Chapter 41: Successfully Made Sugar

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Successfully Made Sugar

Inside the stone house, a little female with curly silver hair retched until her eyes turned red. Tears streamed down her cheeks, dripping onto her delicate collarbones.

After a violent fit of coughing, she was hit by another bout of dry heaving.

Seeing this, Ophelia hurriedly set down the sugarcane and Bone Knife in her hands. She rushed over to Ali’s side and gently patted her back. It took quite a while before Ali finally coughed up the sugarcane pulp stuck deep in her throat.

Ali looked at her with tearful eyes. "Ophelia, this stuff is so hard to swallow."

"You don’t need to swallow the sugarcane. Just chew out the juice and spit out the pulp," Ophelia explained in a low voice, wiping the girl’s tears with a beast skin handkerchief.

Ali nodded, half-understanding. "Like that?"

She had never seen sugarcane before, but she more or less got the gist of it. So, once the round sugarcane was chewed flat, it couldn’t be eaten anymore. The remaining pulp had to be spit out, not swallowed.

After making sure Ali was alright, Ophelia turned her attention back to peeling the sugarcane. While Ali had been busy taste-testing, Tyler had already peeled quite a few stalks.

"Ophelia, what are you doing peeling so much sugarcane? If we can’t finish it, won’t it go bad?" Ali asked, looking at the bucket full of sugarcane in confusion.

"No, we’re going to use this sugarcane to boil sugar."

"Sugar? What’s that? Is it food too?"

She had never heard the word "sugar" before and had no idea what it meant.

Ophelia smiled at her ignorant but adorable expression. "Sugar is extracted from sugarcane. It’s sweet, just like the cane itself, and it’s a seasoning, much like salt.

"Didn’t you think the ginger soup was spicy and awful? Once we add some sugar to it, it won’t be so spicy anymore."

"Wow, that’s amazing! Now I won’t have to be afraid of drinking ginger soup anymore," Ali said, her face lighting up with a bright smile.

She was actually looking forward to it. What would this sugar-laced ginger soup taste like? Would it be as sweet as sugarcane?

To Ali, Ophelia seemed to be glowing. This female was simply incredible. How did she know about so many delicious things, and how did she even know how to heal people? She admired her so much.

"This is my first time making it, though. I don’t know if it will be a success, so don’t get your hopes up too high," Ophelia said.

Meeting Ali’s starry, expectant eyes, Ophelia felt a bit of pressure. To be honest, she wasn’t entirely confident about this sugar-making endeavor. She had only learned the principles and steps for making brown sugar by scrolling through videos back in the modern world. At the time, she hadn’t been able to sleep and had stumbled upon an immersive video about making brown sugar, which she ended up watching as a sleep aid.

Her eyes had learned it, and she technically grasped the method, but theory was far from practice. Without having tested it herself, she couldn’t guarantee success on the first try.

"No way. I believe in you, Ophelia. You will definitely succeed," Ali said decisively, patting her chest.

In her heart, Ophelia was even more capable than her brother. Klein succeeded in whatever he did, so Ophelia would definitely be able to do this, too.

Ali’s unwavering trust boosted Ophelia’s confidence. "Alright, then I’ll do my best not to let you down."

"Ophelia, I’ll go call Klein to come help peel the sugarcane. It’ll go a lot faster that way."

With that, she dashed out of the kitchen like a gust of wind, heading toward the small stone house the Golden Dragon Clan had arranged for her and her brother. The stone house was only fifty square meters, originally built as a resting place for the Golden Dragon Clan males when they were constructing the mountain dwellings. It wasn’t large, but it was just enough for Klein and his group to live in.

Inside the stone house, Klein was standing at the door, gazing out at the endless rain. His eyes were gloomy as he wondered when the rain would finally stop.

A tiny figure sprinted over, dodging the rain under the eaves, and excitedly hugged Klein’s arm.

"Klein, Ophelia is in the kitchen making sugar. You should go help!"

"You little glutton. You’d sell out your own brother just for a bite to eat," Klein chided her affectionately, letting Ali drag him along.

Though he verbally protested, his footsteps didn’t slow down in the slightest. Deep down, he was actually looking forward to seeing Ophelia. He didn’t know why; perhaps he was simply anticipating what new surprises this little female might bring him this time.

"Ophelia, I brought Klein!" Ali announced the moment she entered the kitchen, blinking her almond eyes as if claiming credit.

Ophelia didn’t stand on ceremony. She pulled another Bone Knife out of her Beast Skin Bag and handed it to Klein along with an unpeeled stalk of sugarcane.

"Come on then, be my free labor.

"Tyler, show him how to do it."

"Alright," Tyler nodded.

He visibly slowed down his sugarcane peeling, seemingly giving Klein a slow-motion tutorial. Klein stood opposite Tyler, intently watching the movements of his hands. Just by observing Tyler peel two stalks, he figured it out.

He immediately picked up a piece of sugarcane and began peeling. Like Tyler, he was a bit clumsy at first and made a few small mistakes, but after two or three stalks, his movements became much more practiced and fluid.

Just then, Laxus walked past the kitchen door and paused, finding the scene inside rather strange. What were they doing? Seeing them all holding Bone Knives and some bizarre object he had never seen before only deepened his curiosity.

"What are you all doing? And what is that in your hands?" Laxus asked, stepping into the kitchen.

"Peeling sugarcane. We’re getting ready to make sugar," Ophelia answered, keeping her head down.

"Then I’ll help too." Laxus rolled up his sleeves, walked further in, and found a spot to sit next to Klein.

"Sure."

Working together, the three males made quick work of the pile. The cleanly peeled sugarcane stalks were tossed into a pristine stone pot. Afterward, Ophelia brought out several green stone slabs, which the males typically used for carving roasted meat.

She distributed the three slabs among the men. "Do what I do. Chop the sugarcane into small segments.

"Then, put them in the stone pot and use a rock to smash the juice out of them. I only need the juice; you can just pick out the pulp and throw it away."

Ophelia even demonstrated the process in front of them, chopping a long piece of sugarcane into segments and dropping them into the pot. If there was one thing the mountains of the Beast World never lacked, it was rocks. She casually found an appropriately sized stone right outside the door and washed it clean.

She took the stone and began pounding the sugarcane. Soon, a loud SQUISH SQUISH echoed from inside the stone pot. Some of the juice even splashed out of the pot, splattering everywhere.

Seeing this, Tyler and the others followed suit.

In the end, they managed to pound out an entire stone pot full of sugarcane juice. Ophelia brought out a piece of breathable beast skin she had prepared beforehand to filter the liquid. The three males worked together to lift the heavy stone pot and help her strain the juice. Once it was filtered, Ophelia had Tyler start a fire.

She then handed Tyler a wooden spoon, instructing him to stir the pot continuously to keep the syrup from sticking to the bottom.

She waited until the bubbles in the boiling liquid gradually disappeared before extinguishing the fire. Then, she had the three males move the stone pot to a dry place and continue stirring.

After a while of stirring, the dark liquid turned a rich reddish-brown and slowly began to solidify.

It was a success!