Alex's arrival with the corpse had created quite the stir with the people of astera as they all cheered and welcomed him back like a triumphant champion. the admiral squatted down next to the corpse to examine it and basically explained how alex killed it. "sneak attack on the throat followed by a snapping of the neck , quick and efficient , a fine kill." the man said sounding impressed. he looked over alex and grinned "killed a monster twice your size and not a scratch on those pretty black scales of yours , even if you aren't an elder you're a helluva monster , glad to have you on our side." he said with a laugh.
Alex chuffed at the man and moved to carve the corpse but the admiral stopped him . "let us handle that part so we also get the stuff that's useless to you and you get the all the rest , sound good?" he asked cautiously knowing monsters can get aggressive over their food. alex paused for a moment but nodded in the end letting the man release a sigh of relief. "just give us a bit and we'll get this sorted for you." the admiral said and alex just nodded and laid down nearby to watch.
This wasn't to say he thought the admiral was going rip him off , just that he was curious on how the actually process of harvesting a monster went since the games version was very unrealistic. alex watched as the hunters used the hole in the throat as a starting point to remove the hide first by cutting the head off. after the head was gone they drew the dagger blade under the skin of the belly all the way to the tip of the tail. they then gripped the now loose skin and yanked it off the meat carefully.
This left a mostly intact pelt that had a few imperfections from where alex's claws sank in but was perfect otherwise. someone folded that up and sent it off to get treated at the forge while the others started to pry the meat from the bones. the hunters were damn good at butchering monsters as the meat was sliced off in smooth quick motions like moving art. soon enough alex a nice neat couple of piles of meat and organs. he ate the organs but just held the meat in his mouth before trotting off to the canteen with the thick stack of meat joyfully swishing his tail as he did so.
The head chef knew exactly what alex wanted when he saw he show up with the huge stack of white meat. when cooked alex thought the great jagras meat was like a very high quality poultry with just a hint of gaminess. knowing that alex was a pure carnivore the head chef was pretty limited in his dish choices but he made due with simply cooking the meat a few different ways. alex let the head chef know that the sweet grilled version was his favorite.
When alex returned to his nest he brought up the system interface were he saw that he had gotten roughly fifty thousand points for eating the great jagras which was a fairly sizable amount. he also noticed that there was a notification congratulating him on his first solo hunted monster with a free choice of a single weak elemental affinity. alex wasted no time at all choosing thunder attribute and saving it as his choice. alex stiffened along his full length as he felt a warm buzz of energy flowing through his body.
It was weak and barely even noticeable but it was there just beneath his skin waiting on him to call on it. alex knew that he also gained the weakness to ice type energy that countered thunder but that wasn't a problem for him since he knew he wouldn't come across anything using it in the ancient forest or the wildspire waste. he did however plan to do something special for his elements similar to another black dragon. in the editor for his full body he carefully drew two small deer antler horns with three branches , and along his back he added an extra row of antler like spines all the way to the tip of his tail.
Alex added the description to these things that they were extremely hard and regrowable and acted as channeling points for his thunder element making it easy and smooth to use. these changes cost alex forty six thousand points due to how they made him a prodigy with his new element. he gritted his teeth at the price but could only accept it as a worthy price for power. saving the changes alex twitched as his eyebrows started to itch along with a row of points next to his spine.