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

Chapter 2276 A Spot of Tea

--- Nixilei ---

Nixilei was sipping tea in the tent she’d been given, wondering what to do next. Truthfully, she was still amazed she’d managed to escape that seemingly endless barrage of bombs some days back.

What Nixilei had managed to do was dive deep into the water, and find a hidden cave. Just the water alone likely wouldn’t have been enough, but the cave meant that when her pursuer unloaded a number of explosives into the water in an attempt to smoke her out, she’d been safe, if not particularly dry, in an underwater cave. From there, Nixilei had simply held out for as long as she could.

The explosions stopped inside of thirty minutes, but Nixilei hadn’t left until her orbs were down to their last twelve hours. It had been a LONG time to sit in a tiny, wet cave, and she’d needed to improvise a bit with a spell to keep herself going. The cave was dry sure, but it didn’t let much if any air inside and Nixilei had needed to work around that. The spell she’d used was meant to oxygenate blood to help people who were having trouble breathing.

Nixilei could theoretically do that to herself, but long term it would’ve meant issues with the air quality. Overwhelmed by the bad air instead of running low on the good. So instead, she’d cast the spell on the water itself, causing oxygen to bubble up from with it. This was a much better solution because there was no risk in pumping about as much mana as she could manage into the spell.

Sure water wasn’t blood, but it was close enough for the spell to function. Nixilei also didn’t have to worry about accidentally exploding her veins either. Just pump as much mana into the spell as she could without it backfiring, and then resting until her mana recharged and doing it again.

The air was still a bit off by the time she needed to leave, but ultimately Nixilei considered the whole thing a success. Once free from the cave and her pursuers, she’d made her way here to the town in autumn. It hadn’t been too difficult to find, and it made her a lot safer.

Something that she hadn’t consider while on the run, was the fact that the actors for this play were capable of defending themselves. There was almost certainly one or two here in the town that would act as the ultimate defenders if someone caused major issues... such as say, bombing the place.

So ever since Nixilei had left the cave she’d been doing as many errands for orbs as she could manage. The goal was simply to burn away time at this point. It was best to simply delay her exit. Especially when she expected a lot of her team to make for the centre. It was simply how they all thought.

”Assuming they’re still in the game. Kat will be first. She’s always like that... and might be willing to go for the win. That is harder to say...” Nixilei mumbled over her drink. ”Kat might be wishing to go home. This last round has already been quite the time investment... but on the other hand, she’s a good soul and might stick to the agreement we made before. That’s what makes predicting her hard. Though, the chances Kat is out already are quite low. I’d be surprised if between Kat AND Lily they couldn’t handle whatever is thrown there way.

”Especially if things are as I think. Lily should still be able to operate at Rank 3 power. That means there’s a lot of things that simply weren’t intended to fight against someone at her level... but she doesn’t have a great foundation. She’s gained a lot of power in a short amount of time and likely can’t leverage it all that well. Still, they’re the strongest pair we have and I’m not too worried about them.”

Nixilei took another sip. ”Gareth, Kress and Green. My original teammates and yet I almost have a harder time working out what will happen to them. Frankly, I want to think all three of them are still in this mess, but I don’t know about that. Kress I’d normally pick as the first one to do something stupid...

”But that odd relationship he has with the demon is going well for him. I can see him REALLY trying so that he has something to brag about. I suppose it’ll depend on a few factors to work out if he’s still in the running or not. If he is, he’s certainly heading for the centre. The possibility he finds some glory there is a bit too high. So even if he’s still around... I’m not sure he can prevent getting in over his head in the centre. Though, as I said, this newer Kress might be enough to handle it all.”

Nixilei took a bite of the grilled fish on her plate nearby. It was alright. Caught from the nearby swamp water and overcooked to ensure that none of the poison remained. It wasn’t terribly toxic, but it did mean that cooking it ’properly’ meant dealing with a bit of char. It wasn’t inedible, and the sauce they’d coated the thing in helped work with the taste... but it was still notably burnt.

”Alright, Green next. She’s probably... hmm... if I had to pick anyone to end up out first I think my charge would be the top of my list now that Kress has fixed up his act. Fundamentally, while I do trust her to do the work when it comes time, she’s also quite fond of rest. A bit of extra rest here and there might be the difference between having enough orbs and running out.

”Not that I want to claim Green is lazy... but she is a bit risk averse. I can see her avoiding fights, avoiding landmarks, and just slowly being whittled down in the orbs department until she doesn’t have any left. Perhaps she’d take some risks after reaching that point... but it really is hard to say. Which is interesting because while I don’t think I’d vote for her to be first out, I think she’s the most likely to eventually end up out. Interesting to think about. Though perhaps a bit rude. Maybe I should believe in her more?”

Nixilei let that thought hang in the air as she took another sip of her water. ”Ok now what about Gareth? Oh, I wasn’t really thinking about team ups before now. I know we suggested it but...” Nixilei winced as she remembered how her team up ended. ”That’s a whole different can of worms. Gareth will probably try to team up but will he succeed? No idea. It makes working out what he’d do harder... honestly it makes working out what everyone would do a lot hard.

”Though for Gareth... hmmm... he’s decent in the leadership position but at the same time is far too easily led elsewhere. I feel like he might be led into a trap? Though he’s not THAT bad a judge of character. Hmmm... I think if Gareth plays it safe and stick to underground areas where he’s at his strongest he could go pretty far. The worry with that though is he isn’t the only earth mage and the dwarves would certainly be quite used to working underground. Hmmm... I can see Gareth having issues. A shame, but I can see it.”

Nixilei tapped the table. ”The question is... what do I want to be doing? The quests here are drying up. I don’t know if someone else came through and swept them up, or if there’s a limit per person... but I don’t know if I’ll be getting any more tomorrow. The only thing worth sticking around for is that they seem to have some sort of teleportation setup. Which could be useful. It might take me somewhere hidden... or maybe this is the hidden place people are coming to.

”The real question is if I want to try and sneak through, or if I want to ask about it. Simply asking would mean it’s much harder, if not impossible to sneak through later... but I might not be able to sneak through anyway. Teleporters are rather easy to secure depending on how they’re made. If only authorised people can even activate the enchantment it would take far too much effort from me to crack that. And even trying to use it at the same time as somebody else to hijack there trip is risky. Not all teleportation setups can accommodate multiple people...

”But the more people around the harder it can be to sneak in. Standing quietly behind one or two people is nothing, but in a group people instinctively like to look around and the town is far too small for them not to know everyone in it. So... where does that leave me? I could try heading off to Winter... I haven’t been there yet... but I don’t know how equipped for the weather I am. Perhaps I should ask around a bit about Winter first before thinking up crazy teleportation schemes...”