One-Click (4)
Enlightenment had finally dawned upon me: this godforsaken forest was the absolute antithesis of childlike wonder.
The beasts that looked lethal at first glance—bears, tigers, or even the subterranean Earth Guardian—were honestly fine. Their very appearances radiated an instinctual threat, warning you loud and clear that failing to react meant instant death.
Small things, however, were another story entirely. The seemingly ordinary, genuinely tiny critters were infinitely more dangerous.
Martial arts novels always preached the same wisdom: beware of children, the elderly, and women.
Creatures of petite stature managed to survive in the Forest of the Four Seasons despite their diminutive frames. What did that mean? It meant they possessed at least two distinct methods to absolutely butcher their opponents.
Why two instead of one?
The first was an overt, visible threat meant to intimidate predators. The second was an unforeseen, desperate trump card meant to catch foes completely off guard. Only by wielding both could a creature hope to survive in this meat grinder of a forest.
Until moments ago, that had been a mere hypothesis. But after falling prey to that porcupine pufferfish, I was dead certain.
The saying really holds true—the smallest peppers are the spiciest.
Except this little pepper wasn't merely spicy. A single taste was enough to literally melt a man from the inside out. At this rate, what was next? A yellow mouse shooting thunderbolts from its cheeks? A bipedal lizard roaming the woods breathing fire?
Why was I rambling like this out of nowhere?
"W-Wonmo-ya..."
"Kyu?"
"D-Dad... can't moove..."
The pufferfish's neurotoxin had half-wrecked my body. Slurring my words was the least of my troubles; right now, my limbs utterly refused to obey my brain. I kept dropping whatever I tried to pick up, and walking was reduced to a drunken stagger. It was a miracle I had managed to keep my balance long enough to crawl back to the cave; otherwise, I would have collapsed right in the middle of the wilderness.
Noticing my dire state, Fast Tree Sloth, who had been watching in silence, calmly extended a claw and handed me a vial. It was an elixir, its golden liquid sloshing gently against the glass. Trembling, I barely managed to uncork it and chugged the entire draft down, following it up with the antivenom I had prepared beforehand.
Finally, I sat cross-legged and circulated my Internal Cultivation Art, throwing every countermeasure I had at the poison.
"Haaah..."
After a grueling stretch of time, sensation crept back into my extremities. Strength returned to my muscles. Letting out a long, ragged sigh, I replayed the encounter in my head. That had been chillingly close.
If I hadn't had the medicine Allfather gave me, I would've dropped dead on the spot.
I had only survived because of my accumulated poison resistance. Without it, the toxin would have caused instant heart failure. What was pufferfish poison called again? Tetra-something? Tetrodotoxin. One of the deadliest neurotoxins known to humanity. And since this particular specimen inhabited the Forest of the Four Seasons, its venom was guaranteed to be far more virulent than anything on Earth.
The smallest things in this forest are the most terrifying.
I had been diligent about applying insect repellent so far, but what if a venomous bug bit me, or a wound suffered a secondary infection? I didn't even want to imagine it.
I meticulously inspected my body to see if any numbness or nerve damage lingered. Whether through the combined miracle of the elixir and the antidote, nothing felt amiss. Seeing that my Internal Cultivation Art flowed unhindered through my meridians, I was evidently completely cured. Just as the Gallery users had always insisted, there was no diagnostic tool for the body quite like an internal mind technique.
If I had been missing even one of the supplies in my stash, I'd be a corpse right now. The Gallery literally saved my life today.
Drop your guard for a single second here, and you punch your ticket to the netherworld. Constant vigilance was the only path to survival.
That aside... should I build a proper door first?
I glanced toward the sturdy wooden palisade sealing the cave entrance, thinking back to the impromptu siege from earlier today. Driven from their burrows by the torrential deluge, a horde of beasts had desperately tried to breach my home. Fortunately, I had repelled them with the aura I had been honing, but there was no telling what might come knocking next time. If an apex predator on Fast Tree Sloth's level had cornered me and demanded my cave, things would have gotten decidedly ugly.
At the very least, whenever it storms, I have to batten down the hatches.
I decided to stick with using the barricade as an arrow slit and spear wall. Erecting a solid wooden door would only eliminate my ability to counterattack from safety, and a charging dire boar would smash it to kindling anyway, shattering my hopes right along with it.
If my luck turns sour, I might have to fend off a monster wave every single week.
Grumbling under my breath, I pushed myself off the floor. Now that my strength was fully restored, I had no time to mope around. Just as that shark giant had wandered into my shelter before, another wandering beast could appear at any moment. For the next day or two, I would need to maintain heightened perimeter security.
Crack! Crackle!
First, I stoked the campfire to drive out the clinging moisture from the storm. After that, I trekked back down to the riverbank to collect the fish thrashing in the shallows and cleared the cave's drainage trenches. By the time my chores were done, dusk was settling over the woods, and the sky deepened into indigo.
Is tomorrow Day 18?
I carved another notch into the stone wall. Roughly three days had passed since the incident with the survey team. If that man named Ludwig had truly ventured into the Forest of the Four Seasons, today marked the end of his very first day.
Was he still breathing? Or had he perished? Unlike me, he had no miraculous elixirs tucked into his belt.
If I'd known how ruthless this place was, I would've sent him a bottle of elixir too.
Regret always arrives when it's already too late. I silently prayed that Ludwig would somehow endure and make it to where I was. Honestly, if whatever higher power governed this world ignored a prayer like that, they had the pettiest, narrowest heart imaginable.
Rumbleee!
A sudden clap of thunder shook the air. I winced and peeked outside, but despite the ominous roar, no rain fell. Was the sky actually eavesdropping on my thoughts?
Nah. Just a coincidence.
Shaking off the eerie feeling, I opened the Gallery interface to see what had transpired while I was busy cleaning up. Normally, being a forum, it was flooded with the usual nonsensical shitposts, but lately, the expedition had dominated every board. Even now, over half the active threads were drama topics related to El Dorado or the lost knights. Usually, forum controversies fizzled out within a day or two, but since this one involved real-world geopolitics, it possessed remarkable staying power.
Nothing catching my eye, really.
The only fresh topic of interest concerned the Messiah Empire—specifically, its sovereign. The ailing emperor, who had been on his deathbed just days ago, had made a miraculous recovery. The threads described him as the ruler who had built the empire into a continental superpower. He had poured vast resources into backing Ash, the currently renowned Swordmaster, and had enacted numerous domestic boons.
However, that was where his competence ended. His foreign diplomacy was notoriously mediocre, earning him the reputation of an "internal-use only" monarch.
Well. Just another ordinary day on the Gallery, where unhinged roasts flew freely.
Still, with the boards choked entirely by political flame wars, the entertainment value had taken a nosedive. Seeing that the orange-tagged Main Mod hadn't stepped in to purge the thread, she was probably offline. Heavenly Demon only pruned the most egregiously vulgar outbursts and ignored the rest.
At least there's a Chae-yu match scheduled for tomorrow.
Political debates had zero staying power once the raw dopamine of a last-minute goal hit the feed. I wondered how many fans would suffer heart attacks tomorrow. Would Princess Chaeng-gu survive the match without losing her mind?
Since I planned to stay cooped up in the shelter tomorrow anyway, I could browse the forum in peace. Wandering around carelessly right now was an invitation for some freakish monster to stumble into my camp while I was away.
I'll have to stick to smoked meat until tomorrow.
Cooking fresh meat risked drawing another beast that tracked scents, just like that shark giant. Of course, there was no guarantee another one would show up, but preparing for the worst never hurt.
...Why is it getting so chilly?
Was it because of the torrential downpour? As the groundwater evaporated, a biting chill began creeping into the air. If not for the roaring campfire, I would have been shivering uncontrollably by now. The athletic kit gifted by Princess Chaeng-gu was a lifesaver as well; with long sleeves and thick pants, its thermal insulation was exceptional.
Guess I'll have to use the pelt as a duvet.
The tiger pelt that usually served as my rug would be promoted to a blanket tonight. Given the sudden temperature plunge, the campfire alone wouldn't cut it. The human body was fragile; keeping warm was a matter of life and death. One careless night of hypothermia, and you could wake up dead.
Crack! Pop!
I tossed more dry hardwood into the flames, cranking up the heat inside the cavern. Slowly, the damp chill receded, replaced by a cozy, enveloping warmth.
"Kyuuu..."
My cave companions also shuffled closer to the hearth to thaw out. Wonmo went a step further, flopping flat on his belly and immediately dozing off.
Has he always been this plump?
I had noticed him getting rounder over time, but now he was practically a sphere. At this rate, he might end up rolling across the ground instead of walking. Still, he was adorable, so it didn't matter. Being round just made him cuter. Besides, gaining fat in the wild was proof of abundant caloric reserves.
He's just a cub, so eating his fill is a good thing.
In a death world where food was perpetually scarce, putting on weight was a luxury. In contrast, whether due to practicing the Internal Cultivation Art, I hadn't gained an ounce of fat. If anything, my lean muscle mass just kept expanding. Human muscle tissue wasn't particularly energy-efficient compared to animal fat, but surrounded by predators, building muscle wasn't a choice—it was a necessity.
After posting a brief update on the Gallery saying I was wrapping up my routine for the night, I lay down on the stone floor. The bitter draft made me curl into myself instinctively.
"Ppareumbo. Take a blanket too. It's freezing tonight."
After tucking Wonmo in with a spare hide, I held out a section of pelt toward Fast Tree Sloth. But the sloth simply stared back at me with glassy, tranquil eyes, making no move to take it.
I unfurled the hide further and beckoned.
"Come on, get under here."
Fast Tree Sloth slowly, agonizingly, took two steps backward. Did he really hate me that much?
Wait a second. Now that I think about it... has that guy ever taken a bath?
I had completely forgotten that his thick fur was a miniature ecosystem teeming with moss, fungi, and symbiotic insects. In the end, Fast Tree Sloth curled up a short distance away from me. Since it was right next to the campfire, he wouldn't freeze.
Before closing my eyes, I quietly focused my breathing and circulated the mana inside my core. Rather than rigid cultivation, I simply wanted to attune myself to the raw flow of energy. Even this basic exercise served as meaningful training.
I still haven't the faintest clue how to form an Aura Blade, though.
Could I truly learn to compress and shape this ever-swelling reservoir of aura? Pushing down the creeping anxiety, I let exhaustion pull me into sleep. Though the cold outside deepened by the hour, the crackling fire kept the frost at bay.
Thus, an eventful day came to a close.
The following morning.
"Brrrrrr-d-d-d-d..."
A razor-sharp, bone-gnawing chill dragged me out of sleep at dawn. Why was it so freezing? It was hard to believe a single rainstorm could plummet the ambient temperature to such an absurd degree.
The f-fire... gotta stoke the fire first...
Wrapping my arms tightly around my chest, I stumbled toward the mouth of the cave. And then...
"...Huh?"
A world of blinding, pristine white greeted my eyes. Disregarding the biting frost, I stared blankly at the transformed landscape.
Every branch, every stone, every inch of dirt was blanketed in brilliant white. Thick, powdery layers were heaped atop my outdoor clay oven and the stone blast furnace.
The true identity of that white veil was none other than...
"...Did it seriously just snow?"
A hollow murmur slipped past my lips. Snow. Endless, silent snow.
The reason this realm was named the Forest of the "Four Seasons."
"...You've got to be fucking kidding me."
I finally understood what that name truly meant.