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

Chapter 2364 Do Not Touch Lightning at Home

--- Kat ---

The next morning... or at least, as close to morning as you could get in a place like this, the group set out once again. Lunch, a few hours to nap, and a snack for breakfast later they’d discussed a few things. In the end, it was decided they’d go to the frozen lightning portal. Sure the area before that wasn’t as rich in ingredients... but that particular area would likely prove to be interesting to Appoline, and it had a chance of being ’further in’. At least, that was the guess.

With the lightning frozen in place the same way the giant one was, Kat and Lily were willing to consider the idea that the island had once been close to the top, and the lightning on it had been frozen just after the big one that split the mountain. Though, there were plenty of counter arguments for that. The main one being that there was no way to know how close the top the portal would take them.

The snowy areas of the mountain were probably from higher up after all, and they’d been through quite a few of those. On the other hand... what did they have to lose really? It was a safe-ish place to travel to with those potions on hand and there was no real way to know what the best place to go would be. In addition to that, Appoline had picked up some of the plants that grew on the other island back in the greenhouse so it wasn’t a necessity. She hadn’t thought there would be much of a chance for fire aligned stuff after all, and that had been the bulk of her haul from the greenhouses.

Once again, the mysterious ice monster did not bother them. Kat wasn’t sure if that was because they had new people with them, or if it was just a way to make her and Lily look like the crazy ones as they kept their eyes peeled for a monster that never showed up. Wiggles at least didn’t look like they were doing anything too weird, though Appoline gave them a few side eyed glances from time to time.

The lava area was more annoying, but at least they looked less crazy with actual monsters to fight. Nothing new, but that just meant Kat and Lily knew how to deal with them... though at the same time, Appoline couldn’t really harvest anything useful from stuff that exploded on kill or would lose too much of its potency after cooling down. She had not prepared for this sort of environment in her gathering plans.

So it was ultimately a relatively fast if not entirely painless crossing to make it all the way through. At the very least nobody got burnt so that was considered a success. Once they were out Appoline did have to take another set of potions, and offered the same to Wiggles who turned her down... for the moment. He seemed much less certain about it this time.

Kat thumbed over the golden key she had resting around her neck. If she had to describe it... evil would be a good place to start. It had a dark purple gem in the centre of the handle that splinter out into some sort of purple metal that made it look like an eye breaking through a crack in the world, or perhaps a spider with an eye on its back. It did not look friendly... but Grunkle hadn’t mentioned anything odd about his mentor, even when Kat had made some vaguer questions in that direction.

They had two theories. The first was that Grunkle’s master simply had a sense of humour, intentionally making the key as creepy as possible perhaps to mess with people. It seemed a Thyme thing to do. On the other hand, it could actually be some ancient evil that was sealed away by this key and Grunkle misheard what he was meant to do with the key in the event of his master’s death. Or perhaps his master knew he’d be too lazy to check on it, thus it would be safe... but that seemed a bit too careless. Then again, also a Thyme thing to do so they couldn’t be sure.

"Fascinating it really is frozen as you said..." mumbled Appoline "And safe to touch? You said?"

Kat nodded slowly, "Well I wouldn’t want you to get hurt by just saying yes... but neither Lily nor I had issues touching it. I didn’t need to regenerate any damage and I’m sure you’re quite aware that if it was hurting Lily I’d have done something but well..."

Lily rolled her eyes and walked over to the lightning to poke it with a paw. As she did so, her fur started to stand on end. "... yeah that seems to be most of what happens." Finished Kat with a shrug.

Appoline nodded but before she could do anything Wiggles bounced over to the lightning and placed his paw on it, immediately flinching back. Then he glanced between his paw, and the lightning a few times before touching it again. He winced on contact but kept it there as his fur started to fluff up as well.

"I think that means the initial zap hurts but it’s not that bad? Or something?" Kat mused.

Appoline shrugged and decided to do try it out, though notably she picked a different bolt compared to Lily and Wiggles. Soon Appoline’s hair was standing on end, though she also had a pretty big frown on her face. Soon she was stepping away from it while Wiggles continued to play with the lightning. "Yes this messes with my ears too much for it to be comfortable but I see what you men when you say it’s relatively safe."

*Not quite what I said but sure...* Kat decided to just let everyone mess around with the lightning for a bit longer... and when Lily sent a look her way, Kat sighed and joined in. It’s not like it wasn’t amusing, just that it wasn’t THAT funny. Still, Lily seemed to enjoy seeing her hair going everyone so it wasn’t really a problem.

In the end, it took a surprisingly long time for Appoline and Wiggles to get bored. More surprising for Appoline. She’d initially not wanted to mess with it after her claims of it causing issues with her ears... but after Wiggles kept poking the lightning with different body parts Appoline ended up testing a few things. Poking it with different equipment, a few bottles, and just trying out stuff. Kat decided to ask. "Could you use that in the brewing process?"

Appoline sighed, "Theoretically yes, but practically no. I don’t know enough about the lightning and... I’m not sure that it would make a big enough difference if it was just touching the cauldron? It might just be more of a nuisance but to test something like that I’d need hours or weeks so... best not to tempt myself too much by beginning the testing."

325

"I suppose that’s understandable," said Kat, even though she was pretty sure half of the stuff Appoline had already done probably counted as beginning the testing. Still, if the elf hadn’t realised it herself then it was best not to point it out just in case she got really stuck into it upon that realisation.

Eventually they headed off once the need to mess around wore off and it wasn’t long before they spotted the first monster. Though... calling it a monster almost felt mean. Mostly because it was frozen in place by whatever had trapped the lightning. It was a bear adjacent thing with a heavyset body except it had webbed feet and gills. So it was at least amphibious.

It was also frozen. No battle needed to ensure it was defeated. Kat walked up and tapped it on the side of the head and it felt really weird. Unlike the lightning, there was no warmth and the fur on it didn’t feel like fur at all. Probably due to the fact it was frozen in place so when you brushed a hand over it the fur refused to move. Felt more like gently running your hand over a grater really. Not enough to cut yourself of course... but the texture was unusual and sort of sharp.

"Would this be a good ingredient... and can it be an ingredient?" mused Kat.

"Of course it CAN be an ingredient... but I don’t know about good. In some ways the fact it was effected by time magic so clearly should have an impact... but it is a living thing. Maybe. Unclear if it still is. I’m really not sure if it would be useful... and I doubt it had any sort of affinity for time before this... I’m going to say not worth the effort. I’ve got no idea how you’d even free it," mused Appoline.

*Lily?*

[Yeah I’ve got nothing for this one. Space and time might sort of be related but so are water and ice. I’m NOT a time mage, and I haven’t studied any time magic in proper depth. So... sorry I got nothing for you.]