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

Chapter 1364 Chapter 1364 What Does This Button Do?

?— Lily —

Lily swam around the box a few more times before deciding that she was obviously missing something. That’s when it hit her. She could take a closer look. The treasure chest was large enough for her to swim into and take a proper look at the boat. Though… that plan was immediately made harder than Lily had intended. As soon as she crossed the threshold to ‘inside’ of the box she fell downwards. She’d forgotten the small fact that all the treasure chests kept out water to at least some extent.

Lily’s wings snapped out into position as she caught herself in the air just in time to avoid smacking into the top of the boathouse. Lily let out a long breath of air as she felt her heart rate calm. *I really should’ve been ready for that. Heck, now that I think back on it, I could feel the lack of water. At least I didn’t hurt myself for missing it, but really I need to pay more attention to this sort of thing.*

After Lily had finished berating herself she flew down to the deck and transformed back. The boat looked a lot smaller from this angle. It had a chest at the back that doubled as a couch. A captain’s chair in front of the wheel, and if you leaned over at the back you could see two propellors sticking out from the bottom of the boat. The real interesting part was the control panel. For such a small boat it seemed to have a considerable number of buttons. Sadly none of them were labelled. Well, except for the big button that said “ON” in large letters, but that one was easy to guess because of its size and positioning by itself rather then on the panel.

*So the question is… what do these all do? Do I press them? Fuck it we’ve come this far.* There was three rows of buttons, and three buttons per row making it into a nice square. Lily carefully pressed the first one and nothing seemed to happen. Glaring at the button she pressed it again. Then again. On the third consecutive press her ears twitched. She could hear something.

Lily closed her eyes and pressed the button a few more times. Every time she pressed the button she could hear the soft sound of something sliding around. Lily was struggling to identify where on the boat it was coming from because of how quiet it was. Funnily enough, if Lily hadn’t kept her eyes closed she might have worked it out sooner. Granted, she was looking for a sound… but it meant she missed the very obvious cupholder that was extending and retracting from the side of the console.

Which meant Lily wasted a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually, she gave up and opened her eyes… finally noticing the cupholder in question. Lily just let out a light cough as she tried to suppress the blush on her cheeks as she tried not to dwell on how silly she must look to anyone watching. Lily could almost feel the amusement rolling off Kat even with the link closed. “Urgh. Let’s just press the next button,” whined Lily. 𝘦.𝘤𝘰𝑚

As soon as Lily pressed the button she recognised that damn sound. It was another god damned cupholder. Lily just pressed the button a second time and didn’t bother to find out where the cupholder even was. Alas, when she reached over to the third button on the top row, it she almost winced at the similar sound repeating once more. Lily breathed out slowly. Not wanting to visibly react to the knowledge that all three of the top buttons were just for various cupholders.

After calming down she pressed the next button and once again heard the sound of something sliding. Much louder though, and obviously behind her. Lily turned around and saw what seemed to be fridge rise up from the middle of the boat. Dismissing it as unimportant for now, Lily pressed the button again and sent it back into the floor.

Next button Lily had to wince. It was the sound of a few dozen latches all being released. The sides of the boat opened up to reveal space for fishing gear. Nice in theory, but the sound of it all clicking open was quite sharp. Lily pressed the button to close the new compartments… only to hear the sound of them unlatching again. Lily looked over and glared at the side panels. *If I want those shut I’m going to have to close them myself aren’t I? This was like… the ‘pop them all open’ button or something wasn’t it?*

Lily decided to just ignore them. It wasn’t important for the moment and she wasn’t storing anything there right now so there was no risk of something falling out so Lily raised a finger over the last button in the row. It took a few seconds but eventually she bit the bullet and pressed down. This time, there was a series of clicks from all down the centre of the boat. Lily wondered what that was about for a few seconds before it all split open and a mast rose up from out of the crack.

Once the mast was fully raised sails popped out from the centre pole, showing off a square sail. *Useful… though not right now while we’re underwater.* Lily pressed the button again and was happy to see the mast and sail fold back up and return to the deck. Now there was just a single row left. Three buttons. Lily was slightly concerned with what they might do, but she didn’t want to waste anymore time.

Pressing the first one caused the boat to shake in place. Lily quickly sprinted for the side transforming mid-jump and flying up and away from the boat just in case. In the end it was a bit of an overreaction because what had actually ended up happening was that the boat grew a pair of long wings. They didn’t seem geared towards flying, more like the extended platforms from a yacht to keep the boat balanced. Lily wasn’t entirely sure the purposes lined up in this case, but it was the closest comparison she could make. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰

Shrugging to herself Lily swam back down to the boat and pressed the button again. Of course the boat had to be a bit dramatic and start shaking again, but Lily didn’t mind it too much this time around, having expected it. Once the boat finished shaking Lily pressed the second button and the boat started to shake again. Lily remained in place for a few moments until she started to realise that the boat was shrinking. Without her being included.

Lily quickly scrambled out of the boathouse before the box got too small to stand in. Leaping off the side, Lily landed on what seemed to be a basic stone flooring. Something she hadn’t paid too much attention to before. As she turned back she saw that the boat had sped up it’s shrinking now that she was outside of it. Quickly going from its original size, to display model size, and then shrinking further until it could easily fit in the palm of her hand.

*I suppose this is how you get it out of the chest. Not sure I like how long it took to figure that out… but clearly this was meant to eat up at least some time. I’m not really sure how anyone could’ve done this faster without just pressing all of the buttons and then booking it. At least I don’t have to worry about how I’m getting out of the chest when I can just fly. Still… what a strange reward. It’s a good one no doubt… but I’m not sure how I feel about the process it took to get it. Nor the fact that it probably only works above the water.

Though… there was that final button I didn’t get to. Perhaps it’s an underwater module. I suppose it’s worth testing it out just to see.* Lily put the boat down on the ground, ready to expand it… only to realise that she had no idea HOW to get it back to normal size. Lily poked it a few times with her foot. Nothing. Lightly placed her foot against it and channelled some mana into it? Still nothing. Lily frowned down at the boat.

*Am… am I meant to press the button again? If so HOW am I meant to press the button again? Does this count as broken or damaged because you can’t use it now that it’s a tiny boat? That seems unfair considering I was just pushing the buttons the boat came with. Am I missing something? No. No. I’ve already wasted enough time with this admittedly cool reward. I need to get moving.*

Lily was more correct then she knew. The net had started to shrink just a few moments ago. The playfield was changing… and while the finale was some time away yet, the leadup had already begun.

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