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

1375  Chapter 1375 Platoon 2

--- Lily --- Lily was gliding around in the air, and so many of her worries just… melted away. She hadn't even gained much additional height, but up here? She just felt safe. Calm. No longer did the time crunch seem so bad. The worry about collecting treasure a distant thing… and she felt safe. Nobody else could fly, not like she could. It made her wonder if she could just stay here away from everyone else and remain safe.

For the moment, Lily put that thought to the side. She would consider it a bit more once she understood the situation. Rising steadily Lily cast her gaze out to the horizon and managed to see, the net area close to her pretty quickly. From there she could follow it… fairly well until it disappeared over the horizon. Not by much. If Lily was a betting woman she'd put money down on being able to see the whole thing in less then five minutes.

The net was obviously closing in. It was… probably butting up against the edge of the crab area right now. Lily couldn't be sure where the net actually started. Perhaps aw biome or two were no longer accessible past the crab area, but that was just a guess. Thyme said that the net was closing in on the centre point between all of the treasure hunters, and Lily already knew that Romilda was nearby. That meant that at least two people were dragging the centre closer to this area.

*It's nice to know that I can just head away from Romilda. The risk of running into her might still be decently high if she's going to zip around with her metal and head for the centre… but I doubt she knows about the net just yet. The real question is what do I want to do with this information?

Staying up here would be great. The sky is nice and clear, nothing seems ready to jump out and attack me… but I'm not getting any treasures up here. I can see a few pontoons that might have treasure floating around, but no balloons or anything else that's actually in the air… which is a big risk. If I think I've got enough treasure then fine, just hide up here, or perhaps a touch higher and I'll be fine. Though… if I was forced to guess I'd say that I'm behind Blue for sure, and possibly behind March and Marigold. It's hard to tell with those two. I can see them both getting distracted with something along the way, or perhaps some fights. There's just no way to tell. Thyme didn't make any announcements as if this was a battel royal. You know the ones? 'March has been eliminated' or I guess in this case sent to medical. So… ultimately staying up here, as nice as it is, definitely puts me at risk of ending up in third place. I'm not willing to throw in the towel like that so I need a new plan. Heading for the pontoons and collecting treasure that way could be a good start… but the real question is what do I do if I see someone to fight. There's no way I'm the only person with a storage treasure so it might not be obvious just how many treasures they have. So what's the plan? Do I fight? No I'm not that good at fighting. My spells are good but I don't have the practice necessary. So… do I try and steal their storage artifact? Honestly that sounds like a fun idea. It might not work… and I'm not sure I could manage to steal anything from March or Marigold but I think I'm going to try if I see them.*

With a plan in mind Lily angled away from the closest two pontoons. One of them she'd visited before… though which one Lily couldn't say. No reason to waste time checking, especially when they were so close to the net. If she guessed wrong the first time, or the challenge took too long there was a good chance for the net to catch up to her and that was simply not a risk she wanted to deal with just yet.

When Lily found herself angling onto the platform she found Thyme as expected… but it was the same shell game as last time. Lily frowned as she transformed and said, "Can I play this game?"

"I'm afraid not. You have already claimed the treasure for this game," said Thyme. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"But I could've sworn this was a new pontoon," said Lily. "I'm certain that I went to one of the other two. Sure this was somewhat close to where I am now, but I went in the complete opposite direction,"

"Some pontoons have duplicate challenges. You may only get a treasure, or treasures, from the first time you take the challenge regardless of where you find it. As a consolation prize, I can send you to the closest pontoon that has a challenge you haven't yet completed. Keep in mind, this is a one-time offer. If you take it now, no other duplicate pontoon will offer it to you," explained Thyme.

*Well no reason not to take it when I can fly. Might mean it's not worth focusing on the pontoons like I had planned, but at the very least I can get another treasure without too much wasted time.* "I'll take the advice now thank you," said Lily.

Thyme nodded and a big arrow appeared pointing to another pontoon. Lily rolled her eyes at the dramatic but didn't say anything else. She swapped to Memphis form and got a short run up before leaping into the air and heading straight for the new pontoon. It didn't take long, and soon Lily found herself sitting on what looked like the same dam pontoon. Still, she didn't let it bother her yet. Thyme wasn't so unreliable and the chance that the nearest new pontoon was directly past another seemed very low.

So Lily waited, and eventually Thyme spoke. "Welcome to Thyme's treasure evaluator! I'll be presenting you with a number of rounds of treasure. In each round I'll offer you two treasures to look at. You can ask me exactly three questions each round. I cannot answer any questions revolving around the price of the item. Some examples of invalid questions are as follows. 'Which of these is more expensive' 'would you say this treasure is expensive' or 'Do you think your average person could afford this'. You need to pick the treasure with the higher monetary value to move onto the next round. However, do keep in mind that all treasures will be scaled down to fit on the table. If their size has been changed at all, you will be notified without it costing a question.

"Now, onto the prize details. Every completed round will give you a single point. You can go through as many rounds as you want… but if you lose I'll be wiping the slate completely clean. You're also only allowed two chances to spend your points, so make sure when you do you've spent everything. Any points left over will be wasted. Now, are there any questions you have for me?" explained Thyme.

"Yeah I've got a few actually. The first is, 'who determines the price'. Is this like an 'average sold price' type of deal? Or is this how much they're worth when the person selling them knows what they're doing?" asked Lily.

"The answer is making the assumption that I am a high end appraiser in the capital city of one of the main races. Which one doesn't matter too much. It's how I'll know to answer your questions," said Thyme.

"Right… well with that in mind… what sort of condition will these things be in? Like, could you give me a rusty legendary sword and a recently sharpened plain steel sword?" asked Lily.

"It is entirely possible for that to occur," said Thyme with a smile. "Though remember, you have your three questions every round to ask me. If you suspect I am trying to mislead you with something like that, you can just have some questions ready to determine the truth,"

*That's harder then it sounds Thyme. Especially when I can't outright ask the value of things. Like 'How much would the value improve is this was clean' or something like that. Wait… that also makes me wonder…* "What about broken things? How are they rated?" asked Lily.

Thyme shrugged and said, "They are priced as they are. You'll need to find the right questions to determine how easy or expensive it would be to fix it, and work out if that makes the final price high enough to overcome whatever treasure is up against it,"

*Not what I wanted to hear. But about what I expected.* "What things are on offer and for what price?" asked Lily.

"I cannot tell you. I can only offer you a chance to look things over once you've initiated your first shop round," said Thyme.

"Wait you mean that I could ask to shop and not even have enough points to buy a treasure!?" growled Lily.