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

Chapter 1887: Chapter 1887 Something About September

— Lily —

“Soo….” began Hedera. “Want to try and dig into my own mostly no-existent trauma as penance?”

Lily sighed. “Alright, I guess I can. Though… I also wanted to know why you volunteered that.”

“I feel bad for asking and being so confrontational about it. Plus, now that I’m awake my sense of impending doom seems to be have been restored,” remarked Hedera. “As for why I’m like this? Healers suspect it’s a hormonal issue of some kind.”

Lily waited for a further explanation… but when it became clear that Hedera was finished Lily couldn’t help but ask. “Wait… that’s it? ’It’s a hormonal issue’? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“It’s pretty much the whole explanation,” said Hedera with a shrug. “It started when I went through puberty and then suddenly just about everything was scary too me. It got a bit better, and now I just go from ’slightly scared’ straight up to ’terrified’ with minimal overlap but… nope. No vastly traumatising past that inflicted in me a deep fear I could never quite shake. Though admittedly, being scared of things does make some otherwise normal encounters more traumatic and memorable,”

“I… I don’t want to just contradict you with everything or talk back like you were before… but it seems… a bit more extreme then that?” Lily mumbled uncertainly. “So it’s… just a matter of hormones?”

Hedera shrugged. “I really don’t know. I was hoping Thyme would take a look at me or perhaps someone else would know how to fix it but Thyme uses time magic to fix things for the most part, and isn’t that skilled a healer otherwise so my issue is far outside of their ballpark. As for getting someone to look at things?

“Difficult. It’s hard to know what sort of reward is ’enough’ for what could be weeks or months of a top healers time trying to fix what is a somewhat minor issue for a Rank 2 elf. On the other hand… if I win this thing… which I don’t have great hopes for… would I really rather ask for that issue to be fixed?”

Hedera sighed as she sat down, sinking into the hammock. It was a bit unstable, but after another few moments of thought Hedera just lay back down inside. “It’s hard to know what’s worth it to me. I hardly remember what it was like before I was like this you know? Puberty was a while ago and my memories of when I was younger then that are somewhat tainted by my current condition.

“So… it’s hard to really know or understand what it would be like to NOT be so scared. Plus, I put in a good deal of work to still be functional despite it you know? That would be years of training and effort right down the drain. Don’t get me wrong, my quality of life would probably go up… but I might need to spend five or more years retraining. My fear has helped me somewhat. I have a number of tricks that other people just can’t make use of… alongside that aura sight but I’ve had that longer than the fear. So… like I’d still have something but…” Hedera shrugged as she rolled over a bit in the hammock to face Lily instead of the ceiling.

Lily leant against the ’walls’ of the house and considered Hedera’s issue. “So… your not sure if it’s worth giving up a big reward to fix something you don’t really understand the value of. You’ve been like that for so long it’s ’normal’ and you’re not sure if that’s worth the price. In addition to that, it makes you unique and interesting which further complicates the issue because it feels more like giving up an important part of yourself and not just fixing a problem?”

“Huh,” Hedera intoned. “I… yes. That’s a lot better than I think I could have put it but yes that sums up my filling pretty well. I… my parents and I tried to find a way to fix things for quite a while… and then I gave up… and then I jumped at the chance and… well I’ve been thinking for a while about if it’s worth it?”

Lily nodded to show she was listening and understood. *Not exactly the ’traumatising story from when Hedera was younger’ I was promised but interesting at least. Perhaps… something to mention to Nixilei? That if she takes an apprenticeship it might be nice to fix Hedera’s problems? I’m really not sure.*

“Hey… um… where is Kat anyway?” asked Hedera, interrupting Lily’s thoughts. Lily glanced over with a confused look. “Like, I get that Weaver is asleep so we can’t join her just yet… but what’s she up to? I’m just curious and you never really explained and um…”

“Hey it’s fine,” said Lily as she made a calming gesture towards Hedera. “Kat is… a bit lost honestly…”

“A bit lost?” queried Hedera.

“Yes. See, she got to town, got told to wait till tomorrow, which might be today if we’re past midnight… anyway. After doing some other stuff which lead to a small existential crisis for us both…” Hedera raised a finger. “I’ll explain that later if you want. Anyway, after that Kat left town and started picking up orbs and looking for mushrooms to sell in town…

“Only to find this really fancy glowing mushroom that looked to be made from gemstones,” Hedera made a noise of understanding. “Wait… are they real?”

“What?” asked Hedera confused.

“Kat thought it was a trap, and it was. They don’t look ’real real’ just… more like… someone made a mushroom sculpture out of gems?” offered Lily.

“Oh… um… yes they’re a real species of mushroom. They’re exceptionally rare but they have quite a few uses. People mainly want to find them to use in armour quenching,” explained Hedera.

“Excuse me what?” asked Lily, very confused at the statement.

“I don’t know the process myself, but they can be melted down somehow into a quenching liquid for super high level armour. Something about how its used gives the armour inherent self-repair properties. It’s NOT an enchantment either. The enchantment can be broken with enough damage but this just… doesn’t,” explained Hedera.

“Could you get infinite armour that way?” asked Lily.

Hedera giggled, “Yeah a lot of people have that thought but no, that’s not really how it works. From what we can tell… the ’armour’ somehow recognises the missing pieces and slowly summons them back if they’re too far away. Or you can just dump the pieces together and watch it reform. I’m sure there are other ingredients but the gemstone mushrooms being a key ingredient leaked hundreds of years ago.”

“Huh… well… in this case Kat approached it and got teleported into a trap dungeon. It took a bit to escape and once she did… she had no idea where she was. Neither did I to be honest. So… now she’s just wondering around looking for stuff and the town,” explained Lily. “Would it be worth going back for that mushroom if we find it?”

“Hmmm… I mean… maybe? I don’t know how possible Thyme would make it to get at the mushroom. They’re the type of rare and valuable that means you can basically retire as an adventurer if you get one. Assuming it’s real. Plenty of people find mushrooms that look somewhat like the correct ones and I don’t know what a real one looks like for sure. I’ve never seen them myself,” admitted Hedera with a shrug.

“Hmm… so it might just be an endless trap?” asked Lily.

“Possibly. It really is the type of thing that adventurers would happily risk their lives for. I’d expect to get armour made from one if I placed first in this tournament, but probably not even second place. They’re THAT valuable,” Hedera stated firmly.

“Hmm… are they dangerous at all?” asked Lily.

Hedera sighed, seeing where this was going. “No not really. They’re just stupidly valuable and essentially impossible to grow. Nobody knows how they procreate, they just sort of pop up randomly and unlike a lot of other super rare plants… they just exist. Nobody is really sure what they’re meant to do naturally. Surely it’s something… but they don’t attract monsters for defence, they aren’t poisonous, yes an idiot tried eating one and let’s say the pieces made it through the whole way. I mean, breaking one makes it reform so they can be a bit hard to pick but… like… for something so valuable it’s practically free,”

“So what you’re saying is, it’s worth making the attempt with my spatial manipulation,” stated Lily.

Hedera groaned and flipped over so she was face down into the silken hammock. “You know what Lily? I don’t think you’ll succeed. I think it’s nearly impossible and I don’t even want to imagine the chances you could possibly succeed… but dammit yes. They are worth that much money it’s well worth the attempt even if it costs us a full day and I hate myself for saying that,”