D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2212 A Key for Thee

--- Kat ---

Kat and Appoline were scouring the room once again. This time their gaze was pulled upwards as they looked for some sort of secure cabinet of a safe that might potentially hold the key. Though Kat was tempted to say that Appoline should try the blood method first. That idea was shot down because the plant would be able to remember their scent and would attack them again if it had done so once. Even if it wasn’t certain it would attack. Appoline seemed really interested in whatever was inside.

Now, the problem wasn’t actually finding cabinets, there were plenty of those lining the walls. The problem was working out which were important. Most of them contained fertiliser and the plants had snuck their way inside long ago. Some others contained various gardening tools that were still in somewhat acceptable condition even now. A few were empty though Kat had to wonder if that was always the case.

In the end... she found a couple of things that might have been the answer. The first thing she found was in a safe... or it might have been? The thing was so rusty it was hard to tell and inside was a bunch of stuff that seemed to have dried out in its jar completely. Still... Appoline had told her to look for a bunch of things just in case so Kat continued looking around.

The next thing she found was hidden under a loose stone. Kat hadn’t even meant to find it, but the one intentionally left loose had allowed for a number of other nearby tiles to also become loose as time wore at them. Kat had been moving swiftly from place to place and the stack of tiles under her feet had shifted wildly as she’d moved over them. Checking underneath them had revealed a hidden box and this one had an odd looking statue in it. Perhaps magical, perhaps not. Kat couldn’t tell so it wasn’t particularly magical at least.

The final thing Kat had found before deciding it was time to check in with Appoline was hidden in a tree. She’d been wondering around and just so happened to be looking at the thing hidden inside the trunk. Said trunk had grown around the object quite a lot, but Kat was able to pull it free and reveal it was a glass bottle of something. What, she had no idea but Appoline probably did.

Kat made her way back over to Appoline who was sitting near the plant with a number of things around her. Though from Kat’s perspective they mostly looked like more plant stuff? "So... I find a couple of things, what did you pick up?"

"If it was me that created this room I would’ve picked certain plants to be the password. Part of the room, and yet not too close to the Trapdoor Blossom here to prevent false positives. I’ve selected the most unique things I could find, either in their positioning or simply the kind of plant they are. This one," Appoline tapped at a tiny branch. "was probably on a desk at some point for example."

"Alright well I’ve got all of this. Found one in the cupboards, found the statue thing under the floorboards and the maybe potion in one of the trees," Kat said as she placed her finds down near Appoline’s.

"Hmmm..." Appoline picked the potion up first and sniffed at it, running her nose around the top, trying to find some trace of scent that might have leaked out. Kat might have considered doing the same without her recent experience with getting smacked in the face by the room. Appoline tapped the jar a few times. "I think this is just fertiliser,"

"Really? It’s still glowing?" Kat said as if that would somehow make it not fertiliser.

"Yes. Though... the fact that it IS glowing indicates it’s still good and I suspect that this is much higher quality than anything in the current room requires. It further reinforces the idea that inside of the Trapdoor Blossom is a second greenhouse. Assuming everything survived..." Appoline glared down at the blossom with an annoyed look on her face, as if that only just occurred to her.

"Is... that likely?" asked Kat.

"No. Sadly, now that I’ve considered things it’s quite likely the most of the valuable, delicate plants hidden away are long since dead. There are plenty of hardy ones that can survive, but you don’t build a greenhouse for hardy plants. The ideal situation is that they created a garden cycle but that’s really hard and I’m not sure they’d spend the effort. Not even my family sets up true ones..." grumbled Appoline.

"What’s a garden cycle?" asked Kat.

Appoline continued to investigate the potential keys on the ground as she answered, "Garden Cycles are virtuous cycles created with plants, and occasionally rivers, that can sustain a moderate amount of growth endlessly without help. A very basic one would be a water plant that generates water for everything else, some sort of plant to revitalise the soil, a fire plant if they’re indoors to act as a weak sun, and finally some other plant to act as a sort of managing force to prevent anything else from getting out of control. Though I suppose you could use bugs or animals for that last part.

"The issue is that... making the cycle truly endless is actually really hard and takes a delicate balance. Even if one was originally set up it still has a chance of collapsing, and setting up something that can actually keep going forever is really expensive. They also don’t make as much product as you’d think because you can only harvest from them occasionally to prevent things from collapsing..."

"That’s pretty cool... though you make it sound rather simple so why don’t people come up with them more?" asked Kat.

Appoline sighed, "Because I was simplifying. The more interesting and useful plants tend to have unique and odd conditions for continuing to live well, or have the potential to lash out at the rest of the garden simply by existing. Remember the Spark Bloom I mentioned before? It’s more powerful cousin the Lightning Lotus is said to be born when a particularly magically charged strike of lightning hits a Spark Bloom. Though others argue against it...

"Whatever the case, the lotus will then go on to call down more lightning strikes to charge itself while searching the ground for metals to reinforce itself, to call down stronger lighting. Thing is, it can’t contain it perfectly until its nearly mature... so the overflow tends to fry and lesser plants nearby and scorch the ground, wasting much of its potential and often times, imbuing some lightning mana into the ground.

"Finding plants that can keep it watered, fed with lightning and sunlight all while ensuring that they themselves don’t simply burn down is hard... and then you have to make sure those other plants are also watered and fed and so on and so forth. Every new plant added means you need another bunch of plants to support the ones you already have... it gets really complicated really fast,"

"Ah... I suppose I wasn’t really thinking of the knock on effects. I suppose that’s why you just manually provide everything for the more expensive plants then? It’s cheaper?" asked Kat.

"Cheaper in the short term yes... in the long term less so... but we’re talking less decades and more centuries. The real issue longer term... is other people coming in and stealing things. A proper cycle usually contains a LOT of rare and valuable plants... and even stealing one that ’surely nobody would notice’ can be enough to collapse the whole thing," grumbled Appoline.

"So it’s not an issue of just ensuring nobody messes with the garden now... but maybe your children and grandchildren as well?" asked Kat, to which Appoline nodded. "I... I guess I really wasn’t thinking of things in such long terms. Plus, even if the garden was set up for the rarest plants... if the others are still worth a good amount any descendants might be willing to sell one or two not realising the risk they’re running if they need the money, or just think they do..."

Kat sighed as she watched Appoline look over everything again, though... she had an idea. "Can we throw multiple things at once at the plant? Not in large quantities of course... but..."

Appoline considered the question with a frown. "Maybe...?" Appoline let the word hang there for a moment. "It’s... I think it would go back to the temperament of the plant. If it’s not aggressive we could hand it all over... and perhaps hand it over with some fertiliser as well," Appoline glanced at the glowing bottle. "Make it seem like we’re feeding it and ensuring that we have the password... hmm... I’m not sure how it would react to something like that. I don’t really have a good understanding of how they think... but... hmm... it does seem possible."