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

--- Kat ---

"So… can you tell us a bit about those higher tech worlds?" asked Kat. "Lily and I haven't gone to anything like that, so it seems interesting to hear about,"

"I am happy to discuss my trips to such worlds. I have only been summoned to such worlds three times, the second of which was much closer to a standard summoning then what you typically get on such high tech worlds. I will tell you about that one first, as it is a fascinating tale, if one that only needs a few important details.

The other two we can discuss after dinner if that is acceptable to you both?" stated Hunter.

Kat nodded and Kamiko glanced over from where she was brushing her horse down, this time with a really tiny brush that looked to be for nail polish. She was trying to get out a bit of mud that had stuck to the bottom of the horse's scales. "Um… yes that's fine," said Kamiko.

"In that case I shall begin. I say this was a more standard summoning because the people who summoned me were a small branch of explorers who had crashed landed on a planet. I do not know how they figured out the correct sigils, as the person who wrote them out ignored the others advice to get food to write it all out. In blood.

He just barely finished the summoning and activated it before passing away…" started Hunter.

"Um…" mumbled Kamiko.

"Go ahead," said Hunter.

"How… um… how did they PAY for the summoning…" asked Kamiko.

"The summoning circle indicated that the crashed ship was to be considered payment. Though it was largely destroyed it was a significant amount of metal and clearly acceptable payment otherwise I would not have shown up," stated Hunter.

"Um… if the guy doing the summoning died… well why not summon a demon that could've healed him? And why was the contract still valid?" asked Lily.

"I did not consider those questions at the time, but my after action report to the clan did cover those details. It is expected that in the summoners delirious state they may have touched on slightly more, reaching out with their already half dead soul, or perhaps using their soul to puppet their body, just long enough to get it all written out.

The blood and desperation likely allowed for… 'looser' then normal requirements for the circle itself.

"As for why I was summoned instead of a healer? My clan suspects that it is because the man in question didn't WANT a healer. He wanted a hunter, one that knew how to survive in the harsh environment they had found themselves in. The clan posited, and I agree, that the man in question doing the summoning wanted the group to survive and had already accepted his death. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

"He was an older man, though it was never made clear precisely how old. The rest of the crew didn't seem to know. He was known as 'Old Man Ben' but it's exceptionally unclear if the man's name was Ben at all. The clan requested a loan of some of the books that happened to survive the crash, and we found what was likely Ben's journal but he never once referred to himself as such.

"Regardless. My point is that 'Ben' was summoning a hunter to help the other survive until help arrived or they were able to find a way off the planet.

Sadly the accepted payment of the damaged ship made that second one much harder, and I was not going to turn down a contract that would act as such a wonderful test of my skills," Kat gave Hunter an odd look, as she got the feeling the lamia was deliberately ignoring the real reason she wanted to help. "I was tasked with keeping the group alive for some time.

"They refused to tell me their names. Five of them remained alive from the crash, and while I did discover their names over the course of my Hunt with them, out of respect I shall use the names they introduced themselves with. Their was 'Doc' and 'Medic', two of the ships doctors. Doc was a purple skinned female with four legs and six arms. She was the main doctor and retired from fieldwork.

Thus, Medic, her human apprentice, also female. Medic was much younger but had significant musculature and atrocious bedside manner. Doc stuck to guns, somehow able to fire four at a time without accuracy suffering while Medic used a massive club cobbled together from scraps.

"Then there was 'Sparky' the ships engineer. He was a half-human half something else. Green with no hair just bone plates. He had a shotgun and a toolbox as his weapons. He hated me… mostly because he blamed me for the disappearance of the ship. While it was likely never to fly again, Sparky had been salvaging useful things for their camp.

"Next was 'Captain' who was in fact not in charge of the ship, but the ships second in command. They called her Captain because it annoyed the person that was meant to be in charge of the ship. He did not survive landing like many others, and Captain stuck as her official name.

She was the same race of alien as Doc, purple with four legs and six arms, though Captain was missing two of her arms on the left side. Not recently from the looks of things, but gone all the same.

"The last of the survivors was 'Mack' and he was the driver for the ground team, and one of the main gunners when in space. I would later learn that Mack was his actual name, but nobody else had realised that fact, they just assumed it was a nickname. He was a slug type creature that could grow additional arms as necessary though shrunk to do so.

"From what I can gather, there were a few others that survived the crash itself, but in the days it took for Ben to finish with drawing the summoning circle they perished. Some quickly, others to the local wildlife.

With the knowledge that the wildlife had already dealt significant damage to them I headed out and started to scout for… what I would refer to as 'Repulsive Scents' not necessarily to myself or to you three, but to the nearby animals.

"The others were not happy with my decision, but I simply vanished from the spot I was in and waited until they calmed down before leaving. I managed to find a large bear-like creature, skinned it alive and then cut out its scenting glands and rubbed them around the camp to scare of lesser prey.

"From there, it was a matter of priorities. Finding water was a big one, and while I managed to do so on that first day, getting it was a separate matter. I did not have any fancy storage rings like I have on this hunt, so I had to lead an expedition to get water.

"It took considerable effort to get them to follow me, and even more to get them to go as a group after I decided it was too risky to split things up. In the end, it was for the best. I fought off dozens of attacks from the wildlife during the trek, and it what finally got them to trust me, seeing that if I truly wanted them dead I could simply kill them all myself.

"It took two weeks from my summoning for us to make contact with someone else. Sparky managed to rig up a beacon. It didn't allow proper communication, but apparently to a ships sensors it was basically a scream saying 'Hey we're here come and look'. I am unsure when the beacon was built, as I simply noticed it one day as I was looking around camp.

I suspect it took at least a week to build but I am unsure.

"There are a number of smaller less important details I could share. Such as the story of how we moved camp because I insisted we be either safer, or closer to the water. This was because I was running out of large predators nearby to abuse their scent to keep everyone safe. Additionally, water trips were still quite dangerous.

There was a big fight over it until Captain said we were going for the water. So we did.

"It took a lot to build up at second camp into a proper bunker. A lot of digging on my part because I was simply stronger. I consider it a touch beneath me, but I also was not willing to force the issue amongst the group. Once that bunker near the water went up, we were mostly safe.

"The group could defend the bunker without me. I could hunt for the groups food without too many issues. Certainly nothing I saw on my time on the planet was a threat to me in small numbers. It was more of an issue finding edible food for everyone. Mack for example simply could not digest the meat on the planet. Something that annoyed him greatly.

I do not know, Doc believed it to be an allergic reaction of some kind. Personally, I would not mind going back to that planet to spend some additional time hunting. It was entirely untouched with plenty of dangerous beasts to hunt. Sadly, I have grown beyond the fauna there now so the challenge would be much reduced,"