Chapter 289: Chapter 289. Smoking some meat
{EXP Gained: 880 + 50%}
{Distribution:
Theo Merrick: 528
Bloodbloom Mantis: 792}
Theo saw the message with a plain expression.
’It has done it now...’ Theo thought before he halted, making Clara, who was holding his arm, stop too. She looked at him, staring in a daze, only to realize it might be a status message.
"800 and 530 EXP..." Theo muttered in utter shock.
Clara’s eyes widened in shock, and so did Elias’s. They understood what that meant.
They looked at the worm’s body that had already fallen with a big thud.
The baron was looking at something with a big smile.
Theo made his way back to the big body of the worm only to finally spot the mantis. It had half its body dug inside the half-eaten eyeball of the worm already.
"I take back everything I said, my boy. This is the best beast you can get," the baron spoke after walking forward toward Theo.
Theo nodded and went up the body of the worm to get the mantis out and back.
"And I don’t mean it because it is getting strong. Every beast gets strong one day or another. It’s that steel will it has that is now making me change my mind," the baron spoke again, making Theo look at the mantis with a smile.
He had taken it out of the eye already and looked at it clean its body with finesse.
Theo kept it on his shoulder just like the older times, only to realize that the mantis was bigger. It had to keep one foreleg latched onto the scaly armor he was wearing to stay there.
’Time really flies, huh... You were so small back then.’
Theo went away from the big body of the worm, and that was when the baron started humming. Theo looked at him with curiosity; he had never seen the man hum before.
The baron took hold of the worm, pulling it from one end.
"Its skin might tear, father. All the blood will splash at you," Theo spoke, only for the baron to keep going.
He was dragging the body out of the ground and to the side until Theo and everyone actually saw the size of the worm.
It went on for a few more meters, and when it was on the ground, the baron coiled it in one place so that it didn’t take too much space.
He looked at Theo with prideful eyes. "Its skin is very stretchy, Theo. Don’t let my clean attack make you mistake this beast to be any less tough," he spoke, making Theo nod.
"Attendant Clara, would you like to do the honors to butcher this beast?" the baron asked, making Clara briskly come toward it and nod.
She used the dagger that she had near her waist and punctured it deep inside the worm’s body, only to realize something.
"It... won’t cut," she said with full pressure on the blade, which was fully submerged. Yet still, the skin wasn’t getting cut no matter what.
"You either need explosive strength or a blade that is sharp enough. Let me show you," the baron spoke with the sword out of the scabbard already.
He moved toward the worm’s body and made a small crease where her knife was still trying to cut the worm.
When it touched the worm, it started oozing out blood already. Clara’s blade went inside when the cut became big enough, making her thank the baron for the help.
The baron made an even longer crease to help the girl get as much meat as she could.
"With this much meat, we need to smoke and preserve it. While Attendant Clara is doing this, let’s make a smoker," the baron spoke in a good mood.
’He likes living like this more than the castle, huh...’ Theo thought while a smile was plastered on his face.
They all went to do their work, and Theo helped make a small smoker on the side.
The idea was very simple: get branches and make a cone with a cavity inside. They used wood filled with moisture so that it wouldn’t burn when there was a fire underneath it.
Many leaves were kept on it, and when the structure was big enough, they kept a few horizontal sticks like a rack.
When it was done, the baron brought a lot of dry wood and ignited a fire right inside the cone, making Theo understand its use.
The smoke was supposed to be somewhat trapped inside the construction.
"Young master, please stop the mantis from getting near my blade, please!" Clara said in concern while butchering the gigantic worm.
Theo ran, and when he reached there, he saw the mantis inside the skin, sitting on the meat and eating the one at the side.
"Can you give me a big chunk of the meat, Clara? I will keep it busy while you’re doing this," Theo spoke, making Clara act on it.
She cut a big uneven chunk of the meat, which Theo kept on the ground. He grabbed the mantis out of the worm and kept it on the piece of meat, which it started eating right away.
When Theo got back to the smoker, the baron and Elias were already sitting near it with big smiles.
Inside the makeshift racks were strips of meat hanging, while the cone’s inside was filled with smoke from the fire that oozed out of the top of it.
"With this smoke inside the smoker, we should expect great dried meat in two days," the baron spoke with his legs crossed. He kept looking at the smoker with a satisfied look.
"Thank you for teaching this to me, father," Theo spoke, making the baron only shake his head.
"You were going to learn it anyway," he spoke, making Theo smile in confusion but not delve further into it.
"Go and level up now, you only have two days," he spoke again, making Elias and Theo look at each other.