The Artist Who Paints Dungeon

“Nice.”

As always, this activity has been quite successful.

“People need to sweat.”

“Coo?”

“Those who don’t work, don’t eat.”

“Coo coo coo…?”

The sweet-colored waterfowl, Honey's body trembled. At its cry sounded like it was asking, 'Then what about me who doesn't work?', Gio firmly shook his head.

“What are you worried about when you look so cute?”

“Coo.”

Even though Gio lived thoughtlessly, he wasn't an irresponsible author enough not to take responsibility for a creature he created with paint. As the son of Gio, a gourmet and glutton, Honey would never have to starve.

“Do you understand?”

Honey was convinced and sprawled out comfortably—

“But get out of there.”

“Coor.”

—In Gio's basket, no less.

“It’s hard to take out the seeds.”

“Coooong.”

“Whom did you take after to be so stubborn?”

“Coo?”

“Me? You unfilial child.”

Gio bent down and rummaged through the basket. Honey's body, which had only a slight viscosity and was transparent water itself, wasn't much of a problem, but the seeds were all mixed up because it played with them.

“This….”

“… Seems like eggplant seeds.”

Fortunately, Seo Gio, coming from a mountain village in Gangwon province, could identify the seed types just by looking at them. It wasn't because it was something everyone from Gangwon province could do, but because Gio himself was sincere about farming.

Gio, who enjoyed farming from a young age, stood up with the eggplant seeds and placed them in holes he had dug in advance.

“Is it time to plant potatoes now?”

“Cooo?”

“Huh?”

There was a brief communication error, but soon Gio realized what Honey was curious about.

“Dad didn't mean to plant dad.”

“Cooon?”

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

There was an anecdote where his mother, who loved potatoes, saw the fetal ultrasound photo and said, ‘It looks like a potato,’ and so she named the fetus ‘Potato.’ Then, when the grandmother saw the newborn Geo, she nodded her head and said, ‘She only ate potatoes, and now she’s given birth to a potato.’

“All the adults called me a potato, so I thought I was a potato until I was four years old.”

Maybe that's why he grew up so healthy and harmless.

“Well, that's enough.”

“Cooorr.”

“You should grow up healthy, too.”

The Seo family had respected the free will of new life for generations.

After a few days, Gio finally succeeded in planting all the seeds Yoo Sung-woon had given him. From potatoes and sweet potatoes to corn, which are famous famine relief crops, it seemed impossible to starve to death now.

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

“Cooorr..”

“Even if dad is starving, dad won't eat you, Honey.”

The crops were planted in the garden behind the cabin.

“Actually, at this point, it's awkward to call it a garden.”

Although it had only grown a bit, it was still nevertheless a garden. Since it wasn't as large and vast as the fields of those who farm for a living, Gio had his own justification. Anyway, it was indeed a vegetable garden.

Gio was a great adult who could compromise with reality.

“Then let's go back.”

“Coocoo.”

“Yes, I’ll need to try the syrup I made.”

It was time for the fruit syrup he had made earlier to ripen.

“Since sweet and sour goby fruit mixed with sour and bitter drought jars, the combination is excellent.”

What was worrying was whether the quantity of both balanced well, but it didn't bother him much. With his extensive solo living experience, at some point Gio had developed his grandmother's touch in cooking.

“Even though I only used rough estimates and visual measures, there's no way I would get the combination of what I'll eat wrong.”

As if to match that confidence, the glass jar already emitted a pleasant aroma.

“Hmm.”

Gio entered the kitchen and blinked as he looked at the cupboard where the fruit syrup was stored.

“Since I've sweated after a long time, should I drink it as a cold tea?”

“Cooor?”

“I sweated in my mind.”

Honey pointed out that Gio's body doesn't actually produce waste such as sweat, but anyway, didn't he work? Humans who work should drink cool and refreshing tea to boost their work efficiency.

“Then I'll have to get some ice from the storage.”

Pigs don't hesitate in front of food. Without even bothering to wipe off his nonexistent sweat, Gio immediately headed down to the storage.

The ice storage filled with all sorts of food ingredients naturally had ice. In every corner of the storage room, which almost looked like a cave and was so vast that it was impossible to tell where the ice ended, shattered ice could be seen.

“Is it a bit cold?”

As he opened the heavy door and entered the storage, Honey stiffened.

“Co, coooo.”

“If it's too cold, you can stay out… oh.”

“… Are you frozen?”

Seeing Honey turned into transparent ice, Gio showed a slight, intense reaction despite his expressionless face.

Despite being in a frozen state, Honey shook his body once and tidied up his fur.

“Coong.”

“?”

“Coo.”

“Did you evolve?”

“Coooou.”

“Just as I evolved from a human to a haunted portrait, there's no reason why a waterfowl can't turn into an ice bird.”

At first, he thought Honey had died when he suddenly turned into ice, and then he was surprised again at how fluidly he moved despite being ice, but as long as there were no issues, then it didn’t matter.

Honey was still cute even when frozen, so it’s alright.

“Moving ice birds seems quite interesting.”

“Cooooooooooor!”

“Seeing you happy pleases this father's heart too.”

Honey, resembling his creator and born without a sense of crisis, was just very happy with his transformation.

Even though it's a bird created with a body made of water, he wondered if it was supposed to freeze so quickly, but given that Gio himself had turned from a human into a portrait, he wasn't particularly surprised.

“Since when have we obeyed the laws of physics?”

Life was really fun, having ignored the laws of physics.

“First of all, the ice….”

“Coo cooo.”

“Over there, huh? Thank you.”

Honey's wings, which had become ice, did not fold back as one on his body like before.

Perhaps because he had gained feathers or other body parts he didn't originally have, he informed him of the location of the ice and then busied himself tidying his feathers. It seemed like a special trait of birds, to constantly preen their feathers.

‘When it was water, it was a bit less active.'

Leaving Honey on his shoulder, Gio slowly strolled through the ice storage.

It was cool.

“Haa….”

His breath came out.

A breath thick enough to be seen at a glance.

This indicated that it must be quite cold, yet Gio didn't feel the chill, nor did the food ingredients freeze.

It was unclear whether the ice storage was fooling Gio, or if he and the food ingredients were stronger than the ice.

'I guess it's the latter.'

Gio lowered his head and looked at the floor.

He murmured.

“It would be a disaster if it broke.”

He could see the ice floor, which was like the abyss.

'It seems like a solid ice block, but it's transparent as if there's a lake underneath the ice.'

The floor was very transparent. The ice that had frozen very slowly was not opaque but as clean as glass, and such ice covered the floor entirely. Gio couldn't even gauge its depth.

It was slightly smooth, had a soft blue glow, and occasionally, light patterns sparkled from within. These lights would shine like fireflies for a few seconds before disappearing, making Gio curious about their identity.

“Are they some kind of inhabitants similar to forest butterflies?”

“Coo?”

“Or they might just be glowing moss or bacteria.”

They didn't move. They merely shone briefly and then vanished.

They resembled faint starlight.

It was a dreamy scene.

“The colour is also similar to glaciers.”

It didn't smell strongly of the ocean, but the transparent blue ice floor, with unknown depth, reminded Gio of glaciers. Though he had never actually seen the glaciers on Earth, he imagined this might be what they looked like.

Gio lifted his head to take in the view of the entire ice storage.

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

He was curious every time he saw it.

“This ice storage is located far down from the first floor of the cabin. So, perhaps there was groundwater beneath the cabin.”

Then that would create a contradiction.

“Right, it doesn't make sense for groundwater beneath such a forest with a mild climate to be frozen solid like this.”

That is what made it all the more mysterious.

“Nice.”

It was interesting.

“It feels just like a fairy tale….”

He liked it.

Gio moved his feet with his usual expressionless, blunt face.

Honey, having already adapted to his body that no longer spread out like before, flew around the large, cave-like ice storage with a happy cry. It was like a scene straight out of a movie.

As Gio walked for quite a while through the cave made of ice, he was able to find what he had been looking for.

“Yes, right. It was here.”

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

“This seems good too.”

“Coo?”

“It's just like a cave.”

Though it was absurd, the ice storage also looked like a limestone cave made of ice.

It was uncertain whether the water was flowing from somewhere, had melted, or if there were even underground water veins like those of a tree. In various places in the ice storage, water was dripping, and perhaps due to the low temperature, it would sometimes form lines or create pillars like this.

“Typically, limestone caves are like this. Water containing high amounts of lime drips down, slowly building pillars on the cave floor, with water droplets splashing here and there, creating coral-like protrusions, or….”

“Here. They will remain pearl-like like this.”

These are actually called cave pearls.

“Of course, these aren't cave pearls but should be called ice pearls….”

Doesn't this make it feel like a real cave? A magnificent formwork created by nature.

Ice Pearl

A pearl in the form of ice that naturally occurred in the ice storage beneath Gio's cabin. A transparent pearl with a faint, mother-of-pearl-like lustre, and is edible. Melts at high temperatures like actual ice, with no scent or taste.

Refinement Method: when melted and consumed, it shows great effectiveness in stabilizing mental disorders such as depression and mania.

“Let’s take this.”

Regardless of its effects, it supposedly tastes like actual ice, doesn't it?

“Cutting and taking that huge ice bamboo shoot would be a hassle.”

“Coocoo.”

The ice bird Honey flew and swallowed one of the round ice pearls. Gio couldn't help but admire its swift action.

“Are you eating it? Like a pig?”

“Cooooooooo!!”

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

Having spent most of his life growing up under his grandmother's care, Gio shared some of her tastes, one of which was not being able to leave skinny people alone.

In that sense, it was actually a happy thing if Honey, who could be called his child, became plump.

“Kids should eat a lot and grow up quickly.”

Turn into a pig, zap.

“Then let's go up now.”

“Coococoo….”

“I actually quite like it, pig.”

“Cooooooo!!!”

“Kids are supposed to be chubby to grow up well later.”

Soothing Honey, Gio came up from the ice storage and headed straight to the kitchen.

A good scent was already emanating from the fruit syrup he had taken out from the cupboard in advance, and he was already looking forward to how delicious it would be.

He took out a clean glass and scooped two spoons of the fruit syrup into it.

“It really smells nice.”

The more the goby fruit was dried, the stronger its scent became, but even without drying, going through a kind of ripening process seemed to also further amplify its aroma.

The goby fruit, moistly soaked in sugar and infused with its aroma, produced a uniquely refreshing sweet scent.

“Even the drought jar seems to have a citrus aroma, maybe because it is a fruit within the citrus family….”

Should he say it has the bitter and sour scent unique to lemon peels?

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The fruit syrup in the glass itself had artistic value.

Having absorbed the sugar entirely and generously released its juice, the fruit syrup shone with a glossy sheen.

The pulp of the goby fruit had turned into a soft, jelly-like form, and the drought jar, which had its thin membranes peeled off one by one, hardened slightly and spread out enough for its grains to be visible.

“Now, adding the ice pearls here….”

“Coocoocook.”

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

“Coo?”

“I won’t refuse.”

Before he knew it, Honey, who had turned back into water, was about to perform the bizarre act of vomiting up the ice pearl he had just swallowed, but was stopped by his father’s authority.  It wasn’t like it was penguin milk or anything, so he didn’t expect it to go that far.

“Now, gently stir it and….”

Clink, clink.

The glass and ice pearls made a clear sound as they collided.

“—The fruit tea is complete.”

“Coook.”

“Are you a chicken?”

“Cooo.”

“I can't tell what you are.”

The finished fruit tea was so beautiful that he wanted to paint it. The scarlet tea shining through the glass was very transparent despite its deep colour.

Whether it was due to the effect of the ice pearls, the sparkling blue light he had seen in the storage kept shining and disappearing like shooting stars, and in between, pieces of full-moon and crescent-shaped pulp could be seen.

Taking a sip as it was….

He felt a heavenly flavour.

“…Delicious.”

It was a flavour and savoury taste that he had never tasted before.

The scarlet tea water was smooth and cool, with a sweetness that felt too strong initially, but a gentle bitterness followed soon to politely settle it down.

The intense sourness of the drought jar, when mixed with the goby fruit and sugar, felt like the cute whining of a child.

'I like the texture of the pulp too.'

The goby fruit, stripped of all its juice by the sugar, felt like jelly. It was similar to konjac jelly in a way, but much more soft and pliable.

It had a soft yet strangely elastic texture, like a grape with all its skin peeled off.

The drought jar had a popping flavour, just like the pulp of grapefruit or orange. It seemed like it had lost its juice to the sugar, similar to the goby fruit, but it felt slightly more firm.

However, it wasn’t an unpleasant hardness. The grains that spread gently in the mouth delivered a pleasant texture.

'The taste and aroma are all mixed together, making it hard to distinguish, but …'

The tea liquid, which shows a flavour like soup, is by no means one-dimensional. The fruit pieces add pleasure to the texture that could otherwise be monotonous.  And there is a strange transformation that softly melts on the tongue.

That small change probably came from the lights trapped in the ice pearls.

“…Popping candy?”

It wasn't particularly bursting or popping like fireworks, but the blue light dots scattered between the tea liquid added a subtle savoury flavour. There was a tongue-pleasing sensation that couldn’t be described as simply sweet or salty.

It was a fruit tea that made one’s mouth water for no reason.

“Cooooo?”

“It's perfect for a gift.”

Thinking it was plenty, he thought of packing up a little.

“I should give it to Mr. Yoo Sung-woon.”

The desire to share one's own cooking is a grandmother’s instinct.

And having grown up up hearing from his life mentor, his grandmother, to 'live generously,' Gio wanted to fatten up Yoo Sung-woon.