The Artist Who Paints Dungeon Chapter 41

Episode 41

[Forest’s Guts]

[Rating: -]

A sausage made from the meat of the deer and the herbs and berries that grow in the veins of destiny. It is processed by Geo, the master of the forest, so that even the human body can accept it. This sausage, which gives a deep feeling of fullness, is excellent for some injuries and for restoring immunity.

“help.”

“Oh, that’s surprising.”

“Please help me.”

“Would you stop coming to me every time you receive a gift that is difficult to dispose of, Curator Yoo Seong-un?”

“This is something I received, so I can’t share it with anyone else.”

Bisabal responded cheerfully to the sudden appearance of Yoo Seong-un.

“Then why don’t you just ask if you can share it?”

“Is that really the only way?”

“Have you tried this gift?”

“I ate about three at home.”

Yoo Seong-un nodded.

“It was delicious.”

“Oh, when you say it like that, I suddenly feel attracted to you too.”

“Ask Geo and wait until he comes back.”

“If you’re not going to let me eat it, then why did you bring it to me?”

“Because if it gets in someone else’s eyes, it’ll obviously put me in a difficult position.”

“Ah, for the safe… .”

Visabal smiled bitterly.

“As expected, our employees are too cynical.”

“Didn’t you say that you gathered all those people?”

“No matter what, the guild leader usually uses the safe. Don’t they all treat me with the utmost respect?”

“Who created this atmosphere and now you’re joking?”

“So how does it work?”

“You’re beating around the bush.”

After thinking for a moment, Yoo Seong-un rubbed the back of his neck.

“They say it’s great for recovering from injuries and immunity, but I haven’t seen any results yet because I don’t have that kind of injury. However….”

“but?”

“I feel like my eyes are clearer now.”

“Are your eyes clearer?”

Even in this world, medical technology related to vision has been slow to develop. The worn-out optic nerves tend to recover even less as time passes. In that sense, the effect that Yoo Seong-un mentioned sounded quite interesting.

“Is it really effective?”

“I feel that way. If other people eat it too, we will have a comparison group, so we can analyze the effects in more detail.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to get Geo’s permission first. Ask him when you receive the gift. I don’t think Geo would outright refuse.”

“Not only should we not assume the existence of the source in such a way, but at the time, I was out of my mind after pulling an all-nighter. Did I know that when I saw the bungeoppang and went to give it to him, I would end up receiving such a gift?”

“If you’re really tired, how about eating the cookies I gave you last time?”

“It’s been a long time since I ate everything.”

It was Yoo Seong-un who became a slave to caffeine again.

“The fruit juice I received before… It didn’t look like anything, but anyway, what did the other employees think of the fruit juice?”

“The response was very good. And it seemed confusing. First of all, the biggest advantage of the honey of the vein is that it ‘restores human physical abilities to the limit’… .”

“Even if you say you haven’t seen the explanation, you will feel it with your body, so you may be suspicious.”

Visabal asked with a smile.

“Would you like a cup of fruit tea before you go?”

“…please.”

Yoo Seong-un, who was on the verge of death from overwork, needed to recover.

Yoo Seong-un let out a small sigh as he drank the fruit tea that had a rich, soup-like flavor. It was really delicious, but he felt a sense of uneasiness about consuming such a huge amount of food just to recover from fatigue.

“It would be a great help if you take it into the dungeon. It also seems like it would have a significant effect on the mortality rate.”

“That’s true.”

“But if you really take it, there will be a big fuss again.”

“That’s true too.”

“…it is also a problem if the source’s existence is too benevolent.”

It was a new realization.

“So the employees didn’t get suspicious? They must have felt something was strange?”

“Everyone was curious about the source of the fruit juice, but they didn’t ask me again. I told them that I bought it at an auction, but most of them still didn’t understand it.”

“So what did you say?”

“What can I say? No one asked, so I didn’t say anything. Our employees really hate getting involved in complicated matters.”

“No one likes to work overtime.”

“Anyway, everyone is buried.”

Visabal said while drinking his share of fruit tea.

“Still, it seemed like there weren’t many people who guessed that it was a ‘piece of art.’”

The term ‘piece of art’ is a sort of colloquialism used within the collection, referring to an object, blessing, or curse given to a curator by a piece of art locked away in a gallery in the Bisabal.

“No matter what, there are almost no people who would think that there would be a work that gives food as a gift….”

“I see.”

Among the works gathered in the gallery of the Bisabal, there were quite a few beings with egos. Depending on how sophisticated the ego was, a high-level curator was in charge of them, and the curator took care of them while paying attention to the connection between the works and himself.

So, very, very rarely, very unusually, there would be a curator who would receive a ‘piece’ like this.

“Usually, I give you things.”

“If food is a thing, then it is a thing.”

“Rather than that, I’d like to give you something like an accessory, a painting, or a weapon.”

“Yes, most of them.”

There is no other work that has as much of a taste for cooking as Geo.

“Is cooking Geo’s only hobby?”

“No, as I said before, I also enjoy drawing.”

“Such a picture becomes a passage or a living creature.”

“you’re right.”

“Then what would happen if I painted a landscape?”

“… … .”

Yoo Seong-un’s face was crumpled like crumpled foil.

“I’m resting right now, don’t make me nervous.”

“It wasn’t that great of a story.”

“It was a story that I had a rough idea of the possibility, but I don’t want to think about it now.”

“Poor thing….”

“If you say you feel sorry for your boss at work, is that just being sarcastic?”

Bisabal smiled and nodded at the sight of his exhausted subordinate.

“I’m just curious. Geo can create anything with his drawings, so I was just curious to see what would happen if he became a landscape painter.”

“Maybe we can create a different world.”

“Like a dungeon?”

“… … .”

“That’s cool.”

Visabal said, stroking my chin.

“As witnessed by quite a few night guards, Geo said he was moving through some kind of landscape.”

“It’s a little different from what I heard. Is it a landscape painting rather than a portrait?”

“It looks like when Geo is in it, it’s a portrait, and when I’m out, it’s a landscape. Doesn’t it seem convenient?”

“That’s really annoying….”

“They say that the artwork hanging in the hallway disappears when the sun rises, so it seems certain that it can be used for moving purposes as well.”

“But wasn’t that something you had already guessed?”

“So the question is, if you could use a picture to travel to a place that already exists… .”

then.

“Can Geo move to other dungeons?”

“… … .”

“I’m curious.”

“that….”

Yoo Seong-un frowned.

“It seems like a slightly dangerous idea.”

“Did that sound like that?”

“I don’t know exactly what the guild leader saw in Geo, but from my perspective, where my eyesight isn’t that great, that’s what I saw.”

“Geo has already been on a tour outside under the guidance of a meteor curator.”

“I agree with you, but what you’re saying now is to expand Geo’s scope of activity.”

I felt uneasy.

“I have nothing to say about the favor I show Geo beyond his work… but this is the nature of gardeners. It is something engraved in the soul.”

That’s what gardeners are like.

They do not feel threats as threats, and they do not think of cruelty as cruelty. For them, who tend the garden, the source of existence was something to be cared for.

“I said this when I accepted the guild leader’s offer and wrote up the employment contract, and I’ve said it countless times before: gardeners are not on the side of humans.”

They were born as humans and have been gardening, so they both want to coexist. It was inevitable that Geo, who seemed to be very close to the source, would be possessed by Yoo Seong-un.

Because you can’t survive as a gardener without going back to the roots. It’s an eternal taste that can’t and shouldn’t change.

“But aren’t you a complete human being, Guild Leader? If I’m not thorough as a curator, you should point that out and correct me.”

“… … .”

“The guild leader allows too much… to be done with his work. It wouldn’t be strange if that were a concern.”

The visa holder laughed.

“Wasn’t it the same reason that Mr. Yoo Seong-un could use me as a safe?”

“… I know it’s not my place to say anything, since I’ve received help, big or small, many times thanks to the guild leader’s favoritism.”

All members of the Collector’s Guild were from the Bisabal Collection.

His pathetic display of weakness and his excessive generosity were all due to Bisabal’s irrational desire to collect. Bisabal loved all of his collections.

“No matter what, I think using the world as a testing ground for one’s work will have huge aftereffects later on.”

“It’s an aftershock.”

“Whenever a non-standard work like Geo appears, the guild leader acts like this.”

“How did I behave?”

“He acted as if it didn’t matter how the world was ruined or how many people died, as long as he could understand and appreciate his work.”

“Thank you for your attention.”

Visabal nodded.

“That’s why I hired curators to take care of the management for me, who was busy appreciating the art.”

“… … .”

It was a dirty, irresponsible thing to say, but it wasn’t wrong either. Yoo Seong-woon sighed.

“If I, a gardener, am taking the side of humans like this, then it is really serious.”

“I thought I was holding back, but I think I went too far if Yoo Seong-woon said something like that.”

The eyes of the beast widened sharply.

“But aren’t you curious?”

Those were the eyes of a man who had no intention of hiding his greed.

“I wonder what kind of being my work is. I’m really curious about how much of a good young man Geo is, whether he can kill people, and if he does, how much and how he will kill them.”

“… … .”

“Geo is a painter. He is also a portrait artist. He is a person who avoids friction. He knows himself as a 29-year-old young man. How does he fit in with people? How does he react when he experiences unpleasant things? I wonder how he will change when he realizes that he is a work of art.”

“… … .”

“To be honest, I don’t care what happens to the world because of Geo. It makes me mad that my work gets damaged because of stupid people, but I’m not afraid of my works getting hurt and burning while fighting each other.”

That was the honest greed of the Bisabal.

“Have you ever heard the story that the higher your rank, the more you become less human?”

“… It’s a famous story. Stories about how inhumane the S-class hunters are are popular.”

“I feel very embarrassed to claim this with such pitiful physical abilities, but I hope you understand that I am also an S-class.”

He was almost inhuman.

“I wish this world were beautiful and kind enough for me to cherish. Wouldn’t it be nice?”

“… … .”

Yoo Seong-un’s face was distorted with fatigue after hearing such absurd things right in front of him.

“… Ordinary people don’t necessarily consider the possibility of mass slaughter, even if the world isn’t beautiful or sophisticated, Guildmaster…”

“It’s all because of your narrow view of the world. To put it more bluntly, even if the world were to be destroyed because of my work, it would have happened anyway.”

“The president should have heard this. Isn’t this the only gallery that the association trusts with its strict regulations on dangerous items?”

“I know you said that, but he doesn’t really trust me either. It’s just that the association president doesn’t have enough time and resources to manage everything, and I’m the only lesser evil who can take on the increasingly dangerous projects.”

The reason being that the government and the association share half of the work. For that reason alone, the Bisabal gained the gallery’s autonomy.

“So it’s not like the association president doesn’t trust me. He just needed a space and manpower to consistently provide the minimum level of management.”

“… Despite such distrust, the association has managed to keep the artwork from being taken away. Thinking back, as a researcher there, I can tell that the association was definitely after the guild leader’s gallery…”

“That’s why life is all about timing. If I had opened this gallery 10 years later, would the association have been so generous?”

Bisabal’s face brightened as if he had heard a funny joke.

“The Bisabal Gallery is very famous in the world today. It is much more performative, stimulating, and easily exposed to the public than an association that only quietly conducts research, analysis, and control.”

“… … .”

“Even though I manage a gallery, customers may come and buy my work. The association cannot suppress this gallery with its long history, where customers support me.”

The visage of the beggar took on a dramatic sadness.

“Oh, really… When I think of the works that are locked up in the association, tears well up in my eyes. I wonder how harshly they are being treated to survive.”

“…that….”

“In addition, when I think of the humiliation and suffering that my precious and delicate works will endure at the association’s research institute, I absolutely cannot hand them over. There is a soul in the works.”

“Oh, yes… .”

For Yoo Seong-un, who was once the research team leader of the association, this was truly outrageous, but since he was now working under him and receiving convenience, he decided to let it go for now.

“So you have no intention of holding back?”

“I’m exercising self-restraint enough, so I don’t know what else I should exercise self-restraint on.”

“This is the Demon King’s Castle.”

There was no way of knowing what kind of disaster would occur once it exploded.

“Once something happens, it really happens, you know?”

“So, aren’t you also providing curators with a life allowance?”

“It wasn’t a question of whether or not you knew that. Korea could be erased from the map.”

“That would be really scary. I’m sure our curators will take care of it before that happens.”

“Have you ever seen such an irresponsible director? I hope he has the awareness that this is his own gallery.”

The gallery of the Visaval is more stimulating and open than the association’s research institute, but it is less safe.

‘If we were to safely manage such dangerous and sensitive works in the first place… we would need a bit stronger control.’

This place was really under minimal control and had a lot of supplies. It was the complete opposite of the Association’s research lab.

Visabal loved my work and cared for it with love. One of the basic requirements for curators here was to ‘build a strong relationship with the work.’

“… … .”

As expected, the current Earth is maintained in too dangerous a state.

‘Even though it is an unavoidable situation, since it is a point where the entire system collapses and is rebuilt… .’

Everything is going on solely through the mercy of a few powerful people on Earth.

‘If just one person had gone astray, there would have been real chaos, but fortunately, no such unfortunate incidents have occurred yet.’

I think you’re holding on bravely.

“… We will try to work harder, including on Geo-related matters.”

“In that sense, wouldn’t you like to help Geo make new friends? He’d be lonely alone.”

“Aren’t you even thinking of wrapping it up in some grand scheme of things? It’s clear that everything I just said went in one ear and out the other.”

At this point, it seemed like fate that Geo had been awarded the contract to Bisabal and not to the association president.

“… … .”

Well, yeah

As a gardener, Yoo Seong-woon himself was quite a funny guy who welcomed such a non-artificial intelligence-friendly opinion.

He nodded.

“Let me ask you something.”

I was planning on going to talk to Geo this morning anyway.

One question or two there, I guess that’s fine.

* * *

Geo at that time.

“I made a few.”

“Kung?”

certain?

“Yeah, it’s a bit much.”

“Kung?”

little?

“Yeah, Dad was the one who got it wrong. He was so excited that I couldn’t handle it.”

“Kuruk.”

“I will reflect on it.”

I gave about 5kg of sausages to Yoo Seong-un, but there were still 5kg of sausages left.

“Since it has been dried once in the sun, it won’t rot if stored in an icehouse….”

“Gurr?”

“As I said before, I was really excited, and I also wanted to give them a gift since I’ve been neglecting the water birds’ nests. So that we can all share them instead of just eating them ourselves.”

“Kururururururuk.”

“I thought you’d like it too.”

The pile of sausages was so generous that it looked like a small hill.

It was smaller than all the waterfowl living in this forest, but what difference in perspective does it make? There wasn’t much difference in the fact that there were too many of them.

But Geo was steadfast.

“Try this first. I thought you might not like spicy food, so I made this light.”

He was excited. He would have enjoyed making his own sausages with ordinary ingredients, but wasn’t this a dish made with fantasy ingredients?

“This is a sausage made with arum, lavender, and vinegar. I also added a little bit of ground Milky Way Mary. To be honest, it’s a little too bland for my taste… but I think you’ll like it.”

“Kururuk.”

“That doesn’t mean I won’t eat it.”

Geo finished preparing a meal at a table outside the cabin for the first time in a long while.

The table was filled with freshly cooked rice from a cauldron, baibamenil, which had been seasoned like a vegetable with its toxins removed, and hot, homemade sausages, deep-fried in the oven and full of juice.

“I’ll bring it to the waterfowl nest later after roasting it. I’ve prepared the food for us to taste first, so let’s eat slowly and come to the nest later. Do you agree, son?”

“Gulp.”

“You are truly my son.”

Sergio nodded inwardly as he put the long sausage into his mouth without cutting it.

‘… People who like spicy flavors like me might find it a little bland. To be honest, it’s a little bland, but it’s seasoned just right, so it’s good to eat with rice.’

The sausages, which had been briefly dried in the sun, had a very crispy exterior, perhaps because they had been baked once.

However, the skin made by directly handling the intestines was somehow savory and chewy, but soft enough that it didn’t resist the teeth. It was a texture that was crunchy, chewy, and soft at the same time.

“hmm….”

Ppop!

“Ah, it’s hot.”

The contents inside were overflowing with juice.

The scent of wood gently seeped into the roof of my mouth. The sausage, freshly grilled in the wood-fired oven, was hot enough to be slightly hot, and the sweet yet somewhat sticky meat juice tightly trapped inside the shell soaked my mouth.

Warm and cozy.

“… … .”

It was delicious.

‘…It’s made simply, but it still has a good flavor.’

By reducing the amount of salt as much as possible, the original flavor of the meat was brought out, and various complex flavors were added to maximize the compatibility with the original meat. The result was the sausage we have today.

The combination of the subtle nutty flavor of venison and the raven walnuts unified the flavor of the sausage.

Moreover, the pungent scent of the arum hidden deep beneath and the vinegar of the sugar trap fruit above it asserted itself in a gentle yet clear manner.

‘I ate this and it was better than I thought. I thought it would be very boring.’

The faint bitterness from the vinegar itself goes well with the rich smoky flavor of the wood from the campfire the sausages were roasted in.

The sausage was great, and the cooking method was great too.

“It looks like it has a lot of vinegar in it.”

“Huh?”

“Is it because it’s a naturally fermented fruit vinegar? It has a subtle sweetness, but the sourness and bitterness balance it out so that it doesn’t feel greasy… It really goes well together.”

Next up was a sausage made exclusively for Geo himself.

Ppop!

“… … .”

The red sausage stimulated my taste buds the moment I took a bite.

‘My mouth is burning.’

There was a hotness that wrapped around my tongue stickily.

‘The aftertaste isn’t that long. It’s a very smooth and clean spicy taste.’

The sausage he made exclusively for himself contained all the ingredients he had found this time.

Milky Way Mary, which has a clean scent like a combination of chili pepper and pepper, and Ul-eum Jarak, which has a strong spicy flavor but also a mysterious, heavy sweet scent.

Arum, with its ginger scent, unifies the various scents mixed here and there, and lavender, with its deep, soft scent, lightly covering it.

Lastly, there is the sugar trap vinegar, which adds a tangy sourness here and there, giving a variation in taste… .

“… … .”

Was it a little too much?

“But it tastes good.”

“Kung.”

“Don’t avoid it, it might be okay to try it once.”

“Kung kung kung… .”

“If you don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do.”

Honey’s advice to avoid spicy sausages was a good fit for Geo’s taste, however. He felt like his stomach, which had been a little empty, had been completely relieved.

The feeling of having a shot of samgyetang, or going into a boiling bath, or going straight to a jjimjilbang with a bowl of shikhye, sweating profusely while slurping down an ice-cold shikhye with a straw. This feeling of fullness that fills in exactly what is lacking.

“Good.”

Happiness is not far away.

‘I was worried because it was my first time using this material, but it turned out better than I expected.’

Although it was a sausage with a spicy concept, the overall subtle sweetness and the fat covering the entire meat made the spiciness very clean.

Spicy food was considered to be more than 90% successful if it was just spicy enough.

“It’s worth getting a feel for cooking. This is when grandma’s cooking comes in handy.”

“Kung kkung kkung kkung kkung… .”

“It’s not that Dad made it wrong, it’s just that our tastes are a little different.”

It was very spicy and delicious at this level.

Sergio, who knows taste, also enjoyed the chicken feet. When he usually eats spicy chicken feet, he dips them in oil sauce or drinks them with a sweet drink if it is too spicy for him.

Then, I was able to eat like an intellectual with a much calmer mind. The sausage I made this time was in the same vein.

‘The taste and aroma itself are spicy and tangy overall, but the hem of the crow also had a faintly sweet scent. In addition, the lavender walnuts have a soft sweetness unique to nuts. And the vinegar naturally produced by the sugar trap tree, which is said to bear extremely sweet fruit, goes without saying… .’

If the spices seemed too strong, the soft scent would suppress it. If it seemed too spicy, the slightly excessive amount of deer fat would wash away the pain on my tongue like silk.

If you feel like you’re feeling under the weather, the vinegar will assert its sour presence and calm your rumbling stomach.

Overall, the balance was good.

‘The arum also plays a big role in binding together the complexly intertwined flavors and aromas that can feel excessive. It is much more effective than expected.’

Geo conceived a new dish while chewing food in his mouth.

“If you add arum when making a dish with various ingredients, the quality of the dish will definitely improve.”

“Kung…?”

“I’ll make it less spicy next time. I think you have an aversion to spicy flavors.”

Arum bound all the spices together, each with its own distinct character, in one place. The stickiness was so effective that I could taste such a complex flavor without feeling burdened at all.

‘Besides, we paid attention to the texture of this sausage.’

Geo nodded.

“Doesn’t it have its own unique taste?”

“Gulp.”

“Yeah, it’s delicious, right? The different sizes of the meat balls definitely make for a more varied chewy texture. I’ll have to think about how to make the texture next time I make it.”

“Knock knock… .”

“I always think about it, but I like this forest because it doesn’t get moldy.”

If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of doing this work.

‘The casing was also made using real intestines with high moisture content… I hope it doesn’t rot during processing.’

If the meat is different, air is created inside the shell, and there is a high probability that mold will grow through the gap. At least, all the sausages Geo has made so far have gone through that process.

‘You seem like weak-willed people.’

If you were real pork, you would have to put up with mold with your spirit.

“hmm.”

Anyway, thanks to that, even the texture of this sausage was excellent.

The meat, which had already been mashed to a soft consistency like porridge, pleased my tongue by touching a corner of my mouth before I could even chew it, and the bumpy pieces of meat were chewed on my teeth with a pleasant elasticity.

‘The meat juices are flowing out… and the texture of the intestines is better than I imagined.’

Maybe because my intestines were so plump, it felt like I was chewing thin tripe.

The intestines that had been prepared in advance had absolutely no gamey smell and had the chewy texture and rich flavor characteristic of offal food.

Moreover, the outer skin was crispy like a cookie because it was baked in an oven, but the inside of the skin was still sticky. You could also taste the faint bitterness characteristic of nuts.

“… … .”

Geo muttered.

“It sounds good.”

I wanted to live like this my whole life.

In peace.