D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2200 Poisonous Remnants

--- Kat ---

Kat wasn’t sure how scared of the area she was ant to be. Her group was slow and the slis were out in force... but they were just slis. Kat even managed to freeze a few in such a way that the centre survived and gave Appoline more stuff to study. Kat hoped those jars were sturdy enough to keep a living sli in them...

But there just didn’t seem to be any real danger. If the slis were ant to puncture soone’s suit they were doing a shit job of it. They ca mostly in ones, and a single instance of two. Kat barely needed to expend any energy to kill them all, and the double attack seed to be more because they’d wandered into range of two of thema t the sa ti then an actual trap designed with multiple slis in mind.

*So... do you think the slis are just spreading out again and they’ll retreat now... or soone added more?*

[I think it’s got to be the second one right? Or at least a combination? I feel like you’ve killed a lot of slis now. Even if none of them have been anywhere near as large... surely so additional ones have to have been added to shake things up. Well... hmm... then again perhaps they’ve had enough ti to rest? It’s not like we know how these things replicate. They’re not ’real’ slis but artificial creations. Perhaps Appoline knows?]

*Good question.* "Appoline, do you know how these slis replicate?" asked Kat. "L- I’m trying to work out if they regenerated or soone added more," *Best not to make it too obvious how smart you are to the randoms.*

[’Vanilla’ and ’Maryland’ already know so I’m not sure how much good that will do... but I don’t really care about credit here. So do what you think is best.]

"I haven’t had a chance to study them much at all... but just based on my initial impressions I’d guess they’re ant to eat the poison? Though they don’t seem to be poisonous themselves and from my understanding this is counter-intuitive to what the group behind this wants. Unless... perhaps they were ant to help manage the poison afterwards? Hmmm..." Appoline pondered as she brought the jar of pink sli back out and rattled it around a bit.

Appoline nodded. "Yeah still no idea. I’ll need to run so tests on these things. Just a glance isn’t enough to know more, especially when you flash-freeze them. Though the fact they leave behind a trail... hmm..."

"Is that part important?" asked Kat.

"It’s non-standard," offered Appoline. "Well, not entirely. So slis do leave a bit of a trail but that isn’t what these pink ones do. They seem to be actively falling apart as they move and only the fact they have a good deal of mana inside of them is keeping them going. It marks them as decidedly artificial."

"So they have to have been brought in then right? If they fall apart as they move?" asked Kat.

Appoline shook her head. "In theory, but rember, I ntioned that they might be eating sothing and they contain a good deal of mana. It’s quite possible they were made with so way to recharge them. Perhaps they suck up poison and convert that into pure mana. Perhaps soone set up so areas in the sewers that refill them and it’s why the slis seem inclined to co out of there. The trails don’t seem permanent; the entire area isn’t covered in pink so perhaps it is re-absorbed when they rest or sothing?"

"It isn’t just breaking down because of the poison?" asked Kat.

"I don’t think so?" Appoline offered. Kat sighed and glanced at the rest of the researchers to see if they had any better ideas. It wasn’t hard considering they were all still between Kat and Appoline... but none of them seed to want to comnt at all. Kat sighed, apparently they didn’t want to talk.

Eventually, the group managed to get to the fountain, and Kat was going to do this the easy way. First, she transford into water and slipped through the cracks at the base, then she transford back and lifted it from the bottom. Everyone seed to be staring at her. "What? We broke this ages ago so now soone has to hold it up. I might be able to keep it aloft for a while but that doesn’t an I should. Poison is getting in so hurry up."

That seed to get them into gear as the group started to quickly shuffled downwards, Vanilla went first with Maryland backing her up, and one guard behind them. Then ca everyone else, and finally the last three guards to round everyone out. Kat glanced around a bit, waiting for so sort of sli to attack just as everyone went inside... but nope. She must have cleared them all out. Kat let the fountain drop back down and then sped down the stairs...

For all of a second. She quickly realised that the rest of the group was not quite so eager. After that first corner Kat was back to walking at a normal pace. Kat let out a sigh. *What Rank are these guys? They can’t all be Rank 2, but now I’m wondering if there’s a few people that aren’t even Rank 1.*

[I can probably tell when they get here but surely if you’re enchanting stuff you’re at least Rank 1? Can you even manipulate mana without it?]

*Not sure... demons can’t use demonic energy without being Rank 1 but we also just get there automatically most of the ti. If you’re a Rank 0 person who wants to be a wizard... do you just wake up one day able to use magic?*

[Yeah that just seems wrong. At least with demons demonic energy is mostly innate. You can’t do any crazy spells with it, but you get automatic abilities. Speaking of which, did you ever figure out what you got at Rank 4?]

*Still nope.*

When they got to the ground floor, Kat had to move over and stop Appoline from taking off her helt. "I know it looks mostly clean down here but it’s not free of poison."

Appoline nodded and took her hand back while looking around. Now that she was properly thinking, the dusting of green clouds lingering in the corners of the room was a pretty damn good indication of the fact that things were not safe for everyone yet. Once Kat was sure nobody else was going to take of their suits, she started moving. "Watch the ceilings. I think it should be fine, but there are golems here that like to attack from above. I hope I cleared them all out last ti... but they didn’t trigger during my first ti here and not in this area either. So there’s probably so more hidden around."

The guards gripped their weapons a bit tighter but Kat wasn’t sure what good that would do. The idea was not to get too close to things. Kat did keep an eye out for them herself, but it seed fine so far. Kat was half expecting the alarms from the second half of the facility to have set things off here... but she supposed she’d been able to leave last ti so maybe it made sense that nothing was attacking her.

Before too long, Kat managed to make it to the greenhouse, which she pointed out. "Ah... hmm... can we go and investigate now?" asked Appoline.

Kat glanced at the rest of the group before shaking her head. "This corridor is... a lot longer then you think it is. We’ve got at least half an hour’s worth of walking to do. I know you’d rather get a look now and I don’t bla you... but we really should get those wards set up first. Lily can watch them while I bring you back here, or the other way around if you prefer."

"Yes... I think I’d rather have Lily with to impart so wisdom while I work," agreed Appoline as she fell back into the ground.

After that interruption Kat was able to keep the group moving... at least until she reached the collapsed section. Kat was then reminded about the fact it had been rather hard to get Furen through. Apparently even if she’d forgotten Steel hadn’t. As Kat was about to ntion sothing, one of the guards walked up and pressed sothing into the rubble. A do appeared around a small section and the rocks inside flowed like water... moving to reinforce the edges and keep them stable while cutting away a hole. It was fascinating to watch.

Now there was a nice clean path for everyone. It still wasn’t all that large, and Kat needed to crouch, along with quite a few other people... but you could just make your way through now without needing to resort to anything worse than that. *Welp. That’s one problem solved. Let’s hope that the rest of the trip goes just as well.*