D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2220 Little Alchemy

--- Kat ---

"Come on, up you go," said Kat as she scooped her girlfriend up into her arms, letting Lily rest across her shoulder, still in human form.

"I’m not a child," grumbled Lily, or at least she tried. Lily couldn’t even manage to get two words out without yawning.

"You may not be a child... but you did find an interesting new toy to play around with and now you’re trying to stay up too late. You have no mana and you’re yawning. It’s time for you to get some sleep," Kat said gently.

Lily let out a huff but decided to go along with it. Pulling herself upwards a bit so that she could kiss Kat on the temple before transforming, letting herself shrink and change so that she could get comfortable in Kat’s hands, or more accurately, against Kat’s elbow.

Kat herself smiled gently and gave Lily a few scratches behind the ear before making her way back to the dorm area. When she entered inside, she nodded at the two guards and looked around. In one of the corners Carl had set up a small tent that didn’t even manage to cover him. It was somewhat comical looking. He had a sleeping bag, a pillow, and a tent that covered his stomach and a bit of his legs. It looked more sized for Lily than anything else.

Listening out, she couldn’t hear much movement. It seemed that almost everyone else had already decided to get some sleep. It was quite late so that wasn’t a surprise. Kat gently placed Lily down on the nearby desk as she decided to go check on everyone. Probably best to make sure everyone that needed sleep got it.

Her first port of call was to see what Appoline was up to. Kat could hear the cauldron bubbling away but not Appoline moving around. Kat wasn’t sure if that was safe or what it meant exactly so she checked in on that first. Inside, she found Appoline asleep in a sleeping bag, while the cauldron bubbled away as expected. Kat circled it a bit, careful to keep everything away from the liquid itself. No sense in disrupting things...

"It’s fine," said Appoline. "No need to touch it,"

Kat nearly hurled herself into the air at the call. She hadn’t notice Appoline waking. "Sorry. Lily and I were practicing, or well, mostly Lily. Now that it’s late she’s getting some sleep and I was here to check on you because I could hear the cauldron. I didn’t mean to wake you up."

Appoline shrugged, pushing herself slowly to her feet and sliding her way over to the cauldron. Notably, she also didn’t touch it. "It’s fine. Since... I was kidnapped I’ve been rather sensitive to sounds when I’m sleeping. It’s not the first time I’ve woken up tonight and it probably won’t be the last."

"That... doesn’t seem the healthiest. Especially when I know you’ve been going light on sleep even without getting up partway through," Kat prodded.

Appoline shrugged, "I’m a Rank 2 so I can deal with the effects as long as I’m taking care of myself in other ways and there are potions to help. I’m not using them yet, but they exist if I need them. Plus, the whole ’shit sleep’ thing is one of the reasons I’ve been staying up. Might as well ensure I’m properly tired first."

"Does that work?" Kat asked.

Appoline shrugged, "It doesn’t not work."

"Real clear," grumbled Kat.

Appoline shrugged again. "It’s the best I can offer you really. I have nothing to soothe all of your worries. It’s an issue... but it’s hard for me to consider it something I need to fix when I consider the possible alternatives." Kat winced. There wasn’t really a good response to that. Sleep was important but well... it was easy to forget considering how fast Appoline had seemed to bounce back from everything. Then again, Kat supposed no actual torture or starvation took place. Probably.

"Regardless, if you were wondering about this potion it’s meant to steep for a while. I’m trying to make a decent regeneration potion with the ingredients here. I’ve already made a few healing ones. They’re fine, nothing special," explained Appoline.

"What’s the difference?" Kat asked though she already had a decent idea.

"Regeneration potions are meant to slowly restore the body. They’re better for civilians, or a bunch of small cuts all over the body. They are also acceptable to help recover after intense workouts or pulling a muscle during work. These are for weaker ones of course. Regeneration potions take longer because you want to imbue that slow draw into the potion itself, allowing for it to be dispersed slowly.

"Though don’t let that fool you into thinking you have actual regeneration. You’d need a MUCH stronger potion for that. Though in theory yes, if the regeneration potion was good enough you could heal during combat with it. Oh, yes, blood loss. They’re also much better at dealing with continual blood loss then healing potions," explained Appoline.

"Do normal potions not deal with it well?" asked Kat.

Appoline shook her head, "No not really. If you’re applying it to the wound directly it doesn’t help at all and if you drink it then it tends to focus on other things first, and even IF it does restore some blood, it restores just enough for it not to be a medical issue instead of restoring it to the point you feel better."

"That seems... weird..." Kat offered.

Appoline shrugged, "Healing potions aren’t actually good with blood. Most of them are made from plants after all, and while sap is similar, it is conceptually different enough that the potion would burn through too much of its essence fixing the blood if it focused on that. It’s why blood replenishers are a separate potion, though they’re a bit niche. Regeneration potions have more uses,"

Kat nodded, "Still seems like healing potions are the best to have around..."

Appoline nodded back, "There is a reason that healing potions are king. Arguably regeneration potions should heal more... but realistically that’s not the case. Instantly applying a healing potion tends to fix the issue and prevents more popping up. Healing right now, and healing in five minutes are completely different timings. Especially in a medical sense. Still... it is slightly easier to get more potent regeneration potions, and when it comes to bringing back limbs or organs it’s much easier to make a regeneration potion for it than a healing one. So it’s not like they’re useless once you get to the higher ranks.

"They also aren’t that hard to make. They just require you to let them sit for a while, and you tend to get a slightly better yield because it seeped into more of the water. Which isn’t a huge deal most of the time. The better ones don’t really get this benefit, and getting one or two extra bottles from the weaker stuff doesn’t really justify it when they’re worth less."

"Interesting... and with that all explained it’s probably best I leave you. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on any more sleep then you absolutely have to," Kat stated.

Appoline shrugged, "I suppose. I’d rather be talking about alchemy but I’ll admit that you aren’t wrong. Though, one final use for regeneration potions. Most healing potions can’t clear out poisons, but regeneration ones can help the body fight off the symptoms for days, or possibly weeks if the dosages for both are correct. Makes them something I’ve studied more than most."

Kat rolled her eyes and left the room, not letting the deliberately ominous note Appoline had ended things on bother her. *Kat sighed and pushed the thought aside as she made her way to the other side of the complex to see what was going on with the other person who was still awake.

Kat could hear someone scratching into something, clearly carving runes still so Kat quietly opened the door and looked around. It seemed Brook was still working... and the entire room was now completely covered in runes. Kat shrugged and gently made her way over, speaking up as she stepped into the room. "Hey Brook, it’s getting late. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?"

The woman turned slowly to smile at Kat. "Ah, no it’s fine. I was just finishing up you see?" Brook pointed to the wall she was carving and Kat moved up to see what exactly she was talking about, not expecting to really understand it, but willing to humour the older woman.

Kat would never get a close look at the runes. With no change in expression, and barely any movement, Brook poked the rune once and the entire room lit up. Kat didn’t register the danger even then, she was surprised though, potentially freezing in place. It didn’t matter. Everything started to shrink and stretch as Kat found herself suspended in the air, now much, much smaller from her own perspective, and standing on hard, invisible ground.