Set on making potions before our next big adventure, we agreed to split up. Cannoli volunteered to sing the palm civet siren’s song until her throat went hoarse to collect as many cat’s paws as she could. Leaving Keke and me to find more silver whiskers.

We returned to the clearing near the stream from the night before. It looked peaceful enough, but my fingers twitched as I remembered the unnerving appearance, sound, and smell of the catfish. Like it had crawled straight from Satan’s personal fishing pond.

However, the fifty Bells jingling in my pack from the golden nugget Keke had plucked from the cursed beast did feel great. Without Cannoli and her blind and limited healing, though, taking one down could pose a problem.

“You’ve been really quiet. What are you thinking about?” Keke turned to look at me, her tail slowly ticking back and forth behind her.

I wanted to touch the fluffy tail so bad. “Are we going after more catfish?” I asked, pushing the thought from my mind.

“No. That was a rare mob.” Keke picked through her [Cat Pack] before withdrawing a sheathed dagger. “There’s a much easier way to get silver whiskers.”

“Ah. What’s that?”

“Cutting them off squirrels.” She shrugged.

“We’re going to commit mass genocide on squirrels?” After all of the menacing roaches we’d fought, it seemed cruel to cull Nyarlea’s limited bastion of the cute and fluffy.

Keke smirked. “I didn’t say that. I said we’re cutting off their whiskers.”

“Okay, but how—”

Before I could finish my question, Keke knelt and swiped at the ground in a blur of impressive agility. She stood and held her fist toward me. Dangling from a thick tail of blue-violet fur was an angry, colorful rodent swinging and chittering its displeasure with the situation. I remembered seeing a squirrel with similar colors online at some point, but I’d always assumed it was Photoshopped. Well, I’ll be damned.

“Hold it,” Keke said.

“Uh. Alright.” I clasped its tiny, strikingly colored body and it writhed in my grip, scratching and clawing my palm with its arms and legs.

Keke ran her forefinger and thumb from the squirrel’s nose to the edge of its whiskers, then swung her dagger downward. The whiskers fell free in her palm, and she repeated the guillotine on the opposite side.

The squirrel squeaked and squawked in a fit of rage before sinking its teeth into the side of my hand.

“Ow! Dammit!” I dropped it on instinct, and the squirrel darted back under the brush with an angry flick of its tail. I checked my hand. Droplets of blood trickled from the two perfect incisions at the base of my forefinger. A terrifying thought struck me. “Am I going to get rabies?”

Keke raised an eyebrow. “What are rabies? Here, put these in your [Cat Pack].”

Matt has gained: Silver Whisker x2!

“Maybe hold it by the tail on the next one,” she giggled and pulled a bandage from her pack. “Give me your hand.”

Her fingers were so gentle and sure as she wrapped the bandage around my palm. It was an entirely different approach from the girl that had panicked at a touch when I first arrived. I chewed my cheek as I watched her, and my heart raced. Could she hear it? C’mon, Matt, man up.

I cleared my throat. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Here, I think I have an extra pair of gloves.” She checked her pack and extracted a pair of leather gloves before passing them to me. “They may be a little small on you, but squirrel bites won’t penetrate them.”

I slipped them on. The fingers squeezed mine uncomfortably, but they fit well enough. Better than going home covered in squirrel bites. “How do you have room for all of this stuff in your pack?”

“Cannoli and I both have [Cat Packs] with thirty slots. We upgraded them a while ago.” She gestured to mine. “We can do the same with yours when you have enough Bells.”

Well, that was good news. Twenty inventory slots without an option to stack was a damn nightmare. But, with the way things were going… “How much is it to upgrade?”

Keke chewed her lower lip. “Five hundred Bells.”

I swallowed hard. Jesus Christ. “I see.”

She nodded. Her right ear suddenly flicked to the side, and she tilted her head, mouth pulling into a thin line of concentration. Once more, without warning, she sidestepped me and purloined another squirrel from its bushy hide.

“Are they all colored like this?” I wondered aloud as I gingerly accepted the ravenous rodent by the tail.

“There are different colors?” she asked.

Not here, it seems. “Guess that answers my question, then.”

Keke cut the squirrel’s whiskers free, and I tossed it aside. It screeched as it fell into a pile of leaves, then skittered back into the trees.

“There should be more up by the stream. They forage for food and water during the day, so there will be more on the ground,” she explained and changed course to the stream.

“Alright.” I followed her closely. It felt so weird being alone with her. Not bad, by any means, but my face felt flush, and my heart would not calm down. What the hell was wrong with me? I searched for a change of subject. “I meant to ask you something last night.”

“Hmm?” Keke paused next to the bubbling creek, and the clear water glittered in her golden eyes.

“Y-you used poison on the catfish. You didn’t use that on the minotaurs?” Quit stammering like a high school girl, jackass.

She knelt, letting her fingers drift through the water. “When we went to Granny Nauka’s for your Alchemy test, I saw someone tipping arrows with it. I hadn’t really thought of it before.”

I sat down next to her and enjoyed the scene before me. The sounds of the water and birds chirping in the trees were peaceful, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I forgot the threats Nyarlea posed for a moment. Instead, I memorized Keke’s perfect outline against the lovely backdrop.

“That surprises me. You’re really good with a bow, so I figured you’d had lots of practice.” I copied her, dipping my fingers beneath the stream’s surface.

“Thanks. But I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m only level 3. That should tell you how much practice I’ve had, really.”

She had a point. I was level 2 already after a handful of battles. “Yeah, sorry.”

Keke laughed. “Why sorry? Honestly, Matt, I’ve had more fun since you arrived than I’ve ever had before.”

I don’t know what made me do it. Maybe it was her confession, or the warm afternoon sun, or the excitement of being alone with her. I leaned forward, brushing her cheek with my thumb, and kissed her.

Keke’s shoulders and mouth tensed beneath my touch, and she hummed her surprise. Her lips were just as soft and supple as they looked. For a split second, she relaxed, leaning into me with warm acceptance. But something changed, and she jolted back, covering her mouth with one hand as her face turned a dozen shades of red.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—” I began.

“No. I just, um. I’m going to go find more squirrels,” she squeaked and vanished between the trees.

Great job, Matt. Real great job. But the sensation of her lips against mine echoed against my mouth, and blood pounded in my ears. Had I imagined that she’d given in? Was it just because I’d wanted it so badly?

I took the iPaw from my pocket and turned it on. Clearly, it was the only damn thing I’d be turning on for a while. But I remembered a menu I hadn’t explored yet.

Affinity

At first, I’d thought perhaps it meant weapon affinity or class affinity. But the way the girls had gradually warmed up to me made me wonder if it was more along the lines of my affinity with them.

Keke: 15%

Cannoli: 8%

If I pressed on their names, it offered me another window with limited information.

Keke’s Favored Item: ???

Team Attack: ???

Shared Skill: ???

Cannoli’s Favored Item: ???

Team Attack: ???

Shared Skill: ???

Well, that certainly made spending more time with them interesting. Not that I didn’t have enough motivation to do so in the first place, I’d promised to stay by their sides. But [Team Attacks] and [Shared Skills] certainly sounded promising.

“Matt! I’ve got one!” Keke called.

“Be right there!” I pocketed the iPaw and rose to my feet.

When I found her, Keke’s cheeks were still pink, but a permanent smile had affixed itself to her mouth. Neither of us mentioned the kiss for the remaining duration of our hunt.

“Okay. I brought forty cat’s paws,” Cannoli wheezed, poking the marbles on the Alchemy table. “That’s enough for twenty potions, right?”

Cannoli wasn’t joking. She’d sung herself hoarse. “How did you carry them all? Your pack can only hold 30 items, right?”

“I made two trips!” She smiled, then coughed. I passed her a canteen of water I’d procured from Nauka, and she took a sip. “Thanks.”

Keke stood watch just outside the shop. There’d been no convincing her to join me on my first venture into Alchemy and still no explanation of her relationship with Nauka. Ah, well. Maybe she’d tell me once her Affinity was higher.

Cannoli had helped me collect and set up the basic tools for creating the Minor Healing Potion—a beaker set over a burner, a pair of tongs, a thermometer, a glass stirring stick, and the water. They were positioned beside our silver whiskers, cat’s paws, and twenty glass bottles that Cannoli had insisted on purchasing.

“Now,” Cannoli rasped, “Water is your base—”

“I can have Granny explain this to me if you want to rest your vocal cords,” I suggested.

Cannoli quickly shook her head. “N-No! I want to help.” She blushed before continuing. “You’ll add three fingers of water like this.” She held her hand horizontally from the beaker, placing three fingers from the bottom and pouring the water in until it reached the tip of her forefinger. “Then you’ll add your cat’s paws and increase the heat. They have to melt before we can add the whiskers.”

“Okay.” For probably the first time since I’d arrived, I watched with rapt attention. Kissing Keke poked and prodded at the back of my mind, but these potions could mean life or death for all of us. I couldn’t mess this up.

Cannoli dropped two cat’s paws in with the tongs, then carefully stirred it as she increased the heat. She placed the thermometer into the mixture, and the red liquid rose inside the thin tube. “You want it to reach seventy. If it goes over by too much, you can burn your potion. If it’s under, your cat’s paws won’t melt properly.”

“Seventy what? Fahrenheit? Celsius?” I watched the thermometer as it passed each number. Thirty, thirty-five, forty…

“What? Just seventy,” Cannoli replied.

I coughed. “Alright. Just seventy.”

“Now, once it reaches seventy, your cat’s paws will melt.”

Just as she said, the marbles in the water liquified into a green-gold elixir that danced through the water as she stirred.

“You want to let this simmer for three minutes, stirring it occasionally. You will know it’s done because it turns completely gold.” Cannoli tapped the stir stick against the side of the glass, eyes never leaving the concoction. “And make sure it stays at seventy. No higher, no lower.”

I wondered if there was a timer on the iPaw. Probably not. That’d be far too convenient. “Got it.”

We both watched the beaker with interest. Cannoli took another swig of water and whisked the cat’s paws every thirty seconds or so. She made minor adjustments to the burner depending on what the thermometer showed. Thankfully, it was very obvious when it was ready for the next step—it looked like we’d melted a bar of gold instead of a couple marbles. I had to admit it was pretty to look at.

“Next, we add our whiskers!” Cannoli grabbed two whiskers and held them over the beaker. “You have to add them little by little and keep stirring. Too much at once will overwhelm your base.”

“Okay.”

“And still at seventy!”

“Seventy. Right.”

The whiskers slowly melted like pasta in hot water, adding silver streaks to our golden elixir. What surprised me was how good it smelled. Like fresh green grass or the trees that bloomed in springtime. I don’t know what I’d been expecting from a health potion—cough syrup, maybe?

“When they’re all added, keep it stirring for one more minute until all of the silver color is gone. Then turn off the heat and let it cool.” As Cannoli continued to work the stick through the potion, the silver streaks dissolved into the burnished gold. When she was satisfied that they were gone, she extracted the stir stick and cut the beaker. “And that’s it!”

I suppressed the urge to say something about craft systems with instant results and nodded. Twenty potions times five minutes each… Almost two hours to make twenty potions. Cannoli and I can knock these out in an hour. But if Keke helped, that would cut our time in third. I looked at the doorway. Keke was watching me curiously but averted her eyes as soon as she noticed I was staring. Guess we’ll talk about it later.

“You’re good at this, Cannoli,” I said.

Her face glowed in appreciation, and her gaze dropped to the floor. “T-thank you.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. “Why don’t we work side by side on the rest?”

Reading my mind. “Sounds great.”

It took me a couple of tries to get the feel for it. My first potion looked like a bottle of oil, and the second one I didn’t let the whiskers melt enough. But by the third, I finally had the hang of it, giving us eighteen in total, or 6 potions each.

By the time we finished, the sun had set, and my stomach grumbled. I was starving. Cannoli’s voice was coming back, and a thin sheen of sweat had built on her forehead. But she was still all smiles and positivity.

“Let’s get some dinner,” I suggested.

We passed six of the potions to Keke, pocketed them in our packs, and made plans for food. I couldn’t stop my eyes from lingering on Keke’s lips each time she talked.

Guess we’ll talk about that later, too.

New Notifications!

[ Novice Potions ] Updated! 8/10 Potions Complete!

Matt has gained: Minor Healing Potion x6!

Matt has gained: 1 Point of Knowledge [Alchemy]!

Matt has gained: 1 Point of Charisma!