After feeding her the Leaf Fruit, Lukan left immediately.
Once the cooling fruit took effect, Sora felt much better and drifted into a deep sleep.
When she woke up again, she discovered that her small green top was only tied in the front. The back fastening had come completely loose, and if she looked down, she could easily see far more of herself than she intended.
Sora froze.
What on earth had happened?
Why did it feel as though someone had taken advantage of her while she was unconscious?
Then she immediately shook her head.
With her current appearance, who would have such unusual tastes?
At that moment, the system’s voice sounded.
"Host, don’t worry. Lukan did that while helping you. This means your strategy toward him has been effective."
Hearing that only made Sora feel even more embarrassed.
She let out a sharp cry.
"Can I be any more humiliated?"
"System, what exactly happened?" Sora asked.
She remembered fragments of what had happened, but everything felt blurry.
"You were affected by Love Fruit and Lukan found a Leaf Fruit to cure you," the system replied.
"Love Fruit? I never ate any."
Sora was confused. Since arriving in this world, she hadn’t even seen the legendary fruit.
"It was Serena’s doing. While you were building your house, she spread Love Fruit juice on your beast-skin blanket."
Sora immediately understood.
No wonder something had felt strange when she lay down.
So Serena had tampered with it.
Was she trying to set her up?
Most likely Serena never expected Sora to take a nap during the day and trigger the effects herself.
Fortunately, Lukan had arrived and helped her detoxify the poison.
Otherwise, if it had happened at night, she might have found herself in another disastrous and embarrassing situation.
Sora narrowed her eyes.
This time, she wasn’t going to let Serena get away with it.
Previously, she had considered Serena nothing more than a scheming white lotus who liked playing tricks.
But this was different.
This was poisoning.
Then another thought occurred to her.
"System, why didn’t you warn me?"
The system replied mechanically.
"The target of your strategy was nearby. This was an excellent opportunity to increase your relationship progress, so I did not interfere."
Sora almost exploded.
"You call being poisoned an opportunity?"
"Host, opportunities and risks often coexist."
Sora was speechless.
The system actually had the nerve to say that.
She thought about how disheveled she must have looked in front of Lukan and wanted to bury herself underground.
Her top had come loose.
Her skirt had been a mess.
And Lukan had seen everything.
Just imagining it made her want to disappear.
Still, there was one thing she desperately wanted to know.
"System, show me my current status."
A blue screen appeared before her.
Host: Sora
Age: 20
Attraction Value: 10
Expectation of Meeting: 10
Attention to Host’s Activities: 5
Ability: Water Element, Beginner’s level
Strategy Targets
Xavier — Heartbeat Value: 1
Ace — Heartbeat Value: 1
Lukan — Heartbeat Value: 5
Lucas — Heartbeat Value:
(Remaining target Ryan) — Heartbeat Value: 0
Sora stared at the numbers in surprise.
Not only had the heartbeat values increased, but her attraction value had risen as well.
She guessed there were two reasons.
First, she had lost weight.
The birthmark on her face had disappeared, and her skin had become noticeably fairer.
Second, her cooking skills had attracted the attention of several beastmen.
But the most confusing part was the Expectation of Meeting value.
It had increased twice already.
Did these beastmen really look forward to seeing her?
If she were some stunning beauty, she could understand.
But right now she still saw herself as an ugly duckling.
Why would anyone be eager to meet her?
"System, are you sure this data is correct?"
"Yes, Host. All data is accurate."
"And it’s updated in real time?"
"Correct."
Sora finally relaxed.
Unexpectedly, the Love Fruit incident hadn’t lowered Lukan’s heartbeat value at all.
Instead, it had increased.
She really had gained something from the disaster.
Still, the next time she saw Lukan, she would need exceptionally thick skin.
Every time she remembered that he had seen her in such an embarrassing state, she wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.
By the time she finished thinking everything over, it was already late afternoon.
The tribe only ate two meals a day.
One in the morning and one in the evening.
Since Sora wanted to continue losing weight, she followed the same schedule.
Now that she was awake, hunger quickly returned.
After adjusting her clothes, she headed toward her secret food-gathering spot.
Yesterday she had made Beggar’s Chicken.
Today she wanted something different.
The mushrooms she had discovered earlier were growing well.
A rich mushroom soup would be wonderful.
Unfortunately, she had neither oil nor meat.
Without those ingredients, there was only so much she could do.
If only she could catch a wild boar.
The fat could be rendered into lard, and the meat could be used for all kinds of dishes.
Sadly, her current strength wasn’t enough to hunt something that large.
Tonight she would have to settle for something simpler.
After searching around for a while, Sora finally spotted a fish.
Without oil, many foods were difficult to cook properly.
But fish was different.
Fish could still be delicious even without a drop of oil.
As Sora returned from the deep pool carrying a freshly cleaned fish, she spotted two familiar figures lingering near her outdoor cooking spot.
Sure enough, Xavier and Lucas had arrived again.
The success of breakfast had clearly backfired.
Neither beastman had forgotten the taste of her food.
Sora ignored them for the moment and began preparing her fish.
Xavier coughed lightly before stepping forward and holding out an egg.
"I found a goose egg."
Lucas immediately followed his example and presented another egg.
"And I found a wild duck egg."
Sora glanced at the eggs but didn’t take them.
She had already eaten eggs that morning and wasn’t interested in having them again for dinner.
The smiles on the two beastmen’s faces immediately stiffened.
Xavier slowly lowered his hand.
Lucas also withdrew his egg.
The two exchanged a glance before speaking almost at the same time.
"As long as you cook for us, we’ll help you with other work."
Sora’s eyes brightened.
That was exactly what she wanted to hear.
There were many things she couldn’t accomplish alone in this primitive world, but tasks that were difficult for her were often effortless for beastmen.
She casually tossed her fish onto a flat stone and looked at them.
"Then go catch two fish for yourselves."
"We’re having fish tonight."
Before she had even finished speaking, the two disappeared.
Their speed was astonishing.
Moments later, they returned carrying two large fish.
Sora couldn’t help sighing inwardly.
The physical abilities of beastmen were truly unfair.
She pointed toward the fish.
"Clean them first."
The two obediently began removing scales and innards.
If someone from the tribe saw them now, they would probably think they were dreaming.
The aloof snake beastman Xavier and the proud phoenix beastman Lucas would never have been caught doing kitchen chores for anyone.
Yet here they were.
Once the fish were cleaned, Sora coated them with her homemade seasoning mixture and skewered them on sharpened sticks.
The rich aroma soon began to spread through the forest.
While waiting for the fish to roast, Sora casually asked,
"What do you think of the food I make?"
Xavier answered first.
"It’s delicious."
Lucas nodded immediately.
"Much better than anything I’ve eaten before."
Satisfied, Sora smiled.
"Since you enjoy it so much, how about we work together from now on?"
The two beastmen exchanged surprised looks before quickly agreeing.
Neither of them wanted to miss out on future meals.
Seeing their reaction, Sora’s smile widened.
"Of course, if we’re going to eat together, you’ll need to help me gather some things."
"What things?" Xavier asked.
Sora lowered her voice and explained her plan.
She needed ingredients.
More seasonings.
Useful plants.
And several materials that would make cooking much easier.
As she listed item after item, the two beastmen listened carefully.
When she finished, Xavier and Lucas nodded together.
No matter how strange the items sounded, if they led to food like this, they were willing to find them.