Chapter 381: Let’s Make Some Paint!

He picked up a handful of small red berries and placed them in Roxanna’s palm. The berries were soft and dark enough that some of their juice had already stained his fingers.

"These should make red," Luan said. "One of the warriors accidentally stepped on a few of them, and the juice stained his foot."

Roxanna squeezed one of the berries between her fingers. Bright red juice immediately came out, leaving a clear stain on her skin.

"This might actually work." Roxanna’s eyes brightened as she examined the color. "We’ll have to test it first, though. The color might change after it dries."

She placed the berries back into the basket before looking through the other materials. There were yellow flowers, dark purple fruits, several kinds of leaves, pieces of tree bark, and even a few strange roots that Luan had dug out of the ground.

"Let’s find more than this," Roxanna said. "Since we’re already here, we might as well gather as much as we can."

They continued searching through the forest until the sun was almost setting.

By then, all the woven baskets they had brought were completely full. Some were even overflowing with flowers, berries, roots, leaves, and other materials they had found along the way.

Roxanna was quite satisfied with what they had collected. Even if some of the materials turned out to be useless for making colors, there should still be plenty that they could use.

On their way back to the settlement, they happened to meet Calen and the others returning from the river.

Just like Roxanna’s group, they were carrying several baskets filled with all kinds of things they had gathered from around the river.

"Roxanna!" Calen immediately called out when he saw her. "We found the white stones you wanted."

He lifted one of the woven baskets to show her. Roxanna walked closer and looked inside, only to find the basket almost completely filled with pale white stones. There were so many that she wondered how long Calen and the others had spent collecting them.

Her eyes immediately brightened. "You found this many?"

Calen smiled widely. "The crocodiles helped!"

Roxanna then turned her head toward the river and noticed several crocodiles rising to the surface. When she spotted one of the biggest crocodiles among them, she immediately smiled and walked closer.

"Thank you, Mr. Crocodile, for your help."

She crouched near the edge of the river and gently patted its head a few times. "I’ll tell Azul that you took good care of me while he was gone."

The large crocodile remained still beneath her hand for a moment before slowly opening its mouth and letting out a low growl.

Even so, Roxanna was not afraid. Somehow, she could tell that the crocodile was only trying to respond to her, almost like a cat purring when someone stroked its fur.

"Aww, are you happy?" Roxanna asked with a smile as she continued patting its rough head. "You really are a good crocodile."

The crocodile let out another low sound, and Roxanna’s smile grew wider.

Calen and the others watched the strange scene from a short distance away. They had spent quite a while near the river today, but none of them had dared to get this close to the crocodiles.

Even after realizing that the crocodiles were Azul’s friends, it was difficult to forget that they were still huge beasts with mouths large enough to bite off someone’s arm.

Skiv seemed especially nervous after what had happened to his hand earlier. He quietly moved behind Cyrus and stared at the crocodile’s large mouth.

"I think we should go," Skiv muttered.

Roxanna chuckled and said, "Alright, alright. Let’s go home." She patted Mr. Crocodile’s head a few more times before adding, "I’ll come visit you again later."

The large crocodile let out another low growl before slowly sinking back into the water. Roxanna waved at the other crocodiles as well, then stood up and hurried after Luan and the others.

By the time they finally returned to the settlement, the sun had completely disappeared. Everyone was tired after spending most of the day walking around the forest and river, so Roxanna decided that there was no need to start working on the materials tonight.

"Put everything in the storage hut first," Roxanna told the others. "Make sure the berries, flowers, and plants are kept separately. We don’t want everything getting mixed together before we even have a chance to test them."

The warriors quickly followed her instructions. They carried the woven baskets into the storage hut and placed them in different areas according to what they had collected.

The white stones and clay were placed on one side, while the flowers, berries, leaves, roots, and other plants were kept on the other side.

Roxanna checked everything one last time before finally returning home to rest.

The next morning, however, she woke up feeling excited about their new project.

After eating breakfast, Roxanna immediately gathered her husbands and several other beasts who were willing to help.

They brought all the materials out of the storage hut and arranged them on the ground outside, where they would have enough space to work.

"Alright." Roxanna placed her hands on her hips as she looked at everything in front of her. "Today, we’re going to turn these into paint."

The first thing they needed to do was separate the materials by color. The red berries were placed together, followed by the purple fruits, yellow flowers, green leaves, reddish clay, and pale white stones.

Roxanna decided to start with the easiest ones first.

"Crush these berries until there are no large pieces left," she instructed, handing a stone bowl to one of the beasts. "We need as much juice as possible."

She then asked another beast to grind the yellow flowers while Calen worked on crushing the white stones. Since the stones were much harder than the plants, they needed to break them into smaller pieces first before grinding them into a fine powder.

Soon, everyone around Roxanna was busy.

The berries quickly turned into a thick red liquid, while the yellow flowers became a soft paste.

The green leaves produced a darker color after being crushed, and the white stones slowly became a pale powder.

Roxanna moved between them, checking each result with growing excitement. "This is actually working," she said happily.