D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2186 Appoline Answers A-Questions

— Kat —

Kat found herself interrogated thoroughly. Appoline forced her to dig into her memories, giving away the specifics of the encounter, the exact feeling of the burn, the creation of the wound, as well as half a dozen other things like the ambient temperature and if she could taste blueberries or not, as well as a few other foods. Kat didn’t understand what all of these questions had to do with anything but Appoline was the expert here.

Though Kat found she did have to keep prodding Appoline into finishing her pie. She kept getting lost in her notes and questions and the pie was certainly cold by the time it got finished. The other guests were… less interested, with Hedera looking particularly worried at times. Even prompting her to ask. “Do you think… do you think you could survive without your head?”

Kat shrugged, “I guess it depends on what you mean by ’without’ in this instance. Could I survive having my head chopped off? At this point I’m quite certain the answer is yes, and with how things are set off D.E.M.O.N.S would send me straight to the hospital and I’d be fine eventually. The thing is… I imagine a lot of demons, especially at my rank could manage the same even if they don’t have regeneration.

“Which makes me feel that’s not quite what you were asking…” Kat trailed off as Hedera shrugged. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d meant but she was interested to hear more. “Now… as for if I’d be fine without medical intervention? That’s are more complicated question. I’m quite certain that if someone just jammed my head back on and held it for a second or two I’d be fine… but more than that? I really don’t know.

“It would depend on if I can regrow missing limbs I think. I was told quite clearly was incapable of it before… but I was a lot weaker back then and I managed to regrow my heart after it was basically all gone. With help sure, but that sort of implies I’d manage it. The question is… would I have to regrow from my head or my neck? If the answer is my head that’s a lot more body to regrow before my demonic energy runs out… but I think in theory I could manage a head.”

“Huh… hmm… I don’t know what would happen then…” mumbled Hedera.

“You regrow from whichever spot you prefer,” Appoline added casually as she continued to scribble on her notes.

“Wait what?” asked Kat. Apolline looked up. “How do you know that? Why is that the case?”

“Oh, well, most regeneration upper tier regeneration is focused on keeping your soul tied to your body, because otherwise you’d be dead. Thus, in most cases, the soul has a few moments to decide if it wants to remain with the heart, or with the brain, and whichever one it chooses tends to be the ’main’ body that regrows. Sometimes the answer is ’both’ but that’s far more rare and mostly a thing monsters can do not things that are sentient, well unless they can already copy themselves,” explained Appoline.

“Huh… that’s… hmm… why is a choice?” asked Kat.

Appoline shrugged. “It just is. Perhaps there were too many instances were one or the other was clearly unsuitable so it became part of the magic. Perhaps it’s simply a choice that’s always been offered as the heart and brain are usually the key anchors for the soul. I know both are possible, or rather, my books indicate as such. I’ve never seen it done,”

Appoline slowly looked up from her book to gaze at Kat for a few seconds but Kat shook her head. “Not unless I’ve got someone like Thyme watching out for me, and even then I’m not sure anyone can. My bones are strong enough that I’m not sure what it’d take to remove my head. Still, best not to traumatize my girlfriend any further.”

“That makes sense,” said Appoline with a nod. “If she’s too scared or annoyed at me she won’t want to learn properly anymore. Best to avoid that.” Kat sighed but nodded. She’s already been blocking out this conversation for obvious reasons but she was now determined to ensure that Lily found out about no part of it. At all. Just to be safe.

“So… what’s the news on the poison?” asked Kat.

“It’s certainly a Rank 3 poison of some kind, but not Rank 4. I’ve ruled out a number of things but the issue is that I can’t be sure as I suspect you were simply able to power through a number of the side effects that should have been triggered. I think this because of just how slow it was spreading.

“The fact that it spread at all implies it has to be at least Rank 3, but the fact nothing further caused issues makes me think it’s not Rank 4… which is of course makes things awkward. The lack of major side effects actually makes this harder to work out. Just as an example ’Shockweb Poison’ is a Troll’s Bane poison that focus on poisoning and paralysing a regenerator to ensure that even if it won’t kill them, it can make them easier to fight…

“But it leaves a notable taste reminiscent of various citrus fruits on the tongue as well as slowed perception and a ’cotton-like’ feeling in the mouth. You experienced none of these of course… but I suspect that even if you were to ingest such a poison you’d be able to avoid these side effects so it might still be on the list. It’s not my first thought of course, but it’s an option still. See the problem?” sighed Appoline.

“Yeah I do,” agreed Kat with her own sigh. “Still… you’d say it’s something that’s at least Rank 3?”

“Well it could be a poorly brewed Rank 4 potion but that just means it’s still Rank 3 in my opinion, though it does mean it would be written down in a different area… and honestly I don’t know too many Rank 4 potions,” sighed Appoline.

“What makes a potion Rank 4?” asked Kat. “Do they even have Ranks?”

“Eh… yes and no. It’s more of a back end system for alchemists then anything else. A potion’s Rank is determined by how effective it is compared to someone of that same Rank and affinity performing the action… but it gets messy for things like healing potions where they are graded based on what they can heal and it’s essentially a completely different system because…” Appoline trailed off waiting for the others to answer.

“Everyone loves healing potions,” said Kat and Hedera at the same time.

“Exactly. But the general rule of thumb, other than actual grading, is that the main ingredient is from a monster of that rank, and no more than fifty percent of the ingredients are from the same rank or one below. So for a Rank 4 potion with 5 ingredients means that it needs, one Rank 4 ingredient, at least two Rank 3’s and then the other two can be whatever you want. Though it’s just a rule of thumb because ingredients depend on their type and potency as well as just mass.

“If you grind a one kilogram horn into powder and dump it all into the potion that’s a lot more mass then simply using a fifty-gram berry which is why the true rating is based on the effects. Then there’s also the fact that proficient alchemists can do better, and poor ones can only manage part of the effects. It’s a whole thing,” explained Appoline.

“So… any bits of advice for fighting her next time?” asked Kat.

“Don’t worry about anything airborne, at least for you personally. Troll’s bane can’t really be aerosolized because of how much potency you tend to give up. Might still cause other effects, but not semi-permanent ones your regeneration can’t clear without help. Take a look at this Greave’s weapons as well. Potions that potent don’t tend to last too long out in the open air.

“If you’re fighting her for a few minutes, and she doesn’t re-apply the potion mixture then you should be fine… but if she throws a bottle of stuff at you, you still might want to dodge that. Troll’s bane might not be capable of aerosolization but it can be absorbed through the skin, a couple nastier ones I can think of go about it that way. Though the fact that she needed to cut you makes me think it wasn’t any of those.

“Just…” Appoline sighed. “Without you being able to properly tell me if the burning was from a cycle of poison and regeneration or simply the main effect of the poison I’m going to struggle to give you anything more specific.”

“Sorry,” Kat said with a wince. “Even looking back at my memories it’s hard to tell. I wasn’t super focused on it and I wasn’t losing any notable amount of demonic energy during the process.”