The garlic was a spice like most everything he’d used before, just considerably more potent. The result was delicious; however, leaving Chef incredibly happy with the new ingredient. It took only a few rumbles for him to master cooking with it, and with the cloves delivered, he prepared to learn the secrets of this kiln.

That turned out to take much longer. The kiln master proved to be too intimidated to make for a good teacher, and her constant need to glance around for help was really annoying. Honestly, he had given via trade in order to receive this knowledge, no need for them to act like they were hostages. It made him want to eat them.

“…so, you really need quality bricks to make your own. Oh and, um, you’d also need some, uh, metal otherwise you won’t be able to cook the bricks on it.”

That was what he was really here for. The making of hard red stuff with the soft red stuff was, well it wasn’t exactly exciting, but it seemed practical. What got him to immediately want to learn these techniques, though, was the possible applications with cooking. If he could somehow use this stone oven in his cooking, crazy as that might seem, he could potentially make even better food. And with a magical fire ability like he had, it wouldn’t even be hard to fuel or start!

“Then I need bricks and metal.”

“Ah, Um, well…”

There it went again. It took forever to say anything, dragging its feet through every sentence that it spoke. Like the blonde headed one he’d met before, this human had two protrusions on its chest, marking is as a female. Ridiculous, how would they ever grow as a species if they could only support two young at a time?

“…so uh, we won’t have any extra bricks until the mill is finished, Mr. Chef. And, um, see we, ah, actually don’t have more metal grates or anything so…”

Tired of waiting a minute for each sentence, he waved her off. If he was going to suffer through lengthy conversation for each scrap of information, he wasn’t going to waste time on listening to excuses.

“Fine. Then teach how make brick without kiln and metal.”

She nodded and then seemed to think for a while. Chef wondered whether she did the um-ing and ah-ing in her head as well, smiling to himself at the thought. She started talking, but he just waited for a few seconds before actually listening, just like when she was introduced. He knew enough worthless human names already, no sense in learning any more of them.

“…so you could make mud or thin clay blocks, but with the mud you stuff it with, uh, thatch and let it dry in the sun. But…”

A few painfully stuttering sentences later and Chef figured out the strategy. Basically, he could use thatch and mud in order to build an initial kiln, those bricks dried by the sun. With that, he could dry clay bricks in the mud kiln. Then he could use those bricks to build a new kiln, make better clay bricks, and do it again. Of course, being the brilliant goblin that he was, he could skip half of those steps. If he collected clay and used his cooking fire and set temperature, he could probably just make an excellent kiln on the first try.

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Obviously, there were more things he needed to know first, but he had his strategy. And the best part was if he made it himself he wouldn’t have to talk to this person anymore.

“Where do you find clay?”

Once he knew how and where to get the clay he could get started. Fighting to pay attention through her answer got him the last piece of information he needed. After this he would learn how to make his own jugs, but surely the ceramics would be easier to make than this. And more importantly, it wouldn’t be taught by the same person. Right?

----------------------------------------

Hours later, Chef had given away three more jugs of sticky gold in exchange for the lesson on kilns and the lesson on ceramics. He spread out the payments of course so he wouldn’t die of mana loss, but somehow the pain in his head wouldn’t leave him.

Of course, making ceramics required a kiln. So, unsurprisingly, the person who taught him ceramics was…

“…yea, um, then you just, well fire it. Or, um, cook it.”

Chef hated learning. Why couldn’t everything be cooking? Why did he need so many skills and so much knowledge just to make tasty food that didn’t look awful? Why was it that without learning things from these horrible humans that all he had made was goop? Or food that still had a pulse somehow.

He swore then and there that even if he left the rest of this town alive, he would kill and eat this kiln master. Only after swearing vengeance for her reckless destruction of his happiness and attention span would he be able to sleep at night. And that was saying something; those boar hides were comfortable.

“Enough. I know enough. I leave now.”

He walked away unceremoniously, mana high enough to deliver the final honey jug to the father. The day was winding to a close as well, the dwindling light pushing the people back to their homes. But with his loot in hand, which mostly consisted of hard-earned knowledge paid for with sanity, he made his way back to his cave home.

Once he got back, the sun had long since set. It was most fortunate that goblins could see in the dark as well as they did, otherwise he might have gotten lost. Of course, he got lost anyway, but it could have happened more often for sure. He stepped over his moat of poison goop that he had placed at the entrance to his cave, dug into the dirt just outside. Defying all logic, even the ground was unwilling to drink his poisonous mess, leaving it to just sit and wait for the next intruder. Perhaps he’d start using his foraged things as bait to kill with it, but he still had more meat than anything else.

Oh well, more things to do in the future. But for now, there was only one thing to do. He made his way into the cave, finished up the rest of the bear bone jelly paired with some foraged goodies and boar meat, and settled in for the night. A chorus of notifications lulling him to sleep.

*Ping*

Congratulations! You have digested an entire Bear[12]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have digested an entire Bear[13]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have digested an entire Bear[15]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have digested an entire Bear[9]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have digested a Boar[22]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have digested a Boar[18]! You have gained some of its stats and abilities.

Congratulations! You have gained health, stamina, alacrity, gusto, ability, and hutzpah!

Congratulations! You have assimilated a trait!