With a click, the leather box quietly opened to reveal a gleaming metallic object nestled within.

“Marvelous, ain’t it?” Neko purred in self-satisfaction as he jumped onto the pedestal. “Sometimes my genius, it’s, it’s almost frightening. Allow me to explain the absolutely fantastic—” 

“Wait a second.” Shun sighed, thinking about what he should start off with first. “There’s…something wrong about this.”

“Huh?” 

He picked up the bazooka and cleared his throat. “This, um, this is a completely different weapon.” 

“Well, of course it is. You requested for your rifle to be modified to a different weapon, didn’t you?” The cat stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. “And frankly, it is easier to melt it into its raw materials and start from scratch than to work around its original design.” 

Shun hesitated. “But…”

“Hmph, I’ll show you the capability of this baby right this moment.” Neko snatched the bazooka from his hands and held it over his body. Honestly, it was pretty impressive to see a cat carry something twice its size with ease. “My apologies, milady, but can you move aside?” 

“Oh, sure.” Rya hurriedly joined Shun’s side, staring at the bazooka in a mixture of awe and curiosity. 

“So, you just load a firework pellet into the cylinder through the hole—” He showed them a pea-sized black ball and shoved it into the tube on the top. “—give it a nice, soft blow to make sure it’s all the way inside.”

“U-uh-huh…” 

“Next, aim and squeeze the trigger.” Just as he did so, the bazooka emitted a whistle-like screech and sent three streaks of light flying out of the front of the tube. 

“And it goes PEW-PEW-PEW-BANG—” Neko’s words were lost to the deafening explosion of fireworks. The shockwave from the blast shook the walls and nearly knocked the air out of Shun.

“—exaaplosion,” the cat said with a smug smile. “Bear witness to my ingenuity, hoomans.” 

All Shun could manage in his shock was a wry chuckle. 

“T…that’s insane,” Rya breathed as she gazed at the carnage left behind by the fireworks. 

“Not only does this baby do explosive damage, it can magically reload itself so that it doesn’t run out of pellets indefinitely,” Neko continued. “So long as you have the Collier en Argent, that is.” 

“What?” they asked simultaneously. 

“Did I stutter?” The cat pointed his paw at Rya’s necklace. “That can function as a crafting device that can make infinite copies of an existing substance.” 

“It can?” 

“My necklace…?” 

Neko shrugged. “I don’t exactly know how that thing works myself, but according to a divine manuscript I recently got hold of, the necklace is theoretically capable of doing such.” 

“A divine manuscript you recently got hold of?” Shun suddenly had a bad feeling about what Neko just said. “Um, any chance it was in the possession of a fisherman living in the North District before you came across it…?”

“Why, yes,” he remarked with unconcealed surprise. “How do you know?”

Rya turned to Shun with an amused smile. “Wait, wouldn’t that be the divine manuscript that you gave away?” 

“I-I think so.” 

“You had a divine manuscript?!” Neko almost yelled while gesturing wildly at him. “And you gave it AWAY??” 

“Calm down, it was a necessary trade for our survival,” Shun said, briefly explaining how they met Li Ya after traversing the Great Plains. 

“...okay, but you must be a madman for giving up such a precious item so easily,” Neko rejoined, shaking his head. “Since it’s originally yours, do you want it back?” 

“No.” 

“Huh? You sure?” 

“Shun has a love-hate relationship with his divine manuscript, don’t worry about it,” Rya said. 

“I wasn’t aware that there was a love aspect in our ‘relationship’,” he muttered. 

“Oh? But it seems like your divine manuscript has a different idea.” Neko pointed at the space above his head. 

“!?” Before Shun was able to even look up, the floating tome smacked him right on the top of his head with a heavy thud. “O-ouch!”

“It’s angry that you abandoned it,” Neko continued with a wry smile. 

“That d*mn Goddess…” he muttered under his breath such that no one could hear him.

***

“Magic in this world is broadly defined into three types: elemental, offensive, and support. Elemental magic is considered the most basic magic, as it only involves manipulating existing substances like fire, water, earth, et cetera et cetera. Their respective magic circles are not as complicated as the latter two as well, as you can see here…” 

While Neko was busy teaching Rya how to draw elemental magic circles on the floor of the verandah, Shun was out in the compound busy testing out his new weapon. 

So, according to Neko, a firework pellet can shoot up to three fireworks simultaneously. And this switch by the side is used to adjust the number of fireworks being shot out. Then, this must be the switch that activates Rya’s necklace and does the ‘infinite reloading’ thing…why are there so many switches in the first place?

“Well then, try making a golem for the boy to shoot at.” Neko’s impish voice attracted his attention. “Make it as big as you can possibly imagine it to be.” 

“O-okay…”

He hastily turned to face them. “E-eh, wait, I’m not yet—” 

A violent tremor suddenly shook the ground on which they stood on. 

“R-ready…”