Chapter 143

143 Don’t waste beast materials, please! part Dismantling the megalania turned out to be an impossible feat, especially since he was so tired he couldn’t even climb on top of it. Thankfully, he had already cut its tail and the goblins had brought it along with the rest of the body.

His obsidian knife’s sharpness had no equal, but it was too short to comfortably slice through the broad tail. He could have asked Mia to help him, but she was completely useless in anything related to food so he asked her to make a fireplace instead.

After spending ten minutes painstakingly peeling and cutting, he finally got a nice piece of meat out of the tail and he quickly threw it over the fire. He didn’t care about the taste, all he wanted was to eat something.

His very sanity was on the verge of collapse as the meat started sizzling. But it wasn’t ready yet, he still needed to turn it over and wait for it to cook properly. As much as it bothered him, eating something that may cause him to throw up would be counterproductive.

The smell of cooked meat was new to goblins, but some of them were familiar with the taste since sometimes they would get it after looting the adventurers they killed. Despite their appetite being stoked, none of them dared to touch the megalania.

Goblins would steal whatever they could from enemies, but doing the same to an ally was unthinkable and Ryu was now considered as such to them.

Ryu wolfed down the meat so fast it seemingly vanished into thin air. Some goblins even gasped in awe while others covered their youngling’s eyes, but Ryu was too excited to care. It didn’t matter to him that such primitive beings considered him to be lacking in manners, all he cared about was about the tasty juices of the first decent meal he had in almost a week.

Mia placed leaves on the ground for Ryu to stock up the raw meat, but it was so much it was impossible to cook it all by himself.

He grabbed a piece of raw meat and offered it to Lauda, one of Bardun’s wives, but instead of cooking it she simply nibbled on it and then spat it out.

.....

‘What is the human doing!? This tastes really bad!’

Lauda grunted wrinkling her face

‘How dare you spit his food!? you just insulted our savior!’

Thoba scoled her, she too was one of Bardun’s wives, but she was stronger and had a higher status than her. She quickly grabbed the piece of raw meat from Lauda’s hands and gave it a big bite. The taste of blood was disgusting and she couldn’t help but spit it out too.

‘Yes, this is terrible’

“No, you’re not supposed to eat it, you need to cook it first”

Ryu said, but the small creature had no idea what he was saying. It was the first time he had experienced the language barrier and he didn’t know what to do.

“I have an idea, master”

Ryu didn’t expect much from her since she was usually just an airheaded girl that goofed around most of the time, but he was curious too so he nodded at her to do as she pleased.

Mia grabbed some meat and put it on a skewer, handed it to Thoba and took her near the fireplace. She held the goblin’s hand for a while until Thoba seemed to understand.

‘They seem to be hurting the meat with fire so it tastes better’

The rest of the goblins were dumbfounded, cooking was a new concept for them. The closest thing they did was mixing different kinds of fruits and mushrooms, but they never consumed any meat because they would get sick after eating it raw. They weren’t used to fire either, they knew how to start a fire, but it was mostly useless to them because they were resistant to cold and were able to see in the dark since birth.

“That actually worked!”

Ryu said in awe.

“Of course master! what did you expect?”

“To be honest I thought you would end up doing something stupid and...”

“You’re so mean!”

Mia pouted childishly.

“Can you cook all the meat?”

Ryu asked Thoba showing her the piles of raw meat. Thoba nodded and signalled her brethren to help her.

Other goblins attempted to help Ryu dismantle the lizard but their tools were inefficient and they were making a mess so he stopped them. But after realizing it was simply too much work he had no choice but to ask them for help.

It took Ryu and the goblins a whole day to dismantle the lizard since it was bigger than a human house. He did the best he could with what he had at hand, but it turned out to be a lousy butchering job and part of the leather was ruined.

The goblins didn’t take their eyes out from Ryu, he had their complete attention as they tried to learn from him. At first they tried to help despite not knowing what they were doing which only annoyed him.

But as time passed they became better at everything.

As soon as Ryu mounted the first tanning rack the goblins made another just like it. Ryu was pleasently surprised at their learning speed and decided to teach them properly but in order to do so, he needed to provide them proper tools.

He took a fang from the severed head of the megalania and he started grinding it against a stone to fashion a knife. The fang was sharp enough but it was too big for their small hands and carving a hilt was a difficult labor, it would have been impossible if it wasn’t for his high level tool and weapon creation skills.

Once the goblins understood what he was doing they repeated the same process and fashioned the fangs into carving knives that were sharp enough to cut the hard skin and tough meat.

And thats how, with the assistance of his new goblin helpers, Ryu managed to dismantle the gigantic corpse within the day.

“Athela, are you awake?”

“I’m here”

A weak voice replied at him in the complete darkness.

“I brought you some food”

“I appreciate it but... I can’t eat by myself”

“It’s ok, I’ll help you”

Ryu got close to her confidently using his night vision skill and placed a small piece of meat inside her mouth. Her dry lips closed on his fingers making Ryu feel a bit awkward, but he continued feeding her and giving her some water.

feeding the maid was more difficult because she was lying in the ground and she choked on the water he provided, but it was better than dying of dehydration.

“Is it true?”

Athela muttered her question, her eyes were wide open but she couldn’t see anything.

“What?”

“That you’re not a prisoner”

“Yes, I’ll try to negotiate your release soon, so please hold on a little longer”

“But, how is it possible!?”

Athela couldn’t believe what she was hearing, goblins were despicable creatures and, as far as she knew, they weren’t able to communicate with humans.

“Now it’s not the time for explanations, but please don’t try to escape or you might get killed”

His words brought fear and hope in equal measure into Athela’s heart. She wanted to ask him to stay by her side, but before she could say another word Ryu went out the door.

From that day on, it was Mia instead of Ryu who came to feed her. At first Athela thought she might try to exact revenge on her, but Mia didn’t held a grudge against her. If anything she was even grateful towards Athela because it was only thanks to her that she was able to meet her master.

Little by little Athela regained some of her strength and, thanks to Mia’s cheerful attitude, her mood gradually improved. She was starting to see the glass half full now.

She was defeated in battle by goblins and should have been killed, but it wasn’t the case for her. They took her prisoner and, despite all the rumours about goblins doing unspeakable acts to women, the only times she got hurt was whenever she tried to run away.

Now that Mia was taking good care of her she could even afford to get bored. How long had she been prisoner? she didn’t know, the passing of time became confusing after the first few days.

Mia came three times a day to feed them both and to keep them clean using a wet towel and eventually Athela started looking forward to those moments until she ended up completely losing interest in escaping.

She was by no means comfortable, but at least she could endure it. Food became better everyday and she wasn’t alone. If only she wasn’t tied up she would feel a lot better, but Mia was clear when she said she wasn’t able to free her yet.

It was a day like any other when something unexpected happen. Instead of Mia, it was Ryu the one who came into the prison.

For a brief second she feared he had come to wash her with a towel like Mia usually did, or maybe something even worse, but at this point there was nothing she could do to protect her dignity.

Instead, a bright smile appeared on her face the minute Ryu set her free.