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

--- Kat ---

After the group came flying out of the caves, they made good time on the road for a bit. The monsters that had been plaguing them for quite some time seemed to have let up and that allowed them to make great time. The fact that the cave was mostly straight before that also meant travelling at close to full speed.

Kat had even carried Hunter for a bit to help make up for the time they'd wasted taking the detour.

As it approached lunchtime Lily pointed out a stream that she could hear nearby. It was just off the road and seemed like a potentially great place to stop. Just off the main road, a nice water source, and the lack of monsters meant they might be ale to relax and eat lunch without something attacking them.

Which meant it was a bit of a let down when as soon as they reached the water they were attacked. Kat was at the front of the group and lashed out at the ambusher without really thinking about it. Her hand smacked into the projectile that had been heading in her direction and launched it away. Except… something was wrong.

Kat had backhanded the projectile with a good deal of strength. Not her full strength of course, but more than enough to kill anything that had attacked them so far. Instead there was a sort of… wet slapping sound followed by a 'blop' sound when whatever it was hit the ground. Kat looked over confused and saw an odd blob.

It obviously wasn't a slime, it seemed more solid then that and had a cute looking little face on it.

It had clearly splattered along the ground… and just as quickly pulled itself back together. Kat was so confused that she didn't react when a second one leapt at her and slammed into her face. Kat pulled her free hand up and grabbed it. She was ready to yank it off… but when she did, she felt almost no resistance in the thing went flying into the distance. "What?" mumbled Kat.

Just as she did so, a gurgle of the little things attacked en mass, all coming towards the group from the direction of the water. Hunter reacted first, smacking them away at first, only to stop bothering to fight back. She simply let them swarm over her tail without worry and grabbed the few going for her torso in her hands.

Kamiko had the horse back up and was actually trying to fight these things, but not doing all that well. She was a good fighting, and she reacted quickly with her weapon, abusing its extra reach to sweep them away… but there was quite a lot of them and eventually they started to sneak under her guard in ones and twos.

As this was happening, Kat had moved Lily to her head and was trying to deal with them. She'd noticed that Hunter wasn't using her fire and refrained as well… but hadn't noticed Hunter wasn't even fighting them anymore. Kat acted as a whirling dervish, keeping her head in place as best she could to prevent Lily falling while she spun, kicked, and punched to keep as many away as possible.

At least until Hunter shouted, "Don't worry guys. These are just Gloops. Lily might have issues with them, but they're perfectly safe for us and pretty friendly otherwise. If you stop attacking they'll just get bored,"

"What?" asked Kat who finally turned to look at Hunter properly. She had a Gloop in her hand and was giving it a gentle squish. It was making an odd burbling sound that was a bit like purring. "What are these things exactly? And why should Lily specifically be concerned?"

"These adorable little creatures are called Gloops, or Mana Leaches. They jump on prey and suck mana from them… but don't usually kill anything while they do it. They'll just drain as much as is safe and then leave you behind. Of course, this IS a forest full of monsters so they're not completely safe to interact with for normal people. For us though? They aren't even a nuisance.

They can't suck in demonic energy just mana. So Lily might have issues, but I'm honestly not sure what it means for her to have a combination of the two.

"As for why I told you to stop attacking? It's for two main reasons. The first is that they tend to attack prey that struggles and once they can't grab anymore mana from them they just stop, if you look, most of the ones on my tail are already starting to wonder off. A few will stick around because I'm interesting and messing with them a bit. Quite friendly as I said.

"The second reason? These things are all but invincible for anyone below Rank 4. Our demonic fire would wipe them out with minimal issues, even Kamiko's, but anything else will just fail to do meaningful damage. Perhaps a full powered strike from Kat or myself could kill one but even then it's just not worth the effort,"

"Um… but what about my horse?" asked Kamiko worriedly. She was still on it after all, and was poking the Gloops away from said horse now instead of smacking them away.

"It will likely be fine," said Hunter. "I do not know if that breed of horses engineered specific immunity, if their scales just so happen to make them immune, or if your particularly steed is just that good but I can tell that it's not having any issues at all despite the ones who have jumped on it. It is fascinating honestly,"

"Yeah he's great," said Kamiko with a smile as she patted the neck of her horse. "I guess if it won't hurt him then it's fine?"

"They still wouldn't hurt it," said Hunter, "They'd just drain its mana till it fell asleep if it didn't seem to be immune. Still, it seems they can't even do that much,"

Kat could see Kamiko's frown and decided to just cut in. "So… tell us more about them? Any interesting facts for us about these… monsters?" Kat was messing around with one of the ones that had jumped at her. Squeezing it slightly let them releasing a burbling sound Hunter made them produce. Was that a good thing?

"There are many fascinating things about these creatures. They are nearly indestructible for their rank, though their actual rank is disputed. Blunt damage is simply absorbed by letting themselves flatten out and deform while swords and the like just slip off because of the oil on their skin. Some say its good for your skin but if so it doesn't have any effect on demons.

"They are one of the few known beings without pain receptors at all. Their brains never evolved to deal with pain either, so we can assume they've never felt pain because they are simply incapable of it, and the ones studied by my clan indicate that they never were capable. It makes figuring out where they came from interesting.

"Some postulate they are the ultimate evolution of a slime. This theory is backed up due to the fact that they eat mana as well as small plants and bugs like slimes, take minimal to no physical damage, and create more of themselves through splitting themselves, also like slimes,"

"Interesting… um… do they like being squished?" asked Kat as she continued to do so. It was an odd texture and quite amusing besides. If they didn't feel pain she wasn't going to feel guilty… but part of the joy of petting a dog was knowing it was enjoying your attention. It's why giving Lily scratches was infinitely better.

"It is likely that they do enjoy it yes. This is mostly guesswork because they seem to seek out this sort of intention if you manage to domesticate one," stated Hunter. Find more chapters on m_v l|e'm-p| y r

"Is that easy?" asked Kamiko as she finally grabbed her own Gloop.

"Relatively. It is both harder and easier for a mage to manage it. You either need to be an expert in mana control and learn how to prevent feeding them your mana even in your sleep, or have good enough reactions to always throw them away. On the other end of things, you do need to feed them mana occasionally.

Not particularly often, but occasionally and if you have no mana yourself acquiring stores of it can be an issue," explained Hunter.

"Huh… that doesn't sound too bad," mumbled Kat.

"It is not. While many cultures do not like them because they never try to domestic them, they are hard to get rid of. Sadly, they are also hard to get more of. Despite being quite adorable, fun to squeeze, and great for the general ecosystem in their standard numbers they take a truly ridiculous amount of stored mana to split. This gurgle of Gloop is actually on the larger side.

The excessive amounts of monsters running through the area likely helped them grow to this number, but even then they likely only doubled once,"

"Well at least they won't eat our food," added Kamiko. "So we can play with them while we eat!"