Chapter 86 – Yes, my Lab!

A/N - So apparently I left this sitting in drafts since Saturday... I was starting to wonder why I hadn't gotten much in the way of comments or notifications on the chapter...

Also this is now the longest single chapter, at nearly 5000 words, so I hope you enjoy. The next will be up the evening of the 23rd, so probably the early AM of the 24th, then there'll be a short break until at least this weekend while I do the family holidays thing.

Just a reminder, for anyone who wants the month of Dec refunded after my unplanned break in Nov, send me a message here on Patreon and I'll get it processed.

Thanks everyone, and happy whateveryoucelebrate!

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The evening that followed her final day, for this week at least, at the training yard was one of the more boisterous of her clutches entire stay in the brood chamber, second only to a night Kori had missed when the others brought home the first dominos set. The only reason it wasn’t louder was that there was just a single set of the cavern defender’s pieces.

Kori managed to win many of the games she played, her understanding of its nuance, and already having a tactical Skill, lending her an advantage, but not all. Losq managed to blindside her when he was playing the defenders side with an unusually aggressive strategy and Beys wore her defenders down with a strategy that consisted of ‘throw as many goblins at her as she could’, opting for quantity over quality in the units she chose. Neither of them realized that this was actually the typical goblin approach to just about everything in life.

Kori quickly learned that there were many approaches to attacking or defending in the game and some of those strategies would be nearly impenetrable against one type of assault while being completely overwhelmed with another. Her insight did not lend itself to an increase of Skill, but she was certain that it was the right path to follow to get there eventually.

When the younglings finally called it a night, after the minder on duty threatened to wake the lot of them an hour early and make them clean if they didn’t settle in, Kori found herself laying on her mat staring at the ceiling. No matter what she tried, sleep eluded her like a beetle fleeing a hatchling. Her legs kept twitching, her tail would flick about, there’d be a sudden itch in a hard to reach spot, it was like her attempts at meditation all over again.

It’s finally happening! I get my own work space! No more borrowing space from Elder Aldr, or Bolst, or even Ortik!

Kori’s shoulders and hips wiggled as she excitedly thought of the coming day. How she’d arrange her work table, what ingredients she might have to work with, and if she’d have anything new to experiment with.

What should I make first? Probably ointment, I’m nearly out and I’m sure everyone else wants more… but that’s boring, my first creation there should be something new, something special… right?

She pulled out her herbalism tome and began flipping through her newest entries, even after she had been cut off from the path that was meant to begin with its creation, it was still her most prized possession. With the inkwell that she had used in its scribing coming a close second.

She was starting to think that the pages were not the right place for her newest additions. The concoctions she had been creating were something new. Something different. As she read each of the entries, she hoped again that Har had indeed purchased her new blank journals to fill so that she could return her first creation to its intended purpose of herbalism and begin anew with one dedicated to her creations.

Plus, she wanted to make a copy of Bolst’s book of poisons and venoms too.

And maybe one for minerals… mineralogy? Was that a word? Whatever it was called, she’d had to use powdered sulphur in the stinging flask so I might need to record that type of stuff too…

And they were going to teach me… zoology? Who comes up with all these weird names… probably the elves again… anyway, might need one for that. Imelda said that they occasionally used animal parts to make remedies too… ew…

Thoughts of book after book, all written in her own hand, while ignoring the amount of work that would actually entail, swirled through her head as she should have been sleeping. She eventually got back to the question that had sent her on her literary tangent, deciding what her first creation would be when she was finally able to work in a space all her own.

With a source of perfectly fresh moss on hand she knew she’d have to experiment with it again, see if she could push the quality of some of her creations upwards from what she’d managed on the surface. Or she could tweak the process of creating her ointment to try to improve it as well. Imelda had taught her that everything mattered when you were crafting a remedy, whether it was the purity of the water or the bowl it was combined in, each facet had an impact on the outcome.

The more she thought about what she’d make, the more her thoughts drifted more to the how she’d make it instead. Eventually the idea solidified in her head, she would make the absolute best ointment she’d ever made. Prove to the Elder’s that giving her this new space was worth it.

This conclusion of course led to more tangents, and for her to go over even more of her notes in the loose sheets she’d written everything Imelda had taught her down on. She even began scribbling out her plan on another sheet, the little inkwell shining contentedly in her Spirit Sight as she dipped the pen.

She’d do everything from the start on her own, ignoring the steps she had been taught as ‘how it had always been done’ and deciding for herself what worked best. She wouldn’t even use moss that had already been dried. She wrote out potential methods of drying the moss, the way she had been taught, shredded and dried over a fire on a sheet, then there was the angled barrel apparatus that Aldr used to roast his brewing ingredients, that had a lot of promise from what she remembered of the device, and finally there was the mana oven that Imelda had shown her, though she wasn’t sure if she’d get access to something like that any time soon. She considered asking Har to send a quantity of moss to the herbalist on the surface and request she prepare it. Perhaps even try several different temperatures and durations.

She even questioned the water she’d been using. They used rune condensed water for basically everything, drinking, washing, cooking, everything, so there was little doubt about using it for creating remedies. But what if there were better alternatives? Imelda had always been adamant about boiling water before its use, but they used water drawn from a well rather than runes, something that didn’t work well in the caverns since you’d be as likely to hit someone else’s den or workspace as you would reach water, so there were frequently contaminants. She also taught her about something called distilled water, which tickled the surface of one of her brewing Skills and sparked even more ideas.

By the time she was done dissecting the processes of just drying the herbs and preparing the water, Kori had filled her sheet and begun writing on its reverse. Thankfully once the ink was dried turning it over didn’t smudge everything beyond recognition, like it had with her mistake in doing the same on the slate when Ortik had made her take notes.

When she was just about to start onto the third page, both sides of the first two filled with notes, processes, theories, addendums, and scribbled out musings that she thought better of after writing, she started to think that she had been forgetting something, but whatever caused the thought was shoved aside for further planning. The thought persisted as she flipped the page but again, she dismissed the notion, she had work to do.

Halfway through the fourth page the idea that had been niggling at the back of her mind was forced into the forefront when Losq stuck his head into her den and asked if she was coming for breakfast or not. It was morning.

What Losq saw when he looked in on his sister was not what he had expected to see, nor was it how Kori thought things in her den had been while she was absorbed into her note taking. Pages were arranged around her hunched over form, one sitting on the wooden writing surface before her and the others strewn in an arc her on the floor so that she could see their contents. Her claws were stained with ink, which had been transferred to various locations about her body, including her right eyelid where she had clearly rubbed one of her eyes at some point.

She had at least taken off her tunic and britches, wearing only the basic wraps that younglings generally wore beneath their clothing, so that at least was neither stained nor rumpled.

“Oh Kori…” She wasn’t sure if his tone was meant to be sad or disappointed, either way it drove away the initial annoyance at being interrupted.

The dawning realization that she had spent the entire night lost in her thoughts of the coming day, well, the ‘here’ day now, was bit embarrassing. Or maybe it was the look that she was getting from her brother that said ‘I should have known you’d do that’ that was causing her scales to flush.

“Well come on then.” He motioned her to follow him out. “Grab some food and get yourself cleaned up.” When she tilted her head and looked at him questioningly at the last bit he added, “You do realize you’re covered in ink, right?” Shaking his head with a laugh. “You’ve even got it on your face.”

When he mentioned the ink, she gave a quiet ‘Oh’ looking at her stained claws as if seeing them for the first time. After he told her that it was on her face, she reached for it like she’d be able to find the ink’s location with her fingers, ignoring the fact that she’d just deposited even more of the stain onto her scales.

“Maybe you should wash up before you eat…” Was all Losq had to say before he began backing out of the entrance to her den.

With his departure Kori took stock of her surroundings, and herself, and had to agree with him. She needed to clean up, both herself, and her notes. The first in the physical sense, since without her secret weapon Kori was certain that she’d be stuck scrubbing her scales raw, and the second in the logical sense, that her notes were all over the place and needed to be rewritten in a more orderly manner to make sense to anyone except her sleep deprived self. She wasn’t even certain if she knew what she had meant when she wrote ‘circle left or right? Maybe zig-zag?” in one particularly obtuse section under the notes about which type of mortar and pestle would be better.

When Kori emerged from her den, Losq couldn’t believe his eyes. Where she had been a slovenly mess of ink just minutes before, some of which he was certain would leave long lasting stains upon her scales, now she looked like she’d just been swimming in the deep lakes, her scales nearly sparkling in the low light. When he asked her how she just confusingly replied that she’d employed her secret weapon with a smirk and went to grab some food.

Kori would forever be glad for her accidental discovery of the cleaning solution; it wasn’t anywhere near what she’d been trying to make but it was something that she never wanted to be caught without. A few drops onto a piece of cloth, normally with water but she hadn’t had any this morning, and it dissolved even the most stubborn of defacement. Though oddly while it would remove ink from her scales without issue, it did not remove it from a piece of paper. Or rather it probably did, but it also removed most of the paper in the process.

Maybe I can use it as a base to create something that only lifts the ink, not the binders in the paper. Then I’d be able to correct mistakes on a page without having to messily blot it out or rewrite the entire thing…

Even the embarrassment of having Losq see her in her previous state evaporated as she practically inhaled her breakfast without tasting any of it, not that it had much in the way of flavour to begin with, and rushed out of the brood chamber. Unlike the previous days her hurry wasn’t spurred by the dread of being late to Blonc’s training, but in pure excitement.

It’s here! I get my own lab!

Her feet flew across the stone as she rushed down the corridors, but began to slow and then eventually stop as a thought crossed her mind.

Wait… where exactly am I going… I… I’m not sure how to get there…

She knew that her new workspace was far down some of the less used corridors, ones that had been practically abandoned after they moved on from the old quarry that it was located in, she even remembered looking at the map that Tuli had shown her of the space and her navigation Skill was giving her an inkling that it was to the east and below her, but there were probably a dozen different corridors that branched who knew how many times heading in that direction.

Well, Scale.

Eventually she decided that even if she didn’t know, the Elder’s would, so she figured heading to their chamber first was the best option and resumed her journey, at a slightly less enthusiastic pace.

She arrived to the entry to the Elder’s Chambers to find that both Elder Har and Elder Bolst were standing outside chatting. Har grinned broadly when he saw her and elbowed the other Elder before pointing in her direction. Contrary to his companion, Bolst just scowled like he’d eaten a stink beetle by mistake, which set Har into a laughing fit.

“Hah, I was right, she came here first instead of getting lost. You owe me a double batch of resistance training tinctures this month!” Har continued laughing, only deepening the trapper’s scowl.

The exchange confused Kori, but she ignored it in favor of the much more pressing matter. “Uhhh… could one of you show me how to get to the new work space? Other than it’s that way,” she pointed roughly to the south-east in a downward direction, “I’m not really sure how to get there.”

For some reason both of the Elder’s seemed a little shocked that she was mostly correct in where she was pointing. There were still dozens of branching paths between here and there, but she was pointing very close to where the exit from the central cavern that they would need to take was located.

“How do you know what direction it’s in Kori? I didn’t think anyone actually brought you down there yet.” Bolst looked at her, his scowl replaced with a confused look. He was certain that nobody had been allowed to bring her down there yet. It was still a work in progress when she’d left with Har and they’d had Blonc keeping her too busy to wander off since returning.

Kori just tilted her head, the same as if she was about to ask her notorious question, “Elder Tuli showed me the map when we decided on the space.” She said that as though it should explain everything, that simply looking at a map, and a partial one at that since it was mostly focused on the old quarry, explained how she knew where to go. Or at least roughly knew where to go.

“You saw that old as dirt map and remember how to find the place?” Bolst borrowed a phrase he’d once heard on the surface, thinking it appropriate given the nature of the location.

“Well… no… that’s why I came to ask for help…” Kori said like she was admitting she had misplaced something important before enthusiastically adding, “I’m sure I can find it if you can’t take me there… it just might take me a while…”

Before the Trapper could continue questioning her, Har clicked his claws together with a look like he’d found the missing piece to a conundrum, “Navigation and Cartography… I forgot you had them both.”

Bolst turned to him, his confusion still plain to see. “She does?”

Kori answered for herself, since they were talking about her after all, “Yup! Both level three!”

Bolst took a page from her playbook, still looking at Har rather than Kori, having, incorrectly, assumed that out of all those who’d had a hand in her training, he was the only one who might have instructed her. “Why?”

Both Har and Kori responded, her with a simple “Why not?” before the Elder shrugged and gave a similarly non-committal, “I don’t know, I guess she likes maps.”

Though neither answer appeared to be satisfactory, Har decided he needed to move things along before a discussion on the benefits of being able to find your way began. “Anyway, lets get moving, it’s not a short walk so the sooner we start the sooner we arrive.”

That seemed to be the end of it and the trio began their trek, Bolst watching Kori as she seemed to be taking in every corridor choice, twist, turn, dip or decline, before long his curiosity bubbled to the surface once again and he had to ask.

“I don’t get it. I mean sure, almost everyone picks up a few levels in Navigation eventually, hard not to down here, but you don’t even have a class yet and it’s already three? I didn’t cap mine at five until I was over ten.” He shook his head in disbelief, “And Cartography? How the scale does a youngling even learn that…”

Har just kept quiet, he’d wondered the same thing when she told him she had the Skills before their trip to the surface, but hadn’t voiced it.

Kori pondered a moment, she knew she wasn’t allowed to share the exact circumstances of how she got the Skills, since they were acquired when she had been undergoing the trial for the Circle, but even if she couldn’t say the specifics of her time spirit walking, she could at least explain some of it.

“Well… do you remember back when I was apprenticed to Chieftain Ortik, near the very end, when I suddenly wasn’t at the meetings for a week?” Both the Elder’s nodded, it had been explained to them that she was away on Circle business and nothing further. “Well, I kinda got lost…” She tried not to let any of the anger that still lingered from the initiation, or to curse the old snake of a high shaman that had apparently been conniving against Ortik, though she didn’t do a very good job of keeping it off of her face.

“And you wound up getting three levels in both Skills, because you were lost?” It was clear that Bolst didn’t exactly believe the simplicity of the tale.

Har kept quiet once again, he knew a little of what lie behind the door that none but Circle members were permitted to pass, not much, just that there was a very, very large space on Tuli’s various maps that was marked as off limits. Much larger than what a few hundred shaman and apprentices should need.

“I got really lost?” She replied, emphasizing it to try to make her explanation make sense. “So, I kinda made a map of all the twists and turns as I tried every single corridor one by one until I found my way out.” She took on a smug look, “It was a very good map!”

She failed to notice the look that passed between the two Elders, or the shake of Har’s head trying to tell the other to leave it be.

Though not satisfied, Bolst did indeed let the matter drop. He knew if he asked Ortik about it his only response would be the typical ‘Circle business’ deflection and he’d get even less than what Kori had shared.

That wasn’t to say the rest of their trek was quiet. Once she was free of her attempts to explain her Skills, Kori dove into questions of her own, many questions of her own. How far was the new work space? Had everything made it intact on their journey from Whatzakt? What should she make first? Did Har get her a mana heater like Imelda had or would she need to use fire or runes? Were they absolutely sure that all the slimes were gone? Did they know that the aqua slime was apparently a monster, not a beast?

That last one tripped the pair up for a moment and was met with a loud “Wait, what?” from each. One having been unaware of that fact and the other knowing they were monsters but unaware of the aqua slime’s presence in entirety.

Bolst talked over any attempt of Har’s to get a word in about the matter, “Who told you there was an aqua slime in the mines?” He looked to Har, “Did you know about this?”

Kori, thinking that the trapper was concerned for her, and anyone else who worked in the space’s, safety, tried to assuage the presumed fears. “Don’t worry, there were a bunch of them, but the mages got them all. Apparently, they’re really easy to find if you can sense mana.”

The old trapper’s jaw quivered and it looked like he was on the verge of tears. “A bunch… but they… destroyed them all?”

Kori just nodded and affirmed his statement with an “Uh-huh”, confused as to why he was taking the news of a monster being eliminated so badly.

Har interjected at the same time as Kori gave her confirmation. “There were only a few, and they tried to drown one of the warriors, they had to be destroyed.” His tone held of note of finality to it.

“But… but… Slimes!” Bolst replied vehemently. “Do you know how useful aqua slimes are? Self cleaning pit traps, near limitlessly harvestable aqueous slime to grease traps with barely any acidity, and who knows what this one,” pointing towards Kori, “could make using it as a base.”

All Har could do was shake his head and mumble out, “And this is why we didn’t say anything…”

That conversation hung over the group for the remainder of the way, not that they had much longer to go, until they reached what at first appeared to be a corridor that ended in a waist high barricade with a warrior standing watch over it.

As they got closer Kori was able to make out the sharp turn to the left a few meters before the barricade and it was everything she could do not to rush ahead.

She heard Har sigh from several meters behind her, apparently everything she could do not to rush wasn’t exactly effective, before saying. “You might as well just go.”

With a squeal of excitement, the young kobold took off at her fastest, which she did note was a bit faster than it had been not too long ago. Her clawed toes scraped on the rough stone of the floor as she slid around the corner and nearly ran into the wooden door that was just beyond the turn. She wasn’t expecting a door, or wood for that matter, but quickly hauled it open and darted in.

Within, the entry room was as she mostly as she had expected, though it felt weird with how high the ceiling was since the original storeroom had been designed to hold stacks of cut stone the room had been a full three meters tall, double the typical height. Once past the short hallway that had been recently cut, the first room was sat as a rectangular room that was about fifteen square meters, which was a bit smaller than she expected, as the original plan had called for a total space of ten-by-ten meters for the four rooms.

There was little in the way of furnishing, the left side had a doorway that was partitioned off with a cloth hanging over the entrance that Kori assumed was the sleeping space that they’d discussed. Everyone knew Kori well enough that no one doubted that she’d lose track of time and end up spending days here and they’d prepared for it. What surprised her was that there was more than one of these little dens.

The long wall just to her left looked much like the one from the brood chamber, with half a dozen holes covered with draped cloth, three on the bottom and three halfway up the wall with places for hand and foot holds. When Kori peaked her head in to the first she found that it was significantly larger than her space in the brood chamber, nearly as large as the room she had enjoyed in Ortik’s chambers, and made up the missing space she had been wondering about. Again, there was little to the room for now, just a thick sleeping mat and the basket she’d gotten from Maribel.

I was wondering where that got to…

Har and Bolst were just entering as she darted through to one of the adjoining rooms, she knew that one was to be storage for ingredients and the other for equipment and finished work, but wasn’t sure which was which yet. Or if it had been left up to her to decide.

What she found were stacks upon stacks of wooden crates, neatly arranged and awaiting unloading. Each one she looked at had a number imprinted upon it and she knew that there would be a list, that Har had called a manifest, somewhere that detailed what each contained. She also knew that this wasn’t the room she was interested in.

To the right she spotted what she was looking for, a heavy slab of stone with a handle on it stood out from the wall by a full meter. As she reached for the handle she had to laugh, she recognized it. Bolst had apparently been keeping it for her for the last year and decided that now was the perfect opportunity to let her in on the secret. Unfortunately, he was also being slow at arriving, so Kori set out to do what she had failed to do before.

She crouched down and began inspecting the apparatus that barred her path. Before it had simply led to adults that she could ask questions of, important, but not as much as what it kept her from this time. Now she was motivated.

She first confirmed that it was as she remembered, the latch did not require a key, but instead the handle could be turned to disengage a lever that held the door closed. Except to turn the handle, you first had to squeeze or pull one or more strange pins and segments that stood out from its shaft. She also knew that, at least before, it could be opened with a single hand if you knew how, since the minders only needed one, so there couldn’t be too many places that needed to be manipulated.

In the span of just a single minute, Kori was shaking her head, disappointed with her younger self for having missed it. The pins and segments were distractions. Decoys. If you pressed on a certain part of the shaft, you could then pull the handle outwards and it would turn freely.

<<Skill Acquired, Basic Disable Trap, Common, Level 1>>

She let out what could only be referred to as a ‘squee’ of glee as the door swung inwards, only to droop down when she saw yet another door stood a meter in, similar to the double doors Bolst had. This one was without handle or locking mechanism and she was able to push it open easily, both doors had swung freely with little effort.

Once again rushing through the second door a no less exuberant sound was heard that echoed through the chambers followed by a single simple utterance.

“Finally, my own lab!”

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Both Elders stood at the doorway between the entry hall and storage, watching as the youngling inspected the ‘gift’ provided by Bolst. Quietly the trapper asked his trader companion, “Double or nothing she has to ask for help?”

Har just grinned again and nodded, he was going to enjoy having so many poison resistance training tinctures to barter with.