NOVEL NEXT Chapter 97: Butchering Classes With Father
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After I took a bath and put on some new clothes, I quickly enjoyed a nice breakfast with my parents. Today morning, there was apple pie, my favorite. In fact, the pie was made out of Eden Apples, which were also my favorites. These apples were always the best and tastiest, so they go with everything…
After that, it was finally time for things to get real. With that, we moved outside and looked at the corpse of the creature in front of us. I had never butchered an animal before, so it would be an interesting experience to finally try it out for myself…
"Now, let’s butcher this… I will do it for you, Sylphy. Your mother is busy preparing things for departure. After all, we’re going to Aquarina’s town at around 2 PM, so we have to hurry up," father said.
"C-Can I help out? I want to learn how to properly butcher big beasts." I requested.
I do remember hunting all by myself in my previous life. I used to hunt rabbits or big cats and wolves, which we ate together. In fact, butchering wild animals to eat was an essential thing we learned with our teacher. However, compared to my previous world, this world’s monsters were obviously more complicated to butcher and had many things one had to be careful of to not ruin, especially because high-tiered monsters were valuable, like their weight in gold, pretty much. Every single thing in their bodies had a good use.
The internal organs could be used to make medicine of various types, while the meat was an exquisite delicacy. The bones, scales, horns, claws, and fangs were all excellent materials for the forging of equipment, and then, there was the most precious reward inside of these monsters, the Magic Crystal.
Very so often it was encouraged to kill monsters in ways that wouldn’t damage their bodies too much. My father told me that a good hunter knew how to defeat the monster they’re hunting without breaking it apart into pieces barbarically. The ideal way to defeat a monster with the goal of profit was by hitting a weak spot without damaging too much of the other body parts.
Although it’s well known that one could severely weaken monsters when their Magic Crystal was hit, even instantly killing them that way, the Magic Crystal was very important and where one could get most of the value from one’s prey. Also, it’s said that if it’s broken while the monster is still alive, a lot of mana inside it would be lost and would lower in quality because of that. The best and ideal way was to kill a monster without destroying the Magic Crystal in the process, which of course, increases the difficulty of the hunt several times.
"I see! So, my daughter finally wants to butcher her own monster, eh? Fine! You’ve earned it. I will guide you through it and we can do it together… are you ready for the blood and all the disgusting things inside, though?" he asked.
"Y-Yeah! I’m ready! I don’t mind. I’m a big girl now! I will be 5 in a few days," I replied.
My father smiled warmly as he petted my head and kissed my forehead in response.
"Uwah… you’ve grown so much already, my precious little princess! F-Fine… I’ll make sure that you learn a lot of stuff!" he said while nodding confidently and giving me a thumbs up. My father was an amazingly reliable man.
"Alright!" I said in response.
With that, my father quickly guided me through the butchering proces. We began by quickly going around the beast first, inspecting it. My father was an expert in hunting monsters, to the point he made a fortune by slaying mythical beasts in the past. He knew how to properly butcher and hunt them down for the best results, as well as the most profit.
"I’ve got to admit, you’ve done a good job, my daughter. You’ve slain the creature in a way that the rest of the body wasn’t damaged. You simply cut through the neck behind and into the bone, easily and instantly killing it. Although the neck is damaged, there’s no such thing as a perfect kill. On the other hand, the rest of the body is almost perfectly preserved! There are some burn slashes on the face and the back, but aside from that, most of the scales are still usable… amazing work! I’ll give this one a ten out of ten!" my father told me.
Being praised by my father inspired me. At this moment, I felt like my eyes were glistening with joy.
"R-Really?" I asked.
"Indeed! Good job, my dear Sylphy!" said my father in response, carrying me in his arms again as he kissed my cheeks.
"So cute and deadly! You’re the perfect daughter. Your father is amazingly proud of you! I bet that old man of a grandfather wouldn’t believe that a girl would be this amazing!" he said.
"Hehe… okay daddy, get me down… ugh…"
Sadly, my father sometimes goes a bit too far and raises me too high, making me feel a bit dizzy.
"O-Oh, right. Sorry…"
He quickly moved me down and petted me.
"Now! Let’s begin."
My father quickly gave me a sharp knife as he took one himself from his dimensional leather bag. Then, he began the process by opening the stomach of the creature.
"From here, we’ll drain all the blood. You have to make sure not to damage the scales too much, so you have to make a clean cut… here. You stop only when you feel the bone," father said.
He showed me as he put my knife into the stomach of the lizard. Then, he let me slowly pierce through, eventually reaching the ribs.
"Now, gently yet strongly, slash down and open the stomach," he said.
"O-Okay!"
SLASH!
I slowly cut down the corpse’s stomach, opening it up. Soon after, a lot of the corpse’s innards flowed out grotesquely… ugh, I have to get used to this. Then again, it’s not like it’s hard. I just have to imagine they’re bigger rabbits! With scales… fangs… and other weird quirks. Ew.
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