D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2355 Your Grunkle’s Advice Part 2

--- Kat ---

Appoline and Grunkle got a bit lost talking about the effects various weather conditions had on certain plants. Appoline knew a bit of this because of her family’s greenhouse, but allegedly didn’t know more than that when it came to the wider world, having lived in a dome city for so long. She ’speculated’ on a few things that Kat suspected was just using her actual knowledge without getting Thyme to complain.

Grunkle seemed to similar know quite a bit about the topic. His study of weather meant he also looked into not just how the weather changed, but how that change effected the things around it. Though in a world with so much mana it was just as important to realise that things could effect the weather just from their magic. A lot of plants that liked the rain didn’t just live in rainy areas, they helped reinforce it.

Eventually though, the conversation wound down a bit. Ultimately, Grunkle couldn’t get too into the specifics. He knew how the weather effected things... when it was somewhat within the standard range for the area. He knew what plants liked what weather to some extend... but more exotic ideas were never tested, because that wasn’t really the point. On the other hand, Appoline couldn’t even justify properly knowing the long term consequences of basically anything. So it was all ’guesses’.

Thus, it left an opening for Kat to ask. "Considering you watch the sky so much, could you let us know how many beams of light were around recently?"

Grunkle nodded, "Ah yes, those are in fact incredibly recent. I notice that they come in pairs and thus, I have visually confirmed five pairs, and my monitoring equipment assures me there has been two more I did not view with my own eyes."

Grunkle continued, "Which I suppose means there has been a grand total of fourteen of them to spot if you were lucky enough. Which I sadly was not. Then again, they don’t tend to change the weather much, and I’m not even sure if they count as weather in this case. Plenty of rare events, plants blooming, monsters being born, these can all effect major change in the weather just... those lights did barely anything so." Grunkle shrugged.

"We’re somewhat interested in those, would you be able to show us where they all happened?" asked Kat.

Grunkle nodded, "Sure if you want me to. Not sure it’ll help much. They weren’t all that close..."

Kat nodded, "Perhaps not but it would be good information to have." *"Though, I am also wondering, are you any good at navigating the portals around here?"

Grunkle shook his head, "Not at all. I’m no spry young elf. My adventuring days are mostly behind me. Though, come to think of it, that lack of knowledge on the nearby portals is probably what’s making my delivery take so long..."

"Perhaps," Kat decided was safe enough to say out loud. Grunkle seemed to be nodding along with it. "Are you familiar at all with the areas around here?"

"Oh, a little I suppose. Down one side is my fishing pond, and from there it breaks off into the nasty swamp and a rather monster infested underground cavern. I haven’t really bothered to explore either. If you take the other portal near my home you go to an icy area that has one monster that can move through snow, or maybe one kind? It always seemed to know where I was, and attacked me constantly but I was never able to kill it.

"The few times I’ve made it past the blasted thing and near one of the other portals I had to turn back. Both look to be FILLED with lava and I simply wasn’t willing to deal with that sort of risk," explained Grunkle.

"Grunkle, would you have some equipment we could borrow or purchase to head into the lava area?" asked Kat.

Grunkle shook his head, "No, that was one of the many things that were meant to be delivered but never arrived. Not sure I ever would’ve used them myself, but I was thinking of hiring a team to set up some devices for me to read the weather on the other side of those portals... alas,"

Before Kat even needed to ask, Appoline put forward an idea. "I should be able to make some fire resistance potions. Perhaps not the highest quality, but a decent number of them to allow for our team to make it inside for at least a few hours. What were you thinking of paying to have those devices set up?"

Grunkle nodded, "I see where you’re going with this... but I’m afraid it wouldn’t be the full payment either way. I’ve only got about a quarter of the devices on me, and even if I could bash together the rest in short order, the rest of the delivery was meant to be the parts to make more. Still... I suppose I wouldn’t be unwilling to reward you if you did some setup for me... BUT I’d need the devices placed FIRST. I’m not getting stiffed on the delivery a second time!"

Kat glanced at Appoline who shrugged and gave a look to say ’this is best I can do really’ before Kat glanced over at Lily. *