A New Quest; Find the Alchemist.

The Count's knights left the building, the sound of their metal boots clanging almost as loud as the joyful revelry of the inn. Celeria slumped on the table, drowning her sorrows with a cup of ale.

"Why so blue? All we have to do is find the stash of counterfeit coin, and then it's all water under the bridge with the Count," Peonie said, awkwardly shuffling in her seat to angle her back towards the rest of the room.

She was getting the lion's share of the inn's attention, and how could she not? She was a beautiful woman wearing only a leaf bra and a loincloth.

The assorted twigs, flowers, and petals she tied together around her chest didn't do as good a job as she would have liked in keeping her shapely breasts hidden underneath. More than once, her nipples poked through to say hi to the bar. It was itchy as hell too.

That was bad enough, but then there were her butt cheeks peeking around the flaps of the loincloth. In truth, she half suspected that going naked would attract less attention than her scandalous outfit, but she was not eager to test her theory.

"Well, not quite. I still have to apologize to the Count's brat and help her correct her stupid book," Celeria replied. "But more to the point, fighting an alchemist is serious business, and we are ill-equipped to hunt even a bunny."

"Maybe we can find someone else to help us?"

"We can't afford a damned dagger, and the Count isn't paying us money. Who's going to help us for free?"

"Sorry, I could not help but overhear," the innkeeper interrupted. "But if you are looking for another adventurer, I know where you can find one."

The innkeeper led the duo behind the inn, into the goat barn. A naked woman was lying among the hay and hugging a goat on the ground. Her legs twitched, and her eyes were closed.

"Min, wake up! You have visitors."

"Five more minutes...Huh? Ah!" Noticing her visitors, Min stood up. "Oh, h-hi! Come in, step into my office. What can I… Celeria? Is that you?!"

"Nim! You are ok! I was worried that Liana teleported you into a volcano or something," Celeria replied with a smile.

"It's Min, and you are asking ME if I'm OK? I was worried about you! You had to keep fighting that fearsome mage all on your own! Sorry I couldn't help, but, you know, I got teleported and all."

"Eh, don't worry about it. Liana isn't that good of a mage."

"Ehem," Peonie coughed.

"Ah, remember the partner I mentioned? She finally arrived. Min, this is Peonie. Peonie, this is the girl that helped me track Liana."

"Nice to meet you!" Peonie offered her hand to Min, who stared at her up and down in return.

Loincloth, check. Flimsy top, check. Exposed abs, check. Rock hard muscles… Eh, close enough. This "Peonie" wasn't a bodybuilder, but the girl didn't seem to skip the gym either.

...They had gyms in this world, right?

In any case, it all checked out. Peonie could only be…

"Wow. You didn't tell me you knew an Amazon, Celeria! That's so cool." Min prodded Peonie's top, grabbing one of the leaves sticking out from her cleavage. "I guess the Amazons would make their clothes out of plants, huh? Makes sense."

Peonie stepped back from the enthusiastic Min. "Celeria, what's an Amazon?" she whispered to her companion.

The elf shrugged. "Must be something from Min's homeland in the Far West."

"Don't you mean the Far East?" Min asked.

"No."

"Weird."

"...Anyway, we are tracking down an alchemist that's making counterfeit coins. Want in, Min? We could use all the help we can get, but I have to warn you that this job isn't paid-"

Min squealed. "Yes! A new quest! I knew another one would roll in eventually, and you didn't believe me, Estella!" Min elbowed the goat next to her. The animal bleated. "You are looking for an alchemist, huh? I think I know your target…"

With Min's rather intimate and detailed description of the alchemist, the trio asked around the inn.

While no one knew her personally, everyone had heard the story of a giant slime appearing on the market and the naked girl streaking across the streets of the town shortly thereafter. Some even saw her run themselves.

Slowly, the party got an idea of all the places the buck-naked alchemist had to run across after Celeria freed her from the slime. It seemed like she caused quite the ruckus, sprinting across practically half the town.

With that information, they retraced the alchemist's steps into the street they believed contained her hideout.

It was the dead of night. The three scantily-clad adventurers sneaked across a quiet road in the middle of the old part of town searching for the alchemist´s hideout.

"So, err, Peonie. S-sorry about my, hmm, rude introduction. Thanks for taking me on board! Must have been quite a shock to see me in the barn like that... Aren't you going to ask why I'm naked?"

Peonie and Celeria exchanged glances. The former stared at a worn-down leotard while the latter at some leaves barely hanging on to her friend´s nipples. "Eh, don't worry about it. It's not that weird in this profession."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask why I'm wearing this leotard," Celeria told Min as they kept checking the houses by the road.

"I just figured that it's a traditional elven garment."

"It's not! Why does everyone thing th- Wait, this house. Do you smell that?"

The trio passed a stone house. The smell of smoke, copper, and sulfur was unmistakably coming from inside, or so Celeria said. Quite the weird combination of aromas for a peasant's midnight dinner.

Celeria pickpocketed the backdoor, and then the trio sneaked in. From the sound of it, someone, likely the alchemist, was upstairs brewing something sinister. They moved silently over the polished wooden floor, reaching a dining room.

"A chest." Min pointed at a chest with gold trimmings resting under the windows. She ran toward it. "This must be where the counterfeit coin is!"

"Wait, don't open it!" Celeria whispered, "It could be a-"

"Ah!" Vines, not unlike those found in the forest, flew out of the open chest and coiled around Min's stomach. The mimic tried to pull her in, but she planted her feet into the stone ground and managed to hold on to the corner of a massive wardrobe behind her.

The monster changed tactics. Its plant-like tentacles coiled around her legs and pressed them together. The mimic lifted Min into the air and tossed her across the dining table.

"Aah!" Like a rolling pin, Min's bare torso squeezed sugar, marmalade, and the bread left on the table, but curiously enough, she stopped before toppling over the pepper and other assorted spices.

"I never fought a mimic before," Peonie yelled. " What do we do, Celeria?"

"Quick, grab that pepper and toss it at the chest." Celeria opened a nearby drawer to search for a weapon. She only found vials filled with colorful liquids and a wooden spoon. Not the best armament, but it would have to do. "I'll try to smash it to free-"

"What's this racket?" a beautiful woman with long hazel hair came down the steps with a lantern in hand. She locked eyes with Celeria and Peonie.

"You!" Celeria pointed at her. "You still owe me for freeing you from that slime!"

"Did you seriously track me down just for that?"

"And, to stop your counterfeit operation," Peonie said. "By order of Count Craktos, you are under arrest."

"…Not on your life, girl." The alchemist discretely dropped one of the vials hanging from her belt. A cloud of smoke exploded from the floor.

"Ack. she is getting away. We have to catch her!" Celeria yelled.

"First we have to help Min!"

"N-n-n-no! She'll get away!" Min yelled, the mimic was now spinning her around like an uncooked pizza. Her legs and arms swung madly, her breasts jiggling and her face contorting with the centrifugal force. "I-I g-got this! You go after the alchemist."

"Are you sure?"

"D-don't worry, I'm a b-bona f-fide adventurer. I e-eat mimics for b-breakfast. Go! Time's w-wasting. Ack!"

The mimic's tentacles brought Min down onto the table, smashing her face against a pot of jelly. Min licked her lips. Huh, it had a perfect consistency and the right flavor. The alchemist was paying attention to her gelatin recipe!

"You heard her, Min's got this!" Celeria ran up the stairs after the alchemist.

"If you say so… Be careful, ok?"

The two adventurers went up the stairs and intercepted the alchemist as she was loading a backpack full of suspicious-looking coins. Catching a glimpse of her pursuers, she jumped out of the first-story window to flee. The adventurers went after her.

The alchemist's footsteps echoed in the quiet street, her barefoot pursuers being more silent. The woman looked back. The ridiculous sight of Celeria and Peonie greeted her. They weren't letting up.

The elf was in front, waving a wooden spoon like a sword. Her skimpy leotard doing a lousy job of keeping everything in place. She had to assign one hand to ensure that her breasts stayed still and didn't jump out of the garment in the middle of the chase.

Peonie followed at a more controlled pace. She was sprinting at just the right speed to keep the flaps of her loincloth from fluttering too much and revealing her womanhood. No one else was watching the chase, but she could never be too sure.

The more Peonie ran, the more her makeshift top vanished behind her. She was leaving behind her a trail of flower petals and leaves. The contour of her breasts and a peek of her brown areola were visible around her falling garment.

The alchemist grabbed a red flask from her belt and tossed it behind her. With a small explosion, the stone path melted into a small puddle of lava. Peonie and Celeria were quick to jump over it. And over the next one too. The alchemist tried the trick three more times before she ran out of fire potions.

The chase continued into a muddy backyard. The alchemist threw all her cold concoctions behind her at once. The two adventurers ducked and dodged around every freezing flask, only a chicken was unfortunate enough to receive the potion head-on and turn into a Popsicle.

It seemed like the two could dodge anything she threw at them, but the alchemist recently learned a new trick that should stop them in their tracks.

She ran into a narrow alley and untied her belt, smashing all her remaining potions on the ground. The liquids combined and emitted a rainbow vapor.

A mighty slime rose from the cobblestone path, but too late. Both Celeria and Peonie had sprinted past it just before it could expand. Her roadblock failed, and the alchemist was now out of options. Except for the oldest tactic known to man.

"Aaaaaaah! Get away from me!"

The alchemist screamed and pushed her legs to run as fast as they could. She crossed the city gate and ran into the countryside, the duo still in her tail and gaining ground.

"Should we have tried to stop them?" asked the gate's guard.

His companion shrugged. "Our job is to keep people out, not in. Did you see the ass on that brunette, though?"

"How could I not? That loincloth fluttered like a banner in the wind."