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 meant to be. Her group was slow and the slimes were out in force… but they were just slimes. 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 slime in them…

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

*So… do you think the slimes are just spreading out again and they’ll retreat now… or someone 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 slimes now. Even if none of them have been anywhere near as large… surely some additional ones have to have been added to shake things up. Well… hmm… then again perhaps they’ve had enough time to rest? It’s not like we know how these things replicate. They’re not ’real’ slimes but artificial creations. Perhaps Appoline knows?]

*Good question.* “Appoline, do you know how these slimes replicate?” asked Kat. “L- I’m trying to work out if they regenerated or someone 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 meant 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 meant to help manage the poison afterwards? Hmmm…” Appoline pondered as she brought the jar of pink slime back out and rattled it around a bit.

Appoline nodded. “Yeah still no idea. I’ll need to run some 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. Some slimes 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 remember, I mentioned that they might be eating something and they contain a good deal of mana. It’s quite possible they were made with some way to recharge them. Perhaps they suck up poison and convert that into pure mana. Perhaps someone set up some areas in the sewers that refill them and it’s why the slimes seem inclined to come 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 something?”

“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 seemed to want to comment 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 transformed into water and slipped through the cracks at the base, then she transformed back and lifted it from the bottom. Everyone seemed to be staring at her. “What? We broke this ages ago so now someone has to hold it up. I might be able to keep it aloft for a while but that doesn’t mean I should. Poison is getting in so hurry up.”

That seemed 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 came everyone else, and finally the last three guards to round everyone out. Kat glanced around a bit, waiting for some sort of slime 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 time. 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 helmet. “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 time… but they didn’t trigger during my first time here and not in this area either. So there’s probably some 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 seemed 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 time 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 blame 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 me to impart some 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 mention something, one of the guards walked up and pressed something into the rubble. A dome 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.*