I was an apprentice in Ferren

Chapter 16 Turning waste into treasure
While the pigs were being slaughtered, DuPont sat there in a daze, still savoring the carnage that had just occurred to him.

Compared to slaughtering cattle before, this time I was much more skilled at slaughtering pigs, and even when I failed the first time, my hands didn't tremble anymore.

Normally he should have made progress, but his civilized soul still made him feel a deep-seated aversion to such killing.

"Maybe killing a few more would be better," DuPont thought listlessly.

“What Man Shi said just now wasn’t meant to mock you.” Just as DuPont was thinking, Judy came to his side, patted his knee and handed him a glass of milk: “Actually, I think he admires you quite a bit. But most barbarians are used to being unruly and rude, and they basically don’t speak properly. They just use foul language. But he’s not a bad person. He just wants you not to be as cowardly as this kind of idiot.”

"Thank you, Judy." DuPont nodded, revealing a shy, youthful smile. "I feel much better after hearing your comfort."

“Haha, how could you, a mage, not understand these principles? But you are still young, you'll get better with more experience.” Judy said, pointing to the side, “Although these are just mindless manual labor jobs, sometimes when there is no food in the wild, you have to hunt and do manual labor yourself. Especially when you don’t have a space bag, you have to calculate how much you can carry on a trip. You can take a look at their work.”

DuPont nodded, and several farmers worked together to lift the fat pig onto a large pot. They poured hot water that had been boiled earlier onto the pig's body. After the skin and hair softened, the butcher switched to an ordinary long knife and quickly scraped off the hair. Then he directed the farmers to turn the fat pig over, and with a small knife in his hand, he made two cuts on the lower half of the pig's body, then cut it in half again. Afterwards, he threw the pig's whip out with a look of disgust to feed the hunting dogs that had followed him.

After the filth was removed, the pig was decapitated and gutted. The butcher simply twisted his knife around the thick neck, and the nearly half-meter-long pig's head fell off. Several farmers took out large wooden basins that they had prepared in advance to catch the pig's head and offal, but they threw away the pig's blood with a look of disgust.

DuPont looked on with some regret; these people didn't know how to eat.

The barbarian Manshi was quick and efficient. He moved very fast, and in the blink of an eye, he had finished removing the tendons and bones from one leg. The whole pig, which was originally intact, was cut into pieces of different sizes according to its location in less than two minutes, and then thrown into different wooden basins according to the parts.

Finally, he contentedly picked a long, thin piece of tender meat from beside the spine, and without washing it, casually took out a bowl of sauce, tore the meat apart, dipped it in, and stuffed it into his mouth, leaving DuPont looking astonished.

Holy crap, aren't you afraid of getting sick from eating like this?

Is it possible to use magic to prevent pig diseases in this world?

That's probably unlikely. Although magic can be more powerful than science in some ways, magic is cast by people or magic arrays, which costs money. Using a mage to care for pigs would be prohibitively expensive.

Man Shi saw the look of disbelief on Du Bang's face, and after swallowing the meat in his mouth, he tore off a few more strips and handed them to him: "This is real tenderloin, almost as tender as beef tenderloin, but with a unique flavor. It can be called a delicacy. Try it?"

DuPont quickly shook his head, muttering, "He doesn't know what's good for him, just like a halfling," before continuing to eat. Only after he finished did DuPont ask, "Brother, aren't you afraid of getting parasites from eating like this?"

"Insect disease? How could this be insect disease?" Man Shi looked at him like he was an idiot. "Who has ever seen fleas living inside their flesh? Did you go crazy from copying so many books?"

“I’m not talking about fleas.” DuPont thought for a moment, then realized this guy probably had never seen parasites before, and gestured: “It’s the kind of worm that comes into a fish’s belly, flat and white like a noodle, pretty disgusting.”

Man Shi shook his head and said, "No, I've even eaten dragon meat, so what is this? Let's not talk about this, or we'll lose our appetite." After saying that, he seemed to suddenly remember something and frowned, "However, I do feel unwell every few months. Whenever I have an attack, I just go to a druid and they use a disease removal spell on me, and it's usually nothing serious."

DuPont remained silent after hearing this.

Removing disease is a third-circle druid spell, one level higher than his 50-gold Lesser Restoration spell, and it ended up being used on this gluttonous barbarian.

If he remembered correctly, pork tapeworm is a disease that has only been curable for a few years, even in modern times, and the treatment is quite complicated. In Faron, it's much simpler; with money, the disease can be cured in no time.

Seeing DuPont's expression, Man Shi sensed danger: "You mean my illness is because I eat raw meat?"

DuPont nodded and said, "That's right. This pig looks relatively clean, but some pigs may carry parasites. If you eat it raw, the parasites can easily get into your stomach and grow inside your body, which is quite disgusting."

The butcher looked incredulous: "Are you kidding me? My eyesight is perfect, how could I not see a worm longer than a finger?"

"They're tiny worm eggs. Besides, you didn't seem to look closely when you were tearing the meat. But the meat looks pretty good, so it's probably not a big problem. However, if you see white spots on pork in the future, it's definitely pork with worms. Some people with strong stomachs can pass them out with diarrhea, but that's parasites."

DuPont's words made the butcher's face turn ugly, as did the other farmers, one of whom even vomited. Even the halfling looked unwell, prompting DuPont to ask in surprise, "You haven't all eaten this, have you?"

“There are a lot of meats with white spots, even beef.” Judy scratched her head. “But I don’t feel any discomfort.”

"Generally speaking, meat is safe once it's cooked through. And insects aren't flame-resistant; they'll die after a few minutes of boiling water."

DuPont's words relieved the group, but Judy was still somewhat incredulous: "But the ones sent to the academy are occasionally checked for toxins, and this has never triggered an alarm?"

“First of all, parasites and toxins are two different diseases. This falls under the category of illness, so your antidote magic won't work. Also, cooking the meat thoroughly will solve the problem. Of course, it's best to choose good quality meat.” DuPont said, looking at the offal. “Alright, stop worrying about that. Just don't eat raw meat anymore. But what do you do with these things?”

“The heart and liver taste good, and sometimes they’re boiled in salt water and they’re quite delicious.” Judy jumped off the stool. “As for the pig’s head and other offal, they’re usually sold cheaply at the market. These things look ugly and smell fishy. Except for those poor guys who don’t have much money and want to make some money off them, basically nobody likes to eat them.”

“Do you remember what I told you yesterday?” DuPont smiled. “I once saw a mysterious book that contained methods for processing these things, and the resulting dishes tasted quite good.”

"Hmm?" The halfling frowned upon hearing this, feeling it was an attack on his professional ethics. "You mean a pig's head? I've tried some parts of it and they do have a unique flavor, but this one has too much fat and is greasy. I can't eat more than a few pieces before I don't want to eat anymore. Plus, it doesn't look good. No one would want it at a proper banquet. Just looking at it might spoil the diners' mood."

“You’re right, but proper cooking methods can turn waste into treasure. Besides, this pig’s head isn’t completely useless. You know, it’s a top-quality ingredient with nine completely different flavors. Compared to its deliciousness, its ugliness is hardly a flaw.” He then pointed to the intestines on the ground: “Apart from that, these two can be called delicacies, it’s just that the cooking method is special.”

"Huh? You can eat this stuff?" Judy looked incredulous at this, but the butcher seemed to remember something: "In my hometown, if the harvest is bad and we can't hunt anything, the stomach, small intestines, and pig lungs are usually turned into offal soup. But normally, as long as supplies are plentiful, this stuff is fed to the tribe's hunting dogs. People wouldn't even give this large intestine away. Hey, George, do you guys eat this stuff?"

Several farmers shook their heads after hearing this: "Adding some vegetables and mint to the offal porridge can remove the fishy smell, but who's going to get the intestines? Even a dog would smell bad for days after eating it. No matter how poor we are, we can't eat this stuff."

“Normally, cleaning is indeed a problem. If it’s not handled properly, it’s not only easy to get sick, but it also smells bad.” DuPont nodded in agreement. If he hadn’t discovered how useful the spell was, he wouldn’t have bothered to clean this thing. “But the mage has a spell called the Cleansing spell. You don’t need to do anything to clean it. Just wash it with salt and flour after the spell is finished.”

The farmers clearly didn't believe it, and Judy opened her mouth wide, not knowing what to say for a long time. But the butcher patted the halfling on the shoulder: "That's interesting. Anyway, this thing isn't worth much, so you can try it. But you'll have to eat it first."

"What kind of talk is that? Do you think I'd just sit around feeding you shit for no reason?"

Upon hearing this, both the barbarian and the halfling shook their heads and said in unison, "It's hard to say."

(End of this chapter)