Chapter 117 - An egg-ceptionally good day for yolking around at the farm

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The golden-furred monkey that was almost as big as I was peered up at me curiously. I held my breath and waited for its next move. Though not all breeds of monkey were aggressive, I was in its territory, and I could be in trouble if it did decide to attack. I knew from nature documentaries back on Earth that monkeys were quite strong for their size, and a full-grown one could rip a human's face off.

We stared at each other for a few minutes.

Should I walk away?

Just as I was about to make a move, the monkey turned its back on me and scampered off. I waited until it was out of sight before putting the picnic things back in my inventory and using Mr. Bear to fly away as fast as I could. We didn’t stop until we reached home.

It was with great regret that I decided that I would never bathe in the hot spring in the [Golden Harvest Banana Grove]. I might die of a heart attack if one of those monkeys dropped by to join me!

Come to think of it, I didn’t get to see the monkey’s name or stats. There was no System information about it. So maybe it really wasn’t a threat?

Perhaps mundane wild animals were not included in the System. That seemed like quite a large flaw to me, but there was precedent for it in the game. Adventure Incarnate had quite a lot of animals that were seen in the background such as pets like cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. that the NPCs had in their homes or towns. Those were definitely not attackable by players.

Would my combat skills even activate if the other party was not an enemy in the game?

Well, I knew that I could use my armor, at least. Therefore, logically speaking, I should also be able to use my axe. I decided not to worry about it for now.

***

My apprentices and I spent the next few days tending to the crops and cutting down trees to clear a big enough space for the animals.

“Is everyone out of energy?” I asked. When they all answered in the affirmative, I handed them one bottle of [Kola-Kola Soda] each. “Drink this. Let me know if it replenishes your energy.”

We were in the middle of the clearing that we had just made.

They uncorked the bottles and Kharli sniffed hers suspiciously while Lari and Mo drank theirs right away. Kharli made a face before drinking it. I took out a bottle and drank it with relish.

I waited until they had all finished their bottles before asking, “How was it?”

“It tastes like medicine,” said Kharli.

“My energy bar is still the same,” said Mo.

“I like it,” said Lari.

“Oh no, it didn’t refill your energy bar?” I asked them.

They all nodded.

“That’s too bad,” I said.
I guess that was too much to ask. The System must only allow players to use this item to get more energy.

“Teacher, does this mean you have more energy now?” asked Lari.

“Yes, but only a little bit.” My energy bar had only refilled around 10%.

The girls both looked excited.

“Then you can work on the farm all day long?” asked Mo.

“No, no. You misunderstood. I can only drink one bottle a day,” I said.

“What happens if you drink more than one?” asked Lari.

“Nothing bad, just I don’t get any additional energy,” I said. “Wait a bit, I’ll cut a few more trees.”

When I was finished, I leaned against the beech tree that we had singled out as the central spot for the animal pen. It would provide shade and shelter for the animals.

“Tomorrow, we’ll sow this clearing with [Spirit Grass] and [Wild Seed Mix]. We’re just going to sell the animals, so this much is enough, but if we were going to raise them ourselves, we would need a bigger area,” I said.

“How big should it be?” asked Mo.

“The smaller animals like the chickens don’t need as much space as the big ones like the cows. They will need at least three to ten tiles of open space per animal,” I said. A “tile” was a unit of measurement in Adventure Incarnate that was a square with a width of around three feet. “But that is the absolute minimum. In my opinion, it’s cruel to put animals in a space that’s too small for them.”

“That seems like a lot of space to me,” said Kharli.

“Hmm. If we were not selling the chickens, what I would do is raise them here for one year, and then move them to a different place. Then I would use this area to plant crops,” I said.

“Why is that, Teacher?” asked Lari.

“I know why! It’s because of the chicken… product. That fertilizes the soil,” said Mo.

We all laughed. By this time, we were all used to the concept of animal manure being good for the farm and knew exactly what she was talking about.

“All right, I’ll do it now.” I mentally navigated the System’s [Animal Husbandry] tab and selected [Small Pen] which I placed on the ground in the spot we had chosen.

“May I take a look at the eggs again?” asked Lari.

I already anticipated that they would want to choose the eggs, so I handed them a basket full of the requested items.

[Chicken Egg:

A wonderful item full of hopes and dreams! What kind of chicken will hatch from this egg?]

“I like the shiny ones!” said Lari.

“Still hoping for a golden chicken that lays golden eggs?” Mo poked the white egg with yellow spots that Lari had chosen.

“Yes.” Lari handed me the egg.

Kharli picked a pure white one, while Mo handed me a blue and green striped one. I randomly grabbed three more and then placed them all inside the [Small Pen] along with some water and [Animal Feed]. In real life, the eggs should’ve been put in an incubator, but this was how it worked in Adventure Incarnate.

“That’s it. They should hatch in three days,” I said.

***

Three days later, we set up chairs and a canopy beside the pen to watch the chickens hatch. All of the staff had taken the day off, and we were munching on snacks and drinking while we waited.

“Look! There! That one’s hatching.” Mo jumped up from her seat in excitement and ran to the side of the pen.

Lari and Kharli ran beside her and the rest of the staff followed suit while I remained seated. I doubted that there would be much to see. There wasn’t much to the hatching process. A few cracks in the egg appeared, then a small hole which slowly became bigger and bigger until a chick emerged from it.

“Amazing! It's our first chicken,” said Lari.

“It’s so cute!” Kharli made cooing noises at the chick.

In the next thirty minutes, all six eggs hatched.

“Can I touch them?” asked Lari.

“They’re still newly hatched chicks. We probably shouldn’t touch them,” said Fengying. Beside her, the Demon Chef nodded.

Fengying let the maids and kitchen staff watch for a few more minutes before saying, “Let’s get back to work.”

I had the impression that they had been expecting something more spectacular even though I had told them that it was just a few chickens. My housekeeper, chef, and the rest of the staff left while I stayed to examine the animals’ information using the System. All but one of them were the same.

[Chicken:

A rare breed of spirit hen that lays high-quality eggs. Its feathers can be used to make arrows. Mostly gentle.]

The sixth one was a surprise.

“Teacher, this one isn’t a chicken!” said Lari.

“Yes, it seems like it.” The System information was quite clear about that.

[Red Junglefowl:

This is not your ordinary chicken. In fact, it’s not a chicken at all. The Red Junglefowl is the wild ancestor of all domesticated chicken breeds. The males are larger than the females and have more colorful feathers.]

Unlike the other chicks that were just balls of white or yellow fluff, the [Red Junglefowl] was covered in red fluff and a few tiny red feathers on its wings.

When I was living in Singapore, one of my classmates lived in a housing estate that had lots of wild chickens living behind it. We used to joke about catching and eating them, but the red junglefowl was a protected species. Also, those non-chickens never crossed the road. They flew over it.

However, I was pretty sure the junglefowl chicks in Singapore were brown, not red. This [Red Junglefowl] must be a special spirit animal. I even fancied that I saw a hint of intelligence in its beady black eyes.

“This one is male, right?” I asked.

Lari nodded. “The fluff is bright red, so I think it is.”

“But we don’t want these to breed since the chickens might become wild,” said Kharli.

Mo wrinkled her nose. “It’s the only male.”

“The only male of this batch of eggs. I’m sure we’ll get more,” I said. “We’ll give these five days before putting them in the inventory. Deming said that five-day-old chicks should be big enough to sell.”

That’s what I said, but I should’ve known better. I should never have sold the [Red Junglefowl].