Chapter 122: Gluttony (Part II)

After catching frogs at the pond, Qin Fei immediately headed to the meadow at the edge of the swamp.

In this meadow, bees could be seen gathering nectar from time to time. Not far from these bees stood a yellow beehive about half the height of a person, with a hole the size of a fist serving as the entrance for the bees.

Qin Fei dismounted from his Phiomia and stealthily approached the hive. Instantly, four dark purple tentacles sprouted from his back and chest, reaching into the hole of the hive. As soon as the tentacles entered, Qin Fei could feel the bees inside attacking them frantically. However, because he lacked the sense of pain, these attacks had little effect on him.

After probing the inside of the hive for about half a minute, Qin Fei retracted his tentacles, which were now covered in a transparent, pale yellow honey. He quickly pulled a glass bottle from his backpack and flicked the honey off the tentacles into the jar.

The moment he secured the honey, five or six red killer bees swarmed out of the hive and flew toward his head. In this world of Don't Starve, each killer bee was as large as a bowl. If they swarmed, their combat prowess was not inferior to that of the frogs. Not daring to be reckless, Qin Fei jumped onto his Phiomia's back and fled the scene immediately.

With the honey and frog meat in hand, Qin Fei began preparing Honeyed Frog Legs. Lacking an iron pot, he used his "Stonemasonry Mastery" skill to craft a stone pot. While stone conducts heat, it has significant drawbacks: poor thermal conductivity and the risk of explosion if heated unevenly. To prevent this, Qin Fei carefully warmed the pot over the fire a few times. Only when the surface was slightly hot did he feel safe enough to set it firmly over the flames to cook.

After stewing the frog meat with garlic powder, Qin Fei poured in some of the honey from the glass bottle. Thus, a "Don't Starve" version of Honeyed Frog Legs was complete. He wondered if the system would recognize it. To verify, he stored the dish in his spatial backpack inside the rhombus crystal.

[Honeyed Frog Legs: Consuming this restores a significant amount of hunger, heals physical wounds to a certain extent, and provides a small boost to sanity.]

It worked! Qin Fei was overjoyed.

He returned to the altar in the Merman village and took the stone pot containing the Honeyed Frog Legs out of his backpack. A few seconds later, a thought struck him. *No, this altar is too strange. It’s too risky for me to place the food in myself. What if I get cursed and turn into a Merman? But if I don't, I can't verify the theory in the diary.*

After some deliberation, he called over the Phiomia that was sleeping nearby. He intended to have the creature place the offering. The creatures in the Ark were intelligent and could understand simple commands. After some explanation and gestures from Qin Fei, the Phiomia picked up the stone pot with its mouth and stretched its head toward the altar. It carefully placed the pot at the base of the altar without spilling a drop.

Qin Fei watched the Phiomia's every move intently. A minute passed; the Phiomia showed no reaction. Qin Fei waited patiently. An hour passed; the Phiomia remained unchanged. During this time, he also observed the Mermen walking around the village, but they showed no signs of transformation either.

*This shouldn't be happening.* Qin Fei was puzzled. *Is it possible that a human must place the food to break the curse?* This wasn't an entirely baseless assumption. According to the drawings in the diary, the ones offering food to the altar were all humans, not Phiomias. This might be why the altar didn't change.

*Should I place it myself?* Considering he still had two Effigies in his backpack, Qin Fei decided to take the risk. He retrieved the food from the altar and placed it back in himself, nervously checking his body for any changes. As time passed, the sky began to darken. Using his "Stonemasonry Mastery," Qin Fei built a small stone house of less than four square meters near the altar and lit a campfire outside. He still couldn't understand why the altar remained unchanged.

*Is the posture wrong? Or do I need to recite some kind of incantation when placing the food?* Unable to find an answer, he decided to wait until morning to sneak back into the Merman King's house, retrieve the old diary, and study it again. Perhaps there were more clues.

After building the stone house, Qin Fei spent the night safely. He slept until noon the next day. Upon waking, he immediately went to the Merman King's house. While the King was dozing, he stole the diary and returned to the altar. He began to analyze the differences between his offering process and the one recorded in the diary.

In the diary, when the villagers offered food, there was a goat standing on its head nearby. *Do I need to find a goat that can stand on its head? But where would I find such a thing in this world?* He dismissed this possibility for now.

He kept flipping through the pages. The types of food matched the drawings exactly. As he turned the pages, he suddenly realized a discrepancy: the altar in the diary had a goat's head symbol on it, but the altar in front of him had an upside-down goat's head.

*A goat that stands on its head... an upside-down goat's head... upside down...*

Qin Fei repeated the words to himself. Suddenly, a possibility dawned on him: if he read the entire diary from back to front, perhaps the instructions weren't about offering food, but about removing it in reverse order to turn the Mermen back into humans!