Chapter 13

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 13

Gio spoke the moment he woke up.

“...Fruit tea...”

He wanted warm, sweet fruit tea.

“Let’s make syrup.”

And so today’s content was decided.

Making fruit syrup wasn’t that difficult.

Tools sterilized with love, fruit grown while being cherished, and just as much sugar were enough.

‘So it takes an enormous amount of sugar—so much you’d think, “Ah, now this is how you get diabetes.”’

And most fruits could be made into syrup.

As long as they paired well, it didn’t matter if you used two or more kinds of fruit.

“...”

The first fruit Gio decided on was mangdung berries.

“But with just this, it feels like it’ll be nothing but too sweet.”

If there was a taste needed to successfully make fruit syrup—sugar water itself stained with the fruit’s flavor—then first was sourness, and second was bitterness.

It would already be so sweet from the sugar alone that your tongue would sting, and if you added another sweet fruit on top of that, then it would be nothing more than canned fruit.

Gio learned that after making syrup with fully ripened, sweet mandarins.

“That does taste good too.”

But what Gio wanted now was fruit tea with sweetness as the base, accompanied by sourness, and with a bittersweet taste.

It wasn’t a difficult composition.

“I need a sour and bitter fruit to go with mangdung berries.”

A combination he often made in reality was mostly strawberry and lemon.

Strawberries aren’t completely lacking in sourness, but overall they’re soft and sweet.

In contrast, lemons have sour flesh and bitter peel, so they used to add depth to the one-dimensional sweetness of strawberries.

This time was similar.

“Even if it does have sourness, mangdung berries are on the sweet side.”

And since that sweetness is quite thick, it seemed like it would be good with a fruit that was sour like lemon or astringent like yuzu.

Fruit syrup with such varied flavors was even more satisfying when you drank it as warm tea.

“Honey.”

“Gurur.”

“Let’s go.”

With a golden waterfowl perched on his shoulder, Gio set off on an adventure with dignity.

He spoke to Honey, who had already moved into the basket.

“Something like lemon or yuzu, I could just draw and make, but for some reason, food born that way all tastes so-so... so I like harvesting it directly like this better.”

“Gururuk?”

“It’s better for my satisfaction, and it’s also better for the fruit syrup we’ll make.

If I can, I want to try using a peculiar fruit that grew in this forest rather than fruit with a weak flavor.”

Gio could draw and create ingredients or food to eat.

But strangely, ingredients or food made that way were all bland in one way or another.

If you eat them when your mouth is truly bored, they’re fine in their own way, but he didn’t want to use them for cooking he was serious about.

On the honor of his grandmother, who had been the big spender of the village, Gio vowed he would make a fantasy-worthy fruit syrup.

“When you think about it, farming really doesn’t seem like a bad choice either.”

“Gguk.”

“As a fresh Gangwon potato, I can tell you—the soil here is perfect for farming.

It’s always gentle spring weather, but it’s not like there’s no wind, and even though it’s never rained, the soil is always moist, and there are streams here and there.

It’s a good environment for watering too.”

“Gguuuk...”

“There aren’t any seeds or seedlings, but I think I can get help for that part from Mr. Yoo Seongun.

If I want to receive something from beyond the painting, I have to pay a price too, but that’s something I can give as much as I want...”

A human life with unlimited content guaranteed had an onion-like charm like this.

Even when it doesn’t seem that way, if you squeeze, something to do comes out.

“Good.”

Excellent.

Isn’t this kind of freedom the greatest happiness of the unemployed life?

“It’d be hard for crops I raise with my own hands, full of the spirit of the Gangwon backcountry, to taste bad.

Right?”

“Gurururur.”

“It really feels like I’ve started country life.

Like I returned to farming.

I should have been living this peaceful, warm life long ago...”

For Gio, who was born in a Gangwon mountain village, it might have been a homecoming.

“Even as a kid, I liked helping out with this and that.

Since the elders set up all kinds of things, I tried beekeeping, dug up wild ginseng, ran into wild boars...”

“Gguruk?”

“I’m not talking about poaching.

I literally ran into them, and no one got hurt or died, and we all parted ways fine.

I think that was thanks to the people who wandered the mountains gathering mushrooms and bracken and such.”

No one went without a kitchen garden, and there were also people who casually raised chickens or ducks or quail.

He remembered how it had been fun even to make cheese from fresh milk received from an acquaintance’s acquaintance’s ranch, or to simply mix honey into something and eat it.

Gio was someone who had done almost everything a human could do on the land.

“There’s no way someone like me can’t farm.”

Grandma, please watch over me.

“On our village’s name, I’ll prove my talent.”

“Ggurung?”

“I learned that you’re not supposed to stake your own name on things like this.”

If you really thought you couldn’t do it, his grandmother’s philosophy was to sell the name of an elder in the family.

“Of course, I don’t think that’s what she meant for times like this.”

Interpretation was up to the individual.

“Then what seeds should I ask for...”

“Ggur?”

“...First, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn are absolutely necessary.”

Gio started talking.

“They aren’t the world’s 대표 famine-relief crops for nothing, so it’s good to raise them in case something happens.

And I’d like to grow radishes too.

Especially if you pull young radish sprouts that are still tender like seedlings and mix them with rice, doenjang, and oil, it’s so good.”

“Gguruk, gururur.”

“Pumpkin?

Pumpkin’s great.

Big old pumpkins that grow huge are good for making porridge, small sweet kabocha squash is tasty if you just boil it and drizzle honey over it, and long, plump Korean zucchini is nicely nutty when you put it in soup, so it fills you up.

You know your stuff.”

There was more he could think of, too.

“Lettuce, for instance?”

“Ggung gung gung...”

“Surprisingly good.

It’s easy to grow, and if you pluck well-grown leaves and eat them with rice and just a bit of paste, a meal is done in a flash.

Or something like bok choy is good to boil in a clear soup too.”

“Ggururuk.”

“Peas would be fine too.

Ah, cherry tomatoes... I like those too.

A kitchen garden must have at least one tomato plant, by law.”

As he said that, Gio looked down at the basket in his hand.

“...”

“Ggur.”

“Ah-ha.”

He could see Honey, spread out like a spilled liquid monster inside the basket.

“Right.”

It’s cute, so it’s fine.

Honey was a bird that mainly held jewels.

The jewels filling the basket, where golden liquid sloshed like thick honey water had spread out, were quite pleasant to look at.

He didn’t think he’d be bored if they were together.

While chattering about future farming plans, Gio soon stopped in front of a certain tree.

“Ah...”

A pitch-black tree.

It was a tree made of obsidian.

“So I found this first.”

Starflower Tree

A living obsidian tree.

It grows by absorbing starlight reflected on its body.

The Starflower Tree’s flowers bloom at dawn from the light it has absorbed and obsidian residue, and this tree’s flowers are effective for treating burns and frostbite.

The tree’s sap and bark are mainly used as materials for art pieces.

Elixir method: Buds just before blooming are good for frostbite, and fully bloomed flowers are good for burns.

Boil in boiling water until softened, then soak in Dorongdorong-leaf extract for ten days to make it usable.

If you consume the flower without the above process, you will suffer burns and frostbite, so be careful.

“...”

Gio blinked twice as he looked at the automatically appearing explanation.

“Did I use too much obsidian paint last time.”

A considerable amount of obsidian powder had been used in the process of making a habitat for the waterfowl.

It was a material often used to produce a transparent texture like water or glass, so it would be good to harvest some on this occasion.

Gio found the chisel and hammer in the basket.

They were tools that didn’t match the word ‘gathering’ at all, but when harvesting a Starflower Tree, there was no helper better than these.

“Wake up, son.

This lazy 모습 of yours is very cute, but Dad has to work.”

“Gururuk.”

“This isn’t even your kind of thing.

Give it here.

Good.”

After gently soothing Honey, who was holding onto the tools and playing around, and retrieving the items, Gio set the basket down on the ground and approached the obsidian tree.

He touched the obsidian tree’s branch, checking its temperature and moisture.

As if proving it was alive, he felt a faint warmth, and between that, sap flowed like blood.

“Probably...”

Among them, Gio looked for a dead branch.

“Over here.”

A strangely chilly aura clung to it, and rather than glittering, it only reflected light sharply, and there was not the slightest sense of moisture—only a hard branch.

After fiddling with the boundary and confirming it, Gio brought the chisel and hammer close.

Then, tap, tap.

“...”

Clang...!

“Done.”

The obsidian branch came off easily, making a clear sound.

A living branch couldn’t be removed as easily as just now.

It was excessively hard, and inside, sticky sap tangled and clung together, so even if you tried to smash it, it didn’t break well.

‘Obsidian that’s that hard is inconvenient even when making paint.’

A live branch with sticky sap was also hard to turn into clean powder.

Unless his purpose was to make a sharp knife or arrowhead, or to draw out the sap, it was best to choose dead branches as much as possible.

“That’s better for the tree too.”

Even if it was an obsidian tree with glassy tissue, it was still undeniably alive.

Since it was a tree that would produce flowers that would become excellent medicinal ingredients, removing dead branches would likely be more comfortable for the tree as well.

Careful that the weakened dead branch wouldn’t shatter into pieces, Gio broke the long branch into smaller and smaller pieces.

The obsidian fragments holding the chilly aura of a star in the night sky all went into Honey’s belly inside the basket.

“Are you going to carry it?”

“Gururururur!”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

It looked like it was even preparing independence funds in advance, but anyway, it really was a bird that loved jewels.

The embodiment of greed, utterly unsuited to this clear, clean face.

‘It can’t resist if it’s a shiny stone.’

It might do wrong, but at least it wouldn’t live being wronged.

Gio raised his head again and looked at the Starflower Tree.

“...”

The tree was a deep black that reflected sunlight clearly, like a mirror.

The obsidian—black so cold you’d think you should only see it on snowy mountains where snow falls—blended well with the spring environment, with vivid flowers and grass, perhaps because it was alive.

From time to time, forest butterflies—shapes of light—would perch atop it.

After admiring the sharp, hard tree for a long while, Gio moved his feet again.

“...I need to find fruit.”

“Ggyuruk.”

“I hope there’s a good one.”

Fortunately, Gio didn’t go far before he found a fruit he liked quite a lot.

Drought Tangerine

A tangerine-like fruit inside a light brown peel with skin cracked like a field in drought.

Even after harvesting, it does not rot for nearly a year, so it is used as stored food during drought seasons.

If you warm it by a fire or leave it under hot sunlight for three days, it becomes sweet like honey, but if you eat it raw, it is sour and bitter.

Rich in nutrients, canned goods or soup made from it is an excellent tonic that can save even someone on the verge of starvation.

Elixir method: Process the drought tangerine into an edible form and consume it.

“A tonic.”

That part is very interesting too, but...

“...Sour and bitter?”

More than anything, Gio was drawn to that point.

‘It doesn’t say it’s poisonous, so it seems like eating it raw won’t be a big problem, but just how sour and bitter does it have to be to give a separate method for eating it sweetly.’

He bravely picked the fruit.

The size was exactly like a Korean tangerine, and the peel was a little harder than that, but anyway, the shape was similar.

The segments inside were also the same as a tangerine in every way except that they were a deep yellow like honey.

Sniffing the sour scent, Gio chewed one fruit without hesitation.

“...”

Gulp.

Gio swallowed the fruit with composure.

“...”

“Gg, gur... gururu...”

“Yeah.”

At Honey’s tense reaction, Gio nodded with his characteristically blunt face.

His facial muscles, long since atrophied, did not yield to this degree of hardship and trial occurring on nothing more than his tongue.

“It’s sour and bitter.”

He felt like he understood why the elixir method was only, ‘Process it into an edible form and consume it.’

‘Even poisoned royal decrees in history were probably sweeter than this.’

It was such a shocking stimulus that his mind grew dizzy.

Clinging desperately to his fading reason, he learned that the texture was firmer than a tangerine and the juice was rather scarce, but compared to that astonishing taste, it wasn’t something that stood out much.

For a while, he took deep breaths.

“...”

Why did he feel a 마음 that wasn’t hateful at all.

Gio gained confidence.

“At this level, it won’t lose to the sweetness of mangdung berries.”

Honey in the basket recoiled and climbed out in disgust.

It seemed the taste was too shocking for sweet Honey to endure.

Fantasy, modern,