Since Leon had no idea what Iris was imagining, there was no point wasting effort trying to guess.
Spend enough time together and he'd find out naturally.
He began the second round of harvesting.
As a powerful monster recorded even in mythic history, a Minotaur was useful for far more than just its hide.
That dense, springy beef was also a rare, high-quality tonic.
If you ate it long-term, both physical conditioning and mana capacity would absolutely improve.
Even its blood contained mana and could be used as an alchemy ingredient.
Unfortunately, to win the fight, Leon had siphoned off a large amount of the Minotaur's mana-rich blood.
What remained didn't contain much mana anymore—hardly worth selling. Considering their carrying capacity, he could only keep a little.
Holding his butchering knife, Leon began cutting.
Once the hide was peeled away, the meat became much easier to work with.
Watching Leon carve with the speed and familiarity of a professional butcher, Iris asked in surprise,
"Leon—you even know how to butcher?"
Normally, if you killed a decent monster in a dungeon, you'd bring it back to the Adventurers' Guild and let a professional dismantler handle it.
They knew what parts were valuable, what was poisonous, and what you mustn't puncture—there were techniques.
If you messed up and pierced certain poison sacs or blood sacs, or damaged too many mana channels, you could ruin a whole monster carcass that would otherwise fetch a good price.
That was why you generally paid the Guild a dismantling fee of 5% to 20%, depending on the monster.
Leon smiled faintly. "Because I'm from the countryside."
A truly poor country bumpkin might not get meat more than a few times a year—they wouldn't have the chance to learn.
Leon's quasi-baron background was poor overall, but still better than most.
In the early stage—when he lacked money and combat power—Leon had specifically paid a local dismantler to teach him, so he could fully utilize the monsters he hunted.
He hadn't turned it into an extraordinary profession, but dismantling first- and second-tier monsters was no problem.
Of course, dismantling something like a Minotaur—this was his first time, and it really was difficult.
Luckily, Leon had physiology knowledge from his previous life. Combined with real-world practice, he could handle most of the issues.
Whenever he wasn't sure where to cut, he avoided the spot first and observed, then decided later.
After completing the initial dismantling, Leon laid the organs on a sheet of white cloth.
Then he used the Minotaur's ribs and shin bones to skewer most of the meat into kebabs, planting them in the ground in a circle—forming a spectacular "little forest" of meat skewers.
The sheer visual impact of a four-to-six-meter-tall monster becoming a mountain of meat was intense.
Iris pressed her hands to her cheeks, excitement flickering in her eyes like she'd just watched a great performance.
"When I used to explore dungeons with my mother, after killing monsters we either took only the most valuable parts, or brought the body back to the Guild for dismantling. Someone as meticulous as you… among the adventurers I know, that's basically unheard of."
"No choice," Leon said. "That's how country folk are. And besides, if it were just a normal monster, I wouldn't bother being this detailed."
Iris nodded. She didn't doubt his background at all.
"So this is common in the countryside? Then my understanding of the world really is too shallow. If I get the chance, I have to visit your hometown and see for myself."
"Next time, for sure," Leon replied perfunctorily.
He set aside a few parts he couldn't dismantle cleanly, then walked over to the "meat skewer forest."
"This floor is damp and there's no good kindling. Let's keep it simple—air-dry the meat skewers directly. They'll be perfect mana-supply rations for the next few days. Iris, could you use Light Illumination on them? Just compress the area to cover the skewers—it'll speed up the drying."
"Compress the spell's area?" Iris looked thoughtful. "That's… kind of interesting."
It was just a normal beginner elemental spell. With Iris's pure-blood elf constitution and elementalist class, casting it chantless was effortless.
The difficulty was controlling the range down to just a few meters.
Light Illumination was a wide-area lighting spell—its duration and coverage were larger than Light Dazzle. To deliberately compress it into only a few meters required extremely high control and proficiency.
Soon, as mana gathered in Iris's palm, a bright halo covering over ten meters appeared.
"Iris—compress it further. The key is your spell imagery."
"Understood."
At first Iris didn't quite get it.
But after a few tries, she quickly succeeded in compressing the illumination down to a few meters, covering the skewers exactly.
She performed, in minutes, the compression trick Leon had trained for ages to achieve—her talent for purification and focus really was top-tier.
It made Leon even more jealous of her talent. Once affection surpassed 90%, he might be able to obtain an optimized version himself!
As the light concentrated, the temperature rose rapidly.
Iris's eyes brightened with obvious excitement. She kept glancing at Leon with a "Praise me!" look.
"You learned fast, Iris," Leon said, not stingy with compliments.
Iris immediately lifted her chin, clearly pleased—then remembered she needed to stay guarded and not let her distance collapse too easily. She turned her face away so Leon couldn't see her expression.
Leon just smiled and didn't mind. Slowly but surely, she'd trust him more.
He cast a beginner spell to draw moisture out, assisting the drying process inside the skewers.
This moisture-extraction spell was also one of Leon's creations. All it required was combining micro-spells—Micro Breeze + Micro Flame + Condensed Water—in a specific order.
Micro-spells were practice spells for beginners or those with low mana.
The mana cost was extremely low—using all three together consumed only about 1 mana for Leon.
The power was weak, but for daily life and production, the effect was excellent.
With Leon's custom spell and Iris's compressed Light Illumination, the jerky was finished in only five minutes.
Their combined mana consumption didn't even exceed 2 points—extremely cost-effective.
If they tried to air-dry it naturally in this damp dungeon for days, it would be impossible.
Once dried, the meat shrank in both volume and weight.
They each took out their packs and stuffed most of it inside.
The rest they ate on the spot, using the time to rest until mana and stamina fully recovered.
Leon tore off a large piece of jerky and started chewing.
It was dry and tough going in, but the dense muscle fibers and the mana-rich, slightly fatty meat made for a pretty good texture.
The only downside was that it worked his jaw like crazy.
After three large pieces, Leon felt both mana and stamina quickly recover by 1 point—taking about four minutes.
Whoa. Leon silently praised it.
That was solid. Not comparable to mana potions, but still an excellent ration.
"This is my first time eating monster meat that was air-dried on the spot," Iris said suddenly.
Because the floor was damp and covered in glowing moss, the two of them were leaning against the Minotaur's thick spinal bone, sitting close.
Leon turned his head and saw Iris's slightly flushed profile.
Down here on the dim fourteenth floor, Iris's skin still gave off a faint glow.
It was probably a special trait of a Light Elementalist—combined with her pure-blood constitution.
"This feels really fresh," Iris continued. "It has that true adventure vibe… the kind of life I admired as a child."
Leon's heart stirred.
So this was the "deeper talk" phase?
"Iris," Leon said, "tell me about you and your mother. From what you said earlier, it sounds like you've been exploring dungeons with her since you were very young."