Bountiful Hunt

When Evan and the villagers saw Irelia and Mathew injured, they were all startled, but Simon calmed their fears by explaining what had happened.

Everyone was speechless as Simon recounted the valiant battle against the demonic beast, especially when he spoke about Mathew's last stand against the boar, and after finally finishing the story, he ordered that the ladies of the village take Irelia and Mathew to the prefecture, while the men gather all the ropes they could find and follow him to the forest.

Simon boldly led the group of villagers into the woods, and swiftly began dragging the carcasses of the boars one by one, leaving the big boar as the final one, as it would require everyone there.

When the villagers saw the big beast, they couldn't help but wonder how strong the three would have been to kill such a giant boar. Due to his size and weight, the boar took a long time to be hauled back to the village, arriving just as darkness fell.

"What should we do now?" Evan felt overwhelmed as field dressing the boars would take quite a while.

-" We can't let them stay like this, or all the meat will rot." Simon knew how to butcher the animals, but, doing it alone would take quite a while.

-" Call the villagers, and offer some meat in exchange for help." Mathew suddenly spoke, as he slowly limped in Simon's direction.

-" You should be resting..." Evan gave him a worried look and returned his attention to the boars. " What about the rest?"

-" All the proceeds from the demonic beast will be stored for us." Mathew had already a good plan in mind. " The meat from the others three boars will be stored and will be given to the villagers each month, the furs, tusks, and everything else will stay with the prefecture." Mathew knew that they would surely come in hand in the future.

Evan quickly went to work and gathered all men on the plaza again, they were all excited to help as getting meat was no easy task even for them, especially now that it was discovered that a demonic beast existed in the forest.

The first three boars were relatively easy to field dress, and it didn't take long to collect every piece of their meat and fur, however, the demonic boar was a different story, its body was a priceless treasure, and no villagers dared to touch it freely.

In the end, Mathew decided to call Irelia, who was resting from the injuries she had sustained during the battle, and asked her to assist them. From what she had told him, it looked like she was quite experienced in hunting so he hoped that she could guide the villagers.

-" Tsk! I can't believe that you guys started without me!" Irelia was furious to learn that the dead boars were already being disassembled, she missed hunting and was excited to finally get back into it. " Thank god you left the big one for me! I can't imagine the mess that they would make trying field dress such a monster."

-" You are injured, so you should be resting not worrying about something like this." Mathew sighed as he noticed how excited she was to disembowel the creature, which didn't fit her delicate and refined demeanor. " I only came looking for help due to the value of the boar."

-" Says you! Look at yourself! You are even more injured than me, and you didn't even rest for a bit," Irelia pouted as she jumped from the bed she was laying on and ran straight to the plaza, where all the boars were located.

Mathew followed just behind her, he felt quite interested in seeing how skillful Irelia was, and to his surprise, it wasn't only him that was interested in watching this, as many of the villagers also focused on her.

Most of them had only seen a demonic beast once or twice, so seeing such a beast being field dressed was quite an exciting event for them.

Irelia walked around the gigantic boar with a focused gaze, she quickly run her fingers through some parts of its body and took out a small dagger. " Help me turn this thing around." She quickly requested assistance because her injuries had rendered one of her arms immobile.

Some of the onlookers rushed to help Irelia turn the boar over and make it easier for her to get at its soft inner organs.

Irelia took a deep breath in preparation and quickly slashed the boar's belly open, the hide was considerably weaker now that the monster had died, and it could no longer coat his body in Qi.

-" Bring me some jars! The bigger the better!" Irelia shouted as she cut through the layer of fat under the boar's skin.

The onlookers moved once again scurrying off to fetch them from various locations around the village, and in a quick instant, the plaza was filled with various pots of all sizes.

Irelia continued to butcher the boar, eventually opening a path to its guts and beginning to bleed it out. Blood rushed out of the monster's body, quickly filling the jars.

Mathew approached one of the jars and dipped his finger into it, the mucous consistency made him gag and he quickly pulled his hand away. " Is this really that valuable?" Mathew couldn't wrap his head around how the blood of the demonic beast could be considered valuable.

-" Is a quite important reagent for alchemy and blacksmithing." Evan approached Mathew and looked down into the blood jar. " This beast was quite strong, maybe even in the seventh stage..." Evan gulped as he realized the significance of this jar.

-" How long can this even last?"Mathew wasn't sure what to do with this, contracting an alchemist to use this would cost too much money, so they could only store it or sell it.

-" Selling would be the best..." Evan thought about the situation with a serious face. " But if we used the cold chamber in Clifton's villa, some of the jars would last for around three months."

-" Getting some more funds would be quite a good thing." Mathew decided to not think about this for now and returned his attention to Irelia and the gigantic boar.

She had just finished getting the tusks of the boar and was now carefully separating the beast's hide, taking care not to damage any of it, this process took the longest as any mistake would lower the value of the leather.

She took a small pause after finally finishing the hide, and ordered the villagers to take all the finalized items to the storage. "Quite the bountiful hunt." She looked excitedly at one of the boar's tusks.

-" The quality of the tusks is very good." Simon approached her and held another one of the tusks. " They would make a fine weapon," Simon remembered that Mathew's spear had broken in the fight against the boar. " Hey? Why don't you take one of those to the province's capital? You need a new weapon after all."

Milton, who listened to the conversation, immediately jumped in and bowed to Mathew, " Please, let me have the honor of making your new weapon!" Milton's face was full of anxiety as he looked at the tusks. " My dream was always to make a magical treasure, and I'm already getting old, so I know that this may be my last chance."

Mathew froze in shock, he gave Simon a look, asking for help in this situation. " Isn't it quite risky to have someone without any experience handle those items?" The thought of losing one of the tusks in a failure didn't fare too well in Mathew's mind,

-" Please! Trust me!" Milton continued to bow down, his eyes shining with resolve. " This old man may never have such an opportunity again." He asked once again.

Mathew was about to give him the same answer, but, Milton's grandson joined his grandpa.

-" Please! Grant us this honor!" Ollie closed his eyes, he knew how much his grandpa desired this, so he felt it was his duty to do whatever he could to make it happen

Mathew looked from Ollie to Milton, he understood the importance of this moment for them. -" Fine... I will give you guys one chance." He wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but, losing one of the many tusks wouldn't be that big of a problem.

-" You won't regret this." Milton jolted up and grasped Mathew's hand. " I Won't disappoint you!" He was determined to create a good weapon and would work tirelessly to achieve this goal.

Evan looked at Mathew with an awkward face, he found that he was too easily swayed. -" Is this really fine?" He couldn't help but wonder.

-" Well... If he fails we will lose one of the tusks." Mathew smiled as he passed the ivory tusk to Milton. " But, if he succeeds we will have someone capable of making magical treasures in the village." Mathew had convinced himself that this was a good opportunity, not only for Milton but, for every one of them. "Don't you think it's a good bet? You guys may even end up with a new weapon too." Mathew winked at Evan and the rest trying to coax them of his decision.