D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2095 Cleanup Crew

Chapter 2095: Chapter 2095 Cleanup Crew

— Kat —

Sadly one bottle could only do so much. After taking in a great deal of poison from the air it dropped to the ground in a wet, squishy ball that was barely holding itself together. “Kat you and I are probably the only ones who can touch that safely. Very concentrated poison. So… we might want something to hold it. Plus, if you wouldn’t mind moving around a bit to test things while the rest brews?”

“That’s fine,” accepted Kat.

Appoline smiled, “Good. Lily can either help you, or stay here as an assistant. I’ll be having Tweedle and perhaps Fred as well try to brew the potion. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough that I can refine it a little as we make more batches. Time is apparently of the essence after all,”

“I’ll talk to Steel about some equipment,” agreed Kat. What are you going to do Lily?

[I’ll stay and help. I’m not really worried about you getting poisoned and the monsters that might still be there aren’t much of a worry either. This way I can help more.]

*Alright with me.* With that confirmed Kat first confirmed Steel’s location with a guard and then headed off for some more equipment. Kat got an expanded shoulder bag for the potions and a expanded, but apparently quite disposable backpack for the poison itself. Ducking back to the alchemy station Kat grabbed the few bottles that were already made and headed off into the poison.

Kat grabbed the first poison ball and found she had to be careful. It was squishy with a lot of give under her fingers, squeezing even the slightest bit too hard made the poison drip out onto the ground, which sizzled on contact, burning away a bit like acid. So in order to avoid losing a bunch of poison to the ground, Kat simply used the bag as more of a scoop to pull it off the ground. Didn’t keep it all that clean, but Steel had already said that was quite fine and it was marked as disposable.

From there, Kat wondered around, waiting for the poison to get thicker and then setting off a potion in the air. It was easy to find rocks and other debris to break the potion and it wasn’t hard to aim when it was just a basic lob. The potion bottle wasn’t exactly small either, and even a slight nick would be enough to shatter it when you put Rank 2 strength behind the throw.

Kat backed up after the bottle shattered in order to not get caught in the poison extraction… but it was honestly quite gentle. Unlike some of the others, this didn’t seem to rely much on the wind sucking everything up, instead the long tendrils of poison acted as the funnel, the pathway, and the gathering point. Taking in poison where it could nearby but no disturbing the greater area.

It was more effective then it seemed because the poison naturally flowed to try and fill in the gaps left behind, which of course meant more was sucked up, leading to more flowing into the ’empty’ space as the cycle continued until the orb was as full as it could manage. Kat threw this second one in the bag and then went off to repeat the process. Kat wasn’t sure quite how many of these she’d need to set off… but the answer was quite a lot. Probably anyway.

They cleaned the area pretty well, but ’the area’ in question was just somewhat small. As the poison spread out Kat wondered if the potion would be able to clear out a larger area… or if because of the lacking poison it wouldn’t be able to reach far enough. Kat supposed they’d just have to see. For now, the orbs did manage to lighten the poison in an area in a notable way. Perhaps that would be enough to have more people helping out.

—

Lily —

While Kat was walking around, Lily was acting as the ultimate helper. Once the ingredients had been clearly sorted and explained to her, she was able to bring them over when called. It didn’t matter who did the calling either. Lily had her own stool in the middle of the brewing area, and was using her shadow limbs to hand things out.

Three cauldrons had been set up now, in a triangle formation with Fred and Tweedle standing on the outside, while Appoline stood deliberately in the centre of the formation. She was constantly watching the other two make their potions and was making much faster progress. Appoline described how to break down each of the ingredients… in the time it took her to manage three of them.

She was able to somehow keep her explanations completely separate to the ingredients she was actually working on, and regularly had Lily simply hold the ingredient in question as she spoke about it. There was some worry that taking too long on the potion would cause issues… but for now it was fine. Just a mana hog for the weaker two alchemists.

Lily wanted to help but realised she kind of couldn’t. Not only did she not have sufficient practice to break down the ingredients, but Appoline had made an offhanded comment about it. “You can’t mix two individuals mana into the same potion and expect the normal recipe to work. I’m adjusting things for three individuals. The ingredients aren’t in exactly the same amounts… and adding your mana to things would make it much harder. Even your shadow hands are a slight risk, but its worth it in this case.”

Lily nodded and continued to work. Appoline had the best and fastest brews. The only reason she didn’t burn through the ingredients swiftly was that Steel had acquired a good deal more once it was confirmed that the potion worked. The plan was to use the current potion, with at most minor tweaks, to get started on the cleanup. After a day or two of work they can reevaluate things if necessary.

Tweedle on the other hand… she was fast but not all that consistent. Appoline had to regularly point out bits of ingredients that hadn’t properly been broken down as well as add small touches of other things here in and there to stabilise Tweedle’s potion. She just… wasn’t quite able to fully concentrate on the brewing.

Any time she was given an instruction her face perked right up and she gave it her full attention. Which was NOT what Appoline needed. She needed Tweedle to note the instruction while keeping enough focus on the potion to brew it properly, but that wasn’t what was happening.

Fred on the other hand… was consistent and rarely needed correction but his brewing times were abysmal. When Tweedle was paying attention she could do the job twice as fast, sometimes three times. Her mistakes did even things out somewhat though. Not the case with Appoline. She was easily ten times as swift with the ingredients when compared to Fred and had even better consistency. To Appoline, it was a signal that he was a competent as a brewer but untalented. Well, that or lazy, but it meant a lack of passion which was perhaps worse then a lack of talent in her eyes.

It was interesting to see the differences when the ended as well. Appoline’s had that odd stop-start of the waves that it had the first time, though the colour was perhaps a bit deeper. Tweedle on the other side of things had an almost constant motion. It did stop, but only very occasionally, signalling to everyone that it was less stable… but apparently still acceptable for the job as Appoline didn’t just throw it away.

On the other hand, Fred’s barely moved at all. It had only the slightest of twitches every now and again. Appoline kept looking over at it with a slight frown. “What? It’s not good enough?”

“Hmmm… no I think it will work. I’m just wondering if there’s anything else that could be added to try and energize it a bit without destabilising the mixture. The answer is certainly yes but would it be better to just accept it as it is and start on the next batch? We need a LOT of this brew and you both might be sick of creating it by the time night falls,” explained Appoline.

Kat flew back in at that point, interrupting the ponderance. “I’m back for more potions. Also do you guys want any of the clumps from the back? It’s still got plenty of room but I thought I’d ask.”

Appoline gestured over to the table where more bottles were ready for Kat to take and said, “Not right now. Don’t just dump them but I really don’t have time to properly investigate the end result. Though… hmm… no I think it will be a later tonight type deal. Investigating it might help me improve this version but it’s very much a ’might’ type of deal right now.”

“Alright, just don’t forget lunch you lot,” said Kat with a shrug as she filled the back and flew off back into the barrier.