A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 100: Problems Processing Plants (1)

Once outside the hut, Serena picked up the bowl of vegetable scraps next to Theo and asked, "How long will lunch take?"

"A few minutes." Theo answered, glancing at the bowl in her hand. "Are you taking those to the wild birds?"

"Yeah. I need to clean up the coop." Serena stated.

"Oh I already did that." Theo said. "Their droppings were meant to go into that vegetable scrap heap, right?"

Serena nodded her head. "Yes... Guess I’ll just feed them then."

With that, she headed to the garden and found two of the wild birds wandering around the garden, sometimes scratching at the ground with their feet. The third one was perched on the garden fence.

It squawked at the sight of her, flapping its wings as it jumped down. Serena shook her head as it ran off, wondering how the hell it got there in the first place. The other two were much calmer, merely returning to their foraging, used to her presence now.

She headed straight to the coop and snapped the wheat stalks in half before placing it with some of the vegetable scraps. She would put the other scraps into their compost heap.

The coop was clean and there was some new straw in the nesting area. Serena took the water bowl with her to refuel and headed back to the hut. Lunch was ready by the time she got back so she washed her hands before joining Kiro and Theo.

Once they were done with lunch, Serena headed out with Kiro to get more cotton. Theo decided to try his luck by going hunting a bit more as well as going to gather more wood for his furniture projects.

It was a bit of a walk to the cotton plants, so Kiro shifted into his beast form to run around. Serena let him do so, using the world map to check out the other locations Liz had given her.

She’d given the wild birds some of the long, orange squash seeds and they seemed to enjoy it from the half empty bowl she’d seen when returning with their water. As for the wheat, it seemed they only liked the flower part and used the rest for their nests.

They came across a few vine-like bushes of blackberries which Liz explained could be eaten by both wild birds and beastmen. The system even added that if she cooked the berries with honey, she could make something called jam.

Which could last for months if not years.

The problem was she lacked honey and she wasn’t sure where to put the jams. Liz said she could make use of ceramic pots, wooden barrels, or earthenware containers to hold the jam.

However, all three methods needed some kind of seal made from wax or cloth. This was to keep out air and moisture, helping to preserve the jam for longer periods.

Wooden barrels would be easiest since she needed a kiln to make the other two types of containers. Too bad she didn’t have any wax nor had she figured out a way to make cotton into cloth.

"You can always find a beehive." Liz suggested. "Then you’ll have both wax and honey. And if you’re smart about it, you can even raise bees. They’re good for farms, you know and produce more honey in captivity. Of course, you’d know this if you had that animal husbandry book."

Serena scoffed at the words. That reboot must’ve added the personality of a used spaceship salesman with the way Liz was trying to get her to buy things from the system. It even offered to sell the things Serena lacked.

But Serena refused.

If she was going to create something, it needed to be in a way that didn’t rely on the system, but rather things around them. Otherwise, it was pointless helping this world develop.

And making jams would definitely be a good idea since they would preserve plenty of fruits, allowing them to eat them during the old season. Really, it was life-changing especially for herbivore type beastmen.

Not to mention it would be a good food to sell to the Horse Clan. They could easily use it during their travels and they wouldn’t have to worry about it spoiling quickly. Meaning they could buy more.

Her problem was the wax and honey. Finding it would be easy, she supposed. Serena could use the locating feature if she’d passed a beehive before.

But how was she meant to collect these things? From what she recalled from the original owner’s memories, honey was hard to get and dangerous thanks to the bees.

It was only the Bear Clan that would risk getting honey and they lived far from here so Serena couldn’t get any tips from them. So, for now that plan was on the backburner until she solved that issue.

She did collect some berries to enjoy and get for the wild birds. Kiro seemed to like them too, judging from the way there was juice leaking down his chin and covering his hands.

"Kiro, come clean yourself up." Serena called out, ready to leave once she had enough berries.

She could always come back and store some berries in her subspace. That way, if she ever found honey and wax, she could try her hand at making honey. Because it would be worthwhile in the long run.

Kiro shoved the berries in his hand into his mouth before running over to her. She cried out to not run as she took out her water skin. He slowed down a little and once she got his sticky hands and mouth clean, they headed off again.

They came across more wheat which Serena harvested, planning to process them later. Eventually, they got to the cotton plants and set to work harvesting them.

Once they got a basket full of them, they headed back to the village. However, halfway back, Kiro got tired and Serena had to carry him the rest of the way.