Chapter 131: Honey

"It’s right inside."

Draugor walked up to the tree, jammed his fingers into a hollow in the trunk, and pulled, with a teeth-grinding screech, the hollow ripped wide open, revealing a massive Tiger Hornet nest packed into the heartwood.

"Tiger Hornets like to build nests inside tree trunks, if you leave them alone, they’ll hollow out the entire tree, that’s why we exterminate them the moment we find them!"

"Then why didn’t you take care of it, meow?"

"I was in the middle of a hunt, I was going to deal with it afterward."

’Good thing we found it in time.’

Ethan studied the nest — densely packed larvae, half-eaten corpses of Fire Bees, his expression hardened.

"How should we exterminate them?"

"The best way is fire magic, my village always asks the chief to burn them out."

Ethan looked at Zharok, Zharok understood at once and sprinted toward the cabin.

A short while later, he returned, Walter rode behind him on a blood-red wolf conjured from his mana.

"I already understand the situation, I just need to burn this tree down, correct?"

"Yes, can you do it?"

"It’s just fire magic, a piece of cake."

Walter activated his blood magic, enveloping the entire tree in a crimson sheath, then he ignited a raging inferno inside the trunk, flames engulfed the decaying wood and the hornet nest alike, he held the magic until the tree was reduced to ashes, then shrugged.

"Is this good?"

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome, by the way, how is your beekeeping going?"

"Very smoothly."

"That’s good, once your Fire Bees start producing honey, remember to save some for me, I want a taste." Walter smiled, he turned the blood-red wolf and rode back toward the cabin.

Watching Walter’s retreating back, Draugor licked his lips. "If you’d like, I can help you exterminate all the Tiger Hornets in the vicinity."

"Really? Then I thank you."

"It’s winter, and I don’t have much to do, just consider it... earning my reward."

"Rest assured, once the bees produce honey, I’ll share some with you."

"Haha, then it’s a deal." Draugor smiled and hoisted his giant axe, time for him to continue his hunt.

"I’ll see you next time, goodbye, little girl!!"

Liora waved at him, face blank as ever, Draugor waved back, then turned and left.

Watching him go, Pearl let out a sigh. "Beekeeping really isn’t easy, meow~"

"No line of work is easy." Ethan smiled wryly, at least the problem was resolved, a silver lining.

"Let’s head back and eat."

Ever since he started beekeeping, Ethan’s life had grown even busier, one extra task shouldn’t have made much difference, but the days now felt packed from morning to night, he didn’t mind, he was the type who couldn’t sit idle to begin with.

"Let’s go check on the bee boxes today."

One day after lunch, Ethan made the suggestion.

It had only been a few days since they started, was there really honey already? Zharok looked doubtful.

Pearl and Liora, on the other hand, were practically vibrating with excitement. "Does that mean we can eat honey today, meow?"

Liora’s eyes went wide.

Ethan smiled and patted their heads, placing another pancake on each of their plates.

Walter watched them scarf down the food and shook his head with a smile. "As far as I know, it takes at least a month for Fire Bees to produce honey after building their hive."

"That may be true, but the bee boxes Ethan made are Well-Crafted tier, meow, they might produce honey ahead of schedule."

Even if there was no honey yet, there was nothing they could do about it, Walter nodded. "Do you need me to go with you?"

"If we could have the help of your magic, that would be wonderful."

"Then I’ll go chop some firewood," Zharok said, picking up his axe and heading toward the forest, making pottery and charcoal had already burned through the wood he had chopped a few days ago.

"Why don’t you just move in here permanently, meow?" Pearl suggested, ever since arriving, Zharok had stayed in the cabin nearly every night, rarely returning to his cave.

"The iron ore from the north should be delivered soon, and I still need to fire more charcoal, please prepare extra wood for me."

"Don’t worry, by the way, give me another pancake." Ethan grilled one and handed it to Zharok.

He then began planning his upcoming work schedule. ’Why does it feel like there are more and more things to do?’

After lunch, Zharok went to chop wood, Ethan and the others boarded the carriage, Walter conjured a blood-red horse from his magic to pull it, and they reached the apiary quickly.

Ethan opened a bee box to check inside.

Buzzzzz~!!

The hive had been disturbed, and the Fire Bees buzzed in agitation, under the calming effect of the Bee Queen’s Bracelet, they settled down within moments.

Ethan carefully lifted a wooden frame and weighed it in his hands, his eyebrows shot up. "So heavy."

The frame was packed — honeycomb dripping with golden, amber-colored honey that glowed faintly in the canyon light, the sweet, smoky fragrance of Fire Bee honey filled the air.

"Wow... there’s so much, meow~"

"It’s truly unbelievable, it’s only been a few days, yet they’ve already collected this much honey."

Just as Pearl and Walter had said.

The first wooden frame was already brimming with honey, golden liquid radiated a faint warmth, filling every cell of the honeycomb.

Ethan examined it carefully, then placed the frame into a wooden bucket and swapped in a new one, he worked through each bee box the same way, carefully lifting frames and checking them for damage before swapping in fresh ones, by the end he had harvested a full bucket of golden honey.

"With this much honey, we’ll have enough to eat for quite a while."

"Feels like we won’t be able to finish it all, meow~"

Ethan picked up the heavy bucket, set out fresh sugar water near the bee boxes to keep the Fire Bees fed, and led everyone out of the canyon, the walk back was quiet — just the crunch of their footsteps and the fading hum of bees behind them.

Perhaps because the aroma was too tempting, Liora stayed glued to his side the entire way, she kept glancing up at the bucket, eyes sparkling.

"Do you want some?"

Liora nodded and reached out her small hand.

Ethan smiled, cut off a small piece of honeycomb with a knife, and handed it to her, golden honey oozed from the comb.

"This honey looks really good," Walter remarked.

"Can we eat the beeswax directly? Won’t it cause indigestion?"

"Hmm? The beeswax from Fire Bees should be fine, right?" Ethan looked at Pearl, who wore an expression that said it was perfectly natural.

"Is that so?" This was the first he had heard that beeswax in this world could be eaten on the spot.

He portioned out honeycomb for everyone, they each took a bite, and happy smiles bloomed on their faces.

"Let me try..." Ethan picked up a piece and bit into it.

Unlike Earth’s honeycombs, Fire Bee beeswax was as crisp and crumbly as a cookie, mixed with the sweet honey, the texture was something entirely new, the crispness actually made the sweetness sharper — one pushed the other forward, there was a faint warmth on the tongue, too, a gentle heat that lingered without burning.