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

--- Kat ---

Appoline went to act first, hopping from Kat’s arms and carefully examining the area of the deceased jellyfish. Appoline made to step forward before turning to Lily and asking, ”Is it safe for me to approach? Those ashes are likely exceptionally potent ingredients, and I can see a bit of... whatever it was made up of before on the ground as well. I’d like to gather them, but obviously I don’t want to end up looking the same.”

Lily tilted her head, focusing for a few moments on the spot before using her shadow hands to give a thumbs up. Seeing this, Appoline nodded and moved over, carefully watching the ground until she arrived at the ashes. Then in a few swift motions she managed to gather everything up, taking only a miniscule amount of extra debris, mostly mud, in the process. ”Good. This is a potent regent I suspect, perhaps with the capability to make the single greatest healing potion I’ve ever heard of... sadly it is less likely I can use it for strong poisons, but still, a great possibility.”

”Why is that?” asked Kat.

”Its entire existence seems to be time based, and it proved to be able to reform itself while taking significant amounts of damage. It is quite likely that with the right complimentary ingredients I could create a potion capable of restoring someone to pristine health. Though it might be limited to a certain amount of time after the damage occurred. Perhaps localising it to a limb might also be possible for a longer duration? Could work on the recently deceased as well...”

”Really?” Kat queried.

Appoline shook her hand from side to side as if to say ’sort of kind of’. ”It depends what you consider ’death’. There are plenty of legends of people with the capability to revive the dead, but when you have some medical background you realise that there are in fact, two types of dead. The first is when the body collapses in some way, unable to further sustain its operation. Not just sleep, but ceasing functionality entirely. Usually limited by the brain or heart.

”The second death comes when the soul leaves the body. It’s considered proven but the specifics are less so. Some say that it takes three days for the soul to leave the body but there are of course many examples of people being restored with healing magic... and still dying. Then again, how many of those stories are real is harder to work out. Some try to sound more real... some don’t really care...” Appoline shrugged. ”At the very least I personally have experience with ’healing’ people that have been ’dead’ for twelve hours, so that much I can confirm.

”What I think is possible, is that the ash and goop here could be used to revive someone like that with minimal to no side effects, even if their body was essentially gone. Though... might also be able to make a potion that de-ages you? Not sure about that one. A certain individual hordes that secret like a dragon and ’discourages’ others from looking too deeply into it,”

”Ah,” intoned Kat. ”Fair enough then.”

”Right... it does mean I’d like more of these if possible. Not sure we can get anything that isn’t ash, and as I already said it’s a strong ingredient as it is... but more would be really nice,” requested Appoline.

What do you think? I don’t mind going out of my way for them because it does seem useful... but it would slow us down.

[Assuming she’s willing to make a few for us it sounds REALLY strong. Even if we don’t need it for the tournament... something like this could be useful outside of it. Maybe back home? Not sure potions would work if we took them there...]

Right so we agree then.

[Yes.]

”Alright that’s fine. I’ve got a bit of an idea for how we travel anyway. I’d like you to focus on floral threats, I’ll try to focus on the fauna, and Lily I want you to focus on the cracks,” Kat offered.

”I am fine with this arrangement,” agreed Appoline.

[I’m also fine with it, but I’m not able to detect the jellies too easily... or maybe at all. They don’t really make noise and I didn’t sense anything odd at all even when it was right on top of it.]

Technically they count as fauna...

[Just warning you that you’ll need to watch the cracks as well.] Kat nodded and relayed to Appoline what they’d just been over before gathering back up once again for Kat to continue flying away. Now that she was on the lookout... it was still hard to find the jellyfish. It was unclear if they were simply hidden even better when you were at a distance or if they were rare. For all that Kat and Lily did want more ingredients from them they continually avoided protection. Perhaps they had some way to hide inside the cracks themselves?

Nobody knew. Instead, they managed to bump into an angry crocodile thing. Unlike so many other things it was entirely earth aligned and had tried to take a bite out of them as they flew over the swamp water. The fight wasn’t interesting. Kat was able to simply dodge it and throw some demonic fire at it while Lily used her shadows to keep it at bay while the demonic fire did its work.

Appoline requested some samples of various parts, and she ended up taking its claws, tongue, and one of the eyes. The second had been destroyed in the fight but Appoline didn’t seem to care too much about that. The journey continued once it was dealt with, making progress... or at least continuing to head towards the mountain.

Points of interest were few and far between. Some unique rocks or trees with odd shapes were spotted along the way... but they weren’t that amazing. There was no towns or remnants of civilisation to be found. Though, as the day wore on, Kat was starting to note that they hadn’t found any orbs. At all. That seemed wrong, or potentially scary.

The daylight hadn’t changed at all so there was no way to know what time it was. The area was frozen in a perpetual daylight... they didn’t have infinite orbs. A massive stockpile sure, one that would keep them good for at least four days, perhaps a week depending on exactly how many they’d managed to squirrel away. It wasn’t like they’d counted...

But it did mean that other people would struggle here as well. Unless there was some sort of secret cache they were missing. The jellyfish didn’t seem to have one on them... nor did the crocodile, or the other even lesser monsters that attacked them along the way. It made Kat slightly worried. It felt wrong. They weren’t even climbing the mountain yet, but might have to turn back?

That was when Kat glanced down at her bracelet and noticed something odd. It was still mostly full. Kat had refilled it before heading inside the mist and kicking all of this off so it wasn’t too odd that it was full... but this was ridiculous. It had been at least a few hours since then... but the bracelet seemed to be missing at most two hours of charge.

*There wasn’t anything in the rules about this was there?*

[No I don’t think so... does that mean that we’re not actually moving through ’normal time’ at the moment? Or maybe the air here is recharging it? But Thyme said only the orbs could recharge the bracelet...]

*Technically its not getting recharged, it’s just losing charge slowly.*

[I suppose so... but still, the orbs were meant to be good for a certain amount of hours.]

*Could somebody have found a rule change scroll that gives us more time per orb?*

[Maybe? I’d assume we’d here from Thyme about it during the announcements... would they have passed? No wait, they have to have because it should’ve been around that time when we entered the mist. No more than an hour or two and it’s been longer than that... right?]

*Yeah... maybe they found it afterwards? Or waited until just after to activate it?*

[That... I can believe that. If they had it around they could’ve been waiting for exactly this moment to give them the extra day. Maybe they’re running low, or maybe they didn’t want people to notice yet?]

*Unclear.*

Even with that revelation... there wasn’t anything they could do to test it. Not really. If anything, it meant that the orbs they had stockpiled were even more valuable. Depending on if the rule had something to do with the orbs vanishing or not. Kat and Lily were also wondering if perhaps this area had orbs that looked different or unique, perhaps lightning infused... but it wasn’t like they’d seen any of those either. It was a mystery, and one that left you vaguely uncomfortable. Not being able to tell the time at all made both of them wish they had a watch or something. It would’ve been surprisingly useful.