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

--- Kat ---

Kat flew further upwards parting some of the low hanging clouds that had congregated around the mountains. It was harder flying then it really should be, but Kat was easily able to work out why. Hunter had clearly gotten the message. Kat was tempted to clear away the clouds immediately, but decided to wait on it. Once above them Kat hoped Hunter would be more visible and willing to explain what the heck was going on. Plus there were sufficient holes in the clouds to see the ground if she really wanted to.

So Kat ploughed ahead, water condensing on her wings and clothes as she flew through the cloud. Hunter appeared as soon as the water made contact, shivering as she did so. "Are you alright Hunter?"

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"Yes. The cold simply does not agree with me. I need to actively circulate my demonic fire to stave off some of the effects. As a lamia I am more sensitive to cold temperatures even in this form… though you may be interested to know that my alternate form actually handles the weather better," explained Hunter.

"Wait really? That… yeah I don’t really get how that works," said Kat with a shrug as she broke through the cloud layer and quickly moved off to the side. They’d made a bit of a hole going through it and while it would be hard to make out Hunter specifically it wouldn’t be too hard to see that it wasn’t just Kat up here if they looked.

"I do not know the specifics either. It’s not something that always happens, but it is common enough that I was warned about it during my training. It is a shame I ended up with this slight deficit but I had other dice rolls go in my favour so I cannot truly complain," stated Hunter.

Kat nodded, "Right well… I suppose if you don’t know you don’t know. Um… what exactly am I looking for up here? I know Meg told me to check how far the blockage extends… but how much of that is actually what she wants me to do and how much of it is an excuse?"

"That is… a difficult question to answer and I suppose it also depends on what you consider an excuse. Meg rarely does things for one reason and I suspect she does wish to know how far the ice extends. If she can extract some sort of payment from the people here to clear the way she will," stated Hunter.

"Wait… payment? If Meg is concerned with payment then why didn’t she ask for anything when we freed those people from the mist wall?" asked Kat.

"Because the payment isn’t the point. The point is forcing the merchants to argue with her. To see what sort of compromises she can extract from them if they allow her to do so. It’s the arguing and the taking that she’s interested in not the payment. It’s just another facet of her games. The problem with the… dragonkin I believe we were calling them? The issue with the dragonkin is that nothing Meg could ask for would have any real value," explained Hunter.

"That’s… no that doesn’t make any sense. They could make plenty of technological marvels so why can you say it has no real value?" asked Kat.

"I suppose I should’ve specified ’no real value to Meg’," stated Hunter as they continued rising. "Most of the technology they can offer isn’t anything unique for us. Sure the hub prefers a more traditional style in a lot of areas but they have advanced enchantments and technology all around.

"The issue, at least in the dragonkin’s case, is that they have vast stores of energy that can be used to manufacture just about anything. Perhaps they mine some stuff to help that process so it’s somewhat limited… but they don’t act like it is so it might as well be an endless supply. Meg wouldn’t ask because they’d happily hand over just about anything she asked for. No fuss involved at all,"

At this point Kat and Hunter could both see quite far and tell that the ’big mountain’ they were climbing was actually the first in a larger mountain range and they were heading deeper into it. It was one of the taller ones, obviously and Kat was surprised to note they technically hadn’t passed its summit just yet. Though there were some more clouds to get through first.

"Well… not that it would be good… but why not ask for sentimental objects in that case?" asked Kat.

"It ruins the game. Or at least, that’s what Meg claims. In her words, or at least my understanding of them… ’It makes it too easy for them to realise that you’re just trying to hurt them, which is much less fun. Plus, what am I really going to do with a bunch of random junk?’ Though I wonder sometimes if she has enough principles to realise that taking something precious purely to have done so is crossing a line. Morally speaking that is," explained Hunter.

Kat hummed, "Right… well… we’ve gotten a bit off topic. Why exactly are we looking around?"

"Oh right. Well I suspect it’s an excuse for Meg to cause some mischief without us. Probably extorting some merchants. She won’t go too overboard but I suspect she’ll swindle at least one of them out of a map and likely try to start a few brawls. Our presence in the air will also make things easier for her to do so," commented Hunter.

"Dare I ask?" pondered Kat.

Hunter was more than willing to simply give Kat the answer, even if Kat herself was unsure if she wanted it or not. "Meg will start off by playing up the fact that she’s helping look into the current crisis with Julyn as a witness. Technically we are looking into helping them… we just might not actually do so,"

"Right… well… how do you feel about that exactly?" asked Kat.

Hunter shrugged and said, "I don’t feel much about it at all. Perhaps if they had been starving things would be different but this is merely a matter of losing coin. Something all merchants must deal with over time. I see it as little different then stalking your prey over the course of hours or days only to find it dead at the end of the trail. You can either accept your loses, or try to hunt the thing that killed it,"

Kat’s mouth thinned slightly, "Right… but I don’t see how they can get their money back from the snow…"

Hunter shrugged, "I cannot be all that certain either. I am not a merchant myself… but simply exchanging their wares with each other while they are stuck here is likely to make them some amount of coin. Especially trading with the adventurers who did not bring sufficient supplies. A premium because of the crisis… but not so much that it spoils relationships with customers,"

"Still not sure that’s really gaining them money… but I suppose I understand your point. Now… how are we going to do this? I can sort of make out where we came from but the clouds are in the way. Honestly this is a lot less helpful then I thought it would be," grumbled Kat.

"Ah, then allow me. Please ready your ears. Perhaps some earmuffs. You are likely not used to the sound…" stated Hunter. Kat was about to ask what Hunter meant when the lamia pulled out her rifle and started to empty the chamber. Quickly realising that Hunter was about to load special ammo into her rifle and fire it… right next to Kat’s head the succubus started to look into her storage ring.

Eventually finding some earmuff, ones that would hopefully work with her horn, Kat moved to quickly put them on… only to realise that Hunter had already finished loading the weapon and was clearly waiting for her. Feeling a touch silly for rushing Kat placed them securely around her ears and gave Hunter a quick nod.

Hunter nodded back and then fired. A massive WOOMP came from the barrel as an explosion of wind came from the bullet. As it travelled it seemed to realise periodic bursts of air that shoved away more and more cloud cover revealing the landscape bellow.

Kat took off the earmuffs and asked, "What the heck kind of bullet is that? Or well… I mean what is that even for normally?"

"That bullet is designed to suck in the nearby air and then throw it back out. It has a few uses but the one it was originally designed for was to take in poison around the shooter and then throw it back at the attackers. It was not entirely successful with this, but there are a surprising number of situations that shoving away air at regular intervals comes in handy so I keep a few magazines of it on me. Though it is not a bullet for rapid firing. One is almost always enough,"

Kat nodded as she took in the ground below. The road was annoyingly nowhere in sight. Even looking for areas that could potentially be the road was hard. The valley seemed to be filled with snow for as far as the eye could see, or rather as much as they could see before more clouds interrupted things. Kat was struggling to find any useful information in the scene. Well, other than the fact that there was going to be more mushrooms in their future. Perhaps Hunter could tell more.

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