Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 224: The Most Spiteful System

Ren woke up just before the sun began to peek over the horizon.

She blinked, her eyes adjusting quickly to the dim, silvery-blue light of the pre-dawn forest filtering into the tree hut. The first thing she noticed was her body. It ached. Her pelvis felt like it had gone twelve rounds in a heavyweight boxing match, and her thighs were trembling even while entirely stationary.

But surprisingly, the pain wasn’t as crippling as she thought it would be.

[System: Good morning, Host. You are currently experiencing the passive recovery and endurance buffs acquired from successfully mating with two your Beast husbands. You are welcome.]

’Well, that’s convenient,’ Ren thought groggily.

The second thing she noticed was the crushing weight on top of her.

Kael was sprawled over her like a massive, bronzed weighted blanket. One of his heavy, muscular legs was thrown completely over hers, and his thick arm was wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. He was a literal furnace, radiating intense body heat.

Ren carefully shifted her gaze toward the entryway. Altair was there, having fully shifted into his spectacular Golden Eagle form. The giant bird was fast asleep, his head tucked peacefully under one of his massive wings.

’Okay, time to get up,’ Ren decided.

She tried to push Kael’s arm off her waist. It was like trying to move a fallen oak tree.

"Mmph," Kael grumbled in his sleep. His instinctual response to her movement was to tighten his grip, burying his face into the crook of her neck and throwing his other arm over her chest to secure his prize.

"Kael," Ren whispered, lightly poking his ribs. "Let go. I need to pee."

He didn’t budge.

After five minutes of desperate struggling—which included Ren doing a bizarre caterpillar wiggle, pinching his side, and finally blowing a puff of air directly into his ear—Kael snorted. He shifted his weight just enough, his grip loosening for a fraction of a second.

Like a greased pig, Ren slid right out from under him.

Kael let out a soft grunt, his arms blindly grasping empty air before he hugged a large fox pelt to his chest and fell right back into a deep sleep.

Ren stood up. The morning air was biting and chilly, and she was completely, utterly naked. Her leaf dress was a useless pile of greens, and she had absolutely no intention of putting it back on.

She looked down at herself. Her skin was sticky, coated in dried sweat and the unmistakable, dried white release of her two beast husbands. She felt incredibly gross.

’Wait,’ Ren thought, a spark of hope igniting.

She opened her inventory and pulled out the Scent Masking Spray. ’Maybe this has a magical secondary cleaning feature? Like dry shampoo for the whole body?’

She held the bottle out and sprayed herself down.

A light, odorless mist settled on her skin.

Ren wiped a finger across her sticky thigh. Still gross. Still covered in bodily fluids.

[System: The Scent Masking Spray does exactly what the name suggests, Host. It masks scents. It is not a magical car wash. Please use water like a normal carbon-based lifeform.]

"Useless," Ren muttered.

Feeling a deep, throbbing ache between her thighs with every step, Ren tip-toed quietly over to the stack of fur dresses and loincloths Altair had organized against the wall. She moved with agonizing caution, wincing slightly.

She absolutely could not wake Kael and Altair. What if they woke up and decided they were ready for Round 2? Or Round 3? She would literally perish. Plus, she needed to get started on the elk and root vegetable stew. She already had all the ingredients prepped and waiting in her inventory. She just needed to get the fire going.

Ren dug through the pile of furs. Her hands brushed against a stunning piece of clothing. She pulled it out.

It was a beautiful, sleeveless dress made from incredibly soft, silvery-grey snow fox fur. The inside was lined with smooth, perfectly tanned leather so it wouldn’t itch, and the thick, plush fur on the outside felt like pure luxury. It was tailored beautifully.

"Mine," Ren whispered, her eyes sparkling.

She found a few other gorgeous, well-made fur dresses in the pile and shamelessly shoved them into her inventory for later.

She held the grey dress up, debating whether to put it on right now. But then she realized she still needed to bathe. Putting a clean, luxurious fur dress over her sticky, sweat-and-semen-covered body, only to take it off to bathe, and put it back on, didn’t sound like a good idea.

But the alternative was streaking through the dark forest completely naked.

Ren sighed. ’Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time.’ Honestly, she had been nude more often than she’d been dressed ever since arriving in the Beast World.

’I am Eve,’ Ren thought amusingly, embracing her inner feral woman as she headed toward the back of the tree hut.

Vex had another entryway here. It led out to a wobbly, terrifying wooden bridge made of lashed-together logs and thick vines, stretching out across the branches. At the end of the bridge was a single, incredibly long and thick vine that extended all the way down to the forest floor. It was the only exit that didn’t involve sprouting wings.

Ren stood at the edge of the drop. She looked down into the dark abyss of the forest floor.

She was terrified.

"Don’t look down. Don’t look down," she chanted softly.

With much hesitation, Ren took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, wrapped her arms and legs around the thick vine, and pushed off.

WHOOSH.

She slid down. The cool morning wind whipped viciously at her bare skin. Ren hugged the vine for dear life, squeezing it so tightly that the intense friction began to burn the skin of her palms and the tender insides of her bare thighs.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Ren hissed all the way down.

She finally hit the ground with a heavy THUMP, her legs giving out completely from the impact and the lingering soreness of last night’s activities. She toppled over backward into the dirt, entirely imbalanced.

Ren lay there for a second, releasing a shaky breath. "Well. That was terrifying."

She brushed the dirt off her bare butt and stood up. It bothered her that she still hadn’t found Syris’s beautiful black pearl hairpin in the messy hut, which meant she was definitely going to have to head back up that monstrous tree later.

But first, hygiene.

Ren hurried over to the waterhole. She pulled a fresh bar of lavender soap from her inventory and stepped into the water.

"YIKES!" Ren squealed quietly.

The water was cold. Really cold. But she gritted her teeth and waded in waist-deep. Honestly, the freezing temperature was a blessing in disguise; it acted like a giant ice bath, numbing the dull ache radiating through her pelvic floor and her strained leg muscles.

She scrubbed vigorously, washing away the stickiness, the dried sweat, and the heavy, white evidence of her beast husbands’ potent fertility.

She didn’t spend long in the water. By the time she waded out, her teeth were chattering and her body was covered in goosebumps. The cool morning wind cutting through the clearing was only making matters worse.

The sun had risen more now, bathing the clearing in a soft, buttery yellow light that sparkled beautifully on the surface of the water, but Ren felt absolutely none of that warmth yet.

She quickly dried off with a large leaf and pulled the silvery-grey snow fox dress from her inventory. She slipped it over her head.

The soft leather lined her skin perfectly, and the thick fur immediately began trapping her body heat. It stopped just above her knees, offering decent coverage.

"A modest dress, at last," Ren sighed happily, smoothing down the front.

Feeling clean, refreshed, and properly clothed, Ren returned to the center of the clearing, humming a cheerful little tune. She gathered the massive pile of premium hardwood Kael had gathered yesterday, arranging it carefully with some big dried leaves in the center to make a large, sturdy fire pit for the stew.

Once the fire was crackling merrily, licking at the logs, Ren opened her inventory.

’Alright, cauldron time,’ Ren thought. The 50-gallon cast-iron behemoth she had purchased yesterday.

She hoped the System would be kind enough to spawn it right onto the flames, but...

THUD!

The massive, incredibly heavy black cauldron materialized and dropped heavily into the dirt. Exactly two feet beside the fire.

Ren stared at it. Her eye twitched. She was absolutely sure the System had done that on purpose.

[System: Oops. My spatial coordinates were a little off. Calibration error.]

"You are a menace," Ren grumbled.

She walked over to the giant iron pot. She grabbed the thick iron rim with both hands, planted her feet firmly, and pulled with all her might.

The cauldron didn’t budge a single millimeter.

[System: Perhaps you should ask one of your super-strong beast husbands for help, Host?]

"I can do it myself," Ren grunted stubbornly.

She adjusted her grip, bending her knees, and gave it everything she had. With a massive heave, she managed to lift exactly one side of the heavy cauldron about two inches off the dirt before her arms screamed in protest.

Just then, a smooth, incredibly familiar voice drifted from behind her.

"Need help with that?"