CHAPTER 136 - TWEET-TELY ADORABLE AND CUTELY CHARMING

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Several people had told me before that Deming was a cultivator who used a special technique to hide his true face, but this was insane! He normally appeared to be a middle-aged man in his early fifties with graying black hair that was thinning on top and watery brown eyes, but now he looked radically different.

I couldn’t believe Fengying liked the cute and adorable type!

Who knew that the terrifying Demon Chef’s real face was that of a charming little cherub? His doe-like eyes, the color of warm honey, were framed by perfectly arched brows. His little nose was pert, with a slight upturn, that gave his face an endearing quality, and he had a pretty little rosebud mouth. To top it all off, he even had a mole on the corner of his left eye which drew attention to his eyes and made him look even more enchanting.

I put a hand on my chest and turned to Fengying. “Your husband-”

Fengying gave me an amused look. “You can see his true face?”

“Yes? Didn’t he turn off his technique?” I scanned the others’ faces and realized they hadn’t reacted, which meant that Fengying and I were the only ones who could see Deming’s true face. “How come I can see it?”

“I’ll take care of it.” Fengying took her husband by the hand and led him away.

When they came back to the outer courtyard, Deming had his old look back, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Mo and Kharli were immensely curious about what Deming really looked like and bugged me endlessly for details until I gave in and told them that Deming looked really adorable, which they refused to believe. Mo, in particular, was completely convinced that Deming looked like a dreadfully villainous but strikingly handsome man.

“Maybe he also has a special skill that makes his face look different depending on the viewer’s preferences,” said Mo.

“You’re saying Teacher likes the cute type? What about the prince?” Kharli giggled.

I shook my head at their preoccupation with people’s looks and continued plowing the soil. Today we were going to plant our one hundredth tree. Tomorrow, Lari was going to replace Kharli, and I planned to spend the rest of our stay in the desert planting more fast-growing fodder plants and [Wild Seed Mix], plus hatching another batch of [Lizardwings].

It was hot, as always, but the sky was pleasingly overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain soon. The gray clouds cast shadows that drifted across the landscape, providing us with a fleeting but welcome respite from the sun. Since our trees were but mere saplings, our view was unobstructed and the prairie landscape extended endlessly in every direction, giving me a feeling of freedom and limitless possibilities.

When we finished our work, I impulsively decided to go for a run. I unclipped Mr. Bear from my belt and made him grow until he was big enough for me to sit on his shoulders, which I did.

I looked down at my apprentices from my perch and said, “I’m gonna run with Mr. Bear! Who’s with me?”

“Me!” Mo didn’t wait for my signal and just ran off immediately

Kharli followed right behind her, yelling, “Me, too!”

I freed my hair from its ponytail. Mr. Bear levitated a foot off the ground and started flying after the girls.

“Chuuuuuu!” Cutie was not one to be left behind and bounced along with us with her adorable little slime umbrella.

I raised my face to the sky and enjoyed the feel of the wind in my hair.

“Having my own desert farm is the best!” I said into Mr. Bear’s ear.

After the run, we all felt tired and spent an hour in the hot spring to replenish our energy. Then we had lunch and, after resting for a bit, went to the middle courtyard’s blacksmithing workshop.

Standing in front of the line of furnaces, I gave my apprentices a double thumbs up. “Level 20, here I come!”

They fed wooden logs to the bottom opening of the furnaces where the fire was while I placed the ores inside the waiting chambers above. The furnaces made the room too hot, so I turned up the air-conditioning and removed the outer wall, leaving it open to the elements on that side. Once the bars were ready, I used the System to automatically place them in my inventory.

“I’m close! I think the next one will do it.” I moved to the next furnace and harvested the bars.

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The System’s confetti showered down on me. I’d changed the level-up display since I wanted to see if it was prettier.

[Congratulations, you just advanced a Smithing level!]

[Your Smithing level is now 20.]

Kharli and Mo clapped.

“Congratulations!”

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you. Thank you. Let’s cheer for my milestone level!” I gave them glasses of [Kola-Kola Soda] and taught them how to gently tap the glasses together and say “Cheers!”

We had a whole mini-celebration going with a cocktail table that I loaded up with plates full of pretty little pastries like osmanthus cake, rolled honey pancakes, and red tortoise cakes, a popular pastry in Singapore that was made of soft, sticky rice flour skin wrapped around a sweet mung bean filling.

“Shall we smelt some iron now?” I asked them when we finished eating and drinking.

“I wonder what sort of metal Teacher will make this time?” Kharli asked Mo.

“Something amazing, I bet!” said Mo.

At level 20 Smithing, I could now smelt iron bars. This time, after they filled the furnaces with wooden logs, I placed iron ores inside. I expected the furnaces to produce [Iron Bars], but what I got were [Dragonfire-Forged Iron Bars].

[Dragonfire-Forged Iron Bars:

Born in the heart of an ancient forge fueled by Dragonfire, these iron bars possess an eerie, flickering darkness. The bars seem to absorb and reflect ambient light, creating an illusion of dancing shadows.]

I was starting to notice a trend here. Was my System made by dragons?

There were tons of dragon-themed items in Adventure Incarnate, but I always thought that was just because dragons were a very popular fantasy creature, much more so than tigers, turtles, and birds. As a video game, it made sense that the Azure Dragon-themed content sold better than the Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger items. Therefore, the developers made more dragon stuff.

As far as I knew, the player character had no special connection to dragons. Also, the people of Hongzhen town claimed that I was one of their own, and their patron god was a lion.

Though I pondered the idea the whole afternoon as we smelted iron bars, I couldn’t make up my mind one way or another.

“We’ll stop now, since it’s getting dark.” I took out the last of the bars from the furnaces and extinguished the fires. “See you at dinner.”

“There was a delivery of fresh meat from the Spring Hunt today,” said Mo.

“Dinner is going to be grilled demon venison skewers,” said Kharli.

“Have we ever had that before?” Mo looked intrigued.

Food seemed to have become a big part of my apprentices’ interests. I guess growing up in an orphanage made them appreciate meat more since they rarely got to taste it before.

I left the two of them in the middle courtyard and went to my favorite place right now, the Walkway of One Hundred Fountains. Cutie jumped into the lowest water trough and started swimming up and down its length like a fat yellow swan. The top part of my pet glided gracefully and serenely atop the water while the bottom part that was submerged had grown two large paddles as pseudo-feet and churned the water frantically.

I amused myself with some idle thoughts about my pet.

Was Cutie a demon who had evolved?

The skill of forming new slime parts was definitely new. Perhaps she got the idea when she saw my apprentices and I putting up parasols, and she thought they were parts of our bodies that we extruded. After all, the parasols appeared in our hands like magic because we had gotten them from our inventories.

Did Cutie think that our clothes and shoes were parts of ourselves? Would she be shocked if she saw someone getting their hair cut?

I reckoned she probably didn’t understand that the portal in my room was special. To her, all doors lead somewhere else, and having a door opening into the Chitinous Caverns probably seemed normal.

Cutie got tired of swimming in the water trough and started jumping up and down the three levels of fountains.

Maybe I should teach her some tricks? I browsed the pet tab to see if there was anything there I could use. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything that could teach a pet new tricks, but I did find a pet trampoline. I called Cutie over and brought her back to her [Slime House], placing the trampoline outside for her to play with.

Her mouth opened wide and she let out a loud “Chu~” when she jumped into the bouncy item and soared into the air, fell down, and bounced up again and again.

I watched her for a few minutes, laughing at the way she stretched herself out when she was at the top of her trajectory, as though to make the moment last, then pulling herself back together when she was on the way down. The sound of the water was quite soothing, so I sat down on a bench and let my mind wander. It was nice to relax under the shade of the trees with nothing to do. Then I went to my [Ranch House] to do some more Herblaw before dinner.

***

Two days later, Lari replaced Kharli. Three days after that, we inspected the [Lizardwing] and [Perfectly Ordinary Prairie Chicken] pens. The result of my little experiment was clear to everyone.

“The [Lizardwings] might be smelly, but their pen is very green,” said Lari.

“I hate the smell, but the [Lizardwings] win,” said Kharli.

“The chicken pen was almost the same as it was before,” said Lari.

“You see! You guys always complain about the stink, but the [Lizardwings] are great. We’ll be able to green this desert with their help much faster than without them,” I said.

We had put the animals in cages, ready to sell to whoever wanted them, and made new habitats with eight [Lizardwing Eggs] inside.

“I never thought they weren’t useful. I just wished they weren’t so smelly.” Lari turned in the direction of the [Lizardwing] pen and instinctively pinched his nose shut even though we were too far to smell them.

I covered my nose with my hand. “Stop, there’s no stink here. You’re gonna trigger me, too!”

They both laughed at me.

“Hey, listen, tomorrow night will be our last here and I wanna do something.” I giggled a little.

“Oh no, Teacher has a crazy look in her eyes!” Kharli pretended to be shocked and ducked behind Lari.

I waved a hand in an “oh, it’s really nothing!” type of gesture. “This is what I want to do…”

I explained the concept to them in more detail.

“Destroying stuff?” Lari grinned. “I’ll do it!”

Mo was less enthusiastic. “It’s too bad Kharli won't be there. She’s the best at archery, and she would love the explosions!”