Shen Zuo caught his breath for a while, then looked over at the deer letting out his final breaths. He grabbed his axe, approached the deer's neck, and simply slit its throat!
The female was stunned at the sight of her dead mate, and burrowed herself deeper into the den.
Even though she no doubt wanted to flee, the instinct to defend her young to the death held her back. The fact that her front leg was broken had already shattered any real notion of escape anyway, and the sword was still lodged in her body, blood dripping to the ground.
Once Shen Zuo confirmed the deer was dead, he began skinning it with a small knife he'd kept hidden in his clothes.
He wasn't worried about the female fleeing, since he'd read about Frelta deer and their near-obsessive instinct to defend their young to the last.
After a while of skinning, the deer's hide lay spread out like a rug beside its stripped body.
Then Shen Zuo cut open its belly, and after removing what didn't matter, like the stomach and intestines.
He carefully cut out three interconnected sacs sitting next to the liver. Smiling with joy, he thought to himself. 'Oh, thank goodness! The book was right. At this rate, I'll actually kill 150 beasts... then sit back, relax, and eat some meat far away from those damn old men!'
Each of these sacs contained the same substance:
A powerful scent that repelled the human nose,
but was strongly attractive to beasts, especially ones that relied heavily on smell.
And the more dangerous part?
This substance was also terrifyingly flammable.
The moment it touched fire, it would ignite in a blue flame and release a foul-smelling smoke that drove beasts even wilder with rage.
"Traps, signals, even makeshift bombs... a treasure pulled straight out of a deer's belly."
Shen Zuo said, carefully wrapping the three sacs in a piece of hide, then tying them to his side in case he needed them later.
From the same pocket he'd pulled the knife from, he started producing a few other things...
Apparently, a full survival kit.
Tightly coiled ropes,
two small stones clearly meant for starting fires,
a thick piece of cloth, a handful of small wooden pegs,
and even a small bag of salt... it wasn't much, but it was enough.
Enough for someone who knew what he was doing.
Since it was still daylight, Shen Zuo decided to go remove his sword from the female's body, then... finish her off along with her young.
He knew she wouldn't attack again.
Blood was still leaking from her leg, the sword was still buried in her side, and her eyes, full of fear and rage, hid nothing.
Shen Zuo approached without blinking, his eyes locked on the female's body. Every step weighed heavily on her chest, but she didn't move, not until the moment he reached his hand toward the sword lodged in her side.
The female screamed and thrashed her body violently. Despite the pain and the broken leg, she lunged at him with her horns, trying to gore him!
But Shen Zuo was ready.
He shifted his body sideways quickly, his hand gripping the sword's handle, and in a decisive instant, he yanked the sword free from her body, opening a wider, deeper wound.
The female gasped in pain,
but she didn't fall. Instead, she lunged at him again despite her trembling body, her horns shaking, her blood staining the ground.
Shen Zuo didn't give her a second chance.
A horizontal strike with the axe tore through her neck,
followed by a stab with the sword that finished what the axe had started.
The female collapsed without a sound, and the young in the den let out a weak whimper... but they didn't come out.
Shen Zuo wiped the blood off his blade,
looked toward the den... and said quietly, "You're next."
Shen Zuo looked at the three young deer.
They were below the required level, meaning even if he killed them, they wouldn't count toward his total.
But he grabbed his sword and killed them anyway.
Even if he'd left them alive, they wouldn't have survived another day out here with the predators around.
Then he began thinking carefully. "I need to dry the meat. The salt I have won't be enough for that, so I'll use the smoking method instead. It suits the situation, and the air here is good for it."
He dragged all the deer together to begin the work.
Since he'd read that Frelta deer always lived close to water, that meant a water source had to be somewhere nearby... he just needed to search the area a bit.
Shen Zuo realized he'd need to cut all the deer into thin strips, in preparation for smoking them dry, a task that wouldn't be easy, physically or mentally, especially while he was still suffering from his injuries.
He started with the smaller deer first. Despite their small size, the process still had to be precise, requiring care so the meat wouldn't be ruined.
It took him roughly an hour and a half to finish cutting all of them, each piece sliced carefully to make it suitable for drying.
Then he moved on to the female. She was larger and harder to work with, but he finished with her in about an hour, despite his growing exhaustion.
The male was the real challenge. His massive size, combined with the fracture in his spine, made the task even harder.
But Shen Zuo didn't stop, spending nearly two hours cutting through the thick muscle and stripping it of hide and organs.
In the end, after nearly six hours of continuous work, he'd finished cutting up every scrap of meat he had.
The next step was to build a smoking rack... but his exhausted body was demanding rest first.
Shen Zuo sat down on a nearby rock, the wind hitting his face and playing with his hair. The day had turned to late afternoon by now, and he thought to himself:
"I should distract the beasts using one of the leather sacs I pulled out of the deer...
Ugh, I've still got so much work to do. Let's get the fire started first, then in the evening I'll go open a sac somewhere far from here and come straight back."
He had six sacs in total, three from the male and three from the female, since the young deer hadn't developed these sacs yet.
Shen Zuo began gathering some dry branches and fragrant plants found in the forest, like pine needles and other trees known for their sharp scent, since these materials helped produce thick smoke, gave the meat flavor, and worked as a natural preservative.
Then he lit a small fire off to one side of the ground, carefully, so as not to set the forest ablaze, and stacked some stones around it to trap the smoke.
After that, he raised a low wooden platform in the shape of a simple grid using some sturdy branches, and began hanging the meat strips he'd cut, spacing them apart so air and smoke could pass through between them.
He gradually built up the smoke by feeding dry herbs onto the fire, keeping the flame low so it produced heavy smoke without ever flaring up, since an open flame would burn the meat instead of drying it. He left the meat exposed like this for hours: the smoke worked to kill off bacteria and parasites and kept the meat from rotting, while the surrounding air slowly dried it out until the strips turned firm and leathery.
Shen Zuo had enough time to search for a water source,
and sure enough, he didn't have to go far before he found a small stream flowing quietly through the grass.
He drank a little from it and washed some of the blood off his face and hands,
then made his way back to his spot shortly before sunset,
with smoke still rising quietly from the hanging meat,
as though everything was going according to plan... for now.
In the evening, he carried one of the leather sacs and walked far from his original spot to open it, leaving behind a strong enough scent to lure beasts away from him, then hurried back to stay safe.
This was his only real means of survival in this harsh environment, one that would let him store the meat for days, even weeks, without it spoiling easily.
He'd learned plenty of drying methods from books and past training, some complicated and requiring specific tools and conditions, but the smoking method was the easiest and most effective for a situation like this. All it required was a low, steady fire, continuous smoke, and a few branches to build a crude rack. Since the weather cooperated and the air was good, he chose this method without hesitation, and with his modest experience, he set everything up carefully: keeping the fire steady without letting it flare into an open flame, and spacing out the meat so none of it touched.
And a
s the smoke rose into the air, the meat slowly began to change color, and so began the first steps of survival in this long half-year ahead.