Chapter 42: Winter Hunting [ 2 ]
The hunters approached immediately, checking the animal while the Knights watched the surrounding area.
One of them examined the teeth and antlers before nodding. "Healthy enough despite the leg wound. The meat should still be good. Large male too. This one alone will give us a considerable amount."
Raymond crouched near the carcass, studying the thick hide and the sheer size of the body. Seeing an Ironhorn Elk at a distance had made him think of food.
Seeing one lying dead at his feet made the scale of the resource much clearer. There was an enormous amount of usable material here, and almost none of it needed to be wasted.
The older hunter noticed Raymond examining the body and began pointing things out. "The hide is valuable if removed properly. The winter coat is especially thick right now, so leatherworkers can separate the fur layer and use it for clothing. The antlers can be carved or sold. Bones from Magic Beasts are stronger than ordinary animal bone and are useful for tool handles, arrowheads, and some alchemicalwork. The blood is sometimes purchased by herbalists, though it spoils quickly."
Raymond looked up. "And Mana Cores?"
The hunter nodded. "Ironhorn Elk can develop them once they reach Bronze rank, though not every animal produces one worth selling. The core sits close to the heart."
Raymond’s interest sharpened immediately. "Then nobody touches the chest until we extract it."
The hunting party continued moving along the migration route after securing the first carcass onto one of the sledges.
Over the next several hours, they found three more suitable targets: a younger male with a damaged front leg, an older female that had fallen far behind the herd, and another mature male wandering alone near a rocky outcrop.
Each hunt followed roughly the same pattern. Bronze Knights isolated and redirected the animals, preventing them fromrunning back toward the main migration, while Silver Knights delivered the final killing blows whenever the situation became dangerous.
On the third hunt, Raymond finally insisted on participating directly.
Boris wasn’t pleased.
"My Lord, you saw how quickly they move when frightened."
"And I also saw six Bronze Knights control them without much trouble. I’m not asking you to let me duel one alone. Let them isolate it, and I’ll take one controlled strike."
Boris studied him carefully before giving in. "One strike. If I tell you to retreat, you retreat immediately."
Raymond smiled. "You sound like mymother."
"I have no idea whether that is an insult."
"It wasn’t."
The target was a smaller Bronze-class elk, still powerful enough to kill an ordinary man but noticeably less massive than the previous males.
Two Bronze Knights drove it toward a narrow section between exposed rocks, limiting its ability to turn.
Raymond stood near the opening with his sword drawn, feeling his heartbeat accelerate as the animal approached. This was different from looking at numbers on a System panel.
His Strength might say thirty, and his rank might say 8-Star Bronze Knight, but none of those numbers explained how it felt to watch several hundred kilograms of muscle and antler coming directly toward him.
The elk tried to break left.
One of the Knights struck its flank and forcedit back toward the center.
"Now!" Boris shouted.
Raymond moved.
His body reacted faster than his mind expected, mana surging through his legs as he crossed the distance in several steps. He raised the sword and brought it down toward the elk’s exposed shoulder.
The impact shocked him.
His blade cut deeply through hide and muscle, much farther than he had expected from a strike that still felt clumsy in his hands.
The animal screamed and jerked violently, nearly ripping the weapon away from him.
Raymond instinctively tried to hold on instead of immediately retreating, and that hesitation almost punished him.
The elk twisted its head and swept one antler toward his chest.
A Bronze Knight slammed into Raymond from the side.
Both men rolled through the snow as the antler passed through the space where Raymond had been standing.
The Silver Knight ended the fight a heartbeat later.
Raymond lay flat on his back staring at the grey sky, breathing hard while snow pressed cold against his neck.
Boris walked over and looked down at him.
Raymond remained silent.
Boris raised one eyebrow. "My Lord?"
Raymond slowly sat up and brushed snow from his hair. "Not a word."
The captain’s mouth twitched.
"I wasn’t going to say anything."
"You were absolutely going to say something."
Boris offered Raymond a hand and pulled him upright. "Your strike was strong. Your timing wasn’t terrible either. But after landing it, you stopped moving because you were surprised by your own strength."
Raymond looked toward the dead elk. "I noticed."
"That kind of hesitation gets people killed."
"I also noticed that."
Boris nodded. "Then today was useful."
Raymond sighed and sheathed his sword. "I preferred it when my Knight rank was just a number that made me feel impressive."
The captain laughed.
By late afternoon, the hunting party had secured six Ironhorn Elk in total. Raymond refused to push farther even though they spotted several more possible targets.
Boris had warned him about greed, and after nearly being turned into decorative antler jewelry during his first real attack, Raymond suddenly found moderation much easier to appreciate.
The carcasses were loaded onto sledges and reinforced wagons, with the summoned Knights once again forced into transportation duty for the return journey.
Raymond watched one Silver Knight casually drag two enormous elk carcasses through the snow and felt the familiar pain return.And just like that, they’re horses again.
The party reached Althoff before sunset.
Word spread faster than the wagons could move.
By the time the first carcass entered through the northern gate, dozens of townspeople had already gathered along the road.
Children pointed excitedly at the enormous antlers while adults stared at the bodies with disbelief.
Fresh meat had become increasingly common after Raymond purchased preserved supplies and established livestock, but six Bronze-class Magic Beasts represented something entirely different.
The people understood immediately what the carcasses meant: more protein for winter, more hides for clothing, more materials for tools, and another sign that House Althoff no longer had to depend entirely on outsiders for survival.
Cheers began near the gate and followed the hunting party toward the castle storage yards.
Raymond dismounted and immediately began issuing instructions before the excitement turned into disorder. "Nobody starts cutting anything until Harlan, Gideon, the hunters, and whoever in town has butchering experience are present. I want the carcasses processed properly. Separate the meat by preservation requirements, keep the hides intact, collect every usable antler and bone, and somebody find containers for the blood before half of it freezes into the ground."
One of the hunters blinked. "All of it, my Lord?"
Raymond turned toward him. "All of it. If a part can be eaten, crafted, preserved, traded, processed, or sold, I want it accounted for. These beasts walked into my territory carrying resources on their backs. We are not throwing away money because nobody bothered to collect it."
The hunter bowed quickly.
Raymond moved toward the largest carcass as another man began carefully opening the chest cavity. After several minutes of work, the hunter reached deep beside the heart and removed a small object covered in blood. He wiped it against a cloth before holding it out.
A dark amber crystal rested in his palm.
It was no larger than a walnut, but Raymond could immediately feel the faint mana radiating from it.
"Bronze Mana Core," Boris explained beside him. "Low quality, but still valuable."
Raymond took the core carefully between his fingers.
His eyes moved from the crystal to the hides being removed, then toward the piles of antlers and bones gradually accumulating beside the processing area.
Around him, townspeople carried fresh cuts of meat toward storage while children watched from a distance, their faces full of excitement.
The realization settled deeper.
Magic Beasts weren’t merely enemies.
They were resources.
And the Blackridge Mountains were overflowing with them.At that exact moment, a sharp crystalline chime rang out inside Raymond’s consciousness, and a translucent blue screen appeared before his eyes.
[ Ding! ]
[ New Territorial Resource Category Discovered! ]
[ Magic Beast Resources ]
[ House Althoff has successfully acquired and processed its first sustainable batch of Magic Beast materials. ]
[ Resource Classification Added: Meat / Hide / Bone / Horn / Blood / Mana Core. ]
Raymond stared at the notification for several seconds before a slow smile spread across his face.
Winter had only just begun.
And somehow, the supposedly barren Zulor Region was already starting to look a lot less worthless.