Wolf meat, though technically edible, is tough and tastes bad. As is the reality of the meat of any other carnivorous animal. And this was not an animal but a mutated monster, which only made it worse.
In the game, eating monster meat could give several status effects, not all positive. There were several recipes that used wolf meat that she could prepare, but all of them probably tasted pretty bad IRL.
Also, meat eaters are often infected with worms and other nasty stuff for consuming raw meat regularly. Eating a wild wolf always posed a health risk.
Yet, she took out her boning knife anyway, activated several butchering skills, and thrust the knife into the wolf's carcass, like she would in the game.
And, exactly like in the game, the carcass disappeared, and in its place appeared the pelt, some bones, a pile of neatly arranged meat, and a mana crystal.
The reason she cut the monster's head off before butchering was because she couldn't stand the smell of rotting corpse and because she feared that even with the boning knife the necrosis could contaminate the rest of the drops.
It didn't happen in the game, but in the game, necrotic damage didn't make the enemy rot. It was just an abstract number.
She activated a technique that allowed her to see the rarity of any game item. Regrettably, both the meat and bones were [green]. Only the pelt was [blue].
The rarities in the game were the following, from lowest to highest: gray, green, blue, purple, gold, red, orange, and diamond. Though diamond is not a color, in the game it was a bluish-white hue.
The higher the rarity, the higher the quality of the item. Needless to say, all Cecilia's equipment was diamond, even her neglected bow.
She had used several techniques that would increase the drop rate of rarer materials, and her boning knife was [diamond] and also had an enchantment for it. She would usually get at least one gold item with it.
And yet, the best she could get was blue.
Frowning, she turned to the deer. Here, the focus was on quantity rather than quality, because she wanted to feed a village. So she switched to another boning knife with an enchantment that increased drops.
There were techniques that stacked and others that canceled each other out. The same was true for enchantments. Well, increasing both the quantity of drops and their rarity would be too broken, so they obviously canceled each other.
That's why she switched not only the knife but also the active techniques.
After butchering it, the result was [gray] meat, bones, tendons, and hide. Not a single speck of green. On the other hand, she gotlucky with the multiplier and got venison equal to ten deer butchered through normal means.
"No wonder the wolf dropped green and blue even with all the stacked probability increases. It seems that the base rate is egregiously low. It wasn't like this back in the game. Well, there's nothing I can do about it, so let's head back."
She had enough meat to feed the entire village for a few days, so there was no need to proceed with the expedition.
:::
When Cecilia got back to the inn, it was mid-afternoon.
"Hi Gertrude! I just came back from the forest; the catch was good today."
Gertrude, the innkeeper, was cooking the hares for dinner. Two dire hares weren't much, but a handful of people would be able to eat meat tonight.
"Oh, that's great! What did you catch? Huh? Where is it?"
In fact, Cecilia wasn't carrying anything on her person. The weapons, meat, everything, was stacked in her storage space. She didn't look like a hunter but like a girl who just came back from a casual stroll.
"Hehe. It's in my storage space. It was too much to carry by hand. Here."
She took the deer meat out of the inventory and put it on one of the tables.
"What? Where did you put all that? Is that… a deer? And you butchered all that by yourself???"
Gertrude had seen the appearance and disappearance of coins early in the morning, but she didn't expect the trick to be able to hold that much stuff.
"Hehehe… yeah. I told you that I could do it!"
"But that's so much… How many did you kill? And so fast??? Aren't there monsters around?"
The innkeeper's eyes were almost leaping out of her face, so astonished and awed she was.
"Oh, there was a wolf trying to steal my catch. Hmmmm, is there a tanner in this village? I got its pelt and would like to have it cured."
She took out the wolf pelt and deer hide from the storage space.
Poor Gertrude wasn't even able to be surprised anymore. She feared that if she got more surprised than she already was, she would explode. Instead, she just sat down on a chair.
She tried to picture the size of the wolf that could produce a pelt that big and almost fainted on the spot. Gladly, she was already safely seated.
"Uh… Gertrude? Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah…"
"Woooowww!!! Miss Cecilia, did you hunt all that?"
Marya just appeared, coming down the stairs, and saw the uncanny scene that was at the table. But children are more flexible and can accept the wonderful more naturally.
"Yes, I did! Ain't I amazing?"
"Yes, you are!!! But how are we going to cook all this? Or even eat all this?"
"Oh, I thought that it could serve the whole village. What do you think, Gertrude?"
The woman had finally strengthened herself, after seeing her daughter's reaction, and got back to the practical affairs.
"First, we need to tell the mayor to do the distribution. We haven't had that much meat in ages! I think that this calls for a celebration!"
"A celebration?"
Cecilia and Marya asked in unison, with their eyes shining.
Cecilia had never participated in any party since the accident. This would be her first, and she was immediately on board with it.
"Well, we have to get permission of the mayor first, then call everyone to help with the preparations…"
"I'll go see the mayor now!"
Marya quickly offered, then sprinted out the door without waiting for an answer.
Gertrude didn't scold her or try to stop her, though. She was quite excited about it herself.
:::
Later that day, almost everyone was gathered in the open area that exists in front of the mayor's house. It's a small plaza, with a well and four fruit trees planted, one on each corner.
Normally, there weren't any other features worth mentioning in that plaza. But not today.
Gertrude had requested the help of several men to take out the tables and chairs from the inn, and they built a few grills hastily for the occasion, which were lit and filled with venison.
The smell of barbecue was really enticing, but it was not the only food available. Bread, pasta, vegetables, and fruit completed the menu. And, for drinking, they had beer.
A feast to lift everyone's spirits.
Cecilia was on the main table, as a guest of honor, for she was the one responsible for bringing all that meat. Along with her was the mayor with his family.
((This is truly embarrassing… I don't want to stand out so much. I just hunted a bit, why are they making such a fuss?))
Mutt was standing behind Cecilia, chatting happily with the mayor. Earlier, he had asked Cecilia to tell him how the hunting went, but Margarete stopped him after she saw Cecilia's reluctance.
Right now, he was there just to take some food to bring to his wife. But, as a fellow hunter, he really wanted to know how she did it, so he loitered around, hoping to hear her tell the story.