I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents-Chapter 24: The Forest of Beasts (1)

The Transcendent Gallery was still filled with discussions about Han Yuseong even after he had left.

Title: Is the gallery master gone? Gone for real?

Author: ㅇㅇ

- Damn, it’s hard to pretend this is normal.

How the hell did a Floor 3 weakling kill King Kobold? This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this.

ㄴ LOL for real.

ㄴ What’s with your way of speaking?

ㄴ A kobold using Sword Aura, take that!

ㄴ Ice Queen) Frozen! So proud!

ㄴ Absolute Monarch) He’ll probably hit a level stagnation phase soon.

ㄴ Sword of Light) Most likely. I just hope he reaches Level 20 before that happens.

ㄴ Archmage) Why are you even hoping for anything? He’s going to have to push through on his own anyway.

Before entering Floor 3 Stage, Han Yuseong had kindly responded to Sword of Light when he asked about his stats.

ㄴ Oh, right. Once two or more stats hit 100, leveling up becomes insanely slow, right? But why the hell is this crazy bastard experiencing it already? It’s only Floor 3! I didn’t go through this until mid-Tower!

ㄴ Yeah, well... that’s because you... no, we...

ㄴ Pioneer) I wonder what’ll show up this time.

ㄴ Elf Guy) But why is the climber the gallery master? Shouldn’t the actual gallery owner be the gallery master?

ㄴ Well, since every discussion in this gallery ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ revolves around the climber, it just makes sense.

ㄴ Gallery master, post something.

The Forest of Beasts.

Just hearing the name was enough to make it sound ominous, and in reality, the place felt even worse.

The moment I entered, a beast with bared fangs lunged at me, and I sliced it down with my greatsword Carnavalt.

Judging by its sheer size, it was at least two meters tall.

It resembled a wolf.

Its blackish-red fur stood out, even in the overwhelming darkness of this world.

That was because the creature’s fur faintly glowed.

SCHWAAACK!

I killed two of them immediately.

I took out my device and snapped a picture of the two dead beasts.

Then, I logged into the Transcendent Gallery and made a post.

Title: Floor 3 stage is the Forest of Beasts.

Author: ㅇㅇ*

Attachment: 901903897.jpg

- But what the hell is this monster?

The comments started pouring in immediately.

ㄴ The Forest of Beasts? LMAO.

ㄴ LOL, you’re so screwed! That’s one of the worst places!

ㄴ That thing is called a Malekanis beast. But that’s not the important part right now.

Just as I was about to ask what was important, more replies came in.

**ㄴ Archmage) The bigger problem isn’t the beasts themselves, but the Magi (dark energy) that spreads throughout the Forest of Beasts.

ㄴ Archmage) Though technically, the Magi is emitted by the beasts themselves.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) Magi?*

**ㄴ Archmage) If you lose focus, you can be consumed by the Magi and start self-harming.

ㄴ Self-harm is the least of your worries.

ㄴ If your mental resistance is weak and you mistake your allies for enemies, you might stab them to death.

ㄴ I play on Normal Mode, and my first time entering the Forest of Beasts was on Floor 35. But you’re here on Floor 3?

Not surprising anymore.

Damn Pandemonium.

Magi...

So that’s why the [Anti-Evil Bracelet] on my left arm had started to tremble.

It was actively suppressing the effects of the Magi.

[Skill ‘Composure’ has leveled up. Lv.6]

[Skill ‘Mental Barrier’ has leveled up. Lv.2]

The ‘Mental Barrier’ skill had been acquired yesterday when I faced King Kobold.

It was a passive skill that strengthened mental resistance.

And now, two of my mental resistance skills had leveled up at the same time.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) So do I just have to stay exposed to the Magi this whole time?*

ㄴ Absolute Monarch) You need to eliminate the source.

ㄴ Pioneer) The Magi spreading in the Forest of Beasts doesn’t originate from the forest itself. It’s released by powerful named beasts.

ㄴ Pioneer) That means there’s a Named Beast near you.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) So if I kill it, the mental corruption stops?*

ㄴ Pioneer) That’s right.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) My quest is to join a rescue squad and save the missing personnel. Can I just ignore that and kill the Named Beast first?*

ㄴ Yeah, it doesn’t really matter. There’s no guarantee you’ll find the rescue squad right away.

ㄴ Spear King) Right. If you’re unlucky, it might take seven or eight days to meet up with them.

ㄴ Pioneer) My worst-case record was twenty days before miraculously finding them. I almost lost my mind.

ㄴ Archmage) In quests like this, the rescue squad isn’t as important as the actual missing people. As long as you rescue them, it doesn’t matter if you alter the process a bit.

ㄴ Archmage) As long as you complete the main objective, these kinds of quests allow for a lot more freedom than you’d think.

That made sense.

Even in the Floor 2 stage, I didn’t participate much in the defense battle but still cleared the stage by killing the Orc Shaman, the real source of the problem.

That thought reminded me of Lucerna Mercenary Corps’ leader, Resellin, and Yunes, who had guided me and also served as my magic shuttle.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) Is this place related to the world I was in on Floor 2? Or is it the same world?*

ㄴ Sword of Light) High chance it’s the same world. The Ermein Empire, which you protected on Floor 2, also has a Forest of Beasts.

ㄴ Sword of Light) The timeline should be roughly the same too.

ㄴ Archmage) But don’t expect to meet anyone from before. The continent of Ermein and the continent of Noxis, where the Forest of Beasts is located, are different.

ㄴ Ice Queen) Frozen! The Ermein Empire is on Valtera! The Forest of Beasts is on Noxis!

ㄴ But is the forest actually vast? It doesn’t seem that big.

I took my eyes off the device and scanned my surroundings.

It was far from small.

It was dense, suffocatingly so.

The black undergrowth stretched out endlessly.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) The forest is massive and overgrown.*

ㄴ This seems like a later point in the timeline than when we went through it. We cleansed the Forest of Beasts, but now it’s back in the same state.

Just one more question left.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) How do I find the Named Beast that’s spreading the Magi?*

ㄴ Heavenly Demon) Walk in the direction where your worst memories keep surfacing.

What the hell?

ㄴ Shrine Maiden) Higher-ranked beasts' Magi force those exposed to it to relive traumatic failures, painful regrets, and unbearable memories.

My right shoulder suddenly started aching.

So that’s what this was.

The Magi.

ㄴ Shrine Maiden) Even if you try not to think about it, the memories will keep surfacing. It’s meant to break your mind and destroy your will. Ugh... If only the cooldown for interdimensional trade wasn’t active, I could have just handed you a charm to nullify all of this... Such a shame.

ㄴ Sword of Light) Nah, nah. Isn’t this a good chance to increase mental-resistance skills? As long as he doesn’t die, this will be great training.

ㄴ Even now, all he thinks about is growth! Crazy bastard!

ㄴ Classic psychopath behavior.

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ㄴ Dragon King) As expected! A friend of Beltoi, who always speaks the truth! Beep-beep!

ㄴ Sword of Light) Die.

ㄴ Archmage) Anyway, even if traumatic memories surface, don’t let yourself get caught in an endless cycle of thoughts. That’s when the Magi really starts consuming you. If that happens, your health and mental state will collapse instantly. When you feel like you’re getting closer to a monster, activate Mana Body Reinforcement.

ㄴ Admin) Mid-tier and higher beasts also hunt other monsters in the forest. If you suddenly start seeing a lot of monster corpses, that might be a sign that one of the Magi-emitting beasts is nearby.

ㄴ Archmage) Don’t let the past devour you.

I had gathered all the information I needed.

I closed the Transcendent Gallery and resumed walking.

The tingling pain in my right shoulder intensified.

It was a recreation of the injury that had ended my baseball career.

A headache crept in.

Voices whispered into my ears like distant echoes.

- That stupid game. See? The moment he loses it, he loses everything.

- He should’ve just studied from the start. Now look at him, wasting his time and sitting there pretending to catch up.

Unpleasant memories.

- What are you going to do now? You need to survive somehow.

But these weren’t fears to me.

Standing on the mound as a pitcher.

Allowing a hit. Allowing a home run.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The way my teammates and the audience looked at me.

When their faces and the entire baseball field tilted like a crescent moon—

That was when I felt the most fear.

Just like the memory replaying in my mind right now.

[Skill ‘Mental Barrier’ has leveled up. Lv.3]

But now, that memory was just a memory.

It was only terrifying when I couldn’t do my part.

Now, I didn’t even have the luxury of drowning in inferiority.

To survive, to climb this damn Tower, there were far too many things I needed to do.

There was no time to dwell on the past.

Crack—

I slowly rotated my right shoulder to loosen the tension.

The heavy sensation vanished completely.

Step.

[Activating Mana Body Reinforcement Lv.4.]

I spotted a group of goblin-like monsters lying dead.

Beyond them stood a one-eyed beast.

It had the lower body of a four-legged feline predator but a humanoid upper body.

However, its entire face and torso were covered in thick red fur, making it look nothing like a human.

"You. You’re the one filling my head with useless thoughts, aren’t you?"

"......."

The one-eyed beast didn’t respond.

My eyes drifted to the side.

Beneath a massive tree, a figure was bound.

A beastfolk.

They had reddish-orange fur and drooped lifelessly as if they were dead.

Not an elf.

Probably a mystic cat beastfolk.

『You have encountered one of the rescue targets! Safely deliver them to the rescue squad!』

Right.

Nowhere in the quest had it specified that the rescued individuals had to be human.

Schwing—

I readjusted my grip on Carnavalt.

And took a step toward the one-eyed beast.

***

Hard Mode, Floor 64.

Hard Mode Tower, Numbering #35.

A blonde man sat on a park bench, flipping through a book.

A woman with long purple hair approached him.

"Union Leader."

The Leader of the Strategy Union, Targon, lifted his gaze from his martial arts book.

"There was a casualty in the 10-Floor Exchange Event of our Tower."

Targon frowned at the attack squad leader, Bellasia’s, words.

"Who?"

Bellasia opened her mouth again to respond.

"Floor 8, 21st-century Earthling. Baek Jin-young."

Through the mail system, a report had been sent to another Floor 8 resident.

Baek Jin-young was dead.

In Hard Mode, the likelihood of dying in an Exchange Event was low.

After all, the difficulty of the Exchange Event was usually lower than what players normally faced when climbing.

And for 10th-floor-and-below Exchange Events, it was even less likely.

"Did he die alone? Wasn’t he part of a party when he entered the Exchange Event?"

To prepare for the possibility of being summoned to an Exchange Event, all players within the same Tower numbering were instructed to form parties of at least two.

That was an official directive from Targon as Union Leader.

Bellasia shook her head.

"He refused to party up, saying he already had a prearranged group in Normal Mode.

So, he was already on the Watchlist for possibly declining a party to hide his PK activities."

PK. Player Kill.

Murder between Tower players.

"So, if he wasn’t killed by a monster, then he either tried PKing someone and got counter-killed or was PKed himself."

"Yeah."

Targon recalled the ranking board from Floor 2.

The reason he had started paying attention to lower floors.

1st Place - Hidden Player : 1,532 Points

2nd Place - Union Leader : 784 Points

The existence above him.

Targon shook his head.

‘Even if this Hidden Player is a Hard Mode player, the gap between Floor 2 and Floor 8 is too wide.’

Targon never considered the possibility that the Hidden Player was a Pandemonium Mode player.

But—

If they surpassed him in the Floor 3 rankings as well—

He would do whatever it took to uncover their identity.

With the name Hidden Player erased from the list of suspects in Baek Jin-young’s murder, Targon spoke indifferently.

"Do we have the name of the Normal Mode player who partied with Baek Jin-young?"

"Yeah. Whether they were telling the truth or not, though, is another question."

"Then post an official notice in the Climber Gallery.

See if anyone knows something.

If it looks like it’ll take too long, just drop it."

From Floor 1 onward, the Union Guild claimed to maintain balance in every level of the Tower.

But in truth—

It was simply a system to reinforce their dominance over the 30th-floor-and-up Guild recruitment pool.

That was the real reason they maintained a presence in the lower floors.

"Understood."

As Bellasia left, Targon, now alone again, flipped his book open and muttered.

"Still, I’m curious."

Would you surpass me again on Floor 3?

His eyes sharpened as he thought about the Hidden Player.