[Cozy Fantasy] [Farming LitRPG] The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm

Chapter 68 - That was paws-itively cute!

🙞❤︎🙜

“Kyaa~” I screamed a little and nearly overbalanced when something nudged my foot. Thank goodness I was holding the railing, or I might have slipped.

Oh! It was only a little fox with a sleek red coat, bushy tail, and lively brown eyes. I laughed a little, and knelt down to stroke its head. The fox must be a tame one, since a wild animal wouldn’t have approached a human the way that it did. Was it a temple pet?

“What is it?” Shuye frowned down at me.

I was about to answer when a blue System screen popped up in front of me.

[Side Quest: Feed the Temple Foxes

Give five pieces of double-fried tofu to a fox. 0/5

Reward: Cooking Exp]

I wasn’t too excited about the side quest because they were typically optional content that gave minimal rewards. Only completionists bothered with them.

“I’m fine. I was just surprised.” Taking out five pieces of abura-age from my inventory, I placed them on the ground near the fox.

“Surprised? What happened?” Shuye looked around as though searching for something. “Why are you putting food on the ground?”

The fox sniffed the food a few times and licked one experimentally before gobbling up all five pieces. Then it walked away, tail held high and waving from side to side hypnotically.

“It was for the fox,” I said.

“What fox?” he asked.

“That one, there.” I pointed at the fox, whose light, smooth gait made it seem as though it was gliding soundlessly through the underbrush. No wonder I hadn’t heard it coming.

“What are you talking about?” Shuye seemed extremely confused.

Wait, could it be that he couldn’t see the fox even though it was right there in front of him?

“You really didn’t see a fox?” I asked. “What happened to the food I put on the ground?”

“All I saw was you kneeling down and putting food down, then putting it back in your inventory.”

Oh, I see. Since he saw the food disappearing, he must have assumed that I had put it back in my interspatial storage. Clan members and cultivators all had their own inventory space that they could use to store items, though none of those were as big as mine. As far as I knew, the more advanced a person’s cultivation was, the bigger their soul space was. Something small like the tofu pieces would be easy-peasy for most cultivators.

“Don’t worry about it, okay? It’s just a little ritual that I’m doing,” I said.

Shuye just shook his head, and we continued walking up the stairs in silence. A hundred or so steps later, I paused for a rest, and another little fox showed itself. I waited until it was close, then put down the food on some leaves. The fox eyed us warily as it crept closer and sniffed my offering. It seemed to find the food acceptable enough, and gobbled the pieces up quickly.

[Side Quest: Feed the Temple Foxes

Give five pieces of double-fried tofu to a fox. 2/5

Reward: Cooking Exp]

Shuye observed my suspicious activities closely, but he didn’t say anything. Half an hour later, I was starting to sweat, and my knees felt weak.

“Wow, it’s a good thing that I’m in excellent shape. It’s no wonder that there’s no one else here, since there are so many steps. I’m getting a fantastic workout,” I said.

“You look tired. Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you?” asked Shuye.

“I can do it! Uh, just let me rest for a bit.” I sat down on a large rock on the side of the steps and wiped the sweat from my brow with a cotton handkerchief. After a few minutes, I felt ready to continue. “It’s getting a little hot here. I think I’ll use a parasol.”

Putting my words into action immediately, I took out a pretty pastel pink and green sunshade from my Cash Shop inventory and continued walking up the stairs. Two more foxes approached me, so I made progress with the side quest.

My Farm Guide frowned every time I stopped to feed the wildlife, but made no other reaction. I guess he was already used to my strange ways.

We were almost at the top when the fifth fox appeared, followed by a sixth.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty thing!” Even though I only needed to feed five of them, I had plenty of food, hence was quite willing to take care of the extra fox.

“Stop! Don’t touch her,” said Shuye, stepping between me and the animals.

“Okay.” I moved back and set the food down farther away from them.

“Were you setting that down as bait?” Shuye gave me a disapproving look. “You really shouldn’t do that.”

“Um.” I looked down at my feet sheepishly. Of course, I knew that it was a bad idea to feed wild animals, and I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for the System quest. Shuye was probably concerned because of his status as a guardian of the forest.

We both watched quietly as one of the foxes sniffed my offering before gobbling it down. The other fox, a cute pup with surprisingly immaculate fur, simply watched the other one with bright, curious eyes.

Suddenly, I realized that something was amiss.

“You can see the foxes?” I asked Shuye.

He gave me a strange look. “There’s only one.”

“Can you point to it?” I asked him.

He pointed at the pup.

“Ooooh!” No wonder there was an extra mouth to feed. That one must not be part of the quest. However, I forgot all about it when a System message appeared along with the usual festive fireworks four times.

[Sidequest Complete! Reward: Cooking Exp.]

[Congratulations, you just advanced a Cooking level!]

[Congratulations, you just advanced a Cooking level!]

[Congratulations, you just advanced a Cooking level!]

[Congratulations, you just advanced a Cooking level!]

[Your Cooking level is now 5.]

Yes! I was so happy that I wanted to jump for joy, but it would look weird to Shuye, so I refrained. Although cooking wasn’t too useful now that I had the Demon Chef, a level was a level, and this exp had been particularly easy to get.

“Pardon me, I think I’ll sit down and rest a little bit,” I said to my Farm Guide.

He nodded, and I spread a tablecloth on the ground, then sat cross-legged on it. I wasn’t tired; I just wanted to check the System’s Cooking tab to see if there was anything interesting there. All I found was that I could now cook [Bread] and [Sugar Cookies]. I vaguely recalled that there were a lot of cooking-related quests in Adventure Incarnate, yet I couldn’t find any.

The little fox pup that wasn’t part of the quest watched the other fox walking away and followed it into the forest.

“I’ll be right back,” said Shuye, frowning. To my surprise, he went off after the two foxes.

What was up with him?

I stayed put since I wasn’t interested in the animals. As I was pondering whether there was something wrong with my cooking skills, Shuye and the fox pup returned. The little one finally started eating the double-fried tofu.

Shuye walked over to me and knelt down to whisper in my ear, “That’s a member of the Fox Clan.”

Oh? That was surprising. I whispered, “You said clan members look almost exactly like human.”

“This is a child. They sometimes have difficulty with their shape. I wonder where her parents are. She shouldn’t be out here alone.”

That explained why Shuye was worried about the fox. “We’d better watch over her.”

He gave me a look as though to say, “Thanks, Captain Obvious.”

Hmm, now that I thought about, the child Fox clan member seemed to have seen the other fox. How come she could see it while Shuye couldn’t?

This whole day was full of mysterious happenings. I just hoped that nothing bad was going to happen to us because of the Curse of the Emberstone.