Chapter 44 - Recreate

Fily went ahead of us towards the long desk on the right wall that was divided into three while Petunia and I were still busy admiring the miniature island on the center table.

"Are those real fish?" I asked the both of them and went closer to see the moving little things inside the clear water.

"Nope, that's just a computer-generated image-"

"Inside the water!?" I cut Fily's answer to my question as I saw the little fishes swimming away from me due to the current that my words created on their waters.

"Yes, a hologram inside the water."

So the hologram can also respond to the disturbances that we make in their surroundings?

I saved the thought to myself as I watched Petunia clawing a tiger on the little beach that disappears in thin air every time she made contact with it.

"I see."

"Pet, can you please get over here and start the 'fixing' session now before I fall asleep? We wouldn't want you to carry me all the way to my room when the sun rises now, do we?" Fily shifted her eyes to me..

"You're already sleepy?" I asked her mindlessly without paying attention to her words as I was still busy with the miniature island.

"No, not yet."

I saw Fily walk closer to us in my peripheral vision after organizing the stuff that she brought from the storage.

"I reckon this 'experiment' will take us a lot of time to finish so we must start now-"

"Ouch!" Petunia and I complained as she pinched our ears away from the island and onto the table where the ingredients are.

"-before the sun rises and I pass out from overworking my mind." She finished her sentence and let our ears go from her pinch.

"Fine! Okay! You didn't need to drag us here like that!" Petunia held her ear dearly using both of her paws while shooting daggers at Fily.

"Just because I'm a cat doesn't mean you can disrespect me like this! I am still older than you, you know!?" Petunia huffed angrily at her while I swiped my thumb to my ear where Fily pinched it.

"I am actually older than you." I heard Fily whisper from behind as she was setting the furnished mahogany table for us to use.

"Oh right…" Petunia suddenly came back to her senses and abandoned her anger to help Fily organize the ingredients and materials that she needed for fixing her Gummy on the table.

Wait, what were they talking about?

"How are you older than her?" I asked Fily and leaned forward to the table so I could peek at what they were doing.

If I could recall correctly, Fily is currently 14 years old while Petunia is already 19.

So Fily's claim that she was older than Petunia did not make sense for me.

"Did I say something like that?" Fily looked at Petunia who just shrugged in response.

What? I totally heard her say something like that… or was I wrong?

"She's talking about mental age," Petunia told me after walking around the table where the ruined purple cloud was placed.

Mental age?

Oh, okay. I kind of get it now… but why did she play dumb when I asked her that if she could have just said it that way?

I shook my head to abandon the thought and just focused on doing what Petunia was instructing us to do.

"First of all, we must remove the small debris that was hard to remove then we're going to proceed on recreating the body-"

"Can't you just make a technique that will make it go back to its original shape on its own?" Fily butted in.

"That's a good idea except- I already tried it and it won't work without the Energy slimes."

The both of them looked at me.

"What?" Suddenly, my heart began beating faster because of the pressure their eyes were giving me.

"I don't know how to bring the Energy slimes outside," I confessed and shut my eyes tightly, afraid of their reactions.

"That's going to be a problem." Petunia concluded but there was not much disappointment in her voice as if she already knew of this beforehand.

"How have you been keeping it clean and in shape all this time?" Fily asked her, ignoring the problem that I just told them about my Salamandite.

"I used a molecular technique to make them rub against each other thus grinding the molecules that got stuck inside, sending them to an output so it could maintain its glossy semi-transparent finish until you stretched and mixed everything out of order." Petunia glared at Fily who just smiled with a peace sign as a response.

Since my knowledge about alchemy was still below average, I was tasked to remove the small splinters and debris that was hard for the gum to detach by itself due to its size.

"Are we going to make another Gummy or are we going to fix this one?" I heard Fily ask Petunia who was busy mixing chemicals between our tables.

"Since we can't really use the Energy slimes yet, we'll just recreate the same formula that I did while making this one-"

"And make a new Gummy? Is that what you're saying?"

"Why do I need to remove the debris in this one if you're going to create a new Gummy anyway?" I complained after hearing their discussion.

"That's because I don't feel good leaving Gummy 144 with debris and other dirt inside it after serving me for so long."

"Either way my role here is useless," I said and pouted after losing my will to work efficiently. Who cares if this Gummy has debris in it? It's not even visible unless they're sticking outside.

"Why did you stop?" Petunia looked at me while mixing her bowl rhythmically.

Fily also looked at me despite having a hard time catching up to Petunia's way of mixing.

"Can't I just switch jobs with her?" I pointed at Fily who seemed to agree with what I was offering.

Petunia paused to think for a second before saying, "fine," and switched places with Fily.

"Fily will put the ingredients and you will mix it at the same speed as mine alright?"

I nodded to Petunia's conditions and exchanged the dead bulk of gum from my table to Fily's mixing bowl and rubber spatula.

This looked like something that the maids would do in the kitchen except the smell of chemicals oozing from the mixture.

"Wear this." Fily gave me safety goggles that she got from one of the shelves above us.

I'm really amazed by Fily's sense of direction and how she could determine which items were in which drawers.

For starters, she's still also a newbie like the rest of us in this castle but if asked to look for something, she might be able to find it quicker than Von who lived in this castle forever.

I don't really understand how she does it but I'm guessing it might be a hidden skill or something.

At least I'm glad she's on our team and her hidden skill is very helpful at times.

"Done!" I showed Petunia the result of my mixing and it turned out to be a pretty shade of crystal clear purple with sparkles and shimmer all over it, similar to what she created.

"Now for the coat." She said after nodding to the result of my work, probably talking about the same coat that felt like a balloon that cracked when I first touched her Gummy.

I scooped the mixture upwards using my hands, unlike the old Gummy, this one was less sticky and damp but more compressed with each other.

"Oh no!!" I shouted after seeing my fingers exert something that was glowing in cyan to the purple mixture.

Fily and Petunia both came to my call and saw the mess that I created with her mixture.

I was on the verge of crying after seeing the concentrated cyan glowing in between the deep purples.

But instead of getting angry, Petunia's eyes sparkled after seeing what I just did. "Marvellous!" She exclaimed and went closer to my hands that were still covered with the intense glowing of the cyan liquid.

My hands were trembling from fear when she buried her cat face in the palm of my hands, bathing her silver fur with the glowing cyan liquid from my hands.

'W-what is this Mr. Gemstone?'

I asked after calming myself down.

[It is your Healing slime, Master.]

I looked at my own hands afterward.

The glow of the liquid was so intense that it was visible even in this well-lit place.

"Is that what I think it is?" Fily placed her chin on my shoulders as we both watched Petunia purring and rolling around in happiness between my hands on the table.

"You do know that your Healing slimes contain Energy slimes, right?" Fily glanced at me as she took the bowl with my mixture in it before standing up to inspect it thoroughly.

I did not think about that...