The next morning, everything in the Secret Base had returned back to normal... pretty much normal, except for the additional damage from the fight with the armored people.
Sky is processing the special mineral they got from the mine cave with a special device that required a complicated procedure in the forging room. After adding a special material from Ben, the disgusting smell of that rubbery mineral is gone.
"Ah... Finally! The smell is gone! Now I have to melt down the whole thing and hardened it with a mixture of this... and at this specific temperature range... Ah... Damn it, I am really bad at doing this." Sky ranted as he is processing the mineral.
"Aww~ Darling, you really should learn it more from Chris-chan, he is really good at this sort of thing." said Maria who isn't actually helping with anything.
"You make things sound so easy, why don't you learn it then?" Sky dissed Maria.
"Ahaha... Aww~ Darling! I was just teasing you!" said Maria.
"Tsk... Seriously, I believe Junior is also good at this thing but he is totally obsessed with that skull right now, I can't just force him to help me with this... Hmm? I heard some footsteps, is someone coming down here?" said Sky as he heard some footsteps from upstairs.
Then, Junior walked down from the stair with a skull in his hand, that skull is the skull he got from the cave and had been properly cleaned.
"Jun-chan!" Maria exclaimed as he saw Junior.
"Junior, what are you doing in here? I thought you were busy with your own things up there." said Sky.
"Dr. Ben said that you might need some assistance from me, furthermore, I have pretty much done with my research in this skull thanks to the advanced devices in Dr. Ben's laboratory. Now all I need to do is to make a container and display to turn this into a specimen." said Junior, who seems to be more open up about his special interest.
"Uh-huh... Has Ben done anything weird to you? I do remember that you were not very willing to tell us much about your special interest yesterday." said Sky, a bit surprised by the changes of attitude of Junior.
"Well, I happened to find out that Dr. Ben is having a similar interest as mine, so I guess that special interest of mine isn't that weird after all." said Junior.
"Haha... You are right. If compared to Ben's fetish, yours is very normal. Care to share with us about your findings? If you don't mind." said Sky.
"Nothing too interesting about it and I believe you might have already figured out." said Junior as he started observing the interior of the forging room.
"It has something to do with the spiders huh?" said Sky.
"Mhmm... Apparently, that spider feeds on the human bone instead of flesh. The holes on the skulls are created by a special enzyme of that spider. And surprisingly, when I told Dr. Ben about that, he doesn't seem to be surprised at all, I guess he had probably know about that. Anyway, what can I help you with your work here?" Junior asked.
"Well, I am having problems with the temperature control of this furnace. Despite having auto heating and precise temperature control, I am unable to get the correct temperature." said Sky, a bit troubled.
"I see... I had a brief observation on that furnace, it's a really advanced furnace that focuses on temperature precision and stability, however, it is designed to be operated by a professional crafter that cares a lot about the quality and details of the product, thus it is rather unfriendly for amateurs." said Junior.
"Yeah, you are right, Chris talked about that once. So, do you know how to operate this furnace?" Sky asked.
"Well, unfortunately no. Let me just be frank, this is the first time I saw this model of furnace." said Junior.
"Ah..."
"But I do have a small gadget that might be able to help with the temperature control. I'll be back in a few minutes." said Junior before running up to the stair.
Junior returned back to the basement after five minutes with a palm-size spherical device.
"Jun-chan, what is that?" Maria asked, rather curious.
"It's a small device I made out of boredom. It's like a universal multi-purpose temperature regulator, it can be easily adapted to cooking tools or other devices and machines that need to maintain a constant temperature. It can perfectly control the temperature by accurately increasing or decreasing the temperature according to the detected temperature. You just need to scan the furnace with this scanner here, it will automatically transform to the perfect shape accordingly to fit on the furnace." said Junior as he scanned the furnace with the spherical device.
Just as described by Junior, the spherical device immediately transformed and separated itself into two rather complicated structures. After a brief observation of the structure of the spherical device, Junior skillfully installed the device onto a turning switch of the furnace and another area of the furnace.
"Here you can see that it shows, the material, thickness, and density of the furnace wall, and we can adjust the data according to our preference to get the perfect temperature we needed." said Junior, trying to explain everything to Sky and Maria.
"I see... But I will leave the operation of this device to you to avoid any unnecessary troubles." said Sky who is probably having some problems understanding the mechanism of that device from Junior.
Hearing that, Junior nodded and proceed with inserting relevant data into the device before activating it.
"Now it has been activated, you just need to wait for it to regulate the temperature of the furnace to the required temperature and put in the mineral we collected yesterday." said Junior.
Sky nodded with an amazed look. Then he suddenly has a thought about that device of Junior.
"Hey, Junior. I remember that you mentioned that it can be use on a cooking stove, does that include the traditional open fire stove that used charcoal as the source of heat?" Sky asked, but later realized that question might be a bit stupid.
However...
"Yes, it is possible to use it on a charcoal stove. With the correct amount of charcoal, this device is able to control the size of the fire through airflow." said Junior, briefly explaining that concept to Sky.
"Woah... That's rather amazing. Now I can't help but wonder, what inspired you to make such an amazing invention?" said Sky, rather amazed.
"Well... You know... Kiffy's mom was not very a good cook and frequently burned or even charred the food when she cook. And yet, she loves cooking." said Junior, trying to be as indirect as possible.
"Ah... I see..." said Sky with an awkward smile.
Yes, sometimes, the most trivial reason can be the biggest motivation for a person to do great things...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX