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

Chapter 2170: Chapter 2170 The Author is Sleepy and so is Steel

— Kat —

Kat’s ’little joke’ about the food meant that Furen wasn’t really game enough to each much more of it. She kept being tempted, and would reach out for a slice of something before retracting her arm back and pouting at Kat. The first few times Kat was certain it was entirely involuntary, both the reaching and the pouting, but after this repeated a few times she became more certain that the pouting at least was intentional. Perhaps it was an attempt to get Kat to feel guilty… and it failed.

Kat was too busy wondering if she was seeing hostility where there wasn’t any. When Furen mentioned that noise Kat had found nothing. The guards seemed to be a bit tired and worn down when they gave her instructions to go to the castle, but was there something else there? What about the annoyance from the guard that brought them to the room? Kat felt more sure about that one but was she just seeing things?

Kat wasn’t sure ’worry’ was really the right word though. It was a cycle that Kat drifted around, mostly to occupy her time. She’d wonder if these people were secretly doing something, mentally comment on how silly it was to suspect everyone and then point out that it wasn’t paranoia if people are really out to get you. Still, even with this in theory being something to worry about, Kat far more concerned with making sure Lily was safe so these more esoteric threats were just an amusing thing to look over.

It got to the point where Kat was extrapolating ever more ridiculous scenarios for why they might be annoyed. Starting with the reasonable, that it was late and the day and people were tired. There wasn’t any reason. Then jumping up to something more normal, that they didn’t like demons. Then escalating to ’they’re being paid by the people after the core’ and ’they’re directly working for them as a spy’ which… if Kat was being honest, she didn’t quite know the difference between those two but the latter felt more serious.

That’s where the ’reasonable’ ended and Kat decided to get increasingly crazy and elaborate with her reasoning. She came up with such great ideas like ’the guard outside once dated a redhead that left him for another woman, crushing him even more than just the cheating and he’s projecting that on me’ or ’attack pigeons were making noise in the poison to distract us but they all dissolved in the poison just before I went looking for them’

Eventually going even further, that Thyme orchestrated this entire thing just to flex on the angels or that the tournament was being broadcast on live television back on earth while being marketed as a gritty realistic looking Survivor-style storyline but with special effects for the magic.

One of Kat’s favourites, was the idea that sentient poison clouds had paid Thyme off to hire them onto the project to spread more poison and convert more people into poison clouds through the area. Kat then upgraded that idea but deciding the poison clouds had to be alien poison clouds. Because that obviously made things crazier.

Eventually though, Kat’s silly conspiracies had to be cut off because Steel had finally entered the room… and it seemed like the lacking sleep he was getting was finally catching up to him. He had small bags starting to form under his eyes and they were a touch dull, like he wasn’t really looking at them so much as he was just accepting they existed in the room alongside him.

Steel swiped one of the meatier plates that had barely been touched and slumped down in his chair. Taking a deep breath, he then swiftly stuffed about half of it into his mouth before swallowing and glancing around. Kat was more curious then anything else at this point, so she just let the silence remain while waiting to see what he’d do next as Furen looked like someone had just told her that the easter bunny wasn’t real. Eventually, Steel found some sort of flask and dumped its contents into his mouth. Considering he’d lifted it high enough to have the liquid be quite visible Kat could see it was water. Well that or vodka she supposed but it didn’t smell like it.

When Steel finished with the water he finally let out a sound, a long sigh before turning to address them. “Sorry about that. I haven’t eaten anything since this morning and I’m still running low on sleep.”

“Are you ok then?” asked Kat.

Steel shrugged. “It’s my own fault. I had food I was meant to eat for lunch prepared, got distracted with work, and then accidentally hit the edge of the plate launching it onto the wall. Steel gestured at a spot on the stonework that, now that it was pointed out, did look a little stained. “Then I just didn’t ask for more food. Normally I’d be fine but I’m already burning myself out a bit.”

Steel scratched at his neck for a few moments before continuing. “Still, whatever. Hit me with the annoying problem you’ve encountered with the core. Does it not exist? Is it guarded by some impossible guard? What’s the situation?”

“Um… well it certainly exists…” began Kat as she started to explain the issues they’d run into, mostly focusing on the core itself and the layers of defences it has, alongside the issues with transporting it out of the room.

Steel sighed, “Well that’s not the worst news… but I’m afraid I’ve got no solutions for you ready at hand. I don’t know how I expected you to transport the core, and I blame it on the lack of sleep… but hearing you mentioning this now I’m wondering why I thought you’d be able to move it in the first place…”

“Well I can likely physically carry it without coming to harm myself but well…” Kat trailed off.

“Of course,” acknowledged Steel. “I wouldn’t be surprised but… yes I suppose I did simply think you could store it or carry it without such massive amounts of mana causing issues. I’ll need to speak to… a lot of people actually. I was discussing the next step forward if the core turned out to be real but clearly I missed the intermediate step where we’re required to actually find a way to move the thing.”

“Do you think it’s likely that the other people looking for it know how?” asked Kat.

“A good question, and one I’d love an answer to. Presumably, they’ve been after this longer and could properly plan for its transportation… but Chisel didn’t have anything on him that would allow for such transportation. I’m wondering if he was never actually intended to be able to retrieve it… but he seemed pretty convinced he’d be capable of it.

“I suppose we weren’t really investigating that line of questioning. I think I just assumed that it would have some sort of ’mobile form’ or perhaps that it would shut down if it wasn’t in active use… but clearly it wasn’t being fully utilised for some time now and it’s not stopped generating mana in the slightest,” sighed Steel.

*Yeah… how IS it doing that anyway? Mana seems like infinite energy a lot of the time but nothing as ridiculous as this. What did Thyme even cook up here? Let alone potentially multiple times. It has to be a trick of some kind… or maybe not? I guess I want to say it’s impossible or exceptionally difficult to make but it’s not like I really KNOW how.*

So Kat just shrugged. “There’s also all that water,”

Steel shook his head, “That is honestly not much of a worry. I can already think of dozens of ways to solve that problem in both the long and the sort term. It’s really not a concern and it should turn off once the core is removed…”

Kat winced. “Right but Lily… seemed to think the portal was a bigger issues then that?”

Steel let out a long sigh. “Not what I wanted to hear but thank you for telling me. Apparently I need to amend my statement. Dealing with the water won’t be too much of an issue we can deal with the portal. I… I don’t even know if I CAN get a team to look into this right now, or ever. This is a pretty specific skillset I’d need to find.”

“Well… what’s the plan for us then? Like the group in general?” asked Kat.

Steel groaned. “I’m not sure. I want to get the poison cleaned up. That’s technically my main priority but the core complicates things in several major ways. I’d love if there was some way to solve both issues… but I don’t see that happening. Unless… hmm… could the poison be pushed into the water portal?”

“Is it really a good idea to poison such a large amount of water?” asked Kat.

“I was under the impression it was essentially limitless so the poison would dilute down into nothing?” questioned Steel.

Kat shrugged. “Maybe but not sure why you’d assume that.”

“I… I guess I’ll need to think about it, and redraw some plans. Gah looks like another sleepless night,” muttered Steel.

“Um… maybe you SHOULD sleep to help with that?” asked Kat. Steel just laughed at her question.