Chapter 566 (1/2)

Fran started by checking the seasonings and discussed what kind of dish she was going to cook.

「Umm, Fran? Shouldn’t we split up and start dismantling?」

「The other group has already started dismantling, you know…?」

「No problem. I can dismantle such a magic beast in no time」

「As expected of Fran」

「She’s so reliable―」

I sneaked a peek at the other group’s work, and it was pretty bad. They were slow as they didn’t understand the structure of their prey, and their overall work was poor. It would probably take them more than half an hour just to dismantle it.

On the other hand, as long as she was careful with the Skunk Raccoon’s poison glands and magic stones, it would only take Fran less than five minutes to dismantle it.

Well, it was thanks to our Dismantling Skills though. Come to think of it, I’m a lot better than I was when I first came to this world. I missed the old days when I tried to dismantle something randomly and ended up tearing the materials apart.

「Is this all the seasoning we have?」

「Eh? Yeah…」

「Muh」

Fran made an unusually small grunt when she saw the seasonings that Charon and the others had prepared.

Well, I knew how she felt. After all, on the table, there were only rock salt, pepper, and two kinds of herbs. The rest was seasoned salt mixed with chopped mushrooms and oil. That was all they had.

The seasoned salt seemed to be handmade by an amateur, and the herbs were of a weak type with little aroma and taste.

Apparently, they only have things that could be collected in the wild. When she asked them about it, they said that it was the seasonings that they had collected in their previous classes.

「…Can we buy some?」

「It’s allowed, but we’re not very familiar with the seasonings…」

Until now, they had only been able to get the food to be edible by adding salt and herbs and heating them.

But this time, the Skunk Raccoon won’t be that simple, you know? We couldn’t get rid of its foul scent by just heating it.

But as expected, we don’t have the time to go to town and buy the seasonings now.

「Okay, I’ll do something about the seasoning then」

「Do you have some?」

「Nn. I have a lot of them」

「Aah, now that I remember, Fran can use Space-Time Magic, isn’t she?」

And so, Fran and her group decided to proceed with the dismantling first.

If Fran gave her best, it would be over quickly, but she chose to dismantle it while giving some details to Charon and the others. This was probably because it was part of the class. Fran must have understood that she shouldn’t do everything herself.

But before Fran and the others could start dismantling, there was a scream from the other groups. And then, the other group started screaming too, while holding their eyes and noses.

「Ugh―!」

「What smell is this…!」

「It stinks! Stink, stink, stink!」

「Kyaa―!」

Apparently, a group had damaged the poison gland during dismantling. The venom of the Skunk Raccoon was only slightly poisonous, but the smell was very horrible.

People tend to think that’s what causes the smell of its meat, but it’s actually not. In the blood of Skunk Raccoons, there was a component that helps them withstand their own poisonous gas. The chemical-like scent of these ingredients was the true source of its meat’s smell.

On the other hand, the poison smelled like strong sulfur. The smell also seemed to have spread to the surrounding area all at once. All the groups were in agony with tears in their eyes.

Charon and the others were starting to smell it too. Aside from the three men, that must be horrible for Charon, she was a daughter of a Nobleman after all. Fran also seemed to have smelled the gas for a moment and was frowning.

However, she immediately used her wind magic to blow the air around her and put up a barrier to block the smell.

「I-I was saved」

「Th-thanks」

「That was really terrible」