Chapter 49 - Inventi

"Okay we're done," Fily said, hanging the towels on some of the branches of the tree.

I looked back at them impatiently and saw Petunia limping through the distance.

"Does it hurt?" I asked her and she flinched immediately.

She was so focused on walking that she even got shocked when I noticed her.

"Petunia!" Fily exclaimed and carried her immediately. "I told you to wait."

Petunia rolled her eyes at Fily while still not answering my question and so I asked again as they were approaching me. "Why was she limping? Didn't I cure it already?"

"You're right, it's already cured. I just got used to being careful after doing that.."

"Plus the blood loss," Fily added. "So what was that you were shouting about earlier?"

I looked at Fily and narrowed my eyes on Petunia when I saw her avoiding my eyes.

"You're the one doing this aren't you?" I said, still doubtful about the Gummy moving on its own.

"Doing what?" As soon as Fily finished her sentence, her jaw dropped from the sight of the Gummy that was still stirring itself on the bowl, temporarily losing its majestic purple glow as the motion made it blurry.

"This is so…" She trailed off, her eyes still sparkling as she covered her mouth when she failed to form the right words to say with it.

"This is my skill, Gummy manipulation." Petunia said in monotone and raised her hand.

Subsequently, the Gummy shot upwards from the bowl to the air, as if following her hand movement.

"H-how did you do that?"

I held on to my chair as we looked up to the Gummy that Petunia was controlling, creating different movements and shapes in the air that drips over time mainly because of its semi-liquid-like texture.

"It's a skill that I created using my Invention skill a.k.a. Inventi," Petunia said while still busy controlling the Gummy despite her speech being weak.

There was a subtle smile on her face while playing with the Gummy in the air.

It was as if she was just having fun with an old friend.

I could not understand it at first, just how special this thing is for her to ask us for help and even slit her own arm just to give it blood. But now that I see her smiling like this, I kind of understand that it has some sort of sentimental value in her, the same kind of relationship with me and my necklace.

"Wow! You could even create skills!?" Fily said excitedly.

Petunia cleared her throat as if holding back her excitement of being praised.

"I could create skills, yes, that's the main purpose of my level 99 Invention skill."

"What else can you make?"

"Potions, Formulas, weapons-"

"So you mean anything that has to do with Chemistry, you can invent?" Fily was still shocked. "This was the first time I've actually seen someone with the skill Inventi and imagine level 99!?"

"What do the levels indicate though?"

"Mastery." Petunia answered.

"Yep, it's skill leveling based on mastery," Fily confirmed Petunia's answer to be true.

"How did you manage to max it out like that?" I asked a question again.

"I lost my 'back to normal' potion during the commotion so I was looking for an alternative way to transform back into a human. Most of my time was spent on potion-making. I was bored, I had no friends. Humans would freak out if I talk to them and I couldn't even speak cat or any animal language."

"You had Gummy."

"I had Gummy." She said with a subtle smile at me.

"Wait! Wait! Did I hear that right? You're making a potion that will turn you back into a human!?" Fily was shook.

"Yes." Petunia looked at me meaningfully.

"Wait am I the only one who hasn't heard of the news yet?" Fily said jokingly while narrowing her eyes at me.

"Definitely not." I denied it as I wondered how Petunia found out that I knew about her secret.

"It's not really much of a secret." Petunia shrugged, kind of giving a close answer to my question there.

"How did you manage to keep your identity a secret for 6 years?" Fily asked.

"I lived near the border. It's not really that hard, to be honest. Cats are one of the snobbiest animals ever on the planet so no one even dared to bother me be it a human or another animal."

"And if they did?" I asked.

"I kill them." She said it like it was not a big deal.

"Woah that was unexpected." Fily shivered fakely and stood up, ending our girl's talk.

But before Petunia and I were able to leave the table, Fily inquired another question for Petunia.

"Where did you get the ingredients for your Gummy making? Grimisha (Gum) could only be found in a forest outside of the borders and I doubt someone would sell that to a cat."

"You're right, they did not sell me Grimisha."

"So you stole it?" I guessed.

"No. I went there outside."

"On your own!?"

"Using Gummy." She simply answered which amazed me even more.

Such a brave cat!

"Well anyway, I don't think we have much time to chit-chat anymore so you should go back to your stations and do your tasks," Petunia commanded which I really wanted to follow but Fily could not stop herself from asking questions!

"Last question! Can you tell us the mechanism behind your Gummy manipulation skill?"

Petunia let out a deep sigh after hearing this, "fine."

And so she explained the mechanism to us in two versions.

One that was simple for me and one with more detail to Fily.

And as it turned out, Gummy was actually a living thing! Like a plant! Or a jellyfish according to them.

Petunia said that her blood was the connection she needed for the manipulation skill to work and additionally, she had mastered the art of isolating a certain trait from her DNA that the Gummy needed to be able to fly.

"I thought you recreated the flight potion and gave it to the Gummy!"

"That would not work since Gummy lacks a lot of chemicals that we humans have in order to create the chemical reaction from the Flight potion to enable Flight evolution."

"But with an evolved blood, you just have to single out the Flight ability from your DNA and precisely transfer it to Gummy to make it fly!" Fily completed Petunia's explanation.

"I kind of get it now."

"That's good to hear, now what time is it already? Ah, 2:30" Petunia said which made me and Fily stiffened a bit after remembering something very important.

"I need to go to sleep at 3 a.m!"

Fily can't sleepwalk without at least 6 hours of sleep!

Oh no!!