We made it through the second level of the dungeon and into the third. Down here, we would encounter Lava Rock Golems, Unicorned Fire Rats, Salamanders, and the boss—Scorching Salamander, which appeared with an entourage of vanilla Salamanders.
“So, Sharon. Where’s the Scorching Salamander?” Kent asked.
“I’m not sure, actually. It’s not a fixed spawn. It should be wandering around this level,” I explained.
“Got it,” said Kent.
We had to search the level for the boss. That wasn’t a big deal now, when our party was the only one in the dungeon. Back in the game, though, when the dungeon had been flooded with people, finding a nonstatic boss had been a race against your fellow players.
“Then let’s hunt while we search,” Tarte suggested.
“Perfect,” L’lyeh agreed. The rest of us were in agreement too.
Like always, Kent led our formation as we progressed through the level, taking out any enemies in our path. Even though these were our first encounters with these particular monsters, our experience and ability carried us through easily. It also helped a lot that Cocoa was using Water magic against the exclusively Fire encounters.
“Dark Arrow!” L’lyeh’s attack turned a Salamander into a burst of light. Then, Tarte ran over and stowed the dropped item in her Bag.
After several encounters that ended in a similar way—and a few short breaks here and there—we finally had the Scorching Salamander’s tail in our sights.
Kent gulped. “Whoa. It’s huge.”
The Scorching Salamander was about three meters long—triple the size of an ordinary Salamander.
“Scorching Salamander is basically a fire-breathing lizard,” I reassured the party. “It’ll be a much easier fight than the one against Ifrit.”
“Got it! Okay!” Kent shouted as if to spur himself into action. “Taunt!” The boss noticed him right away, so Kent sprinted toward our target. Before he reached the boss, Cocoa and L’lyeh each landed an attack, followed by Tarte’s Potion Throw. I reapplied Smiting Light to all of them and set up Kent’s barrier again in hopes of preventing a big chunk of the damage that would be coming his way.
Annoyingly, the five normal Salamanders surrounding the boss weren’t easy to deal with. It was tempting to take care of them first, but defeating all five would just trigger a respawn of the whole entourage. Our party had enough fights under our belt to know that the solution was to take out exactly four of them to prevent the respawn. After confirming that Kent was drawing all hate to himself, Cocoa attacked the whole entourage of Salamanders, and L’lyeh finished them off with single-target spells until only one Salamander remained.
So far, so good!
Kent was holding the attention of the boss while chipping in with his sword—one, two, three times in a row—and even dealt a big blow with his Skill.
Tarte was itching to join the fray, but her Potion Throw would incinerate the final Salamander. Stay, Tarte. Stay.
“It’s frustrating that I can’t attack...” Tarte yowled pathetically.
“I still have a job for you!” I quickly said. “Other monsters might come our way. I need you to take them out before they reach us.”
“Yes, Meowster!” With her sense of purpose reignited, Tarte began monitoring our surroundings, Molotov in hand. Sure enough, monsters of a variety of types began approaching. Each of them took several Molotovs to defeat, but Tarte kept up her watch and took care of them—that alone made this fight a lot easier.
Once we’d dealt it some damage, the Scorching Salamander blew a plume of flames into the air—its HP was getting low. Still breathing fire, the boss rotated its head to try to torch us. There was no pattern to its movements, but it was slow enough that we could dodge the flames as long as we were careful. If other monsters had been in the area, it would have been much more difficult to focus on dodging these flames. Tarte’s assignment was a significant one in this fight.
“We’re almost there! Smiting Light!” Predicting that this next series of attacks would be the final blow, I applied Attack buffs to Kent, Cocoa, and L’lyeh.
Kent was on the same page, shouting over the roaring of the Scorching Salamander. “Let’s do this!” Then, he unleashed a powerful attack. “Dragon Lance!”
Cocoa and L’lyeh followed up with their magic, but the boss still didn’t go down. I cast Smiting Light on Tarte for one last attack. She was surprised but quickly jumped into action, putting all her strength behind a Potion Throw. And Tarte’s attack sealed the Scorching Salamander’s fate—it burst into light, leaving behind only a crimson cape that fluttered in the air.
“We really got it!” I exclaimed in near disbelief.
“It’s some kind of equipment!” Tarte shouted.
“Wow! Today really is your lucky day, Tarte. The drop rate isn’t high...but here it is—an Infernal Cape!”
Tarte picked up her new equipment—a cape that gave her fifty percent resistance to Fire. The stylish one-shoulder cape featured a Salamander pin and shimmering chains that held it in place. Tarte purred as she held it in her hands. “Wow... Are you sure I can use it, Meowster?”
“Of course.” I gave her an encouraging nod, and the rest of the party did the same.
Tarte equipped the cape, and it shrank to match her height. It glimmered faintly, as if to indicate its power.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You look great in it,” I said, earning a shy smile in return. “But there is one problem.”
Tarte trilled curiously at that.
I felt bad having to break this to her after getting her hyped about her new equipment, but Infernal Cape had to be equipped as an accessory, taking up one of the two slots available to each of us. Right now, Tarte’s accessory slots were filled up with Adventure Bracelet and Father’s Locket. “Your Father’s Locket is a part of the set you’re wearing, along with Mademoiselle Dress and Mademoiselle Socks. Now that you have the cape on, you don’t have the bonus effect anymore—the fifteen percent buff to your HP and five percent buff to your healing.” Still, I was confident the Infernal Cape was an upgrade. If I remembered correctly, Frey had gifted Tarte her current equipment, so it might have sentimental value to Tarte. Of course, I was sure Frey herself wouldn’t stand for Tarte passing up an upgrade like this.
“Equipment is really important for adventurers like us,” Kent said before Tarte could answer. “If we compromise on that and end up dead, it’s all over... But that locket is your dad’s keepsake, right? You probably want to keep that on you forever.”
Tarte looked at Kent blankly, not registering his words. Then, she trilled and snapped to it. “No, it’s not! My dad is alive and well.”
“Wait, really?!” Kent blurted.
I couldn’t hold back a chuckle at Kent’s reaction. “‘Father’s Locket’ is just the name of the equipment. It has nothing to do with Tarte’s dad.”
“Oh. Glad to hear your dad is doing well!” Kent laughed, scratching his head. “Then it might be best to change up your equipment depending on where we are.”
“I agree. Infernal Cape is by far the best choice when we’re hunting in a place like this. What do you think, Tarte?” I asked.
“That’s what I’ll do, fur sure. Frey will be mad at me if I pass on using better equipment,” Tarte said. Mm-hmm. We’re on the exact same page.
“If we get you equipment to buff your overall Defense, you can fight on the front lines too,” I told Tarte. “Since your left hand is open, you could start carrying a shield.”
“I see,” my apprentice said, starting to adorably mime the movement of blocking attacks with an imaginary shield.
Except, good equipment wasn’t that easy to come by, and carrying a weapon and a shield would make it harder for her to use Molotovs when she needed to. She’ll just have to be flexible with her gear.
“We can go back to Ifrit’s Oasis for our next adventure and get you a new weapon,” I suggested.
“I’ll do whatever it takes!” Tarte purred.
Discussing our next few moves along the way, we left Underground Volcano.
By the time we returned aboveground, it was the middle of the night. The Adventurer’s Guild was open twenty-four hours a day, but they would be running on a skeleton crew at this hour, with only one or two receptionists at their counters. We could still buy and sell common items, but the Guild would ask us to return during the day if we wanted to trade in high-volume or rare items.
“We can make our report to the Guild tomorrow. Let’s get some rest,” I said. Neither Tolley nor the receptionist who had first seen us was working right now, and I wasn’t going to rush and report our success to someone else. With how closely guarded this quest had been, even some of the Guild workers might be in the dark about it.
“Good idea,” Kent said.
“I agree,” said Tarte.
“The city isn’t in danger anymore, now that we finished the quest,” Cocoa added.
We decided to get a good rest that night and come back to the Guild late tomorrow morning.
“The heat has taken a toll on us. Make sure to hydrate and eat something salty.”
“Yes, Meowster!”
On that note, we left the Guild. I felt a wave of drowsiness come over me. Swallowing a yawn, I promised myself I was going to sleep in tomorrow.