Alex ignored Fufi’s somewhat suspicious answer about the magical girl princess question. Prying was rude, good Canadians are not the controversial sort.

  Scrolling down on the cutely-decorated phone, some offending text presented itself:

  [Requirements for level 6: Defeat 200 monsters, one of which needs to be tier 2]

  [Progress 0/200 monsters, 0/1 tier 2 monsters]

  Alex grumbled. “It says I need to defeat a tier two monster and an army of monsters.”

  Fufi snaked her beaked-head around to get a view of the smartphone. “That shouldn’t be too bad. You were able to do that in a single battle.”

  Alex objected. “More like a demon pulled the doll’s string by accident and it just went nuts. All I did was freak out.”

  “We knew the doll was cursed. Though it looks like now the system considers it the same as the other dolls you’ve made.” Fufi stated.

  “I know, at this point I just have to take responsibility. Also, what is up with defeating more tier 2 monsters. Didn’t the hero doll already defeat two of them? I feel cheated.” Alex gred at the text.

  “Magical girl is a harder css to level than others. I think now that some of the greatest heroines of Terre have been magical girls, the system has upped the bar a little bit. Usually it would take a level 10 combat csser to win a fair fight against something of that power. I’m not sure but you could ask the adventurer's guild leader for confirmation.” Fufi said.

  Alex shook her head. “I doubt anyone from Yvne’s barony has ever killed a demon. I’ll have to take your word for it because I bet I’d just make people awkward trying to answer something like that.”

  “I suppose that getting greedy with trying for that next level after getting so many at once would be a bad idea. Prudency is a wise pn.” Fufi nodded sagely.

  “Anyway, I got these new skills to test out. The enchantment one looks like it could be incredibly useful. With enough materials and some help, I bet I could recreate the carriage that has been so useful this whole time.” Alex scrolled back up and pointed at the crafting feat. “Let's head back into town and see if there is some stuff we could scrounge together to test out a proof of concept.”

  Fufi nodded and the pair picked up their things, pcing them in the broken carriage and returned the no-longer-bckened-but-missing-wooden-pnks vehicle to card form. As they walked the streets, they encountered a peculiar sight. One of the tribesmen who came up by boat had a small pouch out and spread what looked to be seeds along the poor quality soil.

  “What is that for?” Alex asked, giving the pink-cloaked man a side look.

  “Ah, do you know anything about this?” The man returned the question. “Lady Ki said that we should spread these seeds all around wherever we could find a pce.” He handed the bag to her. “She said it was important they could get lots of sun.”

  Accepting the bag, the bck-haired girl in the frilly outfit poured a few seeds into her hand. “I’m not sure, but there are different kinds here.” She handed the bag back to the man.

  “You know, there is a skill you’ve had for a while now that I’ve never seen you use.” Fufi not-so-subtly hinted.

  “Fine, let's give this a shot.” Alex rolled up her sleeves and gesticuted awkwardly at the seeds on the ground of an empty lot. “Lesser grow pnts!”

  Fufi facepalmed with her wing. “We will have to work on your presentation of that skill a bit more. Remember, cuteness is most important!”

  The man watched dumbly, waiting for something to happen.

  A few seconds passed. Alex felt a nervous bead of sweat forming on her forehead. But then the sandy soil stirred and a little green sprout popped up about an inch. This happened in a couple other spots but wasn’t very impressive. She couldn’t mimic the massive feats of fast growing pnt magic that the nymphs managed.

  “Oh well, I guess that pnts don’t grow in a minute.” Alex awkwardly pced her hand on the back of her head and chuckled nervously.

  “No matter, I suppose that I wasn’t expecting to see anything. The ground here has been ruined by demonic cultivators. I was thinking when spring came back around after winter is when these seeds will take off.” The man shrugged and continued with his sowing in bare spots around the area.

  They continued away from the river and back towards the manor. The town felt tense. People were piling up things in front of their homes. Everyone rushed about like they were preparing for something terrible to happen. The townspeople were probably right to be anxious.

  Upon arriving at the manor, Alex knocked on the door. “Hello, is anyone here?”

  Fufi rolled her eyes. “After they tried to take your free will away, are you really going to be polite?”

  “Technically, Yvne’s the one that tried that. And even she is only partly to bme. The demon controlling her really is the one pulling the strings and should take responsibility.” Alex defended her need to be polite even though it seemed like a grasping argument.

  A maid opened the door. “Miss Alice. Welcome back. How may we serve you?”

  Alice winced a bit at the creepy maid. “I was looking to practice enchanting. Would you happen to have sugar and spice and something nice that I could use in the process?”

  The maid paused for a bit, but maintained her composure. “Certainly, though those are hardly traditional enchanting materials and something nice is a bit ambiguous. Are you pnning to make magical food?”

  “I don’t see how magical food would be much help right now.” Alex shook her head. “We really need more capacity to get people and their things out of here.”

  The maid's voice was gentle and reassuring as she addressed Fufi and Alex, "I understand. If you'll accompany me, I'll escort you to the pantry." With that, she led the way, her steps guiding them through the eborate corridors of the mansion. Fufi and Alex followed closely, their curiosity piqued by the maid's enigmatic words.

  As they arrived in the kitchen, a symphony of delicious aromas filled the air, tantalizing their senses. The maid retrieved a pair of exquisite gss shakers, one filled with sugar and the other with bck pepper. The trio then proceeded to a workroom in the basement of the mansion.

  The workroom was dimly lit, but the workstations were adorned with an array of tools and materials. Each station seemed to be dedicated to a specific task, with various devices and instruments arranged neatly. Fufi and Alex exchanged puzzled gnces, and Alex headed to a suitable station for her pns.

  “Do you need anything else, Miss Alice?” The maid stood at attention.

  “I think I’ll manage. There is enough stuff down here to work something up. Unless you have something cute, like a small parasol?” Alex had a bit of an idea what to make.

  “I think so, sometimes the mistress likes little umbrels in her drinks.” The maid nodded and headed off.

  “What are you going to do?” Fufi looked around.

  “I want to do a proof of concept mechanical powered boat.” Alex made some gestures which the fmingo couldn’t possibly understand. “You see, according to the feat, something that is enchanted with it should spin 15 minutes more than it should. Have you ever seen a top before?”

  Fufi nodded. “That is the little toy that has a point at the bottom and spins around for a little while staying upright against all odds.”

  “I have worked on cars a bit and a couple machines. And cars with a manual transmission have something called a flywheel as part of it. The flywheel stores energy and will keep spinning the engine even if it isn’t giving any power.” Alex paused to make sure Fufi wasn’t too confused. “If the feat works like that then really all that would be needed to keep something spinning would be a force added in intervals.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.” Fufi’s expertise was more in cuteness and it showed. “What does that have to do with getting people out of here?”

  “Hmm, I need something to spin.” Alex looked around. She jumped when a maid appeared behind her holding a small drink umbrel.

  The maid smiled, pleased with herself but said nothing.

  Alex spun the tiny parasole around in her fingers. It moved a few times around slowly but then stopped. “See how It stops?” Alex paused, then banced the parasole in the crook of one finger, giving it a spin with her other hand. It kept spinning for a while longer. “I can’t do that for very long, but it opens up some possibilities if I can spin it for a couple seconds to something much longer.”

  “I’m still now sure how spinning can transport someone on a river.” Fufi shook her head.

  Alex expertly maniputed the parasole, cutting it some with her doll equipment and adjusting the angle of the spines to form a propeller. She added a small brass gear from her clockwork doll kit to the end and wound a string on a much rger (for something toy sized) wheel. On the end of the string she hung a weight.

  “Hmm, how to do this?” Alex sprinkled some sugar and spice on the simple contraption cmped to the edge of the desk. “Something is missing.”

  Fufi looked around and spotted something cute. There was embroidery of a flower stacked away on a shelf. She picked it up with her beak and gave it back to Alex. “This looks nice, it is someone’s needlework.”

  “Okay let's try that.” Alex used some brass tacks to put the decoration on the small flywheel. She felt her feat activate and the simple contraption glowed with a pink light for an almost imperceptible moment. Alex wound the string around the flywheel, tacking it into a slot so that it would spin the wheel by unwinding from the weight on the other end. “Here goes nothing.”

  Alex dropped the weight and the little cloth fan spun, making a slight breeze. However that was not all that happened. The weight dropped almost to the floor, the wheel gaining speed as it descended and when it reached the bottom, the string started to wind back up again. However, it didn’t stay nicely slotted in the outer edge of the wheel, it got caught up in the narrower shaft and rapidly ascended, striking the little dowl and breaking the string from the weight. It fell to the floor with a little thud but the thing kept spinning for well over 15 minutes. After that the thing slowly spun down.

  “Looks like a concept that works.” Alex picked up the weight and pced it on the desktop. “There are still some kinks that need to be worked out.” Alex had to use tweezers to get the tightly stuck string off of the shaft of the propeller. Thread clung tightly to the round dowel. Also, the cloth wrapped bdes of the propeller were shredded. “Looks like there is more than one problem.” Alex frowned.

  The team spent the rest of the day and a few more iterations to create a functional, non-self-destructive prototype fan. The following day, with some assistance in the form of special orders from the smith, they had a full prototype fan boat rge enough to accommodate a doll captain. The boat featured a wooden hull and a metal box fan at the back, equipped with three fins that acted like a rudder.

  However, to ensure smooth operation, a second wheel was necessary for the string and weight system, which was designed to spin in only one direction. This addition disengaged the wheel and prevented the weight from being wound back into the gears, eliminating the risk of tangling.

  Additionally, a jig was devised to keep the string and weight from moving out of pce. This was crucial because any unrestricted movement of the weight and string would inevitably lead to tangling, potentially hindering the boat's functionality. With the implementation of these improvements, the team created a prototype fan boat that functioned effectively and showcased their innovative design ideas.

  “Okay, let's get one of the dolls and take this for a spin on the river. If it works okay, a bigger model could be crafted with help of town artisans.” Alex pced the boat on top of the damaged carriage with the help of others, wind up the key and took it to the docks.

  Being made with wood and metal parts, the boat was a pain to lift. Being only a few feet long it wasn’t nearly as heavy as the small sailboats but for Alex’s low strength made it difficult to lift and carry to the ends of the docks. People from town saw her struggling and effortlessly lifted it and pced it in the water.

  “Is that a boat for a toddler?” One onlooker asked someone in front of her.

  “I hope not.” Another gossipy sounding woman commented. “Letting cssless children py in the river is a terrible idea.”

  Alex ignored them. She pced Lily in the boat and danced. “Okay, Lily, show them this will work!”

  In the heart of a bustling river, Lily, the archer doll, skillfully released the tch on the weight, initiating the descent of the boat's counterbance. As the weight gradually lowered onto the deck, it triggered the activation of a small but powerful fan situated at the back of the vessel. With a gentle hum, the fan began to rotate, propelling the compact craft forward. While the speed may not have been lightning-fast, it possessed the ability to effortlessly navigate against the current. Additionally, the boat boasted an exceptionally low draft, allowing it to operate in incredibly shallow water, gliding over hidden sandbars and submerged rocks with ease.

  However, a peculiar design fw became apparent as the boat gained momentum. The majority of its metal components were concentrated in the rear, causing the front end to rise out of the water when it reached a certain speed. The boat continued to slice through the river, but as it encountered a particurly forceful wave, the front end abruptly popped out of the water. Unfortunately, the powerful downward thrust of the fan at the back proved to be too much for the unbanced vessel to handle. In a dramatic turn of events, the boat flipped end over end, causing Lily to get dumped in the river. The once-graceful craft now found itself upside down, floating helplessly on the surface of the water.

  In shock, Alex stopped dancing and the animate doll spell faded. The boat could float upside down but Lily could be swept away down stream. “Oh no! Lily!” Alex cried out.

  Luckily, a certain woman prone to turning into a mermaid saved the day. Not long after the craft flipped, Marina appeared from beneath the waves holding the doll aloft. She flipped the toy boat back over, pced the wet doll back inside and carried them back to shore. “That’s a nice little toy. But I think it still needs some work. Oh, and the boats are almost back. I didn’t see the barge but the smaller ones are just around the bend.”