D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2325 Jungle Gear

--- Kat ---

They ended up deciding that they couldn’t waste the time on ambushes. Without knowing what Souris knew of the rules, it was entirely possible they could spend hours waiting for someone that might never come. This was, after all, about trying to ensure that they could hedge their bets to get the best outcome... and punish Souris a bit for breaking away. No real damage was done, but she certainly had made the attempt.

So they checked out all of the portals on the island first. There were five total, the one they came through, and four others. Which portal Souris came through was unclear and nothing around any of them gave any sort of indication as to where she might have passed through. So ultimately, it came down to where they wanted to go before setting off. Appoline voted, quite heavily, for what looked like a frozen jungle area as it likely had the most ingredients. Kat didn’t really have a good reason to pick a different route, so off they went.

Thing settled into a familiar rhythm at that point. While Lily was awake she’d do the bulk of the watching. Keeping constantly alert and listening to all the sounds in the area. It was a lot, and keeping track of everything while doing her best to identify what was hard but she managed. It meant they could avoid, or trigger, multiple ambushes from the various predators in the area.

Once Lily got too tired, Kat would take over. Focusing more on her eyes and only a little on her ears. It was technically better that Lily be on lookout. Her senses were just better tuned for it. She had instincts that let her get more information from the same details, while Kat just had to do her best, usually using the conclusions Lily had already reached as a crutch to get as close as possible to the correct answer. Though for plenty of things it was never truly confirmed. Plenty of monsters were simply avoided after all.

The main ones that weren’t were these snake things that looked like vines. According to Appoline, it was a common enough type of monster but wasn’t always the same one. Plenty of monsters would apparently end up as snake vines in trees. They also, didn’t have anything too valuable as an ingredient so burn it with fire was an acceptable method of clearing them out.

The more annoying ones were the root snakes. They looked and acted like tree roots. In fact, they had some method of merging with the tree itself which allowed them to avoid breathing and giving away their location audibly, nor via scent. You could still spot them if you were careful. Their camouflage wasn’t perfect as no magic was involved in that part, likely to keep them hidden better. Can’t sense their magic if there’s no magic to sense.

Kat found the first pair nipping at her ankles. Apparently it was always the ankles with this damned mountain. You’d think it would be the lightning, and earlier on, Kat did as well... but it was really looking like the monsters here were just in it for the ankle bites. Of course, a snake that tried to pretend it wasn’t magic didn’t really have the bite force necessary to do serious damage. Instead, it relied on its acid-like venom to burn through the target’s skin, and then it injected a second venom into the wound to hopefully kill them if the acid didn’t do the job.

For Kat, this meant it was more of a danger to her shoes then anything else. The acid stuff didn’t work properly on her skin and just slid off. Maybe with more time it would do some actual damage but it didn’t have anywhere to cling, and didn’t have the time to eat away. Just a slight tingling sensation for a few moments before she could take the head off the snake. Though apparently their venom glands were quite valuable, so she was asked to be careful about this for Appoline.

Wiggles proved to not be too much of a problem to carry. Certainly none of the issues could be called his fault. He didn’t move too much and only squeaked when he thought he was going to be attacked. Which was very fair, considering Kat didn’t want him attacked by random monsters either. So if she heard him ’say’ something then she’d immediately move him away and slash towards the area he was just in. Most of the time this killed the monster, and the few times it didn’t, a second follow up attack did the job. It was mostly those vines snakes anyway.

They were annoying in that, sometimes, they’d just let you pass. It wasn’t always a matter of proximity either. Kat was ready to blast one of them that was practically scraping against her horns... but nope. It just let them go. Didn’t so much as twitch even as Wiggles past nearby underneath it. On the other hand, there was one off to the side, not even in striking range of them, and the damned thing leapt off the branch to try to get them. Why? Kat had no idea and neither did Appoline.

They also ended up looping around quite a lot and spending far more time in the jungle then anyone wanted, even Appoline. By the end of it, she’d gathered a considerable amount of ingredients and wanted some time to create with them. The problem was that they encountered something new. The jungle had a bunch of those space crack glass that signalled a portal all over the place... but not portals. Or perhaps, no portals anymore?

It was hard to be sure. The first one they found was in a clearing that looked like the place had exploded once upon a time. It was a bit of a crater and all of the trees in the area were bent away from it slightly but plenty of grass had regrown and some new growth seemed to be trying to take over the area. The portal however, was notable missing. There was some space shards sitting around the centre where you’d expect a portal to be... but that was it.

Kat and Lily had examined the area for a while, mostly Lily. *

They poked around it for a while... but there was ’a bunch of portals’ here so there was no reason to wait for this one to open back up on its own time. At least... that was what they thought. The problem was that the second ’portal’ was much the same. Closed off, and broken. Though Lily assured Kat this one felt completely different... but not in a way she could really make sense of. So they were still low on information, and unable to travel anywhere else just yet.

This was further complicated by the fact that the first working portal they found ended up being a dead end. There was nothing all that special on the other side, just some more rocks and lightning snake monsters, similar to the ones they encountered before. Heck, it was entirely possible that the bit of rock was once neighbours with the other ones. Looked similar enough, and clearly had the same sort of monsters. Also didn’t give them a good way to move forward.

So after that it was back into the damned jungle. Following the cracks as best they could through the dense foliage only to be disappointed more times then not. Where the portals here so broken because there was so many? Or did so many try to form because something kept trying to set up a portal that worked? Lily and Kat had no way of knowing. Though, when Lily was awake for it, she confirmed that the portals here had different issues. As it went on, they settled into categories at least.

Those seemed to be, portals that failed to form, portals that might be opened at some point, portals that could be on a timer, and in on case, a portal that felt, to her at least, like it had been deliberately destroyed. Considering the lack of potent monsters on this side... there was the worry that something on the OTHER side is what destroyed it, and something that could break a portal so thoroughly? That was something to watch out for.

At least Appoline ended up happy with all the extra ingredients. Various plants, some of the monsters, it all added up. Considering the biome, it even gave her a good variety. It would make her more deadly for the next fight... after a brewing session anyway.