A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 141: A New Plant

Once they had finished cleaning up, Theo headed out to hunt, wanting to make up for missing yesterday. He planned to be out until late afternoon, so Serena was going to be in charge of lunch for Kiro and her.

When he was gone, she grabbed her trusty basket to gather some vegetables for her deal with Finn. However before she left, she quickly headed to the underground part of the hut to check on the soap.

It would take some time for them to set in the molds, but she was still curious to see how they were looking. Because when they had put the mixtures into the wooden molds, they had been a thick, beige paste.

And while Liz had reassured her the paste seemed fine, Serena was still anxious about it setting. Among the hundreds of other things that could possibly go wrong.

Serena headed straight to the back, the soap sitting in a far corner away from everything else. When she got close to the soap, the scent of the yellow blossoms hit her nose.

It turned out when cooked, the flowers gave off a strong smell. Or maybe it was because of her new sense of smell. Either way one thing was for sure, she needed to reduce the amount of yellow blossoms used.

Otherwise the smell would be too much for some, even if it was a good smell.

As Serena checked the wooden molds, she found that the paste had hardened a little, but not completely. Still, it was only the first few hours, so at least her mind was put at ease.

Satisfied with the results, Serena headed out of the underground area and out of the hut. She then headed straight to the forest to start collecting as much vegetables as possible before she needed to head back to prepare lunch.

She went for the vegetables she knew, first collecting some long, orange squash before finding some purple roots and brown roots. She found a few orange roots too, but harvested those to add to their own stockpile.

There weren’t many around because of how late into the season it was. The cold season would be arriving in about a weeks’ time. Speaking of which...

There was that festival being held next week and she had yet to create that offering plate. Granted, so much had been going on that it kind of slipped her mind.

It seemed she was going to need to go looking for Merinda to get some help on that. If the rabbit beastwoman wasn’t too busy preparing for the festival. She spotted more than a few rabbit beastmen running around and lugging around things.

"Serena!" Liz suddenly called out from its spot on her head. "Those are sour roots over there!"

"Huh?" Serena came to a stop, looking around her. "Where exactly are you looking?"

It had been a while since she had found a new plant. Although, she hadn’t really been looking for much considering everything. She was mostly harvesting what she knew.

Liz let out a huff, shifting into its bird form. It then flew over to where it had spotted the sour roots which lay a few inches from where Serena was standing.

"These are sour roots." Liz said, circling the patch of plants once before returning to its spot on Serena’s head. It shifted back into a guinea pig before it added, "You can eat both the leaves and root. However, the leaves may be a little bitter, so Kiro may not like it."

"Do rabbit beastmen eat it?" Serena asked, bending down to take a closer look at the vegetable.

If so, then she could give most of what was here to Finn. Otherwise, she’d just harvest a few for herself to try out and if it was good, then she’d add it to the growing list of foods to stockpile.

"I believe they do." Liz mused.

"Then I guess I’ll be harvesting some." Serena declared, hoping that Finn would be okay with them.

He did say he was fine with anything except for orange roots, but she could always double check with him this afternoon. The rabbit beastman did say he was coming over to continue on the grinder.

After getting some instructions from Liz on how to harvest then, Serena set to work harvesting the patch of the sour roots. By the time she was done, it was already mid-morning and her basket was also full.

So, Serena decided to call it a day and head back to the village to get to work making lunch. When she got to her hut, she quickly entered her subspace and put Finn’s potion of the harvest into a basket.

It only reached about halfway, but that was mostly because she had harvested some orange roots and was keeping some of the sour roots for herself. She then placed the orange roots along with the others she kept in her subspace.

Once she was done packing away everything, Serena exited her subspace and went to wash her hands. She then went to grab the ingredients for lunch, planning to make some boiled eggs with roast meat and vegetables.

Liz silently watched her make a fire and prepare food for a bit before it suddenly said, "Maybe we should look for spices..."

"Spices?" Serena questioned, furrowing her eyebrows as she continued to chop the meat into smaller pieces. "What are those?"

"From what I’ve seen, it’s different types of plants that you use to make food taste better." Liz stated. "I found this ancient food site on the internet and the food looked good... Oh maybe we can try some of those recipes I found."

So, Liz just wants me to replicate what it saw... Serena mused to herself. She then asked, "But aren’t you giving me this information too easily? Don’t I need a cookery book for that or something..."

"Well anything outside the scopes of knowledge that the Beast God outlined is technically free to use." Liz explained. "It’s just a matter of me doing research on the internet. Plus you do have that basic cookery book, so we can delve into spices."

Serena pressed her lips together. This information would’ve been great from the start. Shaking her head, Serena finally said, "I see... Guess we can try that out if I have the chance."

***

When Kiro arrived back at the hut in time for lunch, he was surprised to find that Theo was nowhere in sight. Serena noticed his confusion as she was plating up food.

"Theo’s gone hunting for the whole day." Serena explained, handing the bowl of food to the cub. "He’ll be back in the afternoon."

"Oh..." Kiro murmured, taking the bowl from her. "Thank you for the food, Sister."

Serena’s cooking had improved from when they lived in the Leopard Tribe, but the young cub still liked Theo’s cooking more than his sister’s. Not that he would admit out loud.

He didn’t want to make her sad after working hard to make food for them. And it wasn’t like the food was bad. Just sometimes, it was too salty or got a little burnt.

The two quietly ate until Serena decided to break the silence and asked, "Have you been having fun with your friends?"

It had been some time since she checked how Kiro was doing. He seemed happy with his friends whenever she spotted them, but that was surface level. For all she knew Kiro could be hiding his true feelings.

And it wouldn’t be the first time.

"I have!" Kiro exclaimed happily. "We’ve been playing that hiding and seeking game you’re bad at and I’m the best seeker!"

Serena gave the cub an awkward smile at those words, recalling the fake game she had once played with the cub. If only he knew that it would be easy for her to find others or hide if she actually tried.

However, she wasn’t going to spoil his fun because he genuinely looked happy as he began explaining the games he played to her. Occasionally she would add her own comments.

As would Liz, who suddenly appeared while they were chatting.

Hearing what the system said had Serena wondering some things. However, she couldn’t exactly ask with Kiro around to hear her. Once they were done with lunch, Serena let Kiro run off to play.

When he was out of sight, Serena finally asked, "Are you sad that he can’t... see you now? That you have to watch everything from the sidelines..."

"Of course I hate it." Liz muttered dryly. "But one thing I can say is you’re doing a better job at taking care of him than I ever could... Which is funny considering how dense you are sometimes."

Serena pursed her lips together. "You just couldn’t resist that jab..."

"No..." Liz murmured. It was silent for a moment before it added, "Honestly... I’m a little jealous. I’ve never seen him so happy... I didn’t think it was possible after our parents died."

Serena wasn’t sure how to comfort Liz. The system had definitely made mistakes back when it was alive and it would be wrong for them to deny that.

"I’ll keep making sure your little brother stays happy." Serena finally said.

"Hmph! Of course you will." Liz stated. "Because I’ll be your worst nightmare if you make him sad."

"Don’t doubt that..." Serena murmured deadpanned.

Liz could be a real pain in the neck when it wanted to. Though most of the time Serena had to admit she did deserve that chewing out. Liz kept her in line.

Serena then added, "Anyway, I still need to finish cleaning up. I want to see Merinda today."