“Now it’s my turn.” Ifrit took a step forward, her mouth curved into a satisfied smile as she watched Tarte cradle her new cauldron.
Noticing the Fire Spirit’s gaze, Tarte ran over to her. “Ifrit, you said this was for me... Thank you so much.”
“No need. It is thanks for carrying me. Furthermore, you had to defeat that monster first. You earned that cauldron. Be proud,” Ifrit said.
“I will!”
Even though it was a token of thanks, Tarte had had to defeat the Giant Slava to earn it. Though the task had been a challenging one, her new cauldron would help Tarte improve greatly as an Alchemist.
“Now, just watch.” Ifrit walked up to the lava lake...and kept walking, out onto its surface. Leave it to the Fire Spirit to walk on lava. Her jewelry shook with every step, adding a mystical rhythm to her progress. When Ifrit reached the center of the lava lake, lava rose up with a whoosh to form a circle around her. She gracefully raised her hand, and the metal on her clothes rang with the movement. As she began dancing, the sounds seemed to reverberate within my heart, like a song.
Elegantly she turned and twirled. Soon, her hands came together in a prayer, and she started singing a song to express her love for the volcano and to quell it. Ifrit sang in a high, clear voice that seemed to echo throughout the volcano and into the distance. As her singing and dancing continued, the lava lake stilled. Tranquility filled the volcano, as though it were retreating and hiding itself away. It had obeyed Ifrit’s command. Ifrit raised her hands and leaped into the air, then spun and landed on her knees, where she offered a final prayer to conclude her dance.
“So beautiful...” I breathed. My eyes had been glued to the enchanting performance. It must have been the same for Tarte and Cocoa and Kent—they were also staring at Ifrit, entranced.
Then, I heard clapping. L’lyeh was applauding. Tarte quickly joined in, followed by Cocoa and Kent. Even though it had felt like a sacred ritual, I decided to offer applause for her spectacular dance too.
Hearing our combined applause, Ifrit grinned and turned to us. “Hmm. That is satisfactory.” Apparently, she was pleased with our applause.
Our peaceful mood didn’t last long, though. When Ifrit stepped off the lava lake and onto solid ground, she fell to her knees.
“Ifrit?! What’s wrong?!” Tarte rushed over and supported the spirit, whose face was twisted as though in pain.
The rest of us quickly ran over too, and I began casting every spell that came to mind, starting with Heal Absolutely...even though part of me suspected they were of no use.
“Meowster, Ifrit is shrinking...!” Tarte tried to hold on to Ifrit, but the Fire Spirit shrank until she could fit in Tarte’s palm.
“What’s going on...? My healing magic isn’t helping at all...” If my Holy Maiden Skills were powerless to help her, perhaps Ifrit could only be helped by some kind of special item. Otherwise, something entirely unexpected was happening here. Either way, I was useless. As that realization hit me, I gritted my teeth until they hurt.
“I’m...fine,” Ifrit told us, although her voice was feeble and her expression sickly.
“Meowster...” Tarte turned to me with tears in her eyes.
“If Ifrit says she’s okay, we can only trust that— Oh.” I watched as Ifrit created a reddish, translucent barrier around herself that looked like blown glass. Then, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Tarte looked surprised but also relieved that Ifrit wasn’t going to die, at least.
This was a curious turn of events, though. “This is just my guess, but she could be sleeping to recover the strength she spent on the dance,” I ventured, especially because she’d set up the barrier herself. But this never happened in the game. There was a chance that this was also an event or update released on the day I’d died. However, there was no way to verify that yet. We put a pin in our questions and decided that Tarte should hold on to the sleeping Ifrit.
“We should go back to the Guild as quickly as we ca—”
“Let’s keep going and take down the boss—Scorching Salamander,” I declared with gusto, cutting Kent off.
It’d be our third big battle in a row after Slava and Giant Slava, but I took Ifrit’s thanks—or dropped item—as a sign of good luck. We could also get our hands on the dungeon boss’s drop item!
“Sharon, are you serious?! Shouldn’t we report to the Guild first...?” Kent protested.
“Sure, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to come back here right after we visit the Guild. And we’d have to cross the first and second levels again to get to the boss. If we go now, we can go straight from the second level. We might as well take it out now, especially because it takes a day to respawn. We should take every chance we have to fight this boss!” I insisted.
“I guess you have a point...” Kent said, still sounding conflicted. “And we don’t have to worry about an eruption anymore.”
I knew Kent’s longing for adventure—it didn’t take much to convince him to go on one. He turned to the rest of the party and made sure they were good to go. Look at our chivalrous fighter.
“I’m all right. Let’s go!” Tarte said, excited for a chance to get her new equipment.
Cocoa and L’lyeh wholeheartedly agreed, both eager to help Tarte. It was truly the mark of a great party when everyone was willing to help one member improve their gear.
Still, Tarte had to rest after all of those Potion Throws. Her arm had to be sore too. “Let’s take a quick break before we go,” I said.
“Good idea.” Kent plopped down on a chair-sized rock and quickly drank from his waterskin. “And we can’t forget to eat,” he said, beginning to do just that.
“We should make sure we take extra sodium too.” I produced spiced meat from my Bag and shared it with the party. These hunks of meat were cartoonishly large and wonderfully filling.
“I didn’t see those at any of the shops...!” L’lyeh, of course, exclaimed.
“I had the chef at our inn grill these for us,” I explained.
“An unexpected strategy...!” L’lyeh breathed in admiration.
“They won’t do this at every inn, and you do have to pay them for it,” I warned, concerned that L’lyeh was going to demand all sorts of food from every inn we stayed at from now on. I was still worried, so I made sure to ask L’lyeh to take someone with her when—inevitably—she went to an inn’s kitchen asking for dishes. It’s great that Lulu’s gaining more independence. After she’d spent who knew how long as the boss of Underworld Abbey, I wanted her to make as many happy memories as she could. “Maybe we should get a set of cookware for camping out in dungeons.”
“You mean...we’re going to hunt for game and cook it?” Cocoa asked.
“Depends on the game, but I think that could work,” I said. Unlike monsters, animals left behind a carcass if you hunted them in this world. There were also some monsters that dropped edible ingredients, which we could totally cook.
The question is...how much culinary prowess does our party have? Well, Cocoa seemed like the type to have helped out in her parents’ kitchen. I’d seen Tarte bake some treats, and I’d cooked for myself sometimes in Japan. Maybe we could pull this off.
“Then I’ll make sure the cookware is ready,” L’lyeh promised with delight.
We all chimed in excitedly, looking forward to our new culinary adventure.