Chapter 150

Countermeasures (2)

Title: Made a Notice

Wild Grylls

(Photo of the notice)

I’m planning to install this where it can be seen from across the river.

I originally wasn’t going to put one near the river, but I saw a person on the other side today;;

It happened too quickly for me to take a picture, but I think it was the person sent by the Holy Kingdom. Yeah.

└ Heavenly Demon: Did you truly see a person?

└ Wild Grylls: Yes. He was riding a giraffe and fighting lions.

└ SwordMaster: A giraffe is the long-necked animal you mentioned earlier, correct?

└ Wild Grylls: Yes.

└ SwordMaster: It seems like the rider wouldn’t be able to see ahead very well because of its neck;;

└ Wild Grylls: I haven’t asked one myself, so I wouldn’t know.

└ What if the giraffe comes across with him?

└ Lol, then you’ll have another mouth to feed.

└ With a neck that long, would it even fit inside your shelter?

└ That’s one problem, but it might also have a nasty temperament;;

└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: That’s a good idea! Other survivors should be able to see it too!

└ Are you sure you didn’t see things? Maybe the Forest of Four Seasons showed you a hallucination.

└ It sounds far too detailed to be a hallucination. We’ll just have to wait and see, lol.

└ What if that person kills Grylls?

└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: That would never happen! Mr. Ludwig is a good man!

└ Even a good man can turn evil when his survival is at stake, Admin;;

└ I’m worried about that too. Ludwig might be fine, but what if another survivor arrives and causes trouble?

At first, the responses were exactly what one would expect from the Gallery, but various concerns soon followed.

Suppose there truly were survivors in the Forest of Four Seasons. They might see the notice and cross the river.

But what happened after that? What if a survivor harbored malicious intentions and tried to hurt me?

’It’s not impossible.’

When survival was at stake, every animal was effectively a competitor.

It was no different even between members of the same species.

Moreover, I could not speak the languages of this world, so persuading them would not be easy.

’I’ll have to make full use of the Gallery.’

Even the absurdly powerful sloth struggled to obtain food in the Forest of Four Seasons.

Without the Gallery, I would have starved to death too.

In an isolated place like this, access to the Gallery was an advantage in itself.

I could show it to the survivors and perhaps use it to translate our conversations.

’Recruiting them is still the highest priority. Manpower is what ultimately matters.’

There were things people could do and things only the Gallery could do.

As if on cue, a flood of comments expressing thoughts similar to mine appeared.

Some included insults, but I did not particularly care.

’I should install the notice first.’

Its size was not a problem. I had my subspace backpack.

Before long, I had carefully positioned it so that it could be clearly seen from across the river.

I could inspect its condition whenever I came to collect the fish traps.

’Crossing the river is another problem.’

The river was wide, and the current was far too strong. Crossing it without a boat would be difficult.

I briefly wondered whether a survivor might be able to leap across, but assuming that someone at such a level had survived without suffering any injuries would be overly optimistic.

The more survivors there were, the greater the possibility that one of them had injured legs.

Had I not possessed the elixir, I myself would have been forced to live with a disability.

’I need to build a bridge.’

One might wonder how a bridge could work when the region across the river changed in real time.

However, only the region beyond the river changed. The river itself always remained the same.

That meant there was always land with similar conditions on the opposite bank.

’I should measure the distance first.’

I took a rope from my subspace backpack. I always carried simple tools like that with me.

I then tied a dagger to its end and threw it across the river.

I did not throw it into the changing region itself, only as far as the boundary.

’As expected, it’s quite wide.’

I marked the rope and pulled it back.

I was about to return when I paused and stared at the region beyond the river.

The Forest of Four Seasons displayed all kinds of environments. At the moment, the other side was filled with fog.

What was hidden within that mist?

Could survivors truly be living even in a place like that?

’No matter how I look at it, I was incredibly lucky.’

Gallery access aside, I was fortunate merely to have found myself somewhere that made survival possible.

If I had appeared in the misty region, a volcanic zone, a desert, or even a snowy mountain...

The thought alone was horrifying.

’Where was that person? Don’t giraffes live on grasslands?’

There had also been lions surrounding him. Those were animals native to grasslands.

But I could not be certain of that either. Kangaroos lived not far from here.

As with humans, wherever an animal adapted became its habitat.

’I’ll take my time with the bridge and forge the swords first.’

Even a temporary bridge would take a long time to build. Swords would not.

Besides, I needed to test the father raccoon’s abilities.

Of course, sharpening swords was the dwarf’s specialty, so I decided to ask him for assistance.

[Passing Dwarf: I think this every time I see you, but you have a tendency to view the world far too optimistically.]

[Wild Grylls: What are you talking about?]

[Passing Dwarf: I understand that you’re happy to have seen another survivor, but you should never make decisions recklessly when you’re excited. Think things through at least two or three times.]

His response was painfully sound advice.

At first, I wondered what had gotten into him.

This was the same dwarf who usually traded jokes with me and laughed about everything.

For him to say something like this meant I was making a rash decision. He was giving me a much-needed warning.

’Um...’

I pressed my lips together and considered what the dwarf might be concerned about.

I had planned to throw supplies—specifically, weapons—across the river for the survivors.

I had judged weapons to be more practical than food.

After all, mithril and orichalcum were scattered everywhere around me.

’...Could something like that gorilla end up using them?’

The gorillas might have looked different from humans, but they were effectively comparable to primitive mankind.

Some individuals used crude weapons, and the leader could even manipulate mana.

Imagine if one of them obtained a mythricon sword.

Forget survival—the entire ecosystem would be thrown into chaos.

’Come to think of it, they said monsters exist too.’

Goblins, orcs, gnolls, ogres, and other creatures commonly found in fantasy stories.

Those creatures were even more dangerous because they knew how to use tools.

If even apes could use mana here, why wouldn’t they be able to?

If things went wrong, I would personally be creating an unimaginably dangerous threat.

’Damn.’

A bitter taste filled my mouth.

As the dwarf had suggested, discovering another survivor must have gotten me overly excited.

In the end, I abandoned the idea of throwing swords across the river. The risks were far too great.

Still, I should forge a sword specifically for Ludwig.

It could serve as a spare.

’Before that, I should build the bridge.’

I asked the dwarf about that as well, requesting a suitable method for constructing a temporary bridge.

Since the river might swell when it rained, I wanted to build an arched bridge.

If even the dwarf did not know how, I planned to lay down a simple structure first and gradually reinforce it.

[Passing Dwarf: There is one method, but I don’t know whether you can manage it alone.]

[Wild Grylls: What is it?]

[Passing Dwarf: It’s called a Da Vinci bridge. It’s an old construction method that has been used for ages. The structure is fairly simple, so I believe it was commonly used during wars.]

Da Vinci?

Could it possibly be the same Da Vinci I knew?

The familiar name startled me slightly.

Cement was one thing, but Da Vinci was the name of a famous historical figure, which made it difficult to dismiss.

[Wild Grylls: Da Vinci? Is that a person’s name?]

[Passing Dwarf: Huh? All I know is that the method has existed since ancient times.]

It seemed I would be better off asking All-Father.

For now, however, the origin of the name was less important than the construction method.

[Wild Grylls: Can you teach me?]

[Passing Dwarf: Teaching you is easy, but building it will be rough. Do whatever you want. By the way, can’t that person just jump across?]

[Wild Grylls: How could anyone cross a river that way? Besides, he might have injured his legs.]

[Passing Dwarf: Lol. In that case, you might as well mass-produce elixirs and scatter them around. That would probably work better.]

It was not as though I had never considered that.

However...

A mature mandrake alone was not enough to produce an elixir.

If I asked Starlight Duchess, she would naturally agree to make one for me, but repeatedly asking for favors would be embarrassing.

More importantly, the mandrake population was visibly beginning to decline.

’Now that I’m considering every detail, aren’t I in danger too?’

After thinking things over two or three times, I realized the dwarf’s advice was completely correct.

This was no time for me to act as though I had resources to spare.

My happiness at seeing another survivor must have lowered my intelligence.

’They say not to make decisions when you’re happy. This is exactly what they meant.’

Only twenty-two days had passed.

That was all, yet I already missed human company so much that it was driving me insane.

Seeing another survivor in that state must have briefly short-circuited my brain.

’I can’t afford to be so optimistic.’

After reaching that conclusion, I learned how to construct a Da Vinci bridge from the dwarf.

Naturally, he conveyed the instructions through a Gallery post. The structure itself was not particularly complicated.

The dwarf had even uploaded a video in which he demonstrated the assembly using small sticks. That made it easy to understand.

Understanding it was one thing.

The thought of constructing it out of full-sized timber already seemed overwhelming.

└ Passing Dwarf: If it’s too much of a pain, should I just make it for you?

└ Wild Grylls: No. I need to account for the changing region across the river, so I want to build it myself.

└ Passing Dwarf: Then I’ll give you a hand plane. Use this.

└ Wild Grylls: Thank you.

└ Passing Dwarf: By the way, what will you do if an animal crosses instead of a person? Have you considered that?

└ Wild Grylls: The bridge is necessary because of the golden frogs anyway. Those bastards are basically guarding the crossing.

└ Passing Dwarf: Ah. That’s true.

Now that I had also received a hand plane from the dwarf, I began constructing the bridge in earnest.

The first step was logging.

This time, I was not gathering firewood but materials for the bridge.

I did not use mana. The cold energy might cause me to ruin the timber.

Crack!

A large tree toppled over.

All I had to do was process it piece by piece.

I set the smaller branches aside for firewood and charcoal, then cut the massive trunk into appropriately sized sections.

’Doing all of this alone is seriously exhausting.’

When would the region across the river turn back into a grassland?

I hoped it would change soon.

’But a Da Vinci bridge? Could it really be the Da Vinci I know?’

Between that and the cement, there were several strange similarities.

Were they truly the same things I knew, or were the names merely coincidences?

It was worth thinking about, but I decided to set it aside for now.

’Who cares?’

Survival was ultimately what mattered.

***

While Grylls was busily cutting down trees to build a temporary bridge, Ludwig—the holy knight riding the giraffe—found himself in a difficult situation.

The giraffe had not betrayed him.

On the contrary, they had just emerged victorious from their battle with the pride of lions.

Thanks to the giraffe’s extraordinary height, the battle had effectively been a siege.

His reach had not been a problem either, as the mythricon sword Grylls had gifted him had performed splendidly.

The sword reacted strongly to even the faintest amount of mana.

The Forest of Four Seasons possessed an exceptionally high mana density, making mana extremely difficult to use.

However, it was only difficult, not impossible. With sufficient concentration, Ludwig could manipulate it to a limited degree.

The drawback was that it felt like forcing an elephant through the eye of a needle, leaving him unable to exert even five percent of his normal power.

Even so, the mythricon sword’s superior performance had provided Ludwig with tremendous assistance.

"Urgh..."

But it inevitably had its limits.

After the fierce battle, Ludwig rested beneath a massive tree.

He groaned as he examined the place where the lions had wounded him.

Fortunately, both arms were unharmed, but a lion had bitten his right foot.

A lion’s bite was already renowned for its terrifying power, and this was a lion native to the Forest of Four Seasons.

It had literally crunched through his steel boot, leaving him severely injured.

’This is bad. I don’t see any medicinal herbs I can use for treatment.’

He had given all his potions and other healing supplies to Reis.

Aside from the mythricon sword, he had effectively entered the Forest of Four Seasons with nothing.

At first, a combination of coincidence and good fortune had made survival relatively easy.

It seemed that luck had finally run out.

’Considering the risk of infection, amputation would be the correct decision, but...’

Contemplating the worst-case scenario, he looked around.

There was nothing but an endless grassland. He could not see anywhere suitable for hiding and resting.

A cave?

Every cave he had discovered thus far was occupied by either a three-headed lion or a monster of comparable strength.

’But was the person I saw earlier merely an illusion?’

Ludwig recalled what had happened.

Across the river, he had seen someone who appeared to be from the Central Plains.

The sight had left him so stunned that he had suffered this injury.

He was fortunate that only his foot had been wounded. Without the giraffe, his life would likely have been in danger.

’If it wasn’t an illusion...’

He turned his head toward the river.

The landscape was different from before.

Previously, he had seen a forest on the opposite bank. Now, there was nothing but desert.

His delight at discovering a source of water had lasted only briefly. Even the region beyond the river had completely changed.

’If the flesh begins to necrotize, I’ll have to amputate.’

Until then, he had no choice but to monitor the wound.

Frowning, Ludwig raised his head.

It seemed he would have to use this enormous tree as a temporary shelter.

In his current condition, traveling anywhere would be dangerous.

’I’ll endure until the forest across the river appears again.’

Having made his decision, Ludwig turned his head.

The giraffe was lying nearby with its body curled up.

’I’ll take that fellow with me too.’

Ludwig was becoming increasingly attached to the giraffe.

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