Rikuro looked at the system in front of him. As it explained how to tan a hide.
『Tanning Hides』
Three ways to tan hides.
• Brain Tanning
• Bark Tanning
• Alum Tanning
He looked at the choices and opened up each one, though he knows that he can't do Alum Tanning, he's still curious to what it is.
Brain Tanning
- A traditional method using animal brains to preserve and soften the hide. The brains are mixed with water, the mixture is applied to the hide, and the hide is worked until soft.
Bark Tanning
- N/A
Alum Tanning
- A more modern method using chemicals like alum to preserve and soften the hide. The hide is soaked in a solution of alum and other chemicals, and then worked to soften it.
He immediately questioned why bark tanning has no information on it. "It's weird that one of the three has no information on it.. why is it even listed in the options?" As he pondered he remembered that the random video he watched that taught him to stretch the hides also said how to tan it.
"Maybe that's why there's missing information in one of the options. The video I watched never explained bark tanning. It just said it existed. Is the system literally using what I remember to make the search engine." He worked up a theory that he found pretty acceptable and reasonable.
"Let me try it first.. system search Drag-On Sphere" he then used the search bar to search Drag-On Sphere
『Drag-On Sphere』
Drag-On Sphere is an anime/manga that follows the story of Wukong, in collecting the Spheres of Drag-On..
"No that could be just a coincidence.. let me search something I literally don't know." He thought of a random country who he knew he had no knowledge on.
『Chad』
A country in Africa.
"Well that settles it, it's using my brain to give me information, my brain is dumb and I might even have misinformation in it that the system might give me." He sighed and focused back to his work.
"Well since there's only one option I can actually do.." He focused on the brain tanning.
First, he took the brains out of the carcasses of the wolves and now he needs a bucket to hold the solution.
He thinks of a way to make a bucket.. then he thought of a solution. He scavenged for a fallen log big enough for a bucket.
He went into the forest area and found a fallen tree which is bigger than what he needed. The width of the tree is bigger than him standing up. That's how big the trees are in this forest.
He didn't need that humongous tree, but its branches were perfect. He cut a branch off using 『Matter Destruction』and cut more off to shorten it. What's left of the branch is a log as big as his head.
"Using Hakai to chop off wood is very tiring.. my god, I can't afford to fall asleep, not now."
He carried the bucket log into his camp. It still isn't hollowed up, but using 『Matter Destruction』again would make him lose consciousness and he can't waste any more time, since night is close. A few hours is left till darkness consume the forest once more.
Since he couldn't use 『Matter Destruction』to hollow out the wood, he did the only thing he could only think off. Smashing it.
"Rock vs wood action, rock will win." He picked up a jagged rock and started pounding the middle of the wood, making the hollow part of the bucket with just rocks.
He kept on pounding and pounding and pounding, the wood slowly chipping away and hollowing up. "I've pounded this wood so much, I won't be surprised if it gets pregnant."
As he gets his energy back, he uses 『Matter Destruction』to speed up the process. Pound and destroy and pound and destroy pound and destroy, rinse and repeat for 2 hours, until he finally finished hollowing his wooden bucket.
"Is this the definition of work harder not smarter?" He pondered to himself, and finally he picked up water, and put the wolf brains in the water and crushed it. Finally making the solution for the brain tanning.
He scraped some off the rot that piled on the skin which are the hair and the membranes and then soaked all three of them in the solution, and after waiting for 30 minutes he took them out and wrung them dry, he then put it on a stick and he twisted it into a donut to dry more. He did this again. This took a toll on him, since he can only take a break when the hides are soaking.
He couldn't give up now, since night is almost here, he's racing against time, he has to finish this before he goes to sleep. As he finished the third tanning process, another one of heavy labor awaits. Softening.
『Softening』
Stretch, pull, rub or even smack the hide to keep the fibers moving as the hide dries.
He did all of those things for three hides, at the same time. And did it for another 30 minutes. Finally one step remains. Smoking.
As he looked at the instructions he began to feel more and more exhausted, even more than he already was. And so he just did what it said in the fastest way possible.
It is already dark and he relit his fire. Good thing smoking needs fire. He made charcoal by burning a lot of wood to make it. He dug up three holes on the ground.
He took some decayed wood, or punky wood. Finally he took the charcoal put it in the holes, put punky wood on top and then the hides on top of the wood. And finally that's it, probably.
He waited for another 30 minutes to flip the hides to smoke the other side, but as he waited in his tent he finally fell asleep.
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"Wha-"
He awoke in the morning, he was asleep while sitting down. He still had no clothes on so he was bitten a lot. He stretched and went to his hides.
"That was one of the worst things I could've thought to do." He picked up all three hides and looked at it. One he used to make his top, and two he made into bags, he just tied it up and made it into a pouch.
"The next course of action for me to do, is to explore and to finally try and leave this forest."