Chapter 63: Arrow Wound

A thousand HP! Fifty attack! Even twenty defense!

Su You had already vaguely guessed something in her heart, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. If it really was Duoya...

According to Su You’s reasoning, the Black-striped Tiger couldn’t have injured itself so badly, right?

So there were two likely scenarios: one, it fought with other wild beasts, lost, and escaped here.

The other possibility involved Duoya.

Although she hadn’t had time to ask Duoya what exactly happened yesterday, it was obvious that Duoya must have fought with some creature—and that creature was the Black-striped Tiger...

But after seeing the Black-striped Tiger’s stats, Su You wasn’t so sure anymore.

Did Duoya really have the ability to seriously injure a Black-striped Tiger all by herself?

Su You wasn’t certain, but she couldn’t rule it out either. After all, when she’d led people to hunt Black-striped Tigers before, all five of them were melee fighters.

But Duoya was different—she was a ranged archer.

Ranged attacks always offered endless tactical possibilities.

As long as your skills were good enough, you could use the terrain and other factors to “kite” your enemy. So, it wasn’t impossible.

“Lord, come take a look. I noticed before that this Black-striped Tiger has some other wounds... but they don’t really look like they were made by a beast or monster.” Once again by the tiger’s corpse, Laike finally had enough time to carefully examine the odd wounds he’d noticed earlier.

Hearing this, Su You squatted down beside the Black-striped Tiger to check out the strange wound Laike mentioned.

First, it was a round wound. Second, it wasn’t very large, but it was extremely deep.

Because some time had already passed, the blood had clotted over the wound, and Su You couldn’t see much else. But she was almost certain—it was an arrow wound.

Since it was an arrow wound, it was obvious who had caused it.

“Did you discover something, Lord?” Laike noticed Su You seemed to know something and couldn’t help but ask curiously.

“Looks like an arrow wound, but I’m not entirely sure,” Su You replied. Since Laike didn’t know Duoya, he couldn’t connect Duoya’s battered state last night with the Black-striped Tiger. He just looked a little puzzled when Su You mentioned an arrow wound.

He wasn’t just wondering how she could tell it was an arrow wound—after all, many weapons could cause a similar injury—but also why there would be an “arrow” here, or any wound caused by a human weapon.

Could there be other people nearby?

Or was there an incredibly skilled archer around, one who could even take on a Black-striped Tiger alone?

Su You didn’t care what Laike was thinking. She’d already taken out a stone knife and started butchering the Black-striped Tiger.

Because the tiger was so large, after confirming with Laike that he knew how to process the corpse and getting his affirmative answer, Su You immediately made another stone knife. After all, she wasn’t short on stones anymore—no need to scrimp and save over a single rock.

With two stone knives and two people working, it only took a few minutes for the five-hundred-jin Black-striped Tiger to be reduced to a big pile of loot on the ground.

And here, “a big pile” isn’t just a figure of speech—it was literally a huge pile.

**[Obtained: Premium Meat x50]**

**[Obtained: Damaged Tiger Pelt x1]**

**[Obtained: Tiger Claw x3]**

**[Obtained: Beast Tendon x10]**

...

Just the meat alone, Su You picked up nearly three stacks (20 per stack), and it was all “premium meat.”

On the Sunset Continent, most meat isn’t named after the creature it comes from. The usual types are “small chunk,” “large chunk,” “quality meat,” “premium meat,” and so on.

Tigers, for example, definitely drop premium meat. By level, that wild boar from before should have at least dropped quality meat, but maybe because it had been left too long and not harvested in time, the quality had “dropped” to regular meat (large chunk).

Of course, a few rare meats do have specific names—like dragon meat.

But that’s something everyone knows is beyond rare. “Once in a lifetime” doesn’t even begin to describe it—it’s more like “never in a lifetime.”

This time, Su You had really hit the jackpot, but these spoils weren’t actually hers. After all, the tiger was killed by Laier and Duoya, and had little to do with her.

If there was any connection, it was that Laier had used equipment provided by Su You to fight the Black-striped Tiger... which was fair enough, but Su You wasn’t about to use that as a reason to claim the loot.

After all, the equipment was something she was supposed to provide anyway, and since they’d already accomplished their goal, the equipment and the loot basically balanced out.

Because the Black-striped Tiger dropped so much stuff—just the meat took up three inventory slots, plus other items, filling up most of her backpack—Su You had to take out her second pickaxe and a bottle of unknown liquid to make room.

“Let’s go.” Seeing that nothing was left behind, Su You and Laike returned to where they’d started.

...

Seeing Su You and Laike return, Laier immediately stood up and asked, “How did it go?”

“We brought everything back. When we get home, we’ll roast tiger meat... I’ve never eaten tiger before!” Just thinking about how strong that Black-striped Tiger was, Laike was sure the meat would be delicious.

Honestly, Laike’s excitement was pretty normal—who wouldn’t want to try tiger meat if they got the chance?

But when Laier heard this, he frowned slightly.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Listen to the Lord’s arrangements.” Even though he’d brought the tiger to the brink of death and Laike had finished it off, Laier never considered the loot to be his alone.

He knew that even if he did, Lord Su probably wouldn’t mind... At least, from what he’d seen of her so far, she didn’t seem like the type to just seize all the loot for herself.

But he wasn’t going to keep it all, either.

He planned to contribute it to the territory—in other words, let Su You handle it.

Su You seemed to understand what he meant, so she said, “You do deserve a share of the loot from this Black-striped Tiger—I won’t keep it all for myself. But there’s something I need to explain to you first.”

Hearing this, Laier’s expression changed.

(End of Chapter)"

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