Chapter 83 – The R word.

There was of course another issue with the choice of knives, Blonc’s argument against them had never failed before, so they didn’t have any practice knives. This meant another trip to see the disagreeable quartermaster, Lhka. Though thankfully Kori was just following along this time and didn’t need to make the request directly.

“Hmm?” The disgruntled old warrior questioned as he looked up at their approach, “What brings you over boss, the little one too scared to come back and ask for something herself?” It seemed it didn’t matter who he was speaking with, a late apprentice or the Elder in charge, irreverence was the man’s default apparently.

Blonc chuckled, clearly used to his supposed subordinate’s attitude. “Nah. Just need somethin you’re gonna argue against and figured it’d be more fun to do the arguin myself first than wait for her to come stomping back.” He caught the flash of defiance that came over Kori when he said that and realized that there were worse things than her walking away empty handed, especially when he realized she was still carrying her satchel.

Kori was mildly offended at the implication that she’d throw a tantrum and go ‘stomping back’. It was about the same time that particular thought was going through her mind that she noticed his glance towards her waist and understood what his slight grimace meant. So of course she patted the side of the satchel with a grin, making sure to tap just hard enough for the faint clink of glassware to be heard from within.

The nuance of their interaction was lost on the quartermaster as he laughed at Blonc’s remark. “Ok, so what is it I’m gonna be arguing against this time? Not tryin to play favourites and get the fresh-scale here better armour or nothin, are ya?” The shake of his head and tone making that sound like a near criminal offense.

“Nah, nothing like that.” Waving away the concern. “They get what ya give em til they earn something better.” The way he said the line was as though from rote memory. “Need a practice weapon for this one, something we don’t have on hand.”

“Oh, is that all? Then just pick something else. There’s plenty of choices out there.”

Blonc chuckled and looked at Kori. “Like I said, argument.” He then turned back to Lhka. “Special circumstance. Need a few practice knives,” He glanced at Kori, “few sizes going from small to medium, no need to bother with anything bigger than that.”

“Bah, use a dagger like a proper warrior.” He shook his head. “Or better yet, a short sword. Knives are for cuttin up your lunch, not fighting for your life.”

Blonc firmed his stance and took on a bit of the tone of command that he’d used earlier with Kori. “No can do. Like I said, special circumstances.” He leveled his gaze at the older kobold. “besides, if you want to get your claws on more of that healing paste you’ve been clamouring for, I’d suggest not making things more difficult for it’s creator.” He jerked his muzzle in Kori’s direction with the last remark.

Kori watched as the quartermaster’s gaze panned back and forth between herself and the Elder, a look of confusion dawning on his face. “You’re pulling my tail; this runt is the one that made all that?”

This was the last straw for Kori; she’d had her size poked fun of one too many times over the last day and wasn’t about to take being called a runt on top of it all. “Runt? Runt?! Who’re you calling runt, you overgrown lizard.” She screeched out, showing her sharp teeth and grasping for anything on hand to use as a weapon.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for everyone else, her earlier allusion to possessing any of her less friendly concoctions was a bluff. Har had forced her to surrender her stinging flask and she wasn’t sure whatever happened to the regularly sized flame flasks she had made.

Blonc quickly grabbed her by the shoulders before she could lunge for the older quartermaster. He may have been sidelined by age and injury, but Lhka was still a third-tier warrior with plenty of experience. With nothing to level the playing field, she was just going to get herself hurt if she followed through.

Once the shock wore off, the quartermaster began laughing uproariously, not even the glare from Blonc doing anything to quell his humour. After a few moments of his revelry, he made a placating gesture with his hands. “Alright, alright. Guess she’s got some fire in her after all.” He paused to let out a last few chuckles. “Sorry Li… Youngling. Didn’t think you’d be so touchy about it, you’re not much smaller than the other new apprentices.”

Kori let out a growl, still not much more threatening than it ever had been but definitely less of a squeak than it had once been thankfully. “I’m. Four.” She elongated and emphasized her words.

That was enough to finally shut the man up. He suddenly realized why she might be a little sensitive about the topic. All he could really say after that was, “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” She growled back.

“Enough of this, we’re wasting time and I’ve only got you for so much of it.” The Elder interjected, exasperated by the situation. He sighed and repeated what they were there for in the first place, “Get me a couple knives sized for her, and a few for me too for teaching I guess.” Turning his attention to the youngling he still held the shoulders of. “And you, let it go. This is Lhka here on a good day… Old fool has a knack for hitting weak spots even when he’s not aiming, on the field and off.”

Lhka looked like he was going to protest, but the glare he received put an end to that before it started. “Fine, fine. Gimme your hand so I can get the right sizing.” It took prodding from the Elder to encourage her to offer her hand without trying to dig her claws in, but measuring took only a few moments. “Want me to start from scratch, or break down a larger dagger or somethin?”

It only took a moment to decide, even though time was limited a rush job would come at a cost, either in shape or durability, “Start from scratch. Use the good wood so that the blade can be closer to the right thickness without worrying about snapping it.”

Lhka looked like he was going to protest for a moment but just grimaced and got to his feet, “Fine, fine. I’ll have something tomorrow.”

Without another word, Blonc turned about and pulled Kori along with him as he walked away. He could hear her grumblings and the occaisional mutterings of ‘runt’ and something that rather worryingly sounded like ‘deathshroom’. Whatever the ominous sounding fungus was, he was certain he wanted nothing to do with it.

Their return to the training areas marked the end of her break and Kori found out that the morning’s run had in fact been going easy on her. With weapons training on hold, the remainder of the day was now free for physical fitness, aka, more running. This time with an added backpack with a few bags full of sand in it for good measure.

The fruits of her labour eventually made themselves known.

<<Ability Score improved. Endurance increased 28 -> 29>>

As much as she was loath to admit it, the torturous training method was at least effective. She didn’t increase her might, but felt that it was only a matter of time if things continued as is.

Once she couldn’t run another step, her Stamina literally hovering in the single digits, she was allowed to collapse and take another break from the exercise. Though even then she wasn’t permitted to be idle, instead she was met with a different form of training that finally interested her. At least a little.

Blonc used a practice sword to etch another diagram in the sand between them, depicting an imaginary battle between kobolds and goblins within the tunnels of their domain. “The tunnels are to our advantage, but only if we use them properly. You see here, this narrow section, three warriors can stand abreast here, but if they did, they’d be in each other’s way, unable to parry or dodge without interfering with their neighbour.” He drew out three figures cramped into the gap. “But if two stood with a third behind them using a sling, they could contain a much greater number of foes.”

The lessons on tactics were more interesting than anything they’d done so far, which to be fair was mostly just running circles around the training grounds with or without a bunch of sand weighing her down. Blonc taught her about concepts like fallback positions, feints, pincer maneuvers, and something that kobolds truly excelled at, modifying the terrain to their advantage.

While Bolst’s trappers may set traps to passively deal with enemies, the warriors used those same obstacles actively. They guided their foes towards where they wanted them to be, pushed them towards their doom and ensured that any who managed to avoid their machinations were punished for it.

These lessons led to the first new Skill of her training regimen.

<<Skill Acquired, Basic Combat Tactics, Common, Level 1>>

She wasn’t sure whether it would be useful, but at least it was interesting and it exercised her more potent mental abilities to clear a bit of the boredom. Her excitement over the Skill proved her downfall however. As if she had the energy to celebrate, she had the energy to run.