Chapter 132 - 130: Having Too Many Children is a Debt

Sev Steele was someone who acted the moment an idea struck. She called Rusty over and used a wooden stick to draw a simple diagram of an oven in the dirt of the courtyard. "Can you make it look like this?" she asked.

Rusty looked a little bewildered. Having just awakened his Ability, his control over metal was still weak. During the awakening process last night, he couldn’t even remember how he managed to use his Ability to create a lemon fruit tree. However, looking at his adoptive mother’s drawing, the structure seemed simple enough.

"I’ll give it a try," the boy said, mustering his courage.

He used his mind to grasp the metal armor that had covered his heart the night before. Guided by his will, the metal quickly transformed into a pair of hands. Rusty controlled these hands and began to knead the metal tree in the corner of the wall.

Now, he could clearly sense that when these hands touched the metal, it was like ordinary hands touching soft clay, allowing him to mold it into any shape he desired.

Soon, he formed a sealed metal box. It featured a combustion chamber at the bottom for fuel and a baking chamber at the top for food. A metal plate separated the two compartments so the charcoal fire wouldn’t touch the food directly. A damper was left at the bottom of the side wall, allowing them to control the heat by adjusting the size of the vent.

By the time he finished the entire oven, Rusty was drenched in sweat. It wasn’t because he had overdrawn his Ability, but because he was terrified of making a mistake that would ruin the baking process.

Sev was startled to see her eldest son sweating so profusely. "Rusty, did you overdraw your energy?" she asked worriedly.

"Rusty, let me give you some green light," Rose hurriedly offered, stepping closer.

"No, there’s no need, really. I’m just a little nervous. It’s my first time making something, and I was afraid I wouldn’t do a good job," Rusty said, his face flushed.

Sev studied his complexion. He certainly didn’t have the deathly pallor of someone who had overdrawn their Ability; his cheeks were rosy and he looked quite healthy. Relieved, she finally relaxed and began to prepare her first baked dish: whole wheat vegetable crackers.

The oven recipes she was familiar with were impossible to replicate due to a lack of ingredients, so she had to make do with what she had. She crushed a Nutrition Block, added milk and rendered fat, and kneaded it into a ball of dough. Although she had no idea what the main ingredients of the Nutrition Block were, it turned into a sticky, paste-like substance when dissolved, bearing a striking resemblance to whole wheat flour. She decided to treat it exactly like that.

After the dough was ready, she prepared the filling. She blanched shepherd’s purse leaves, chopped them finely, squeezed out the excess moisture, and mixed them evenly with crushed cracklings. She made two flavors of filling: one savory with salt, and one sweet with powdered sugar. She rolled the dough flat, spread the filling over it, rolled it into a long cylinder, and sliced it into half-inch thick pieces.

These small pieces went into the top layer of the oven to bake slowly at a low temperature for twenty-five minutes until they were completely dry and hard. With minimal moisture content, these crackers had a shelf life of at least a month—they were specially prepared for Artie Sawyer. Once the raw crackers were in the oven, Sev taught Rusty how to use it and delegated the baking task to him.

Next, she started on her second baked dish: potato balls with cracklings and hazel mushrooms. First, she steamed the potatoes and mashed them. Then, she chopped the hazel mushrooms, sautéed them with the cracklings until fragrant, and folded the mixture into the mashed potatoes. She formed the mixture into small balls, brushed the surfaces with a layer of fat, and coated them in crushed Nutrition Block powder to serve as breadcrumbs.

She placed these into the upper chamber of the oven, baking them at a high temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius for ten to fifteen minutes until a crispy shell formed on the outside. This dish only had a shelf life of a week, but its crispy exterior, tender interior, and savory flavor more than made up for it. The cracklings and hazel mushrooms provided a rich texture and an earthy umami taste. Sev planned to serve these to her own family and pack some for Artie to eat in the short term.

Then, she moved on to her third creation: shredded carrot cakes. She shredded carrots, mixed them with Nutrition Block powder, beaten mutant bird eggs, and refined salt, kneading everything into a dough. After rolling it out, she cut it into one-inch thick, three-inch square pieces, brushed them with oil, and popped them into the oven.

She started with high heat to set their shape, baking them at 200 degrees Celsius for fifteen minutes, before lowering the heat to 180 degrees Celsius for a slow bake of thirty minutes.

The excitement and inspiration brought by the new oven fueled her to whip up three delicious treats in a row. Sev suddenly thought that if she could ever travel back to her old world, she might as well change careers and open a bakery. But remembering that her grandfather was already gone, going back didn’t seem to hold much meaning anymore. Life in modern Azure was undeniably good, but there was no one left there for her to care about. She might as well stay here, relying on the four little rascals by her side, just as they relied on her.

As soon as this thought arose, she felt as if she had been brainwashed by her new environment. She had only been an adoptive mother for a little over a week; how had she already fully embraced the role?

Sev shook her head, tossing those superfluous, impractical thoughts aside. Regardless, all she could do now was accept reality and live her life well here. As for what the future held, overthinking was useless; she would just have to take it one step at a time.

The three dishes had barely finished cooking when Doctor Jenkins swiped his card and walked into the courtyard, as if he had followed the scent all the way there. Inside the bedroom, Rick Kaye had already tasted the food and was currently offering his critique.

"I think the potato balls are the best. Any food made from potatoes is the most beautiful thing in the world!

"But these shredded carrot cakes definitely exceeded my expectations. Crispy on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside—the perfect blend of sweet and savory. It makes you crave more.

"Of course, these whole wheat vegetable crackers are also delicious, way better than the ones I used to buy at the supermarket!"

Doctor Jenkins walked into the kitchen just in time to hear this speech and sneered. "You said a whole lot of nothing just to express one simple sentence: everything Sev makes is delicious, and you, being the glutton you are, already want to secure your next meal!"

"Exactly, exactly! Your summary is spot on!" Rick nodded.

Doctor Jenkins choked on his own words, completely speechless. This man was unbelievably thick-skinned. Not only was he not offended, but he shamelessly admitted his desire to mooch off them long-term.

Without waiting for Sev’s instructions, Rusty proactively asked, "Mom, should we send some to Mr. Hanson?" Lately, he had grown accustomed to the routine: every time they made a new dish, his mother would send them over to deliver some to Hayden Hanson.

"Yes, pack a few extra carrot cakes and potato balls for him, enough to last him two or three days," Sev instructed.

Hearing this, Doctor Jenkins immediately put on a pitiful expression. "You always think of giving him food whenever you make something good. Why don’t you ever think of me?"

"Because Hanson is thin-skinned. If I don’t send it over on my own initiative, he’d be too embarrassed to ask for it," Sev replied bluntly.

Doctor Jenkins glared at her, washed his hands, and simply grabbed a piping hot carrot cake from the cutting board to eat.

Sev then thought of her second son, Firestone, and quickly brought out the food box Mr. Fuller had gifted them to pack some up for him. She had heard that Mr. Fuller pulled several personal strings yesterday to secure a Fire Attribute Crystal Core for Firestone. Even though it ended up not being needed, Sev kept this sincere affection for his prospective disciple in mind. As a mother, she naturally had to repay the favors her son owed.

She sighed inwardly. Having so many children was truly an endless debt to pay off!