Maikana
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Chapter 34 – Like a kid in a poisoned candy store
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 01:39:20 +0000 UTCNote: Here's Monday's chapter a bit over an hour early. Think of it as an apology that the last couple of weeks haven't met the regular schedule I'd promised. We are now fully on schedule and a week ahead of Royal Road here on Patreon.
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During her pause for breath between questions about why a particular portion of the ceiling was blackened and what the long robe like tunics were for, she finally realizes that she was being laughed at. Her response to which a light harumph and an end to her questions.
“What? There’s just so many things I’ve never seen before here.” Trying to excuse her stream of questions only causing the laughter to intensify and for Korse to join in.
After a minute or two, Bolst extricates himself from his work, gently hanging a glass flask on a stand of some sort before snuffing a flame, and heads in their direction. “I’m glad you chose to join us Kori, I’m hopeful you’ll make this placement more long-term in a few months.” Some annoyance in his tone at the delay, “There is room over near the corner there,” Pointing to the left of where they entered, “For you to work in, that should keep your products separate from my own. Wouldn’t want to mix a paralytic with your healing ointment by mistake.” A large grin and chuckle escaping at the end, like he’d said something truly funny as warns her about contaminating her work.
“There’s just so much!” Eyes still wide, her questions barely contained. “Why is all of this glass and metal when Ortik uses stone and earthenware for most of his herbalism?”
Laughing at the comparison, as though she’d asked why start a fire with a rune when a pair of sticks will get the job done, “Because those materials are porous, they absorb a little of what’s worked in them. What I’m working on could be fouled by mere hints of contaminants, let alone the chance of violent reactions.” Pointing to his own mortar and pestle, which unlike what she’d used before it is stark white and looks to be a bone like material. “Take the mortar for example, mine washes clean in moments. A stone grinder might pick up oils from grinding seeds and no matter how much cleaning, there’s always a chance it could carry over. It’s the same with the glass. Plus, I’ve got a few acids that’d melt through a stoneware container given time.”
“But isn’t it so much easier to break?” Still awed by the expansive lab, essentially a playground laid out before her.
“Heh, yes. Please don’t break too much. I had to sell so many batches of distilled White Skull poison to pay for most of this…” His laugh not really reaching his eyes, the warning clear. “Kora, could you show her around her work station? I don’t want to let my current work cool completely.” Waving towards the corner apparently set aside for her use. “I don’t have much luminous moss about, not much use for the stuff here, since we’re trying to do the opposite of healing generally.” Again, chuckling at his own joke. “It’ll be a change to have something beneficial come out of this room for once. She’ll give you the tour and then I’ll let you observe my next project once you’re done going over the equipment and safety procedures.” With that said he quickly turns back to his work, checking the temperature of his glass vessel and frowning before he begins to gently reheat it over an open flame.
With a glance towards Korse, Kora asks him, “Will you be staying for a bit or can I have her to myself to go over things?”
“I’ll leave you both to it, let me know if there are any issues.” It’s around then that Kori notices that he hasn’t stepped past the threshold of the room and has been eying the corridor behind him the entire time. He pauses a moment before he turns to leave, looking to Kora, “Come by for dinner sometime soon?” Departing after he received a vague confirmation from, quickly closing the vault like stone door behind him.
“Now, I’ll get to as many questions as I can.” Seeing the glint in Kori’s eyes, “Well, a reasonable number of them at least.” Chuckling at the sheepish grin she received in response, “But first the important bits.” Adopting a serious expression and the mirth in her voice disappearing, “If anyone yells ‘evacuate’ then you run for the door. Doesn’t matter who or why or if you don’t believe it’s a threat. You run for the door. If you don’t think you can make it to the door, which you should be able to since you’ll be close over here, then you run there,” Pointing towards a little opening half a meter up in the wall. “Inside is a safe room. Before you enter yell your name, and ‘north safe room’ as loud as you can so people know where you went. Close the door behind you and after several minutes, once anyone else who needed to could have reached the room, bar it. It’s stocked well enough to last a few of us a week in there.”
The next hour is filled with details about cleaning ‘lab equipment’, Kora’s words, how to handle spills or hazards, descriptions of what each piece of equipment was and what it was used for, and overall was a very enlightening experience for the young Kobold. She was unsure why, but this place felt truly comfortable to her. Like she never wanted to leave.
“That should about cover it. Now, I know I might regret asking, but any questions?”
Like a spark tossed on dried moss, Kori’s eyes light up at the permission to get her questions answered. “Are the things Elder Bolst works on really so dangerous to need all of this?”
“Yes and no.” Shaking her head, “The work can be dangerous and there have been accidents, but this is definitely overkill.” Gesturing towards the safe rooms and stone door. “I think the accident with the Variegated Indigo Oleander extract scared him, badly. Next thing I knew this whole lab was being built rather than him working out in the main hall like before.” Pausing a moment to take in the effort that went into the space, “Bolst is probably one of the wealthiest members of the Clan, not that we really care about that sort of stuff down here.” Her tone fairly dismissive the material wealth.
“He doesn’t even sell the dangerous stuff and most of the profits go to the clan for our many necessities.” Proud that their work contributes more than just violence. “That White Skull poison he mentioned earlier? It’s a paralytic we use in some of our traps, but it’s also an excellent way to train the early levels of poison resistance. He dilutes it as a tincture and the traders sell it faster than he makes it.” Lowering her voice a little, “I can snag a bit if you want to work on yours. It sucks until you get the skill, but then it’s not too bad.”
“I already got it! It’s only level 1 though.” A beaming grin of both pride and glad that she had apparently skipped the worst part of raising it with toxins. “Got it when I tested my drift mushroom preparation, which I did right thankfully.” A shiver running down her spine at how close she’d come to suffering the ill effects of that particular preparation.
“Great. Wait… Drift shroom? That stuffs nasty!” Grimacing as a mirroring shiver runs down her own back. “We tried making a trap that would drop a powder of the stuff from above. Worked great. Unfortunately the powder went bad too quickly to be useful.” The memories of testing that trap rather unpleasant. “I’ll try to get you some of the diluted tincture of the poison. Take a few drops before bed and you’ll barely even notice it, then just up the dose as your skill grows. The raw poison is tier two and the distillation brings it up to a tier three before dilution, so it’ll be useful for a long time.”
The questions continue to flow as each is answered. Fire because it heats the glass more evenly as it flows around the base of the glassware. The black spot on the ceiling was from a dust explosion when testing how to disperse the powder from the drift shroom trap, thankfully they were using a safe but similar alternative during that test. The pock marks on the metal table from experiments with powerful acids, acids that were now in broad use in some of the more lethal traps in the tunnels. On and on the questions went for nearly as long as Kora had spent explaining the safety procedures.
Eventually the back and forth was interrupted by Bolst from across the room, “Are you two done yet? I’m ready to start my next project.”
Looking back, Kora yells over “Coming!” and turns to Kori, “Let’s stop here for now and let you see a bit more of the place before you ask more questions, see what you can figure out for yourself in the meantime.” The latter added solely in the hopes of avoiding quite so many questions next time.
Wandering over to Bolst’s cluttered work tables, Kori sees the instruments present are better built and more plentiful than those on her temporary work space. Racks containing thin glass vials with various fluids inside, multiple of the burners that Kora had taught her about, clamps, tongs, and even stirrers made from glass. Several of the littlest pieces of glass even radiate faint traces of mana to her senses.
Noticing that he now has an audience Bolst begins to explain what he’s doing as he wipes down the surfaces with a rather fluffy piece of cloth. “Now, I will be producing a batch of one of our mainstays.” Pointing down to her satchel and the book it contains, “From what I understand you likely have an entry of your own for this plant.” Holding up a root, with tongs even though his hands are covered with thin leather gloves, “This is Vorian Nightshade, and exposure even through our scales, can be deadly.” Looking towards Kori as he speaks in an attempt to impress upon her the danger the simple brown-white root presents.
Glancing away from her, “Kora, I won’t need your assistance for this, you can go back to your own tasks for now.”
He points off to the side of the table in a space next to the wall. “You can stand there to observe, I will try to explain what I’m doing as I proceed and you can ask questions. “Thinking for a moment of the barrage of questions he’d heard from across the room and trying to head off a repeat. “Questions about the step in the process or its purpose that is.”
As Bolst begins to describe why he’s scraping the rough surface of the root off and chopping it into fairly uniform little chunks, Kori fishes out her tome and flips through to find the entry on Vorian Nightshade. The plant grows exclusively on the surface in the foothills of their mountain and the mountain range to their south east, unlike it’s less potent but still very deadly cousins that can grow just about anywhere. There are also nearly a dozen warnings on the page to avoid ingestion or contact of any kind and with multiple treatment options laid out, usually with the warning of only being effective within the first several minutes.
As she looks up and is about to ask her first question, Bolst obviously anticipating it as he uses the knife in his hand to point to a quartet of pale green vials sitting at the rear of the work table, “Those are the anti-toxin, if at any point you suspect you’ve been exposed, drink one. They’re expensive, but not worth more than the risk.”
The rest of the lesson passes with a few questions peppered in as he boils the root in a cylindrical vessel with just enough water that it won’t burn before mashing them, simmering the solution until it turns nearly black before filtering it through a heavily stained piece of cloth that he handles like it’s a live cave snake. The filtered solution then simmered again while sitting on a fire rune that is just barely hot. “Now, this solution will reduce for another hour or so. The fumes are not particularly toxic but I wouldn’t stick my muzzle too close to it.” Again chuckling at his comment, the Elder seemingly much more jovial here in his lab than his usually distracted presence at the Elder’s meetings implied. “Once it’s thick enough and it cools, we use a brush to spread it on the tips of the sharp spikes in many of the traps. It is important I do that part, both to ensure it is done safely and so that it benefits from some of my Abilities.”
Kori is intrigued at the mention of Abilities, unlike skills which have passive benefits influencing her knowledge, muscle memory, senses or body, Abilities are active things. allowing you to do things that are not normally possible without them, or to do possible things much faster when compared to those without. People don’t usually discuss Abilities, as they are gained from your Class and matters of Class beyond the simple name or description are generally considered private.
Seeing the budding query on her face as she fights the urge to ask what would likely be an impolite question, Bolst pre-empts her. “They improve potency of any trap I help build, which unlike many members of my trappers, extends to the poison as long as it is part of a trap. As well as a few other things that I will not get into.”
Her curiosity mollified; she refrains from further inquiry on the subject.
“Next we’ll be moving a bit away from the familiar for you.” Pointing over to the corner across from where she’ll be working. “Over there you’ll find a large glass tank, a cube of glass with an open top, with a centipede inside. Bring it to me please.” Once his request is made, he turns back to monitoring the simmering solution, ensuring that it reaches the correct consistency without burning.
Wandering over to what appears to be mostly a storage space with extra glassware on shelves and several of the aforementioned glass tanks, some filled with water with spiney fish swimming about, others with frogs or snakes or insects. One sealed tightly with a lid and then placed in a second larger tank, that contains several small spiders. That last one sends a wave of unease across her scales.
Sitting to one side is a small tank containing a single centipede covered in white markings. Nearly as long as her forearm and as wide as two of her fingers side by side, the creepy crawly makes a hissing sound as she approaches it.
Sounds mean, but I guess he wouldn’t have asked me to fetch it if it were that dangerous, I’ll just make sure I grab it near the head so it can’t bite me.
Picking up the centipede proves difficult but eventually she gets it pinned between her claws and lifts it out of the tank. Bringing it back to Bolst she’s suddenly caught by a tingling sensation radiating out from her hand and her feet not quite wanting to do what they’re told. The light of a notification blinking at her draws her mind and what she sees isn’t very reassuring.
<<Skill proficiency improved. Poison Resistance level 1 -> 2 >>
“Why’d I julst gey a lebel in poishon reswist?” She mumbles out, her panic growing as her words slur and she finds it difficult to feel her arm below the shoulder.
“What?” Bolst turns around, his eyes wide as he sees what she’s holding, “NO! The tank, I meant bring me the tank!” rushing over he grabs the wriggling insect before it slips the bonds of her claws. Clearly not as concerned about its poisonous mucous excreted through its carapace as Kori should have been.
As her legs finally give out and she finds herself splayed on the floor, fully aware but unable to even raise an eyelid, she hears Bolst’s voice. “Oh, Korse is gonna kill me…”
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End note: Did you know reptiles can get goosebumps? it's called piloerection and results in their scales tilting upwards slightly.
