A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 135: Soap Making Part Two

"Alright, I’ve told Jason that we’re going hunting tomorrow." Theo stated as he returned from the village center.

Because it would take several hours for the soap to be made, Theo decided to forgo hunting. He was interested in the process and wanted to make sure Serena didn’t try anything while he was gone.

He didn’t want her accidentally injuring herself trying to do things herself. Serena glanced over at the tiger beastman as he walked over to her, Sarah squawking at the sight of him.

"Okay. Let me just finish up feeding the wild birds." Serena said "In the meantime, can you gather the tallow and gear? Oh and get a fire going. Make sure to build those stands like I showed you too. We’ll need to um... cook everything together."

She had put out the fire they used for breakfast, not wanting to keep it unattended while she checked up on the wild birds. Theo nodded his head in understanding before he left without another word.

Once Serena was done checking on the coop, finding four eggs, she headed back to the hut. By then, Theo had gotten the fire going and was bringing the prepared lye over.

They already tested it by placing a brown root in it and watched as it floated. Which was a lucky break for Serena. She was glad things had worked on the first try and made notes on the rough measurements she used.

Serena headed inside the hut, putting the eggs away before grabbing some yellow blossoms. They planned to make two batches, one with yellow blossoms and one without to see how they came out.

"What do we do first?" Theo asked, setting the lye down.

"Let the fire go for a bit." Serena mused. "The tallow needs to be heated up slowly. Once it’s a liquid we add the lye and yellow blossoms into one and just lye into the either. However, we’ll need to do one at a time because I need to stir while you pour in the lye."

"I see..." Theo nodded his head in understanding. "Suppose that explains the extra pair of goggles and gloves."

Serena gave him a faint smile at that while secretly crying inside. She had used quite a bit of coins to get that second pair yesterday after reviewing the recipe.

One person could probably do this on their own, however, it would be a lot easier with them both. Plus there were less risks of accidents happening while trying to do multiple things at once.

After letting the fire blaze for a bit, Serena put on her protection gear as Theo placed a stone pot on top of a stone stand he had made over the fire. Serena then added the tallow to the pot, occasionally stirring so it wouldn’t burn at the bottom.

Once it was melted back down to a liquid, Theo carefully began pouring the lye into the pot while Serena stirred it. When about half the lye was poured in, Theo added the yellow blossoms to the mixture.

This part was an experiment Serena was trying out, wanting to see if adding herbs itself was good enough. Otherwise, she’d need to find a way to extract oils from herbs.

She then gave the mixture one final stir before placing a wooden lid over the pot. They repeated the process once more, this time making the mixture without the yellow blossoms.

It was exhausting work, taking them about two hours to get both mixtures made. By then, Serena had worked up a sweat, the heat of the fire getting to her.

"Do you want some water?" Serena asked, straightening up as Theo moved to the log by the fire area.

"Please." Theo answered.

With that response, Serena headed over to one of their water buckets, removing her gloves and lifting her goggles to rest them on her head. She then splashed her face with some water to cool off before grabbing some water for both Theo and her.

She then headed back over to Theo, who was keeping an eye on the fire, and took a seat next to him. As she handed him his cup of water, she murmured, "Now we need to just wait for it to cook."

"Want to get lunch going while we wait?" Theo proposed. "It’s starting to get a bit late..."

Serena glanced up at the sky, noticing that it was late morning. "Hmmm... I suppose we can. Roasted skewers and vegetables?"

"Sounds good." Theo smiled. He then turned to the pots simmering with the soap mixture. "Besides, I don’t think we can make any stews right now."

Serena gimmicked a little at his words. She had used both of their pots for soap making. Meaning they were probably going to need to make new pots so they won’t accidentally poison themselves.

"Maybe I can bribe Finn to make us some proper cookware with soap." Serena mused aloud, mostly to herself.

Theo narrowed his eyes at her and muttered, "I don’t think that counts as bribery.... That’s just an exchange of goods. Though you’re better off doing an exchange with food or crystals."

He didn’t even bother saying that he could easily make more cookware like he had when they first arrived. Mostly because his pride wouldn’t allow him to admit that Finn was better at making things than he ever was.

He might as well just go along with Serena’s proposal.

"Why wouldn’t he want soap?" Serena questioned. "Is it because it’s a valuable resource? Are you trying to hide it because I’m going to let you know right now, I plan to spread this soap around the village."

That was part of her soap mission after all. Might as well do it while exchanging for goods they needed.

"It is true it’s a valuable resource which is exactly why it won’t be good. A single beastman like Finn would never have a use for it because only beastwomen use soap." Theo explained. "Hence you’re better off making a trade with food or crystals."

Serena had to push down her disgust about beastmen not using soap. Some did wash, but as Theo said, none really made use of soap because of its limited supply. It was one of the things she hated about this world.

Which was why making soap more available was an important task.

"Even if Finn is a single beastman, it doesn’t mean that he’s not going to get a mate in the future." Serena retorted. "Besides, beastmen should also use soap too."

The village would stink less then...

Theo pressed his lips together. "I can tell you now that beastman won’t get a mate. So there’s no point in him hoarding unnecessary stuff..."

"And how would you know?" Serena questioned, getting back. "You don’t know what the future holds. Maybe there’s a beastwoman out there who likes a handy beastman. Strength isn’t everything you know."

Liz decided to appear on Serena’s arm while she was speaking and heard the last part. It then coughed, "That’s rich coming from Miss ’I can’t be weak’."

Serena smacked her arm, missing Liz as it shifted into a bird and perched on top of her head. Theo gazed at Serena’s action in bewilderment.

"Stupid bug..." Serena muttered, dropping her hand.

One day she would catch that damn system and give it the beating of its life. Why did it have to question her whenever she couldn’t argue back?!

"Perhaps we should just get food going..." Theo said, pushing down the countless questions he had over what she had just done.

"I’ll get the food then." Serena stated, stalking off to the hut. "You watch the fire."

She didn’t give Theo any room to argue and headed straight for the underground part of the hut. It was the coolest part of the hut and Serena found that they could store fresh meat there for about a day.

Of course, that probably wouldn’t work during the rainy and hot season.

However, she did see something about creating a cellar to act almost like a fridge. The only thing was that they needed to ventilate it properly to work.

Once Serena was underground and out of earshot, Serena muttered, "You have a bad habit of popping up at the wrong time. Did you need something?"

"Actually yes." Liz chirped before shifting back into a snake and settling on Serena’s upper arm. "I wanted to ask you how to make an account."

Serena had asked the question sarcastically, not expecting the system to actually have a response for her. And one that she had just given too.

"What the hell do you need an account for?" Serena asked, grabbing some items for lunch. "Didn’t we just talk about you abusing this feature yesterday?"

"I’m not doing anything bad..." Liz retorted. "I’m just curious about something. This internet thing is really interesting and I need an account to explore more."

"Then ask the Beast God." Serena muttered. "Don’t make it my problem."

Mostly because she did not want to be responsible for any chaos Liz caused. This was all going to be on the Beast God for giving it access to her world’s technology.

"Fine..." Liz hissed before disappearing again.