Subjugation Report
“Vio, you alright…? Yeah, looks like it. Now then, let’s get these broken down.”
Just as I sheathed my dagger back into my sword belt, Dad came over to check on me. Two of them were already headless, and one still had its head attached.
First, I cut off the head of the remaining one and hung it up using vine magic.
“If you’re takin’ the meat back as materials, best to drain the blood as much as you can. If you’re stayin’ in the forest all day, sometimes you’ll be eatin’ what you hunt for lunch, after all.
For wolf-types you ain’t usin’ for meat, just grab the pelt and the mana stone.”
As he spoke, he showed me a demonstration with his butchering knife.
Whenever the butcher had dismantling jobs, I made a point of taking them to practice.
Big Pig meat was popular at the food stalls, but those things were about the size of a large motorbike, and honestly looked more like wild boars than pigs, pretty ferocious faces.
There are actual boars too, but I think the only difference is whether they have tusks or not.
Compared to a Big Pig, a Horned Rabbit is just a little bigger than both of Dad’s hands together. Pretty small… Well, it’s still more than twice the size of any rabbit I’d seen in Japan, so maybe it’s actually big?
Since the heads were already cut off, I sliced off the ends of the limbs at the joints, then cut from the belly down to the rear and removed the organs. They were still warm, so there wasn’t much smell yet, but organs rot quickly, so if you’re using the meat, you need to remove them first.
“You’ve gotten pretty good at this.”
“Yeah, the butcher trained me well.”
All that getting covered in blood paid off.
After skinning them, I used [Clean] on the three pelts to remove dirt and blood.
With stronger monsters, you sometimes remove excess mana from the meat, but for monsters at this level, the residual mana won’t cause mana sickness, so I just cleaned off the dirt and blood and stored everything in the Magic Bag.
This meat is going on our dinner table, so I’m not worried about freshness.
When I checked the removed organs, I heard a clink around the heart. I reached in and pulled it out, a tiny mana stone, about the size of my pinky nail (not even 0.5 cm).
Like a diamond in an engagement ring? I don’t really understand jewelry in this world, but the mana stones in my hair ornament and glasses are a bit bigger. I wonder if there’s any demand for ones this small.
“Dad, can you sell mana stones this size?”
"Well, they'd be considered nothin' but scrap mana stones, so they might not bring in much coin."
“Then can I keep them for myself?”
If I collect matching colors and sizes, I might be able to use them as accessories, or maybe for experiments when making magic tools.
Dad already knew I’d been collecting things that could basically be called junk, so he just laughed and gave permission.
“Alrighty then, let’s burn the rest.”
“Ah! I’ll do it!”
I used [Earth Hole] to open a pit in the ground and tossed in the organs and the cut-off limb ends.
Apparently, the usual method is to light it with the utility spell [Burn], but then you have to deal with the fire afterward.
Instead, I used the [Fire] spell Professor Doua taught me to incinerate everything in the pit at once. Whoosh! A blue flame flared up, and in an instant, only black soot remained.
“The first time I saw that, it sure surprised me, but it’s mighty handy for burnin’ remains after field dressin’. Bein’ able to move right away is the safest thing, after all.”
When I first showed it to him, he was surprised by the non-red flames and the effect, but once I explained the reasoning, he understood.
It seems to take a bit more mana than normal Fire, but now Dad can use it too.
Once I filled the hole back in, the soot mixed into the soil and disappeared.
If you leave organs or meat behind, it attracts other monsters, so burning them is mandatory.
At roadside rest areas, there are designated spots for this, and after using them, you have to clean them with [Clean].
In places where non-adventurers might come, that kind of etiquette is important.
The broken horns probably won’t fetch a price, but they still count toward the subjugation total, so I’ll take them back.
In total, I defeated nine Horned Rabbits:
Water suffocation (1), dagger (2), Wood Lance (1), Fireball (3), Wind Cutter (1), Water Cutter (1).
The reason there are more Fireball kills is because the first one got completely burned up, no meat or hide left at all.
The second time, I made the fireball smaller, but the pelt still got ruined. So the third time, I shrank it down to about BB size, but compressed it tightly to softball-level density, which made it stronger and the fastest attack out of the three.
The fireball pierced through the back of its head, slightly melting the base of the horn, but it killed the target cleanly without damaging the pelt much.
With Wood Lance, the branch skewered it, tearing the pelt badly and even shattering the mana stone.
As for the cutter spells, both worked well for decapitation, and I couldn’t really tell the difference between water and wind.
Dad said that’s probably because Horned Rabbits are soft targets, so I plan to test which works best on what monsters going forward.
So, this time I had six usable pelts. The mana stones are small, so I’m keeping them. The one from the Wood Lance kill was still fine for meat, so I processed it and stored it in the Magic Bag. We’ll use it for stew.
When I turned them in, they praised how clean the pelts were, but since I messed up three of them, it’s hard to feel completely happy about it. Still, I’ll report it to Macole at the butcher’s.
“Alright, for Horned Rabbit subjugation, that’s eight confirmed kills for 80 lari, six horns for 120 lari, and six pelts for 300 lari. Total comes to 500 lari.
That’s impressive for your first hunt! You’ve got a bright future, Vio.”
Taki, who handled the appraisal, praised me.
For Horned Rabbits, as long as the kill is confirmed, it’s 10 lari each. Clean horns go for 20, with the price dropping depending on damage. The half-broken one and the slightly melted one are in my Magic Bag for my collection.
Pelts go for 20 to 50 lari each, and since the ones I submitted were undamaged, they got 50 each. Meat sells for 20 to 30 per rabbit, but since we’re eating it at home, I didn’t sell any.
“Thank you, Mr. Taki. I want to deposit all the money I earn from subjugation into my guild card from now on.”
“Oh? That’s not a bad idea. Alright then, can I see your guild tag?”
Up to Bronze rank, I’d been receiving money directly each time.
That money is saved in the Big Turtle piggy bank at home. I’ll still join the children’s herb gathering sometimes, and I’ll keep saving that money in the piggy bank, but Dad told me to store subjugation earnings in my guild card for future adventurer activities.
I took out the bronze-colored tag I’d just received recently and handed it to Taki.
The smooth bronze tag only has my name engraved on it.
But apparently it has various complex functions and can be used like a bank card. I guess the guild card is like a bankbook, and the tag is like an ATM card.
Once the process was done, I got the tag back and hung it around my neck again. It really made me feel like a proper adventurer, and my excitement went up.
“Oh, right. Alke, Taddy reserved the training grounds for Water Day afternoon.”
"Ah, gotcha. Vio, looks like you can train with Taddy again the day after tomorrow. What about tomorrow? If you go too many days in a row, you'll be feelin' it somethin' fierce. How 'bout we do some gatherin' instead?"
Kathe said last Wind Day that she was going to challenge a dungeon.
It’s her first dungeon, so probably a beginner one, but there’s travel time too. So she must’ve come back today.
Rest tomorrow, train the day after, then back to the dungeon?
That family really is pretty hardcore.
“I think I’ll be fine if I sleep well today. I want to go subjugating again tomorrow!”
Today I focused only on Horned Rabbits, but deeper in, I sensed some slightly bigger monsters.
Probably wolves. Dad said wolves should be fine too, so I want to try hunting them tomorrow.
He said it’s okay as long as I’m not too sore in the morning, so on the way home we bought ingredients for stew.
Potatoes, onions, carrots, milk, the names are slightly different, but they look about the same, so it’s easy to shop.
The stove is a bit high, so Dad handles the cooking, but lately I’ve been helping with prep like cutting vegetables. He’s a great cook, so it’s not like he needs my help, but I want to do what I can.
We used the two rabbits, the one with a hole through it from Wood Lance and the one with singed fur from Fireball. The fur was burned, but the meat was fine, still, it kind of feels like it’s already been cooked a bit, so better to use it sooner rather than later.
“Yeah, fresh meat sure is tender.”
Dad praised it as we ate the stew.
Maybe it tasted better because it was the first meat I hunted myself, but I know that’s just emotional bias.
Still… I want to remember this feeling.
What do you think about this chapter?
