Chapter 319 - 209: The Fire Seed Bet

Chapter 319: Chapter 209: The Fire Seed Bet

Boiling it down would be best, if conditions permitted.

But they didn’t even have a pot on hand, so boiling was out of the question. Even if they did, it wouldn’t be large enough to hold the entire skeleton.

So he prepared to steam it.

"Come give me a hand. Dig a pit, make sure it’s deep enough."

"Dig a pit?"

Bartel frowned in confusion. "Why dig a pit?"

"Do you have a better idea for how to break down the rest of the skeleton? If you do, be my guest."

"Uh... no."

The corner of his mouth twitched. He silently took the piece of bamboo Lin Chen handed him and started helping with the pit.

As a professional Deer Hunter, he knew just how tough a deer skeleton was. Unless you had a cutting machine, you’d typically need heavy-duty tools like a cleaver or a chainsaw to break it down by hand.

He was curious to see what method this young man from Great Xia would use to dismantle the deer’s skeleton.

Under Lin Chen’s direction, the two men spent half an hour digging a pit half a meter deep.

Erica had apparently guessed his plan, as she had already gone and returned with some fresh banana leaves.

He laid a banana leaf on the bottom of the pit. First, he placed the deer’s head, still attached to the neck bones, in the center. Then came the tailbone, and finally, the ribs.

The unique shape of the ribs resembled an open hand, cradling the deer head. It made perfect use of the pit’s narrow space, leaving no odd-shaped voids.

Next, he stuck a banana leaf upright on either side of the bottom leaf, flush against the pit’s walls, and folded them over the top to completely enclose the skeleton.

The tropical banana leaves were wide and large, covering the deer skeleton as snugly as a blanket. The overlapping section on top effectively created a double-layered barrier.

He spread a layer of fresh moss over the leaves before piling all the excavated dirt back on top, creating a small, arched mound.

Only then did Bartel realize what he was planning.

’He’s actually planning to bury the entire skeleton to cook it?’

This method of cooking, buried in a mound of earth, wasn’t particularly rare. It was easy enough to find with a quick internet search.

For your average lazy Westerner, there were only two ways to cook while camping.

Roasting it on a skewer or boiling it in a pot.

Almost no one bothered to look up special wilderness cooking techniques.

He only knew about this method because he’d seen an old hunter use it during a group hunt once.

Meat cooked this way was juicy and tender, completely different from the dry stuff you got from roasting it directly over a fire.

He later learned the method was very similar to American-style barbecue. You’d wrap marinated meat in layers of airtight parchment paper, then place it in a sealed smoker for anywhere from a dozen hours to several days.

The smoker’s temperature was stable, with no open flames, so the moisture in the wrapped meat couldn’t evaporate. It was essentially a low-and-slow cooking technique, which retained the maximum amount of juice.

But using this method to cook a skeleton... He honestly couldn’t picture it.

"You have plenty of deer meat anyway, so you’re probably not in a rush for these bones, right? Let’s deal with them tomorrow."

Lin Chen could tell from the look in the man’s eyes that he understood the plan.

He wasn’t surprised. After all, Bartel wasn’t part of the wilderness survival community, so he had no way of knowing how common this cooking method—similar to the one used for Beggar’s Chicken—really was.

"Wait until tomorrow?"

Even though he’d expected as much, Bartel still looked a little unhappy.

He glanced around, seeming to survey the nearby terrain.

"If you’re thinking of building a shelter, there’s no room around here."

Erica eyed him warily, pointing in the direction of a mango tree. "The area past the Mangrove Forest is Andre’s shelter. This side originally belonged to Lin, but now it’s mine. There’s a creek that way, and Lin’s new shelter is on the other side of it."

"We’ve already scavenged all the resources around here. Even if you wanted to settle nearby, there’s probably nothing left for you. I suggest you either head for the mountaintop or look for a spot much farther away."

"What a pain!"

Bartel cursed under his breath. Just as he was about to bend down and wrap his share of the spoils in a banana leaf, Erica stopped him.

"What do you think you’re doing? These banana leaves are ours. We never said you could have them."

"????"

Bartel’s mouth fell open, his face a mask of pure astonishment.

He wanted to argue, but he was at a loss for words.

He glanced over at the nearby forest. Aside from the stumps of a few felled banana trees, he couldn’t spot a single banana leaf.

’It made sense, when he thought about it. Who knew how long these people had been surviving out here? Banana leaves were the most useful large leaves in the wild—a natural substitute for cloth.’

’They could be used not only for wrapping things, but also as tablecloths, mattresses, and even cutting boards and plates.’

’Unsurprisingly, all the banana leaves in the vicinity had likely been gathered already.’

’So how was he supposed to carry all this meat away?’

’In this warm weather, it wouldn’t take long—just four or five hours—for the chunks of venison to start spoiling.’

’It would start to smell within half a day and begin to rot within a full day.’

’It was already approaching dusk. Building a shelter was out of the question, and he might not even make it out of their territory before dark.’

Bartel quickly ran through the situation in his head and realized he was trapped in a dilemma.