The Artist Who Paints Dungeon Chapter 20

Episode 20

“Good.”

As always, this content was quite successful.

“A person must sweat.”

“Kung?”

“He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”

“Kung kung kung…?”

The body of Honey, a sweet-colored water bird, trembled. Geo shook his head firmly at the sound of her crying, which seemed to ask, ‘Then what about me who doesn’t work?’

“What on earth are you worried about when you’re so cute?”

“Kkuk.”

“Don’t worry about the weird stuff, you’re already doing your part with cuteness.”

Even if Geo lived thoughtlessly, he was not an irresponsible author who did not take responsibility for a single living creature he created with paint. As the son of Geo, who was a gourmet and a big eater, Honey would never have to go hungry.

“Do you understand?”

Honey was convinced and spread out comfortably.

“But come out of there.”

“Cur.”

Of all things, it was in Geo’s basket.

“It’s hard to get the seeds out.”

“Kurung.”

“Who do you take after to be so stubborn?”

“Huh?”

“Me? I’m such an unfilial son.”

Geo bent down and rummaged through the basket. There was no major problem because Honey’s body was transparent water itself, with only a very slight viscosity, but this guy had been playing with the seeds and they were all mixed up in a mess.

“this….”

“… … .”

“… I think it was an eggplant seed.”

Fortunately, Sergio, who was from a mountain village in Gangwon Province, was able to identify the type of seed just by looking at it. This is not something that everyone from Gangwon Province can do, but it was possible because Sergio himself was serious about this type of farming.

Geo, who had enjoyed farming since he was young, got up with eggplant seeds and put them in a hole he had dug in advance.

“Is it time to plant potatoes now?”

“Crunch?”

“huh?”

There was a brief miscommunication, but Geo soon figured out what Honey was wondering about.

“I didn’t mean to plant my father.”

“Kung?”

“Potato is a nickname. It’s like a second name.”

There was an anecdote that the mother, who loved potatoes, named the baby Potato after seeing the ultrasound picture of the fetus, saying, “He looks like a potato.” And when the newborn Geo was born, the grandmother nodded and said, “He only ate potatoes, but he gave birth to a potato.”

“I thought I was a potato until I was four because all the adults called me a potato.”

So I wondered if that was how he grew up so healthily and harmlessly.

“Well then, that’s fine.”

“Gurr.”

“You too, grow up healthy.”

The Seo family has always respected the free will of new life.

After a few days, Geo finally succeeded in planting all the seeds that Yoo Sung-woon had given him. He had even planted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, which were famous famine relief crops, so starving to death seemed a long way off.

“Well, it would be harder to starve to death with this body.”

“Gurr.”

“No matter how hungry Daddy is, he won’t eat you, Honey.”

The location where the crops were planted was the garden behind the hut.

“Actually, at this point, it’s a bit ambiguous to call it a garden.”

It was a little bigger, but it was still a garden. It wasn’t as big and expansive as those who do business through farming, so Geo had some excuse. Anyway, it was a garden.

Geo was a great adult who could compromise with reality.

“Then let’s go back.”

“Kuk kuk kuk.”

“Yeah, I have to try the cheongdo I made.”

It was the point where the fruit juice I had made previously was starting to ripen.

“The combination of sweet and sour goji berries and sour and bitter drought sweet potatoes is a great combination.”

If there was one thing I was worried about, it was whether the two were in proper balance, but I didn’t really care about that. Geo, who had a long history of cooking, had already acquired the taste of his grandmother’s cooking.

“It was just a guess and an eye guess, but there’s no way I could be wrong about the combination of things I eat.”

As befitting such pride, a good scent was already wafting from the glass bottle.

“hmm.”

Geo entered the kitchen and blinked at the cupboard containing the fruit juice.

“It’s been a while since I’ve sweated, so why not have some cool tea?”

“Crunch?”

“I shed a sweat of the heart.”

In reality, Honey pointed out that Geo’s body did not excrete waste products such as sweat, but didn’t he work anyway? A person who worked had to drink refreshing tea to increase his work efficiency.

“Then I’ll have to get some ice from the warehouse.”

Pigs don’t hesitate when it comes to food. Without even wiping away the sweat that hadn’t come out, Geo went straight down to the warehouse.

In the icehouse filled with all sorts of food items, of course there was ice. In every corner of the warehouse, which almost looked like a cave, you couldn’t even tell where the ice ended, and there were pieces of ice.

“It’s a little cold.”

As we opened the heavy door and entered the warehouse, Honey stiffened.

“Kku, kukuruk.”

“If it’s too cold, I should go out… uh.”

“… … .”

“… Are you frozen?”

At that moment, Geo was expressionless and very shaken by Honey’s appearance, which had become transparent ice itself.

Even though she was already frozen, Honey shook her body and groomed her fur.

“Poopung.”

“?”

“Kkuk.”

“Has it evolved?”

“Cur.”

“I too have evolved from a human into a possessed portrait, so there is no reason why a water bird cannot become an ice bird.”

I thought Honey, who had turned to ice for a moment, was dead once, and I was surprised once by how flexible she was despite being ice, but if there was no problem, then so what?

Honey is cute even when frozen, so that’s okay.

“I think the moving ice bird is interesting enough.”

“Gurrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

“You are happy too, so this father is happy.”

Honey, who resembled the Creator and had no sense of crisis from birth, was simply delighted with her own transformation.

Even though he was a bird whose body was made of water, it was hard to believe that he could freeze so quickly, but Geo wasn’t particularly surprised since he had transformed from a human to a portrait.

“Since when have we been following the laws of physics?”

Living life ignoring the laws of physics, it couldn’t be anything but an interesting life.

“First of all, ice… .”

“Kuk kuk kuk.”

“It’s over there, thank you.”

Honey’s wings, which had turned to ice, were no longer fused together with her body as before.

It also showed the location of the ice and frantically preened itself, perhaps because it had developed feathers or body parts that it didn’t have before. It seems that birds are not able to keep their feathers still.

‘It was a bit less when it was water.’

Geo slowly walked through the ice warehouse, leaving Honey on his shoulder.

“… … .”

It was cool.

“ha….”

The breath came out.

A breath so thick that it can be seen at a glance.

It must have been that cold, but for some reason Geo didn’t feel the cold and the food didn’t freeze.

It was unclear whether the icehouse was deceiving Geo, or whether he and the food were stronger than the ice.

‘It might be the latter.’

Geo lowered his head and looked at the floor.

“…hmm….”

He muttered.

“If it breaks, it will be a disaster.”

A bottom of ice like an abyss is visible.

‘It looks like solid ice, but it’s so transparent that it looks like there’s a lake underneath the ice.’

It was a very transparent floor. The ice that had frozen very slowly was not opaque but clear like glass, and the floor was covered with such ice. Geo couldn’t even guess its depth.

They were slightly smooth, had a soft blue glow, and occasionally a glowing halo could be seen inside. They glowed for a few seconds like fireflies and then disappeared, and Geo was curious about their identity.

“Could it be a species of resident similar to a forest butterfly?”

“Kung?”

“Or maybe it’s just some glowing moss or bacteria or something.”

They didn’t move. They just glowed for a moment and then disappeared.

It resembles dim starlight.

“… … .”

It’s a dreamy sight.

“The color is similar to that of a glacier.”

There was no strong scent of the ocean, but the transparent, blue ice floor, whose depth was unknown, reminded me of a glacier. I have never actually seen a glacier on Earth, but I thought it might be something like this.

Geo raised his head and looked at the view of the icehouse.

“Where on earth did all this ice come from? There’s ice everywhere.”

I was curious every time I saw it.

“This icehouse is quite a distance down from the first floor of the cabin. So there might have been groundwater under the cabin.”

Then a contradiction arises.

“Yes, it doesn’t make sense that the groundwater beneath the forest in such a mild climate would be frozen solid like this.”

That’s why it was even more mysterious.

“Good.”

Funny.

“It’s just like a fairy tale….”

I liked it.

Geo still moved his feet with a blunt face without any expression.

Honey had already adapted to my body not spreading out like before, and as expected, she flew around the large ice storage room like a cave, making a pleasant sound. It was a movie-like scene.

After walking for a while through the ice cave, Geo was able to find what he was looking for.

“Yeah, that’s right. It was here.”

It was ice that had grown like a stalagmite in a cave.

“This sounds good too.”

“Huh?”

“It’s just like a cave.”

As absurd as it may sound, the icehouse also looked like a limestone cave made of ice.

I wonder where it was flowing from, or if it was melted, or if it was a vein like a tree. Water was dripping here and there in the icehouse, and perhaps because of the low temperature, it was forming columns or pillars like this.

“This is usually how limestone caves work. Water containing a lot of lime slowly builds up columns on the cave floor as it drips, and the droplets splash here and there, popping out like coral, or….”

“… … .”

“Here. It will remain in a pearl shape like this.”

It is actually called cave pearl.

“Of course, this should be called an ice pearl rather than a cave pearl….”

Doesn’t this really feel like a cave, a great formwork created by nature?

“… … .”

Ice Pearl

Underneath Geo’s cabin, in the icehouse, a naturally occurring ice-shaped pearl. A transparent pearl with a faint mother-of-pearl sheen, edible. It melts at high temperatures like real ice and is odorless and tasteless.

Method of Concentration: When melted and consumed, it is very effective in stabilizing mental disorders such as depression and mania.

“Should I take this?”

Whatever the effect, doesn’t it taste the same as actual ice?

“It’s tiring to cut down those huge ice bamboo shoots.”

“Crunch crunch.”

The ice bird, Honey, flew away and swallowed one of the round ice pearls. Geo couldn’t help but admire its quick appearance.

“Are you eating? Are you a pig?”

“Gurrrrrrrr!!”

“No, that’s a misunderstanding. If it sounded like I was saying something, it was a huge misunderstanding. My dad likes pigs.”

Raised by his grandmother for most of his life, Geo took after her tastes in some ways, one of which was his inability to stand skinny people.

In that sense, it would be a happy thing if Honey, who can be called my child, got chubby.

“Children should eat a lot and grow well.”

Become a pig, yap.

“Then let’s go up now.”

“Kung kung kung… .”

“I’d rather be okay with it, pig.”

“Gurrrrrr!!!”

“Kids need to be chubby to grow up well.”

Geo, who came up from the icehouse while comforting Honey, headed straight to the kitchen.

The fruit juice that I had taken out of the cupboard in advance smelled good, and I was already looking forward to how delicious it would be.

He took out a clean glass and poured two spoonfuls of fruit syrup into it.

“It smells really good.”

The scent of the goby fruit, which becomes stronger the longer it dries, seemed to intensify even more if it went through some sort of ripening process, even if it wasn’t dried.

The sweet berries soaked in sugar and infused with its fragrance gave off a uniquely refreshing sweet aroma.

“I think it has a citrusy scent, maybe because the drought complex is a fruit of the tangerine family… .”

I should say that it has a bitter and sour scent unique to lemon peel.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The fruit juice in the glass had artistic value in itself.

The fruit juice, which had absorbed a lot of sugar and given off its juice without sparing any, had a shiny sheen.

The flesh of the goby fruit had changed into the form of a chewy jelly, and the drought-resistant jars, from which the thin membranes had been peeled off one by one, had hardened slightly, spreading out their grains so that they were visible.

“Add some ice pearls here too….”

“Knock knock.”

“That’s the pearl you ate earlier. Put it back.”

“Huh?”

“No thanks.”

Honey, who had turned back into water, tried to vomit out the ice pearl she had just swallowed, but was stopped by her father’s authority. It wasn’t even penguin milk, so she didn’t expect it to go that far.

“Now, if you stir it gently… .”

Dalgrak, shut up.

The glass and the ice pearls clash, making a clear sound.

“Fruit tea is complete.”

“closely.”

“Are you a chicken?”

“Kkurung.”

“I don’t know your identity.”

The finished fruit tea was so beautiful that I wanted to draw it. The crimson tea reflected through the glass was very transparent despite its dark color.

Whether it was the influence of the ice pearls or not, the sparkling blue light I had seen in the warehouse kept shining and disappearing like shooting stars, and in between, I could see full moons and crescent moon-shaped pieces of fruit.

Let’s just take a sip… .

“… … .”

I felt an ecstatic flavor.

“…It’s delicious.”

It was a flavor and savory taste that I had never tasted before.

The vermilion tea was smooth and refreshing, but just when it seemed too sweet, a leisurely bitterness soon came over him and politely calmed him down.

The intense sourness of the drought complex, combined with the goji berries and sugar, felt like a cute whining child.

‘I like the flesh too.’

The goji berries, which had had all their juices sucked out by the sugar, were like jelly. Technically, they were similar to konjac jelly, but much more runny.

It had a soft yet strangely elastic texture, like the grains of grapes with the skin completely peeled off.

The drought complex had a taste that was just like the grains of a grapefruit or an orange, and it felt like the juice had been drained by sugar, like a goji berry, but it felt a little harder.

But it wasn’t an unpleasant hardness. The grains that spread gently in my mouth gave a pleasant texture.

‘The taste and smell are all mixed together and difficult to distinguish…’

The tea is never one-dimensional and has a soup-like flavor, and the fruit pulp adds enjoyment to the texture that can be monotonous. And the strange change that melts gently on the tongue.

The small change was probably a halo of light trapped within the ice pearl.

“… Popping candy?”

It didn’t really spread out or burst like a firecracker, but the blue halos dotting the tea water added a strangely savory flavor. I felt a pleasure on my tongue that couldn’t be expressed in sweet or salty terms.

It was a fruit tea that whetted my appetite for no reason.

“… … .”

“Gulp?”

“It would be perfect as a gift.”

There must be a lot of sheep, so I thought I’d pack some.

“I should give it to Mr. Yoo Seong-un.”

It’s a grandmother’s instinct to want to share her cooking.

Geo, who grew up hearing his grandmother, his life mentor, tell him to “live a life of generosity,” wanted to fatten up Yoo Seong-un.