“So on your levelling question it is going to get easier sort of as you grow, being a vision dungeon nearby if you push further in it you will start getting several levels a week and it should grow with you. They usually don’t cap out on that until you're rare or above tier wise, but also you're getting a blood line related instance and because the wild blood don’t share writings outside of their own clan we don’t have a lot documented on them yet so it could vary. Now, show me the loot?”
We were served some kind of fish soup, it was tasty but very salty though the sweet tea the cooks had brewed helped balance it nicely. Over breakfast with Sula I was quickly offloading all my questions. Now I finally had someone who was interested in encouraging my growth into a true combat healer.
“So I got a few things, some of which I have no personal use for and more want some idea of the value along with if you know someone here who can use it. But I need to know if it's fine for me to use this one.” Pulling out the box I had brought to breakfast, which I put the extra shard and core I into as well, I passed over the mana crystallizer.
“Oh I haven’t seen one this small before, but I have heard they use them in the cities where larger estates don’t want to have to import mana gems for appliances but their staff or mages don’t have enough mana of that type to actually make the gems themselves. This is fine to use, I am assuming you want it to finish your project with the cave, it's just relatively valuable. It's worth only a few hundred gold, but in an area with suitable demand and low availability it's going to be closer to five hundred while the ones I saw that looked similar in a city were closer to a hundred and fifty. Really it's only useful to people with lots of staff who have a range of mana types but not a lot of mana capacity or time spare to work on a gem like you have, so its very niche in demand and I doubt you could sell it here or even in some close towns if you tried”
While putting the mana crystallizer back away I grabbed out my core and shard, passing them over to Sula to take a look at “These you can do more with locally, I believe the paperwork said one of the hunters primary class was a card crafter but he basically couldn’t get access to enough materials to really level properly. Something about the local card crafter refusing to take him on as he had a problem with the family, not really sure on the details. But after this we can see him to see what he can trade for it? I really can’t recommend eating at goblin core unless you really want to try to develop a related bloodline”
“No thanks, I have my own blood line and I am already short enough as it is. Great though, I don’t really need anything in trade even so much as I want to know if it can be made into something useful for the settlement, if not I might hold off on trading them until I can trade it towards an upgrade for myself or something useful for the towns healing services”
“Alright, in that case I believe Chris usually does the evening shift with the hunters so we can go see what he thinks can be done with these items, and then if you want we can discuss your other class related questions back in the cave?” While speaking Sula started to take our now empty bowls over to the washing basin and rinsed them out for the cooks while I put everything back in the box and got ready to follow her.
Chris had a tent not too far away from the kitchen area, almost on the way toward the cave but off to the side. As we walked I marvelled at how in such a short time the builder and logger class brothers had started getting some basic buildings down. A few small huts that looked to be for the more core crafting classes, along with what looked like the start of more long term housing starting to go up with people often working on the basics themselves to speed things up.
I knew from my reading and listening to others' talk that the kind of core we had for Horusum meant it wouldn’t really upgrade the buildings themselves, instead it was focused on alerting us if any monsters entered the settlement, along with reducing the spawn chance close to the settlement's edges and within it. It meant more work for our builder, but after a year or two that should slow down, and the rapid building would also create fast levelling for the crafter so there should be some nice bonuses that would result in some really great building options he could provide to the area long term.
As we approached his tent I could see he was one of those who either wasn’t high up the list for crafter ranks of importance to get a house of some kind for practising his craft, or he didn’t have anything to trade with the builder or logger to jump up the list. I know Mircha had some buildings that needed to happen as a priority for our settlement, my place to act as a healing hut would have been very high up that list if I hadn’t come across the situation with my cave. However the builder was also free as a crafter to spend a certain amount of his day working on whatever projects he wanted, which I had been informed was mostly either what he needed to improve his own work like his brothers set up for logging and processing the wood, or whatever he was paid to spend some time on. It sounded a bit harsh making those who weren’t on a list or able to pay wait to stop living in a tent, but as everyone would eventually get a home of some description to their needs for their craft or profession, it was more a way to encourage putting resources into the community then a way to pay to get ahead.
Particularly as from Bren's complaints the builder had zero interest in money or favours, he only wanted materials to build with or things to help grow his class skills, which was an attitude I could appreciate and resonate with.
Chris was a young looking man, around my own age, who was sitting by a small fire next to his tent working at a crystal that looked similar to the skill shard I had with some kind of etching tool. As he stood up to greet us I realised he was quite a small man, easily ten centimetres shorter than myself and very leanly built, with long black hair pulled back into a horses tail.
“Hey Chris, sorry to bother you but Styx has some items that she got from the dungeon that might be worth a trade for you. She isn’t to sure what she wants for them yet, or how consistently she can earn similar rewards, but did you want to take a look and see what might be possible?” I was glad Sula was doing the talking, knowing very little about how cards are actually made or what the etiquette was. It saved me a lot of stress.
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“No problem, lovely to meet you Styx, sorry to say I am somewhat glad to not have had to meet you resident healer yet but it's nice that our first proper hello was for good cause. Let me grab a cloth for you to put any items you want me to look at on so they don’t get dirty on the ground here, I can’t offer much right now but if I can use whatever you have I can trade either the finished goods or part of the resulting trade of the finished goods for most things.” After a moment of searching in a bag next to his tent a black piece of fabric was laid out folded over itself a few times to make a safe place for the items to go down.
Placing the shard and core down I got an appreciative noise from Chris as he saw the core, which helped solidify that this might be actually useful, even if not for me, in the hands of a crafter.
“So looking at this shard and core, the best option would be to make them into a generalist card together. Goblin cores aren’t going to make good class cards, just to low tier and don’t relate to anything really useful or strong for humans, but the shard should allow me to make a weapon related general skill card while the goblin core will empower it to be at least a high value common tier or if I can get some good supplementing materials or mana types to combine in it could even reach uncommon tier with some luck. Honestly I would want to make something and trade this to a hunter, we could then either get some combat rewards to split or trade those materials to Marcus to get some building work done. Does any of that suit your interests?”
Thinking about it I really didn’t need or want for anything building wise, but if the hunters were gathering furs I might be able to get some proper covers made for the stone beds so that they weren’t using my bedroll or the spare bedroll I was gifted by Mircha, or maybe I could look at making a proper bed for myself with them. “I wouldn’t mind some furs, honestly these aren’t that useful for me personally but I don’t want to hoard something that could be useful for others here just to try to gain some personal gain later on. Ideally I need two blankets or bed covers for the stone beds I have for treatments, what are the odds of managing that out of the trade or even one as a start?”
Clearly thinking it over I saw when a sudden idea overcame him, it was somewhat endearing how transparent the man was but I could also see it making him as bad of a negotiator as I was. “There might be a way to get two, you have a rare mana type and I know one of the hunters is hoping to eventually meet the conditions to evolve his class into an elementalist fighter of some kind. His class is only common, so its possible to evolve it quite low level if the right conditions are met, and if we use your unusual mana to help make this card hopefully, and this is hopeful it might not turn out as good as we want, we can get a weapon skill related to your mana type that helps him along. For that I reckon we could trade for those two blankets you need, plus some claws and teeth I know Marcus has been gathering for me to trade with him. Does that sound fair to you? If we can’t get a card as good as we want for him then I am happy to renegotiate our split, but I can’t undo making the card so it's a small gamble”
It was obvious he really wanted to craft a strong card, if only for the class experience he would gain from it, and it wasn’t a bad deal for me. Worst case if it was a combat card, considering the other eleven odd hunters were mostly common class holders and the odd crafter that arrived after our initial group was also often lower tier, it shouldn’t be hard to get a good trade still.
“Alright I am happy with that, do you need me here for the crafting process or how does it work if I am adding my mana?” While speaking I picked up the core and shard while Chris put away the blanket, before giving them back to him to store away.
“It isn’t a fast process, it will take me about a day to get the shard and core merged together, then I need to carve the card structure into the new core it forms, that would be another day or so at my level and skill. After that we need to empower it, so I can bring it by your cave if that’s okay when it's ready? I will just need you to channel mana into it at a slow pace while I use a skill I have to form the core into the card, then we can both see how well it turns out and go sort out a trade after” I noticed the cores went into a small hip bag after being wrapped in some thick fabric that Chris tied up with a secure looking knot after, so at least I knew they were safer then being tossed around in the box which I was starting to feel a little bad for now.
“That works fine, I am almost always available in case someone needs healing and unless something happens I can dedicate however long you need to get that done. Just come by, and also I have told the others as I see them but healings free, or well Mircha pays for it, or maybe the settlement is not really sure on where that source is from. But either way come by for any healing even for minor things, or even a check up just in case anytime”
“I might take you up on that, it's been a while since I was checked up by a magical healer, so it might be a good idea. Anyway I will let you ladies get on with your day, while I try to finish this augment core before Sven decides he doesn’t want to wait. Great guy, but having him watch you while you work impatiently? Unnerving” Shivering and getting a laugh out of both of us we head off leaving him to get back to his work before his fears come true.
“Thanks for that, I better let you rest before you have watch duty, we can discuss my skill changes another day if you want to pop in. It isn't too urgent, but I appreciate the help today. Let me know if I can do anything for you” giving Sula a quick one arm hug while I hold my box under the other I get ready to go set up my new toy to make some mana gems.
“Actually, you can do one thing, consider running the dungeon again. I know it's only been a day, and it was super stressful, but I really think you can grow well from the experiences and if you truly want to follow the path of a combat classer then this can be a great proving ground for you”
“I think I will, but I have seven days until I can go back anyway, so I am not rushing to make a decision on it. Honestly I enjoy the challenge, but the last fight was painful in a way I haven’t experienced before and knowing that could happen again? It definitely creates a source of anxiety but I would be lying if I said I didn’t somehow enjoy coming out stronger and fighting my way to earn it.”
“Just think about it, I will come by when it's your time to do a dungeon run again and you can decide then if you need some time. Just don’t give up on yourself, anyway see you another time Styx '' while Sula walked away and I started my way back to my home, my thoughts circled the dungeon experience and my feelings around it. As much as I was scared and anxious I wanted nothing more than to be back in the crucible and hopefully prove I had grown from reflecting on my experiences in there.
Reaching my cave I decided to shelve those thoughts for now and revisit it later, in the meantime I realised I had no shelving that wasn’t hidden under a bed so it was time to annoy Bren to make a nice spot for my little gem tool.