Item: Magic Puppet

The three-day break was neither long nor short. In the blink of an eye, it was gone.

Molly spent all three days practicing her swordsmanship and reading around the clock, making Lilith, who was watching in secret, exclaim, "She's practically superhuman."

In the bedroom, shallow footprints marked the floor, and a faint trace of sword wind still lingered in the air.

"Phew..."

The girl lowered her sword and stood still. The silver broken sword rested against the floor, giving off a faint hum.

Sweat slid from her temple down her cheek and dripped onto the floor, spreading into a small, dark patch.

She wiped her brow and looked at the panel that had appeared before her.

[Basic Swordsmanship: Tier 4 3864/10000]

[Alchemy: Tier 1 7605/10000]

[Warrior's Breathing Technique: Tier 3 6390/10000]

[Holy Judgment: Tier 1 3900/10000]

For three days, she had swung, slashed, and thrust...

She had repeated the same set of movements thousands upon thousands of times.

Whenever her arms grew too sore to lift, she recovered with the Warrior's Breathing Technique and kept going. Even then, she had barely managed to raise her Basic Swordsmanship proficiency by a decent amount.

Her alchemy proficiency, on the other hand, had shot past seven thousand through round-the-clock reading and memorizing the properties of herbs.

"Sigh."

Molly sighed again and rubbed her aching shoulder.

Whenever she thought of what Golden Yellow had said about the Demon Realm's invasion—that powerful Demon Gods would eventually cross the barrier between worlds—her heart felt heavy.

With her current strength, forget fighting a Demon God. She probably couldn't even beat a slightly tougher boss!

She had to get stronger, faster!

Knock, knock...

Someone tapped lightly on the bedroom door.

Her younger sister Moyan's voice came from outside:

"Hey, breakfast is ready."

"Got it."

Molly answered and ended her transformation.

In the living room, hot milk and bread sat on the dining table.

The sisters sat together, eating breakfast in silence.

As Molly munched on her bread, she ran through her options.

The break was over, and she had to go to school today.

But she had been so busy practicing her swordsmanship and studying alchemy that she hadn't prepared a note to excuse her absence.

She couldn't keep telling her teacher she felt sick, could she?

After enough times, the teacher would definitely get suspicious!

Just as she was worrying over it, the doorbell rang.

"Ding-dong—"

Molly paused. Who would come to her house at this hour?

She went to the door and peered through the peephole.

A beautiful girl stood outside.

She wore a neat school uniform, and long black hair fell naturally around her pretty face. Who else could it be but Luoxi?

Molly wondered, Why is Luoxi at my house?

She opened the door, but before she could ask, Luoxi winked at her and said brightly:

"Let's talk in your bedroom. I've got something for you."

Molly nodded and stepped aside to let Luoxi in. She also turned back to remind Moyan:

"I need to talk to my classmate. Be good and stay in the living room, okay?"

Moyan nodded.

"Okay."

They entered Molly's bedroom, and Luoxi closed the door behind them.

Without ceremony, she walked straight to the middle of the room and raised one hand, palm up.

A soft golden light flashed, and a girl who looked exactly like Molly appeared out of thin air on the floor.

The girl was the same size as Molly.

It wore a girls' school uniform, and even its expression was identical. Only its eyes were less lively, with a vacant look.

Molly stared in shock.

"Wh-what is that?"

"A Magic Puppet," Luoxi explained.

"It can go to school in your place and deal with your teachers and classmates."

"The puppet needs one unit of soul each day to operate."

"Soul is a milky-white form of energy that can be refined from Monster Demon Shards. I've already stored ten units inside it, enough for ten days."

"After that, you can refine more soul from shards and replenish it yourself."

Molly's eyes grew brighter and brighter. She was delighted.

This was exactly what she needed!

With the Magic Puppet, she wouldn't have to keep figuring out how to get time off!

"Thank you so much!"

Molly meant every word, her voice full of gratitude.

Luoxi smiled and waved it off.

"You're welcome. It was no trouble."

"Oh, right. How are you getting on with that herbal medicine book?"

"Is there anything you don't understand?"

At the mention of the book, a hint of pride appeared on Molly's face.

She went to the desk and pointed at a rice cooker and a pile of washed ingredients sitting on it.

"I finished the book, and I understand most of it."

A note of confidence entered Molly's voice.

"Actually, I think I can try making a Fasting Pill now."

"A Fasting Pill?"

Luoxi looked surprised.

She hurried over to the desk, looked at the ordinary rice cooker, then at the ingredients. Disbelief was written all over her face.

"You're using this... rice cooker to make pills?"

That was ridiculous!

Everyone knew alchemy required a specialized furnace. You had to use magic to stoke its flames, control the heat, and adjust the temperature.

Making pills in a rice cooker?

She had never heard of such a thing!

But Molly nodded with complete seriousness.

"Yeah. I tried making one yesterday."

"I failed, and what came out was as hard as a rock, but I've got a rough feel for the heat now. This time, it'll probably work!"

Luoxi couldn't help laughing at how earnest she was.

She folded her arms and leaned against the wall.

"All right, show me. I want to see how you make a Fasting Pill in a rice cooker."

Molly wasted no time. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

First, she put various grains into the rice cooker one by one. Then she sprinkled in powdered longan, prepared rehmannia, and other medicinal ingredients before adding a little water.

Next, she closed the lid and pressed the cook button.

Once that was done, she picked up the herbal medicine book, turned to the preparation method, and studied it carefully, muttering to herself:

"The heat needs to be gentle, not too strong, or it'll destroy the ingredients' essence..."

"..."

Luoxi watched from the side, utterly speechless.

How was this alchemy?

She was just cooking rice!

The rice cooker hummed. Water gradually boiled inside the pot, sending up a thin wisp of steam.

A fragrance of herbs spread through the air.

Molly kept her eyes on the rice cooker's indicator light, leaning in now and then to check the smell.

A little over ten minutes later, the indicator switched to keep-warm mode.

Molly immediately turned off the power and carefully opened the lid.

A rich aroma rushed out, several times fuller than before.

The ingredients inside had become pale-yellow lumps that looked like rice balls.

Molly scooped one up and offered it to Luoxi, her face full of anticipation.

"It worked! Fasting Pill 1.0!"

"It's a little hot. Try it."

Luoxi took the "rice ball" skeptically. After a moment's hesitation, she put it in her mouth.

The moment it touched her tongue, pure grain essence spread from the "rice ball" and slid down her throat into her stomach.

Her stomach, which had still been a little hungry, instantly felt full.

It was just that the thing looked far too much like a rice ball.

It took Luoxi a while to get a few words out.

"...It's passable."

"Compared to a real Fasting Pill, it still needs a lot of work."

"This can barely fill your stomach."

Molly wasn't discouraged in the slightest. She grinned.

"That's fine. I'm sure I'll make a real Fasting Pill someday!"

Seeing how fired up she was, Luoxi shook her head helplessly, then extended an invitation.

"Besides the Magic Puppet, there's something else I wanted to tell you."

"The miasma has been thick around the backstreets of Prosperity Street lately. I suspect someone's releasing it deliberately."

"I'm going to investigate the source. Want to come with me?"

Prosperous Festival Backstreet?

Molly frowned.

Prosperity Street was one of the busiest streets in A City. Its backstreets weren't as lively as the main street, but they still had plenty of shops and residential areas.

If miasma spread there, a lot of people would suffer. Some might even undergo aberration from breathing in too much of it.

"I'm coming!"

Molly agreed without a second thought.

There was no way she could stand by and do nothing!

Luoxi nodded and set a time.

"Okay. Let's meet on Prosperity Street at nine this morning. We'll call each other then."

"I still need to tell another magical girl, and I have some organization business to handle, so I'll get going."

"Okay!"