Knowledge is love

Part 17: Saved by the gem

The forest and village was covered in snow as the Kingdom of Science was surviving winter and preparing for the battle. With the new light bulbs, they head the stone version of the head lamp.

"Whoa, I got a bad idea," Chrome exclaimed. "Let's go check out caves! We can go way deeper than we could before! And we won't need torches anymore!"

"Right. With the help of batteries and light bulbs, we could go ten billion times farther," Senku said.

"I bet there are loads of cool rocks that were hiding just beyond our reach," Chrome exclaimed. "I hope you're ready to go science spelunkers! We're gonna nab us some bad minerals resources!" Chrome adjusted the headlamp and put a basket-backpack on. "Hear that Senku. You may be leagues ahead of me in science, but when it comes to exploring, I'm ten billion times more skilled!"

"Naturally. You have more experience," Senku said. "But I think y/n beats you in that since she was always exploring with her parents."

"Wait seriously," Chrome asked.

"Yeah. My parents and I went camping, hiking and just plain exploring a lot back then," y/n admitted. "We even went spelunking to celebrate their 22nd anniversary."

"Awesome! I finally got a spelunking buddy," Chrome exclaimed happily. His mood then went back to serious as he looked at Senku and pulled y/n to his side. "What do we need? Just name it and Captain Chrome and Lieutenant y/n will go find it for you!"

"How come I'm Lieutenant," y/n mumbled.

"We gotta be missing something," Chrome said. "We have that whole cell phone roadmap to complete!"

"Oh. What materials we're missing," Senku asked as his tone went a bit too serious before going back to normal. "None."

"What do you mean 'none'," Chrome exclaimed confused as he let y/n go.

"We already have everything it takes," Senku said innocently as he pulled y/n back to him. "Thanks to our hard work in our previous missions."

"Then do we actually have a reason to go exploring at the moment," Kohaku asked. "We're short on labor as is."

"I'd bet anything he just wants to go 'cause he got some new gear," Ginro said softly. "He gets to play with it while we work."

Chrome flinched as he was exposed. He actually did want to explore because he thought they needed more materials but he also really wanted to use the new gear. Plus he just found out he had a new spelunking partner.

"You're one to talk Ginro," y/n stated. "After all, remember the silver spear?"

Ginro flinched a bit as y/n called him out on his hypocrisy.

"Besides it's not like it wouldn't help us if we went exploring," y/n admitted.

"She's right," Senku agreed. "I mean, it wouldn't kill us to have some extra copper lying around. There's no telling how much we'll use during our next brutal crafting session."

"Yeah, there it is," Chrome said. "I knew there had to be something!" Chrome grabbed y/n again. "Leave it to us!"

Chrome starts to run away, dragging y/n behind him.

"Chrome, wait I don't even have gear," y/n said.

Chrome made a quick turn and grabbed some gear for her.

"Is it really a good idea for her to go with him," Kohaku asked.

"I've seen her skills first hand, she'll be fine," Senku stated with a proud smirk. "Besides Chrome seemed excited to have a buddy for this and y/n likes exploring anyway."