NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39: Ash and Crimson
After hearing from Rena that the trade gathering would happen in two days, Lukas got busy. The full moon was also in two days so he was slightly excited and anxious.
There were a few things that were of high value and these were preserved meat, salt, metals, weapons, decorative items like stone statues, unique gems and cloth.
Lukas knew that he had no access to most of these things except for meat and salt but he only had a limited amount of salt.
'Using salt to preserve meat is a must but… ugh. I don't have too much.' he contemplated as he stared at the dark ceiling, 'These guys probably just directly cook their meat and eat it without any salt…'
A few seconds later he chuckled, 'Of course they have salt here. There should be atleast one tribe that managed to learn how to turn the sea water into salt. As long as they have enough space, the sun can do the work.'
He considered making smoked jerky without any salt but changed his mind quickly. Only after a few minutes of intense thinking, did he finally sit up.
"PEMMICAN!!" he yelled and immediately got to work. Using automatic processing, he separated just the meat from the rest of the animal. Then, he got all the moisture removed before getting all the animal fat in one side.
With the basic preparations done, he walked out and got the people around him to build multiple stoves and lit up the wood between the stones. Pots were placed on the fire before Lukas filled a half of each pot with animal fat.
As it melted, he separated all the solids before repeating the whole process multiple times. The solids went on a clean large leaf while the liquid fat went into a large pot. This continued until Lukas had processed 10 whole cows in his inventory to get enough fat.
As for the dehydrated meat, all of it went into the hot liquid fat and slowly began to absorb all the oil like a sponge. It was slow, but two hours later it looked like thick clay instead.
Once it had reached such a consistency, Lukas took brought the pots to his hut and poured the mixture on a large leaf that he had taken out of his inventory. It was precisely a Red Giant Tree's leaf.
A single leaf was one meter wide and two meters in length. He used the processed rectangular wood planks and sticks that were long but looked more like squared from the top and bottom.
He used these to build layers upon layers as he placed a leaf on each plank before pouring the fatty meat mixture on it. One by one, many huts had been filled with his meat mixture and this also included his own hut.
By the time he was done, not a single hut had free space.
He looked around at the people who were looking at him with absolute respect and sighed inwardly, 'They'll sleep outside but me and Nina will probably have some problems. Well, we can adjust for a day or two…'
And that was exactly what he and his sister did.
The next day, the meat was ready. As he placed a rectangular block on the floor to see it's state, he could tell that it was done.
'It worked…' he thought with a satisfied smile as he used rabbit horns to make a long curved blade with perpendicular handles on both ends. It was similar to a version of a pizza cutter back on Earth.
Using it, he cut the wide piece into smaller blocks that resembled soaps. After showing the people around him how to cut, he made a few more blades and got them to do the work as he walked out with a block of pemmican.
With a excited and curious look, he checked it's information.
[Pemmican]
Made with E+ grade beef and beef tallow, it's a block of meat that's filled with energy. It might not keep one full, but it will keep them alive. It will not be spoiled for months as long as it is stored in a dry and cold place.
Effects: +10 Vitality, Strength, Durability, Endurance
Seeing the block of pure stats, he couldn't help but see a future where he would have his neck sliced off in the middle of the night.
With a sigh, he shook his head.
"I'm not trading this… ugh, I hate the fact that I completely forgot about my powers." he muttered and clicked his tongue before taking a bite.
It wasn't a pleasant texture, but it was edible food at the end of the day. One could say that it tasted alright. As he took another bite, he realised that he could just directly sell the animals.
'All this hardwork… only to end up selling the animals directly. Sometimes I wish I was a bit smarter. Or should I say, have better memory…. oh well.'
After thinking for a bit, Lukas decided to sell a few sheep if he found something he liked.
"Rena, get a group and make them store these blocks in leaves. Wrap them up and stack them in one of the huts. We can build more later." he said as he snapped his fingers and brought out a huge stack of large leaves.
Leaving the village chief to her work, he made himself some roast rabbit and shared it with his sister. Once he finished his food, he checked his stats.
[Stats]
Strength: 9 (+14)
Speed: 14 (+23)
Endurance: 9
Durability: 9
Vitality: 9
Dexterity: 14 (+21)
Perception: 9
Mana: 28
'I need something that will help with increasing stats other than dexterity and speed.' he thought as he looked at his screen, 'Hey system, do you know what kind of stats I'd get if I ate those two snakes?'
He didn't really wish to eat them, but if there really was no other way, then he knew that he would do it.
[Yes. Would you like to know what stats the Ash Viper and the Crimson Viper provide?]