Level 1 Fallen

With careful precision, I began to cut up from the stomach of the rabbit, draining its blood into a provided bucket, before working my way through the rest of the carcass. Since this creature wasn't specifically mentioned in the book, I didn't have the system's automatic guidance on where to cut, and could only rely on my own judgment.

Slowly, meticulously, I dismantled the rabbit, preserving as much of the base material as I could. The entire process took nearly fifteen minutes, and I needed to regularly use my wand to cast Clean on the body, just to make sure the blood didn't stain the skin, or get in the way of me seeing my cuts.

When I was done, I cast one final Clean on myself, and then sat back, waiting for the dungeon to assess my work. A blue light shone down from above, scanning the meat, the skin, bones, and even the blood and organs before providing me with another prompt.

Only requiring two stars to pass? They must be pretty generous. Typically, two stars with anything meant that it was just barely acceptable, with one star being complete trash. Six stars… that should mean that I did pretty good for a beginner. Though, I might have gotten bonus points for not using their tools, aside from the bucket.

Looking at the list of rewards, I could only assume that every star I passed the trial with would give me one extra reward option. Naturally, the second option was immediately eliminated. If I wanted a skill kit, I'd choose the higher quality one. And naturally, I had no need for the remains, or for the coins.

Ultimately, it came down to the skill book or the medium-grade kit. I was somewhat curious what the medium-grade kit would contain, but I could create any tools I wanted with either Shadow Arsenal or Martial Intent-X. The only possible benefit it could give me would be vials to store important components, but I could easily get those later.

While I would likely get the skill naturally in just two or three more trials, it was more important for me to get it now, when there were no other challengers in the trial with me. It would be unfortunate if anyone caught me failing my enchantments, and seeing the backlash of that failure.

Thus, I chose the skill book, and it appeared in my hand a moment later. Without any hesitation, I immediately learned the skill. Then, I disabled the Myriad Strikes-X skill, wiping the enchantments that had been in place on it, and took a deep breath. Like Diane suggested, I wanted to combine Animate Shadow with Butchery, and alter it to summon multiple shadows. In exchange, I was sacrificing their combat potential, willingly foregoing their ability to use any active skills other than Duke of All Trades-X, Shadow Arsenal-X, and Martial Intent-X.

With those restrictions, it should make it easier for the enchantment to take hold. I focused on my arms, feeling the skills take shape and settle in, and waited for the enchantment to finish before allowing my focus to shift.

Only when I was certain that the enchantment held did I allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief. I stood, moving towards the next door. Inside was another carcass, this one of a jackal. Once again, there were no other challengers participating alongside me.

Seeing no better chance to start, I activated my new enchantment, and five shadows rose up around me. Each of them held either a cleaver or a scalpel, and wore a black apron. "Dismantle the jackal as cleanly as possible." I ordered, and two of the five stepped forward.

There were no tools provided this time, so I could only assume that challengers were expected to choose the toolkits in the first level if they didn't have their own. I watched as the two shadows studied the corpse for nearly a minute before beginning their work.

According to the patch notes, direct commands qualified as enough contribution to gain skill experience when commanding clones. Although the contribution would likely be quite low, it was enough for a test. Besides, if I really wanted to grind experience for this skill, I would go out into the desert and dismantle hundreds of monsters, rather than just one at a time in these challenges.

What I was here for was the knowledge that could be gained, as well as any special rewards. With that in mind, I closely analyzed the work of my shadows, shouting out an order if it looked like they were getting careless. At the same time, by studying their movements, I could increase my skill experience gained.

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With two shadows working on the corpse, it only took ten minutes after they started before they had finished. However, the final result was not as good as before, likely because I had no way to cleanly store the blood and entrails. Thus, my rating was dropped to four stars, allowing me a choice of three rewards.

The first reward, again, was the remains, so I directly ignored it. Second was still the low-grade skill kit, and the third was a book called Butcher's Encyclopedia, Volume 1. My assumption was that this was meant to replace the skill book offered in the previous trial, so I directly accepted it. I wasn't sure if this would raise my skill experience, or just give me more information that could be helpful with system guidance.

After choosing the book, it appeared in my hand again, thicker than the one I read at the start of the dungeon. I opened the book, and saw that it contained a large assortment of monsters, ranging from level one to ten, as well as their precise dismantling requirements. My eyes widened, quickly finding both the Jackal and the Desert Hare. Not only that, but there were monsters from other regions as well.

I can read the rest of the book later. I thought to myself, knowing that it would be best to focus on the monsters as they appeared, rather than devote myself to reading the entire thing at once. Especially since I should be getting similar books as later rewards.

With my shadows in tow, I made my way to the next level. Here, I finally ran into two other people, who were working in their own designated plots. One was a lizardfolk wearing thick, white gloves and a full butcher's attire, and the other was a bearfolk who seemed to be just learning the ropes, calling out to the lizardfolk for advice every now and then.

The monster to dismantle in this part of the trial was a Ruby Salamander, a level nine monster that I recalled seeing in the encyclopedia. With that in mind, I opened the book again, flipping through the pages to read the entry on this creature. There were a few special pieces to note when dismantling a Ruby Salamander, which was probably why these two had stayed on this trial long enough for me to catch up.

Depending on the age of the Ruby Salamander, there were between three and ten fire rubies spread throughout its body. One would always be on its forehead, but the locations of the others were harder to determine before opening its body. In addition, its blood was valuable as a material for fire-based enchantments, and it had a special gland to help it spit burning venom.

Once I was done reading, I noticed that the lizardfolk butcher had saw me, and nodded politely in my direction. I returned the greeting, ordering my shadows to get to work. Now that I had detailed instructions, I could see dotted lines on the corpse, where the shadows needed to cut to get the best results.

Thankfully, it seemed that the shadows could see the lines, too, as this disassembly went far more smoothly than the last. Though, again, I had no reliable way to preserve the blood, despite it being a valuable material.

"Woah, isn't that cheating?" The bearfolk asked when he saw my shadows dismantling the large lizard for me. However, the lizardfolk shook his head.

"All he's doing is relying on his other skills to increase his performance. If you have any skills to rely on, feel free to do so." The man said, causing the bearfolk to lower his head.

"Are you his teacher?" I asked the lizardfolk curiously, who nodded his head.

"I'm the town's butcher, and this is my apprentice. I already made it to the twenty-seventh trial myself, but I wanted to bring him through as a learning experience. I take it you're a traveler, player." He said, pointing a bloodied claw towards the glowing brand on my forehead.

"That's right. My friend and I just got into Ilsan today when we heard about this dungeon." The lizardfolk chuckled knowingly when I said that.

"And I assume your friend's a girl, right?" He asked, to which I blinked in surprise. "This profession isn't well liked by women. Digging through entrails, peeling away flesh… Not saying there aren't women that can handle it, but most prefer to keep their hands cleaner."

I chuckled awkwardly, scratching my cheek. If only you knew, Diane would be more than happy to do this work herself, if she thought there was a profit to be had. I'm just doing it because it's more efficient for me. She's probably elbow-deep in poisons right now…

"Something like that." I shook my head. "But, you said you made it to the twenty-seventh trial? Just how many are there?"

"If they're the same across different skills, there should be thirty." The lizardfolk replied, carefully draining the blood of his Ruby Salamander into a basin her produced from his inventory. "However, I failed at the twenty-seventh because I couldn't properly preserve the more sensitive materials. If I can increase my skill level, that shouldn't be a problem the next time I get there."

I looked at the lizardfolk in confusion. "Does the Butchery skill level increase the chance to harvest sensitive materials, or are there special effects involved?" I had thought that it would just give more precise guidance when cutting the corpse.

The lizardfolk smiled… I think. It was hard to tell with a lizard head. "I have the evolved skill, Dismantle. If I use it on a corpse, it will directly store the monster parts in my inventory, with the success rates and quality based on my skill level. However, it's not as accurate as if I do the work manually, and I get more experience with manual work."

I nodded my head, understanding the logic there. At the same time, I was quite happy to learn about the evolution of the Butchery skill. Once I had that, I wouldn't have to worry about leaving behind precious materials like the Ruby Salamander's blood.

"Out of curiosity, how does Dismantle store the materials? Does it store each part in different slots, or is the entire carcass stored in a single slot? I've got to worry about inventory management, so I want to plan ahead."

The lizardfolk nodded his head knowingly. "The carcass is stored in a single slot, similar to carrying a bag. However, corpses of the same species don't stack, so it's advised to separate any materials you want from each corpse into its own stackable slot, before discarding the rest."

That was good to know. With my limited inventory size, it would be a problem to try to store too many bodies at once. I thanked the man sincerely for his advice, just as my shadows were finishing up with the Ruby Salamander.