Chapter 134 - Solitude Is My Domain

"Solitude is my domain, mister."

"I don't care, this place is a product of my hard work and I'm not going to let you take it all away from me!" the wolf said with a deep glare before retreating to the darkness once again.

Gem, on the other hand, inhaled and recalled all the steps that she practiced so hard to perfect and be worthy of being able to control anything embedded with Energy slimes inside Solitude.

"I just wish you could tell me how you were able to make this place without obtaining and activating a Salamandite first," Gem said with a concentrated exhale before closing her eyes and relying on her other senses instead of her eyes inside of this dark place.

***

[Notification: New skill obtained, Liquity.]

"Liquity?" Gem muttered to herself while repeating the same moves over and over again inside her room at night.

"I thought I had this before, did it upgrade?" Gem wondered and opened her stat-hut to look for more details about this new skill the system notified her on.

[Liquity Lvl.0] [Liquity- Allows the user to manipulate the matter of anything after being induced with the Energy slimes.]

"What is this? It's still level zero though? Why did you notify me about this, Mr. Gemini? Was it some kind of mistake?"

[Not at all, Master. You have now obtained level one of Solitude and is ready for departure whenever you wish.]

"My Solitude has already upgraded?! But why didn't you notify me about that first?"

"Would you like to go to Solitude, Master?" Mr. Gemini said, ignoring Gem's question and tempting her to test it out, for real this time. Without having to die or endanger her life first.

"Okay, I'll go check it out if it actually works. Hopefully, the exit setting is still there, I don't know what I would do if I get stuck there somehow. With no food and stuff, I don't think I can survive over there aside from my training hours!" Gem said hysterically before closing her eyes and preparing to be disintegrated into the air.

"Ah, I'm still not used to this!" Gem complained and fell on the cold white floor of Solitude after her long hours of training inside her room right after her last class.

"Have I completed the first level of the Astral yet?" 

[Halfway there, Master.]

"Oh, so I didn't need to complete the full month of training and just master the skills as soon as possible instead, is that right?"

[Yes, Master.]

"Yes! I knew it!" Gem said and celebrated her success on her own by trying her new skill.

"So, do I do it like this?" Gem said, sliding her hand from one side to another and causing the ball she was controlling to bounce off the floor violently.

"Ouch! So it's similar to Petunia's gummy cloud? Can I also fly with this?" Gem murmured and tried riding the simple box she made using the now liquefied ball wrapped around Energy slimes.

But instead of being able to ride it, like what was Gem expecting, her body, unfortunately, passed through the ball as if it was water.

"Can I even use this as an attack?" 

[A new skill has been added to your secret skill set!] Lady announced, startling Gem from being too focused on her 'new skills',

"There's another one?!"

[Solidite - Hardens the property of Liquity.]

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Gem said with confusion etched on her face.

"Does Liquity and Solidite come in hand-in-hand?"

[Yes, Master.]

"But how do I use it? It says I need to put Energy slimes in things first before I manipulate them, but I don't have any Energy slime left, right?"

[There's still Energy slimes in your unlocked storage, Master. Just not enough for evolution.]

"Oh! So now I get it! But there's nothing here, how do I add Energy slimes to objects if there's nothing here to try it on?"

"…"

"Okay, I'll just try with my handkerchief," Gem said optimistically and took off her outer dress. "I mean, this is bigger so I might just use this as well," she said while looking at her exposed legs and shoulders due to being used to wearing long sleeves and jogging pants all the time.

But since she's alone in that place anyway, Gem did not mind and proceeded with pulling out Energy slimes from the necklace instead.

And when she finally covered the whole outskirt using her hands and the Energy slimes, the skirt glowed in faint sky blue and disappeared in an instant.

"Huh? Oh no, what happened? Did I do that right? Where did my outer skirt go?" Gem murmured in panic.

[You should do the poses, Master.] Mr. Gemini said, helping Gem out of that confused state as fast as he could.

"What's that supposed to do?" Gem asked, doubting Mr. Gemini's advice but followed it still anyway.

"Right, front, left, cross, stretch…" Gem muttered the keywords of each of the exercises she had to do for that Astral manual and eventually, the cyan tainted water bubbles started coming out of the necklace again and following Gem's movements that were now flowing like water the more she enjoyed seeing the big water/Energy slime bubble follow her movements and become larger as the left out droplets finally caught up to them.

"This is actually kind of relaxing!" Gem exclaimed, declaring just how fun she was having for unlocking a new skill which she hasn't even had the slightest idea of how to use just yet until she finally got tired after an hour of doing the same moves over and over again.

"Could I try new moves and my own moves instead? Would that still work with the floating water?" Gem asked her companions who responded to her with the most boring answers ever.

"Yes/No."

"No/Yes."

[You can try new moves, Master. But only the textbook ones are the proven effective moves that work 100% with that skill, Master.] Mr. Gemini added before letting Gem make a decision on her own.

"Okay, I shall master these new skills now that I can go back and forth from Solitude every once in a day!" Gem said on a positive note before ending the day with a smile on her face.