Chapter 1

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Chapter 1

I became a painting.

“...”

Not a memorial photo—an actual painting.

“...”

And what’s more, I ended up dropped right in the middle of a cabin in the woods.

“...Should I count this as moving to the countryside?”

I’m alive and well, yet I’m about to be treated like a possessed portrait—but it’s fun, so whatever.

* * *

Seo Gio was an art teacher.

If I’m to explain how a perfectly ordinary member of society ended up as a possessed portrait, it’s because Seo Gio failed to escape a school fire in time, got trapped in the art room, and plunged straight into his own painting.

“...”

It’s true.

“If I was going to die anyway, I wanted to die in the place I loved most.”

That place was the art storage room.

The place where a landscape painting of a cabin in the woods had been kept—ultimately, the place that turned him into a painting that was, in the end, him.

“Life really hands you experiences like this.”

Gio sat on a bench and took in the scenery inside the painting.

“...”

The air is mild.

Birdsong that chirps in harmony, as if in chorus.

A spring breeze, light and soft as silk, drifting gently.

Gemlike sunlight filtering through dense leaves.

A rich forest scent, as if damp with dew, at a perfect temperature...

“Mmm.”

It was peaceful.

“Nice.”

It’s been about a week since he came to in this cabin inside the painting.

‘Time’s flow is all over the place, so I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been here, but...’

It’s only natural for a resident to look over a new home.

Gio figured out a few small rules of this place.

First, anything he draws here becomes real.

“...”

Watching the apple he had drawn, Seo Gio set it down with a tap.

A good fragrance rose from the ripened apple.

He felt proud.

‘I’ve been liberated from food expenses.’

As expected, I’m commendable.

For Seo Gio—who, possessed portrait or not, was both a gourmet and a big eater—it was very welcome news.

If he drew an apple, it became a real apple.

If he drew a bag of salt, it became real salt.

The same applied to kitchenware like pots or ladles, not just ingredients, and to plants like flowers or trees as well.

‘At this point, there’s one thing anyone would be curious about.’

He can’t draw people.

He tried, thinking he might become the first human to shape a human with paint, but all that came out were warm corpses—they never became living, moving humans.

“It’s good the limit is clear.”

Gio almost panicked.

For someone who valued friendship, peace, and love, a power like creating humanity would only be harmful.

More than anything, Seo Gio’s dream was closer to being a landlord than a creator god.

‘I was relieved I didn’t gain power enough to ruin the snugness and cuteness of my life.’

And the second rule.

“...”

Gio’s gaze landed on a frame hanging on a tree trunk.

“Is it like a front door?”

Through the frame, Gio could see the scenery outside this place.

“Maybe it’s there for the importance of communication, so I don’t grow old alone.”

He could interact with reality as well, and could go out of the painting whenever he wanted.

Compared to the many ghost stories he knew about possessed portraits, this one was fairly free.

‘As expected of me.’

Even as a painting, I don’t go down the same road as everyone else.

Gio was deeply satisfied with his own uniqueness—something without equal in human history.

It didn’t seem like there could be two of these in the world.

If there were, it would be fate—making it even better.

“...”

Anyway, enough digressing.

“...I don’t see a reason to go out into society that reeks of exhaust just to start a new household.”

When he has this clean zone—why bother?

“Things changed a lot from what I remember in just a few years, too...”

It was a bitter thing to mutter at the flourishing age of twenty-nine, but reality was reality.

They said it had already been about thirty years since the fire.

‘To be exact, thirty-one.’

After learning that, Gio drifted back into the painting.

This talking potato had no confidence in adapting to a new society.

“I’ve probably been declared dead for a long time—why would I go out there just to be subjected to some biological experiment?”

He had no intention of suffering for no reason, abandoning this peaceful home where he paid neither food expenses nor rent nor electricity.

“I’m a little worried about my class kids... but the world’s changed so much, I don’t know how they’re doing.”

Thirty-one years ago, when the fire happened, it seemed the world had been flipped once.

‘They called it the Great Catastrophe, didn’t they.’

After that day, the world seemed to have changed completely.

When Gio saw the unbelievable sight of a businessman in a suit holding a bow and fighting a house-sized monster, he was so thoroughly intimidated that he meekly accepted his identity as a painting.

“Things like that can happen in life.”

My body dies and dies, dying a hundred times over, my bones not even turning to dust—my soul perfectly intact, and yet, compared to a modern society grinding against monsters, the life of a peaceful, comfortable possessed portrait was better.

“There are many ways to live in this world, and among them is the life of a portrait...”

And if we discuss a third matter around here.

“...Hmph.”

This forest is another ecosystem.

“Should I go gather some things?”

Gio took a sturdy basket.

He meant to bring back a basketful of food.

‘All I drew was a two-story cabin and the forest around it, but after wandering here and there, there are plants and landforms I’ve never drawn, too.’

It looked as if they had been made based on Gio’s imagination.

“...”

Rustle.

“Hi.”

“Eep.”

“Yeah.”

Gio watched as a rabbit that sprang from the bushes brushed its body against his foot and passed by.

‘Small.’

It was far smaller and rounder than the rabbits he commonly knew in Korea—perhaps reflecting Seo Gio’s taste for small, harmless things.

‘I like it.’

Mostly because it didn’t seem like it could hurt me.

He liked that if he fought seriously, Seo Gio himself could probably win.

‘Because I, the owner of the painting, am harmless, only harmless creatures were placed here.

A plausible guess...’

After that, too, living things that were slightly different from those in reality occasionally brushed past Gio.

A squirrel with cheeks puffed round.

A sparrow with feathers fluffed as if it were winter.

A deer with clear, gemlike eyes and a slender neck...

“...”

Gio thought.

A fourth rule.

“...To be so friendly even though it’s our first meeting—without a doubt, they recognize me as their father.”

Everything in this painting shows goodwill toward Gio.

‘Because I drew this place.’

Though he had become a painting, Gio was still a painter, and this world was also a work he had created.

‘Then it might be only natural for the ones living in my work to be friendly to me, their owner.’

Gio walked against the stream’s flow.

“...Like an unemployed bum with nothing to do, should I find a sunny spot and take a nap?”

He was on his way to find the spring that was the source of this broad forest.

‘It’d be even better if I gather things along the way.’

Seo Gio was still a gourmet and a big eater.

As a painting, he didn’t feel hunger or sleepiness, but he could eat if he wanted and sleep if he wanted.

‘If I eat too much I feel heavy, and I can’t fall asleep again right after sleeping deeply... it seems a basic life pattern still holds.’

Anyway, being able to eat as much as he wanted was a tremendous advantage.

“...Ah.”

Following the stream upstream, Gio found red, round berries.

“Perfect for a snack.”

A thin tree under two meters tall, with branches bent low like an overturned plate.

On its slender branches, berries about the size of marbles sold at stationery shops hung in clusters.

They formed in soft bunches along elongated branches; the shape was closer to a cherry tree than grapes.

“If I dry them in the sun, would they end up with a texture like raisins...?”

At that moment, Gio’s ‘system’ described the small red berries.

Mangdung Berry

It is red.

Sweet-and-sour, with sweetness usually strong.

A spherical berry with a diameter as small as 1 cm and as large as 2 cm.

Elixir Method: Dry the berries thoroughly, grind them into powder, mix into a dough with Rurupu juice, form into rice cakes, then dry in a dark place for at least a week; it becomes a medicine good for bleeding and recovery from it.

“...If you’d at least give me some warning before popping up...”

A fifth rule.

“...Yeah, I think I’ll need some getting used to this.

Time will fix it, I guess.”

Strictly speaking, this might not be a rule of the forest... but it seemed Seo Gio had undergone something called Awakening—the phenomenon said to manifest in those with supernatural powers after the ‘Great Catastrophe.’

People on Earth now called such superpowered individuals ‘hunters,’ which was fascinating.

‘That I became one of those superpowered people, too.’

How should I put it.

“It’s like a game.”

It felt like being dropped into a healing game where you gather and cook.

‘In that sense, maybe I should be glad it made it easy to accept this unfamiliar environment.’

It wasn’t that he was fleeing reality by calling this place a game.

It just meant, ‘Since this is a harmless and convenient environment like a game, it’s easy to adapt.’

“...Mmm...”

Rereading the system, Gio checked his basket.

There was still plenty of space.

“...Should I gather more.”

He plucked berries one by one until the bottom of the basket turned red.

Then he used a large, cleanly washed leaf to make a spot for the berries and separate them.

It was to make space to set down other gathered items, and perhaps thanks to that, he soon found another medicinal herb.

“What was that again.”

A small flower that looked like an orchid.

Baibameunil

It is pale blue.

It has a soft vanilla cream scent.

It can be eaten if blanched in hot water for 10 minutes. It blooms where a forest butterfly of the ‘Forest of Oblivion’ has died.

The petals resemble a forest butterfly’s wings.

Elixir Method: Blanch in hot water to remove toxicity, then dry in a dark place for 10 days.

If dried atop Dorongdorong Tree leaves, medicinal efficacy increases.

Steep the fully dried flower over low heat for a full day to use as a medicinal tea with a pleasant fragrance.

Excellent for hemostasis and immune recovery, and also for increasing immunity.

‘The taste is quite different, but at least the texture felt like well-cooked spinach.’

Spinach that smells like vanilla cream might sound like nonsense, but it was surprisingly fine to eat.

If blanched once and eaten as a snack, it was good when you felt peckish.

‘If you mash it lightly with your tongue, the texture is soft enough to crumble like a well-cooked chestnut, which is fun.’

For reference, ‘Dorongdorong’ refers to a tree in this forest that is fat like a baobab but much shorter.

Its curled, rounded leaves are springy and thick like balloons filled with water, and since these Dorongdorong Trees were near the cabin, Gio could easily get the leaves.

“Just in case.”

Gio diligently continued gathering.

In this situation, he needed not only food but also medicine for emergencies, so gathering over a wide range was necessary.

Continuing to gather like that, Gio arrived at the spring that was the source of the stream.

“...”

Tok.

Trickle...

“...”

Springwater trapped in snow-white roots, as if sunlight and moonlight had been gathered.

Among that glass-clear, sparkling spring, flowers as thin and beautiful as silk made of jewels bloomed.

They were lush flowers that somehow resembled lotus blossoms.

“With this...”

Rurupu

A flower with a lush bud.

It can only grow naturally in clean water, and uses that water to bloom.

A fully bloomed Rurupu maintains its form even if picked.

However, you can extract juice from its petals only when they touch warm water.

It is edible, but aside from its strong fragrance, it has no taste.

Elixir Method: Put petals into warm, edible water and wait until they melt and release juice.

You must never touch the process with your hands.

The extracted juice can be used with various medicinal ingredients.

Usable Elixir Method: Blood rice cakes using Mangdung Berries and Rurupu juice.

“If I make some medicine in advance, it’ll be useful someday.”

Thud.

He set the basket down.

‘It doesn’t seem like I’ll ever need it, but I was bored anyway...’

Thinking it perfectly suitable as new content, he washed his hands clean in the springwater and reached for the Rurupu flower.

With his characteristic blunt and gloomy face, Gio snipped the stem with a tap.

His hands, unlike his stagnant expression, were quite delicate as they handled the flower.

‘It’d be fun to take it by the roots, but this isn’t a type of plant I’ve commonly raised...

It’s a flower made of water, so I don’t even know where the roots begin and end.

If I try recklessly and the population decreases, I’ll be upset, so I should be careful.’

The Rurupu he picked did not run down into water, as if it had already fully bloomed.

It meant Gio had harvested the flower the right way.

“Smells nice.”

Gio carefully placed the bud into the basket.

About twenty flowers bloomed in the spring, but just in case, he gathered only three of them.

Since each petal was large and lush like a lotus, taking many felt like waste.

‘The stem is fairly sturdy—are there other ways to use it?

It feels fibrous; if I shred it finely along the length, it might peel into threads...’

Soon, Gio finished placing the flowers in.

“This should be enough.”

He decided to get a sense of the exact amounts gradually while making the medicine, and set the basket with the flowers down on the ground again.

Then he admired the spring.

“...”

Trickle,

trickle...

“...”

The sound of clear water flowing shallowly.

The lucid scent rising from the clean spring.

The forest air heavy with moisture.

“...Nice.”

This spring, which existed despite not being drawn by him, was more beautiful than he had imagined.

The tree—already dead, yet standing firm—shone white, resembling expensive Carrara marble.

Between that tree, veined so intricately that the sky faintly showed through, transparent springwater flowed out, scattering sunlight like gold.

‘It looks like pearls spread thin.’

The tree’s sap hardened and turned into jewels.

As if it had secreted sap before dying, wide, dish-shaped jewels with a faint bluish tint protruded all over the tree like wood ear mushrooms.

Transparent and tinged with blue-green, they looked like dishes made of large gemstones.

They held fallen springwater and carried a gentle light.

“...”

Trickle...

The springwater flowed down in sequence along those jeweled dishes.

From the highest point, step by step, one by one.

With a clear sound like jade beads at dawn, it bounced off the jeweled dishes.

If you listened quietly, it felt as if you were hearing a butterfly’s song.

Sunlight leaked through the leaves and scattered, illuminating the marble-like tree—making it feel as though he had come to a temple.

“...”

The springwater that flowed down pooled at the dead tree’s roots, forming a shallow well.

Overflowing from there, the water spread throughout the forest, and butterflies with sunlike wings lit the area around it.

They were like fireflies.

Fireflies you could see even in the daytime.

“Impressive.”

The spring, using the base of a gigantic tree towering into the sky, looked like a huge pond.

‘...They say good water has a scent—does that apply even to water this clean?’

The air around this place was nutty and sweet, as if he were lying atop a flower bed.

Perhaps the fragrance from the Rurupu petals was tinting the springwater.

“...”

As expected...

“People should move to the countryside.”

Gio liked this place.

He settled among moss as soft as a blanket, and slowly invited a nap.

* * *

“Here.”

An art storage room in an abandoned school, now forgotten.

Inside the portrait hanging there, a man had his eyes quietly closed.

“Look at this painting.”

“Whoa, how did it survive without burning and stay like this?”

“It’s in great condition... if we take this, will it count as an achievement?”

“It looks like it even has a title.”

“It has a name, too?

So it was an item.”

And now, the final rule.

Gio became a painting.

“...”

“‘Gio’s Portrait,’ it says.”

That much was an unmistakable fact.

“It’s convenient traveling with someone who has an appraisal skill...

But is this really from Earth?”

“Would an ordinary portrait be sitting this clean in an abandoned school, and in the mountains at that?

No one’s even maintaining it.”

“Well, true.”

“Of course it’s an item that drifted in from some dungeon.

There are plenty of other dungeons nearby.”

“Anyway, collectors will love this.

They go crazy over stuff like this, right?”

And so, while Gio slept.

The painting’s entrance was changing on its own.

Fantasy, modern,