《Unliving》Chapter 198 - A Lesson in Dismantling

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"It's common practice basically everywhere for hunters to bring the beasts they catch home to their villages, for the local butcher, or more rarely, an expert dismantler, to deal with them.

Most hunters are good at catching their prey. They usually know how to dress their kill properly. Some more precious bits of their catch though, often needed specialized knowledge they don't usually have. That's where dismantlers like us come in.

That said, I do believe this is the first time anyone anywhere has ever needed to dismantle an adult sea serpent of this size, much less one caught in such pristine shape.

It will be a long, hard work ahead… and a dream come true for me. A stone with which to cap my long career. I am so glad to be born in the right era and place." - Wage-Rood Atman, grandmaster beast dismantler from Ptolodecca.

True to grandpa Aarin's words, they had to wait another week before dismantling work could even begin. The beast's flesh proved far too sturdy before then, unworkable with the tools the locals have.

That week also gave time for experts in the field from all around Ptolodecca to gather at the small coastal town to the south, as they brought their own personal, specialized, custom-made gear.

Aideen saw every sort of tools brought by those experts, from drills and chisels, to saws and pickaxes, hatchets and machetes, to scalpels and needle-like picks. They came in every sort and shape.

Those experts immediately began their work on the carcass. The first order of business was to pluck its thousands of scales, a task that took an entire day to finish even with the town's entire populace and all the gathered experts helping out. The resultant pile of dark bluish scales was as tall as a small hill, and was set aside first.

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The beast's scales had three layers to it, something she had not noticed before. The outermost layer of scales were as large as a man's torso, and nearly as thick as an adult's wrist. They would make excellent plate armor or shields with minor workings added.

In the middle, were a set of smaller scales, these ones only as large as the palm of one's hand, and as thick as a finger. They were a deeper blue in color, and seemed to be even harder than the outermost layer.

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Deep inside, growing in patches here and there on the beast's frame, were even smaller scales, ones barely the size of Aideen's thumbnails and just as thin. Those scales were even deeper in color, almost black, yet were so thin that they were translucent to the eye.

Grandpa Aarin had said that they were likely the first scales the beast grew, during its juvenile period. Over time it grew larger scales to cover its larger body, but these juvenile scales that remained just became more and more refined over time by the beast's mana. They were the most precious scales on the beast, as well as the sturdiest, rivaling even high purity adamant steel in durability, at a mere fraction of the weight.

The dismantlers continued as they stripped the beast's skin off its carcass. Another laborious task that took an entire day to complete. Massive strips of the flayed skin were quickly carted away to be treated into precious, highly durable leather.

Meanwhile, the experts went to work on the tons of flesh on the beast's carcass. They worked with care, separating the flesh from the sinews. The flesh was excellent meat, whereas the sinews of such beasts - based on smaller specimens hunted down in the past - made for amazing bowlines and thread for stitching armor with.

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That first night out of the four spent removing the flesh off the beast's carcass, the whole town celebrated as chunks of the sea serpent's flesh was cooked on grills or in pots, in such quantities that everyone present would have their share of seconds.

Aideen quickly understood why so many people seemed so enthusiastic over the catch once she took a bite on a skewer of the serpent's grilled meat. It was unlike any meat she had tasted before. Somewhat bristly and flaky in texture like fish, yet the taste was more like aged beef or lamb, with a richness of flavor from its plentiful fats.

Even the Bone Lord had assumed his mortal form as he feasted on the flesh in private. A rare occasion as Aideen had mostly seen grandpa Aarin snack on sweets rather than meats.

On the third and fourth day, the soldiers gathered beforehand finally got to do something other than haul things. The dismantlers had started to reach the inner cavities of the beast. To nobody's surprise, the parasites that lived there had not taken to the intrusion kindly.

With hundreds of experienced soldiers on guard though, they proved to be little more than a nuisance. The hardest part was mostly taking care not to damage the beast's insides while they fought, as there were more precious organs to be harvested there.

And harvest those organs they did. Due to what Aideen did, only the beast's heart showed serious damage, which was not an issue as it was not a particularly useful organ to be harvested anyway.

Colin and Cormin on the other hand, almost drooled when the dismantlers carefully removed the beast's liver, bile and lymph glands, and several other oddly shaped organs Aideen had no idea about. Those were the organs alchemists considered precious, and they were all in good condition, other than some minor surface damage from what the parasites nibbled on.

Even the beast's intestines and its contents were gathered. Supposedly some rare prized substances only formed in the intestines of beasts like these. Aideen definitely wanted nothing to do with scrounging around in the beast's excrement for them, though.

Finally, after a week of hard work that left the many experts looking as if they had just been visiting heaven, they were finished. All that was left of the beast's carcass were its pristine white bones, with its horns, fangs, and claws still attached.

Exactly as the Bone Lord asked for.

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