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

— Green —

Green grinned as she pulled herself up through the last layer of whatever this was. After her nap she’d gotten back into climbing. Up past the clouds and yet higher still before eventually reaching the bottom of this platform. She wasn’t on the edge and couldn’t see up into it properly but the fact there WAS something up here probably meant good things. Stepping inside the next gap Green looked around at the ceiling for the way up. Then Green realised she had a better way. “Timmy, stand below the path leading further upwards,”

The little guy dashed off and Green followed, the dust trail if not the original. It didn’t take long, just slightly further around the corner and Timmy was standing firmly in place. There wasn’t any obvious way up… but that too could be solved. “Open the secret door please,”

Timmy remained in place. “Open the trapdoor please?” Green tried. Timmy leapt into the air and gripped one of the stalactites… and nothing happened. The little guy wiggled a bit to try and bring it down with no success. Still, it was enough to tell Green what to do. Jumping up she gently grabbed Timmy and let gravity do the work. A bad idea in hindsight. Whatever the door had been made of once upon a time, the hinges weren’t up to the same standard.

Timmy and Green fell to the ground with a giant pile of rock and metal hitting them from the top just a moment later. Timmy was fine, and the fact the little guy was between Green and the trapdoor meant there was nothing more than bruising. “Oof. Sorry Timmy. Can you get use free?”

The answer was yes. It was a bit hard on Green’s stomach where Timmy pressed back against her but the little guy was able to throw off to the weight and leave them a clear passageway to the next level. Jumping up Green was immediately hit by the smell. *Urgh. The enchantments to keep the smell in clearly still work.* A sewer. Green had just broken into the sewer.

It stunk massively but the water had mostly evaporated. Dirt grime and other questionable things had dried to the walls and left behind plenty to keep the stink alive but the water was barely a trickle running along waterway. “Timmy you got an exit for me?” asked Green.

This time the little guy shook its head. “Alright. Not ideal, but alright…” mumbled Green. Is it worth putting on my mask? Probably. Best not to risk things. Green pulled out her enchanted mask and slapped it over her face. Immediately the smell was reduced, though notably, not removed. Urgh. Probably in my nose already. Yuck.

*Still. Good news. The fact Timmy isn’t helping means this place has to be filled with goodies for me to loot. Hopefully I didn’t climb all the way up here JUST to run around in a sewer. Then again… I wonder what I’ll find? City in the sky might have been my first guess but based on the lack of water down here it might not be much of a city anymore. Heck, it could just be the sewer here.*

Green glanced around. The area she’d come up in was just some random section of tunnel running horizontally. Neither direction really seemed any different to the other and the light coming in from the tunnel was especially limited. The mask did help a bit but not a whole lot and the darkness was still the limiting factor for distance. Green certainly couldn’t see any indication of corners.

Occasional holes dotted the ceiling but based on the few drips she could see from some of them they were meant for water to dump itself into the main stream on the ground. Not for people to climb through… and Green might be willing to do a lot for the win but that was a step too far. Especially when she wasn’t sure if it was actually big enough to crawl through. Green was certain she’d fit inside… but moving her arms? That was another matter.

Green gagged a bit at the thought. *Yeah no. Too risky. Let’s just explore the sewer here. Hopefully I don’t run into any monsters… I’m really not sure how likely that is.*

— Nixilei —

Nixilei and Ugalaz were sitting across from each other sipping tea. They’d been around the area looking for various secrets and ended up with a decent haul of orbs between them both. They were currently hiding out in one of the larger underground areas. This one was apparently a food storage depot and there was food all around. Neither of them had touched it though.

Nixilei could sense some sort of alarm enchantment on all of the shelves. No idea what that would set off but she was most interested in not triggering it. Still, the ceiling and doors were quite large and it meant Ugalaz could properly relax inside for once. Honestly, when she’d browbeat the larger demon into taking a slightly favourable share in exchange for freeing him…

She hadn’t expected to need to do quite so much of the work. Sure he was great for fighting off monsters in trees and reaching the high spots so she could avoid climbing but plenty of the area was underground bunkers of sorts. It was slow going combing through them all and they hadn’t found any actors around. All it really meant was more work for Nixilei.

*Honestly. Was this directly targeted at the guy? It’s not like he was pulled in last moment and it seems out of character for Thyme. Then again… if he avoided properly participating in all of the previous rounds perhaps Thyme didn’t think he would bother this time? Or perhaps forcing him to participate while not accommodating him is the punishment? Maybe it’s just random? Thyme might not have designed this area personally and it’s really just bad luck.*

“Think we should bunk down for the night here?” asked Ugalaz.

“You need to sleep already?” asked Nixilei.

“Yes?” answered Ugalaz uncertainly. “Well… NEED is perhaps a strong word but I would really like some sleep… why?”

Nixilei shrugged. “I’m just used to Kat’s nonsense I suppose. She doesn’t really need sleep the same way everyone else does. Though arguably her familiar sleeps enough for both of them,”

Ugalaz clicked his tongue. “Lucky. My own family has far too much sloth demon in it for me to be comfortable skipping sleep. With how early we were forced to start the day it’s honestly catching up to me. If we didn’t have such a good spot to camp for the night I could force myself to keep going for another few hours before my performance suffers noticeably…

“But we DO have a great spot to rest right now. It can fit me and the doors and enchantments together keep the damned pollen out of the area. I really don’t think we’re going to find a better spot, at least not any time soon and I would indeed like some rest,”

*Hmmm… probably best not to push this issue. He’s not even trying to hide things like earlier. Not that he was good at it before. Plus, while he said he has Sloth in the family, he hasn’t mentioned what kind of demon he is… and Pit Fiends are usually Wrath aligned. Best not make the demon healer angry due to lack of sleep.*

“I think my only concern would be if we should expect visitors. This place is obviously well maintained. There isn’t any dust around, I can still feel the alarm enchantments on the shelves mixed in with the preservation ones. The weirdest thing is actually the missing dates. Nothing here is labelled. Perhaps there’s some sorting system, but otherwise? We’ve got indication of how often things are delivered here,” explained Nixilei.

“So… what are you suggesting?” asked Ugalaz.

Nixilei shrugged. “I guess there are two things I’m suggesting. Either we take turns sleeping to ensure that nobody comes in and finds us unprepared or we take the time to properly barricade the door. Even if they can break through it, the noise of doing so should wake us up,”

Ugalaz nodded. “I think I’d rather bar the door. It’s not like we can just lock it after all,”

Nixilei raised an eyebrow at the demon. *Was… was he not paying attention? I picked the lock on the door in no time at all sure but I didn’t exactly hide what I was doing. They didn’t even have a locking enchantment in place just a standard physical one.*

“We definitely can,” Nixilei said after a moment. “It was locked when we got here after all,”

“Did you have a key then?” asked Ugalaz.

That’s actually a good excuse but… “No I just picked the lock. They didn’t bother enchanting it to make that harder in any way and this isn’t a particularly high quality lock to begin with. Didn’t even take me ten seconds,” explained Nixilei.

“Oh… um… hmm…” mumbled Ugalaz.

“They will have keys though, hence the barricade,” explained Nixilei.

“Ah that makes sense,” agreed Ugalaz.

*Did… did I team up with a moron?*