Master Of None

”Gil, slow down!” The battle had just finished and a lot of people were going off to rest while those with more energy and no injuries took over the watch. The bend was the only place that anyone really worried about.

Many other monsters were moving around the river banks looking for prey. Water rats and a few others that were of no concern since they could care less about the ship. Even a few of the striped moths were flying by, sitting on the ship, then taking off again. But what was going on on the top deck of the ship was more dramatic.

Nearly every archer that did not have to remain on watch had come to the main deck to begin breaking down the river snappers. Since most of the archers had some sort of skill that helped with breaking down their prey, it was best that they handled the preparations for the smoking and drying of the river snappers. They would not remain fresh the entire time that the ship was on the ocean.

”Don’t tell me to slow down. We need to make a better effort. If we don’t get this done we will have less viewable food. Think of the future.” Walker could tell that Gil was hyper focused. It was him wondering why Gil had become so focused on a task that was not as pressing as the battle that had just happened.

”Listen, I will help to so slow down and take your time. You are fast, I know that, but it’s not that big a deal.” There was a moment where Gil paused but then continued.

”It is a big deal. I could barely handle the time I was up in that tower. I shot arrows and helped, but they were nothing compared to what everyone else did. Even Remey was able to protect the ship with her alchemy skills. I thought that I would do so much better than anyone else with my archery. So I have to make it up here.”

This made a lot more sense. Gil had felt more useless than even Onyx in this battle. Mixing the night with the fact that the battle had only been a deterrent than anything else, Gil and the archers had really only been able to attack and lose arrows. It was a wear on their supplies. They felt that they hadn’t helped enough but instead weakened the ship.

”Oh, well if you think those arrows to that huge river snapper were nothing then that’s fine. I will just pretend that a fire arrow didn’t explode on it with the coordination of multiple arcane archers that follow you because they have gained a bunch of respect after you learned from their culture. I guess that was just nothing.”

While Walker sounded like he was being a jerk, Gil knew exactly what Walker meant. ”Fine…fine. I was just getting in my own head. But we all thought that we hadn’t helped. Even the poison arrows were useless. So what should we do?” Walker didn’t actually have any answers for Gil. he felt that the issue would be shooting through the water at the monsters that might use it to protect themselves.

Whereas those with up close combat skills would be limited to waiting for anything to enter the ship, the archers should be able to shoot anything. But even they were limited. ”Harpoons. All of you have never been on a ship. This is why we told those dwarf builders to focus on the harpoons. I swear, no one teaches anyone nothing today.”

The voice that came at the two who were looking over the river snapper was from an older man that had been hired due to his experience on ships. He was a sailor through and through. Many of the merchant sailors had been hired at a decent price to help with the building and teaching of others when it came to sailing. It wasn’t fair to just expect that a crew could be thrown together in a second.

”I saw those, but they are huge, how would we be able to fire them? They are more like a crossbow than a regular bow.” Gil felt that he was being messed with by the older sailor.

The exasperated sigh that came in response was one that made Walker and Gil wonder just what had been said wrong. ”You and your archer friends up there on that tower were making arrows. Why not make small metal harpoons and tie a rope on it? Huh? Thinking with your head now?”

While the sailor had a somewhat bad temper, it proved to be something that Gil had completely missed. He couldn’t even feel foolish. He had already started to brainstorm. He had to figure out how to make this work before he was in the ocean. It might take a lot of time, but there were plenty of materials in the forge. He had the strength of the wind to help any arrow he fired. This would help with the weight of the arrow.

The issues that Gil saw in this would be the distance he fired and getting the harpoon arrow back. They would be small so he would have to fire multiple at a single monster. But if they were successful, then the merfolk would be able to help get the monster aboard the ship as well as those with close combat skills. It was actually an ideal plan.

”Go on, the sailor was right. Try and make something good. I can finish up this river snapper.” Gil was gone in a single breath. He barely heard Walker but has dashed away toward the lower deck’s forge. He wanted to make this work.

A few of the other archers had heard the sailor reprimanding Gil and Walker. They too were ready to go and experiment with Gil. no one had the heart to stop them. This would be too helpful anyways. Especially when it came to having even more food while on the open ocean.

”Well, I guess this fish is mine to break down.” Walker took out one of the knives he had for such activities and got to work. It was not an uncommon thing to do and with the cooking skills he had, along with a few other small skills, he was going to work easily.

The small bones were the hardest part to deal with. The fat filets of river snapper had the tiniest bones in them because the entire growth of the river snapper was to make more muscle that could propel it toward its prey. There was also no good meat near the large mouth that could snap shut making it the only place with tough bones.

The bones, teeth, and other parts would be used elsewhere. Even the scales would have a use somewhere which Walker was thankful for. He was not at all surprised to see that Remey was taking a few of the internal organs for use in potions. He overheard a few people mentioning that it was an ingredient for an adrenaline potion.

Apparently, when the river snappers went in to a frenzy, they had an organ that would produce a lot of chemicals in their body. This made their mana flare up and swim faster. This would make a potion that could boost someone’s body temporarily but would also tire them out much faster. It was really only good for short fights or last minute attacks. But the dragonkin seemed to want it nonetheless. Therefore, Remey took advantage of the situation to gather materials for her next potion.

By the time Walker had broken down the large river snapper he was working on, a small section of the top deck had already been prepared to cook and dry fish. It was a similar set up to the forges. There were fire elemental mana crystals that would be used to heat it. But the addition of a few pieces of water soaked wood meant that the smoke would keep the river snapper filets tasting good and safe from insects.

The protective metals placed over the top deck were rune carved for this purpose. Heat wouldn’t even get through them. The result was a perfect portable cooking area that Walker was excited to see in action. He even wished that his mother was there since she would enjoy seeing the different process of cooking.

It was a matter of hours that this process would take but Walker was sure there would be a great meal at the end of it. He just had to keep helping until all the river snappers were in the cooking area. Then he would be able to sleep again. By time he woke up, he would have a good breakfast.

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