LRAB Chapter 35 Busy Work
Chapter 35 Busy Work
Before he could begin the process of preparing the carcasses, Aoni first had to do a little bit of prep work. For starters, he went back into the cave, and Jerry rigged a few more drying racks like the ones used to dry his clothing.
Using up the majority of the vine supply, the Lad then fashioned six different racks, each one a little shorter than himself, and dragged them one by one out into the snow.
After putting them in proper positions, he next took one of his hook blades and began clearing out small circles in the snow around the racks so that he would have space to work, and soon enough, the area outside the cave was transformed into a makeshift work area.@@@@
The next task on Aoni's agenda was figuring out what to do with the mess he was no doubt about to create. With there being so many small critters, he didn't think too deeply about where the blood and guts would go. However, the same couldn't be said about the weird Fox-mole creatures.
Seeing as they were the size of a small terrier, there was a pretty drastic size difference between them and a rabbit or bird.
Regardless, Aoni had a plan.
Using his Hook Blades, the Lad set about carving out six of the larger hollowed logs, turning them into small basins, after which he stationed them directly under the drying racks.
Once everything was set up, Aoni finally held the first carcass up over the basin and cut into it with his knife.
Without worrying about anything else, he went ahead and gutted all the small creatures, one after another, before hanging them up on the racks to allow all the blood to drain into the basins.
To be honest, it was a pretty gruesome sight, but as someone who went to one of the many government-subsidized Traveler Prep Academies, Aoni was no stranger to such things and was fully desensitized to the whole event.
Like this, the Government was able to keep tabs on everything, but more importantly, it took its cut of whatever profits Aoni's territory could generate.
Unfortunately, there was no easy way of avoiding that either; the Government had invested heavily in each new Traveler from the time a new child was born.
Families were constantly encouraged to have more kids, with the promise of government financial aid and resources, which for the bulk of the population was a good thing.
But not everything was stickers and ponies; no, the parents were forced to sign strict contracts; after all, it wasn't a charity, so they required their returns, and if you couldn't pay it, then you were pretty much in for a bad time.
It wasn't like you'd get locked up or anything like that, but you would basically be forced into true poverty because after becoming a Traveler, you were considered an adult. As such, a good majority of families would be absolved of financial responsibility for their newly established Traveler Child, and in turn, that burden would fall on the new Traveler.
Because of this, with the financial aid ended thanks to the child having come of age, it wasn't uncommon for children to be kicked to the curb and left to fend for themselves if they had shit territories and lackluster Attributes or Stats.
Now, that isn't to say Aoni's family would instantly cut him off and shun him or anything like that; some of his siblings ended up with weak Attributes and bad territories, and they were still living at home, going about daily life, but the money from the Government would cease, increasing the burden on his family further.
Hanging up the last of the kills brought back by Glacia on one of the blood-letting racks, Aoni stared out into the horizon with a solemn expression.
He had 31 days and change not only to bolster his stats as high as possible but also to find a way to make himself valuable enough that he wouldn't end up increasing the burdens of his parents.
Heaving a tired sigh, Aoni slogged back into the cave and sat in front of the fire to warm up while waiting for Glacia to return from her adventure, heart-heavy and with many things on his mind.