Having eaten and drunk his fill, it was still early in the day.
Sento stretched his limbs and felt in excellent condition.
So, he decided to head out now and deal with that wolf.
“Oh, are you going to skin it now?
Then let me help you.” Seeing Sento pick up the hunting knife from the counter, Ai patted her pants and stood up, but she was stopped by Sento.
“There’s no need.
After all, we only have one hunting knife, so it’s hard to help.
You should rest a bit more.
However, if you still have energy, you can check on the second floor and organize the collectible supplies up there.”
Ai nodded her head vigorously, her side ponytail bobbing up and down, looking very cute.
“Alright, then I’ll go tidy up upstairs.
Sento-kun, if you get cold, come back inside to warm up, okay?”
Sento acknowledged her, put on his Parka, threw on a cloak, and walked out the door with the hunting knife in hand.
It wasn’t ideal to process the wolf carcass inside the house, as it would leave behind a heavy, bloody smell, so he had to do it outside.
The two dogs also followed him out.
Their summoning time was about to end, and they needed to provide one last bit of guard duty for Sento.
After stepping outside, the two sled dogs sprinted a few laps around the Camp Office to ensure no other wolves were nearby, then ran back to Sento, wagged their tails vigorously, and vanished like bubbles.
Sento went around to the back of the house, opened the fuel box lid, and took out the wolf carcass.
In less than an hour, the body had already frozen quite stiff.
Dumping it onto a snowdrift, Sento stood before the carcass, dazed.
How the hell is he supposed to start?
The closest Sento had ever come to dissection was back home during the Lunar New Year, when he helped hold down a pig while everyone else slaughtered it.
“…It should be about the same as slaughtering a pig; it’s all butchery in the end.”
Muttering to himself, Sento squatted down, measured out a spot on the wolf with the tip of his knife, and pressed it against the wolf’s abdomen.
Sento just instinctively felt that this was where he should start.
The moment his knife tip pierced the wolf’s abdomen, the edge of his vision suddenly flickered with a light, the color identical to his interface.
Sento hurriedly called up his interface and saw that in his skill bar, the only bronze skill was flashing incessantly.
[Character skill detected…
Game skill [Carcass Harvesting] detected.
Record it?]
Sento, half-squatting on the ground, raised an eyebrow.
Carcass Harvesting—he was familiar with that name.
It was the skill used in the game the long dark to harvest materials from animals.
‘Detected game skill…
So that’s how it is.
It seems my Survival Expert skill isn’t so useless after all.
As long as it detects a skill from the game, I can record it?
But what exactly does “record” mean?
Does it just give me a new skill directly?’
With these thoughts racing through his mind, Sento didn’t hesitate and chose to record it.
After all, guessing wouldn’t give him the full picture.
After selecting “record,” Sento saw the (0/5) in his Survival Expert skill description instantly change to (3/5), and a new note appeared.
The effect of the Survival Expert skill is that it can detect skills or blueprints belonging to the current game world.
The former requires performing actions consistent with the skill, while the latter requires actual contact with all the raw materials and processing locations for the blueprint, or witnessing the production process of the blueprint.
Once detected successfully, Sento can choose to load them.
The 5 in the skill description is the loading limit; loading one skill takes up 3 points, and loading one blueprint takes up 1 point.
Loaded skills and blueprints, through long-term study and research or repeated crafting, have a certain probability of being extracted and becoming independent skills, meaning they would no longer occupy those 5 points.
Sento nodded thoughtfully.
No wonder it was 5 points—it was perfectly capped.
This meant that at most, he could only load one skill and two blueprints at a time, since two skills would require 6 points.
‘I wonder how long it will take to fully master it.’
Sento smacked his lips with a hint of regret.
After all, there were quite a few skills in this game that he really needed.
First were the three combat techniques: Rifle Shooting, Revolver Shooting, and Archery, all of which were very important.
Next was resource acquisition; the Carcass Harvesting he had just mastered, and the Ice Fishing he hadn’t encountered yet, were also extremely important.
Of course, he could also choose to switch what was loaded.
For example, when he encountered Ice Fishing, he could unload the current Carcass Harvesting and load Ice Fishing instead.
But if he did that, the proficiency accumulated for the original skill that was unloaded, such as Carcass Harvesting, would be reset, and he would have to start from scratch the next time he loaded it.
However, Sento wasn’t too anxious.
After all, the effect of this Survival Expert skill was already very strong; even being able to load just one skill was extremely useful.
Like Carcass Harvesting right now.
Sento rubbed his palms together, intending to properly experience the power of a game skill.
He placed his hand on the hunting knife and decisively activated the skill.
The next moment, he felt as if his body had been taken over by some machine, and using a fairly skillful method, he began to peel off the wolf skin bit by bit.
The night grew darker, and a light breeze began to pick up, but protected by his Parka and cloak, Sento could still barely manage.
He had a feeling that if he wanted to interrupt, he could stop the skill at any time.
Squatting in the same spot against the cold wind for about an hour, Sento, his hands covered in blood, suddenly shuddered and regained control of his body.
He looked in surprise at the wolf skin held in his hands.
Holy cow, this wolf skin was peeled perfectly—head to tail, the entire pelt removed, the level of completeness was astonishing.
At this point, Sento made up his mind: he wouldn’t switch skills.
He had to train this Carcass Harvesting skill to completion, ensuring he fully mastered it in this world so it would become an independent skill.
Without those weapon skills, he could still hunt using methods like traps.
And Ice Fishing…
don’t forget it has the “Ice” prefix.
Who knows how much of its effectiveness would remain if he tried fishing in a normal place?
Only this Carcass Harvesting was truly useful.
If he didn’t have this skill, he would consider himself skilled just to be able to harvest the pelt from the wolf’s belly and back intact.
Satisfied, Sento set the wolf skin aside, shook his hands, and took a moment to feel his state.
Although the chill was already seeping into his clothes by now, he could still barely hold on; at the very least, it wouldn’t be a problem to spend another ten or twenty minutes removing the internal organs.
So…
Carcass Harvesting, activate!
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”