Chapter 118: Making An Improvised Oven

Once Sora finished dressing, she finally felt like herself again.

She adjusted the new skirt and looked down at the wrinkles in the old one lying nearby.

Then she remembered what she had originally planned to do.

Her expression darkened.

She turned toward Xavier.

"It’s all your fault."

Xavier looked at her innocently.

"What did I do?"

"I still haven’t managed to make my bread oven."

She pointed accusingly toward the grove where she had been searching for suitable soil.

"I finally found the right material, and then you appeared and completely messed everything up."

Xavier looked in the direction she pointed.

Then he looked back at Sora.

His lips curved slightly.

"So you were making an oven?"

"Yes."

Sora folded her arms.

"I wanted to bake raspberry cake."

At the mention of raspberry cake, Xavier’s eyes changed subtly.

He had already experienced Sora’s cooking.

He knew that whenever she mentioned making something new, it usually meant another delicious food was about to appear.

"What do you need?"

Sora blinked.

"Why?"

"I’ll help."

She looked at him suspiciously.

"Are you actually willing to help?"

Xavier nodded.

"If it means you’ll make more food, yes."

Sora’s lips twitched.

So that was his motivation.

Food.

She shook her head with amusement.

"Fine. Since you’re the one who ruined my morning, you can help me fix it."

Xavier nodded without complaint.

The two of them walked back toward the patch of soil.

Neither noticed that, not too far away, several beastmen had begun moving through the area after hearing the earlier rumors.

And if those beastmen happened to see Xavier standing so close to Sora, there was no doubt the gossip would only become worse.

Meanwhile, Sora crouched beside the soil again and began examining it carefully.

She had no idea that while she was worrying about her oven, the entire tribe had already started speculating about her relationship with the six beastmen around her.

Her peaceful days...

It seemed they were getting farther and farther away.

* * * * *

"Bread oven? What’s that? I’ll help you."

Sora had been busy all afternoon, and with free labor willingly offering itself, she had no intention of being polite.

She immediately pointed toward a dirt path nearby.

"Go grab a handful of that soil over there and bring it to me. I need to see what kind it is."

Xavier immediately followed her instructions.

He crouched down, scooped up a handful of earth, and hurried back to Sora.

She took the soil from his hand and examined it carefully, rubbing it between her fingers and testing its texture.

After a moment, her eyes lit up.

"It’s high-viscosity yellow clay."

She pointed toward a relatively dry patch of high ground not far from the wild kitchen.

"Let’s build the bread oven there."

Xavier didn’t care where this strange, unheard-of bread oven would be built. What interested him was how exactly Sora intended to make it.

"What should I do?"

"First, we need to make the oven bed. Flatten the ground and pile the clay into a square base."

As soon as Sora finished speaking, Xavier got to work.

Using his snake tail to loosen and turn over the earth, he followed Sora’s instructions carefully. He mixed the clay with a little fine sand before spreading it over the ground in a thick, even layer.

When he finished, he looked toward Sora.

"How’s this?"

Sora crouched down and inspected the foundation.

She nodded.

"That’s good. Smooth the surface a little more."

Xavier immediately did as she said.

Before long, the base of the oven had taken shape.

Sora looked at the foundation with satisfaction.

"Next, we need to build the arched roof. The curved shape will help retain heat inside."

Xavier looked at the unfinished base.

"Do we just pile the clay on top?"

"That would be difficult."

Sora shook her head.

"Usually, you would mix straw into the clay and build it around a sand mold. But we don’t have enough straw right now."

She glanced around the surrounding area before an idea came to her.

Sora quickly found several flexible branches and began weaving them together.

After some effort, she created a hemispherical framework.

She carefully placed it on top of the oven base.

"Go get some water. We need to wet the yellow clay and mix it evenly."

Xavier nodded.

He picked up a large water jar and headed toward the deep pool.

While he was gone, Sora examined the clay again.

Simply covering the framework with wet mud would not be enough. Without reinforcement, the oven would be prone to cracking once exposed to high temperatures.

Her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the large patch of grass where she and Xavier had been earlier.

A trace of awkwardness flashed across her face.

She quickly looked away.

Then she walked over and gathered some dry grass.

She rubbed the grass between her palms until it became fine and fibrous, then mixed it into the yellow clay Xavier had prepared.

Soon, Xavier returned with the water.

Sora took a ceramic pot from the wild kitchen, scooped some water from the jar, and sprinkled it over the clay little by little.

"Mix it thoroughly."

Xavier obediently began working the mixture.

He kneaded the clay until the water, grass fibers, sand, and earth were evenly combined.

Sora tested the consistency several times.

When she was finally satisfied, she pointed toward the woven hemispherical frame.

"Cover the entire frame with this mud. Follow the shape of the framework carefully."

Xavier nodded.

Coating the entire dome was a large project.

While Xavier worked, Sora sat nearby and watched.

She was still sore from earlier and didn’t particularly feel like moving around.

Besides, Xavier seemed perfectly capable of handling the work.

At first, Sora watched him closely, occasionally correcting his technique.

But after realizing that he was surprisingly skilled at following instructions, she gradually stopped paying attention.

Instead, her thoughts wandered.

She had been so busy over the past few days that she hadn’t had time to properly check her strategy progress.

After Lukan had successfully completed the strategy at the Temple of the Gods, the system had rewarded her by upgrading her wood-type ability to Level Two.

Sora silently opened the system interface.

Most of the new functions were related to healing.

There were abilities that could rapidly control bleeding, accelerate recovery, and heal minor injuries.

There was even a small auxiliary function capable of suppressing sleepiness.

Sora stared at it for a moment.

"Isn’t this basically melatonin?"

She couldn’t help smiling.

With this ability, she was one step closer to having smooth, flawless skin.

Then she remembered something else.

The system had also informed her that she had completed a hidden task.

But what had she actually done at the Temple of the Gods?

Aside from making milk tea, she hadn’t done anything unusual.

Could discovering the tea leaves have triggered it?

Just as she was wondering about it, the system answered.

[The hidden task completed by the host is related to Lukan.]

Sora’s expression changed slightly.

Related to Lukan?

A sudden thought crossed her mind.

Could it be that she had unintentionally discovered the connection between Lukan and the original owner during their childhood?

That would explain why Lukan seemed to possess such a natural favorable filter toward her.

So that was it.

Sora finally understood.

Xavier and Lukan had both already upgraded to having favorable filters toward her.

That left Lucas, Ace, and Ryan.

Sora wasn’t particularly anxious about Lucas and Ace.

Neither of them was especially difficult to deal with.

As long as she spent enough time with them, she would eventually be able to complete their strategies.

But Ryan...

That one was troublesome.

Sora’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Ryan was a typical sapiosexual.

If she wanted to win him over, she would have to show him something beyond ordinary beauty or food.

She needed to demonstrate her knowledge and technical abilities.

She needed to make him curious.

She needed to give him something he couldn’t ignore.

Sora’s gaze lifted.

And then she saw the bread oven taking shape before her.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

Wasn’t this opportunity practically delivering itself to her?

Temple of the Gods — Sacred Hall

Far away from the wolf tribe, the high priest stood inside the Sacred Hall.

His long white beast-skin robe dragged across the polished stone floor as he gazed into the distance with a joyful expression.

"It has been a long time since a female successfully ignited the sacred fire."

His voice carried a rare trace of excitement.

Then he turned toward the young priest beside him.

"Congratulations, young master. You have finally found your fated daughter."

The young priest’s eyes widened.

"Priest, you must be mistaken."

His expression was filled with disbelief.

"That ugly female from before... How could she possibly be the fated daughter?"

The high priest’s expression immediately became stern.

"."

The young priest lowered his head.

"Everything has form. How can you judge a person solely by their appearance?"

"Yes, Priest."

The young priest bowed respectfully.

A moment later, however, he couldn’t help muttering under his breath.

"I don’t want to say this either, but... that female being with the young master really is too mismatched."

The high priest glanced at him.

The young priest swallowed.

"The young master is so handsome, while that fated daughter was..."

He hesitated.

"Her appearance was rather ordinary."

The high priest’s expression darkened.

The young priest immediately lowered his head again.

"I know I shouldn’t say such things."

He paused before continuing.

"It’s just that the young master is so extraordinary. For him to form a totem bond with such a female..."

He couldn’t bring himself to finish.

The high priest remained silent.

His gaze returned to the distant mountains.

Unlike the young priest, he did not care about appearances.

The gods had chosen her.

That was enough.