Chapter 36

With a loud gasp, Nicole jerked upright on the bed. She was naked, her hand pressed over her rapidly beating heart as she looked around. She was in Iloe’s hut, on a bed in the corner of the main room. In the other corner, Mignon was sleeping.

What the fuck was that? How did I end up here? Ugh, my head still feels like it may explode…

She lay back down with a tired sigh. That was all just a dream, huh? I miss them. Her thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. Iloe walked in, and after seeing Nicole awake, ran up to her.

"Nicole! You are back! I–I wasn’t sure if you would get better." The catgirl clutched Nicole’s hand, tears in her eyes.

"Wow, is it that bad? I sure feel awful but… okay, maybe you’re right. But how did I get to the village? I assume I passed out on the way, right?"

"Y-yeah, I think so. Your friend brought you to Soi, and then we moved you here." Iloe nodded toward Mignon. "But we have to make sure you get back to normal first."

"Ah shit!" Nicole clenched her teeth as a wave of headache and violet vision washed over her, then quickly faded. "I’m so tired of this already."

"Okay, can you describe what you feel? And anything that could be the cause."

"How I feel? I’ve had a terrible headache that was growing for the past three days, and from time to time everything turns violet and blurry. I’d say it was one of two things – first, I had close — really close — contact with some green slime, and then I had a fight with some black and white bees. Oh, and I mean the non-sentient ones, not the bee tribe. Does anything ring a bell?"

"Hm, that’s…" Iloe sat on the ground, scratching her chin. "Maybe…" After thinking for a moment, she sighed. "Well, I’ve never had contact with bees and don’t know much about them, but did you see what flowers they were interested in?"

"Right! There were some light-violet flowers… Wait, is that it? Would make sense, I guess."

"This is somewhat similar to a Sombria flower effect, but way stronger." Iloe stood up and grabbed a thick book from the shelf. It took her some time to find the right page, but she eventually did. "All it says is that Sombria flower dust, if it gets into the eye, can make a person see violet for a short time. Definitely not to this extent — it shouldn’t last for days. And not to mention making you sleep for two days straight."

"Wait what? Two days?"

"Oh, yeah. Also, it seems you had a nightmare. You screamed and mumbled a lot." Iloe looked to the side, blushing.

"Shit, sorry. That must’ve been disturbing."

"I-it’s okay."

An awkward silence filled the room for a minute before Nicole perked up. "Hey, I almost forgot. Remember how we took the blood sample from your mom? Tora got the results while I was out of the village. And it’s… not looking good."

"What do you mean?" Iloe looked up at her with fear in her eyes.

"Well, Tora only knows things from my world, so it didn’t say much. But it’s something complicated. The AI tried explaining it, but there were a lot of chemistry terms I have no idea about. And a lot of unknown things exclusive to this world. The best I can do is keep scanning everything I can and expand the information library, hoping to stumble on something that might help. I’m sorry I can’t do more."

Iloe bit her lip. "It’s not your fault. Thanks for trying."

"But there’s one more thing. Even if I can’t help, my friend can! But I don’t know where Annie is right now. Yet when I find her, I’m sure she’ll be happy to help!" Nicole reassured the catgirl.

Iloe nodded, but before she could respond, Nicole’s stomach made an awkward sound in the quiet room.

"Sorry, I guess I haven’t eaten in days."

"I-I’ll get you something!" Iloe stood up and started searching through crates and pots for food, but when she returned, Nicole was already asleep again.

It continued for days, during which Nicole slowly began to feel better. She mostly slept and ate, regaining her strength. In the meantime, she told Soi and Iloe about her adventures, starting with the slime situation.

"Giant green slime?! That’s strange. They’re usually small, hide under rocks, and are harmless — mostly. I’ve never heard of one growing to such a size." Iloe quickly wrote down the information about the anomaly.

"They hide under rocks? My house was made of stone bricks. Maybe that monster mistook it for a big rock? Must be hard to find anything big enough for itself…" Nicole wondered.

Soi smirked. "So you had some fun with it, huh? I never thought about using slimes like that."

"Shut up, it’s not like that was my intention. Though I can’t say it was too bad… Oh, right. Iloe, are their cores valuable?" Nicole made a cube out of the crystal slime core in her hand, making the catgirl’s eyes widen and shine.

"I’ve never seen one so big!" Iloe grabbed the pearly white cube and held it carefully. "But… it has no inner connections. They were probably too fragile to survive being in your storage. That limits its uses, but it’s still a nice alchemy ingredient."

"Great. I hoped you’d find it useful."

"C-can I take it? I’ll pay you, of course."

Nicole shook her head. "No need. You’re my friend, and you’re taking care of me right now. I’ve got no idea what to do with the cube anyway."

Iloe looked at her with wet eyes. "F-friend?" She suddenly jumped and hugged Nicole. "Thank you! I-I mean, for being my friend. And for the slime core too!" After nearly crushing Nicole with the strength of her hug, she sat back down.

On the next occasion, Nicole told them about fighting the bees. As soon as she reached the fighting part, Soi stopped her.

"Wait, wait, wait. You attacked the hive?!" She gasped.

"Uh, yeah? It was dangerous, and I remember Iloe warning me about that. But why do you two look so shocked?" Nicole raised an eyebrow.

Iloe sighed. "I-I warned you, but apparently I didn’t do it well enough. The main danger isn’t the hive itself — it’s that it belongs to the Voru’kai tribe. And they are very protective of their bees."

"What? Bee tribe? Back then, I totally forgot they existed… Uh, how fucked am I? Will they come looking for me?"

"Well, as long as you didn’t destroy the hive completely and didn’t take their honey, they might assume it was a wild animal or something… You didn’t take their honey, right?"

Nicole looked to the side guiltily. "Maybe just a little…? I didn’t know, okay? They can’t prove it was me."

Iloe chuckled. "We’ll have to pray to the Goddess they won’t, haha." But then she froze. "Wait. Honey? You didn’t eat it, right?"

"Obviously I did. I had to taste it."

"That explains the strength of the effects. That honey, as you probably guessed, is made from the flowers you saw in the forest. Those flowers — and by extension, the honey — are poisonous. At least for us non-bees."

Nicole pouted. "Aw man, but it was so good! And Mignon ate some and he seems fine. Also I even brought you some." She grabbed an empty cup nearby, poured a bit of the honey from her storage, and handed it to Iloe.

"W-wait! Did you forgot already? If anyone gets spotted with honey after what you did to the hive, they’ll easily track it back to you!" Iloe held the cup carefully. "But… it may help get you out of those visions faster. Using the honey as a base, I can try to purify it and make it a cure. Though I’m still unsure about the nightmare and the two-day sleep. Mother’s book says nothing about these flowers causing that. And it's not known much about Krellips, maybe they are immune or something! Don't use Mignon to determine what's poisonous and what's not!"

Nicole shrugged. "Eh, maybe I was just tired or something."

"Don’t just shrug it off, Nicole. What if there’s more to it?" Soi gave her a stern look.

"It hasn’t happened again, and I’m starting to feel better. Relax."

Over the next four days, with Iloe’s alchemy skills, Nicole recovered fully and stopped seeing in violet. She moved back to Soi’s hut.

"Thanks, Iloe." Nicole hugged the catgirl standing in the doorframe. "You helped me a lot. Probably even saved my life."

Iloe blushed from the close contact but hugged her back. "I-it’s alright. I’m always happy to help you."

Back at the usual place, after such a long rest, Nicole was full of energy. Time to get back on track. In the morning, after Soi left, Nicole decided to resume exploring the newly discovered part of her ability. At first, she tried altering only a chosen part of her body — the attempt to change her palm affected the whole arm.

No matter how much I think about or try to concentrate on just my hand, it’s the same. Well, either I need more time or it’s a natural limitation. Doesn’t matter — I can live with it. What interests me more are the other materials.

Nicole decided to test every item she had in storage.

First, the basics — wood. She closed her eye and picked the material, imagining her right arm. And there it was. The arm made of pressed wood in the shape of her natural limb felt clunky and unresponsive. I am a fucking Pinocchio. Yet she wondered why it felt that way. The durability test wasn’t great either — the wood was easily damaged even by her own nails, and Nicole quickly discarded the idea of seeing how well it burned. Useless compared to the bone form.

Slowly, she went through all solid materials she had, but nothing could compete with the Bonewolf bones.

Ugh. Stone is too heavy to move properly, though it might be good if I ever need pure defense. Wax and clay are useless and barely hold together. Leaves me with no real choice, sadly. Maybe later I’ll find something better. Now, the last form for now.

After a deep breath, Nicole focused on the water in her storage, and after a second, her arm turned transparent blue.

Oh shit, it worked! She stared at her limb, now quivering and barely holding an unstable form. But the moment she tried moving it, the water splashed to the ground, and she turned normal again.

That’s… something. Even if it seems useless now, I can’t leave it unpracticed. This ability is part of me now, after all.

From that morning on, Nicole made it her daily routine to go to the beach and practice turning into water. Slowly, she made progress. Yet her ability wasn’t her only concern. Using the dried slime leather she still had, Nicole made gloves and boots for herself. Not only that — she had enough to make something for Soi and Iloe too.

One evening, all three gathered at Soi’s hut to relax together. Nicole made them sit on the floor and smirked.

"Girls, what do you think of my new attire?" She posed to show off her green leather clothes.

"That’s… unique, I’d say. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone making clothes out of slimes." Soi giggled.

"I-I’m not really into clothes, so it’s hard to say anything. But you look good, Nicole." Iloe said, blushing and desperately trying not to stare at Nicole’s thighs and ass, tightly hugged by the pants.

"Thanks. But I asked you two here not just for that. I have this." Nicole grabbed two boxes. "Here’s something for you, girls."

Soi quickly opened hers and looked inside. "Hah, what’s this?" She unfolded the present — a leather trench coat with a big hood. Soi stood up and put it on. "It’s amazing!"

Iloe did the same, now wearing a nearly identical coat. "T-thanks! I-I don’t know what to say."

Nicole beamed. "Great. Just be careful near fire — it burns easily. If I had more material, I’d make boots and more clothes for you two, but the rest of the slime is back in the forest."

Iloe hugged her. "That’s already a lot. I’ll treasure it."

"Come on, it’s just a small gift. You make it sound like a big deal." Nicole patted her head gently. "But you may want to take those off for now." She grinned, pulling something from her pocket.

"Huh? Why?" both catgirls asked at the same time.

"Because I have something to show you — a game straight from another world!" Nicole triumphantly raised her hand, holding a small wooden box. Opening it, she pulled out thin wooden cards.

"Playing cards!"