Chapter Thirty-Seven

Previously subservient demeanor melted away in favor of professionalism as the elemental smiled at Elysia, ogling different sections of the hologram.

She wasn’t the only one either as Sereia’s eyes sparkled as they flicked from section to section, especially a couple of mermaid friendly additions she planned to guilt her twin into adding.

The only one of the three not involved with the hologram was Ione, as she didn’t care about anything but being near her family and hunting to grow stronger.

In no hurry, the group from the Shipwrights Guild let the twins pick apart the hologram. By accident Sereia found she could enlarge sections with her finger, prompting Elysia to join in as they immersed themselves in the magical marvel.

Finally, after almost an hour, the twins sat back and stared at the water elemental with expectant eyes. “Are you ready to make your commission, my ladies?”

Elysia opened her mouth for her twin to beat her to it. “I’d like the mermaid bed installed.”

He raised his eyebrow at the name as Elysia just sighed, having noticed her twin focus on that option longer than most. “Would you like to add the wave option?”

Sereia perked up, then nodded her head. “I’d like the deluxe version with every feature.”

“You realize we don’t have a ton of space, right? We still need to make room for the humans.”

With uncompromising eyes, Sereia stared at Elysia. “We will make room. I need my mermaid bed.”

“Well, you may be in luck. I was informed you have a high grade essence battery in your possession. If so, space will not be an issue as long as His Highness lends a hand. Even if he doesn’t provide some spatial magic, an essence battery will be required for many of the available features including the lightning elemental chargeable electrical system and propulsion.”

Essence battery? Elysia flashed back the large crystal she looted from the water elemental ship. Just to make sure she withdrew it, allowing it to plop on the floor next to the table, bathing the room in another wave of essence. Though only for a moment, as the already present essence auras smothered it before anyone could react. Still, the crystal was a magnificent sight.

The lead representative let out a whistle, instantly recognizing the origin of the crystal being a water elemental himself. “The high water elemental won’t be happy when he finds out they lost one of these. While it isn’t as potent as the essence batteries they use in the capital ship, it’s close. Probably for the best, any regular essence battery wouldn’t handle divine elementals of your station.”

He stood up and approached the crystal, running his hands along its surface while nodding his head. “Yes, this will do. With a battery like this, you shouldn’t have any problems supporting a cutting-edge ship worthy of divine elementals. We will need to reinforce the essence channels through the ship to avoid bottlenecks, though.”

With a respectful bow, he took a step back from the crystal as he continued. “Maybe we take possession of the crystal after we complete your commission? While it is possible to create an essence system without the battery, it is highly beneficial to build off of an essence battery instead of adding one later.”

Elysia’s eyes flashed with distrust, but after a moment of thought, her gaze relaxed. What other uses did she have for it? The way he reacted meant the crystal was quite valuable, though. Should she trust some random water elemental with it?

Said elemental bowed deeper, mirrored by his colleagues as he spoke in a deeply apologetic tone. “Please forgive my request. We will make do without it if you wish to keep the essence battery in your possession.”

The twins sat in their chairs and awkward silence as the five representatives continued to bow. There was no way someone could fake reverence to this degree. She didn’t trust them, but she doubted they would do anything nefarious with the crystal, not that she could tell if they did, anyway.

To get rid of the awkwardness, Elysia spoke, though despite her somewhat friendly tone, her essence spiked, causing the representatives to jump to attention terrified they offended the divine elementals. “You may take possession of the essence battery if you are willing to give us a discount for our commission.”

All five representatives stared at her as if she grew a second head, with the lead representative speaking first. “We would never charge elementals of your standing. Just the fact that we have the honor of building the perfect ship for you is more than enough.”

The cynical part of Elysia’s mind sparked to life. She was sure they would advertise they worked on Umbra if her family became famous. She wasn’t sure how she felt about receiving special treatment just because she was special, but she would be stupid to turn down the offer. The upgrades she had in mind probably costed a ton.

Elysia waved her hand toward the essence battery to give her acceptance, then relaxed back into her chair, hoping to break the awkward atmosphere.

A ring on the lead representative’s hand flashed, then the essence battery vanished. When the representatives re-took their seats, Elysia returned her attention to the hologram pointing at several sections as she spoke. “I’d like reinforced essence channel vein network and the lightning elemental chargeable option.” Elysia’s eyes landed on the rear end of the hologram of Umbra, focusing on the list of engine options. She disregarded all of them, but the very last one and probably the most expensive. “For propulsion, I want lightning elemental super chargeable high-performance essence motors with the quad prop option.”

Despite the likely eye watering price tag for the requests, the representatives nodded their heads as if expecting her decisions. As she said her choices, the hologram morphed, adding each option while removing the lists.

After a pause to let the hologram and the representatives catch up, Elysia continued. “As you can see, we had issues with hull durability, so I’d like the reinforced mana reflective hull with the regenerative feature. If possible, I’d like the hull to remain black as I like the sleek look.”

This time, a couple of the representatives winced, but the lead representative kept a professional smile.

Did she take it a step too far? She didn’t even get to the weaponry options. Not that there were many options. She got the feeling that personal magic was the preferred method of offense. Or maybe it was because she didn’t have mana.

When she chose the lightning elemental chargeable essence channel system, a bunch of rather interesting looking cannons disappeared from options. They probably required mana to operate.

One thing she noticed about elemental essence was there were limits to what it could do. It boiled down to if the mundane version of that element could do something, so could the magical version, but better. Mana seemed more versatile as a power source but had very little capabilities on its own, unlike say her lightning, which could attack but also power things.

Elysia scanned over the options for weaponry, but the only viable option was a rail gun. There weren’t even any shields, which was a shame, as there was a couple she really wanted. At least rail guns were cool, though she got the feeling her lightning would be far superior. Actually, maybe not if she was the one charging the system that powered the rail guns.

After doing another check for any other options but finding none, she pointed at the deployable rail gun defense system option, which caused the hologram to morph once more. Weird looking cannons, she assumed, were rail guns, appeared all over Umbra, pointing in all directions as they rotated between deployed and hidden.

In hidden mode that slid out of sight into compartments, leaving no evidence they existed. She had to say she liked how they disappeared seamlessly. It looked odd to have a dozen cannons mounted on Umbra’s deck and hull. She’d rather have them out of sight when she didn’t need them. She didn’t want Umbra to look like a battleship, but still have the capabilities of one, or at least as close as she could get.

Since it seemed easier to just point at the option she wanted, that was what she did. It almost seemed like she didn’t even need the representatives. The hologram did all the work for them, though she supposed that needed to do the initial setup. At least she thought that was how it worked. His assistants poked on their tablets a ton.

She worked in silence, adding a bedroom for the humans and a fancy bed, but left the rest of the room empty as she knew Eva would prefer to design their own room.

When she moved her finger to add another bedroom right next to it, Sereia batted her hand away then added her deluxe mermaid bed in Elysia’s bedroom against the right wall. Somehow, both beds fit primarily because the mermaid bed wasn’t all that big. It was basically a fancy padded bathtub that was extra-long to accommodate her mermaid form, but not very wide.

Elysia huffed as she sent a glare at her twin. “Don’t you want your own bedroom?”

“Sure, but the only way I’ll get a big closet is if I share your bedroom. You have plenty of room, and I doubt you will ever fill up that closet of yours without my help. I’ll even share my clothes with you. Don’t even try to deny your thieving ways. We both know you stole my clothes more than I stole yours. Unlike you, I did my laundry before I ran out of clothes.”

Unable to deny, Elysia averted her eyes away from her twin and back to the hologram. To make more room between the mermaid bed and her own bed, she slid the placeholder bed to the left wall.

Next, she opened up the dropdown list of bed options, scrutinizing each option. There were many more options than the bedroom for the humans. Maybe because her bedroom was considered the master bedroom.

Whatever the reason, it made deciding much harder. Well, it wasn’t as she just flicked the menu to the bottom and selected the likely fanciest option. Upon reading the name, she had to agree. If Sereia got a bed designed for her race, then so should she. Maybe it will repel a certain mermaid from stealing bed real estate.

Deluxe Lightning Elemental Charging Bed.

This bed provides a passive trickle charge to any lightning elemental using hydroelectric generators installed on the chosen vessel. The highly conductive gel mattress removes any pressure points and allows for adjustable firmness and temperature control. Warning! The charging function must be disabled or potentially dangerous electric shock may occur to susceptible to electric shock.

When Sereia saw her twin’s selection, she pouted, but then a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes, causing Elysia to worry, but that didn’t stop her from selecting the bed.

She ignored the nodding lead representative, apparently agreeing with her choice as she looked through the options for decorations only to come up empty.

An idea sparked, prompting her to stand up and jog toward the elevator. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to fetch the rest of my crew to help.”

However, before she could even reach the elevator, a squeak and thud sounded behind Elysia. She spun to find a wide-eyed Eva sprawled out on the floor and Joe with in a fighting stance, sword drawn. As soon as they saw Elysia, they relaxed, or at least Joe did. Eva reddened, then shot to her feet, using Joe as a shield to protect her from the embarrassment.

Fortunately, Elysia had the perfect cure. She may struggle with interior design, but she had no doubt if she combined the forces of Sereia and Eva, something interesting would come of it. “We are working on the commission for Umbra, and I’d like your help with designing.”

Eva’s eyes followed Elysia’s pointing finger toward the hologram. As soon as she caught sight of the hologram, any embarrassment vanished as she shot toward it.

Elysia wasn’t sure if the hologram or the idea of designing Umbra excited to grow more. Whatever the source, the result was a super excited almost to the point of vibrating Eva as her finger blurred through the options. Not wanting to the outdone Sereia joined her.

Worry spiked through Elysia as she found the two shopaholics working together seamlessly instead of butting heads.

Even the Guild representatives looked on with worry as the duo flicked through the menus at lightning speed, seemingly reading each other’s minds as their design choices meshed despite not seeing a single word.

While she waited, Elysia crouched down next to Ione and gave the feline some scratches and pets, earning herself a deep purr which sounded extra loud in the near silent room.