CHAPTER 183: HEAVY HORROR SCENE

Eric felt a bit depressed.

He thought again, even if he was lucky enough to successfully trade for magic books, he wouldn’t recognize the writing here. Thinking of this, his heart felt even more sorrowful.

There was already a pile of things to do, and now he had to spend time finding Dwarves to learn human writing; he truly felt mentally exhausted.

Luban had always been inciting him to learn Dwarf writing, which he had refused. The Dwarves had always tried to get Eric, a potential "good seedling," to learn about their civilization, and even wanted to show him various blueprints carefully preserved on parchment, but unfortunately, Eric was illiterate.

He scratched his head in distress. If, while learning human writing, the Dwarves took the opportunity to "cram" their writing in as well, Eric felt a headache just thinking about it.

Good heavens, why was the underground competition still so fierce even after coming to this world?

Eric sighed silently. He was a genuine shut-in; his lifelong dream was just to settle down, eat his fill, and wait for death. Yet now, he had to shoulder pressure like a mountain every day; the moment he opened his eyes, his mind reeled with all sorts of matters.

If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have agreed to be the patriarch, which made it impossible for him to focus on being lazy. He clearly possessed a soft and comfortable heated bed, but the result was that he basically hadn’t enjoyed it for a few days.

After complaining in his heart for a while, Eric had to accept his fate, bending down to scoop out the layer of down feathers that were still being washed in the basin. Following the shift in his thoughts, the swirling water in the basin slowly came to a stop.

The water in the basin was freezing cold. If not for the whirlpool constantly stirring under the effect of wind magic, it would have probably frozen solid long ago. Eric grimaced as he scooped the down out of the icy water, thinking to himself that next time he should try combining water and fire magic to see if he could create hot water, saving the effort of boiling it.

If other mages knew Eric’s purpose for using magic, they would probably be so angry smoke would come out of their noses. Such a fine magic genius, yet he always only thought about using it for housework.

The dirt and bloodstains on the duck feathers were washed sparkling clean, even cleaner than when Eric washed them by hand. He satisfiedly brought the down feathers to the heated bed in the bedroom, spreading them flat to dry.

Max saw the familiar down feathers and thought of the scene where he used them as a blanket with Eric before; a hint of a smile unconsciously appeared in his eyes.

"Are these used for blankets too?"

Eric dried the water on his hands and conveniently checked the fire placed in the stove of the heated bed. What surprised and delighted him was that the magic fire was still burning and hadn’t been extinguished. He didn’t expect the fire he condensed could burn for so long; this would save quite a bit of charcoal at home in the future.

Hearing Max’s question, Eric, who was in a good mood, replied in an excited tone:

"My blankets are enough. After drying these feathers and storing them, they can be used to stuff into clothes; wearing them is both light and warm."

Hearing that clothes could be made, Kevin immediately poked his head in the window looking at the heated bed, his eyes shining:

"Who knows how long we have to wait for the sweaters, how about using these feathers to make me a set first?"

Michael slapped the back of his neck from behind; the "smack" sound was crisp and loud.

"This layer of down is even rarer than wool, you really have quite the imagination. If you want to wear it, go catch more wild chickens and wild ducks yourself."

Kevin touched his head aggrievedly, muttering:

"I’ll go catch them then, it’s fine."

Eric snickered on the side, then said:

"Catching them in the wild makes it very hard to gather a lot of feathers. Wait until we successfully raise them and the number of chickens and ducks increases; then, whether everyone wants to wear down jackets or cover themselves with down duvets won’t be a problem."

The master of "painting the future," Eric, once again displayed his skills to everyone, deceiving Kevin to the point that his eyes shone like stars, and even Michael’s face revealed a look of longing.

Seeing this, Eric struck while the iron was hot and added:

"Clothes and quilts stuffed with cotton are also very comfortable. Next year we must work hard on farming! We can set aside some grain to raise chickens and ducks, and plant more cotton; by then everyone can cover themselves with cotton quilts and wear cotton-padded jackets."

Kevin yearned for the farming life next year even more, even though initially he was a member not very enthusiastic about this matter...

Max glanced at Eric with amusement, and Eric winked playfully at him.

Silently sweeping his eyes over the two of them, then looking at the foolish Kevin sinking into fantasies, Michael decided not to get involved anymore. He stood up and went to the remaining white rabbits, his movements swift as he skinned them and washed the internal organs.

Like Max, Michael also set aside the rabbit feet and rabbit heads for Eric.

Knowing that the down feathers of chickens and ducks could be used, he also carefully put the wild chicken’s down feathers separately into a basin, then chopped the chicken into pieces of meat.

Eric kept a little of each type of meat, placing the rest on a pile of clean snow in the corner of the yard and covering it with snow. Before long, these pieces of meat would be frozen solid and could be preserved for a long time without spoiling.

The body of the spike pig was as big as a truck, so the internal organs were naturally plentiful. He remembered Sam had hurriedly run back to process it; it seemed the tribe members would have a full meal today.

It had been a long time since he ate fresh internal organs, and Eric was a bit craving them.

Although they caught fresh prey on the way to the sea, unfortunately, apart from the few days stopped to refine salt, the group had to rush on the road at other times. They didn’t have the time or conditions to process internal organs, so they had to painfully discard them.

Who said internal organs were both hard to wash and required meticulous work? Getting water while traveling was also inconvenient.

Today, his craving could finally be satisfied. Eric’s taste also leaned towards the internal organs of pig-like species, especially the intestines, which were fattier compared to other magical beasts. After washing clean, they basically had no fishy smell, and when cooked, they were both fatty and chewy.

Just thinking about it made Eric drool. Max had just washed the spike pig’s internal organs clean, and the internal organs of the other chickens, ducks, and rabbits had also been washed clean by Sam and Michael. The clean, pink-white internal organs were piled up in the yard; the quantity was quite shocking.

If this scene were seen by an ordinary Earth person, they would definitely be scared into fainting on the spot. Whose house turned their garden into an open-air slaughterhouse, with hearts, livers, intestines, and lungs piled up, guts entangled together, and heads of various magical beasts stacked into a small hill...

Truly a heavy horror scene.

The yard was still made a bit small. Eric leaned the meat against the wall and placed the uneaten internal organs to the side, also covering them with snow to freeze. Winter was good; meat didn’t rot, and freezing it beside the house didn’t produce any strange smells. It was indeed a giant natural refrigerator.

It was just that since Eric and everyone got along, these Snow Wolves always liked to send food to him. Previously, when he was still in the earthen house, the beast skin tent used for storage was filled to the brim. Magical beast meat that couldn’t be finished was dried into jerky; Eric didn’t like eating it, so he left it casually in the basement.

Now that his new house had a spacious basement and the yard wasn’t small, everyone brought things to him even more blatantly. Currently, his basement still contained various fruits that Max and the others had picked for him in the summer that hadn’t been finished.

Luci, leading the gathering team, also frequently picked wild vegetables for Eric. Although these carnivores didn’t understand why Eric liked eating "grass," they would still pick it for him whenever they saw it.

Eric’s cellar had very good preservation functions, so the wild vegetables hadn’t been finished either; the main reason was that he was always running around outside and didn’t have much time to consume them.