Chapter 37

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 37

The reason I learned how to butcher in the first place was—

“There was an older guy I knew in Majang-dong.”

“Gurur?”

“After drinking together a few times, I picked up some skills.”

I’ve never actually dismantled a beast in its complete form.

He was the kind of person who said you shouldn’t just leave knife work to anyone, and all he did was teach me how to cut a big hunk of raw meat into parts, telling me to try it if I ever bought a large cut for home.

That means I’ve never properly butchered anything.

“But even if I haven’t done it myself, I know all the steps.”

Gio was pretty good at learning.

“Since its body isn’t cold, I guess it hasn’t been dead long?

It’s like a warm pebble.”

“Gguruk?”

“It’s because I have to drain the blood.

If a lot of time passes after death, it becomes hard to drain it.”

The blood that flowed from its forehead seemed to have soaked into the ground for quite a while, yet the deer’s body was still soft, which made Gio a little nervous.

Somehow, it seemed like this world—where food doesn’t easily rot or spoil—had done something.

Right, ‘food.’

“...I guess a deer that’s already dead still counts as food.”

And Gio himself was trying to butcher it, too.

‘Anyway, if the body hasn’t stiffened, it’ll be much easier.’

Dragging the house-sized deer along, Gio hung it over a droong-droong tree at a suitable height.

Then he made a hole in its neck so the blood could flow out.

“Honey.”

“Gguk?”

“Dad has definitely evolved.”

“Gurur.”

“I thought I evolved into a portrait, but I didn’t think I’d get stronger too.”

To think it didn’t even take effort to hang a deer bigger than himself on a tree—whether it was because physical laws applied less in a world inside a painting, or because Gio himself had grown stronger, it was hard to tell.

“Then while the blood drains, should I pull out the organs?”

“Gururururur.”

“...Honey, don’t drink the blood from below.

That’s dirty.”

A tiny bird drinking the blood as it streamed down was horror all on its own.

“Dad got scared.”

“Kung.”

“I’m not lying.”

The trust between father and son was absurdly low.

“...”

Well, it was funny, so fine.

‘Before it spoils, I should take out the organs first.’

By the rules of the painted world, it didn’t seem like it would spoil easily, but he’d once had mangdung fruit left exposed to sunlight for too long and it had hardened almost like ore.

Since he didn’t know what problems might arise, it was better to do what he could as he went.

“The hide is thick.”

The fat under the hide was considerable too.

“The system said this deer came from a rainforest, but aren’t rainforests usually muggy?

I don’t understand why the fur is this thick and it’s so full of fat.”

“Ggur.”

“Stop drinking blood, Honey.

Dad said it creeps him out.”

“Kungkungkung...”

“I won’t let it slide just because you’re cute.”

He didn’t want to sleep with a bird that smelled like blood.

“Kung.”

Grumbling kungkung, Honey soon spat something out in a clatter.

“...”

“Gururururur.”

“Jewels...?”

It was the glittering jewels Honey loved, but after Honey—who had turned bright red—vomited up red jewels and then returned to his original color, it didn’t look like a coincidence.

“Did you turn blood into jewels?”

“Gguruk.”

“As expected, my son, you’re not ordinary.”

Gio decided not to worry about it.

“Later, can Dad use that to paint a picture?”

“Gurururur!”

“Thanks for letting me—so I won’t complain even if you drink more.”

“Gguruk!”

“So you had a plan.”

Drinking the blood of a hunted beast might not be all that strange.

For Gio, a human, it was like ‘what the hell is that,’ but still, Honey is a bird, after all.

In a way, it was only natural for him to have animal instincts.

‘As long as he can return to his original state anyway, it really doesn’t matter.’

Even if he was a child born of paint, suppressing an animal’s instincts wasn’t something a parent should do.

As long as he didn’t die from drinking a little deer blood, it was fine.

“I’m going to split the belly soon, so be careful not to make the organs burst out.”

“Ggur.”

“Alright, let’s see...”

Gio focused the nerves in his fingertips and felt along the deer’s belly.

“I heard that you should normally split it from the anus to make it easier.”

Starting to cut from the anus sounded quite cruel as a fellow living creature, but that’s how the food chain is.

“Uht-cha.”

He hadn’t sharpened the knife separately, but maybe because it was so sharp, the belly split easily.

When the belly of the upside-down deer opened, the organs inside were visible, and Gio witnessed something strange.

“...?”

Why are there jewels in here too?

‘They seem much bigger than the jewels Honey spit out.’

By position, it was around the heart.

“...Isn’t this kind of ridiculous...?”

A jeweled heart was destroying common sense.

“How did it purify the blood and make it.”

“Gurururururuk.”

“I’ll check later if it’s safe and give it to you, so come down.”

Anyway, Honey went wild because it was something shiny, but Gio shook his head.

No matter what, giving an animal’s innards felt far too odd.

“Let’s just finish dismantling it.”

Gio split the belly the rest of the way from the anus up to the ribs.

It was his first time doing this, but fortunately, the mishap of bursting the organs didn’t happen.

“The blood needs to drain properly too.”

“Gguk?”

“If you don’t drain the blood in time, it seeps into the meat as-is.

Then the meat itself spoils more easily, and it gets too gamey... so if possible, you should drain the blood right after you catch it.”

He carefully took out the remaining organs so they wouldn’t burst.

“If they burst, it’s a catastrophe.”

You’d see hell.

You should start skinning from the hind legs where your hands can reach easily.

“There’s so much fat that I’m not sure I’ll be able to use the hide.”

“Ggulullu?”

“To dry the hide enough to make something out of it, all this fat has to be removed.

Still, the fur is pretty fluffy, so if I make it into a cloak, it’ll be useful even after we return to reality.”

“Gguk.”

“I can’t keep relying only on you.”

The day before sightseeing, Gio had been 고민ing whether to draw winter clothes because he didn’t have any, and Honey had helped him.

Just holding Honey made his whole body warm, so he didn’t need separate winter clothing.

But he couldn’t do that every time.

“I should still prepare the hide.”

Anyway, the fact that it had a fair amount of fat was a good thing.

“The aroma of the meat is pretty good.

Even the fat smells savory.

You shouldn’t throw fat like this away—refine it and keep it, then later use it when you make stir-fried dishes, and the flavor will double.”

“...”

“Eating fat as-is won’t be as tasty as you think.”

Gio’s heart warmed at Honey’s greedy stare, fixed on the fat.

This feeling, like looking at a mirror or an album.

This is family.

Honey was definitely a big eater like him.

“Since you’re eating anyway, want to gain some more weight?”

“Kung.”

“If you don’t want to, then fine.”

The thick hide was cut away.

Checking the grain of the deer’s muscles, he slowly peeled off the deer’s coat of fur.

Fortunately, despite the abundant fur, the hide itself wasn’t particularly tough, so the work wasn’t difficult.

“Starting from the hind legs... then the torso...”

He peeled off the hide starting from the back legs where bones touched right away without much flesh—around the ankle area, for a human comparison.

Then the torso, the forelegs, and after that, he struck off the peeled hide together with the deer’s head and fully dismantled it.

Amazingly, since he separated it without mistakes, the hide remained fairly intact.

“Let’s separate the fat too.”

“Gguruk.”

“...Just taste it.”

Gio allowed Honey, who coveted the fat, and after tasting it with his father’s permission, Honey writhed in agony.

“I told you it’d taste bad right now.”

“Ggu, ggu... gguru루...”

“Trust Dad 좀, Dad is unbelievably good at knowing when something tastes bad.”

“Ggururururururu...”

“You’re crying over it?”

Shocked that the fat tasted bad compared to its savory smell, Honey was on the verge of tears, miserable.

Gio stuffed Honey, who couldn’t recover from the shock of bizarre food, into his cloak hood.

“Now I have to dismantle it in earnest.”

With the organs, hide, and fat all separated, it was time to remove the lean meat.

‘Just like the system said, the aroma really is good.’

They say wild beast meat is tough and smells gamey, but this didn’t seem like that.

Gio enjoyed cooking enough to know well what raw meat smells like.

No matter how well raised a calf is, raw meat has its own fishy smell.

But this deer didn’t give off that unpleasant odor.

“...It kind of smells like nuts.”

If he had to compare, it was closer to walnuts than peanuts.

“Ridiculous.”

He was briefly flustered because it was his first time smelling something like this from meat, but it didn’t feel bizarre like mint-flavored potato chips.

Rather, the scent harmonized well, giving him a different kind of enjoyment.

“It really is a different world.”

“Gguruk?”

Even if ingredients looked similar, their aromas and tastes differed little by little from Earth’s.

“Honestly, it’s a bit of a shame the heart is a jewel.

A freshly caught beast’s heart is a pretty good ingredient, so I was thinking of grilling it once... but in this state, would it be awkward to eat?”

“Gurururururuk.”

“Right, even if I can’t, you can eat it.

Dad will cook it and give it to you.”

In this state, it probably wouldn’t have much flavor anyway.

“...Still, there’s more meat than I expected...”

He removed the tender meat deeply buried inside the back, the loin.

He dismantled the legs and stripped off the firm meat.

“Hmm.”

This part would need to be slowly braised.

At least the upper thigh meat seemed tender enough to eat.

And once he removed everything—ribs, tenderloin, and all...

“Ta-dah.”

“...”

“A mountain of meat has been formed.”

“Kung.”

“Is it a lot?”

“Ggur.”

“As expected.”

No wonder the system told him to dry processed meat in sunlight.

With this much, it seemed best to salt or dry most of it for storage.

“It won’t spoil if I put it in the ice storehouse... but still, it’s better to make what I can.”

First, jerky and sausage came to mind.

“Let’s do jerky first.”

Sausage would take much longer.

“First, let’s soak out the blood.”

“Gguruk?”

“Just because we drained it by hanging it doesn’t mean it all came out.

We didn’t hang it that long either, so to really remove the off smell, we should soak it in water and draw out what blood remains.”

Gio soon brought out a large basin from the cabin.

“Honey, put the meat in.”

“Gguruk!”

Honey, who was held hostage by the tasty jeweled heart, was a good worker.

The two of them put the jerky meat into the large basin, then poured plenty of water over it from the stream that flowed leisurely around the cabin.

The streams scattered throughout the forest were useful even normally.

“If this were on Earth, I’d add a bit of cheongju here... but.”

He had nothing but wine, and the meat’s off smell was almost nonexistent, so it wasn’t a problem.

“While it drains, I should make the marinade.”

“Gguruk?”

“The garden patch crops have all grown too, so shouldn’t we make use of them at a time like this?”

After washing even his hands stained with deer blood, Gio picked some crops from the monster patch and returned to the cabin.

Fortunately, the monster patch didn’t get angry just because Gio took a few crops.

“It definitely recognizes who Dad is.

Growing them with sun and water paid off.”

Standing in the kitchen, Gio pulled a few powders from the shelf.

“And let’s use the syrup too.”

He also took out the mangdung fruit syrup he’d stuck in the corner of the kitchen.

It was what he’d saved beforehand before giving it to Yoo Sungwoon.

“You need to add syrup like this for sweetness.”

“Ggururu...”

“It might seem strange, but it’s surprisingly good.”

Sweet-and-salty is an unchanging truth wherever you go.

Gio checked the ingredients.

“Raw onions.

Since there’s a lot of meat, about ten... garlic and ginger powder are already here.

I’ll add some sugar too.

If I add a little mangdung fruit syrup, it should work...”

Making jerky wasn’t that difficult.

Finely chop cleanly trimmed onions and mash them into a porridge, then mix in various powders that are spicy and sharp and cut the gamey smell.

Add a little syrup for sweetness and a bit of sugar to wipe away the dull taste, and the jerky marinade is complete.

“Should the blood be mostly drained by now?”

After putting the marinade on a plate and washing the cutting board and knife, quite a bit of time had passed.

Looking at the sky between the leaves that was already starting to grow dim, Gio left the cabin.

When night came, Honey, who glowed softly like moonlight, helped him so he wouldn’t trip in the dark.

“Ah... I think this is about right.”

“Ggururur?”

“This is dirty, it’s just water mixed with blood.

I’ll give you something else later.”

He put the damp meat on a strainer and returned to the kitchen.

“I should hurry and sleep too.”

From there, the rest was simple.

Shake off the moisture from the wet meat, and once it seemed properly dried, knead it thoroughly with the marinade he’d made in advance.

After leaving it so the seasoning would seep deep into the meat, Gio washed his hands.

“It’s done...”

“...”

“...Honey, why do you keep coveting the organs?”

No matter that he was his son, it was a taste he couldn’t understand.

In the end, the deer’s organs were shared and eaten deliciously by Honey and the waterfowl friends.

The golden lake of waterfowl with blood-stained organs bobbing around had something mysterious and grotesque about it.

“Ah, not this.”

“Kung.”

“I’m making sausage.”

Fantasy, modern,