Chapter 49 – Eureka!

Luna’s hair was soft and nice to the touch. I quietly hummed as I gently blow dried her hair.

“Your shower’s a little weird.” Luna said.

“How so?” I asked.

“The off point is in the middle and you have to choose left or right depending on the temperature you want. How would that not be weird?”

“Mm…I guess so. I’m probably just used to it by now. Is your shower different?”

“Yes, it’s normal. All the way right is turned off and it gets hotter the more left your turn the handle.”

“Why is it right to turn it off instead of left? What’re you in Japan where you read right to left?”

“Righty tighty, lefty loosey.” She simply replied.

Darn, she got me there.

“I acknowledge your win.”

“Haha!” She laughed.

“Oh, right, have you heard of my new potion? The bouncy bouncy potion?” I asked.

“Ah!” She suddenly shouted, causing me to flinch, “You!”

“H-Huh? What’d I do wrong now?”

“The ball! What happened to the ball!” She turned and grabbed my arms.

“Oh…The ball.” I let my words trail off.

“Tell me!” She shook me, “No! Even better, show me!”

“I-can’t-show-you-if-you-keep-shaking-meeee” I could barely let out.

“Oh, sorry.” She stopped and I felt a little dizzy.

“Haah…” I let out a deep breath, “I thought I was going to die.”

“Stop being such a drama queen.” She rolled her eyes.

“Hehe,” I smiled, “Well, let me finish drying your hair first.”

“…I think it’s been dry for the past five minutes.” She replied, touching her extremely dry hair.

“No, no, just a little more.”

She glanced at me with suspicious eyes.

I didn’t make eye contact and simply continued to stroke her soft hair. It actually has to be softer than wool. Just what kind of hair products does she used to get this soft of hair? Shouldn’t it be prickly and static-y since she’s electric type?

“Are you done fondling my hair yet?” She asked with a dead tone.

“It’s still not dry.”

“You don’t even have the blow dryer in your hand.” She looked at the blow dryer that was laying on the table.

“Hand drying?”

“Enough!” She shook her head to shake me off before patting her own hair, “I’m gonna go bald if you keep at it any longer.”

“Fine.” I reluctantly stopped, “I’ll stop playing with my hair.”

“It’s not yours!”

“Hehe.” I giggled, “Anyways, I’d like you to play around with the bouncy potion. You’re quite an experienced awakener, so, just tell me your opinions. Both for utility and fun. No need to mince words.”

Luna nodded and followed me to the storage closet,

“Any dos or don’ts? Something I should look out for or anything?” She asked.

“Mm…Nope, just imagine you’re a paying customer who bought one of these potions. It’s yours, so, you’re free to do whatever with it. I won’t give you any information or anything about it.” I replied, opening the box that read ‘BB~ - D Grade’.

Inside were around a hundred bouncy bouncy potions. If I couldn’t find any better materials or ratios, these were likely the outcome of the final(?) recipe.

“Catch.”

I tossed her a bottle and she barely caught it in time, fumbling it around before getting a steady grip.

“Hey! What if I dropped it!?” She shouted.

“Then we’d have a bouncy floor?” I replied with a tilted head.

Luna just shook her head and headed to the living room.

I pocketed two more potions before following.

Falling into the clutches of the couch cushion, I relaxed my body as I simply watched to see what Luna did.

The first thing she did was pull up the description.

[Bouncy Bouncy Potion]

Grade D

Creator: Raccoon

A physics-altering potion created by a ‘(genius!!!!)’ alchemist. This potion changes the properties of anything it absorbs itself into temporarily, making anything ‘Bouncy~ Bouncy~’

However, when applied to something with stronger properties than the potion, the potion will not take affect.

* Not meant for consumption!

* I’m not responsible for any mishaps!!!

‘Bouncy~ Bouncy~ Bounce~’

“This is definitely something you had a hand in…” She said, looking at me.

“What parts?” I tilted my head. I couldn’t see what I added that the system wouldn’t.

“…’What parts?’ she says…” Luna shook her head and didn’t answer my question.

She inspected the potion itself, looking at the color under the light before opening the cap and taking a whiff.

“Smells a little sweet?” She commented.

I shrugged. I didn’t even have an answer for that. All my potions end up smelling sweet for some reason, I hadn’t even added any flavor enhancers.

My best guess is my natural mana scent added it.

“If I drink it will anything bad happen?” She asked.

“Try it and find out?” I answered.

“…” She gave me a discerning look for a moment before shaking her head, “I’ll follow what the description says.”

“Is there a reason you named it ‘Bouncy Bouncy Potion’?”

“I wanted to make things bouncy bouncy. Couldn’t think of a more fitting name for it, plus it’s funny.”

“Well, I guess that’s to be expected.” She shrugged before finally testing the potion.

She hesitantly dumped half the potion onto the wooden floors, giving me a look asking ‘is this right?’ and ‘is this okay?’ all the while. I only shrugged and watched with intrigue.

This was my first time seeing someone else actually use my potion, so I was a bit excited. Just what was she going to do? How was she going to play with it?

The liquid absorbed itself into the floor. The timer had officially started. I knew it’d only last for around 2 and a half minutes since she used half the bottle, but she didn’t. I was curious to see if she’d figure out this fact.

Crouching down, Luna she poked at the spot where the liquid had been absorbed.

“Oh!” She let out a pleasant noise of surprise as her finger pushed into the bouncy floor and sprung out repeatedly.

“It really is bouncy bouncy…” She mumbled before grabbing her phone.

She looked at me for a moment before showing that she was about to try bouncing her phone. It was another look to see if it’d be fine, but as usual, I didn’t give her an answer and only watched.

“Tch…” She clicked her tongue, realizing I meant it when I said I wouldn’t be giving her any information and decided to just focus on playtesting the potion.

She gently tossed her phone onto the floor and it bounced back up to her like a rubber ball. Her eyes widened as she quickly did it again.

And again.

And again.

“Wow…It really makes it feel like you’re bouncing a rubber ball.”

She stood up, feeling a little more confident and dropped her phone from a higher height.

Bounce!

“This is kind of addicting.” She said, turning to me.

“Right? I spent a few hours just bouncing random things I could find around the house.” I replied.

Bounce!

“I can see why.” She nodded, “It makes me want to test the limits of what can and can’t bounce.”

She tossed her phone at the floor but…

There was no bounce.

Her phone simply landed onto the wood and remained motionless.

“Pfft!” I spat out before bursting into a fit of laughter, “Bahahaha!”

She turned to me and narrowed her eyes,

“You!” She glared, “You knew that was going to happen!” She accused.

“Bahahaha!” I couldn’t respond.

“Ugh!” She pouted, realizing I was in no state to retort or reply to her. Slamming her palms onto her thighs, she jutted her lips and continued, “What even happened…Did I run out of time? How long did that even last…?”

She looked at the remaining half of the potion bottle in her hand.

Crouching down, she carefully picked up her phone, making sure the screen hadn’t cracked. After making sure it was okay, she crouched down again and poured the potion back onto the floor. This time, she started a timer on her phone.

Poking the floor a few times to make sure it worked, she nodded before heading to the kitchen and grabbing a few random utensils and plates.

“I’m not responsible if anything breaks, right?” She asked.

“I’ll let you off for today.” I replied.

She nodded and begun bouncing forks, spoons, whisks, butter knives, and other utensils off of the floor. Each time she caught them with practiced precision—really cementing that despite appearances, she is, in fact, an awakener who has reached the 24th floor.

I watched as the timer approached 2:30.

Luna grabbed a plate and tossed it towards the floor just as she did the others and…

Break!

“Bahahaha!” I burst out laughing again.

Yeah, my floor may now be covered in ceramic shards, but that expression on Luna’s face makes everything worth it. 100% photo worthy.

“You let me break your own plate?!” She shouted after coming to her senses.

“Gotta learn somehow, right?” I shrugged, stifling a few laughs.

“Unbelievable…” She shook her head, “Where’s your broom? I’ll clean it up.”

“I’ll do it-”

As I went to stand up, she stopped me.

“No! Don’t stand up, you’re not wearing footwear and I don’t want you stepping on any shards.”

“…You’re not wearing any either?”

“I have a trait that’ll warn me if I’m about to be injured.” She replied.

“What kind of cheat-like trait is that!?”

“Electric senses.”

“I was being rhetorical.”

“Heh,” She smirked, “So, where’s the broom?”

“Side of the fridge, in the little crevice.” I replied, slumping back into the cushions. No reason to not let her do as she wants.

She nodded before quickly grabbing the broom and sweeping all the shards into the dustpan and tossing them in the trash.

“So, it lasts for 2:30?” She asked after returning in front of me.

“It can last up to 5 minutes depending on how much potion you use.” I answered, handing her another potion.

“Oh, you should really add that into the description.”

“Yeah, I’ve already added that to my notes haha.”

She nodded before pouring the potion onto the floor again, this time she used it all at once.

She tested it out a bit with some more random household objects before speaking,

“Can I test my skill on it?” She asked.

“Oh! Please go ahead, I’m curious to see what happens!” I immediately replied. Since I didn’t have a skill that projects things, I couldn’t test it myself. It’s nice that I have Luna to test things for me now.

She nodded and pointed at the floor with her index finger.

[Shock]

A small beam of electricity crackled from her finger and shot towards the floor. It bounced off the wood and shot straight towards the wall behind me.

“Eek!” I flinched as it flew directly overhead and collided with the wall, leaving a dark black mark.

But my curiosity immediately took over as I stood up and began taking a closer look at the wall,

“Wow…So it does work with skills. If added to a shield could it be used to reflect skills?” I mumbled before asking a few more questions to myself.

I turned to Luna and asked, “Did it lose any power in the reflection process?”

She blinked at me a few times before finally answering.

“Um…I don’t think so. I already reduced the amount of power used before I fired it, I’d have to test it a few more times if I wanted to confirm it.”

“Mm…Gotcha.” I nodded.

That was reduced power? Wow. Luna is kind of scary?

I internally chuckled before shaking my head.

Seeing that display made me feel motivated. Not to suddenly develop a combat skill or anything of the sort, but to brew some potions.

“Mouse, you can continue playing with the bouncy potion if you want, I want to do alchemy.” I said, and before she could reply, I headed towards the garden.

In the garden, I looked over my plants. What kind of potion did I want to make? Did I want to focus on improving my bouncy potion recipe, or did I want to continue making mana potions?

There was a row of planter boxes filled with opara grass and I knew I still had a lot of hiroki shrooms. It wouldn’t be bad to continue making money.

I really should get more materials planted in here soon. I had a few ideas for the next plants I wanted to grow, but I was still confirming things and making sure nothing would interfere with anything I already had.

What I had now was simple: Strawberry bushes, opara grass, hiroki shrooms, and giant huffpalls…

“Mm…?”

I paused, staring at the giant huffpalls.

The door opened behind me and a familiar presence entered but I didn’t turn to look. Rather, the gears in my mind started to spin.

“Bin—”

At the voice, I lifted a finger up and immediately spoke,

“Wait,” My tone was lower than usual, “Please just appreciate me in silence for a second.”

The giant huffpall—a poisonous plant…

…

Luna quietly watched as Stella left a full bouncy potion on the end table. But she didn’t plan on using it. Instead of continuing to playtest the potion, she was much more interested in what Stella was doing.

She saw her entering the garden and was a bit curious. She figured she was going to collect materials to brew some type of potion.

Since she wanted to see the process, she headed to the garden.

Inside, she saw Stella standing near a big mushroom plant—the giant huffpall if she remembered correctly.

“Bin—” As she went to speak and ask her about it, Stella suddenly spoke over her without her usual bubbly tone.

“Wait,” She said with a low voice, she lifted a finger to indicate Luna to be quiet, “Please just appreciate me in silence for a second.”

At those words, Luna immediately shut her mouth and silently widened her eyes.

Albeit in a polite way, she had basically just told her to shut up.

But…Luna didn’t hate it. In fact, it was the opposite. There were very few moments where she got to see a serious working look on Stella’s face.

The first time she had saw a hint of such a sight was the first time she was cooking for her. And she looked cool then.

And she looked cool now, Stella covered her mouth with her hand, repeatedly tapping her cheek as quiet mumbles fell into the air,

“Giant huffpall…Jango shrooms…activator…enhancer…”

Though Luna didn’t understand what she was saying, she really admired Stella’s serious side.

“Could I do it…? Five minutes…”

So, Luna did as instructed and appreciated Stella in silence.

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