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

— Kat —

Kat was going over the recent conversation as she tried to work out what was going on. She was still confused and Lily was asleep. The fact that the ‘sticky note’ Kat had left seemed to have been taken down meant… something. *The question is, did Lily wake up and see it or did it disappear when I went to sleep?* Kat debated for a few moments before starting to comb through Lily’s recent memories. She didn’t like doing this, it was different then just being mentally connected and when Lily wasn’t awake it required a lot more deliberation on Kat’s part. It felt like a massive invasion of privacy.

Which was debatable considering the situation, but Kat did want to know that everyone was safe. Lily had been, possibly, asleep for a while and they were stuck in an assassin’s base for the moment. Kat would be very worried if they’d drugged everyone and sent them to sleep. Luckily though, that didn’t seem to be the case. Lily had woken up for a few hours in the middle of the night and it was right after Kat had gone to sleep too. Well… that’s a touch awkward.

Lily had gotten something to eat had a drink, freaked out over Kat’s message, checked Kat’s memories of the fight quickly before freaking out again and discussing it with Nixilei for a while before collapsing back asleep. Not ideal certainly, and Nixilei was probably getting tired at this point so dealing with that soonish would be necessary. Though Kat was reluctant to go and wake Lily up.

Refocusing, Kat once again turned her mind back to what happened as Eleanora placed a steaming teacup in front of her before moving to the edge of the tent. “You know you can snack on this or drink tea as well right?” said Kat. “I’m not going to eat all of this,” Kat sipped the tea and was hit with an extremely delicate mix of flavour that seemed to sit right in the nose and calm her slightly. “Might drink all the tea though,” added Kat as she took another sip. It really was excellent.

“I ate before you woke,” Eleanora explained. “I could of course eat with you if that is your desire but in terms of sustenance I am at no risk. I know a number of spells that help… maintain your figure. My mother taught them to me when I was younger. I had to drastically alter them to suit my own purposes,”

Kat felt the dangling offer for more information… and Kat was going to take it. First though, there was something she noticed “So, I guess I didn’t actually ask but… WHY are you shorter?”

“I believe I explained that,” returned Eleanora as Kat reached over and bit into once of the cookies before screwing up her face. “Is something the matter?”

“This… this taste like I just bit into an acorn…” mumbled Kat. “Also, you told me HOW but not the WHY”

Eleanora reached over and grabbed one of the cookies herself, biting deeply into them before twisting her own nose up. “Urgh. These DO taste like acorns,”

“WHY DO YOU SEEM SURPRISED!” glared Kat.

Eleanora shrugged. “My cousin, not the royal ones, runs a bakery. She sends me plenty of sweets in exchange for some investing in her bakery business early on. It’s usually great but…” Eleanora paused. “She gets creative,”

Kat nodded and took another long sip of her tea to get rid of the taste. It… sort of worked. “So the height thing?”

Eleanora shrugged. “I just thought it was funny. I had the idea because it’d be weird for a servant to be taller then their master, and then I continued that line of thought and realised that because I also don’t have my heels on a lot of people are going to assume I’m naturally this small. I’m going to have fun terrorizing people with it,”

Deciding not to address that at all “So about those body… refining spells,” offered Kat instead.

“Huh… ‘body refining’ is actually a better name for them then they have,” stated Eleanora. Kat raised an eyebrow. “The two most common are just called the ‘fat burning curse’ and ‘weight gain curse’. You can’t really cast them on other people though and unless you have regeneration affinity they can be pretty dangerous.

“Still… plenty of nobles pick them up for obvious reasons. It’s not as big an issue for us elves as it is for some of the other races. We have a hard time developing fat tissue for some reason. Though we have equally large issues developing muscle so perhaps it evens out. Regardless, I’m sure you can guess what I wanted them for,”

“You wanted a muscle builder one right?” asked Kat.

Eleanora nodded. “Indeed. It’s sadly a lot more complex then that. Especially once you bring higher energy refinement of muscles into the mix and how just having large muscles is rarely the best decision for your long term growth. Still, when I was younger I attempted to perfect a spell that would help my muscles strengthen without excessive weight gain,”

“Did it work?” asked Kat.

“No, sadly not. Or at least, nothing significant. I suspect it IS possible but you’d likely need to be higher than Rank 1 to pull it off and by the time you are strong enough to develop a working version of the spell you are also far too strong for the spell to work properly, or at least, increase your strength unless it underwent a major overhaul. Worse, because it’s regeneration and not healing you can’t really use it to help other people either.

“The best I managed was a… sort of ‘muscle stasis’ spell. It means that I could relax and do nothing for decades without getting any weaker… but that’s not much of a concern once you hit Rank 3 anyway and even if it would be useful for someone, it’s really not something I can see myself ever using and the need for regeneration affinity makes it unlikely anyone will get real use of it,” explained Eleanora.

“Really? No one?” asked Kat.

“Everyone with regeneration affinity tends to be… a little crazy,” offered Eleanora. “Or maybe it’s just my family perhaps?”

Kat sighed as she finished her tea and Eleanora refilled it using the pot. “So… what exactly do those spells do from a more mechanical perspective? My own regeneration just seems to… well it seems to have a snapshot of me and anything that deviates from that gets changed. My hair and nails don’t really grow anymore and injuries don’t linger… but I have no idea if I gain muscle or not from training. I think I have to? Or at least I do have new muscle memories but actual muscle? Not sure,”

“The fat burning curse essentially sends your body into overdrive. It’s not safe to keep up long term and it is recommended that if you don’t have regeneration affinity to manage the side effects you should use them while in an ice bath. It’s a bit like giving herself a fever to burn away fat but more efficient and less of a problem. It’s still potentially one, but less so.

“The weight gain one is weird. I don’t know how it works. I mean, I know what I was told ‘it means you get more energy from the food you eat’ but I tested that and it’s not really true, or at least it doesn’t properly account for the weight gain. I think what it actually does is continually heals your fat stores as they get used up while also making your stomach or intestines more efficient but that’s just a guess,” explained Eleanora.

“Hmmm… might bring that up with Lily later on. She’ll be interested in whatever spell research you’ve done for sure. Which… leads me onto another thing. What do you recommend we do? My friends are still hiding out with the assassins, so I’m wondering how safe it is to go and get them,” explained Kat.

“I’m not sure how much my efforts will assister her but I’ll be happy to share mistress,” said Eleanora with a cheeky grin on her face that caused Kat to roll her eyes. “As for the best course of action? I would suggest contacting your friends first and then heading into town. I’ll see who I need to beat up to clear out any lingering issues and then I can recommend some places to stay for the next few days,” offered Eleanora.

“Isn’t that… hmm… is beating them up really the correct answer here?” asked Kat.

Eleanora shrugged. “It may not be the best answer long term, of for them… but I do not particularly care. They’ve caused enough issues around the city and someone is going to have to pay to rebuild the jail. I’ve decided that it’s not going to be me because I had nothing to do with that fight. So… I’ll just rough them up enough that they stop causing problems for me. At least for a while,”

Kat sighed, but didn’t actually say anything to contradict the idea.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!