Vol 3 Chapter 6: Chicken? part 2

Foin, still licking his mouth after the delicious meal, took out the other two fruits and tried to figure out what they might be. Since they were both resources, he thought that cutting them might be the best option, so he grabbed a yellow and penetrated it with his dull, blunt knife.

It was cut, but nothing flowed out, which made Foin think. He pulled his knife out and touched it to see whether it was just dense or something he couldn't predict, but it was dry. So he grabbed the cut fruit again.

"Hm... it has a rubbery texture. I wish my appraiser skills would work better, but they are so limited and only work for certain items."

He mumbled as he kept looking at the fruit and squeezing it lightly. For a few long minutes, he just kept playing with that item until he had a new idea. Since it was so rubbery, he wanted to try how it stood up against heat.

Although he prepared the pot to see if they would have any useful liquid, since there was no liquid, he could use it to test how the fruit reacts to heat. Without hesitation, he dropped the plastic fruit straight into the pot, then placed it by the fire so that the burning piece of wood was just barely touching its side.

He grabbed the stick he used to roast the huunt fruit and slightly moved the yellow fruit around. At first, nothing happened, but then he noticed that it grew harder to move it around. He noticed that something started flowing off of the side of the fruit and collecting in the bottom of the pot.

"So it was one dense chunk of rubber? Hm... interesting..."

Foin mumbled as he looked down at the black dust on the plate, and a possible idea flashed before his eyes. He waited patiently for the rubber to melt as he let go of the fruit. The fruit turned into more liquid rubber than Foin anticipated, but the volume was now not his concern, and he did not know whether his idea would work.

He dipped the tip of the stick into the rubber so that it would stick to it, and he quickly pulled out. With his free hand, he grabbed one of the larger huunt shells, crashed it in his palm, and threw the black powder to the still molten rubber. It completely covered the entire tip, turning it almost back, and then Foin started his experiment.

With great force, he pushed down the knife onto the sick, then dragged it along the surface, hoping to produce enough friction to ignite the dust. It worked, but it was much hotter than he thought.

The black flame instantly appeared and started burning with great force. He needed to drop it as he was unable to hold it due to the heat. He was relieved that he was capable of making some sort of match so he wouldn't have to worry about running out of the lighter's fuel. 

But at the same time, he had learned that this dust burned much easier and at a much higher temperature than wood. With a wide grin on his face, he grabbed another piece of stick, pushed the pot away, and brought it from the storage, another smaller one.

For the time being, he had no idea how to use the yellow plastic fruit other than some sort of adhesive. But he still had the other one. Although he was sure that it would be just like the yellow one, he put one of the two fruits in another pot and then put it beside the burning black powder-covered stick since he wanted to melt it faster.

For many long minutes, nothing happened at all, and Foin grew more and more impatient as he could see no changes, but at least he could confirm that the dust could burn for quite a while longer if he used more. 

He couldn't understand why the white one was not melting at all, so he carefully moved his hand to check how hot the pot was. He could feel hot air rising from most parts, but not from where the fruit was placed. So, he very carefully lowered his head, and after a deep breath, he braced himself and touched the fruit.

It was not one bit hot. It was just as warm as it was when he put it in. He sighed and shook his head. He couldn't believe that such a thing would exist. All he could think of was that he just didn't have a high enough heat source available for him yet. 

He pushed the stick burning with black flame all the way to the bonfire using the other stick and then was ready to cool the new pot. He stepped back a bit and filled the pot with water. It instantly started sizzling, and the temperature of the pot dropped drastically.

Foin wanted to pull the fruit out, but he noticed something was different. The white fruit was bubbling, and the colour of the water started changing very slowly.

"What the... Is it doing something with water?"

He mumbled as he leaned back and decided to wait once again. As he watched, the level of the water slightly decreased, and it turned cloudy and white, as well as syrupy. Foin grinned as soon as he could no longer see the fruit in it, and the bubbling ceased.

He dipped his hand in the strange, syrupy liquid and moved it around. Despite being put into the hot pot, it was merely mildly warm. As he moved his finger around, he felt that it started getting harder to move it, almost as if it was solidifying, just like the peteach liquid.

"It could be useful if it is truly a great insulator... Even if it has a fraction of what it had as the full fruit, it would be great..."

Foin mumbled as he pulled his finger out. Despite a small amount of the liquid being attached to his finger, he could feel that it was light and easily deformed. He grabbed it and pulled it off of his finger, and much to his surprise, it came off in one piece without leaving a mark on his skin.

Strengthened by curiosity once more and driven by excitement, he covered both of his hands with the liquid as high as he could. He used the whole pot of liquid and could cover both hands to at least his wrist. On his right, it went even a few centimetres higher.

"Oh, it feels slightly warm and ticklish."

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Author's note:

Thank you for reading the chapter! After a long pause, I am starting to get back to the story once again. I have recently posted a poll on my Patreon; please consider checking it out; it would be really helpful:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/construction-and-103481546?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Thank you, and see you during the next chapter.