D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2167 More Core Problems

Chapter 2167: Chapter 2167 More Core Problems

— Kat —

“I have absolutely no idea,” admitted Furen when Lily brought up her concerns when it came to moving the core.

“Really? Nothing?” asked Kat.

Furen shrugged, “I had assumed, clearly incorrectly, that there would be some obvious way to shut it off. I guess we know why it was left here now. Either everyone forgot how to turn it off or that was never an option to begin with.”

Kat sighed, “So what do we do? Just… leave everything here for a day? It seems… risky but I’m not sure I’d like to leave anyone alone down here, or have a limited number of people going back up to the surface. Honestly, it feels like we almost fucked up finding it,”

Furen grimaced. “Yeah… admittedly now that the path is technically clear… hmmm… you could put the golem back together?”

Kat slowly nodded. “We… could. It’s a pretty good guardian honestly and I don’t see it being easily defeated. Plus… it should work again once we return its limbs properly? I think? The main worry would be defeating it again though…”

“Didn’t you already manage it once? If we don’t tell anyone its weakness it should be fine right?” asked Furen.

Kat shook her head. “No, the issue is that it… sort of learns? Not sure if it can forget as well, nor how fast that would happen if it can… but I bet it’ll be a lot tougher the second time if we put it back together. I’m honestly not sure we can beat it a second time.”

Furen let out a long sigh. “So basically… either we risk taking the core now, or we leave it and hope somebody knows and risk it getting stolen… or we put the guardian back together and risk it being too strong next time?”

“That does seem to be the case,” agreed Kat.

“Well, it’s also possible that the people trying to sneak in have the codes for this. We don’t know if Chisel did or not, but someone else might,” Lily added.

Kat ran a hand down her face. “Well that’s just great. One more thing to worry about…” Kat leant against the wall, tapping her foot as she considered the problem. [I mean… I could stay down here and watch at least?]

*And you think you could manage that?*

[I’m certain I could at least stay hidden.]

*I was more concerned with how tired you can be, especially in Memphis form, which I’d imagine you’d want to be in to hide from anyone that comes this way. I’m not entirely against it, and I’d hope you can wake up… but it’s a decent worry and I’m not exactly keen on the idea.*

[I… yeah I probably would need to rest. I think it would be best if I slept as soon as you guys leave so that if they do come, I’ll be awake for it. Though I do think I’d probably be able to wake up?]

“I’ve just realised something,” Furen cut in, not that she knew it. “Can they even get through the door?”

Lily and Kat both turned to the exceptionally sturdy door, and then to their makeshift entrance. They also realised… “Wait could we even have gotten that core out in the first place?” voiced Kat.

“We don’t know if there’s a way to open the door from the inside,” countered Lily. “And… hmm… I think we have to assume that if they have a way to take the core they probably ALSO have a way to open the door, because surely there has to be one right?”

Furen and Kat glanced at each other before nodding slowing in agreement. “That does make sense… I just don’t know how big of a worry it is…” admitted Kat.

“I’m not sure either,” agreed Furen. “Though I guess that answers at least one question. If we can’t open the door then there’s no reason to even try stealing the core. We can’t actually get it out of the place,”

“Yeah let me just go test that quickly…” announced Kat as she jogged back through the cave she’d dug out with Lily and then slipped through the small hole they’d left. Turning to face the back of the enchanted door… she couldn’t see anything obvious that would allow her to open it up.

Kat tried tapping on it in a few places and ran her hands along he walls and the door with a frown… but there didn’t seem to be a way to open it up from here. She tried turning into water and flowing through the cracks… but that same barrier from outside was two-way it seemed. *Nope. Still locked. Maybe properly defeating the golem would do it?*

Kat made her way back out as Lily relayed her findings. “Kat can’t open the door… so… not too sure what that means.”

Furen frowned at the answer. “I… don’t really know what it means either. It makes me think it would be fairly safe to leave things as they are and report to Steel but now I’m even more worried that someone might have a key, and if they have a key to the door surely they can disable the golem. Though… hmm… do you think it’s possible to remove the core without it being exceptionally obvious?”

“Huh… maybe? I don’t really know anything about them. It’s… hmm… it’s so MUCH mana though,” pondered Lily. “Do they shut off when you’re moving them? Or does a core keep pumping out mana just… naturally? Because you’d DEFINITELY notice that much mana moving… are there any instances of the other ones getting moved?”

“No, I don’t think so,” admitted Furen as Kat returned to the group. “From my understanding, all of the important ones have ’always’ been where they are now, assuming they do in fact exist. I’m an elf sure, and not too young, but I’m only around sixty years old at this point and lived my entire life here in the city. It’s… honestly this is probably the craziest it’s ever been here.”

Kat nodded but honestly it still didn’t solve the issue entirely. She glanced towards Lily. *If we do head up and talk to Steel… would you be ok making your way through the poison by yourself if he says its best to leave things as they are? This is looking more and more like it might require a team of experts to extract and the fact of the matter is, we’re NOT experts.

I feel like if we break the glass and pull it away the whole thing might just explode. I’m not sure how much it would hurt, but if it brought the facility down on us escaping would be a massive pain the ass. It’s just… leaving it here feels REALLY wrong now that we know. It’s like realising you’ve got a nuke locked up in a bunker beneath your house and you KNOW someone is looking for it.

Sure you’ve never been able to get in, all the locks look good… but neither of us are locksmith’s and we have no idea how easy it really is to set off. In fact, the presence of so much mana inside that room might be worse actually. Do you think there is a way to do some sort of super spell in that room?*

[Oh definitely. I’ve got no idea how I’d do something like that and none of the books I’ve read have even remotely touched on that sort of topic… but if it’s not possible I’ll eat my socks. There’s so much mana there that you have to be able to do SOMETHING with this. I dunno if that’s more hardcore enchantments, some sort of ritual, or if you can jump spell circles with it.]

[Hmm… no probably not that last one? I feel like it would just explode… though I guess if you’re suicidal maybe that’s fine? Or nobody tells you that’s what would happen? Then again… I feel like it’s fairly intuitive? Though am I projecting now? Is explosion really the default state or would it be something more like a mana beam that spreads out in a few directions as containments fails…. Hmm…]

[Sorry got distracted but I do get your point. Even if they can’t get the core itself the room just existing represents a major problem if not directly controlled. I’m… well perhaps not happy to stick around but I’m not going to complain that’s for sure. I can also probably make it through the poison. I’m not too worried about it I don’t think? I haven’t had issues so far and… well… if it looks like I will have them I can just send myself to Thyme.]

*With the give up request right?*

[Yeah. That or asking Hedera to put me in a bag or something for long enough for the restrained timer to kick in? I hope I wouldn’t have to be too injured for it to trigger.]

*Yeah… let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…*