Chapter 377: The Berries in the Forest (1)

Roxanna nodded eagerly. "There should be a lot of ways to make them. White might be a little difficult, but for brown... we can probably use different kinds of soil or clay. Gray might be possible if we mix something dark with something lighter."

Roxanna quickly opened the book again and began flipping through the pages. She carefully looked at each picture until something finally caught her attention.

"This one!" Roxanna suddenly exclaimed, pointing excitedly at a picture of a pale-colored rock. "I think I’ve seen something like this near the river."

Luan leaned closer and looked at the picture. "You mean this white rock?"

"Yes!" Roxanna nodded eagerly. "There were a lot of them near the shallow part of the river. If we crush them into powder and mix them with the right ingredients, maybe we can use them to make white paint."

Luan thought about it briefly before closing the book. "Then we can ask Calen to collect some of those white stones later since he’ll be guarding the area around the river."

Things would have been much easier if Azul were here. Unfortunately, since he was currently out of the picture, Roxanna had no choice but to think of another way.

"If the stones are difficult to reach, maybe we can ask Azul’s crocodile friends to help us get them," Roxanna suggested.

Luan considered her idea for a moment before finally nodding. "I think that could work."

Once they finished discussing everything, Roxanna went to tell her other husbands about the plan. However, the moment Calen heard that he might have to ask the crocodiles for help, a confused look appeared on his face.

"Do you really think the crocodiles will listen to me?" Calen asked. "I can’t even speak fish language!"

Roxanna stared at him for a second before letting out a small laugh. "Calen, crocodiles aren’t fish. They’re reptiles."

Before Calen could say anything else, she quickly continued, "And I’m sure they’ll listen to you. You just have to be polite when you talk to Mr. Crocodile or Zoey."

Calen frowned even harder. "But how am I supposed to know which one is Mr. Crocodile and which ones are just regular crocodiles?"

Roxanna simply shrugged as if the answer were obvious. "Just call their names. It shouldn’t be that hard."

In fact, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they had expected.

The crocodiles didn’t seem very interested in listening to Calen at first. However, the moment he mentioned that Roxanna was the one asking for their help, their attitude immediately changed.

The crocodiles quickly disappeared into the water and began collecting the white stones for him. Before long, they had brought back so many that the stones formed a small pile on the riverbank.

Meanwhile, Roxanna had gone into the forest with Cyrus and Luan. Zeir couldn’t come with them because he was leading the warriors to collect logs for the new huts they needed to build for the tribe’s new members.

Skiv also decided to come along because he wanted to take part in hunting more often.

"Why do you still want to hunt?" Luan asked, glancing at Skiv, who was walking behind him and Roxanna. "Didn’t Aelin and Azul already convince you to just focus on making poison?"

Skiv tried to walk faster so he wouldn’t fall too far behind the others. Unfortunately, his body clearly wasn’t made for long walks through the forest. He was already breathing heavily after trying to keep up with them, causing Roxanna to slow down so he could catch up.

"Who says I can’t hunt using poison?" Skiv asked confidently. "I might not be able to fight like you, but at least I can try some of my poisons on the demon beasts!"

Roxanna quickly turned toward him. "Skiv, you do know that we came to the forest to collect materials for making colors, right? We’re not here to hunt demon beasts."

Skiv nodded several times. "Yes, yes, yes. I know. But still, there are usually demon beasts in the forest, aren’t there? After all, there are still plenty of Voids around the Vixeria Tribe."

The moment Skiv mentioned the Voids, Roxanna suddenly realized something.

"It feels like I haven’t seen any demon beasts wandering around the Vixeria Tribe lately."

Now that she thought about it, it really was strange.

They had buried many black crystals throughout the Vixeria Settlement, but those crystals could only protect the settlement itself. There was no way their effect could reach every part of the place outside their territory.

Yet, even though Roxanna and the others had already traveled several kilometers away from the settlement, she still hadn’t seen a single demon beast.

"Because right now, our tribe has something even more terrifying than the Demon Fenrir we caught last time," Luan suddenly said in a low voice.

He then lifted his head and looked up at Cyrus, who was flying through the sky in his phoenix form to search for the things Roxanna wanted.

"Demon beasts won’t dare to approach something they don’t fully understand," Luan explained. He then turned his gaze back to Roxanna. "And I think our Fenrir is even scarier than the demon one, at least in their eyes."

Roxanna blinked a few times. [Is he talking about Calen and Cyrus?] she wondered.

Luan sighed, then turned his face slightly to the side. "Of course I’m talking about Cyrus and... Calen."

Roxanna gave him an annoyed look. Once again, Luan had casually barged into her mind without asking for permission.

However, just as she was about to complain, she realized the system had mentioned something about a black panther before, but Roxanna still hadn’t had the chance to properly ask him about it. With everything that had happened lately, the matter had simply been pushed aside.

"Luan—"

"There!" Luan suddenly cut her off and pointed ahead. "Don’t those look like the berries from the book?"

Roxanna followed his finger and spotted a bush covered in berries not far from them.

"Hey, Skiv." Luan immediately turned toward him. "You’re a poison expert now, aren’t you? Go check whether those berries are poisonous."