D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2336 A Missing Piece

--- Kat ---

Landing nearly had Kat falling over. The strange gravity was back now they were on an island once again, and it apparently hadn’t wanted to cause issues until that moment Kat touched down. The next issue was that the ground itself was covered in what Kat thought was exceptionally wet grass, but would soon be clarified by Appoline to actually be moss.

The ground was exceptionally slick because of this, and Kat’s shoes weren’t designed for maximum grip anyway. Even if she dismissed them it likely wouldn’t help too much, not with the walkable section of this little island being set into the clouds. It acted the way mist would closer to the ground and ensured the entire place was exceptionally... moist. Ground especially included. It was probably why the moss was here in the first place.

When Kat set Appoline down so she could pick ingredients as she desired, the elf also nearly slipped over. It was one thing to be used to the odd gravity, but with just how slippery everything was there wasn’t much to be done but step carefully and be ready to slide. Kat at the very least had chosen a mostly flat area, or at least, the first flat-ish area she could find. Which was another problem. The clouds were everywhere still and you couldn’t see far.

Lily summoned a shadow hand to point it out.

Kat and Lily glanced over at Appoline who appeared to be cutting away the moss in fascination. "Is there something odd about the grass here?"

"It’s not grass, it’s moss," Appoline corrected. "It’s also... potent. Well, perhaps that’s not quite the correct word... but it has a good deal of conceptual weight to it. This moss has not seen the light of the sun for at LEAST a century, and has spent that entire time in the clouds. It has been soaked with water for all of that time. There are quite a few unique things I could do with something like this..."

"Oh, like what?" asked Kat.

"The easiest would of course be healing potions and water breathing potions but that’s nothing too amazing. I could likely use this to completely remove burn scars with a single application, and maybe even use them as a base for an exceptionally strong fire resistance potion. Then there are the more exotic options... remember that issue earlier and how I mentioned you’d need some good ingredients for me to transform and sneak through small gaps in the rocks?

"This stuff here MIGHT be able to do it. Not by itself... but it could be a core ingredient in a potion that converted the user into water temporarily, or perhaps slime? You could also likely use it for hair care and regrowth as well as maybe a shrinking potion? The possibilities are quite endless. It would need supporting ingredients for most of these things of course, but it could act as the CORE for so many!" Appoline had the biggest smile on her face Kat had seen so far. Not even compared to when she’d swindled those free ingredients from the dryad pretending to be an alarune back at the greenhouse.

Appoline was cutting away quite large chunks of the moss now she was getting into it. Rolling them up neatly as if they were old rugs she needed to move before throwing them into her storage ring revealing pitch black stone underneath. "What’s got you so excited about this moss? I mean... it doesn’t seem that strong or powerful... or much of anything actually."

Appoline shrugged, still grinning. "Perhaps not to you, and perhaps not even to most people looking for valuable herbs... but this stuff here is WHY I came. Well, not for moss specifically, but this sort of conceptually potent ingredient. They likely can’t be used to make anything ridiculously powerful... but it opens up unique opportunities in so many areas.

"If I could, I’d clear out literally all of the moss here, or perhaps only half with the expectation that it would grow back eventually... but sadly, while I do have a considerable amount of storage space I doubt I have quite that much. It would also mean I can’t use it for other interesting things. Though... hmm... not sure I’d find much better and I could use it or throw it away..."

Even just musing out loud that she might ’throw some away’ seemed to visible pain Appoline. It almost looked like she was going to throw up as the words came out of her mouth. She clearly wasn’t happy with the idea. Kat might have offered her own storage space... but frankly there wasn’t that much of it even with Steel’s gift of more, and this was a LOT of moss. Even as Appoline enlarged her cutting surface off into the clouds and the group slowly continued to move along, there was just... more moss. The island was likely entirely covered by it.

It was a little sub optimal that Appoline was heading AWAY from the portal with this, but that wasn’t what bothered Kat. Or rather, something was bothering her, and the obvious one didn’t seem to be it. Kat glanced at Appoline, then back to the portal, then back to Appoline. Everything seemed in order... Kat tried listening to the area around her but couldn’t really hear anything. A bit of wind sure, but not even any of those blasted birds.

A quick check with Lily had her senses telling her the same thing. That there were no audible monsters in the area... perhaps they were hiding with some sort of magic? Lily couldn’t sense anything with her extra senses... still Lily shared Kat’s concern. They were missing something and it was niggling at them a bit.

"Appoline... can you hear or see anything odd?" asked Kat.

Appoline shook her head. "I’m not really paying that much attention... but I don’t think anything is too odd? Not to my ears at least. Plus, what exactly am I meant to see? I can see you, the clouds, and a bit of rock. Oh, and the moss of course. Which... just checking but you CAN also see the moss right? I’d hate to be cutting this up with so much hope in my heart only to find out it’s fake."

"No, not it’s real," confirmed Kat. Lily even glanced up from Kat’s embrace to share her vision of the ground so they could be extra certain that it looked the same to both of them. As far as they could tell everything lined up. Unless it was some weird trap just for elves their vision would be no different to each other. "Lily and I confirmed it together... all looks as it should."

"Hmmm... then I really don’t know what you’re sensing that’s amiss," Appoline admitted with a shrug before getting back into it. She’d gotten the hang of how best to grab the moss without damaging it and was starting to really speed up the process. Not too fast of course, wouldn’t want to slip over.

Kat nodded, but kept a frown while doing so. Checking her demonic energy reserves and finding them full as she expected Kat started to throw out some fire into the clouds, watching as they froze. Kat frowning all the way.

"Could you be careful with that?" asked Appoline. Kat paused. "Look, if you’ve got a reason go ahead, but if I roll up demonically frozen ice crystals that’s going to effect things. Not necessarily in the worst way, but it DOES change things significantly. So..." Appoline trailed off.

"Sorry, I just... something is niggling at me and I thought it might be an invisible enemy or something hiding in the clouds... I guess. Something is wrong... or maybe there isn’t. If I knew what it was..." Kat shook her head. "It’s fine I’ll just try to keep an eye out and stop with the demonic energy."

Appoline nodded, "I see the issue. If you could aim it in one direction I simply wouldn’t collect moss from that’s fine... but you want to canvas in the area around us, and I’d rather you didn’t. I promise to keep an ear out at least."