Chapter 91 – So does that make Kori slime-like or are slimes Kori-like? (Patreon)

Bolst asked Kori to keep the secret as well, almost as an afterthought.

Did he forget I was here?

“Just try not to blurt it out if someone brings up the spiders again…” He pleaded.

“Okay, but I want to see all your notes on the spiders! Oh, and any recipes you used their venom in!” Kori’s takeaway from his story was definitely not the same that most others would have. Bolst reluctantly agreed to share, but only after she had her class and had raised poison resistance a little.

Har just laughed as he listened to her demands, but inside he was a little terrified of where access to such a wealth of knowledge might lead the young kobold.

They continued to discuss less explosive topics for the rest of their trek, like the upcoming move of hazardous materials. It took over a quarter of an hour to traverse the distance between where they had created her lab and the main cavern and by the time they’d arrived Kori had a fairly thorough understanding of the plan.

They would begin with what they considered the most dangerous part, lifting the container and lowering it into a prepared vessel that the mages had shaped out of solid stone. Once it was in place a lid would be placed and then it too would be mana-shaped to ensure that the vessel was air tight. They had taken their time to create the vessel and its lid to ensure that it would be as tight a fit as possible to limit the air within to hopefully avoid ignition should there be any mishaps.

The block of stone was already resting upon a handcart and Har’s part in the whole affair would come next. Since his Abilities all focused on the transport of goods, specifically via cart or wagon, he had many helpful options to both ease and smooth the voyage. Though it might just be the first time he’d ever targeted himself as the ‘beast of burden’ when it comes to hauling goods.

Har had vehemently argued against this part, preferring to attempt using a spatial bag. Ylst had cautioned against its use just as passionately, nervous about the interaction between the objects and pointing out that such bags were notoriously prone to damage their more delicate contents. Something about ‘spatial compression’ and ‘amplification of small forces’ that passed over Har’s head enough that he couldn’t really explain what the terms meant.

He lost the argument, in part because no one could really understand half of what Ylst was worried about and as such, couldn’t really refute it either.

Har would then haul the cart all the way up to the waystation at the surface, where a chamber branching off from the false path to the clan’s caverns had been reinforced as best as they could manage. There the flask would remain until they either finally decided to dispose of it, or they found a use for it.

That part was apparently what the Elder’s had argued the longest over. About a third of them wanted to just take it out into the woods well away from anyone or anything and set the blasted thing off, while most of the remaining were either worried of unforeseen consequences of such an action or wanted the option of using it in some emergency. Blonc of course championed the ‘keep it, just in case’ crowd and had been gloating about how a perfect opportunity to dispose of both it and an entire gob village at the same time had fallen into their laps. His plans didn’t really cover how they’d transport the thing through the countryside; he’d expect that to be figured out by everyone else.

They were still going over the finer points when they finally arrived at the central cavern. Bolst broke off from them, heading straight for his lab to go over any final preparations with whoever might still be there, while Kori and Har headed to meet with Ortik.

The Elder’s chamber itself was empty when they arrived, not unusual for this late in the afternoon, and they headed straight back to Ortik’s personal quarters where they found him leaning over a steaming cauldron in his work room.

“You’re a bit early. Give me a moment to finish up.” The Spiritcaller barely looked up from his work when Har made their presence known, continuing to stir gently with one hand while he slowly sprinkled in pinches of several different powders and ground herbs.

It took him several minutes to reach a point where he could step away, stirring constantly in what appeared to be a very specific pattern as they waited. When he did, he saw Kori’s eyes glued to the bone white bubbling liquid he had been brewing, wondering what miracles of herbalism he had been creating.

Before she even asked, he told her what it was. “It’s a draught used to enter a trance state. It helps separate yourself from the physical so as to bring the full force of your self to bear when confronting powerful spirits.” As he spoke, Ortik watched as she became less and less interested in the simmering brew. “I’m preparing to beseech the spirit of the mountain to lend its protection to tomorrows task. If only for its own well being…”

He had once told her about the land spirit that called the mountain its domain. It didn’t much like the kobolds. Something about them digging around in its depths, extracting all that stone and ore. She could understand why he’d want any edge he could grant himself.

She wasn’t sure what, if any, effect she’d be able to produce should she be able to imbue such a creation. But she had seen a few of the containers that were still strewn about his work surface and besides the drift mushroom she wasn’t sure she wanted to mess with most of them quite yet. She was fairly certain the wolfsbane had a full paragraph about its poisonous nature in her tome and it was probably the least worrisome of the bunch.

“That… uhh… that looks a bit dangerous…” Kori said cautiously, not wanting to offend her one-time mentor.

Ortik just waved her concern away with a laugh. “Oh, it most definitely is.” He pointed at one of the ingredients set out. “Not enough of that, and instead of shallow breathing, I stop completely.” Moving his claw to point at the next. “Too much of that, same thing.” He waved his hand across the assembled materials. “Most of these are deadly on their own, but balanced just right, one against the next, they can be made useful.”

She nodded along to his explanation, understanding the principle of what he was describing more than the practical side of it. She was certain this wasn’t something that she would have learned as an apprentice, even if she had managed to complete the full three years.

“That is, of course, not what I wanted to talk to you about.” He began moving away from his draught, still simmering where it hang over a low flame. “Come, that’ll take an hour or so to condense down.” He led them out into the main chamber and sat down at the table. “Har, you can stay if you like, but I’m sure you have other things you’d rather be doing.”

He thought about it for barely a second before responding. “Fine by me, Tuli should be back to our den soon.” He finished with a grin and left with a quick, “I’ll see you sometime over the next few weeks, Kori. Don’t blow anything up.” He sounded like he was joking, but something told Kori that there was a hint of nervousness in his admonition.

Before he got out the door, Kori quipped back with a grin. “I won’t, if you don’t.”

Both he and Ortik paused before they began laughing, taken by surprise by her sudden witty remark. They could still hear Har’s chuckles right up until the stone door swung closed.

Ortik, still grinning from laughing, spoke up after the door shut. “I was going to ask if you knew about what was happening tomorrow, but I’m going to guess from that, that Har already told you all about it.” He waited for her to nod before continuing. “Saves me the effort of it at least, do you have any questions about the move?”

Kori thought for a bit about the plan as it had been described to her and could only come up with one thing to ask. “Why bother telling me? Har didn’t say anything about needing me to be there… in fact he said I’d be working with Kora tomorrow…”

Ortik was taken aback a little by her response. “It’s your creation. I thought you should know what was being done with it.”

Kori didn’t even pause before giving her signature response. “Why?”

He resisted the urge to scratch the bridge of his muzzle while he looked at the youngling sitting across from him. “I know you’re just a youngling and don’t generally get a lot of say in things, but as it’s creator you bear at least some responsibility for it.” He let his words sink in before continuing. “Your Unstable Massive Flame Flask has been hanging, quite literally, over our heads for almost four months now, even if it’s just so you know that it won’t be as much of a danger anymore, I figured you should at least be informed.”

Kori mostly seemed to shrug off his words. She understood that she’d made the problem, but she had been so far removed from anything to do with it since then that she barely even thought about it anymore. Like he’d said, it’d been nearly four months. That was an eternity as far as she was concerned, nearly a tenth of her total life lived had passed in the time since.

“Okay, well thanks… I’ll probably be too far away down in my lab to hear the rumble if anything goes wrong, but good luck.” Her nonchalant response earning her a glare.

Deciding that it was better to move on than just become further aggravated over the matter, Ortik changed the subject. “Very well, the other reason I wanted to talk to you is about your responsibilities in this new position of yours.”

Instead of ask about the list that Har had mentioned, she jumped straight to something that had been bugging her. “Since I’m sorta everyone’s apprentice now, including yours, do I need to go back to calling you ‘Spiritcaller’ every time I say something to you?”

It took him a moment to catch up to the abrupt change in tone. “What? No, don’t bother unless we’re in public, then Chieftain is fine…” Shaking his head yet again at her distractibility. “No, what I wanted to discuss is your production of ointment and other concoctions.”

She ignored, or didn’t notice, the tired tone of his voice and just carried onwards. “Oh, okay. Har had a list of everything that you wanted made soon, I haven’t looked it over yet and I still need to do a bit of experimentation to get used to the new equipment.”

“Given what happened to you on the road, we need to be prepared. I’ve held back two caravans already and it’ll be a third by the start of next week.” He slowly took on his ‘chieftain tone’ that he used when giving commands. “I need you to prioritize the list. If I can send them out armed with your flasks and vials, then I can be more confident in the trader’s safety. We’re already doubling their guard…”

Kori tried to take it more seriously; she still wanted to break down the process and fine tune everything a bit to try and produce higher qualities. She was still hoping that she might even attain a coveted Rare result. But if he was going to put so much importance on getting the caravans supplied, then the least she could do was focus on making the things on his list.

She gave a nod, overemphasized like it was a solemn thing. “You got it. I’ll start work on it first thing.”

“Thank you, Kori.” Ortik responded, grateful that she was taking it seriously. “I would suggest you make thorough use of Kora’s guidance these next days. She should be of great assistance in getting to know your new tools and figuring out the best process.”

Kori was all smiles when her somewhat sister’s name was mentioned, reminding her that she’d get to work with her for the next two days. “Oh, right! I almost forgot about working with Kora!”

The Spiritcaller simply sighed, the moment of Kori taking the matter seriously was gone and now she was back to the ever-excitable youngling she’d always been.

“Oh, I do have a question though.”

Ortik just quirked his brow. “What would you like to know?”

“Is there anything that slimes are afraid of? Or like an anti-slime herb or something to repel them?” There was a nervous tinge to her voice, the nights dreams clearly not forgotten.

“Afraid of?” He shook his head. “I’m not sure they’re smart enough to be afraid of anything…” He said with a laugh. “Most of them will avoid large enough pools of water, but I’m guessing since you’re asking, it’s not most of them that’s the problem.”

“Uh-uh”

“There are a few metals that they’re not fond of, but plating your floor in magnesium would just be trading a worry for a hazard.” He mulled the question over for a few more minutes, not coming up with much. “I can’t think of anything that is either practical or sustainable. Bolst might have some ideas, or at least some way of implementing some of the things I think might work but aren’t feasible.”

Kori was disappointed at his lack of solution, she’d hoped he’d have some answer that she could use to at least safeguard her den. “You can’t, I don’t know, bind a spirit to ward them off or something.”

He simply shook his head at the suggestion; it reminded him yet again how little he’d been able to teach her about spirit magics. “You remember when I told you that the spirits couldn’t notice you because of your lack of resonance?” She just nodded grimly, trying not to think too much about her failings. “It’s like that. I’d say slimes have about as much spirituality as a rock, but I’m about to try to have a conversation with a mountain, so that might be a bit misleading.”