

It was about cultivating the medicinal herb I had given her—the one effective against hair loss.

I wasn’t sure exactly how effective it was, but even the Heavenly Demon’s aide had personally called it a "miracle."

Since hair loss was famously considered "incurable," a cure for it certainly deserved to be called a miracle.

There’s magic and divine power in this world, yet they still can’t cure baldness. What the hell?

It could truly be called the second-most terrifying disease after dementia.

It was even hereditary, so some people allegedly foresaw their future simply by looking at how much hair their fathers had.

Worse still, the condition could skip a generation before manifesting.

Fortunately, I’m fine...

Ever since entering the Forest of Four Seasons, however, my hair had been falling out more frequently.

It grew back just as quickly, but loose hair was still scattered all over the floor.

It was probably stress-induced hair loss caused by the extreme pressure I was under.

If I hadn’t had Wonmo, my symptoms might have grown even worse.

Though becoming bald here probably wouldn’t matter much.

In any event, properly processing that herb would take a long time.

Its effects had been identified quickly, but no one knew what side effects it might have.

That was also why I had entrusted its distribution to the Heavenly Demon.

If I followed my heart, I would post it on the Gallery and use it to attract as many people as possible.

However, if some side effect even I hadn’t known about came to light, it would only backfire.

Something like this should be distributed as widely as possible.

For now, my priority was escaping the forest.

The Heavenly Demon would also subtly let it slip that the herb had come from the Forest of Four Seasons.

Until then, I simply had to survive and continue exploring every corner of the forest.

Crackle, crackle—

Returning my attention to the present, I looked away from the campfire.

The rest of the party was huddled together around it, drying themselves.

Ludwig and I were fine, but the others inevitably needed more time because of their fur.

Ppareumbo doesn’t rely on his fur as much as I expected.

This was Ppareumbo’s first bath. With his soaked fur plastered against him, his physique was extraordinary in more ways than one.

His upper body formed an inverted triangle, with impressively broad shoulders. Even his lower body was unusually thick for a sloth.

No wonder he could move at such terrifying speeds. I was glad I hadn’t provoked him.

Tomorrow, we should return to where the squirrel lives.

Before going to sleep, I planned out what we would do tomorrow. First, we would return to the squirrel’s territory.

I was curious about how the work was progressing, and I intended to turn that place into our front yard.

By making it our front yard, I meant that we might have to eat and sleep there.

If we gradually constructed an expansion base(?) there, it would make things much easier in the future.

Normally, I’d have to hear what the squirrel thinks first...

All I had to do was slip him a Fasting Pill. Besides, he had also taken a liking to the World Tree sapling.

Of course, I would still have to persuade him. It was practically the same as moving into someone else’s home as a tenant.

But the most important thing is safety.

I had learned that yesterday when we encountered the monster inhabiting the upside-down waterfall.

If some strange phenomenon appeared before me, I should start by throwing a rock at it.

I also needed to test it repeatedly in several different ways and ensure the area was safe before doing anything else.

The problem is that danger is everywhere even if I do all that...

That was unavoidable. I would simply have to learn through experience, little by little.

My journal was also filling up more and more with each passing day.

After writing the entry marking the end of my day, I logged into the Gallery.

Browsing the Gallery before bed served as a kind of sleeping pill for me.

[Animals That Are Surprisingly Harmless to Humanity]

As luck would have it, an interesting post had just reached the trending page.

I immediately opened it to see what it was about.

Title: Animals That Are Surprisingly Harmless to Humanity

(A photograph of a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex)

The answer is "dinosaurs."

Pure dinosaurs—not their descendants, such as drakes and wyverns—have never harmed humanity.

Their descendants screwed up, and now their ancestors are being unfairly blamed for it.

└ The fact is that dinosaurs have killed exactly zero humans.

└ Lmaooo. Then what are dragons? Are dragons also descendants of dinosaurs?

└ Technically, dinosaurs are the ancestors of all living creatures. They’re just all extinct now, lmaooo.

└ Why did they go extinct? Was there a particular reason?

└ For real, I think they just got hit by a few natural disasters and went extinct.

└ Some went extinct, while others evolved into different creatures.

So dinosaurs existed in this world too.

Then again, dragons—essentially winged dinosaurs—existed here.

Dragons could even breathe fire, so they could be considered superior versions of dinosaurs.

There were also drakes, basilisks, wyverns, and so on.

Most creatures resembling dinosaurs were their descendants.

Didn’t they say birds are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs on Earth?

I couldn’t remember clearly, but I believed it was something like that.

I watched the self-proclaimed archaeologists and biologists argue among themselves before leaving a comment of my own.

└ If you join the argument too, it’ll completely ruin the balance. ;;

└ The age of dinosaurs came before the Age of Mythology, so it doesn’t matter.

└ How does that mean it doesn’t matter? Lmaooo.

└ Couldn’t dinosaurs be living in the Forest of Four Seasons too?

└ It’s possible. There’s already a sky whale there.

└ Grylls, tell us if you find a dinosaur. They’re harmless, so it’ll probably let you take a picture.

└ Wild Grylls: What kind of bullshit is that?

└ Didn’t you read the post? Dinosaurs have never killed a human.

└ Yeah. It means most of them are docile.

└ Stop talking out of your asses, lmaooo.

└ Wild Grylls: Can the person who discovered the sky whale join the conversation too?

└ Fuck, who the hell are you? Lmaooo.

As expected of the Gallery.

Watching them spew whatever entered their heads made me laugh.

After browsing a few other posts, I began preparing for bed.

The others had finished drying their bodies and fur as well, so the timing was perfect.

It wasn’t a bad start. I wish every day could be like this.

That was, of course, excluding the monster we encountered at the waterfall.

And the squirrel with its bizarre abilities.

I would much rather face something that relied purely on overwhelming size and strength.

I wasn’t someone who lost when it came to sheer physique either. Ludwig himself had confirmed that.

...Let’s exclude the waterfall monster.

That thing existed in a realm I couldn’t even approach.

And it wasn’t the only one.

The giant crab and giant crayfish by the lake had practically turned the place into a monster movie.

Hmm. There’s no answer.

Regardless of size or strength, quietly avoiding trouble was still the best option.

Casting aside every last trace of arrogance, I brought the exhausting day to an end.

Before long, the morning sun rose and marked the beginning of a new day.

"Okay. Today, we’re heading back toward the squirrel’s territory. We’ll turn that place into an expansion base... No, our front yard... No, wait."

"#%%%."

[He says it is called a forward operating base.]

"Yes, a forward operating base. We’ll use it as our forward operating base."

I gave the rest of the party a rough explanation of the plan.

Ludwig, being a veteran soldier, considered it briefly before nodding. He appeared to have concluded that it was a sound plan.

All that remained was to make our way there.

I gathered various tools and placed them inside the spatial backpack.

I then handed the backpack to Kkobong, completing our preparations for the expedition.

"All right. Let’s go."

[Must we truly do this?]

I effortlessly ignored Cain’s complaint as he hung from my chest and set off.

Thanks to the markings I had left yesterday, finding the way wasn’t particularly difficult.

However, the route did seem to take us on a slight detour, so I corrected it in several places along the way.

Eventually, just as we arrived at the river we had seen yesterday—

"Croak."

"Croak. Croak."

"What are those now?"

A group of frogs was huddled together along the riverbank.

They looked like ordinary frogs at first glance, but their size was anything but ordinary.

The largest golden frog had been about the size of a small dog.

The creatures before us, however, were the size of bulls.

That was no exaggeration. They were genuinely as large as bulls. At first, I thought my sense of perspective was distorted.

"What in the world are those?"

[They are frogs.]

"I know that much. Do you know what species they are?"

[I am not a biologist. How would I know the species of every frog? It would be different if they were monsters.]

That thing looked like a monster no matter how you looked at it. I was dumbfounded.

I was reluctant to approach them, but fortunately, we had a secret weapon.

"Tyrano, it’s your turn."

"Ppi-ppi!"

Our secret weapon was a baby dragon—a creature feared by every land animal.

At my command, Tyrano marched proudly toward the frogs.

"Croak."

"Croak, croak."

Whip! Whip-whip! Whip!

"Ppieeeee!"

In an instant, the frogs’ long tongues completely bound him and began dragging him away.

Apparently, amphibians such as frogs weren’t included among land animals.

Or perhaps they were simply less intelligent than other animals.

"Hey, you bastards! Let go of my baby!"

The moment Tyrano was restrained, I rushed forward and threatened them.

Fortunately, once I intervened, they instinctively sensed danger and leaped into the river.

I had nearly lost Tyrano in the most ridiculous way imaginable. I never expected there to be creatures that weren’t afraid of a dragon hatchling.

"Tyrano, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Ppieeeeng!"

Tyrano ran toward me in tears.

He was covered in saliva from being wrapped in their tongues, but I didn’t care.

Comforting Tyrano was the priority right now. As I did so, I examined the river.

As expected, we should stay away from the river.

After finally calming Tyrano down, I headed toward the squirrel’s territory.

Since we didn’t encounter any other animals along the way, the squirrel’s territory seemed to be quite large.

"Squeak!"

"Hello."

We eventually arrived at the squirrel’s territory.

Perhaps because he had taken good care of the World Tree sapling over the past day, it seemed to have grown slightly.

I discreetly handed the squirrel a Fasting Pill before speaking.

"Squirrel, I’m sorry to ask, but would it be okay if we developed this place a little?"

"Squeak?"

"The truth is..."

I gave the squirrel a rough explanation of our circumstances.

We would probably be visiting this place frequently in the future, so I asked whether we could modify it into somewhere we could rest comfortably.

Even if we couldn’t sleep here, having somewhere to prepare and eat meals would be enough.

At first, the squirrel seemed rather suspicious of the idea.

"I’ll give you something delicious."

"Squeak!"

However, the moment I promised to give him something as delicious as the Fasting Pills, he readily gave us permission.

As expected, food—especially delicious food—was the finest currency in the Forest of Four Seasons.

Moreover, the squirrel was already satisfied as long as he had the World Tree sapling, so the arrangement couldn’t have been better.

"All right, everyone. Let’s start preparing to build this place up."

"What about you?"

"I’m going to explore the surrounding area. We don’t know what dangers might be nearby."

This might have been the squirrel’s territory, but there was no telling what else could be here.

Ludwig apparently found my reasoning sound because he nodded and let the matter pass.

Construction of the forward operating base soon began, and I departed to explore the area.

I hoped I might find another medicinal herb as effective as the one from yesterday.

Ppareumbo will warn me if something seems dangerous.

Tense and vigilant, I pushed my way through the undergrowth.

After walking a little farther, I began to understand some of this area’s characteristics.

The trees are quite large.

Compared to the trees around our shelter, they were both thicker and taller.

Their leaves were so dense that they blocked out much of the sunlight.

That meant I had to watch not only behind me but also above me, forcing me to proceed cautiously.

Rustle—

At that moment, I heard something moving beside me. The instant I heard it, I froze.

I turned toward the source of the noise and raised my vigilance.

As an additional precaution against a possible ambush, I covered my body with my shield.

Rustle, rustle—

The sound gradually grew louder.

I refused to let my guard down.

The undergrowth shook with increasing frequency, and before long—

Pop!

Someone poked their head out from among the bushes.

It had a lizard-like appearance and scales that were gray overall.

In contrast, its eyes were remarkably small.

"...Tyrano? Why are you here?"

My guard relaxed slightly at Tyrano’s sudden appearance.

Rustle—

The creature resembling Tyrano slowly emerged from the bushes.

But something was strange.

Its head continued rising higher and higher until it towered over me.

And then there was its body. It was far larger than Tyrano, with distinctively short forelegs.

Its hind legs, on the other hand, were as thick as logs.

"...?"

What?

When had Tyrano taken off his wings and grown this large?

No. Was that even a dragon in the first place?

My brain was still struggling to process the situation when—

Lick.

The Tyrano-like creature ran its tongue across its lips.

Anyone could see that it had identified me as prey.

Only then did I finally understand what was happening.

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me..."

The creature before me wasn’t Tyrano.

It was an actual Tyrannosaurus rex.

It was considerably smaller than the ones I knew of, but it was still a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Or perhaps it was some other species of dinosaur. Either way, one thing was certain.

"SKRRAAAAAAA!"

This bastard was a dinosaur.

The genuine Tyrannosaurus rex opened its jaws wide and charged at me.

I hurriedly raised my shield and braced myself for its attack.

Dinosaurs are harmless? What a load of bullshit.

I would personally experience this attack—against my will—and use it to disprove that claim.

Unless this bastard claimed the glorious first kill instead.

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