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

Chapter 2123: Chapter 2123 Chapter Needs a Name and this is Good Enough

— Kat —

Despite Kat’s worry about getting healing potions from Appoline, once the suggestion was brought to her, she seemed quite pleased with it. A quick examination of Furen’s neck revealed that it had healed rather poorly and scarring had already started. The potions applied before weren’t strong enough to prevent it, and now even more expensive potions were needed to fix it… something Appoline was happy to make. Apparently, she DID have a recipe for it, assuming she had the funds and Steel was willing to pay for them in this case.

*Do you think he will pretend they’re ingredients for the poison cleanup or do you think he’s going to be honest about it?*

[Considering how he is? Probably honest about it but indicate it was part of a deal to get things cleaned up.]

Once that was sorted with Appoline, the rest of the group was carted away. In the case of the greenhouse crew and Chisel, that was quite literal as the guards loaded them into a cart and took them away somewhere. Tanisha got to stick around, the same as Furen. Her argument was that she went in purely to protect her brother. Kat was surprised when she started quoting a particular passage back and forth with Steel and it turned out she was probably safe.

Steel left soon after to get to the interrogations so Kat had to ask… “Seriously, how?”

Tanisha shrugged. “When you have an idiot for a brother learning what laws you have to work around to keep both of you out of trouble is useful. In this case, because I never personally attempted to make a play for whatever item they were looking for, my brother died, and I stopped trying as soon as that happened I’m legally in the clear.”

“Why?” asked Kat. “Like… didn’t you still help?”

Tanisha nodded, “Right but you see, the laws regarding assisting criminals have two interesting parts. The first is that you aren’t considered part of the crime itself until you start breaking certain laws. Trespass is, funnily enough, not one of those unless you’re intruding on a personal residence, in which case… well that’s still illegal.

“The second factor is that we have a different set of laws regarding what sort of crimes you can lay at the feet of someone who has died. It’s fairly complicated but the two relevant parts are if the person dies due to environmental or accidental factors most crimes are negated. Further, if you are helping someone commit a crime and they die before the crime is committed then they aren’t liable for the attempt…

“And if LEGALLY speaking there was no attempt made, then that means it’s impossible for me to be charged with aiding in an attempt that legally didn’t happen,” explained Tanisha with a grin.

“But it did happen,” Kat countered.

“Perhaps in reality it did, but legally, it didn’t, which is what matters to people like Steel.” Kat opened her mouth… and then closed it before sighing and turning to Furen. Who shrugged and gestured to both her mouth and then Appoline, followed by Kat.

“Oh right, you’re fine because it would be too dangerous to leave you in the prisons at this point. Are you likely to be charged afterwards?” asked Kat.

Furen made a ’so-so’ gesture before showing off pinched fingers in front of her eye. “Is that meant to be a ’probably not’ or more of a ’still punished but a reduced sentence?” asked Kat. Furen held up two fingers. “Alright and that’s fine?”

Furen glanced at Appoline and gestured towards Kat. Kat tilted her head in confusing as Appoline sighed. “Furen is indicating that, as an elf it’s not really a problem. Something I should understand. The city is hesitant to resort to execution for non-violent crimes. Especially if they aren’t part of something grander. So in our case, getting locked up for a few years in decent conditions isn’t a massive setback.

“Depending on what we spend our time on, it might not even be a setback at all. Further, if it’s a matter of paying a fine then we can either do that, usually using the extra accumulated wealth an elf has on average, or we can simply… use the extra time we have around to pay it off if we don’t have it immediately,”

“I imagine that’s from your better long term planning,” Kat added.

Appoline shrugged, “I’m not sure I’d say we’re better at it as a species, just that it’s more easily applicable. For a human, spending ten years on something is a huge chunk of their lifespan. Even training to Rank up. It’s agreed that you need to put in a great deal of effort…

“But then why does the average labourer constantly lifting heavy bricks almost never Rank up from that?” Appoline shrugged again. “I guess it’s just not the same somehow. Regardless, those years are more precious, and it’s easier for a human to say ’best make the most of the time we have right now’ while for an elf, it’s much easier to see the chance for profit in ten or twenty years.”

“Fair enough…” sighed Kat. It’s a mindset I suppose we’ll have to get into at some point.

[Except we have even MORE time. So we can enjoy ourselves for quite a while before we really have to start thinking long term. We could be a hundred and still considered kids if you take how long we’ve lived as a percentage type deal.]

* I suppose. Though does it really change anything? I guess I could train more but frankly I don’t know if I need the extra strength either. With the way D.E.M.O.N.S works I only need to be as strong as I want to be. Though training at least a bit is enjoyable… sigh. Planning for the future is hard.*

[I guess that’s the real answer, just take things day by day with a wider perspective to ensure that you’re never completely screwing over your future self.]

*Good enough for now. Perhaps we can revisit the topic in fifty years.*

Kat refocused on the real world to ask. “So… how long will it take to heal up and remove those scars? I’m sort of curious.”

“Do you mean ’normally’ or with the specific brew I plan to use?” asked Appoline.

“Both I guess?” Kat answered with a shrug. “More info is always interesting.”

“For an Elf at Rank 1? Never without outside intervention. Depending on the location it can fade to almost nothing in five years but getting past that is basically impossible. Rank 2 is fairly similar, though with the caveat that anything you get BEFORE a Rank up is always harder to remove then one you gain afterwards.

“At Rank 3 you start to get a bit of long term scar removal but its really slow. Only small scars, less then a fingernail’s area in size. Still… twenty years to remove those completely. After that? No idea. I just don’t have the data on it. I’d expect that anything smaller then palm sized can be healed in about a hundred years, with smaller ones healing faster… but that’s a guess.

“With potions? It once again depends. I’m making one of the more efficient brews. Not too expensive, not all that fast. Instead of drinking it once and being done you have to pour it out onto a thick cloth bandage which is then wrapped around the scar tissue. Replace every eight or so hours and you should be good in a week. Sometimes nastier scars can take longer, and if it takes more than ten days you’ll need more bottles. Its usually about three for ten days and you can make those three in one batch,” explained Appoline.

“Only three bottles a batch? Standard size?” asked Kat.

Appoline nodded, “For all of the more potent potions you… well it’s not exactly ’lost’ but it simply doesn’t spread out as much. You get a lot of extra water and waste product in the making. Three bottles is pretty good for this recipe. Most people would be lucky to get two out of it. Though, it IS a more advanced recipe I altered based on an easier and more expensive one. So I’m not entirely certain of this. I’ve never seen anyone else make it,”

“How do you manage to get double?” asked Kat.

“Familiarity with ingredients mostly, and skill in breaking them down,” answered Appoline.

“Speaking of, are you still making the anti-poison stuff?” asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged, “We’re currently on break as you can tell by the cheese platter,” Appoline pointed to say platter in the corner. “We’re also waiting on more ingredients. We’re just sort of stockpiling things for the moment. I’m the only one of the three that still have mana to spare.”

Kat glanced around and noticed that the other two Alchemist were in fact, asleep in their chairs. Tweedle was even drooling a little bit. Kat felt a bit embarrassed for missing that detail. *I suppose it is late in the afternoon… we were out chasing the monster for a while…*