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

Chapter 1898: Chapter 1898 A Massive Chest

--- Kat ---

In the end it felt like they hadn’t really decided on anything. The answer they vaguely come up with was ’deal with it on a case by case basis’ which sounds nice but they really were trying to have some concrete rules put in place ahead of time to make the process smoother. Alas, it was agreed by all three of them that realistically they needed to see what sort of things were actually in the chests to know how much they should ’fight’ over things. For all that they wanted to make things fair... they really had no way to do that. Well, Kat and Lily wanted to make things fair. Hedera just didn’t want to lose out too much, but with her ’opponents’ not really trying to push matters it didn’t end up being an issue for anyone.

They did however, decide to open this chest together with everyone involved. Sure the chest was found by Kat alone but the second chest was arguably shared and the key was definitely ’both’ of theirs. Even if Hedera wanted to argue otherwise. ”Lily did the challenge!”

”Yes and you helped me fight off the monsters,” countered Lily. ”I’m sure I’d have lived, but it would’ve been a lot more tense,” [Assuming they could even hurt me. I could’ve just flew upwards a bit to avoid most of them and I’ve got no idea how tough I am... but I’m not going to mention that to her.]

Hedera shook her head. ”Fine, we can open it together and decide afterwards,”

Kat and Lily grinned as they sat the chest down and noticed Weaver peaking out at them through the windows. They were outside just in case the chest was... explosive in some way. ”What are you doing Weaver? Do you want to look or not?” asked Kat.

”Eep...” startled Weaver as she ducked back inside.

”Hey, we’re not trying to hide anything. We’re just trying not to mess up your house! I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of these chests are trapped... or at the very least explosive in their celebration when you open them,” said Kat.

Weaver peaked back out the door and carefully lowered herself down and Kat winced. Remember that Weaver was still missing a number of her legs and wasn’t anywhere close to ’healed’. For all that she seemed fine she was still missing large chunks of her body. Being inside the house, surrounded by so much concentrated silk probably helped support her in a lot of little ways. Ways that it wasn’t when she gently touched down on the ground, held up by clearly visible strings attached to her.

Deciding it was better not to comment on that Kat turned her attention back to the chest and pulled the key out and raised it up. Once the moment was suitably established, complete with halo of fire for effect, Kat knelt down and put the key in the lock. It clicked the moment she put it in, and as Kat turned it the key vanished and the chest sprung upon.

The sound of trumpets exploded from the chest as bright beams of golden light shot off towards the ceiling, one of which nearly went right into Weaver’s eyes. From inside the chest an ancient looking scroll slowly rose upwards. You couldn’t read anything... because there wasn’t anything on it yet. The old weathered paper seemed to be threaded together with bits of gold because it shined under the light.

Once it reached its apex, about head height, golden pieces of light started to rapidly write the content onto the scroll. If Kat, Lily and Hedera had been less enthralled by the process they might have noticed Weaver’s expression of shock as the paper filled itself out. At the top, in big bold blue and gold letters the paper announced itself as a rule change scroll. As expected. It read like this

--

Rule Change Scroll: ’Change is Scary’

Whenever someone seeks to change into a different area of the island through the mist walls, they will be required to wait out a timer. To start the timer, you must press your hand against the wall and wait for a red number to appear. The number must remain in sight to continue counting down, and should it no longer be visible for longer than five minutes the countdown will stop.

An exception is made for if the individual waiting for the countdown has their eyes closed, but could theoretically see it when their eyes were open. Sleeping, or simply resting near the timer will not stop the countdown.

The countdown cannot be moved along the wall. It remains in a fixed position. The countdown can be no more than three metres off the ground. The countdown will be placed at the same spot as where you first make contact with the wall. Making contact with the wall a second time while the countdown is ongoing will not alter the countdown in any way.

Countdown can be no less than fifteen minutes and no more than five hours. Cancelling a countdown by looking away will cause the next countdown to be the same length or longer so as to prevent individuals from simply gambling for a shorter countdown.

All individuals seeking to cross the wall have a separate countdown , HOWEVER when the countdown reaches 0 a pathway will open in the wall allowing for passage for anyone, not just the person who started the countdown. The passage way will remain open for no more than five minutes. After that five minutes, the passage will close and if this was your countdown you will need to start it once again.

Should the countdown need to be restarted, you can do so simply by placing your hand on the fog wall once again.

Do you wish to implement this rule?

--

Kat frowned at the paper. *Is this like... really convenient? Or is there something I’m missing here. If we use Weaver’s pathways we don’t even need to interact with this. Plus... it talks about ’individuals’ here. Does that mean we can open three, one for me, one for Hedera and one for YOU as well? Maybe Timmy? Heck, what about Weaver or the town’s folk? Does this... would implementing this mean that the town would be even more in need of Weaver’s services? Five hours isn’t forever but if you got really unlucky... and hmmm...

How does that work? Let’s say we all touch it, and we’re super unlucky. Both me and you get a 5 hour timer... and Hedera high rolls it and gets fifteen minutes. If we go through Hedera’s does that mean our next trip MUST take at least five hours? I don’t know how I feel about that...*

[Ooh, that last one is a good catch I hadn’t noticed that. I... hmm... I would assume that’s not how it to works... but I could be wrong. I really want to ask Thyme about it but... they probably won’t answer?]

Lily glanced over at Weaver who had a sort of dazed look on her face, like she wasn’t entirely present. Noticing Lily’s confusion, Kat took her own look and found Lily was right. Glancing over at Hedera showed them that this was a Weaver thing. Hedera was tapping her foot and biting her lip with a slight frown on her face.

”So Hedera, what do you think? Lily and I were going over it... and it’s more complicated then it seems in a few ways,” said Kat.

”Yeah...” agreed Hedera with a nod. ”You guys saw the fact the Weaver pathways might not count right?” Kat and Lily nodded in sync. ”Yeah that... that makes this a really strong rule change for us. I’m just... not sure if it would be bad for my team or not? This is... sort of a neutral type of real that seems just seems really good for us personally? Like... isn’t that a bit odd?”

Kat nodded, ”Yeah it IS odd. I mean, this isn’t even the chest that we got from Weaver. This is the one from underwater. I suppose it wasn’t too far away from that tunnel we found where we met you... but it wasn’t THAT close you know?”

Hedera nodded, ”Yeah exactly. So I’m trying to wonder if this is too good to be true because it really seems that way... or if there’s a hidden catch... or if we just got super lucky for seemingly no reason,”

”Hey Weaver, want to chime in at all?” asked Lily. Wondering what the spider lady would say about the idea it would affect her space portals... but she didn’t even twitch. Lily frowned and moved her shadow so that a hand would wave in front of Weaver’s face. Nothing. No reaction. ”Can she not see the paper?”

”I guess not?” said Kat with her own frown.

”It makes some sense,” offered Hedera. ”It might just be limited to characters being played by Thyme or maybe all of the actors were told not to ’notice’ the rule change papers. I could see it being either. Still... it doesn’t change too much. Just... do we want to activate it? I’m leaning towards yes but I’m not anywhere close to certain that’s a good idea.”