D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1880 Cold Reception

--- Kress ---

Kress glance down. Then back up. Then down again. He was at the bottom of the pit. He’d made decent time to the town but it had honestly still taken him a lot longer then he wanted it to. He was tired, a little shook up from the few faster but much more dangerous sections... and there was no entrance to the town.

Now, this wasn’t a simple ’the gates are shut’ situation. The gate that might have once been here? It had been completely removed. The wall here was completely smooth. The few blemishes, the metal struts supporting the dome were too far away for it to realistically BE a door. So... where did the door go?

Kress glanced at the ground for a fourth or fifth time. It was, definitely, completely, one hundred percent. A bridge. Now granted, it was one that had been covered in snow but simply brushing away a bunch of the snow revealed steel underneath. Plus there was the guard rails on either side of the platform. It was very clearly a bridge.

*So why is there no way inside?* Kress walked forward until he was right up next to the steel wall for the dome. The glass that he had once assumed covered the entire thing was actually only the top section. The lower part was steel, stretching from the ground to about ten metres up or so? Looking to the left and right just revealed more metal with the occasional support beam, which, as it happened, was also metal. Those just went up a bit higher than the rest.

Shivering a bit Kress glanced at the sky. The sun had ’set’ some time ago, though that was mostly his current elevation to blame. *I don’t want to just be out here forever. Hmmm.* Kress gently knocked against the metal. *Yup. That’s real. Not an illusion at all... so what’s going on?*

Kress glanced down at Timmy. "Can you throw me up to that metal ledge?" asked Kress. The ledge in question was where the thicker steel met thinner glass. He wasn’t certain there was space to land but he had to try. Timmy, the loyal little thing he was, just nodded at the question... and then did nothing else. Rolling his eyes Kress added, "Please throw me up so that my feet will land on the edge if I do nothing,"

A moment later and Kress was in the air. He hadn’t even felt himself getting picked up. There was a moment where he wanted to scream or flail his arms... but he had plenty of combat training and supressing those sorts of instincts was old hat. Also... he did specifically call for Timmy to place him in the right spot if he didn’t move. So... he didn’t. It was the right call as he managed to land gently on the correct spot.

Not so great is that he felt the thin layer of ice on top of the metal cracking under his feet, and as he automatically corrected for that, the slippery metal, ice, and water combo sent one leg off to the side. Kress shifted his weight swiftly, leaning up to the glass to help keep him on the high ledge. It worked, stopping his moment and keeping him in place... but the glass was fucking freezing.

Kress would swear he felt the cold intruding into his bones as he carefully moved his face away from the glass, wincing as his lips stuck for a few moments. Carefully raising his dagger up near his face Kress pushed some mana inside and let the flames rise up. A moment later and he was free. Even still, Kress only moved back a slight bit and was careful the entire way, ensuring that at no point was his centre of mass too far back and at a point where he might fall off.

The glass was frosted, not in the temperature sense, but the technique one. Looking in through it was exceptionally hard. The light managed to shine through... and there might have been blobs moving around? It was nearly impossible to tell. It was like someone had shoved cotton into the glass to obscure everything. Kress grumbled as he gently tapped the glass. It didn’t even ring. Kress looked down at the dagger still in his hand. *Do I want to do it? Do I smash the glass?*

Kress imagined a little version of him in a devil costume on his left shoulder. "Yes! Smash the glass! Thyme set this whole thing up to be a fun challenge. This isn’t some ancient ruin it’s a cheap prop set up by a powerful dryad. It’ll be fine! Just smash it!"

Kress glanced over at his other shoulder... and found Stan leaning against something that didn’t exist. "Just because you can smash the glass doesn’t mean you should. It’s quite possible this town isn’t abandoned at all. Even if the people are paid to be here... raining glass down on them isn’t nice. Plus, Thyme might have put a lot of time and effort into this, probably abusing time magic... so this could be hundred or thousands of hours of work, are you really just going to smash it?"

"Aren’t you meant to be an angel?" asked Kress.

Tiny Stan raised an eyebrow. "I’m a comedic representation of your subconscious that you’re projecting into the real world. I like look this because you THINK I look like this. I’m not ’meant’ to be anything,"

"What he’s saying," insisted Devil Kress, "Is that he’s too pussy to put on an angel outfit. Afraid the pricks might smite him for the sacrilege,"

Stan rolled his eyes, "Kress, stop talking to yourself and go find a secret entrance or something. Freezing your pretty little ass off isn’t helping anyone out here,"

"I’ll have you know my ass is NOT small. I never skip leg day," retorted the real Kress.

"That’s what you focus on?" asked both of the tiny shoulder figments.

"Yes," said Kress with a nod. Sadly, for Kress this was a rather vigorous full-body nod and he was currently standing on a thin, slippery bit of metal which was not giving him much grip at all. In fact, the large, exaggerated movement of Kress’ nod was enough to destabilise him. Kress tried to reach out to something, anything, to grab onto and stabilise himself, but having moved back a bit to avoid smacking into the glass there wasn’t much he could do.

Trying to throw his upper torso forward, Kress just caused his feet to slip out from under him. Kress narrowly avoided having his chin smashed into the metal as he fell backwards. "TIMMY CATCH!" shouted Kress just moments before he hit the ground. Thankfully, Timmy was able to do so, jumping and carefully guiding Kress to the ground preventing him from getting hurt.

Kress sighed, wanting to simply relax here and maybe go to sleep... but it was much too cold for that. Dragging himself back up to his feet Kress brushed off the snow he’d ’collected’ and sighed again. "Urgh. That’s what I get for trying to think things through. Probably best I didn’t try to break the glass, who knows if I could even damage it. Something that’s built for snow pile-up like this probably has some durability to it anyway...

"And the comment about the secret entrance seems like a good one but..." Kress moved over to the edge of the town. The place where the circular area went to open air. It... honestly wasn’t that deep. Not with the layers upon layers of ice that had settled down there. *The question isn’t if there’s a secret entrance or not. I refuse to believe Thyme wouldn’t add one in. No... the problem is that it’s likely either buried under ice... or you need to go through the fucking tunnels to get to it!*

Kress scratched his cheek for a few moments. "Timmy can you go look for an entrance to the town?" Timmy shook their head. "This is considered a challenge for orbs then?" Timmy nodded. "Hmm... well I guess that lets me know there IS a reward inside. A question of if its worth it or not though..."

*If Thyme is going to make me work to get inside it’s either going to be a great reward to make up for the time spent... or a complete fake-out that was designed to be a waste of time. I’m not sure which is more likely or how much I really want to gamble here. I REALLY need some sleep too...

I was planning to huddle up in the town for the night. Even if I couldn’t get an inn or something, the fact that it’s all enclosed implies that it’s probably warmer then out here and I could find a corner or something... but if I have to spend all night trying to find a way in I’m going to be kinda wiped. I can push through it... but how long do I want to risk that for?

Do I want to be two days in, no sleep, and not ready for an ambush? I haven’t seen anyone else around here yet which is honestly a tad weird. Surely there would be some people around... but nope. Are they avoiding the cold? Or is there something I’m missing? Is there more than one pit in the winter zone? Something else? There didn’t seem to be... but maybe I’m just on the wrong side? HMmmmm...*

This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eew𝒆bn(o)vel.com