The ground tremor and the angry squeaking sounds made the hunter tremble inside, if he was to be caught, everything would be over. So, he focused all of his energy on running until he heard a crashing sound followed by an unnerving silence. Once he climbed the tree, he was finally confident enough to look back.
The wild boar had dropped to the ground and was agonizing. It worked! His backup plan had worked. Rick was so relieved that he almost fell from the tree. The idea for the plan had also come from the book.
As an earth essence beast, the boar would be reinforced against any attack unless it came from inside. The book explained that internal contact with fire essence could cause a strong reaction to it, so the beast would develop strong senses to avoid consuming anything that had fire essence. Since tricking the wild boar to eat it wasn’t possible, he could only try to insert the essence through wounds.
Before hunting the beast, Rick had collected a lot of fire essence herbs and prepared an extract from them, which he used on the tip of the spear. The goal was clear, but he couldn’t be certain of the effect. Of course, he didn’t doubt the book, but the concentration of fire essence might not have been enough, or it could have taken too long to take effect. Fortunately, everything worked as he hoped.
Rick pondered if the beast could be pretending, but quickly dismissed the foolish idea. If it could do that, it wouldn’t have fallen for his trap in the first place. His legs still felt a little weak with the decrease of adrenaline, so he climbed down slowly after checking for other dangers. Then, he moved slowly towards the dying prey.
Up close, he could confirm the underbelly fragility by sight. The skin was definitely softer in that area. Thankfully, the beast didn’t seem to be feeding offspring recently. It would be a shame to put at risk the lives of young brethren. Though his job was slaying the creatures, he didn’t hold any hatred against them. Quite the opposite, he hoped they would have a fulfilling life and breed before returning to the ecosystem in a different way.
The hunter took out his knife and ended the beast’s suffering after offering it a silent prayer. The Gods would give and the living would take, that was the order of the world.
Now he had to process the materials and find a way to take them back. He never expected that a day would come when he would have more problems transporting back the loot than hunting it. As they say, a wealthy man has his own problems.
***
Over 300 kg, that’s how much the processed boar weighed. Aside from the content of its stomach and a few other disposable organs, everything else was valuable. In an essence beast, the blood, meat, skin, bones, and many organs would have magic properties and thus be useful, either for consumption, potion making, crafting, or rituals.
Rick was extremely happy about this bounty, but the overweight would be a whole new challenge. Some artifacts could help with lighten and transporting, but those were beyond his financial means. He could also choose to take back only the most valuable parts. However, he couldn’t accept that. Every part of the hunt would earn him some coin, and every coin would be needed in his advancement.
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Therefore, he could only take it back in batches. The good thing about essence materials is that they spoil slower than common ones, even slower if they stay in contact with the essence element. For this, Rick had an excellent solution; he would drag the materials to one of his shelters and seal it for later recovery.
The hunter didn’t wait for other problems, or better saying beasts, to appear and started securing the materials. While doing so, he was making mental calculations to estimate how long it would take to retrieve all the materials. He could take up to 80 kg on each trip without exhausting himself, which meant four trips back and forth. Instead of going directly to town, he would ask miss Anne for some space and store the loot in the bookstore, then later he would go back with a cart to get everything at once.
By borrowing the store as a middle point, he would save a lot of work and time. The distance between the shelter closer to Wall and the bookstore should be approximately 30 km, which he could do in five hours at a fast pace. Usually, he wouldn’t dare to do it so fast, but difficult times asked for extreme measures. Adding one hour for rest, it would take him two days to transport everything.
Instead of waiting for the next day, Rick decided to leave right away. It would be night by the time he came back, but he was already used to it. After mapping the area and recording the local beasts, he no longer feared being lost. And if needed, he was confident in moving at night. Of course, he would only do so for emergencies and without carrying any heavy load.
The first trip was done in a little over six hours. It took longer than he expected, but he would compensate in the return. Fortunately, he arrived at the bookstore during opening hours and Anne was more than happy to help. The night felt quick, so he decided to jog the way back.
Rick slept in the shelter and started another trip a few hours before dawn. The task was exhausting, but he managed to complete it by noon of the next day.
He was ready to faint in his bed and sleep for the whole day, be there was still a job to be done. Before renting the cart, Rick negotiated half of the blood and 10 kg of meat with the storeowner. Instead of money, he asked her for reading credits, which got him six lends for the Beastiarium. This profit was already enough to make his trouble worth it.
Then, he returned to town and came back one hour later with a rented cart. Again, he repressed the urge to go straight home to sleep and took the cart to the town’s market. Since Mountainend lacked a guild and the Inn was often empty, the only place that could digest the loot was the market.
Thankfully, once he announced his bounty, the merchants and store managers flocked to his cart. Less than half an hour later, he left with one gold and 40 kg of meat. Even though he constantly fought with his family, he would still have to save some meat for them.
For the first time, he was eager to return home and meet his parents. He was dying to see his father's face when dropped the meat on the kitchen table. Would he dare to complain about his hunter job? Would he still criticize him for being a ‘good for nothing’? Would he finally be proud of his son?
Strangely, Rick didn’t feel that those answers matter any longer. He wanted to be recognized and praised for so long, that he didn’t realize that his own judgment was the heaviest. As long as he was confident and proud of himself, everything else would fade into the background. Still, hearing his father say some of ‘those’ words would be nice.
Of one thing he was certain, regardless of his father's attitude, his mother will be busy for the rest of the day dividing the meat and sending it as gifts to their relatives.