Chapter 109: Claws, Hides And Gold

The smell reached Raymond before the noise did. Blood, wet leather, smoke, rendered fat, and something sharp that reminded him of hot metal hung over the newly designated beast-material yard on the edge of Althoff’s Artisan District.

During winter, the remains of the Beast Tide had been a problem measured in carcasses.

Anything edible had been processed for food, useful materials preserved, dangerous organs separated, and the rest handled before rot or contamination could create another disaster. Now spring had transformed those preserved remains into something entirely different: inventory.

Long racks held treated hides. Sheltered bays contained cleaned bones, horns, claws, and fangs sorted by species and quality. Sealed containers held preserved blood and mana-rich organs.

Locked storage rooms contained the rarer cores recovered from stronger Magic Beasts. Craftsmen crowded the inspection tables while clerks attempted to keep buyers from touching anything before it had been recorded.

Raymond walked beside Kael and Roderic as a pair of hunters approached the receiving station carrying a freshly killed horned wolf lashed to a pole.

Hunting had resumed beyond the agricultural zones as winter migration settled, and Althoff’s expanding population meant more people were entering the surrounding wilderness for meat, hides, and valuable Beast parts.

That created an obvious problem. If anyone could drag unidentified materials into the market and sell them without oversight, stolen government stock, diseased carcasses, dangerous organs, and illegally hunted creatures would eventually appear beside ordinary merchandise.

Raymond had no interest in discovering the consequences afterward. Hunters could sell legally obtained Magic Beast materials, but the materials first had to pass through registration and inspection. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

At the station, an inspector recorded the hunters’ names, hunting permit, location of the kill, species, and recovered materials. The carcass was examined for disease and obvious abnormalities before being separated into categories.

Meat suitable for consumption received approval for sale.

The hide was graded according to damage and quality. Horns, claws, teeth, bone, blood, and internal components were assessed separately, while anything carrying significant mana received additional inspection before entering the market.

Raymond deliberately kept the process straightforward.

The government was not buying every carcass, nor was it deciding whom hunters could sell to afterward. It was establishing that the materials were legal, identified, and reasonably safe. Once inspected, the hunters could negotiate with craftsmen or merchants themselves.

They did not have to wait long. A leatherworker purchased the wolf hide before the hunters had finished collecting their documentation.

An apothecary negotiated for part of the preserved blood and two organs used in preparations Raymond did not understand and wisely declined to ask about before lunch.

A weapon craftsman examined the horns, tested their hardness with a small file, and bought both after several minutes of bargaining. The hunters left with considerably more money than they would have earned selling only meat. The leatherworker carried his hide toward the tanning area.

The apothecary packed her purchases into sealed containers. The weaponsmith walked away already discussing what reinforcement he might attempt with the horn.

Raymond watched them separate and said, "That’s what I wanted."

Roderic glanced toward him. "People arguing over animal parts?"

Raymond smiled. "People finding uses for things we used to stack in warehouses."

The Beast Tide stockpiles were the larger opportunity. Unlike newly hunted materials, those belonged primarily to the territory because Althoff’s forces had killed, recovered, processed, and preserved the creatures during the winter emergency.

The quantities were enormous by local standards. Bronze and Silver Rank Beast hides filled storage racks. Bones had been cleaned and bundled. Fangs and claws sat in labeled crates. Horns were separated by type and condition.

Preserved blood occupied sealed vessels, while valuable organs and mana-bearing components remained under controlled storage. The territory could have dumped everything onto the market immediately for quick gold, but Raymond refused.

Flooding Althoff with months of stored materials would crush prices, overwhelm local craftsmen, and allow a handful of buyers to acquire resources cheaply simply because the government wanted empty warehouses.

Instead, Ysabel and Kael established controlled releases. Common materials could be sold in scheduled lots through ordinary market sales or small auctions.

Local craftsmen received opportunities to purchase workable quantities without competing against someone trying to buy an entire warehouse.

Larger merchants could bid on bigger lots when supply justified it. Rare materials were released more cautiously, with inspection records attached so buyers knew the species, approximate rank, condition, and available quantity.

The territory earned money from the sale of its own Beast Tide stock while private hunting created a separate stream of inspection charges, permits, stall rents, storage fees, and commercial activity.

The effect on Althoff’s craftsmen appeared almost immediately. Leatherworkers who had previously depended on ordinary livestock hides began experimenting with Magic Beast leather for reinforced boots, gloves, belts, hunting gear, and protective clothing.

Blacksmiths purchased claws, horns, teeth, and selected bones to test as weapon components, handles, reinforcement pieces, or ingredients in techniques involving mana-bearing materials.

Most experiments were unimpressive. One smith ruined two knives attempting to incorporate powdered horn incorrectly. Another produced a hunting spear with a Silver Rank fang fitted into a reinforced head and sold it before the day ended.

Roderic encouraged experimentation but refused to let enthusiasm substitute for competence, especially when stronger materials could react unpredictably to heat or mana.

The medical side proved equally valuable. Selene established strict handling requirements for organs, blood, glands, and other biological materials used by physicians, apothecaries, and alchemically inclined craftsmen.

Some components spoiled quickly once removed from preservation.

Others remained dangerous even after the Beast died. Buyers therefore needed suitable containers and, for restricted materials, evidence that they knew what they were purchasing.

Raymond had no desire to regulate every bottle of medicine in Althoff, but he also had no desire to hear that someone had accidentally poisoned a residential street because an ambitious apprentice bought an organ from a Silver Rank venomous Beast and stored it beside onions.

Within two weeks, the production chain had become visible around the market. Hunters returned from the wilderness carrying legal kills. Inspectors recorded and graded the materials.

Craftsmen and merchants purchased what they needed. Workshops transformed hides, bone, claws, horns, and mana-bearing components into finished goods. Customers then bought those goods at prices far higher than the original raw materials.

A hunter’s hide became reinforced leather equipment. A fang became part of a weapon. Bone became handles, tools, ornaments, or specialist components. Even scraps found buyers when someone discovered a practical use for them.

Each step created work, profit, and another transaction somewhere inside Althoff.

Raymond noticed the Treasury noticing too. Inspection charges were intentionally modest because he wanted hunters bringing materials through legal channels rather than avoiding the system.

Market rents generated revenue from sellers. Government Beast Tide stock produced direct sales income. Workshops paid leases. Visiting traders paid permits and storage charges where applicable.

Resource processing created goods valuable enough to attract buyers with more money than ordinary food or household items could command.

The numbers were not yet spectacular, but unlike System rewards, they could repeat as long as Althoff possessed hunters, craftsmen, beasts, and customers.

There was, however, one resource Raymond refused to include.

Deep inside the Advanced Magic Beast Resource Repository, separated from the ordinary stockpiles, remained the most valuable remains recovered during winter: materials from the Gold Rank Blackstone Ursar.

Its hide alone dwarfed most material stored elsewhere, and the claws, fangs, bones, blood, organs, and mana-rich components belonged to a level of creature Althoff’s local craftsmen rarely encountered.

Preservation artifacts kept the important pieces stable while Roderic and Selene studied what they safely could.

Raymond visited the repository with Ysabel after she received yet another request from a merchant who had heard rumors that Althoff possessed Gold Rank materials.

"He offered a very large amount just for one claw," Ysabel said, standing beside the secured storage section. "Large enough that I thought you should hear it before I refused."

Raymond examined the enormous dark claw resting within its preservation container before asking, "How does his offer compare with the normal market price for a Blackstone Ursar claw?"

Ysabel remained silent for several seconds before admitting, "We don’t have a normal market price."

Raymond nodded. "Exactly."

She understood immediately. Althoff knew the materials were valuable. That was not the same as knowing their actual value. They lacked experienced high-level appraisers, broader market comparisons, specialist buyers, and knowledge of what Gold Rank materials could command in richer regions.

Selling now because an amount sounded impressive would be the economic equivalent of selling a gemstone without knowing whether it was glass or a royal jewel.

"So we hold everything?" Ysabel asked.

Raymond nodded and answered, "For now. The common and Silver Rank materials can keep moving. Let our craftsmen learn, let merchants trade, and let the market establish prices for things we understand."

Ysabel glanced toward the sealed Blackstone Ursar materials before asking whether his decision would change if someone doubled the current offer.

Raymond looked at the claw again and shook his head. "We don’t even know what it’s worth yet. Until we have someone qualified to tell us, every impressive offer is just a stranger telling us what they hope we’ll accept."

That settled it. The Blackstone Ursar remained sealed away while ordinary Beast materials continued flowing through Althoff’s workshops and market.

Outside the repository, hunters arrived with fresh kills, inspectors opened ledgers, craftsmen negotiated purchases, and customers paid for finished goods that had not existed weeks earlier.

Every hide could become armor or clothing. Every useful fang, horn, bone, organ, or mana-bearing component represented another possible craft, another workshop, another merchant, another customer, and another stream of revenue.

Gold moved with every transaction, but something more important was happening alongside it. Althoff was learning to transform the wilderness surrounding it into products other territories might actually want.

For the first time since Raymond inherited this miserable frontier barony, Althoff possessed something the wider world might come looking for.