D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2328 A Baller Pastime

--- Lily ---

Lily was heading towards the centre. That seemed the most likely place for the portal to be, though there was an issue. As she got further in the balls increased in number and they got smaller. It seemed that the dirt and stone they were collecting along the way was somehow being converted into additional mass. This meant she had to switch tunnels a few times to make sure she could make it through, and Lily even had to teleport a couple of times to keep moving.

While Lily was managing, and Kat could deal with it... Appoline was going to struggle. They didn’t have enough ground softening potion to deal with this and it was unclear how well it would work on disconnected pieces of earth, or converting longer strands instead of the immediate area as it currently did.

Kat and Lily could likely break through a lot of it... but it was more time that they could potentially be spending on other things. There was also the balls to consider. The ones up close were very, very small. So small that Lily actually missed one as it slammed into her side. It managed to eat away at a good chunk of fur before she’d moved out of the way. It was so small and there was just... so much movement sounding out around her that she lost track of exactly what the closest one was. Annoyingly, it was the breaking down of the rock that actually made the movement. One flying towards her was nearly silent and it’s not like they smelt like anything.

[Are you alright?]

*Yeah I’ m fine. Barely hurts. It was so tiny it didn’t really get in deep. More like... getting your hair caught somewhere and yanked? Not pleasant but the pain is already fading. I’d look back to see if I have a bald spot now but I don’t really have the space to check.*

[Just be careful. If they’ve got some sort of numbing property to them you might not know how injured you are.]

*Perhaps, but I can feel my side fairly well at the moment and it IS tender. I also can’t feel any blood so I’m not overly worried about it. I’m sure I’ll be fine.*

[Alright, alright. I don’t want to act overbearing about it. If you say you’re fine I’ll believe you.]

*If you want something to do, why not try to work out how we’re getting Appoline through here?*

[Or... or, I could just ask her if she has a potion for it?]

*Sure go ahead.*

[She does not.]

*That was fast.*

[Yeah well, I’m now hearing about how hard it is to make potions that do things like that. Apparently the best she could do is a potion that reinforces her body a bit and turns her bones into jelly allowing for her to slither through gaps as if she was a snake... but some of them are too small even for that, and apparently there’s nothing in the potion that resets the bones back to normal so it’s a dangerous one anyway.]

*Why the heck would she even suggest it then?*

[On second and... apparently while it doesn’t naturally reset her bones to the correct place, she has a different potion that COULD do it... if she had the ingredients. Which she doesn’t. She also doesn’t have any better ideas. Apparently full body changes, or teleportation, are very rare things in potions. Hard to brew, and require expensive ingredients.]

*Wouldn’t we only need a temporary change?*

[You’d think so wouldn’t you? But apparently temporary changes are far too focused on more minor differences or adding things. Like, her example was that it’s easy to make someone grow antlers that will fall off in a few hours but much harder to reconnect someone’s broken ribs if a healing potion isn’t applied fast enough.]

*That... well I guess that makes sense?*

[Yeah apparently it’s easier to just cut them open, glue it in place with a special potion, and then feed them healing potions to deal with the trauma of the operation. Oh, and sometimes you can put them to sleep first.]

*Heckin, why only sometimes?*

[After asking? Apparently a lot of people intentionally or unintentionally build up immunity to the more common sleeping potions. Though in many cases it’s that they don’t work as well as they should instead of not at all. So they’d wake up part way through and if they spasm while getting cut open or attack on instinct...]

*Alright I see the problem now. Still seems brutal...*

[Yeah but not all alchemists are Appoline and learn a bunch of different types of them. Most alchemists learn one sleeping potion recipe, maybe two if they need different ones for people and one for monsters. Appoline seems rather disgusted with these people... but I guess for some of them a job is a job? Or maybe if they’re like, the only town ’doctor’ then they don’t have time to research if they need to be gathering supplies and brewing.]

[Not sure if I should share that opinion with Appoline because she’s not meant to know about the outside world and probably isn’t meant to comment... but I’m also scared her comment would be ’get good’ or something like that.]

*Hmmm... very Appoline response. Though she does take students so...*

[Alright you’ve convinced me. I’ll ask.]

*Not like that was hard.*

[Look, you wanted to know, so I asked. If you requested I do a handstand, I’d ask ’how long’ or maybe ’while I’m on watch?’ but otherwise just do it. Back to Appoline though, it looked like it visibly pained her to say, but allegedly she understands that’s a thing and she can respect it.]

*Why allegedly? Can’t you tell if she’s lying or not?*

[Well, yes but the wording was specifically ’I can respect it’ not that she does respect it, or that she can respect them, but that she CAN respect IT. That plus the look on her face... pretty sure that while she can respect them she probably doesn’t. Technically not a lie though, so there’s that at least.]

[It’s just, the look on her face... it was like I’d just told her that magic is actually outlawed in the outside world or that people think alchemy is what you use to make alcohol. Which... can you? Hmmm... short answer? No. Long answer... sort of.]

*Elaborate?*

[Yeah Appoline is. Seems like some recipes require you to ferment things along the way... or ferment their essence? Others some require you to use fermented things or alcohol as an ingredient but it isn’t often that it’s high enough proof at the end to get people drunk, and even when it is, those sorts of potions aren’t always ingested orally, nor in such away your body can make use of the potion even if it IS taken orally.]

Lily was tempted to follow up on that, mostly asking if Appoline had sampled many spirits, or if she tried to stay away from that sort of research in a more general sense but the portal had come into view. Mostly. The area around it was pockmarked by hundreds, perhaps thousands of little holes that made the area look more like a flyscreen then stone. Lily was amazed it hadn’t collapsed, or perhaps, it had and more of it had been eaten away until things sorted themselves out.

It wouldn’t be too hard to break through. A good swipe would be enough, so that wouldn’t stop Appoline... it was the other areas of this rock that would cause issues. That and the portal WAS there. Though notably... this one seemed oddly blank? Lily wasn’t sure if she was just at a bad angle or what but she couldn’t really see anything through the portal, not even the ground. That was worth mentioning at least.

*I think I should go through.*

[Really? We’ve spent so much time not splitting up. Why NOW do you think it’s a good idea.]

*Well I wouldn’t stay on the other side. Not long anyway. The plan is just to duck in, check the area, and then duck out. I mean, it looks like the area on the other side is all sky or something. That would mean I should be able to spot any other nearby portals without too much trouble, and of course, I can fly so it’s not dangerous.*

[Oh sure you won’t fall to your death but did you forget the fact that we’re both nearly certain we’ll get punished if we fly too far away from the platforms?]

*Surely the retaliation wouldn’t be that fast? Plus, why would it go off if I’m near the portal.*

[I’d just feel more comfortable if I’m the one who got hit by it.]

*Look, if I see it coming and don’t think I can get into the portal I’ll request a medical evac from time before it hits me. Heck, it might not actually hit me and I’ll just end up in the medical centre anyway.*

[Something tells me Thyme would let the pain go through as a lesson... but you know what? Fine. I trust you, and I do need to be better about letting you do dangerous things that I think you can handle.]

*Thanks! I’ll make sure to be careful about it.*