A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 161: Rewards

Serena was heading back over to Theo to see if he needed any help when Liz suddenly appeared on her upper arm. The snow leopard beastwoman paused in her tracks, glancing over at the system.

"Merinda’s officially out of the danger zone, so you’ve completed your mission." Liz stated. "As for your rewards-"

"Let’s discuss it later tonight." Serena hissed out in a low tone.

Talking to Liz out in the open like this wasn’t convenient at all. Especially when the system had a tendency to say the most outrageous things to her at times. Which took all her willpower not to react to those words.

It was better if she could discuss all this quietly in her subspace where no one could interfere. She could probably go there now...

But who knows how long I’ll stay there for. Serena mused to herself. Better to keep the normal routine.

"Fine... We can talk about this later." Liz pouted before disappearing back into the subspace.

Serena continued walking like nothing had happened and found Theo by the fire, checking the stitches of his blanket. She headed over to him, taking a seat next to the tiger beastman.

"Need any help?" Serena asked.

Theo looked over at her and mused, "I guess you can help with stuffing this blanket with cotton. I’ll then sew up the final hole... I’m trying this on two of them for now. Don’t really think we need that many stuffed blankets."

"I suppose so." Serena nodded her head in agreement.

The stuffed blankets were meant for extremely cold days and considering how the thick ones without stuffing kept the cold out well, two stuffed ones were fine for now. They could always make more in the future.

Besides, they were a test run and it wouldn’t be good to waste all that cotton and fur on making stuffed blankets. They needed to also consider the other things they needed the items for. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Serena went to grab the cotton basket Theo had left inside the hut, dragging it out to the fire area. She was careful to keep it far from the fire, not wanting its contents to burn up.

Theo finished inspecting the blanket and the two got to work stuffing the blanket with cotton. After using half the basket to fill up the blanket, Theo set to work sewing up the top.

Serena took the basket back inside, taking it to the underground part of the hut to store. The place was colder than above the hut and Serena couldn’t help but shiver a little. However, the cold was good.

It would keep the food they had stockpiled from going bad.

After putting the cotton away, Serena headed back up to the hut, making sure to keep the underground door properly covered with the fur. Because while the cold was good for the food, it wasn’t that great for them.

They did sleep some distance away from the door, but one could never be too safe. She headed back out and saw that Theo was still sewing the blanket. Thus she moved to their buckets of water, taking one to water the plants.

They needed to water the plants in the early afternoon rather than early morning or late evening so that the water wouldn’t get too cold and damage the plants roots.

As Serena was watering the plants, she noticed that they needed some more mulch for some of the garden beds. They already had gotten some time ago, but it seemed they needed more again.

Should probably head out to the forest once I’m done here. Serena mused to herself. Then get some water from the river...

With that in mind, Serena finished watering the plants and headed back to the hut. Theo just finished with the blanket, so decided to join her.

***

Before it got too late, Serena and Theo headed to the village center, wanting to go check on Merinda once more. Liz had said that the rabbit beastwoman was out of danger, but Serena had already promised to visit.

And she wasn’t going to go back on her word now.

When they got to Healer Kai’s hut, they found the place wasn’t as chaotic as before. Jason was nowhere to be seen and Healer Kai had gone out, leaving Davis to man the place.

Meanwhile, Jol was the one caring for Merinda, her other two mates heading out to deal with other things. Which made sense in a way. If Elder Samuel wasn’t seen doing his normal tasks, then there was bound to be gossip.

Merinda was currently sleeping, so the two felines didn’t stay for long. They picked up Kiro on their way back to the hut, only to be stopped by Wilma.

"Serena, why don’t you bring Kiro over to play by my hut tomorrow?" Wilma proposed. "It’s getting colder, so it’s better if the cubs stay inside in the mornings...."

"Are you sure?" Serena questioned, not really having a problem with the idea.

"Of course. The others and I are taking turns since that play date idea of yours was fun." Wilma nodded her head. She then added in a hush tone, "Besides, this is a great excuse not to get out of bed so early."

Serena shook her head at that last part before she said, "Alright. I’ll bring him over tomorrow."

"Great!" Wilma smiled brightly.

They chatted for a few more minutes before Serena, Theo and Kiro headed back to the hut. Theo got a fire going, boiling some water to wash up and reheating the stew. Kiro didn’t want to eat too much, so they didn’t bother making any more food.

Once they were done with dinner, they cleaned up and headed inside the hut. Kiro soon fell asleep while Theo and Serena settled down for the night.

Moments later, Serena entered her subspace as normal. Liz spotted her and hopped down from the basket it was lying in and walked over to her.

Just as Serena asked, "So what are these rewards?"

"Eager now aren’t we?" Liz joked, watching as Serena moved to her basket of books. The snow leopard beastwoman gave the system a pointed look, making it cough. It then said, "Jokes aside, you’ve received 1500 coins and a book on pottery."

As Liz spoke, a leather bound book appeared in the subspace, dropping right in front of where it sat. Liz then placed a paw on it, tapping the book.

"Pottery?" Serena paused, glancing over at the system.

"Yes." Liz confirmed. "Didn’t you want to know how to make clay jars? Well, this is your beginner’s guide. Even has a recipe for making clay."

Serena pursed her lips at those words. She did want to make clay jars because of their usefulness, even thinking of looking into them when she had the time. But now she had been given what she needed to research it.

The only problem was the kiln, but that was a problem for her to solve another time.

"Are you not happy with your reward?" Liz suddenly questioned when Serena didn’t respond.

"No... It’s not that." Serena murmured, walking over to the system with the books in hand. "I’m just surprised that you’re being so helpful... Is there a catch to all this?"

"You really are a doubtful one." Liz shook its head. "Rewards are based on what you need. And seeing how you wanted to make pottery, you needed a pottery book. So it became a reward. There’s nothing more to it."

Serena sighed, deciding not to fight over it anymore. "Alright I hear you... Thanks for the book I guess."

It was one less thing she had to pay for, so she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She could look at it when she had the time to. Of course, there was still something that she was curious about.

"Why do I need a recipe for making clay?" Serena asked, sitting down. "Can’t I just use the clay from the river?"

"You can, but it won’t really work during the firing process. It’s more likely to crack and break." Liz explained. "Processing clay removes impurities and improves its workability. That way it’s easier to craft it into things like clay jars."

"I see..." Serena mused, picking up the book.

It was still too early for her to be thinking about making pottery, but preparing the clay beforehand wouldn’t be a bad idea. She definitely didn’t want the clay jars to crack and break after working on them.

"I guess I’ll have to look into making some clay then..." Serena pondered out loud to no one in particular. "Of course, this will make me want to look into making a kiln too."

But for that, she needed to get her city design approved first. She wanted to place the kiln where the workshops would eventually be so they wouldn’t need to think about moving the kiln once they got to the building phase.

It could just keep operating as they built.

"Guess I’ve got some work to do." Serena mused, putting the book down and picking up another. She then turned to the system and said, "Liz check something for me would you."

The system nodded its head and the two got straight into their usual work.