Chapter 33: A Wolf’s Worth

In the end, it took the two of them a full four hours to completely process the wolf carcass.

They worked deep into the night, yet neither complained or showed any sign of wanting to stop. By the time they finally finished, the entire carcass had been broken down into a gigantic pile of useful materials.

The meat was neatly cut into thick, uniform pieces, while the bones had been thoroughly cleaned and stripped of any remaining flesh. The pelt was magnificent, its thick gray fur still soft and glossy, all the blood and dirt having been carefully removed. Even the fangs, claws, horns, and other useful parts had been separated and sorted neatly into their own piles.

I transferred everything into my Inventory and let the System calculate the yield, curious to see just how much we’d managed to obtain.

The result was staggering:

316 Wolf Meat (1 kg per unit)

125 Bones (1 kg per unit)

50 Fat (1 kg per unit)

4 Wolf Fangs

20 Wolf Claws

1 Gray Horned Wolf Pelt

2 Gray Horned Wolf Horns

1 Gray Horned Wolf Heart

10 Fur (1 kg per unit)

5 Powerstones (F)

"Damn... To think the System was only offering 250 Points for the entire unprocessed corpse! What a rip-off!!!"

At first, I’d thought 250 Points was already a generous payout for a single wolf. But after seeing the sheer quantity and quality of materials we’d extracted, it became painfully obvious.

The System was being ridiculously greedy!

Even if I sold only the Meat, Bones, and Fat at the System’s buyback rates...

1 Meat → 3 Points

1 Bone → 1 Point

1 Fat → 2 Points

That alone would net me 1,173 Points!

And that wasn’t even counting the fangs, claws, pelt, horns, heart, or the precious Powerstones!

Those rare materials were worth even more.

Wolf Fang → 10 Points each

Wolf Claw → 5 Points each

Gray Horned Wolf Pelt → 130 Points

Gray Horned Wolf Horn → 45 Points each

Gray Horned Wolf Heart → 100 Points

Fur → 10 Points each

Adding everything together, the materials I’d obtained from a single wolf were worth a staggering 1,733 Points.

And that was before even counting the five Powerstones, which were worth another 25 Points in total.

That brought the total theoretical value to 1,758 Points.

Of course, the System would take a 10% transaction fee if I sold everything.

But even so... I’d still receive a whopping 1,582.2 Points!

"Damn..."

I couldn’t help marveling at the ridiculous amount of wealth I’d just extracted from a single wolf.

The System had only offered me 250 Points for the entire corpse, yet processing it myself had increased its value to nearly seven times that amount.

"Guys! This is incredible! Thank you for the hard work!"

It felt so happy to be rich.

I looked at the mountain of materials filling my Inventory, already imagining all the things I could buy with this newfound wealth.

Naturally, I decided my two goblins deserved a proper bonus.

"Obviously, three Powerstones for this task is way too cheap! Alright, each of you gets five extra!"

The moment they received the additional rewards, the two goblins lit up with pure joy, jumping around and chattering excitedly.

As usual, they immediately popped the Powerstones into their mouths.

Their bodies began to glow, the light noticeably brighter than before.

Then, a familiar notification rang out.

[Ding! Gopuro has leveled up! Level 10 → Level 11]

[Ding! Gopuran has leveled up! Level 10 → Level 11]

******

"So I was right! They’re eating Powerstones to level up!"

I didn’t waste another second before pulling up their status screens, while the two danced and celebrated.

[Citizen Status]

Name: Gopuro

Race: Super Forest Goblin

Rank: ★★

Level: 11 (↑ +1)

Vital Status

- HP: 300 / 300 (Max ↑ +50)

- MP: 30 / 30 (Max ↑ +5)

- Stamina: 67 / 300 (Max ↑ +50)

Core Attributes

- Attack: 23 (↑ +8)

- Defense: 12 (↑ +2)

- Magic Attack: 0

- Magic Defense: 0

- Magic Capacity: 0

- Speed: 5

*The arrows indicated changes compared to last time I checked their statuses.

I checked Gopuran’s status as well, confirming that she had received a similar increase in her stats.

So, per level, they gain roughly +50 Max HP, +5 Max MP, +50 Max Stamina... and a whopping 10 points distributed across their core attributes? That’s fantastic growth!

That immediately made me compare their current stats with what I remembered from when I had first saved Gopuro.

Back then, he was only Level 8 and had around 10 total attribute points. If that growth pattern had remained consistent, each level from 0 to 10 would have granted him only about 1 point, or at most 2, to distribute among his core attributes.

But now, the jump from Level 10 to Level 11 alone had given him nearly as many attribute points as his entire progression from Level 0 to 10 combined!

The difference was completely absurd! No wonder the cost of leveling up had become so steep.

In this case, it had taken seven Powerstones to push Gopuro from Level 10 to Level 11.

At five Castle Points per Powerstone, that was equivalent to 35 Castle Points.

By comparison, raising him directly from Level 9 to Level 10 through [Lord’s Blessing] had cost me only 12 Points.

That means I should always use Powerstones to level up my citizens whenever possible. It’s far more cost-efficient. [Lord Blessing] should only be used in emergencies.

After all, I’d already checked the cost of using [Lord’s Blessing] to push Gopuro from Level 10 to 11. And the system was quoting me a whopping 100 Points! That’s nearly three times as expensive as using Powerstones!

And if I wanted to push him from Level 11 to 12 after that, the cost would jump again to 150 Points.

Hmmm... There really is a cost to everything.

This Super Forest Goblin variant is powerful, but raising one requires far more resources.

Satisfied with the results of my little analysis, I decided to let the two goblins rest.

I turned off the torchlight, leaving only the crackling firepit to illuminate the room and provide a little warmth.

The two goblins settled down for the night, exhausted from their long day of work.