In the woods, Siderius followed the river downstream. The land slowly opened up into a vast grassland with rocks and sand covering the river banks.
The grassland was deserted in the moment with no beast to be seen.
Siderius sat down inside a bush. He intended to wait.
This big clearing was an ideal place for big animals and predators to collect water. The river was also shallow enough to show its cool clear water.
Sooner or later, a big animal would appear.
Siderius waited for quite a while. The moon floated silently above the clouds, shining its light to the dark woods. There wasn't a soul in sight near the river.
Siderius closed his eyes. Ambushing a wild animal took time and patience, so while waiting, Siderius meditated.
His mouth mumbled the verse of the Ring of Sense once more.
"By touch and taste, by scent and sound.
No chaos placed, on hallowed ground."
The dark space inside his mind revealed itself once more. The owl was still there with the blue sphere surrounding it and the faint ring.
Once you had located the beast with Northern Eye and placed a Ring, it was not necessary to repeat the Alchemical Sign. Siderius only needed to evoke the space by speaking the verse and focus his mind.
Siderius lowered his breathing and manipulated his mental energy once more.
The Ring of Sense slowly absorbed the faint blue sphere.
Siderius kneeled inside the bush for quite a long time. His body didn't even move one bit. He sat motionless like a rock and fused with the surrounding landscape.
Time passed by.
An hour. No psychosis had decreased.
Two hours. Finally there was an effect.
[PSYCHOSIS -1]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 61/125]
The Nine Rings was less effective than the beginning. Now it only decreased one point every two hours. It was as Siderius' expectation.
He continued to meditate for another two hours.
[PSYCHOSIS -1]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 60/125]
After the fourth hour, the meditation lost most of its effectiveness. Siderius could feel that he would need more than two hours to drop a single point of Psychosis.
It was a common disadvantage of meditation techniques. It would only be good for the first few hours.
Suddenly, there was the sound of water splashing.
Siderius opened his eyes, interrupting his meditation.
The night was almost over and sunrise was peeking in the far East sky. On the river bank, a big black water buffalo was drinking water from the river.
The buffalo was huge. Its shoulder height was almost two meters tall. Its defined muscles surged under its black smooth skin.
Siderius stepped out of the bush and carefully approached the buffalo, his feet were gentle and stayed on them toes, creating the least amount of noise possible.
When the distance was right, he squatted down and picked up a stone to throw it at the buffalo.
The buffalo was still drinking water. It was not aware of the danger it was in. This type of creature was much less cautious than the small catch Siderius had encountered.
But it heard the noise of the stone. The water buffalo lifted its head up only to be hit by a rock.
The rock did not cause any damage. The water buffalo wasn't even pushed back by the force. It did, however, become annoyed. Its eyes locked onto Siderius with a dense killing pressure.
That was what Siderius was hoping to see. He was worried that the buffalo may run off. But an aggressive beast would never run away. Not until it felt like its life was on the line.
The buffalo lowered its head and aimed its two large horns at Siderius. Its front legs scraped on the ground, sending a warning to the little human.
Compared to its enormous body, Siderius appeared to pose no danger to it. It did not consider him a threat.
Siderius ignored its warning and hurled another stone at it. The stone hit the horn of the buffalo and broke into pieces. Dust and bits scattered into the air.
A puff of wet air pushed out from its nostrils. Siderius' disrespectful act had officially enraged it. The buffalo stormed at him.
He stood still, eyes looking directly at the beast.
Its eyes were brown and full of anger.
His eyes were black with a mild hint of amusement.
His left hand raised, the silver bracer materialized around his wrist.
Once the buffalo was close enough, Siderius drew the
The buffalo became dizzy and it immediately fell face first on the sandy river bank, scraping on the ground for quite a few meters before stopping.
It was charging at a very high-speed and once
Siderius climbed onto the wild beast. He stabbed the large hunter knife into its neck and twisted it.
The buffalo let out a low painful bellow. It stood up almost immediately then ran off. Siderius's right hand held the knife tightly while his left palm slammed the butt of the knife repeatedly.
The knife cut deeper into the beast, opening up the wound on its neck. Blood gushed out even more but it did not give up.
The buffalo ran into the woods. It intended to use the trees to buck Siderius off its back. But he already knew that.
Siderius leaned his entire body to one side and pulled the knife over. Its blade cut out a line on the buffalo's neck.
The beast was diverted away from its path. Then it was pulled down. Its face smacked on the sandy river bank again.
Siderius already jumped off. He rolled a few times to disperse the force.
Siderius quickly got up and got close to the buffalo.
"Don't struggle. Let me end your suffering." Siderius said. His voice was soothing and calm. It's as if he was saying farewell to a friend instead of killing a beast.
Siderius thrusted his knife into the beast again. This time a clean stab into its heart, killing it almost instantly. The buffalo wailed for one last time before its body became motionless.
Siderius placed his hand on its head gently.
"Depart in peace."
The buffalo was killed mercifully and quickly. Its eyes closed up.
Siderius immediately moved on to dissect the buffalo. Leaving it alone for too long would allow the bacteria in its gut to spoil its precious meat. He only had around thirty minutes to an hour to clean its inside.
With gentleness and precision, he cut down one straight line in the middle of the buffalo, starting from its chest and down to its bottom.
He made sure not to cut too deep to avoid cutting into the organs inside.
Then, he slowly pulled out all the internal organs.
Siderius, the Master Witch Hunter, gutted the buffalo beautifully.
He took a look inside the buffalo one last time to make sure it was deeply cleaned.
The job wasn't over. Now he needed to dissect the meat to make sure it wouldn't spoil from the heat.
The first thing would be to chop its head off. The brain might not spoil the meat quickly like the other organs but it still contributed a large amount of heat.
Removing it was essential.
After that, Siderius went for its hide. The skin of the buffalo served as an incubator, leaving it on would make the meat too hot and quick to spoil.
The hunter knife was designed specifically for this job and Siderius was an experienced hunter. He had no challenge skinning it entirely.
Siderius received a whole buffalo hide. This hide would be great for making clothes or designing leather armor later. The way its skin had completely blocked the throwing rock was a good sign that it was resilient.
The final step was easy. Siderius cut the carcass into four, each side of its four limbs. This dissection would greatly reduce the heat it received. The bigger an object the more temperature it would catch.
After completing every step, Siderius moved everything back to his camp. Having no horse proved this task to be a challenge. Even after processing, the buffalo meat was very heavy and Siderius had to make a few round trips to move everything.
The effort was worth it in the end. This buffalo would make sure Siderius didn't need to worry about food for a long time. And he had the needed material for his new uniform.