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Chapter 61: Taste of Victory

Consistently is a festival for the Balak, yet on a day like today, when meat is copious, it's curiously clear.

At the point when the plants are cut, clear water spills out and pools in a huge stone pot.

Into the bubbling water were tossed lobsters, freshwater crabs, zaras, turtles, carp, catfish, venison, hare, squirrel, snake meat, caterpillars, creepy crawlies, insects, frogs, reptiles, water grass, berries, mushrooms, and tree roots.

An enormous stone pot rose in the focal point of the town.

Every one of the small game that Balak's hunters have gathered is tossed into it, stewing into a rich stock.

Everybody in the town gets a decent amount of the stock.

Larger prey, like deer and hog, were roasted separately around the stone fire.

Everybody would gather around these huge hunks of meat, singing and dancing happily.

Amidst all the clamor and excitement, it was an immense hunk of meat in the focal point of the town, much bigger than the stone oven, that grabbed everyone's attention the most.

An oxbear, a giant, six-legged monster weighing a ton.

Without the bones and fur, the pure meat weighs more than 800 kilograms.

This giant hunk of meat was the star of today's hunt.

Normally, the hunter who captures the oxbear earns the admiration, respect, and appreciation of all the residents.

That would be Aiyen and Vikir.

"How does it feel to be a legend, slave?"

Vikir didn't say much in response to Aiyen's question.

She smiled and congratulated Vikir.

"An oxbear is a really good prey. They're strong and wild, yet they're intelligent, unlike pigs, whose eyes are dull, whose movements are slow and simple, and who are so frightened they defecate and scream when they run."

Aiyen yelled as loudly as possible, hoping someone would hear him.

Then, he heard grunting from beyond the bonfire where the meat was cooking.

It was Ahun, who had killed a fairly large hog.

"... ... Blessed excrement. I don't know how a dying animal could have pulled this off. He must have gotten incredibly lucky."

Ahun spat once on the ground and frowned at Vikir.

Then Ahun got his knife and cut the oxbear's meat into small pieces.

The guts and blood are perishable, so he immediately puts them in a pot of water to boil, and the flesh is cut into small pieces for fair distribution.

Ahun then handed the meat to the locals lined up, and then to Vikir, who stood behind him.

...?

Vikir's expression flared slightly as he accepted the meat.

The size and weight of the pieces of meat given to Vikir were surpassed by those given to the others.

Indeed, even less than what the thin elderly men and crying children had received.

Vikir raised his head to protest.

"What's the matter?"

"...?"

Then, Ahun looked up, annoyed. A puzzled look on his face.

Rather irritated, he replied.

"What are you complaining about, you slave?"

"Why is my meat so small?"

"What? No wonder. Because your honor is so high!"

Ahun roared.

Vikir gave him a confused look, and Aiyen, beside him, broke out into a wide smile.

"It's a Balak custom. The person who contributes the most to the hunt takes the least. Therefore, he gets a respectable amount equivalent to the lesser meat. If you can trade honor for meat, you have a great deal."

Ahun nodded in understanding.

"Damn. Part of me wants to give you a lot of meat, too! But, you need to show some respect."

Despite his protest, he really wants to give Vikir a lot of meat.

Indeed, the less meat he gets, the more honorable he is.

Vikir concluded that meat was better than useless honor, but for now, he could nod.

'It doesn't quite matter.

However scarce the meat was, there was enough food to fill his stomach if he so desired.

The real harvest of this hunt was not meat, in fact.

<Voracious Fly 'Beelzebub'>/Drill

-1 slot: Consume - Cerberus (A+)

Slot - 2: Sacral Spine - Oxbear (A)

Slot - 3: Tight Throat - Diabolical Buffalo(A)

New abilities acquired from catching Oxbear.

One of the three spheres of the enchanted sword Lucifer is saturated with the tough soul of the male Oxbear you killed the previous evening.

The Hellhound's spirit is gone, and the soul of the stronger, higher-ranked Oxbear is Vikir's new slave.

The skill of Sacral Spine was straightforward and powerful.

By pausing your breathing, you could increase your weight by almost 1,000 pounds (600 kilograms) in that time.

It's a highly versatile skill for close combat.

Not only that, but the luck from killing the Oxbear was imbued into his body, restoring a significant amount of health to his entire body.

Skills and experience.

Vikir was mentally working out the outcomes of this hunt.

"Hey now, Ahun. That's really a kill, don't you think?"

Aiyen interrupted Vikir's reverie.

She had brought several kilograms of foreleg meat, a jar of blood, and the heart, liver, and gallbladder that were Vikir's share of the bounty, reserved for the best hunters.

Aiyen lifted the meat and waved it before Vikir's eyes.

Squinting her eyes, she spoke with a concerned air.

"Just as important as the hunt is the preparation and preservation of the kill."

Aiyen intended to belittle the processing in order to stick close to Vikir and interfere.

However, there was one thing she didn't know.

Vikir had butchered countless evil corpses during the Time of Obliteration, and his skill to remove their entrails, flesh, bones, and skins to preserve and cook them was almost miraculous.

Laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh... ...

Vikir soaked the hides in a wide bamboo tank and scraped away the fat beneath them with a sharp stone knife.

The hides, which came off intact, were reserved for tanning.

When dry, the hides were as hard as boards, but softened after a few strokes with oil squeezed from the system.

The oxbear's flesh, guts, and blood were boiled in a pot, and the oils that floated to the top were skimmed off and used to light the lamps.

The bones, claws, and teeth were used to make weapons and ornaments.

Meat overall was cooked in various ways.

Some cuts were made into jerky, some were boiled into soup, some were boiled into stew, some were lightly poached, some were smoked over charcoal, and some were hung to dry in nodal... ... .

Vikir was particularly good at smoking large pieces of meat whole.

Some of the people who watched Vikir work on the meat were amazed and passed on their meat to him.

Among them was Aiyen, who had come to learn how to handle the meat.

Vikir tied the large chunks of meat

to salted rope and hung them from a branch.

He then dug a pit and let the meat hang in the center of the pit, and at the bottom of the pit he piled pine needles and oak and apple wood and got a fire going.

When the fire was roaring, Vikir gathered branches, leaves, and mud to seal the opening of the pit.

Eventually, he broke the mud cover, which had hardened under the fire, and pulled the rope to reveal a caramelized, smoky piece of meat.

An entire oxbear hind leg was roasted.

The Balak people raved about the deliciously smoked hind leg barbecue.

Aiyen's eyes widened in awe as he cut into the meat.

"What on earth can't you ever do?"

Not really unusual, given the age of the spirit, but certainly amazing, considering that the body was something like fifteen years old.

Vikir watched the younger children eagerly pick at the chunks of meat, blowing on them.

The innocence of small children is something that puts a smile on one's face, regardless of age.

Vikir watched as people ate the meat he had cooked.

There was a slight peculiarity in the way people of Balak shared their meat.

Those with bad eyes ate the eyes of an oxbear.

Those with bad lungs ate the lungs of the oxbear.

Those with bad legs ate oxblood legs.

Those with bad pancreas ate the pancreas of the oxberry.

The tribesmen seemed to believe that they could cure their ailments by eating the parts of their prey.

"Weird superstition."

Vikir thought to himself.

"Hey, slave."

Vikir hears a voice calling to him from the side.

Aiyen, who had slipped away after the evisceration had begun, was standing behind him upon his return.

Cheeks burning, a large bowl of coconut in his hands.

The steaming bowl was filled with a hot, foaming broth of oil.

Inside was a large piece of meat, elongated and thick, making it difficult to determine what it was.

"Organ?

I asked, but I couldn't tell exactly since it was floating in a haze of oil.

Aiyen grunted and said.

"I've taken what the shaman wants fully backed up by a tracker, and this is for you to eat, definitely!"

"I have proactively gotten a piece of meat, a jar of blood, and some guts."

"No, no, no, this is for you to eat!"

Aiyen insisted on handing Hansako Vikir the meat soup.

Her logic was resolute.

"If your eyes are bad, eat the eyes of your prey; if your heart is bad, eat the heart of your prey; if your hands or feet are bad, eat the forelegs and hind legs of your prey!"

"Which part of the oxbear is this?"

When Vikir inquired about the identity of the long, thick chunks of meat in the broth, Aiyen only coughed and offered no clear answer.

"Hmph, since you've been sleeping around bare, you'll need this, eat some... ... !"

Aiyen mumbled the last part and swallowed it down.

Reaction erupted around him nonetheless.

"Woooo-Commander, you're already taking what's yours(?)!"

"Who gives that to a slave for his benefit!"

"Ho, the time of long nights is upon us."

"That's too brazen! It's obvious what he's doing!"

The girls of the town booed Aiyen as one.

"Calm down, girls! If you're unhappy, you can go out with your rope and catch him!"

Aiyen raises her fist, her eyes shining, and the teasing subsides.

"...."

Vikir frowned, not quite sure what to make of that.

Well, I'll take what I can get.

Vikir swallowed down the hot broth.

He chewed and swallowed every single piece of the coarse meat that had sunk into his stomach as Aiyen continued to prod him.

"This is so tough."

The actual texture was similar to the haggis she was accustomed to eating in Baskerville, but it was much more savory and chewy than that.

...Gulp!

Vikir's throat sputtered loudly once.

Only then did Aiyen's demeanor soften.

"I see. Now you'll give me a reason."

Yet again Vikir frowned slightly.

"I think I've proactively given you too much hunting.

He couldn't quite figure out what more she wanted here.

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