Esstrey is reading through the books the witch owhat detail various magical cos, rituals and items. There are specific items detailing what she wao use them for, a tainer fical power that could work as a bomb, a co that muddies someone's mind and makes them susceptible to suggestion, and a... peculiar item sidering the other items on the list. A slime core, one apparently capable of sapiend being attuo a rather uniquely described element. The way of acquiring it simply states 'trade with basement', but the only thing that was in the basement was a goth's attempt at tag the beyond.

  Esstrey rethinks on that st thought, in a world of magic such a thing could easily be real. Magic is a ceptual force, and such attempts would bear actual fruit as long as the i behind it is rge enough. Filtering her searches in the book down to rituals, it doesn't take long for her to find the symbolism in the book that matches the basement. Details on tag what seems to be anized demons called The Infernal Host. Esstrey pares the se and time of writing with the slime core and The Infernal Host. Quickly establishing a timeli which the witch did things, Esstrey finds out with some small iigating that the witehow had tact with The Infernal Host who had offered her the slime core. sidering most pages afterward are resear what demons value, and subsequently how to acquire powerful ritual reagents, it goes to show that she never succeeded in acquiring everything needed for payment.

  Esstrey is about to dismiss the projetirely, as she herself is certainly not pnning to die trying to appease actual demons, when she finds one of the powerful reagents acquisition pn. Kidnap a royal, or a high-ranking noble, and bleed them dry. It details how, at a certain point, the blood of royalty bees valuable to the divine and the infernal. Of course in a world of magic the mandate of heaven would be a tangible thirey 't help but sigh. In a world with heaven and hell, churches that suppress the influence of their oppos by resource denial is the logiext step. The witever even sidered keeping a royal h-ranking noble captive for long-term blood harvesting, the trag methods of their ter terror operations are most likely rather well-built.

  In the field of royalty, Esstrey does have a few advantages over the witch, that being that Esstrey is royalty herself. She scoffs at the thought, everyone praises monarchs ag like a benevolent ruler is the norm. Feudal scum. Regardless, everything is a on if wielded right, and she would be a fool not to exploit su obvious target. Granted, buying out the demoirely is probably a bad idea. Wouldn't want ao get any ideas that Esstrey might be undefended royalty ripe for the taking after all.

  Making the necessary preparations, she begins making her way to the basement. The books she found oopidicated demons beiraordinarily tough, and only magical attacks having any effe them. Esstrey brings a few jars of blood, her crossbow, and some of the heat-resistaions. The demons along with their magical toughness prefer to use fire magid acc to the witever deceived when it came to their magical aptitude'. Wherey came to the se of how to tain the demon during summoning, or otherwise prevent it fr to harm the summoner, she found that where the proteeasure should have been that that specific se was bnked out. Erased on purpose, perhaps the witch leaving a nasty surprise for anyone going through her stuff without her supervision.

  No matter, Esstrey is fident in doing it the old-fashioned way.

  The corpses of the dogs are still in the basement, and they will now serve another purpose thailizer. Esstrey lets her blood magic take a hold of the corpses, and they rise with a savage and hungry look on their faces. Ghouls. They will be adequate as backup. the ghouls to pour their own blood in the pentagram, it begins to quickly glow with an eerie red light. Esstrey loads her crossbooints it above the pentagram, expeg a visitor any moment now.

  A red cwed hand appears in bright light at the ter of the formation from the ground, as if trying to pull itself up from a hole. Fire envelops the formation for a moment, and a stily dressed woman with red skin and horns stands at the ter of the circle. The creature spreads out its bat wings, and opens her mouth before she opens her eyes.

  "?My my? someone is being daring by doing a summoning without prot- what?" The demon locks eyes with a giant mermaid pointing what amounts to a handheld ballista at her, two dog-ghouls fnk her oher side with hungry looks on their faces.

  "Hello redskin, you and me are going to have a nice long chat about business opportunities. I reend you put on some nicer clothes, rather than looking like a stripper." The demon quickly recovers, and switches to a suit that wouldn't be out of p Wall Street.

  "That's odd, our system has you tagged as a man, I didn't know I would be visiting one of the famed witches instead. You guys don't usually summon us." A quick word and a sway of the hips is usually enough to vince many to lower their guard around demons, but not for this one, not today.

  "Cease the chitchat, I have brought you here for a deal on this item" Esstrey brings up the book with the picture of the slime core drawn on it with one cw, while keepiher cw firmly on the crossbow.

  "Oh? That one? I don't think you could afford it. It's a rather important item, after all." The demoends to look offended by what is practically a window-shopper to her, but is clearly eained by the idea that this massive mermaid could have some tricks up her sleeve.

  The demon is proven right, when the mermaid puts down twe jars filled with blood. A quispe reveals it to be [5th Tier Royal Blood], the blood of a powerful royal. The demon unches a quispe on the mermaid, but doesn't find much special other than... a peculiar creature ag as her spi feels like a space-attuned monster, but is clearly something different. It's no big miracle that this mortal mao capture herself such a rge quantity of excellent ritual material, what's the real miracle is oerested enough in the deal to tact demons.

  "Quit staring at the blood and hand over the core, then we all be on our merry way." The demains her posure, and thinks to herself for a short moment. No doubt trying to think oher to betray the person she's dealing with at this moment.

  "Fine, by the way, my name is Zha'klos. If you ever he services of The Infernal Host again, do not hesitate to call me using my he demon reaches into the ritual circle, and pulls out a gem covered by rock, the slime core. An ally truly on limited by one's creativity.

  "Well, Zha'klos, I'm Esstrey. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I look forward to further fruitful endeavors." Esstrey shoves the jars forward as the demon hands over the slime core, both parties being somewhat surprised the other side stayed true to their word on the deal by the end.

  By the end, Zha'klos has gotten herself great prestige with a deal like this, while Esstrey doesn't even try to hide her greed as she takes a hold of the rock.

  Prickly