Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 134: Episode : A Feast with Family.

Roxy stared at the ugly, pitted lumps of gold. She picked one up. It was light, full of air pockets. And frowned, this was an issue she had to figure out with the system.

She looked at the stone mold Kaelen had carved. She saw the dampness on the table where the mold had been sitting.

[You do know that water doesn’t sit well with fire, right?]

I knew you would come to help! That’s why I love you, system, you are my brain box.

Roxy tried hard not to gag.

[You know I can discern your true feelings.]

Tch. You are no fun.

"It wasn’t the gold," Roxy said, her mind working fast. "And it wasn’t the heat."

She tapped the stone mold. "It was the moisture."

"Moisture?" Zarek asked, cooling his hands.

"The stone," Roxy explained, turning to face them. "River stone holds water inside it. Microscopic amounts. When the hot gold hit it, the water turned to steam instantly. The steam exploded inside the mold, creating bubbles and pushing the gold away from the walls."

She gestured to the pitted surface of the "coin."

"That’s why it looks like that. The steam fought the gold for space, and the steam won."

"So... we cannot make coins?" Torian asked, looking ready to cry over his ruined bullion. the beautiful looking shiny gold that he spent an amount of willpower on finding them.

"No," Roxy shook her head, a determined glint in her eyes. "We just need to prepare the molds. We can’t pour into cold, wet stones. We need to bake the molds first."

She grabbed the failed gold lumps and tossed them back into Zarek’s crucible with a clink.

"We remelt this; there is no harm in doing that."

She turned to Kaelen.

"Kaelen, put the molds in the fireplace. Get them bone dry and hot. If they are hot, the gold flows smoothly like butter. If they are cold, they chatter and break."

She looked at her team of discouraged Kings. They looked like boys who had lost a game of ball. Roxy smiled. She walked over to Torian and patted his cheek.

"Don’t panic, Mr. Bank. We didn’t lose a single ounce. We just changed its shape for a few minutes."

She turned to the triplets.

"Cheer squad! Are we giving up?"

"NO!" Axel shouted, pumping his fist.

"Exactly," Roxy grinned, pointing at the furnace. "We learned what not to do. That’s progress."

She clapped her hands, reigniting the energy in the room.

"Let’s do this!"

They tried the second time, and it worked perfectly, maybe because Roxy focused on the System which was guiding her to the best of its capabilities.

She would chip in her own opinion, and that was able to produce something good.

The sound of the hammer striking the stone mold was sharp and decisive. Kaelen pried the iron bands apart, his bicep muscles flexing under the strain. The room went silent. Even the fire seemed to hold its breath.

Everyone held their breath, leaning in.

The mold split open.

This time, there was a cascade of twelve perfect, shimmering discs that tumbled out onto the wooden table with a melodic clink-clink-clink that sounded like music.

They were flawless.

The alloy mixture Syris had calculated gave them a reddish-gold hue, durable but undeniably precious. The heat-treated molds had allowed the metal to flow into every crevice.

On the face of each coin, raised in perfect relief, was the stylized Iron-Wood Tree with deep roots. On the back was a single, heavy paw print, a composite of Wolf, Tiger, and Dragon.

Roxy stared at them. She reached out with a trembling hand and picked one up. It was still warm. It had weight. It felt real.

She looked at the pile of them, catching the firelight.

"At long last!" Roxy shouted, throwing her hands in the air.

"YAAAAAY!"

The Cheer Squad on the sofa exploded. Axel, Onyx, and Iris jumped up and down on the cushions, clapping their hands wildly. Drax, abandoning his sorting pile, ran over and threw a handful of gold dust into the air like confetti.

"We dwid iwt!" Iris squealed. "Shawny bwutons!"

Slowly, the triplets began to learn words from their mother. Whenever Roxy heard them, her eyes would shine in pride. She loved the fact that her children learned from the environment.

[So avoid saying, fuck, pussy, and all those kinds of words in front of them.]

When last have you seen me say it?! I have been a good mother!

[Yeah, right!]

...

Torian picked up a coin, flipping it into the air with his thumb and catching it. "Look at that balance," he purred, inspecting the rim. "It sings when it flies. A currency worthy of a King."

"The alloy is stable," Syris noted, picking one up with a pair of tongs to inspect the density. "It will not bend under pressure. It is harder than pure gold, yet retains its luster. Excellence."

"I hit it good," Kaelen grinned, leaning on his hammer.

Zarek just crossed his arms, looking at the pile with a satisfied smirk. The one person he was prouder of was his mate.

His curiosity for her spiked, and he wanted to really know where she got that knowledge from and what her species was all about.

Were they more like her in the beastworld?

Roxy was grinning from ear to ear. She was exhausted, her back ached, her feet were swollen, and she had soot on her nose, but she felt lighter than air. She looked at the twelve coins. It was a start. A small start, but a start.

[Ding!]

[SYSTEM ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE MINT]

[Description: The User has successfully introduced the concept of Standardized Currency to a Primitive World. You have moved the civilization from the Barter Age to the Economic Age.]

[Grade: S-Class Innovation.]

[Reward:

5,000,000 LP (Empire Building Bonus)

New Blueprint: The Secure Vault.

Passive Buff: "Mercantile Charisma" (Traders are 20% more likely to agree to your terms).] 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"AHHHHHHH!"

Her internal voice echoed outside before she could stop it. Roxy screamed. It was a high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek of pure, unadulterated joy.

The men jumped.

"Roxy?!" Zarek stepped forward, alarmed, as he grabbed her arm to check her. "Are you hurt? Did you burn yourself?"

"No!" Roxy laughed as she looked at the invisible screen. She grabbed Zarek’s face and kissed him hard on the mouth, getting soot all over his cheek. Then she spun around and hugged Torian.

"We are rich!" she yelled. "Well, richer! We are one step closer to the mansion!"

The men exchanged confused looks. They couldn’t see the System, but they knew one thing: Roxy was happy. And if Roxy was happy, the pack was happy.

"Well then," Torian smoothed his robes, looking preened. "Clearly, our genius is being recognized by the gods."

"Celebration!" Roxy declared, clapping her hands. "Clear the table! I am cooking a feast!"

Since the pregnancy, she didn’t have the urge to eat, but right now, she wanted to fill the table with a lot of food.

***

Two hours later, the industrial foundry was gone, replaced once again by a warm, bustling home.

The smell in the cabin was divine.

Roxy had pulled out all the stops. She had raided the pantry and used some of her new points to buy spices that didn’t exist in the forest.

The center of the table held a massive platter of Roast Stag, glazed with honey and the leftover vanilla extract, giving it a sweet, sticky crust. There was a tureen of creamy potato and leek soup, rich with heavy cream and bacon bits.

There were baskets of fluffy, hot bread rolls that steamed when broken open. And for dessert, she had made individual fruit tarts with a custard filling, using eggs she had bought from the system shops.

"Eat," Roxy commanded, sitting at the head of the table with Iris in her lap.

They didn’t need to be told twice.

The Kings ate with the appetite of men who had spent the day working a forge. Kaelen tore into the stag leg. Torian ate the tarts with a delicate grace, humming with every bite. Syris, feeling much stronger after the soup, engaged Zarek in a debate about the melting point of silver.

The children were messy, happy, and full. Drax had soup on his eyebrows, and Roxy had to take her time to help him remove it before it got into his eyes. Axel was asleep with a half-eaten roll in his hand.

Roxy looked around the table. Her heart felt full. This was her family. They were weird, dangerous, and completely hers.

She wanted to remain with them and build her own world in them.

She took a sip of her juice, wiping her mouth with a napkin. After they were all done eating, the triplets had fallen asleep, and with the help of Zarek carrying Drax, they went to the nursery to lay them to rest.

They had helped in their own cute way.

Once they returned, Roxy sat with all four of her mates at the table, still munching on the leftover stag and some bread. She was very happy she didn’t feel nauseous eating it because they were all delicious.

"The coins are perfect," she continued. "But a coin in a chest is useless. Money only works if people use it."

She picked up one of the new gold coins she had kept next to her plate. She spun it on the table. It whirred, a golden blur, before settling on the wood.

"We have the supply," Roxy stated. "Now we need to create the demand."

"How?" Kaelen asked around a mouthful of bread. "We just hand them out?"

"No," Roxy shook her head. "If we just give them away, they have no value. People need to want them. They need to trust them."

She looked at Kaelen.

"The Iron-Wood Pack is the backbone of this territory. They are loyal. They are hardworking. And they are tired of trading heavy furs for bags of grain."

She leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with the fire of the upcoming campaign.

"Tomorrow," Roxy announced, "We will gather everyone."

"We are going to set up a trade booth. And I am going to show them this little piece of metal..."

She tapped the coin.

"...is worth more than a week of hunting."