Inner Core (Part 1)
Thanks to the Fast Tree Sloth’s help, I managed to reach the riverbank without incident.
The first thing I did upon arriving at the river was check the intake hose. Peering down to see if another fish had been caught just like before, reality matched my expectations perfectly.
Slap! Splash!
"Caught another one."
In that short span of time, yet another one had trapped itself. A crimson fellow, just like the last. Its size was nearly identical to the previous catch as well. Judging by the look of things, this appeared to be the average size of the fish inhabiting this river.
I’ll deal with that one later.
Right now, the Golden Poison Frog took top priority. Concluding my business with Allfather came first. To do that, I had to pry the Fast Tree Sloth off my back.
I patted his furry back and made a gentle appeal. "Hey, could you hop down for a second? It’s urgent."
"……"
Plod, plod.
Whether he actually understood human speech or not, the creature slowly clambered down to the ground. Then, with that utterly vacant face of his, he stared up at me intently. It gave the distinct impression of someone tapping their foot, urging me to hurry it up. Must be my imagination.
Time to summon a Golden Poison Frog.
Last time, simply dipping my hand into the water was enough to draw out that pack leader. I wondered if the ordinary ones would react the same way. Cautiously, I dipped my fingers into the river current.
About three seconds ticked by before a sharp splash echoed from the center of the river.
"Ribbit."
A Golden Poison Frog. The creature hauled itself onto a boulder jutting from the middle of the riverbed. While smaller than the titan I had encountered previously, it was still alarmingly massive. The moment it revealed itself, I scrambled backward without a second thought, not forgetting to raise my wooden shield in front of me just in case.
"Kssshhh!"
The Golden Poison Frog cocked its head back, producing a guttural sound reminiscent of someone violently dredging up phlegm. It was gearing up to spit venom. Fortunately, I had already put plenty of distance between us—except for the Fast Tree Sloth, who was still sitting dumbly right where I had left him.
"Hey! What are you doing—?!"
"Ptui!"
Before the shout could fully leave my mouth, the frog discharged its venom. A globule of purple mucus ripped through the air at terrifying velocity. Its trajectory led straight toward the sloth.
The Fast Tree Sloth gazed lazily at the incoming projectile, then tilted his head by a fraction of an inch.
Sssssk!
The acidic venom grazed by his cheek with a hair’s breadth to spare. The glob struck a tree trunk behind him, instantly sizzling and liquefying the bark on contact. I had guessed as much, but the creature’s agility was downright absurd.
Now’s my chance!
While the frog was entirely focused on the sloth, I readied my crossbow. Slotted with a modified harpoon bolt, I took careful aim at the amphibious terror.
"Skrreee!"
"Ksssh!"
"Croak!"
In the meantime, several more Golden Poison Frogs surfaced and climbed onto neighboring rocks. I was already securely behind cover, yet the sloth remained sitting right out in the open like a brazen statue. No matter how freakishly nimble he was, dodging a coordinated barrage would surely be diffi—
"Ptui!"
"Ptui!"
"Ptui!"
Whoosh— swish, swoosh!
...cult. Or not.
Despite remaining seated in the exact same spot, he dodged every single projectile simply by effortlessly swaying his upper body. His expression remained so thoroughly relaxed that he looked like a wandering grandmaster who had achieved enlightenment. Does this bastard have Observation Haki or something? Nothing else could explain it. I choked back a dry gasp of disbelief.
Be that as it may, business was business. My preparations were complete. Zeroing in on one of the perched frogs, I squeezed the trigger.
Twang! Thwack!
The harpoon impaled the Golden Poison Frog clean through the torso, dragging it off the rock and straight into the churning current. I immediately hauled on the tether.
The remaining frogs didn't attack while I reeled it in. They appeared utterly flabbergasted by the sudden demise of their comrade. While calling them "flabbergasted" was merely my own anthropomorphic assumption, the fact that they abruptly ceased fire the moment one died suggested they possessed a decent degree of situational awareness. The creatures dwelling in the Forest of the Four Seasons were extraordinary across the board.
Splash!
Evidently deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, the pack turned tail and plunged back into the river depths. There wouldn't be any further threat for the time being. All that remained was clean-up.
I pulled the cord connected to the harpoon with steady rhythm. In the past, reeling in a beast like this felt like an all-out wrestling match, but now it required only a modest exertion of strength.
"Hup."
Hauling it out of the water revealed just how large it truly was. While not quite on par with the giant chieftain from before, it was easily the size of a small dog. My next task was trading with Allfather, but before that, I had to secure the fish.
First, let’s tie this to my belt.
According to the knowledge Allfather had shared, if purple liquid leaked out, it meant the poison sac had ruptured. Looking closely, no trace of purple fluid seeped from the carcass. That meant it was safe to handle.
With the frog hunt wrapped up, only the fish remained. Lord knew what on earth it had eaten to grow so enormous, but it was magnificent.
Today's haul is unexpectedly generous.
With this, both lunch and dinner were sorted. I hefted the violently thrashing fish into my arms.
There’s no way in hell I could catch something like this with a fishing rod.
It was packed with so much brute power that its fins repeatedly tried to slap me across the face. Fearing I might drop it, I locked both arms around its slippery torso in a vice grip. Had my physical stats not increased recently, it would have wriggled free in an instant.
Plod, plod.
With the Fast Tree Sloth scaling back up and latching onto my shoulders once more, I was finally ready to head home.
It’d be great if it tastes good, but expecting gourmet flavor is probably greedy.
Not that taste particularly mattered; in my current survival situation, obsessing over culinary delight was a pointless luxury. Besides, if all else failed, I could always buy seasonings from the Gallery's auction house.
Ker-plunk!
Returning to the cave camp, I dropped the fish into the iron drum. Its vitality was still so fierce that the metal container rattled against the stone floor. Trying to reel in a brute like this with a conventional rod would likely end with me being dragged into the depths instead of catching dinner. Sticking to nets, traps, or the hose line was infinitely safer.
Gazing down at two massive fish sitting in my camp filled my chest with a deep sense of security.
Time to trade with Allfather.
After finishing my chores, I opened the interface and posted a thread on the Gallery, asking Allfather to initiate a trade if he was browsing.
User Allfather has requested a trade.
Would you like to accept?
Before long, the notification chimed. I tossed an Inedia Pill to the Fast Tree Sloth to keep him occupied, then accepted the prompt.
To think even Father-emon had no knowledge of this species. What kind of unfathomable realm was the Forest of the Four Seasons? Just as I let out an inward sigh of exasperation, Allfather offered a hypothesis of his own.
Hearing Allfather bluntly speak in such unvarnished terms threw me off. Clearly, the theory sounded ridiculous even to the man proposing it. And yet, because it made a weird sort of logistical sense, there was genuinely no other explanation to account for it.
After continuing our back-and-forth for a while, we concluded the transaction. I handed over the pristine carcass of the Golden Poison Frog, and Allfather provided a medicinal pill engineered to grant poison resistance.
An inner core... That brought to mind the explanation the Heavenly Demon had given me in the past: a crystalline essence forged through the condensation of qi within the body of a spiritual beast. The mention of an inner core piqued my curiosity, prompting another question.
I possessed a rough idea of what dragons were, having seen them brought up in forum threads from time to time. Monsters so terrifyingly mighty that they treated mortal civilizations like insects, yet not entirely invincible. Above all else, their numbers were exceedingly dwindled, rendering them an endangered species across most realms.
Could one actually be roosting here in the Forest of the Four Seasons?
If so, that was an apocalyptic disaster waiting to happen. I was nothing more than a fragile mortal. How was someone like me supposed to survive a flying calamity capable of breathing torrents of primordial fire?
And with that, our chat came to a close. It seemed even Allfather recoiled at the thought of setting foot in the Forest of the Four Seasons. Then again, what sane person in their right mind would voluntarily step into this living hell? I had simply been blessed with absurd luck; anyone else stranded here wouldn't even have access to the Gallery to keep them alive.
"Hmm."
I stared down at the pill resting in the palm of my hand. Perfectly spherical with a delicate, luminous violet hue, it was the medicine acquired from Allfather. Once consumed, it would grant me resistance to venom, just as he had promised.
Let's eat lunch first.
Slipping the pill into my pocket, I approached the iron drum holding our catch. With just two giant fish crammed inside, the spacious container was packed to the brim.
How on earth am I supposed to fillet this?
Having lived on my own back on Earth, I knew the basics of cooking. But that was strictly with pre-cleaned, store-bought ingredients. Gutting and breaking down a live, prehistoric-sized fish with my bare hands was completely uncharted territory. In moments like this, there was only one reliable move: ask the Gallery. Gathering collective internet wisdom was vastly superior to blindly hacking away.
[Attached: Photo of giant red fish inside an iron drum]
Anyone got some tips? This thing is ridiculously huge.
Since I was definitely an amateur, I decided to go with the blunt-force concussive method. It was going straight onto the fire anyway, so aging or fancy cuts were entirely unnecessary.
"Kyuu."
"Wonmo, hold on just a minute."
Having slept soundly until lunchtime, Wonmo woke up with razor-sharp punctuality. Look at those big, glistening eyes begging for food. My immediate impulse was to toss him a slab of meat, but butchering came first.
Wrapping both arms around the fish inside the drum, I hoisted it upward.
Flop! Flap!
The beast thrashed furiously as if demanding I let go, but its violent resistance was entirely futile. I slammed it down onto the prepared flat stone slab. Because of the monster’s sheer volume, even that expansive rock looked cramped.
They said to deliver a heavy strike to the head, right?
Ordinary kitchen knives wouldn't cut it against a skull of this density. This was precisely when the Heavenly Demon's Sword proved its worth. Since I wasn't using the razor-sharp edge, I swung the flat of the heavy blade with full conviction.
BANG! THWACK! CRACK!
After three consecutive crushing blows to the skull, the fish finally responded. Just as the forum comments had described, its mouth and gills slackened wide open. The shock had completely immobilized it. Wasting no time, I got to work.
Wary of accidentally slipping and slicing off my own fingers, I set aside the Heavenly Demon's Sword and took out a standard hunting dagger instead. Its well-honed edge sliced effortlessly through the thick scales and tough flesh.
"Wonmo, you want this?"
"Kyu!"
Severing the massive head, I pushed it toward Wonmo. He set upon it with ravenous delight. Considering his species was known to scavenge rotting carcasses in the wild, a fresh, raw fish head was practically an exquisite gourmet delicacy. As for the Fast Tree Sloth, his sole interest lay in Inedia Pills, so I didn't need to worry about him begging for fish scraps.
Now, to split the belly open.
Washing away the accumulating blood with fresh water, I steadily dragged the blade down the centerline of the silent fish. The slippery, squelching texture transmitting through my fingertips wasn't particularly pleasant, but it was an unpleasantness I had to adapt to.
I wonder if he eats entrails too?
Splitting the abdominal wall exposed a dense labyrinth of packed organs. All I had to do was scoop them out and rinse the cavity clean with fresh water. But as I plunged my hand into the viscera to pull them out—
"Huh?"
My fingers grazed against something distinctly unusual. At first, I assumed it was simply the heart. But it felt far too dense and solid to be organic muscle tissue. Shuffling my fingers through the slippery slime, I worked it loose and pulled it into the light.
It was a smooth, pebble-like nodule roughly the size of a finger joint. And remarkably, it was colored a vibrant, luminescent crimson, matching the scales of the fish itself.
What is this? Don’t tell me... is this an actual inner core?
No, there's no way. Spiritual beasts capable of condensing an inner core were supposed to be exceptionally rare. But then again, considering this was a forest where mature mandrakes sprouted like weeds, dismissing the possibility seemed equally foolish. Hell, one of the very first things I had stumbled upon in this wilderness was the legendary Crescent Moon Spirit Grass.
Hmm……
Staring intently at the crimson bead, I made up my mind. In matters like this, consulting the Gallery—specifically an authentic expert—was the best course of action. And when it came to inner cores, the resident authority was unmistakably the Heavenly Demon. She was the one who had introduced the concept to me in the first place, and she was certainly not the type of person to swindle someone. I could ask her with complete peace of mind.
[Attached: Photo of the crimson bead]
I found this while cleaning out a fish's guts. It looks a lot like the inner core you mentioned before. Can you tell if it is? If it's hard to tell from a picture, I can send it over via trade so you can examine it.
Scarcely three seconds after posting, her reply arrived. A terrifyingly instantaneous response time.
Seeing the Heavenly Demon’s glaring lack of biological common sense suddenly placed in the public crosshairs made me feel slightly uneasy. Still, she was the revered mentor who had personally imparted martial breathing techniques to me; I had full confidence in her discernment regarding spiritual artifacts.
Reading her stern advice, I nodded thoughtfully. It was indeed a classic case of too much of a good thing being worse than none at all. Blindly cramming an inner core down my throat on top of my current physical state could blow my dantian to pieces. That left only one sensible alternative: gifting it to the Heavenly Demon.
Offering it to Sword Master was pointless; knowing him, he would almost certainly refuse, rambling on about how he had no desire to get any healthier than he already was.
The sovereign of the Demonic Cult offered a remarkably breezy solution.
It was a delightfully carefree suggestion.
Should I?
And strangely enough, her blithe suggestion sounded overwhelmingly attractive.