A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 130: Unexpected Nap

After the bees were removed and placed into a new hive, Serena headed out to gather more wheat. She would’ve liked to have gotten millet and barley for her experiments, however they were both out of season.

She missed the timing for millet harvesting in the early harvest season and barley could only be harvested during the cold season or rainy season, depending on the type grown.

Thankfully though, she did find a few patches of them. So, at least she knew where to go when she needed to harvest them.

Along the way she picked up some extra vegetables and took her time to get familiar with other plants, expanding her plant knowledge as she had done that in a while.

Thus when she returned to the village for lunch, Serena had a basket full of vegetables and wheat and had gotten seventy coins from her learning more about plants from her field guide.

Well, technically Liz supplied the information, acting like her talking field guide.

Still, Serena enjoyed the more peaceful day, not having to worry about preparing for the cold season anymore. They were stocked up quite well and everything that they were adding was now an extra supply.

Meaning she could begin focusing on other things. One being getting the grinder built and flour made from all the what she collected and the other was making use of all that extra cotton she harvested by turning it into cloth.

Once those two things were sorted, she’d have a reliable source of food they could create reserves of to combat famine during bad times and something she could trade while also reducing the village’s need for furs.

And since they wouldn’t need as much furs for clothing with another source of clothing, they could put the resources spent on furs to other things like salt and crystals.

After all, crystals weren’t just a form of currency in this world. Because like her purple crystal, every color had a specific use or benefit. Clear or white ones were the most common and used for everyday trading.

However, other colors were rarer and thus had more value. Especially the purple one because of its healing benefits. And having a good supply of those would be important.

It would greatly reduce the fatalities of serious injuries or complications, lowering the village’s mortality rate.

Of course, stuff like salt was also an important resource to have a good supply of. Then they wouldn’t have to bow down so much to the Forest City.

Granted physical strength was still an issue. But hopefully with some good planning, even if they were attacked, the city could withstand a siege. They just had to make sure they had enough supplies to keep the city going even if a siege were to take place.

Which was why she didn’t want to just be a resting stop and food supplier to the Horse Clan as they made their way to the Forest City. She wanted to make this place where trading happened.

However she needed to get the items they planned to trade right first.

Thankfully, Finn had promised to come help build the grinder in two days’ time since he had other things to do. Which was fine by Serena because she could then use the two days to try making some soap.

A little personal project of hers.

Though it would benefit the village too, it wasn’t completely why she was doing it. Mostly just so she wouldn’t have to worry about her soap finishing and so she could finish that system mission.

Then she’d have more coins to spend on researching her cotton project and her subspace would increase, allowing her to stockpile more things. Because she was going to have to spend her well earned coins on some protection gear.

She wasn’t happy about using the system shop to buy the gear, preferring to make it herself. However, she feared using thick fur would just not be enough protection.

Lye was a dangerous substance to handle and unstable, especially when making it. And Serena rather not get herself heavily injured trying to make soap if she could help it.

Originally, Serena planned to use rainwater to make the lye, but considering that it wouldn’t rain much until the rainy season, Serena decided not to wait around for a possibility.

Sure, she would still have some buckets out to collect rainwater, however, she decided to try boiling water instead. She had an idea for making distilled water and was curious to see if it would work well enough.

If it did then she could refine it and make sure of it for times when there was no rainwater available.

Once lunch was done, Serena sent Kiro to the village center, not wanting him near the hut while she was making soap. Because that was just one big accident waiting to happen.

Granted she was just boiling the water and attempting to distill it, however, she didn’t want him getting curious about what she was up to. Because then he would beg her to let him watch and she wasn’t sure if she could say no.

One day, she’d teach him how to make soap. When he was much older.

Theo was pretty curious about what she was up to, so she let him help out. Mostly just by having him carve some wooden molds for the soap to go into. Clay probably would’ve been better, but she didn’t have a kiln right now.

Which was one other thing she needed to get done...

While Theo was making molds for her, Serena put a pot of water to boil with a smaller container inside to catch the water. A makeshift wooden lid was placed over the pot to allow for the steam to condense.

It would need several hours and so Theo went on a quick trip to get more firewood. That way they wouldn’t eat into their cold season supplies.

As the water was boiling, Serena grabbed some of the brown strips and began making baskets, having the time to make them now. Theo soon got back from collecting more firewood and set them down next to her.

He then silently shifted into his beast form and settled down next to her, laying his head on his front paws. He closed his eyes and murmured, "Wake me up when it starts to get late... I’ll help with dinner."

"Sure." Serena responded, deciding not to tell Theo that she could just make dinner.

The tiger beastman would just start a fight with her about overworking herself again and she didn’t need that. She had done enough arguing over these past few days and was mentally exhausted.

Theo soon fell asleep and Serena quietly went back to work, weaving baskets. Occasionally, she’d get up to add more firewood to keep the fire going.

Liz disappeared into her subspace, bored with the silence and muttering something about having better things to do than sit around. Serena wasn’t quite sure what the system was going to do, but as long as it wasn’t messing with her supplies.

Then she didn’t really care too much about what Liz got up to.

Eventually, she got two baskets weaved, her hands aching by then. But at least it was one task done and they now had more storage. After putting the baskets inside the hut, Serena checked up on the fire before going back to sit down next to Theo.

The tiger beastman snapped an eye open as she moved, settling back down when Serena sat back down on the ground. She then leaned against the log behind her, closing her eyes for a moment, wanting to take a break from everything.

Around her, she could hear the village bustling and Theo’s soft breathing as he napped next to her. It was quite peaceful and Serena found herself wanting to stay like this for a few minutes.

Only to find herself opening her eyes to a setting sun.

An animal fur was covering her body and Serena grumbled, letting it drop as she ran a hand through her hair. She couldn’t believe she had fallen asleep and let someone get so close to her.

This is what I get for letting my guard down for a bit... Serena muttered to herself as she got up. Hopefully the fire didn’t go out while I slept.

Honestly she was lucky nothing bad had happened after leaving that fire unattended. This whole place could’ve easily burnt down.

Theo noticed she was awake and walked over to her as he said, "Don’t worry about the water. I kept an eye on it... Didn’t want to wake you."

"You should wake me up next time..." Serena retorted out of habit. She then sighed, "But thanks for looking after it."

Theo gave her a small smile. "You should rest when you get the chance, so it’s no trouble. Now why don’t you wash up. Dinner will be ready soon."