Upon arriving near the river, Alexander checked the area to confirm it was safe and then looked for a sturdy and minimally sharp rock. His search took at least ten minutes, but a rock that fit his prerequisites was found.
After finding the rock, he returned to the grove and positioned himself in the part where the vegetation began to thin out. This way, he wouldn't have vegetation dense enough to hinder him, but would still have a layer of vegetation to give him cover if any creature appeared.
With the natural camouflage of a goblin in that type of environment, Alexander approached the area where he had seen the greatest number of rabbits and chose a good position to hide.
Hidden behind one of the trees on the trail that led to the river, he prepared to ambush the rabbits, as, thanks to his good position and camouflage, he wouldn't even need to move. The rabbits themselves would come to him.
Just as planned, it didn't take long for a rabbit to appear in his field of vision. But to increase his proficiency and confirm that it was just a rabbit, |Appraise| was used.
[{Wild Rabbit}]
His worries diminished with the confirmation that it was just a rabbit, but that didn't make him relax. After all, confirming it was just a rabbit didn't guarantee the success of the ambush.
When the rabbit reached a certain position, his instincts screamed that this was the right moment. And so, without even hesitating, he lunged at the animal, brandishing his stake.
The rabbit still tried to flee, but it was too late. Alexander managed to pin the rabbit's body to the ground with the stake.
Even with its body pierced and bleeding, the rabbit continued struggling to free itself from the stake while squealing in pain. Its squeals weren't loud, but they could end up scaring away the other rabbits or attracting some creature.
Not wanting to risk either of these scenarios happening, he picked up his rock and used it to slit the rabbit's throat.
[1 x {Wild rabbit} slain. – You received 5 XP points]
With the rabbit dead, Alexander quickly turned it upside down to let as much blood as possible drain out, which didn't take long, as there wasn't much blood.
"If I'm not mistaken, the next step to skinning a rabbit is to inflate it like a balloon, as that should expand its body and help loosen its skin, which is already naturally quite loose," he remembered, surprised to see that it actually worked, since, after all, he had never done this on Earth. This was just random information he had somehow heard during his research.
With the rabbit's skin already half-loose, Alexander followed the instructions in his memories and removed all the rabbit's extremities, as they were the main points that kept the rabbit's skin attached to the body.
After using the rock to remove the rabbit's extremities, he used it to cut/tear the rabbit's chest in a "straight" line, running from where the head was to where the tail was, as well as making small cuts that ran from the chest to where the cut-off pieces of the legs were.
With that done, all that remained was to carefully pull the rabbit's skin to remove it without major problems.
With the skin removed, Alexander just needed to clean the inside of the rabbit to obtain his first source of food.
"Removing these things as quickly as possible after slaughtering an animal should help preserve its meat," he recalled. "After all, the blood and soft tissues will rot very quickly and can compromise the meat."
After finishing skinning the rabbit, he threw dirt and crushed leaves over the remains until they were buried. This was not even close to the best way to conceal the smell, but it was still better than nothing.
Smelling the blood coming from his body, Alexander carefully approached the river to confirm there were no dangerous creatures, and washed himself and his stake as best he could.
Confirming that, apparently, there were no creatures there, he picked up the rabbit parts and began washing them in the river water, but the skin remained "rebellious" and oily.
Seeing there wasn't much he could do, Alexander just left it like that and placed all the rabbit parts to dry in the sun on a stone not very visible from a distance. After completing the entire rabbit processing procedure, he went back to hiding among some bushes.
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Surprisingly, that grove really had a reasonably good number of rabbits, because it didn't take long for another rabbit to approach.
Trying to get used to this to always be increasing his proficiency, Alexander used the skill |Appraise| again.
[(Wild Rabbit)]
Perhaps due to some overconfidence created by his past success, or even due to lack of practice in this type of situation, he ended up mistiming the lunge, and the rabbit managed to escape the ambush.
This single failure didn't frustrate him. Alexander just changed position to another spot, and some time later another rabbit appeared passing by.
This time, he didn't rush, but still ended up missing his attack and the rabbit managed to escape.
Exasperated by his mistakes, Alexander changed position again and focused as much as possible. When a new rabbit appeared, there was no hesitation in his attack, which fortunately succeeded.
[1 x {Wild rabbit} slain. – You received 5 XP points]
After repeating the same process he did with the first rabbit, realizing he was spending too much time with these pauses, he then started to only drain the rabbit's blood, place the rest on a not very visible stone in the shade, and wash himself to remove the smell of blood.
With a new operating mode defined, Alexander went back to trying to ambush rabbits. Little by little, the ambushing process became familiar, and this increased his success rate to one out of every three rabbits.
After killing seven more rabbits, he came very close to leveling up. And because of that, he decided to ambush just one more rabbit before stopping.
[7 x {Wild rabbits} slain. – You received 35 XP points]
Alexander knew he had to finish quickly to return before dark. But since he had hit the last two ambushes, this put some pressure on him, as his success rate wasn't that high.
A good amount of time passed before another rabbit appeared, and this made him even more determined to succeed. "I have to succeed. Who knows when another one will appear."
As he became increasingly focused on his goal, the rabbit moved with more and more caution, as if it felt something.
"Shit. It must be the smell of blood," Alexander concluded.
Suppressing his anxiety to the maximum, he waited for the ideal moment to ambush the rabbit.
As soon as the rabbit came minimally within his range, his lunge was launched.
The rabbit, which was alert, reacted quickly to the ambush. But to its misfortune, its attempt to flee only caused the stake to hit its neck, killing it instantly, without even needing to use the rock.
[1 x {Wild rabbit} slain – You received 5 XP points]
Ding!
[You developed the proficiency skill: |Ambush|]
Ding!
[You leveled up. But due to the interference of the special skill |Attribute Control|, all your attribute increases upon leveling up were denied and converted into free attribute points.]
*[+7 free attribute points]*
*[+1 growth point]*
Alexander didn't feel different when his level increased, but the information regarding the skill |Ambush| entered his head as soon as the notification sounded.
Satisfied with everything he had achieved, he took advantage of what was left of the afternoon to skin the other rabbits.
His efficiency in disassemble rabbits increased with his practice while working. And just when only one rabbit was left, a notification sound sounded.
Ding!
[You developed the proficiency skill: |Disassemble|]
As soon as the notification sounded, another set of information began to flow into his mind. The interesting thing about this new set was that it was quite vague, as if it wasn't a specific skill, but rather a small manual of good practices.
Alexander decided not to think too much about it and began to skin the last rabbit. But as soon as he started, a sensation arose and began to assist him.
Not even he knew how to explain it, but this sensation significantly increased his efficiency. His work seemed easier and the final quality of the product also seemed much better.
As soon as he finished, he raised his head and checked the sun.
"Its intensity is gradually decreasing," Alexander analyzed, frowning. "It's almost as if it were in the range of 04:30 (PM) to 05:00 (PM) on Earth. But considering that the day here seems to last longer, I must have spent well over 2 hours."
Wanting to take advantage of the remaining period of sunlight, he picked up the rabbit parts he would keep and went to the river. And after confirming it was safe, he began to wash his things.
As soon as he finished, Alexander realized the new skins had become just like the previous one, "rebellious" and "oily." And since he couldn't handle them in that state, he began to think of a solution.
"I remember that you need to apply some products to the leather to make it suitable for handling. But obviously, I don't have them here," he thought while looking for a solution. "That's right. I can try that to get rid of this oily aspect."
Curious to know what his result would be, Alexander gathered all the skins in one place, placed both hands on them, and intoned: "|Invigorate|."
Upon intoning the spell, he noticed two things: it wasn't necessary to vocalize the spell, as just thinking about using it seemed to be enough; and a strange energy flowed through his arms when using the spell.
Following his will, the spell created a sphere of water around the rabbit skins. The sphere managed to contain all of them, but it also seemed about to burst.
The spell didn't last long, but when it ended, the skins were different. They even seemed ready to be worked on as soon as they dried.
This discovery made him happy, but he couldn't afford to celebrate, as he had to return to the clearing before sunset.
He then deactivated his talent, as his human form was better for carrying things, and carefully headed towards the clearing. During his return, twigs and dry leaves were collected along the way.
As soon as he reached the clearing, Alexander began to look for traces of possible intruders. And upon confirming that no creature had passed through there, he became a little calmer.
Ding!
[Mission Completed]
