Chapter 32: Butchering

The System was offering a generous 250 Points for the [Gray Horned Wolf carcass]. That was certainly tempting, but I’d instinctively held off on selling it.

Good thing I did.

Because now, I had a much better use for it.

I summoned my [Stone Knife], the one equipped with the [Butchering] skill, and placed it in front of Gopuran.

Previously, every monster corpse I obtained had gone straight to the System for a quick Point conversion simply because I had no way to process them myself.

But now, I had citizens. Capable citizens.

"My girl, you wanted more quests, right?"

"Wood gathering is off the table at night. It’s too dangerous. But how about this instead?"

I created a new quest on the spot and assigned it directly to her.

[Wolf Carcass Dismantling Quest]

For the reward, I set it at 3 Powerstones (F).

I had no idea what useful materials the wolf would yield or how long the task would take, but considering this was essentially an experiment, one Powerstone seemed like a fair starting point.

Gopuran accepted without hesitation.

[Ding!]

[Gopuran has accepted your "Wolf Carcass Dismantling" quest!]

"Alright! Excellent."

I materialized the wolf’s large body right in front of her.

Gopuran immediately grabbed the knife and set to work without hesitation, her small hands moving with surprising confidence as she began processing the carcass.

Gopuro watched from the side.

His eyes narrowed.

There was unmistakable jealousy in his expression.

"Sorry, buddy. I only have one knife with the [Butchering] skill!"

*****

But then, to my surprise, even without the [Butchering] skill and without any quest assigned, Gopuro jumped in to help anyway.

He pulled out a knife of his own—one he’d apparently been secretly carrying all this time.

Unfortunately, it was utter garbage. The blade was so dull it couldn’t even pierce the wolf’s thick hide properly.

Watching him struggle was painful, so I quickly bought a decent replacement from the Item Shop, handed it over, and slapped a matching quest on him for good measure. It didn’t have the [Butchering] skill though, but definitely a sharper knife for him to use.

After all, as a responsible boss, I couldn’t just stand by while my employee slaved away for free!

And it turned out to be the right call.

The wolf was enormous—easily the size of a bull—so the sheer volume of work quickly became apparent. Processing it would take far longer and require far more effort than I’d initially expected.

There was also a real risk that Gopuro, lacking the [Butchering] skill, might damage valuable parts. But with Gopuran quietly guiding him... he managed surprisingly well.

That got me thinking...

Hmmm... How exactly do skills function in this world?

Clearly, simply equipping the [Stone Knife] had given Gopuran an instinctive understanding of basic butchering techniques. It was almost like downloaded knowledge. The moment the knife was in her hand, she moved with effortless confidence, like someone who had been butchering wolves her entire life.

But what would happen if she unequipped it? Would that knowledge disappear instantly, leaving her as clueless as before? Or... would the skill leave something behind—some kind of permanent foundation she could continue to build upon?

If skills were purely temporary and tied only to equipment, vanishing the moment the tool was removed, then that honestly made little sense to me.

After all, if someone performs the same task a hundred times, or even a thousand times, do they really gain nothing from the experience?

Surely some of that knowledge had to remain.

On the other hand, if the knowledge became fully permanent after just one use, then the mechanic would be ridiculously broken.

I could simply stockpile equipment loaded with every possible skill, then cycle my citizens through them one by one.

Equip.

Unequip.

Repeat.

In no time, every goblin in my little kingdom would become a jack-of-all-trades, proficient in everything from butchering and cooking to blacksmithing and construction.

I highly doubted the System would allow something that overpowered.

*****

As I continued watching the two of them work on the wolf, the truth gradually revealed itself.

"Aha... I see!"

It was actually a mixture of the two earlier theories.

A hybrid effect.

The skill was neither completely temporary nor permanently imprinted from the very beginning.

At first, the difference between Gopuro and Gopuran was obvious. Gopuran, equipped with the [Butchering] skill, worked quickly and cleanly, while Gopuro struggled with even some of the more basic cuts.

Then, after working for a while, Gopuran paused to rest and clean her hands. She handed the knife to Gopuro for a moment.

The change was immediate.

His movements became sharper and more confident. He handled the knife more naturally, made fewer mistakes, and worked noticeably faster.

But when Gopuran took the knife back, Gopuro’s performance quickly returned to its previous level.

The conclusion was clear.

The skill and knowledge granted by the weapon were not permanent. They faded once the equipment was unequipped.

However, they weren’t completely lost, either.

Even without the skill-granting knife, Gopuro was noticeably better than when he’d started. His movements were still clumsy, but he had clearly picked up something from the short time he’d spent using the weapon.

In other words, the equipment seemed to accelerate genuine learning.

It was almost like a powerful catalyst, providing temporary guidance while allowing the user to gradually develop the underlying skill through actual practice.

"Oh my..."

"This opens up so many possibilities!"

"Though, I’ll need to perform more experiments with different types of equipment to confirm this."

If this worked with other skills as well, the implications were huge.

I could potentially use skill-granting equipment as a training tool, allowing my citizens to learn skills much faster than they normally could.

And finally, after nearly four hours of hard work, something extraordinary happened.

Gopuro suddenly froze in the middle of a cut.

A faint glow surrounded his body.

His eyes widened, as if he had just received some kind of notification that only he could perceive.

Then...

He picked up the knife again.

This time, even without the skill-granting weapon, his movements were completely different.

He worked smoothly and confidently, cutting through the carcass almost as efficiently as Gopuran had while using the [Butchering] skill.

"No way..."

Suspicious, I immediately pulled up his status screen.

And there it was.

[Butchering Lv. 1]

"Aha! I knew it!"

My hypothesis had just gained some serious evidence!

It wasn’t fully confirmed yet, of course. One successful example wasn’t enough to establish the exact mechanics.

But it was certainly strong evidence that repeatedly using skill-granting equipment could eventually allow the user to permanently learn the skill.

"Interesting..."

I suddenly had a whole new avenue of experimentation to explore.