After finishing his third meal of the day, Carl finally turned off the smelting furnace.

He smelted the rusty metal parts into 16 metal ingots and some waste slag.

These metal ingots will be processed into the armor parts that Carl needs in the future, and the waste slag will be mixed into the clay to make stronger pottery or refractory bricks.

But before that, Carl decided to make some harmless gadgets.

…

"Is this for me?"

Looking at the exquisitely crafted pocket watch in his hand, Hope blinked and actually felt a little flattered.

This was the first time anyone had given her a gift since she could remember.

"Of course! And with this thing, it will be convenient for us to check the time, so that we don't have to wonder where we spent our time all day."

Opening the pocket watch, Carl pointed to the scale emitting blue fluorescence and explained to Hope:

"This pocket watch uses dragon crystal as its energy source. When the scale is fluorescent blue, it means it is already night; when the scale is fluorescent orange, it means it is daytime."

"It is a completely mechanical structure, made of Mithril alloy, which is light and hard. But you should try not to use it to smash nut shells or to support table legs."

Hearing this, Hope glared at Carl with some dissatisfaction.

Who would use the first gift they received to do something like that? "By the way, if you feel uncomfortable sleeping on the floor, I can make you a bed tomorrow after I start the furnace to smelt iron. We have enough wood to make you a spacious double bed."

"Not for now. Let's finish your room tomorrow. The longer you sleep in the hall, the more guilty I will feel."

He stuffed the pocket watch into his trouser pocket. The tight leather made the pocket watch hurt Hope, causing him to frown.

Seeing this, Carl hurried forward, stuck the chain of the pocket watch on the left chest of Hope's shirt, and then stuffed the pocket watch into the chest pocket of her shirt.

Although this place was stretched tighter, Hope didn't feel as uncomfortable as before. At least the pocket watch in this position did not affect her movement.

"You civilized people's things are really a bit difficult to deal with."

After trying to take out the pocket watch from his pocket and looking at it, Hope put it back into his left chest pocket and said something meaningful.

This is probably a unique way for people from Zhuomu to make fun of themselves.

"In fact, it can also be made into a watch, so you can wear it on your hand. But it would be better to install a piece of glass on the dial for protection, but we don't have the raw materials for glass now."

Due to material limitations, the pocket watch made by Carl is the kind that the pointer can be moved directly by hand. If there is no flip cover, it is easy to cause time deviation due to accidental touch.

This is why he made the watch into a pocket watch.

In fact, he originally wanted to make a wall clock in the hall to tell time, but when he thought that he couldn't carry a wall clock with him, he turned to designing and making a pocket watch.

"Well, according to the time shown on the pocket watch, it's almost midnight now. Go to bed quickly. You still have work to do tomorrow morning."

Hope pushed Carl out of the right wing without saying anything, closed the door, put his hand on the place where the pocket watch was, and his heart was pounding.

"If I continue to live here with him, it seems..."

She whispered her thoughts quietly, but before Hope could finish, she suddenly shuddered and shut her mouth completely.

"Huh~, how come I've become so weak after just a few days of comfortable life? Sleep! Sleep! I must have damaged my brain from staying up all night!"

Grunting a few words, Hope took off his clothes, folded them, and then spread a piece of leather on the floor and fell asleep peacefully.

The claustrophobic and sealed environment made her feel particularly at ease. When she opened her eyes again, she hurriedly took out her pocket watch to check, only to find that it was already ten o'clock the next morning.

“Is this thing really accurate?”

But when she got dressed and went out, not only was there a plate of almost cold lizard steaks in the living room, but Carl was already outside tinkering with his broken brick kiln again.

"Have I been a little too decadent recently?"

Thinking back on everything that had happened since the two of them came to the dungeon, Hope sighed, feeling that this wasn't going to work.

So she could only put all her energy into exercise.

When her muscles were sore, she stretched them according to the health-preserving exercises Carl had taught her.

Feeling that she had rested enough, she continued to practice.

This kind of life lasted for about three days, during which time Carl's left wing and the beds for the two of them were completed.

Then, time came to the morning of the fourth day...

"Hmm~, it's ten o'clock again. I don't want to get up..."

Turning sideways, he picked up the pocket watch and looked at the time on it. Hope closed the lid of the pocket watch helplessly, and his voice revealed the listless atmosphere of a "working man".

Unlike Carl, who had a clear promotion direction and development plan, Hope's career as a barbarian was acquired by accident. Apart from the wild fighting ability and throwing skills she developed in the wilderness, she did not have a systematic training method.

The exercise during this period was not so much physical exercise as it was "torturing" herself so as not to forget the hard days in the past.

But she also knows that the past days are gone forever and she can live a good life now.

After slowly putting on her vest and shorts, Hope stood up weakly, but soon lay back down on the leather, staring blankly at the ceiling. She felt completely unmotivated today, like a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

After a while, Hope stretched out his right hand towards the sky and held the air.

Looking at her well-proportioned yet powerful arms, she pursed her lips and raised her thighs and the tail with an arrowhead at the end.

He kicked his legs twice in the air, an action of unknown meaning, but it made Hope smile.

Outside, Carl was firing new crucibles and fire bricks.

Hope closed his eyes and listened quietly to the sound of the bricks beginning to transform under the high temperature.

“Crack, crack…”

Along with the sound that seemed to be right next to her ear, a faint orange-red light lit up in her chest.

It was as if a fire was burning inside her body, and even the temperature of her body surface began to rise.

Suddenly, Hope opened his eyes.

The fire in her chest continued to grow stronger, giving her a feeling that it was about to be released.

Hope opened the door and ran out of the house at the fastest speed in his life.

Hope randomly found a direction where there was nothing and followed his body's instinct to push his hands forward.

The flames extended from her chest toward her arms, and then a flame burst out from between her palms.

In a cone-shaped area 15 feet in front of Hope, the flames lasted for nearly four seconds before finally dissipating.

After doing all this, Hope staggered and collapsed to the ground.

And Carl also hurried over after seeing what happened just now.

(End of this chapter)