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

--- Kat ---

Kat decided to just clap her hands and grab all of the attention away from the situation Kamiko had caused. "Alright so ignoring that, what's the plan?" asked Kat.

"We're mostly here for you though," said Sue. "So like… shouldn't YOU be telling us the plan?"

Kat shook her head, "And I have no idea where to look. It's one of the reasons I wanted to invite you all along,"

"Ah, just here for to be the help then. How used I am by my friends," said Sue with a long sigh.

Kat lightly bopped Sue on the top of her head. "You know it's not like that. Plus you helped out a bunch with finding a good present for Sylvie and I never really paid you back for that. So… against my better judgement my plan is to find a storage ring and then spend the day doing whatever you and Kamiko want.

"If this is going to take a while we could even extend it to two days, though three might be pushing it. Though I expect Kamiko to sort of just go along with things without really standing up for herself so I'm trusting you with the whole 'doing stuff together' thing. It's not like I have experience with it. So… with that being said where do we want to go?"

Sue leaned over and gave Kat a quick hug… making sure to really squish her boobs into Kat and Lily mostly because she could. Lily completely blanked out her mind devolving into only horny thoughts and no longer listening to the conversation. "Great you broke her," mumbled Kat.

"Look, I regret nothing. Still… I can't be certain what's best for you. So… like… we've got malls, The Mall, The Market, the markets, and craftsmen's corners. Those are your big options," stated Sue.

Kamiko pouted off to the side, "You know very well Kat has no idea what any of that means,"

"Yes," agreed Sue with a pouty look. "I was bating her into asking for an explanation and then I could make a naughty teacher joke. I was even hiding this for it," Sue pulled out a collapsible baton from between her tits and started to wave it around. "I don't really have the current outfit for naughty school teacher but this prop would've been good enough. Alas, my plan is ruined," Stay connected via My Virtual Library Empire

Kat found the link between her and Lily filled with pictures of herself dressed in stockings, a pencil skirt and a business top that was clearly designed for someone with a smaller chest. It was a tiny bit disturbing just how many Lily was able to conjure from nothing and all the different version's of Kat had slightly different outfits, which was sort of impressive.

"So what IS the difference," asked Kat.

"Why, I'm glad you asked my dear student!" said Sue with a smile suddenly back on her face. "So the first two big ones are 'The Mall' and 'The Market' in that they are essentially the same and yet different. The names tell you a lot. Sadly for some, The Mall and The Market are not some giant monolithic city-spanning market or mall. I mean we do have one of those but it's all overpriced garbage so we're not talking about it right now,"

How the heck do you have an entire CITY SIZED MALL of overpriced garbage? Surely if it was all that bad it wouldn't be able to exist right?

[We have no idea how like… property tax and whatnot work at all. It's possible that it's like the Vatican in that it is it's own little city-state with weird laws or something. Heck one person might just own the whole thing.]

Right but surely the staffing would be a problem?

[Look we can ask about it later Sue's still talking.]

"… are both actually copies of the same mall or market spread out over the hub. Every stall needs to buy a lot in EVERY mall or every market. Though The Market has a lot more options for time limited slots and isn't quite as strict about it. The idea is that you can go to any 'mall' in the entire Hub and still get the same experience while still being encouraged to shop somewhat local and perhaps learn the names of the shop or stall owners."

Kat nodded along. It was… a bit crazy to think about but what Sue was saying did make sense. "Now there are always a few stores that only appear in one 'The Mall' but it's like three or four per shop and having some rare unique shop is part of the charm. It's what makes you pick a single 'The Mall' or 'The Market' and stick with it because you claim it as yours even if it's not nearby,"

"So… is it worth going to one of those?" asked Kat when Sue paused in her speech.

"Eh… look maybe?" said Sue as she shrugged. "The smaller malls almost certainly won't have what you're looking for but the smaller markets MIGHT. The issue is that the markets don't run 24/7 or for some the vendors rotate based on the day and I don't know which ones you care about. So it makes it hard to recommend those.

"The craftsmen's are both your best and worst bet. It's going to cost you more, even though your cutting out the middle men… and it might not be ready all that fast. These are the people you go to for bespoke service and the like. Though at the very least it'll be easy to find a corner that's just for storage rings so it won't be a hassle.

"I'd also… probably recommend 'The Mall' though probably best to just pick one of them. That's where the sort of push and pull comes in. If 'The Mall' has a ring that will work for you to it's going to be a lot cheaper… but finding the right store? That's going to be a pain and there's still no certainty they'll actually have any. Storage rings aren't exactly cheap for a normal demon… though you did shoot up the ranks quickly so maybe you have the cash?"

Oof. Sounds like we might have to break out a favour token for this…

[Probably. Not something we want but we don't need all the ones we have right this moment. I'm sure if we keep doing what we've been doing we can get some more eventually.]

I still don't love it. Maybe we can hold off? Or perhaps find a spellbook to teach you shadow storage?

[Hmm… that might actually be worth looking into.]

"What about a book to teach Lily a way to store things in her shadow?" asked Kat.

Sue shrugged. "I have literally no idea. I've never even needed to consider getting books for mana use and I've got no idea where they'd sell them, why?"

"We just realised we'd probably need to break a favour token to pay for a good storage ring. Something we were hoping to avoid," explained Kat.

Sue let out a long hiss. "Yikes those things are… pretty rare. I mean… I'm not sure I'd ever be offered the chance to get one of those…"

"Really?" asked Kat.

"Yes really! You had to save a world Kat! Possibly risking insanity and death to do so! I mean sure we've got process in place that they'd try to save you but people really DO die on those types of missions and well… demons just don't really do that? You've got bullshit regeneration so you're probably be fine but for a normal demon… like… we just don't handle risk all that well," explained Sue.

"Is it really that bad?" asked Kat.

"Kat… you're a crazy person. This is… this is… hmm… I don't… hmm… what can I even compare it to? Like… active combat on the front lines? Maybe? I don't really understand the full context of what I'm saying but I DO know that wars are awful and it's the closest comparison I can think of," answered Sue.

"That… that's… hmm…" Kat frowned. "It really didn't feel that bad at the time?"

Kamiko glared at Kat. "Kat… I mean… I would happily risk my life to save an entire world. I DID risk my life to save an entire world… but I at least had an understanding that is was actually dangerous…"

"Sorry?" offered Kat with a shrug. "Look, growing up on a non-magical planet may have skewed my idea of danger a bit. Especially because I quickly became nearly unkillable and then survived getting stabbed in the heart. I mean… I get that time magic could be dangerous but like… I think it wouldn't kill me? Hunter and Meg seemed to think it wouldn't…"

Sue sighed, "Yeah in THAT SPECIFIC CASE Kat. Time magic is always different and maybe once they realised using it to kill you wasn't an option they'd try for something worse like trapping you in your mind and forcing you not to go crazy as you live out hundreds or thousands of years in an instant!"

Kat shrugged, "Alright so where are we going first,"

Sue threw her hands up in the air and went back inside her house. Shutting the door behind her. Kat stared at the close door. "So like… do we wait out here or…"