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

Chapter 1366 Chapter 1366 Power March

?--- March --- (Around the time Lily started the race)

March collapsed down to one knee after the fight ended. She wasn't using her steam body anymore but every breath still released puffs of steam. The extended use the technique leaving more than enough in her body to keep her at an heightened level of power for now at least. *What was it I said? Just one more battle? What a damned joke. I've got almost no mana, my knuckles look like I've been helping out with the regular jam making and I've got enough cuts on me that if I didn't know a nice trick I'd be worried about bleeding out. One more battle my muscular ass.*

Of course, despite her internal complaints March couldn't help bet feel elated. After noticing that the coliseum had an upper limit on the strength of their competitors March had thrown herself into the battles. One after another with no concern for stopping until her body forced the issue. March had entirely lost count of how many treasures she'd earned but the big pile of chests over at the side of the arena made it all more than worth it. The pile had even started to peak over the edges of the coliseum

Things had definitely started to blur a bit after the twentieth fight. March blamed it on the blood loss, but it was probably the excessive amounts of steam flowing around her body. Sure after much practice her body had adapted, but that was up in the air where more steam was able to escape her body just from sitting around. Here it was all pressed down and forcibly kept inside for the most part.

It did give her some interesting ideas as to where she needed to take the technique… but the current version relied on the passive venting for certain abilities she used to help close the distance in fights or do additional damage. Packing it all down like this was not the path she'd been walking… perhaps that needed to change, and perhaps it didn't. Only time would tell.

For now, March was breathing heavily and trying to expel much of the steam to get her body to calm down and start to recover from her repeated bouts. March was certain that if anyone showed up and tried to attack her right now she'd be done for. So… she just relaxed. If someone was lucky enough to get here right as she was at her most vulnerable? Then that just meant her luck was shit and there was nothing to be done about it.

Five minutes pass. Nothing attacks. Ten minutes pass. Still nothing attacks. Twenty minutes pass and March is feeling pretty good. A bit hungry for sure, but good enough to move around without worry and fight at the upper end of her usual capacity. March's mana was still below half, but she wasn't a mage so that was fine. It just meant she had to spend some time opening treasures while regenerating mana.

"Hey Thyme judge dude, is there any food in any of these chests? Or like, mana regeneration boosting items?" shouted March.

"I cannot provide you with that information," said Thyme.

"Well… what sort of information CAN you provide me with?" asked March.

"I cannot provide you with that information," repeated Thyme.

March rolled her eyes as her lips twitched downwards. *VERY limited then. When they were doing the announcer stuff it hardly seemed like there was any limits… but I suppose that was all scripted beforehand, or perhaps there were a big set of lines generated for Thyme to say while filling in here. Damn, I was hoping to get a little help with sorting this shit out.*

Now it was clear no help would be coming from Thyme March started to open the chests. There was a system. Chests went in a line, with the item resting on top. If the paper was hidden poorly and found within a ten second window, that was placed under the item in question. Regardless of if the paper was found, after that ten seconds March would move onto the next treasure chest.

She didn't pay most of it any mind. Surely there were definitely some good items in there, but first order of business was to find something to store all of them in. March simply didn't think it was worth the time to constantly revaluate her current equipment every few chests as she tried to work out what the optimal combination was. Only something that was undeniable perfect was separated from the pile. March did keep the gun on hand though. Sure it wasn't ideal, but she knew what it did and how it worked so there was no sense in tossing it away at this point.

The first thing March added to her arsenal was a pair of knuckledusters. They slid easily onto her fingers and probably had some enchantments on them. Best part was they fit well and barely limited her movements. *Would've been nice to have these for some of the tougher enemies. That lobster I fought had some really strong armour and punching away at it is what did most of the damage to my hands*

The next item March claimed immediately was a belt of strength. March recognised it immediately. Sure it was more of a fancy gimmick then a proper strength boost, but it worked really well with what she had. Probably not something she'd want to use all the time but for this? To fight a water mage in the fucking ocean? March was willing to bend a little and make use of the belt. Sure it wasn't REAL strength… but if it let her punch Blue's teeth in just this once? She'd put up with wearing it for the remaining hour and however many minutes.

The final item March grabbed was a storage ring. The only reason March knew it was a storage ring was because the paper had been right there with it and labelled it as such. *Probably my reward for some milestone fight, like ten or twenty. Not entirely sure how the chests were ordered before I started digging into the pile… but I think this is one of the upper ones that fell down.* ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ɴovᴇl(ꜰ)ir(e).nᴇt

With the ring in hand, March quickly realised that those knuckles were fancier than she thought, and the ring was less. The brass knuckles she'd picked up allowed the ring sort of meld into the metal so that it was in line with the rest of the metal knuckles and didn't stick out either above or below it and cause any problems.

The ring was less fancy then she was expecting because it wasn't one of the ones that told you what you had in it. You needed to KNOW what you had in it to take the thing out. Which is why after dumping in about ten random treasures March was a little unsure of what to do next. She had a vague recollection of them all, and it was probably possible to pull them all out… but at the same time if she needed to add this entire mountain of stuff to the ring it was going to be a problem.

*Unless…* March looked at the ring and both thought and said "Empty everything" and the floor around her was suddenly covered in junk. Well, it was probably treasure, but March recognised none of it by site and it was useless except for the points provided. *Ok. Not what I really wanted, but good enough not to lose me points so I'll take it.*

Once it was established that the ring would dump everything if asked, March started to throw all of the random treasures she didn't have a use for. Most of these were paintings or vases and things like that. Stuff that might have an interesting enchantment but likely weren't involved in combat at all. Next was the obvious weapons March had no interest in. The three bows, the quiver, the javelins the blowgun, a couple of swords and finally another set of brass knuckles.

After they'd all been stored away it was a bit harder to decide what should go next. There were a number of clothing articles lying about on top of the various chests but without knowing what they did, March didn't know if it was worth keeping them out or not. So… with no other way to decide and with no desire to test them all, March started to throw stuff in the ring that didn't have a piece of paper accompanying it. Well, except for the second storage ring. That obviously couldn't go in the first ring. March did test it to see if it was fancy but alas, it was just a standard one that had the same restrictions as the first ring.

Then, something changed. March couldn't tell you exactly what it was. Just… something in the air, or the water. Some seventh sense of hers was telling her that danger was approaching. Quickly throwing on the various rings, bracelets, two hats, and the jacket that had been left out March got ready for a fight. So of course, that's when Blue showed up.

*Pretty sure I didn't empty all the treasure out… might be best to pretend I have though. Blue might ignore those. I wouldn't want her to get even more treasure. Not when she already has that massive cloud of it following her. Hmm… not sure I can defeat her… but that IS a very juicy looking target*