“Purrtion Throw!” I shouted and threw a Meowlotov at Ifrit. With a loud kaboom, dust rose everywhere. I watched Ifrit burst into light through the cloud of dust—we’d defeated her.
I saw the items Ifrit dropped and felt my tail droop and swish.
“Today isn’t our lucky day either,” Meowster said with a sigh.
“It’s disappointing, but the equipment we’re after is a rare drop, isn’t it? That’s why it’s taking so long?” I asked.
“Yep. It might take a lot more Ifrits until it drops,” Meowster said.
Today’s marked the thirteenth Ifrit we’d defeated so far. It was a lot of work to fight Ifrit day after day, but Meowster smiled like it was no work at all. She’s so ameowzing! “I’m going to give it my all!” I promised, holding on tight to the Meowlotov in my hand. Sooner or later, we were going to see Ifrit’s Mace drop!
Kent went over to where Ifrit had been standing and picked up our loot. Even though it wasn’t the mace, Ifrit had dropped something. “A Firestone and Dancer’s Clothes. That’s our eighth set of clothes already. They’re pretty common,” Kent said.
Cocoa chuckled. “It may be common, but it’s a good item! Don’t underestimate it.”
“We’ll have to wait another day to fight Ifrit again. Why don’t we go back to town?” Meowster suggested.
We all agreed. This was the tail end of what had become our morning routine over the past few days. We each had the afternoon to ourselves.
Kent activated Wanderlust, and we flew back to the city of Fule.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Here are the Orc Rags, per your purchase order.” The receptionist at the Snowdia Adventurer’s Guild handed me fifty Orc Rags—one of the ingredients I needed to make Meowlotovs.
I wasn’t going to turn all of them into Meowlotovs, though. My new cauldron had increased the Attack of my items. That meant that, if I got my paws on better Furmulation equipment in the future, I could craft even stronger Meowlotovs. Making more of them than we needed now would be a terrible waste of these Orc Rags when I could save them for later when my Furmulation was more efficient.
After buying up more items in other branches of the Adventurer’s Guild, I went back to our inn in Fule to craft enough Meowlotovs for tomorrow—which I did with expertise, if I did say so myself. Tomorrow is another day of fighting Ifrit and hoping for her mace to drop!
After that, I went to practice my swing with an Iron Mace in the backyard of the inn.
“There you are! Hard at work, I see!” Kent called as he rounded the corner. Cocoa was with him too, so they must have been out together. They never admitted to it, but they were a purrfect couple. “Way to go, Tarte! You’re swinging that mace much faster,” Kent said.
“Do you really think so? Purray!” After swinging this mace day after day with every bit of strength I had, it was finally becoming a little easier. I’m the weakest one in our party right now. That meant I had to work harder and longer so I could become an Alchemist who fought alongside Meowster and our friends instead of just being protected by them.
Kent picked up a stick and raised it. “Let’s see what you can do!”
A bout! I huffed out a breath and stepped up to Kent, swinging my Iron Mace toward him. He easily parried my strike, leaving my arms shaking. “You’re too strong, Kent...”
“You should keep your elbows down when you swing,” Kent advised. “The Iron Mace is top-heavy. When you swing it too wide, it’s easy to lose your balance.”
“You’re right!” I said. Whenever I swung wide, the Iron Mace took my balance with it. I’d always thought it was because I was too small—maybe I needed to train my core. Tucking my arms closer to my body, I adjusted my grip a little toward the center and tried swinging at Kent again.
“Much better!” Kent said.
Encouraged by Kent’s purraise, I swung my mace a few more times, even though Kent blocked and parried me easily with his stick. My bout with our Dragonrider ended quickly, with me knocked back on my tail and sweating a lot.
“That was great, Tarte. You were so much faster.” Cocoa held out a handkerchief for me.
“Thank you.” I laughed, trying to hide how disappointed I felt that I wasn’t even close to Kent’s level.
Cocoa picked up the Iron Mace and cracked a smile. “It’s much heavier than a staff.” Cocoa fought with a staff in one hand and a Tome in the other, destroying enemies with powerful magic—and she looked so cool doing it. “Swinging this mace must work out your arms. And when you have stronger arms, you can throw your Molotovs farther and more precisely.”
My tail went straight up—I’d never thought of that! If I could get better at throwing Meowlotovs, I could become so much stronger! On top of practicing using the mace, simply working out my arms might be just as important! There were new possibilities for powering myself up—the thought made me want to work on everything right this second. “Thank you, Cocoa! I’m going to work harder and harder!” I promised.
“I’d better do the same if I don’t want to be left behind!” Cocoa replied with a smile.
The three of us trained together to wrap up our day.