Chapter 29: Meat Preservation
Phillip left after saying that.
"What did you guys talk about?" Aurora asked curiously. Ericka was also curious, but she didn't say anything.
Rendell shook his head. "It's nothing important."
An hour later, Celine came to him to deliver the cooked lizard meat. "We don't have a lot of spices so I only added salt and cooked it over the fire after boiling it."
"It doesn't matter. What's more important is if the meat is edible." Rendell took the plate from her.
The cooked lizard meat just looks like any ordinary meat. What made him surprised was its aroma. "It smells good, but what about its taste?" He muttered before taking a small bite of the meat.
The texture of the meat was surprisingly tender. It was probably because they boiled the meat before cooking it.
'It's pretty good.' He thought. There wasn't even any resistance when he started chewing. The meat almost melted in his mouth.
'The only issue was the strong aftertaste.' Rendell furrowed his eyebrows.
Aurora, Ericka, and Celine stared at him with serious gazes.
"How does it taste?" Aurora couldn't hold back her curiosity.
Rendell glanced at her and nodded with a satisfied look. "It's not bad. It tastes like a mix of fish and pork. If we can prepare it well, we should be able to remove the gamey taste in the meat."
Suddenly, a series of footsteps echoed as Kent and the others headed towards them. When they heard that Rendell was going to eat the lizard meat, they wanted to see his reaction.
"How is it? Do you feel any discomfort?" Kent asked in a worried tone. If the meat was edible, the group no longer had to worry about food.
Everyone stared at Rendell, looking at him with worry and expectation.
Rendell shook his head. "Let's wait some more. If nothing happens to me in the next few hours, that means the lizard meat should be safe for consumption."
Kent nodded. "Let's wait for five hours. If nothing happens to you after that, I'll try it as well. If we are not poisoned within a day, then we can use the lizard meat as our food." They had to be careful about this matter so he volunteered to double-check if it was safe for consumption.
Hearing this, James stared at him worriedly, but he didn't say anything. He knew that Kent had already carefully considered the situation.
Five hours later, Rendell's condition was still normal. He showed no signs of discomfort or pain. Like what they had decided, Kent also tried the meat.
***
The next day, Kent woke up and found a group of people gathering around him. He frowned as he sat upright. "What are you guys doing?"
No one answered him. They just stared at him from head to foot.
Kent soon understood the situation. He stood up and stretched his limbs. "I don't feel anything wrong with my body. Normally, it only takes a few hours for food poisoning to kick in so this means that the lizard meat is safe to consume."
"Really?" James smiled in relief. He couldn't sleep well last night because of this.
Kent nodded in response. He then pushed up his glasses and asked. "Did you guys secure the meat in a clean container?"
"Mn. We did as you told us, but the meat will soon go bad since the freezers are not working. What should we do?"
"Simple. We just have to dehydrate the meat. Removing the moisture in the meat will prevent the growth of bacteria and… nevermind. Follow me. I'll teach you guys how to do it."
Before electricity was even invented, the ancient people already knew how to preserve meat. One of the most ancient methods was drying. Kent planned to use this method since it was the easiest and most efficient way they could preserve the meat. They also didn't have the necessary equipment to use other methods so this was the only thing they could do.
The process was pretty easy so everyone quickly grasped how it's done.
It took them more than half of the day to finish all the steps and everyone felt exhausted.
"I'm parched! I need water!" Phillip shouted exaggeratedly.
Meanwhile, James who did almost all of the work couldn't even move a muscle. He just lay on the floor while staring at the ceiling.
"Give him something to drink. He is drained of mana so he should be feeling unwell right now." Kent said to Ericka.
"Alright." Ericka stared at James in pity.
At this moment, Ralph suddenly came down and reported in a grave tone. "Guys, bad news! I spotted some evolved creatures coming towards us!"
Hearing this, everyone turned their gazes to Aurora.
"Aurora, can you check it for us?" Kent muttered.
"Alright." Aurora nodded with a serious look. She then activated her Mystic Eyes and scanned the perimeter. Her level was still low so she only sensed the evolved creature a few seconds later.
"I can see it. Wait! There are five, no… six, seven… There are eight of them!" Aurora's expression sank when she saw the eight creatures.
"What?!" Everyone's faces turned grim upon hearing this.
"What about their levels?" Kent asked while looking at her.
Aurora's face contorted in pain. She still couldn't control her Gift for a prolonged time.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Celine quickly grabbed her shoulders and made Aurora lean on her body to prevent her from falling.
Aurora nodded and looked at her with gratitude. She then turned her gaze to Kent and said. "Their levels aren't the same. Three of them are Level 3 and another three are Level 4. The remaining two… I can't see their levels."
Kent frowned at her words. Given their current situation, it was impossible for them to resist. Rendell was still in bad shape and the rest of the group were only at Level 2 and Level 1. It would be suicidal to confront those beasts.
"What should we do, Kent?"
Everyone looked at him, hoping that he could come up with an idea.
After a moment of silence, Kent glanced at them and muttered. "We can only fight them!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone