D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 1844 - 1844 Lily’s Beach Adventure
— Lily —
With Kat busy digging her way through trash it was up to Lily to make sure they didn’t waste too much time… of course that being said. Should I head left or right?
[What do you mean?]
Well presumably once you’re back up here we’re going to head off somewhere else. Do you want to continue down the beach, do you want to backtrack and check the other side of where the swamp meats the ocean? Do you want to head into the mushroom forests? I want to explore the stuff we’re not likely to get to and then backtrack after you find the last piece of the key.
[Oh, right. Sorry that makes a lot of sense. Um… I don’t have a strong opinion? I don’t really think it would be ideal for you to go into the mushroom forests but the swamp is a little bit away… hmm… it’s up to you but I’d suggest sticking to the beach and picking whatever direction you want. I guess the real worry would be if you find another major bit of ruins to investigate, then we’d need to head that way to meet up but… eh if it happens it happens.]
Alright if we’re looking at it that way I think I’ll just continue down the beach. If I find something and it takes me a while to sort it out you can come and meet me there.
[Sure. Just… no rush. I still haven’t found the second one. This damned place has boxes EVERYONE. I don’t know how they shoved all this shit in here. The fact I’m basically looking for specific bits of rock is NOT helping.]
Lily sent a mental shrug down the link to Kat, not really sure what else to say. They’d collectively decided it was worth getting the chest… even if this was a bit much. Of course on the other hand there was no way to know if other chests would be similarly time consuming to grab. Then there was the KEYS. Would they be easier? Harder?
Lily shook her head as she flapped her wings and ascended slightly into the air. A careful glance at the sky just in case anything was watching her too closely, but Lily had made sure to remain below the ‘tree line’ and nothing seemed to be going out of its way to beeline to her. Of course, a look out to the ocean did reveal the ever present wall of fog which still looked rather out of place.
It was just sitting there… menacingly. Lily wasn’t aware fog could be actively menacing but she was starting to believe Thyme had cracked the code. The issue with it was that the fog along with the waves seemed to give the impression that the fog was slowly closing in on the island. It wasn’t. This wasn’t a battle royale. The fog was firmly fixed in place… for now anyway. Lily wouldn’t put it past Thyme to make ‘the fog moves inward’ as one of the deadlier rules changes in the big list.
Lily paused in mid-air. Something had twitched and she quickly turned away from the fog that was giving her the creeps to try and work out what had twigged her instincts. The ‘sand’ was still made of mushrooms, the ocean didn’t seem particularly lively and nothing was in the air. Hmmm…
Lily glanced around once again, slowly this time, carefully taking in as much info as she could when… it would be wrong to say she noticed something but just as her eyes left the edge of the beach her instinct’s twigged again. Lily got the sense she wasn’t watching she should have been. Slowly turning back to where the beach and the mushroom forests Lily examined the edge of it all closely.
There were a few mushroom trees and smaller mushroom bushes that… well perhaps they were just an earlier stage of the trees? Or were they a separate organism entirely? Lily didn’t know. They seemed similar enough but was that just because they were both made of glowing mushrooms? Lily didn’t know but… there was something going on there. Now she just had to work out what it was.
Lily couldn’t find anything too odd with the mushrooms or the grass but… hang on. Lily frowned. The bundle of seaweed that was near one of the mushrooms. How… did it get there? Lily was now noticing that this wasn’t one of the mushrooms right near the edge of the beach but actually a few paces back.
Lily launched a bunch of razer sharp paper confetti towards the seaweed just in case and it quickly retracted out of the way before the mushroom nearby started to rumble as the figure below it surfaced. It looked a bit like hermit crab that had gained a wig. The ‘seaweed’ hadn’t been seaweed at all instead it looked sort of like the crab’s hair.
Lily was a little worried about mind controlling fungus puppeteering around crabs for a moment but now it was up and moving Lily could see the mushroom was cracked and dried around the edges. It was clearly just a hat… house… thing that the hermit crab was wearing. Still, it had nearly tricked her… and it was not happy to have been caught out.
Vines lashed out towards her and Lily negligently swiped them away with a shadow claw. There was no resistance as the claw sliced through them all. It didn’t seem to pain the beast as instead of backing off or screaming in pain it just sent more and more fake seaweed at her in an attempt to overwhelm her defence. Sadly for it, she could fly and even then it wasn’t exactly a sturdy method to attack.
Lily simple split her shadow claw in two so that she could cover more ground but even that didn’t seem to be enough. A few of the sea weed tentacles were getting around her shadow defence now and from the glimpses she could see the crab-thing was getting closer as well to help with that.
Lily lashed out with her own claws and the seaweed still gave away without difficulty but Lily was finding more and more were encroaching on her space. Soon she’d be surrounding and that just wouldn’t do. Lily added some shadows to her wings, pushing the amount of shadow she could manipulate to the edge for a moment… and then launched herself forward.
When her face made contact with the shadow hands Lily merged them into a set of propellers in front of her face that sliced through the grabby bits of seaweed as she crashed into the crab. Lily didn’t waste any time and simply stabbed her claws right through the thing’s carapace. It might have been somewhat sturdy but Lily’s claws where sharp enough that it took just a bit of effort.
Guided by instincts Lily plunged her shadow claws into a specific gap she’d made, impaling the thing in the brain. It shuddered for a few moments and then collapsed. The seaweed like tendrils it had been controlling falling to the ground and the mushroom that sat on its back simply fell off to the side, now no longer being held in place by yet more seaweed.
Lily flipped the mushroom over completely using her shadows and pulled it away so she could get a good look and… no orb. *Drat. I’d sort of expected something from all this effort.* Sniffed Lily indignantly. Of course… that sniff reminded her that she’d just killed a large sea creature. It was… a lot of fresh meat all for the taking. If she wanted it. *Am I really going to eat monster crab?*
Lily started to peal off the crab’s shell with her shadow hands to reveal rather normal looking crab meat inside it. Lily moved her face next to it and sniffed a few times. *Apparently so.* Lily started using her shadow hands to tear small strips of meat from the thing and then took a bite. It was a bit comical to see. The crab was about the size of a small car, and here there was, a little kitten sitting atop it and picking it apart as happy can be with her meal.
[So what’s it taste like?]
A lot more like normal crab then I was expecting honestly. There’s no like… secret flavour. No hit of seaweed. It’s not some amazing culinary experience. I mean, I think the texture is a lot better because the muscles are massive so you get a lot to chew on… but taste wise it really is just crab.
[Huh… weird. You think we could ‘sell’ it?]
I mean… there’s a lot here and I doubt we can eat all of it. Not sure how much ‘money’ they’d offer but sure. Though… like… how am I meant to store this? Are you making progress on the key find?
[No… not great progress. Only got two new pieces. So three of the nine I’m meant to find in this room.]
Oof… um… well… I’ll enjoy this crab in your honour?
