"Soft and Squishy!"
Without another word, he decided to give it a try.
But when Soft and Squishy landed on the petrified teacup, the cup and the water inside didn't return to their original state as Ethan had imagined.
Instead, they turned into... a lump of slime.
That's right.
The petrified bamboo cup and the entire cup of petrified water all turned into puddles of differently colored slime, splatting onto the floor.
"So it still doesn't work?"
Unwilling to give up, Ethan tried again.
He chanted at the lump of slime, "Hard as a Rock!"
Whoosh!
Another flash of white light fell onto the slime.
But all it did was turn into...
A lump of hard slime.
Ethan picked it up for a look.
It looked a bit like a piece of crystal poop.
'Boring!'
He tossed the hardened slime aside before stepping back into the Fusion Tempering Furnace. As he walked, though, a question came to mind.
Since he could instantly turn something liquid into an extremely hard stone, then what if he cast this spell on the clouds in the sky?
Wouldn't he... be able to turn a cloud into a giant rock?
For example, while fighting someone, if Ethan pointed at the cloud above his opponent's head and cast Hard as a Rock.
Would the cloud fall straight down onto the opponent's head and crush them to death?
The more he thought about it, the more curious he became.
Ethan decided to head outside and test it first before coming back to continue fusing items.
As soon as he stepped outside, Attendant Five was already waiting outside the villa, rubbing her hands that had turned red from the cold.
"L-Lord... Lord, Huff..."
No one knew how long she'd been standing in the freezing weather. The moment she spoke, Ethan could even see clouds of white breath drifting into the sky.
"You needed something?"
Ethan immediately summoned a Great Fireball and dropped it a short distance away from Attendant Five.
The air between them instantly warmed up.
"Thank you, Lord!"
Attendant Five's face was full of gratitude. She quickly reported, "It's like this. We've taken in as many of the refugees outside as we could."
"But some of them have developed strange symptoms, and they've started causing trouble. I've already had Guard Three restrain them. As for what to do next, I need your instructions, Lord."
"But when I saw the villa doors closed, I knew you were probably busy with something, so I didn't dare disturb you."
"You silly girl."
Seeing how overly obedient and considerate Attendant Five was, Ethan felt both helpless and a little sorry for her.
Just because the villa doors were closed and she didn't dare interrupt him, she'd stood outside in below-freezing weather for one or two hours.
What kind of fool would do something like that?
"Huh?"
Attendant Five blinked her big eyes and looked at Ethan pitifully, clearly not understanding why he had called her silly.
Ethan simply reached out and brushed the snow off her head and shoulders before taking her freezing cold hand.
"Come on. Let's go see what's going on."
"Ah? O-Okay..."
Attendant Five's face instantly flushed all the way to her ears, but she lowered her head and quietly followed behind Ethan toward the manor cafeteria.
At this moment, she no longer had the commanding presence she'd shown earlier while directing all the teams to work together and take in the refugees.
If the other residents saw Attendant Five looking so meek and dependent now, their jaws would definitely hit the floor.
If they had jaws to drop behind glasses, that is.
———
[The Cafeteria in the First Residential Building]
At this moment, countless refugees were sitting properly in the cafeteria chairs. Some were eating, while others sat there dozing off.
Since the cafeteria had heating, they didn't feel cold.
But besides these honest, well-behaved refugees, there were several others who were causing trouble in the manor.
Although they had already been restrained, from the smashed bowls and chopsticks nearby, the spilled soup that had frozen into a thin layer of ice before it could be cleaned up, and the injuries on Guard Three and the others, Ethan could tell that there had definitely been a disturbance just now.
Guard Three and the others had been quite clever, though.
He didn't know whose idea it had been.
They had actually gone into the garden and brought the scarecrows over.
The troublemaking refugees had each been possessed by a scarecrow, turning into living scarecrows themselves, standing where they were with their arms spread, completely unable to move.
But these people all looked rather strange.
For example, one refugee had transformed directly into a werewolf.
Several others had blood-red eyes and savage expressions, looking just like zombies.