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

Chapter 1936: Chapter 1936 Kat’s Night Time Search

--- Kat ---

Kat was off wandering around on her own, clearing up the last of the houses. Lily and Hedera had tucked in for the night... after they’d moved a bit further away from the primordial. There was some concern that they might not hear it breaking out if they got too far away so they were in the very last house they could be. Of course, they weren’t so lucky as to find proper furniture in those houses...

So before Kat went on her wandering she ended up being volentold to go and grab one of the couches they’d spotted in the initial canvas. No mattresses sadly, though they had seen a few bedframes. Kat wasn’t particularly upset about this, as soon as Lily got the idea she was struggling not to laugh. Her mental waves of amusement as she made the declaration made it very hard to be annoyed with her... not that Kat wanted to be. Instead, it was much more fun to laugh along.

Kat was tempted to break the couch in half so that it could fit inside the storage bracelet she had... but Kat could only remember where two couches were and didn’t want to risk not being able to find the third one for a short gag. Even still, Kat was surprised when she returned, couches in toe.

Lily had gone out her way to make up a bit of a meal for everyone. She was just using a campfire in the backyard so it wasn’t exactly amazing, but it was something and Kat showered her in kisses for being thoughtful enough to try. Even if Kat wasn’t hungry, she still made sure to consume the leftovers once Hedera and Lily had eaten their fill.

Now though, Kat was just sort of bored. Part of this was that the designer of this place hadn’t gone out of their way to keep things interesting and difficult. At this point, Kat just needed to walk into the house and glance around a bit to work out where the orbs were hidden. They were just using templates. It wasn’t even a matter of checking all the possible spots, you just needed to look at the kitchen, work out what handful of layouts it could be, and then searching maybe five spots max.

Then things got... interesting. After Kat had covered somewhere close to ninety percent of the city, including the work done earlier of course, she found a house with nothing. Absolutely nothing. No orbs. No furniture, not even any kitchen cabinets. The only markings on the walls were missing chunks of plaster where things once were. The cabinets had sat, or pictures might have once been hammered in. It was the first new house in a number of hours.

Kat slowly walked further into the kitchen as she tried to take in the place. *This is weird. Where the heck is everything?* Kat glanced into a few of the gaps in the wall but was stopped investigating further by the densely packed insulation. Kat could easily pull it out, or simply chip away at the walls to keep looking... but wouldn’t that somewhat defeat the point?

*The real question is if I’m likely to find any orbs inside them. I doubt Thyme would make me tear down an entire house... but then again... this place might not have been developed by Thyme. Lot of duplicate houses. Or perhaps I’m just reading into things too much once again.*

Kat did a brief check of every room, except the basement, and made sure to shift around any insulation just laying on the floor but that didn’t reveal anything, not even a particularly big pile of it in the corner of the bedroom. With that all done she made her way to the basement and opened it up, expecting to find more of the same... and running face first into a brick wall. The door was there, but when you opened it there was just a wall, right there.

Kat tapped it a few times and decided it felt like real break. Tapping it a few more times, just in case there was some obvious weak point... Kat pulled back a foot and kicked the bricks hard. This was perhaps a mistake. Instead of busting down the wall and looking cool doing it, her foot went right through the spot she’d kicked, taking out perhaps six bricks in total and getting her leg stuck in the wall. The bricks might have been solid, but the grouting used to connect them was not.

Kat had to awkwardly stand on leg as she freed herself. Luckily her tail made that easy. Simply using it to poke out the bricks surrounding her trapped leg was enough to be freed after a few moments. Though Kat was glad nobody was around to see that. Now though... she had another consideration. *Should I be exploring the creepy boarded up basement without backup? Media tells me no... but fuck it I’m going to do it anyway.*

Kat stepped down the stairs, each creaking as her weight shifted on her way down. Kat was happy to ignore that, it didn’t scare her... but she really should’ve learnt from the brick wall. Kat was four steps in when instead of groaning under her weight the rotten wood of the stair entirely gave out under Kat’s weight. The spot she was standing on collapsed, sending Kat falling down.

She was a lot tougher and heavier than some random stairs though, so instead of getting stuck, when Kat’s weight dropped entirely on a small section of the wood it just gave way, dropping her behind the stairs and into a bunch of random crates which weren’t any sturdier. Kat had to fight the desire to stretch her wings out... and potentially catch them on the wood or something.

Of course, this meant she ended up surrounded by wood chips, but they were easily brushed off. When Kat stood back up, she found a dirty basement. Completely at odds with the stripped bear walls of the area above. *Must have boarded up the area long before clearing things out. Though I wonder why?*

Kat couldn’t see anything that stood out as particularly odd. There were a number of crates and barrels, some clearly empty, and others Kat could tell had eventually gone off from the smell. It wasn’t as bad as she’d think rotting food would be, so perhaps they were somewhat preserved? Or maybe there was an enchantment around to keep the smell in, and her own better than average nose was good enough to bypass that.

Kat searched around amongst the shelves for anything noteworthy, or an orb that would signal it was time to leave. This searching did eventually lead her to a desk, it was set at the back past a number of shelves and technically, if Kat had her bearings right, under the road a good deal past what was probably ’allowed’ for a basement like this.

Sitting on the desk was an old, ratty book that looked like it wasn’t in great condition. Kat was tempted to read it... but decided to simply stick it in her storage bracelet. If the condition really was as bad as it seemed from the outside it was probably best to check with Lily if she had any spells that could restore it, even temporarily, so that it could properly be read. *Though this still means I’m missing the orb in this house. Pretty sure I checked everything. The desk is weird, and the book is obviously important but there’s nothing else here! Just a few more shelves drilled into the wall.*

Kat tapped on of the nearby jars filled with a strange sort of goo. She could faintly make out the remains of a fruit inside but it was hard to tell really. Most of what had been in the jar had dissolved into the not-quite-liquid that remained in the jar. A few stems that were very fuzzy but that was it. The shelves behind her were either crates or barrels, and they didn’t seem worth opening to check for a single orb.

*I suppose the question is twofold. Firstly, is it worth wasting more time exploring this house? I haven’t reached the thirty minute limit... I think. The other question is ’will I need the book’ because I could see the book requiring you to do two or things other things to get a nice cache of orbs... but obviously I don’t want to risk checking on it just in case the pages all fall apart and you need to guess what to do based on half complete pages. I can see that happening and I’m pretty sure the book is in the right condition for that.

Hmm... yeah actually, best just to move on. If I’m handing over the book for Lily to look at then I’ll probably be back. Maybe I should mark the house just in case? Yeah let me look for something to mark the roof. Doesn’t need to last too long. Just a few hours. Especially consider we ARE technically on a time limit. A week isn’t looking like all that long anymore...*