Maikana
patreon
Chapter 59 – Some of them are even uglier on the inside
🕑 Added 2025-05-16 02:31:03 +0000 UTCKori’s grin at successfully obtaining the skill, and creating a mostly okay bottle, extended into a little wiggling dance as she swept her tail around and cheered.
“Yes, yes, you made a bottle. Not sure why you’re so excited about it…” Ulteran said, placing his hand on her shoulder to quickly put a stop to her antics before she managed to knock something over or burn her tail by hitting something hot.
Har, suspecting the real reason she was celebrating, explained to him rather than waiting for Kori to figure out the right words to use. “She’s probably just happy she got some glass Skill or other.”
“She made one bottle, no way she’s gotten glassmaking yet, takes an apprentice a good week to get their first level.” Ulteran said dismissively. He waited while Har confirmed with the youngling in Creation that it was as he had said and once it was confirmed sputtered out, “Already?!” Staring at the still celebrating, albeit in a more stationary manner, kobold.
Shaking his head, Har just somewhat tiredly responded to the gnome by repeating his earlier statement, “Like I said, you never really get used to it. As soon as you think you’ve managed to, she just does something else ridiculous instead…”
“No offense meant Har, but if she’s this good at making things, why’s she with you?” he asked, not understanding why she was being trained by a merchant of all things. “Shouldn’t she be down with your crafters or someone like the one I keep making glass for?”
“Bolst? Yeah, tried that… it’s hard to say if it went absolutely terribly or just all too well, but she’s not allowed to work with him anymore…” Har said, trying to laugh at the situation while a shiver ran down his tail at the thoughts of what the pair might make should they be left alone together again. “As for the other crafters, well, she tried most of em and now they’ve foisted her on me.” His words may have seemed dismissive of her working under him, but his expression definitely showed he was excited by the potential of the youngling he was mentoring. “I mean, what else do you do with a four-year-old that’s already maxed out more skills than most younglings even have by the time they get their Class?”
The gnome’s eyes boggled at the mention of her having maxed out any Skills at her age, let alone that many. He however, may have been misunderstanding the number of skills involved. Gnomish children took many more years to mature and as such often had a fairly broad number of general skills in addition to whatever they learned towards their eventual profession.
Kori, having been listening and trying to decipher what had been said had managed to understand a bit of Har’s statement. Though she was a bit stuck on the word ‘foisted’. She did at least manage to figure out that he was talking about how many Skills she had managed to reach the maximum for her tier on. “It’s not that many, only four of them… though three more are at level four and should be close…”
If the gnome’s eyes could go any wider, they probably would have. The idea that a four-year-old, an age where most gnomes weren’t even speaking in full sentences yet, had already nearly maxed out seven skills, while not as many as he had first thought, was ridiculous to the point of disbelief. “You’re trying to pull a joke on me or something, right?”
Shaking his head in denial, “Nope. If anything, the jokes on us kobolds… I swear Ortik’s has to be shedding scales by now dealing with this one…”
The pair continued their rather self, and Kori, deprecating conversation for several long minutes while she stood there just barely following along. As they continued, she was put to work sweeping the shop and cleaning up after her endeavor in bottle making. While she worked, she caught mention of ‘absurd Titles’ and something about ‘even the mages tried to train her’ as Har continued to commiserate with the gnome. Once she was done, they closed up the shop for the night and went directly to the relatively nearby café, where they both proceeded to get drunk under the table by the young proprietress, the same as had happened the night before.
While the older pair continued their conversation from the glassworks, Maribel and Kori spoke more jovially about the events of the day, switching back and forth between Vorisian and Creation whenever a one or the other wasn’t sure of a term, only occasionally needing input from Har when neither knew how to translate a word.
By the time they had to leave for the enclave, Ulteran was passed out on the floor and Har once again needed assistance to walk more than a meter without ending up there as well. Kori didn’t mind though, as her time with Maribel was productive, her grasp of vorisian growing stronger and she’d even managed to level her skill already.
<<Skill proficiency improved. Basic Linguistics level 1 -> 2>>
Her relatively high, for her age at least, Cunning likely playing a large part in the rapid progress. She didn’t think either of her Titles likely had any effect on this particular Skill after all.
Kori started to see a pattern in their time on the surface, their days were spent working on trade deals, linguistics skills, and whatever else came up, while their evenings had a few meetings but were otherwise spent with various members of the gnomish community. There was also one evening spent with someone she had mistaken for a rather short and husky human initially, turned out he was a dwarf.
Over the course of their first week on the surface she even managed to raise her linguistics yet again.
<<Skill proficiency improved. Basic Linguistics level 2 -> 3>>
And was beginning to get a grasp of the local language, not enough to say she was fully comfortable speaking it, but at least enough to understand and be understood in it.
It was only then that Har felt comfortable bringing her to visit places outside those he was already on friendly terms with.
“Can we visit the potion place now?” She asked, excited to finally see the things that they made and maybe even try her hand at it if she could.
Har looked pensive and unsure as he thought about her request, but eventually gave in with a warning. “Fine, but I wouldn’t get too excited. They’re not exactly the nicest of people and I doubt we’ll get much information from them.”
Despite Har’s pessimism about the visit, Kori remained excited. If only because she would hopefully get to examine some potions and maybe Har would appraise them for her to get a better idea of what they were.
The trek to the potion maker’s shop was long, it was on nearly the opposite side of the town past many of the largest buildings and through a busy open-air market.
The buildings were primarily made with the familiar stone that the clan sold here in town, though some had clearly made more effort in shaping and polishing the diorite to the point it gleamed in the sunshine. Other buildings were more utilitarian, similar to the outer walls, and left the stone in the same roughhewn blocks that it had left the caverns in. Many of these buildings were larger than any other that Kori had seen, some having as many as five floors of windows and balconies. Few seemed like they were welcoming to guests, though none less so than what Har had called manors. These edifices were surrounded by wrought iron fences taller than a pair of humans stood upon each other and with their gates guarded by soldiers in armour finer than those at the gate to the town had been in.
The pair skirted around the outskirts of that particular section of town, Har indicating that it wasn’t worth the few minutes they’d save by traveling directly through it to deal with the people who occupied that particular part of Whatzakt.
As they passed through the open air market well beyond the avoided region, she heard vendors hawking their wares, yelling out that they had this or that on offer or indicating that the quality of their merchandise was better than all others. Her attention was drawn back and forth between each different stall vying for it as Har held fast to her hand and pulled her along. She saw everything from foodstuffs like spices, produce, meats and cheese, or even livestock, to cookware, to jewelry and clothing and even a few stalls set further back with burly guards standing menacingly as they watched over potential customers browsing through weapons or other armaments.
It seemed that this was a place that one could get nearly anything, though Kori doubted the claims of quality were quite to the level that they were boasting. Partly because Har had said the dwarf she’d met a few days prior was one of the best blacksmiths in the city and he didn’t appear to be anywhere amongst the vendors present.
The potion maker’s shop itself was a fairly non-descript building just a few streets removed from the market. A wooden placard depicting a bubbling cauldron hung above the door and several vials of coloured liquid displayed in a large bay window that was covered in thick iron bars. Each vial had a small sign next to it stating its name and price. Minor potions of healing, restoration, and rejuvenation, each listing prices of twenty, thirty and fifteen gold respectively, displayed prominently in the front while other more esoterically named products like potions of minor inspiration, invigoration, or momentum bearing prices exceeding fifty gold each.
The door leading into the shop was similarly reinforced, bands of metal crossing the sturdy wooden door and a heavy latch that sat at a height that was eye level for Har and difficult for the man to operate. As he opened it, Kori instantly smelt an acrid smell similar to some of the things she had smelt within Bolst’s lab, though more pronounced within the confined space of the shop. The front window was nowhere to be seen, hidden behind a thick curtain that made the cramped space between the entrance and the counter feel even more so. Even to a kobold who was used to the rather tight confines of the clan’s caverns.
The wares that Kori had hoped to inspect all sat well out of reach, lining shelves on the wall behind the counter. It was clear that this particular merchant did not trust the average customer to handle their goods prior to purchase.
An older woman with a thick braid of white hair hanging behind her stood behind the counter and began what was clearly a well-rehearsed, if entirely monotone and cold, greeting. “Welcome to Renava’s potion-works, what is it that you are looking for today?”
Before Har could try to take control of the conversation, Kori’s enthusiasm for the subject quickly overrode any sense of decorum or propriety. “Hi! I’m Kori, are you Renava?” she began, barely waiting for the woman to nod in response. “Can I take a look at some of your potions? What Skill do you use to make them? Is it [Imbue Concoction]? I have that one, if it is, can you teach me how to…”
Har barely managed to grab a hold of her muzzle and stymie the constant flow of words before returning his attention to the woman, whose brow was starting to twitch and had the beginnings of a scowl blooming on her face. “I apologize for her outburst. She gets… excitable.”
“I remember you. You were in here with some foul herbal remedy a month or two back. I told you then and I’ll tell you now, it’s worthless and I won’t have you sullying my shop with folk medicines.” She said in a rude and dismissive tone. “As for your excitable friend here, I wouldn’t let you so much as touch a single vial without paying for it. I won’t have your grubby little hands leaving smears on my wares and you’d probably end up dropping something.” She finished with a sneer.
Before Kori could make a comment in rebuttal, mostly because Har’s hand still held her muzzle, Renava made a shooing motion towards the door, “Now, if you’re not buying anything, please leave. If you keep wasting my time, I’ll have to institute a ‘No kobolds’ policy to put an end to your pestering once and for all.” In order to make her dismissal even clearer, the woman lifted a tome and started reading, trying to indicate that she had no further words for the pair.
Not needing to be told twice, Har turned and left the shop. He had to nearly drag Kori behind himself, the look in her eyes making it clear that she wanted to say something that would just escalate the situation even further.
After they were several meters outside the shop and Har had released his grip on her muzzle she loudly harumphed, “What nerve! Did she have to be so rude?” She exclaimed. “All I did was ask a few questions and she treated it like I’d broke her favorite alembic.”
Har shook his head, trying not to fault the youngling for the interaction with the unpleasant potion maker. “I told you she wasn’t the nicest of persons. You should have let me handle the conversation, though I’m not sure it would have turned out any better honestly…”
