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

Chapter 1362 Chapter 1362 Raceway Rewards

?--- Lily ---

Once it was clear to Thyme that Lily had calmed down they said, ”Congratulations, youʼve taken the second place prize, which is of course, two treasures,” Thyme tapped the stone behind him and the case around Lilyʼs bracelet shattered. A moment after that another much larger opening appeared with two treasure chests inside. ”Feel free to grab your prize at your leisure,”

Thyme didnʼt make any further moves after that. Lily just… took a few more moments to relax. The currents here were a lot stronger then they seemed, or perhaps it was just that they got stronger? Lily wasnʼt sure which way around it was, but the experience had been a bit harrowing and slightly humbling. Apparently being able to move at great speed under your own power is nice and all… but when youʼre still Rank 2 thereʼs still plenty of people and things that can go faster.

Thyme didnʼt react further to Lilyʼs stunned silence. Probably a matter of limited interference in the test. The Thyme in front of her likely had a very limited number of ʼlinesʼ that it was allowed to use. Lily didnʼt let herself spend too long thinking about it. She WAS on a time limit after all, so she swam over to the chests and transformed to throw them both open properly.

Then she realised sheʼd forgotten her bracelet, so she quickly shut the chests before sheʼd taken a good look, swam back out to grab her bracelet treasure and slipped it on before going back and opening the chests a second time. Inside the first was obviously a pair of boots. Which felt somewhat thematic for a race… but it was an underwater race. So perhaps they werenʼt appropriate at all?

Lily shrugged as she took them out of the chest. She wasnʼt wearing any shoes of her own so it was easy to slide them on her feet. The shoes constricted around her ankles, but below that seemed to remain mostly the same size. Lily wiggled her toes a bit and they seemed fine. She tried to move the rest of her foot around in the shoe… and found the shoe always came with her. Not sliding at all. *Clearly black magic trickery is afoot.*

With that established Lily did a quick check over the treasure chest and found nothing regarding the name of the boots. Which was a touch annoying, as it likely meant the paper was hidden somewhere in the cave and sheʼd have to figure out WHERE if she really wanted to get a hint as to what the boots did.

Lily shrugged off that problem for a moment and looked into the other chest. This one contained a bracelet, though it looked nothing like the other two Lily had already acquired. This one was made of rose gold metal chains all linked together. The chains were all slightly different in size, but it wasnʼt always a major difference. If Lily wasnʼt examining the bracelet closely she wasnʼt sure sheʼd have noticed. Sadly, this didnʼt give her any clues regarding what the bracelet actually DID.

So with that in mind Lily started to investigate the rest of the cave… but it really wasnʼt anything too interesting. It was a very standard cave, with a few rocky protrusions but after a relatively quick look, Lily wasnʼt able to find the paper relating to the chests. Perhaps there was some hidden latch or a rock that could be shifted aside but nothing Lily could see indicated as such. Which raised the question. What did she want to do now?

*Is it worth spending my time investigating here? Iʼve got… a smaller amount of mana then Iʼd like but itʼs not nothing. Perhaps… twenty percent? Which isnʼt too bad after taking into account the fact I needed to use my shadow magic to help speed along my ride. I mean… I hope it sped me up enough to make the difference between one and two chests, or two and none, because if not I just burnt through a lot of the mana Iʼd regenerated for nothing.*

Lily shook her head to clear the worries from her mind. There was no reason to get caught up in that sort of thing right now. *Letʼs not. Ignore that issue. Address what I have here. Is it worth looking for the paper? With two chests that need identifying itʼs possible that I can find one at least if I look around for a bit. Surely with two out there one is possible… but Iʼm not sure I NEED to know what the boots do.

A bit of mana and I bet Iʼll find out that theyʼre jet boots of some kind. Perhaps they have multiple settings. Like, the fact that I can move my toes around is to control the power or something? I could see it and I can probably test it without too much trouble. So what I really need to know about is the bracelet… but I donʼt know how to test that properly, or what it might do.

I mean… what does a bracelet of chains actually DO? I can sort of imagine that you throw it over someone and trap them? Like a really fancy lasso or something. Sadly Iʼm not any good with throwing that sort of thing, and I donʼt even know if my guess is at all correct. Still I suppose I could try it.*

Looking at Thyme for a few moments, Lily decided it was best to just ask, ”Am I allowed to test treasures on you?” Thyme didnʼt respond. Lily took that as a sign of acceptance, because Thyme would, probably, have answered if it was against the rules in some way. So Lily put a bit of mana in the bracelet and then lightly threw it at Thyme. The bracelet just bounced off Thymeʼs chest where it made contact. No expanding into a magic lasso. No magical ball of chains. It MAY have lit up a little bit during the flight but that could just as easily be the reflection of the sun on the metal.

Lily clicked her teeth and picked up the bracelet, throwing it around her wrist. *Right. Well that was a failure. Do I want to test the lightning rod? On the one hand… it could be a powerful trump card. On the OTHER hand Iʼm underwater and it could damage me enough to force me out of the game for thirty minutes. Which, might not be too bad if I find a good spot to hide to reduce the chance of my stuff being stolen… but is it worth testing? Thyme would totally give out a few useless weapons. Thatʼs not even in question. No the question is, IS this weapon in particular one of those that doesnʼt work.

I… I donʼt have a lot of experience with magical lightning. I donʼt know how reasonable it is for it to just ʼworkʼ underwater. For a certain definition of work I suppose. Itʼs not electricity. Thatʼs not what it is. Itʼs LIGHTNING MAGIC. Of course the counterpoint is that paper magic IS paper. Especially when it wants to be, but itʼs not always paper. Sometimes itʼs almost paper.

I imagine having a proper lightning bolt would take up too much energy… but that might be a poor guess on my part. I wish I knew the answer, but I donʼt so… I guess I can only conclude itʼs not worth testing. So what do I do now? Keep looking for the paper? No I guess I test the boots out first.*

The test of the boots was easy. Lily just aimed herself towards the middle of the ʼrace trackʼ and pushed in some mana. She moved forward in a burst of movement. It wasnʼt amazingly fast, and it was possibly building up speed… but you only went forward as long as you were putting mana in. So the quick burst didnʼt get Lily far. Despite all that, she was quite happy with things. A few more little tests with more of her precious mana reserves just confirmed things. Lily transformed back into her Memphis form for a moment and got the expected result. Canʼt use the jet boots in Memphis form because you canʼt put mana into them.

*Right so these are definitely jet boots. Not sure how much use Iʼll get out of them because they seem like little mana hogs if you want to use them for more than just quick burst. Thatʼs on top of my desire to remain in Memphis form for the most part. At least theyʼre comfortable to wear despite being underwater and without socks. Not sure Iʼd even bother to keep them on if they werenʼt.

Which I suppose just leaves the question of what to do now? I still donʼt know what the bracelet does but Iʼve wasted more than a little time here. I think I want to check out the race track carefully for signs of treasure chests, so itʼs not like Iʼve got a long travel time… but I still donʼt know if looking for the paper is a trap or not.*