D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2327 Steel Ball Run

--- Kat ---

Wiggles was well behaved for the meal and didn’t even fight when being put back into the stone cube. Oh he moved a bit, likely to give himself some room inside it to move his feet around and get comfortable, but in the end it was a painless process. Kat would’ve bet he’d at least try to make a break for it. Perhaps he was hoping one of the twins would find him? Assuming they were even still in the tournament.

Appoline finished packing up the equipment and said, "Alright that’s a good few brews. I can go over the whole list but the main one is more of the stuff for my breathing, quite a few offensive potions for varying effects, and I’ve got something for the cold. Should mean that as we go up I don’t start to freeze my ears off."

"That’s good. I hadn’t really considered that angle, at least, not any further," commented Kat.

"Yeah well, considering where I lived before we’ve got centuries of research on what makes the best potion for dealing with the chill. I could probably whip up a mediocre one from dirt and a good glare," bragged Appoline, and it clearly had some truth to it because her eyes weren’t triggering. Sure they didn’t normally trigger for jokes or obvious hyperbole... but there did tend to be a bit of something if you were focusing and she certainly was here.

"Yeah well, thought it was time I made some just in case. I do have a few still left over from before we got here but that’s not enough forever, so I topped my supplies up a bit." Appoline shrugged. "I can go over everything if you want but it was a lot, I got through a bunch of the quicker brews and I had like... what was it two hours for them?"

Kat nodded. Appoline had taken out three cauldrons, it was why Kat had been feeding the crazy elf. One of them was a lot smaller than ’standard’ size, but two full sized cauldrons was a LOT of potion. Considering how fast Appoline could brew when she really wanted to, and that the more unstable potions meant for their immediate attacking effects were really quick to make? It made sense she had a stockpile now.

"Nah it’s fine," confirmed Kat. "I mean, tell us if you think something in specific is important of course but otherwise," Kat left it with a shrug, to which Appoline nodded. The system had worked well so far anyway.

Sure technically it might be better to know all of the options, to either better advise Appoline during fights, or to know to ask for some specific solution outside of them... but frankly? Appoline seemed to have everything they ever needed already. Sure she’d been stuck a time or two, or even needed to brew more potions... but still the idea she had everything persisted which really just told you how good her potions were. At least, that’s how Kat saw it.

So she didn’t ask at all, simply nodding at Appoline and then heading into the caverns below. They picked the largest opening they could easily spot and hoped that was a signal that it was the correct way. This would prove to quickly be a mistake because just a mere two minutes later they ended up at a dead end. Fun times.

Several other large tunnels they checked not long after all had the same issue, leading towards dead ends. It was getting sort of ridiculous. Kat was now looking at the smaller holes and wondering... if they were perhaps the answer instead. The issue was just how many of them there were and the fact that, really, it would be a pain to move through them and a much, much harder fight.

For two members of the party anyway. By the time they came to the realisation that the smaller tunnels were necessary, Lily had already volunteered to head off by herself. This time, it would be Kat staying back to guard Appoline, and hold onto Wiggles while Lily went inside the tunnels by herself. Kat gave her a kiss, and wished her luck.

--- Lily ---

The wall exploded, cutting off her train of thought as an iron ball rolled through the wall. It didn’t even look alive. Completely smooth with a metallic sheen, there was no sign of intelligence in its eyes... because it didn’t seem to have any. Lily lashed out, shadow covered claw slamming into the orb and sending it flying away while damaging her hand a bit. Apparently it had been spinning fast enough for that. Wincing a bit, her paw felt a bit raw like gravel rash, though it wasn’t bleeding.

The simply buried through the wall Lily had slapped it towards, continuing on as if it hadn’t been attacked. It didn’t seem... anything. Lily wasn’t sure it was even a monster at this point. There was just such little reaction, and give. Sure golems existed, but this was beyond even that. It was literally just a metal ball.

Lily eyed the hole critically. It wasn’t closing back up... and that thing had been pretty fast. *