Mission: The Tanning Rack [D-Rank]

The Tanning Rack

Spoiler:

Sukotto stepped away from the mission office a scroll in hand. He wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen this mission. He didn't really need leather, or know what he would do with it once he obtained it, but nothing else had caught his eye and he needed to do something to put money in his pocket. So he was off to the local butcher to help tan some leather.

He stepped into the shop and eyed a few pieces of meat on display. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten something that decadent. Sure he often had fresh meat, but it was rarely of something he actually wanted to eat. It also squirmed more. Prying his eyes from the display, he looked up to see a large man stepping out from the backroom a smile plastered on his face. "Welcome to the Suna Butcher, how can I help you today?" One arm moving out and gesturing toward the displayed meat.

Sukotto walked forward, removing his hat now that he was indoors. "Hey there butcher man." He waved, and then pointed at his headband. "I got a mission to tan some leather. So point me to them skins." He paused briefly before adding, "Oh and maybe tell me how to tan leather because I don't have a clue." His voice quieting slightly at the end of his sentance.

The butcher sighed before shaking his head and gesturing for Sukotto to follow him. Quietly, but not quiet enough that Sukotto couldn't hear him, he mumbled to himself, "They never send the same guy. Every single time I have to go over this. Maybe I should just include some instructions with the mission." In the back of the shop the man gestured to a stack of hides. "Those have been cured to keep them from going bad, so first you need to soak them for about 6 hours. Once that is done, you need to put the skin in that large barrel there and move it around. The liquid inside will remove any excess meat and hair. It also makes the skin more maliable." He paused and glanced back at Sukotto, "You know what, you probably don't care what it's doing. Once it has soaked, move the skin from barrel to barrel. Let it soak a bit, move it around with the paddles. When you are done with the barrels, use the salt there on the end, then take them out back, and lay them out to dry. Ones already out there so just put them next to that one." The butcher then left to get back to work.

Sukotto had been listening intently and actually found the process somewhat interesting at which point the butcher decided to stop explaining it. Either way, he got the general idea. Soak it, move in around in some barrels, he could handle that. The six hour soaking part was not ideal though. With that, he grabbed five of the skins and set them to soaking.

He walked back out of the butcher shop, replacing his hat.  Pulling out a cigarette he lit it up as he made his way back home. With so much time on his hands, he certainly didn't need to hang out at the butcher's shop and get under foot. Instead he headed home and killed a lot of time before returning a bit before the six hours had passed.

Stepping in the shop, he nodded to the butcher who was busy helping a customer and made his way into the backroom again. He gave the skins another fifteen minutes before he pulled them out and moved them to the first barrel in the line. He wasn't sure how long he needed to leave the skins in there, but since this was the part where it removed excess hair and meat he figured he would stop when they looked clean. Grabbing the paddle he got to work pushing the kins around in a slow steady pattern.

Occasionally he would use the paddle to pull up one of the skins to take a look at it. Unforetunately this looked to be a pretty long process and it was boring as hell. He now understood why the butcher was paying someone else to do it. On he went stirring the skins for what felt like hours.

Eventually the butcher checked in on him and after realizing he was still working on the liming process, he stopped him. "That should be done by now, pull those out of there." Sukotto complied, placign them on a small table. "I don't think they are done still. They aren't completely clean." The butcher shook his head and grabbed a small metal tool and handed it to him. "No they are. I forgot to mention this, sorry about that. Whatever isn't removed is loosened and you scape it off. Oh and the next barrel should take about a half hour."

Sukotto took the tool and got to work once the butcher had left. Scaping small bits of meat and hair off of the now rather soft skin. Most people probably would have found this step disgusting, but seeing as he has been drinking the blood of animals just like this, it didn't really bother him. If anything he really liked the idea of removing the hair from these animals. Hell if he could do it before he drank blood his mouth would get a lot less fur in it which was very appealing.

Moving onto the next step he placed the skins into the next barrel and continued to stir. He contemplated how much easier this would be with some form of automation. Hell it would make this downright easy if the skins would stir themselves. But wishful thinking wasn't going to get him anywhere, so the stirring continued.

With that step done he placed the skins back on the table and began to scrub them with salt. He wasn't sure why he was doing this. Maybe the salt helped to pull out liquid or something. But those were the instructions, so that is what he did. He scrubbed both sides of each skin thouroughly, and then took the first one outside to dry.

He found a single piece of leather stretched out on a very large rock. He stretched out the piece in his hand and laid it out across the stone. Four trips later and his job was done. Well mostly done, he had no idea how long the drying process was going to take. So he headed back into the butcher shop to speak to the man.

"The skins are all laid out and drying. How long should that take?" The butcher laughed, "A few days." Sukotto blinked at the man as the words sunk in, then spluttered, "Did you say days? Like day days?" The butcher nodded, not entirely sure what a day day was, but he got the general idea. He then left Sukotto and walked into a back room before returning with a finished piece of leather and handing it to him. "Don't worry about it, I will bring those in when they are done. Thank you for the help." Sukotto thanked him for the leather, and headed home.

[WC1208]

2,100 Ryo
10 AP
1x Leather

10 Vigor
2 Speed

Suiton: Wild Water Wave 1000/1000
Water Clone                    208/1000

Approved