Since it was almost nightfall when Tike and his group arrived at Yukino's village, they found a relatively intact house to rest in for the night.
Just as they were tidying up the room, Yukino's stomach suddenly rumbled. Immediately after, an even louder protest came from Tike's belly.
Tike touched his flat stomach and looked at the other two girls.
"Um, you guys are hungry too, right?"
Erza nodded slightly, and Kagura also gave a small nod, subconsciously leaning a bit closer to Tike.
She wanted to eat that egg fried rice she had this morning again!
"Watch this!"
Tike turned and walked out of the house. He pressed his palm against the ground and activated his magic.
"Food-Make: A Bit of Everything Jutsu!"
Light blue magical light spread from his palm. An emerald green seedling broke through the soil and grew upward at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it grew into a large tree laden with coconut-like fruits.
Thump!
Tike swung his fist and punched the tree trunk hard. The fruits on the tree fell one after another with thud-thud sounds, piling up into a small mountain on the ground.
"Alice, come help pick them up!"
"Meow! Roger!"
Alice flapped her silver mechanical wings, transporting the fruits one by one back into the house. Together with the children, she piled them on the newly wiped wooden table.
Soon, the four people and one cat sat around the table, ready to eat.
Erza picked up a fruit. applying a little force with both hands, she cracked the hard shell open with her bare hands.
Watching Erza crack open the fruit so easily, Yukino couldn't help but gasp in amazement.
"Big Sis, you're so strong!"
"It's nothing much." Erza handed the opened fruit to Yukino, her scarlet hair dancing with a gentle halo under the candlelight. "Be careful, it's hot."
"Mm!"
Yukino held the bowl-shaped shell, scooped up the steaming white porridge inside with a wooden spoon, blew on it gently, and then put it in her mouth.
"Wow! It's so delicious!" Yukino's eyes lit up instantly. This porridge actually tasted like chicken soup!
The others also got to work, opening the fruits in front of them and looking curiously at the delicacies inside.
Some fruits contained sweet fruit salad, others held steaming roast meat, and some had rich vegetable soup... It was like opening blind boxes. Before opening them, no one knew what kind of delicious food was hidden inside, full of surprises.
Only Tike appeared exceptionally calm.
These fruits were created by him personally using magic. For him, this "food blind box" held no mystery from the start.
After eating and drinking their fill, Erza put down the fruit shell in her hand and sighed softly, "Magic is truly amazing. If only I could use it too, then I could protect everyone like Tike."
"Do you want to learn?" Tike swallowed his last mouthful of food and flashed a sunny smile at Erza. "I'll teach you."
"Really? Can I?" Erza blinked somewhat uncertainly. Her eyes were full of anticipation but also held a trace of anxiety. "I've never been exposed to magic before. I'm afraid I won't be able to learn it..."
"Of course, no problem!" Tike patted his chest and guaranteed, "Magic isn't as hard as you think. As long as you master the knack, you'll learn it very quickly!"
"Tike, I want to learn too!" Kagura also mustered up her courage beside them, looking at Tike with determined eyes. "I want to become strong and rescue my brother from the bad guys!"
Yukino seemed a bit shy. having just joined this small group, she didn't quite dare to express her thoughts directly, only staring unblinkingly at Tike with big eyes full of longing.
"Teach, I can teach you all."
Tike looked out the window at the moon outside, remembering the magic his mother had taught him.
"I'll teach you the Maker Magic I learned from another mother."
Tike strode out of the house again, and the girls followed closely behind him.
Tike walked to the fruit tree created by "Food-Make" and injected new magic into it.
"Wood-Make: Bathtub."
The fruit tree began to creak. The trunk bent, branches and leaves gathered, and finally, it transformed into a huge wooden bathtub.
Immediately after, Tike waved his hand casually. A large amount of crystal-clear ice condensed instantly in the air and poured down with a clatter, quickly filling the entire bathtub.
Although Tike was better at Water Magic, he had trained with the Ice-Make wizard Ur for a while, so he could use some Ice Magic.
"What is this for?" Erza blinked curiously, not quite understanding Tike's intention.
"Adapting to the cold is the first lesson of Maker Magic! Probably!"
while speaking, Tike had already taken off his clothes and jumped into the ice-filled bathtub. He waved to the girls standing by the tub.
"You guys come in and soak too. It's best to take off your clothes so you can feel the stimulation of the cold more directly!"
Kagura carefully extended a finger and lightly touched an ice cube in the tub. The freezing cold instantly made her retract her hand.
"Won't we freeze if we go in... Big Sis Erza, you really went in!?"
---
The Next Day
"Achoo—!" "Achoo—!"
Continuous sneezing broke the silence of the early morning.
Kagura and Yukino were wrapped in thin blankets, curled up on the bed sniffling constantly, looking sickly.
Erza held a fruit shell filled with hot porridge, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it carefully, and brought it to the mouth of Kagura lying on the bed. On the other side, Alice held a spoon with her small paw, patiently feeding the equally sick Yukino.
Neither of the two little girls had much of an appetite. After just a few mouthfuls, they shook their heads, indicating they couldn't eat anymore.
Tike stood by the bed, looking at the two little girls who had caught a cold because of his training. He scratched his head in annoyance, making his brown hair even messier.
Although his magic could heal wounds quickly, it couldn't cure diseases, so there was really nothing he could do.
He hadn't expected their bodies to be so weak that they would fall ill just from a simple ice bath.
"Take some medicine." Alice put down the spoon in her hand, opened a storage compartment on her arm, and took out two colorful capsules. "Luckily, I still have two special cold medicine pills left here."
Alice's internal storage space was limited, unable to support her carrying a complete medical system. Therefore, the owner of the Kingdom of Machinery had built in quite a few emergency medicines inside her for unexpected needs.
During their previous travels, Tike had never gotten sick, so all these medicines had been used on patients he and Alice encountered.
And these two cold pills were Alice's last stock.
Kagura and Yukino obediently opened their mouths and swallowed the special cold medicine Alice handed them.
Like a little nurse, Alice instructed them carefully, "Sleep a little longer and rest well. It takes some time for the medicine to work. You'll get better soon."
The two little girls gave weak responses, then obediently closed their eyes and sank feebly into dreamland again.
Tike silently walked out of the house and sighed deeply, his face full of frustration.
Erza was healthy and showed no discomfort; her physical fitness was much more normal than Kagura and Yukino's.
However, despite trying very hard to practice the Maker Magic Tike taught her, she couldn't succeed. No matter how she concentrated or how she imitated Tike's movements, she couldn't create any shapes.
"I'm not suited to teaching people..."