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

Chapter 2354 Your Grunkle’s Advice Part 1

--- Kat ---

"Just sit down at one of the tables, I’ll bring the tea in the moment," said Grunkle with a wave of his hand as he stomped over towards the kitchen. Despite the fact nobody had really... asked for tea. Still, that was fine. Kat did wonder a bit of Wiggles counted, or Lily, but they took different approaches. Lily had decided to curl herself up in one of Kat’s sleeves and rest a bit. Seemed like keeping so aware while Kat had been gone had taken a bit of a toll on Lily and while she didn’t want to sleep... well she wanted to sleep.

On the other hand, Wiggles had already made it to the table and had managed to stack a few random bits of crap on top of the chair so that he was sitting at the correct height for the tea. So... that was happening apparently. Kat supposed he’d also decided on the table. Appoline and Kat followed behind him, taking up their own chairs. This one had five seats so there was enough for everyone even if Lily decided to participate more actively.

Though to say the seats were matching would be a lie. Both ’heads’ of the table had plush chairs that took up large amounts of space while the ones on the side were more suited to the table they still didn’t match. There was a wooden stool with a back, a metal stool with no back, a wooden rocking chair and a mostly normal wooden chair all tucked into the same table.

Wiggles had claimed one of the soft chairs so that the crap he piled up onto it would more easily stay in place and wasn’t liable to slide off to the side. Appoline claimed the stool with no back... for some reason. Kat was planning to take that one due to her wings... but it was fine. The stool with a back didn’t have one that was too high. Her wings could fit around that so Kat sat down last.

Soon, Grunkle came over with a serving platter for the teapot and cups. Nice looking cups, but once again, none of them matched. This was no longer a surprise. Though he did distribute the cups to everyone, Wiggles included. Soon some tea was poured and he claimed the other plush chair.

It was silent for a while as everyone took their first sips. It was... good tea? Kat thought so anyway. It tasted nice, very florally and almost sweet just not quite there. Which Kat found to be a nice flavour. There was a complexity there she couldn’t really pick at, but all in all a pleasant experience. Wiggles seemed to be enjoying himself, while Appoline was looking at her cup as if it held some sort of secret but was unwilling to speak on it. Perhaps she could identify whatever tea this was by taste alone?

Eventually, after a few minutes of savouring the tea, it was Appoline that spoke up first, "So what exactly do you DO here? I noticed the garden but it seems to be entirely hardy plants that require minimal maintenance, and even the enchantments are meant to keep them watered without your input."

Grunkle nodded, "Yes well, I wanted to be an enchanter when I was younger. Hated the work once I got into it, but I kept at least a bit of the skill. I’m sure my enchantments are a right mess to look at. Nothing anyone would really approve of for proper use but," Grunkle shrugged. "keeps my things working and if I’m responsible for the lot I can fix or replace it when something goes wrong.

"As for what I actually enjoy doing? I mostly study the weather as well as a few other things. I’m one of those rare mages with Cloud affinity, which is debated as to if it’s a real affinity at all or really just a closely aligned Water and Air dual affinity. Not like I know of anyone making cloud spells and I don’t know how to do so either. Plus, it’s not like the legendary Storm affinity so nobody really cares, especially not when it’s so rare and rarely useful."

Lily poked Kat to ask, "Storm affinity?"

Grunkle nodded, "Surprised you haven’t heard of it. Once again people aren’t sure if it’s actually a tri-affinity or one single affinity that can be broken down... but it’s known for being exceptionally powerful. Same as cloud, just with lightning thrown in. There are a few historically important users of the magic... but eh, I’m not particularly good at water or wind magic. Doesn’t mean I actually have cloud as an affinity... at least to my guessing, but boy does it make for a good excuse to throw at my parents or for my teachers to throw back at me.

"Even still... left me real interested in the sky and the weather so... I watch the clouds, the sky, the sun... and this entire place has become exceptionally interesting since the mountain fell apart. Some things repeat as if on a perfect loop, others different. The mountain now has hundreds if not thousands of micro-climates and yet sometimes rain sweeps through the entire area! It is perhaps the single most fascinating area for weather observation in existence. It’s been a great time," Grunkle smiled as he finished off his tea.

Appoline nodded, "Yes there are a lot of fascinating alchemy ingredients for me to find so I understand the fascination with the area. Not all of them are that potent, but alchemy has a place for them as well. I don’t share your love for the weather, as my home essentially had none, but I can appreciate a fellow professional."

While Appoline and Grunkle started to gush about their professions to each other, Kat and Lily started to converse mentally. Somewhat ignoring the other conversation. It was... it wasn’t uninteresting, but they didn’t exactly feel included, nor feel like forcing the matter to ensure they were. For now, they trusted Appoline to pull them in if it was necessary.

*Not sure I’d call him a professional. More of a crazy guy with enough free time for his hobby.*

[What’s that saying? The difference between a hobby and a job is how much you’re getting paid?]

*You think he’s getting paid?*

[Well no, but I’m not sure anyone is really. Makes me wonder what this guy does in the real world. Seems like it would be hard to act this passion without truly living it... so he’s either an actor or a weather scientist bribed to come along for the ride. Though do you think there are really people like that in this sort of world?]

*He’s an elf so he’s got time... and he wasn’t lying about the affinity stuff. At least, nothing that I could pick up on. You know how my eyes can be a bit weird when it comes to people acting in character.*

[Yeah that’s fair. I guess it’s just... interesting to see that he could do it. Alchemy is a far more practical discipline I suppose. It makes me wonder if I can just retire to owning a giant library at some point where I just spend time studying and cataloguing books or something.]

*Is that something you want to do?*

[I... am less sure of it now. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do before we learnt about magic, but librarian was pretty high up there. The issue is that it’s not really the research adjacent role you’d think it is back home you know? It’s mostly just database management and restoration work these days. You’re not really working WITH the books anymore.]

*Counterpoint, magic is real and nothing says you have to start the library back on Earth. If you’re thinking long term this could be for after we move off of it and start up a magic library or something. Then you can study the stuff that interests you and sort the library how you want. Research an improvement to the Dewey Decimal System.*

[Technically it’s actually the Dewey Decimal Classification.]

*Wait what? Everyone calls it the SYSTEM though.*

[Technically it’s a classification system, so it would be in that order, but well... I don’t know why nobody seems to use the official name actually. Even when we learnt it in class it was the Dewy Decimal System.]

*Fine whatever that’s not my point. Did you want to look into something like that? Thyme might be willing to help.*

[Yeah and Thyme is likely to live for a long time. I don’t need to ask straight away... but you know... maybe a book on learning how to make pocket dimensions could be nice. Not certain that I’ll want to get into it... but yeah I suppose it’s a dream to look into a bit more. Besides, if I do magic research I might just want a library around to hold my notes and those I collect to learn more.]

*Sounds like a good idea to me. Not sure how safe it’ll be to drag a pocket dimension around on adventures, but if we anchor it somewhere should be fine.*