The Artist Who Paints Dungeon

“Coo?”

“After having drinks with him a few times, I picked up some of his skills.”

Though he had never actually dismantled fully intact animals before.

He used to say that handling knives shouldn\'t be entrusted to just anyone, so in case he ever needed to buy some, he had once taught him how to cut large cuts of raw meat into parts at home. But that\'s all.

The point was, he had never really butchered anything properly before.

“But even if I haven\'t done it myself, I know how it\'s done.”

Gio had excellent learning abilities.

“Judging that the body wasn\'t cold, it hasn\'t been dead long, has it? It\'s like a warm stone.”

“Cooo?”

“I need to drain the blood. It\'ll be harder to drain its blood if too much time passes after its death.”

The blood flowing from its forehead seemed to have soaked deeply into the ground, yet Gio felt quite uneasy about the deer\'s unusually soft body. It seemed like this world, where food didn\'t spoil or decay easily, was influencing it.

Yes, it was \'food\'.

“…A deer that\'s already dead counts as edible, right?”

Even Gio himself was attempting butchery now.

\'Anyway, it\'s much easier to work with if the body hasn\'t stiffened.\'

Dragging the deer as big as a house, Gio managed to hang it on a Salasala tree at just an appropriate height. He then pierced its neck to let the blood flow out.

“Honey.”

“Coo?”

“It seems clear, Dad must\'ve evolved.”

“Coo.”

“I thought I only evolved into a portrait, but I didn\'t expect to become stronger as well.”

Lifting and hanging a deer larger than himself on the tree with ease—it was hard to tell if this was because the laws of physics in this painting world were lax, or if Gio himself had grown stronger.

“Alright, while the blood drains, let\'s get the innards out.”

“Cooorrrrrrrrr.”

“…Honey, don\'t drink the blood from below. That\'s dirty.”

The sight of a tiny bird drinking the trickling blood was horrifying.

“Dad\'s spooked.”

“Coo.”

“I\'m not lying.”

The trust between father and child was abysmally low.

But it was funny, so it\'s alright.

\'I should take the innards out before anything spoils.\'

Even though it doesn\'t seem it\'ll spoil easily considering the rules of this painting world, he recalled how the Goby fruit left under the sun had hardened to the point of becoming almost like a mineral.

It was best to do what could be done since you never knew what problem might show up.

“The leather is thick.”

There was also a considerable amount of fat under the skin.

“The system said this deer came from the rainforest but isn\'t rainforests usually humid? I don\'t get why it has such thick fur and so much fat.”

“Coo.”

“Stop drinking the blood, Honey. Dad said it\'s creepy.”

“Coocoocoo…”

“Being cute won\'t let you off the hook.”

He wasn\'t keen on keeping a blood-scented bird company.

“Coo.”

Honey \'coocoo\'ed as if complaining as he suddenly spat something out.

“Coooorrrrr.”

“A gem…?”

It was a sparkling gem that was Honey\'s favourite, yet considering how Honey, previously reddish, returned to its usual colour after vomiting up the crimson gem, it didn\'t seem like a mere coincidence.

“Did you turn the blood into a gem?”

“Coo.”

“As expected of my son, truly extraordinary.”

Gio decided to stop worrying about it.

“Can Dad use that for painting later?”

“Coooorrrrr!”

“Thanks for letting me, drink all you want—I won\'t say anything.”

“Cooo!”

“You really had a plan, didn\'t you.”

Drinking the blood of a hunted animal might not be that strange after all. As a human, Gio would have thought, \'What the hell with that?\' But Honey is a bird, isn\'t he? It was natural for animals to have such instincts.

\'As long as you can revert to your original state, it\'s fine.\'

Even if he was his child born from paint, suppressing an animal\'s instincts wasn\'t a parent\'s job. Drinking deer blood wouldn\'t kill him, after all.

“Let\'s cut open the belly now, but be careful not to spill the innards.”

“Coo.”

“Alright, let\'s see….”

Gio focused his nerves on his fingertips, feeling along the deer\'s belly.

“I heard you\'re supposed to cut from the anus for easier dissection.”

Start cutting from the anus sounded brutal as a fellow living being, but that was just how the food chain worked.

“Here we go.”

Even though the knife hadn\'t been sharpened, it was sharp enough to easily cut through the belly.

When the abdomen of the upside-down deer was cut open, revealing its innards, Gio spotted something unusual.

Why is there a gem here, too?

\'It looks much bigger than the gem Honey spat out.\'

Based on its location, it seemed to be where its heart should be.

“… Isn\'t this a little funny…?”

A jewel heart—common sense was crumbling.

“How did it purge and make blood with something like this?”

“Cooorrrrrrr.”

“Dad will give it to you later after confirming it\'s safe, so get down.”

Despite Honey, unable to resist anything shiny, made a fuss, but Gio shook his head. No matter how you looked at it, handing over a beast\'s innards felt too odd.

“Let\'s just finish dismantling it.”

From the anus to the ribcage, Gio carefully cut the belly open. Though this was his first attempt at butchery, he managed to avoid the disaster of rupturing any innards.

“Better drain the blood properly.”

“Coo?”

“If you don\'t drain the blood on time, the blood will seep into the meat. Then the meat can spoil easily and become too gamey… Ideally, you should drain the blood right after hunting the animal.”

The remaining innards were removed carefully to avoid bursting them.

“If one bursts, it\'ll be a disaster.”

It would be hell.

The skinning should start from the hind legs, where it\'s easiest for the hands to reach.

“There\'s so much fat I\'m not sure if the leather could be used.”

“Coorrr?”

“To make the leather craftable, all this fat needs to be removed. Still, it\'s fluffy enough to make a cloak, it could come in handy when going back to the real world.”

“Coo.”

“I can\'t keep relying on you.”

The day before the tour, Gio had considered painting some winter clothes since he didn\'t have any, but Honey had helped him out. Since just holding Honey kept his whole body warm, making additional winter clothes unnecessary.

But he couldn\'t always depend on that.

“I should trim the leather.”

Nonetheless, the abundance of fat was a good thing.

“The meat has a pleasant aroma. Even the fat smells savoury. If I refine and save this fat instead of discarding it, I can use it for stir-fried dishes later. It\'ll double the flavour.”

“Eating fat as it is isn\'t as tasty as you think.”

Looking at Honey eyeing the fat intently, Gio felt his heart warm.

It felt like looking at a mirror or a photo album. This must be what family is. Being a big eater, Honey definitely takes after him.

“While you\'re at it, how about putting on a little more weight?”

“Coo.”

“If you don\'t want to, fine.”

The thick leather was cut away. Slowly, the deer\'s foreskin was stripped off, while he checked the muscle fibers as he went. Fortunately, despite its thick fur, the leather wasn\'t particularly tough, so the task wasn\'t too difficult.

“Starting with the hind legs… then the torso….”

The skin was removed starting from the hind legs, where the bone lies directly under the skin similar to a human\'s ankle. Next came the torso, the front legs, and finally, the skin was taken off along with the deer\'s head, completing the dismantling.

Surprisingly, the leather was quite intact, thanks to the separation being done without any mistakes.

“Let\'s separate the fat now.”

“Cooor.”

“…Just a taste.”

Gio allowed Honey, who was eyeing the fat, to have a taste, and Honey, having tasted the fat with his dad\'s permission, squirmed in discomfort.

“I told you it wouldn\'t taste good right now.”

“Co, co… coooooo….”

“Please trust what Dad say—I\'m an expert when it comes to knowing when something tastes bad.”

“Coooooorrrr….”

“Are you seriously about to cry?”

Honey, shocked that the fat wasn\'t as tasty as its savoury aroma, was sad and on the verge of tears. Gio, seeing Honey still unable to recover from the shock of the strange food, tucked him into his cloak\'s hood.

“Now, let\'s start the proper dismantling.”

With the innards, leather, and fat separated, it was time to remove the meat.

\'Just as the system explained, the aroma is certainly pleasant.\'

They said wild animal meat was often tough and had a gamey smell, this didn\'t seem to be the case here.

As someone who quite enjoyed cooking, Gio was very familiar with the smell of raw meat. No matter how well-raised the veal was, it had a distinctive fishy scent.

But this deer lacked any of that unpleasant odour.

“… I think it smells a bit like nuts.”

If he had to specify, it leaned more toward a walnut aroma than peanuts.

“That\'s funny.”

It was the first time he had encountered such a scent from a meat. While he was a little taken aback, it wasn\'t an odd sensation like mint-flavoured potato chips. Rather, the harmony of the aroma brought a different kind of delight.

“Indeed, another world is another world.”

“Coor?”

Even if the ingredients appeared similar, their taste and aroma had subtle differences compared to those on Earth.

“To be honest, it\'s a bit of a shame that the heart turned out to be a gem. The heart of a freshly hunted animal is a pretty good cooking ingredient, so I was considering grilling it, but… in this state, it might be tricky to eat.”

“Coooorrrrrrr.”

“Right, even if it\'s not for me, you can eat it. Dad will cook it for you.”

Since it wouldn\'t have tasted good in this state anyway.

“…By the way, there\'s quite a bit more than I expected….”

He removed the tenderloin, deeply buried inside the back. Then he dismantled the legs and stripped off the tough meat.

“Hmm.”

This part seems like it needs to be simmered slowly. At least the upper leg meat seemed to be tender enough to eat.

After removing the ribs, tenderloin, and everything else…

“Ta-da.”

“A mountain of meat has been made.”

“Coo.”

“Doesn\'t it seem like a lot?”

“Coor.”

“As expected.”

The system\'s advice to make sun-dried processed meat was clearly for a reason. With this much quantity of meat, most of it would need to be salted or dried for storage.

“It won\'t spoil if I put it in the ice storage… but I might as well make what I can.”

For now, jerky and sausage came to mind.

“Should I start with the jerky first?”

Sausage would take much longer to make.

“Let\'s drain the blood first.”

“Cooooorr?”

“Even though it was hung upside down to drain the blood, not all of it would have come out. It wasn\'t hung for that long either, so to fully get rid of the gamey smell, we\'ll need to soak it in water to draw out the remaining blood.”

Gio soon returned from the cabin, carrying a large basin.

“Honey, put the meat in.”

“Coorrr!”

With the tasty jewel heart as leverage, Honey proved to be an excellent worker.

The two placed the meat for jerky into a large basin and poured plenty of water from the stream gently flowing around the cabin over it. The streams scattered throughout the forest were always a useful resource.

“If I were doing this on Earth, I\'d probably add some rice wine here….”

But the only alcohol available was wine, and since the meat hardly had any gamey smell, it wasn\'t an issue.

“While the blood drains, I should prepare the seasoning.”

“Cooor?”

“The crops in the garden have all grown, isn\'t this the perfect time to use them?”

After washing his hands stained with the deer\'s blood, Gio picked a few crops from the monster field and soon returned to the cabin. Thankfully, the monster field didn\'t seem to mind Gio taking some of its crops.

“It must recognize who its dad is. All that sunlight and water I gave it paid off.”

Then standing in the kitchen, Gio pulled out several powders off the shelves.

“And let\'s use some syrup too.”

He fetched the Goby fruit syrup he\'d stashed away in the corner of the kitchen. It was what he\'d set aside before giving the rest to Yoo Sung-woon.

“Adding syrup like this enhances the sweetness.”

“Coocoocoo….”

“It might sound strange, but it\'s surprisingly tasty.”

The sweet-and-savoury combination was a timeless truth everywhere.

Gio checked the ingredients.

“Fresh onions. With this much meat, let\'s use about ten… garlic and ginger powder are already here. I\'ll add some sugar too. A little Goby fruit syrup should also do the trick….”

Making jerky wasn\'t complicated.

Finely chop the cleaned onions until they form a porridge-like paste, then mix in various spicy and pungent powders to neutralize the gamey smell. Add a touch of syrup for sweetness and a bit of sugar to eliminate any dull taste, and the marinade jerky is complete.

“The blood should be drained by now.”

By the time he plated the marinade and washed the cutting board and knife, quite a bit of time had passed.

As he looked at the darkening sky through the tree leaves, Gio stepped out of the cabin. At night, Honey, who glowed faintly like moonlight, helped him navigate the darkness.

“Ah… this looks about right.”

“Coorrrr?”

“This is dirty, it\'s just bloody water. I\'ll give you something else later.”

Gio placed the soaked meat on a colander and went back to the kitchen.

“I should finish this quickly and get some sleep too.”

The rest was simple.

Shake off the excess moisture from the meat, and when it feels appropriately dry, knead the pre-made marinade thoroughly into it. After ensuring the seasoning seeped deeply into the meat, Gio washed his hands clean.

“It\'s done….”

“…Honey, why are you so obsessed with the innards?”

Even if it was his son, he couldn\'t comprehend such tastes.

In the end, the deer\'s innards were happily shared and eaten by Honey and his waterfowl friends. The golden waterfowl lake held an air of something mysterious and eerie as bloodstained innards floated around.

“Ah, except for this.”

“Coo.”

“We\'re going to make sausages.”

1. hyung-nim, older brother (friend).