Making it back to camp, Medera was lounging in the areas between the paths. Her head snapped up and looked directly at Bjorn as he entered the clearing. Taking in his disheveled state, she slammed her book closed and got up storming over to him. Walking up she poked him in the chest.
Taking a step away from the angry ball of woman she snapped. “Are you alright then?”
Sheepishly he replied, “Yes.”
Stepping forward again she smacked him a few good times. “And just what were you thinking? You got into another fight.” Looking him up and down.” By the looks of it, whatever beat your ass was humanoid. You have some rather nasty looking bruises around your neck that oddly look like fingers.”
“It’s not my fault that there are undead in this forest.”
A look of horror crossed her face. “Undead? Tell me everything. This does not bode well.”
Recounting his tale Medera listened with undivided attention. When he got to the part about the book her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned, but she did not interject. After Bjorn finished speaking she was quiet for a minute.
“And? What do you think?” Bjorn asked
“Hush child, let me work through this.” She was quiet for a long while. “So you will have to be more careful on your nightly runs, I even think you should avoid it if you can.
“Why? They have been out there this entire time and I haven't seen neither hide nor hair of them.
“Undead, especially skeletons typically don’t like to be out in the sun. There have been multiple times you have gotten back from your run after dark, so you’ve been lucky. I don’t want to chance them seeing you out of your run and tailing you back to our home. I highly doubt there were just those 4 skeletons, and I don't think we could handle more than 5 of them at once. You may be becoming stronger but you are still weak, and I am no fighter. I may be able to defend myself from many of the creatures of the forest, but for all of those I can defend against, there are 5 more that I can't. Now let me see your new spell.”
Bjorn complied, casting the spell. Another small ball of light appeared over his hand.
“Yes.” Medera said. “That is a good starting spell for learning light magic, it will provide much use for you in the time ahead, at least it should. You are an absolute idiot though, you wasted a fortune reading that spell book.” Medera then cast a spell, and a small ball of light appeared over her hand. While Bjorn’s light was a soft white, Medera’s was a soft blue. “I was going to try to teach you magic here soon, and I have that spell. Seeing how you learned the spell from the spell book there was a good chance I could have taught it to you. That spell book could have easily sold at town for at least 1 gold if not more.”
“How much would that be? Also i found these coins, what is the exchange rate between the different currencies?”
“A gold piece is worth more than I've ever had in my life. As for the exchange rate, it is 100 coppers to 1 silver, 100 silver to 1 gold, and 100 gold to 1 platinum. I’m not entirely convinced they exist, but I am told they are out there. And you wasted your chance to get a gold piece. Oh well no use crying over spilt milk.”
They were both silent for a few minutes before Medera spoke up again. “Winter is coming soon, and we will have to get ready for it. We will head into town in 2 fortnights, we should get everything ready and prepared to take into town, and hopefully sell or trade. Lets spend the next two fortnights crafting as many potions as we can. They don’t have anyone who can make potions so what we bring should fetch us a good price. Hopefully we can make it there on the market days. Every year at the end of the year there is a scheduled 3 day period where anyone can set up a shop to sell their goods. There should be a good chance for us to find what we need.”
Nodding. The silence grew between them until Bjorn spoke up. “I’m sorry Medera, you told me that I need to be careful and I keep disregarding you and taking impulsive moves. I could have easily died today, again, if that skeleton had gotten a hit on me with that bow there was a good chance I wouldn't have been able to get away, and for that I am sorry. I didn’t have to open that box, if I had brought it back you might have found the trap and saved me. Your antidote potion saved me a good bit of pain. I read the book instead of asking you what it was. To top it all off I continued to explore when I should have come back to talk to you. Maybe we could have gone together and maybe cleared the skeletons.”
With his apology her features softened. “It is okay, I forgive you, I forget what it is like to be young and feel invincible. You are head strong and have a strong sense of adventure, there is a chance if you survive you will do great things some day.”
Turning to move back into the cabin, she turned back around and said. “Oh I almost forgot, let me see that belt.” Handing it over she turned it around and over in her hands, all the while muttering to herself. She took the belt, walking inside. Bjorn followed after her. Inside she had the belt on the table, digging through one of the shelves on the book shelf.
“Ah ha!” She exclaimed as she produced a vial. The vial was about half full of a magenta liquid, with flakes of white floating in suspention. Medera walked back to the belt, uncorked the vial and let a single drop fall onto the belt. The drop sunk into the belt, and after a minute a small plume of white smoke came off of the belt where the drop fell onto it.
“What was that?” asked Bjorn
“This.” She said, holding up the vial. “Is a potion that can tell if a magic item is cursed, it will react with most curses, if the smoke was magenta it is cursed, but the white smoke is the all clear. At least most likely.” At that she handed the belt back to Bjorn. “Go ahead, try it on.”
“Hold the door, this belt is magical? How can you tell?”
Sighing with impatience, Medera replied. “You can tell it’s magical by its faint sheen it has, are you telling me you can’t see that?”
Studying the belt, it looked just like a normal leather belt to him. “No. I can’t tell that there is a sheen, it looks just like a leather belt to me.”
“Well, I guess that your eyesight must be going bad in your old age. Trust me it is a magical item.”
Medera pointing out that the item could be cursed, which Bjorn didn’t realize was an option to begin with, and then her showing him that the belt was most likely safe, didn’t do much to allay his fears that he just developed. Looking at Medera she gave him an encouraging nod with a smile on her face, as if to say “go on touch the big red button I want to know what will happen just as much as you do, but I don’t want to be the one to try.”
“Why don’t you put it on? I mean it looks to be almost the right size for your waist after all, and you seem more interested in this belt than I am. I think it’s still a normal belt, with no magical properties to it, and you are telling me it’s magical to try and fool me.” Retorted Bjorn.
“It is the spoils of your expedition and your hard fought loot that you rightfully took off of the corpse of a corpse. It would be very rude and ill considered for me to be the one to try it on and subsequently take it. Alas the duty falls on you.”
Begruggingly Bjorn looked at her and grabbed the belt, belting it to his waste. Once the belt was clasped close on his waist he felt stronger, and lighter on his feet. Looking in his character sheet he found that his strength grew by 2, and his dexterity also grew by 1. Taking the belt off a sense of weakness and sluggishness over took him. Not enjoying the feeling he put the belt back on.
“Well it looks like the belt was completely useless, having no effect whatsoever.” He lied through his teeth to Medera.
“If it is useless why not just hand it over to me, my old belt is starting to fall apart.”
“As you said it would be rude and it would be disrespectful to the dead that I made redead to steal this belt off of the dead. So to honor the redead dead I think I will keep ahold of this belt, you know for respect.”
“Bah! Keep your secrets then, I will have them out of you one way or another.”
The next two fortnights were spent harvesting some of the herbs growing in the garden. Many of the herbs growing were actually multiseason plants, some of them even grew better in the winter than they did in the summer. They also planted many different kinds of seeds, all of which Medera told Bjorn what they were, what they did, and what they could be used for. They also spent much of their time working on making as many potions as they possibly could. Making things as simple as a stomach ache tonic, all the way up to potions that granted a form of night vision. Medera truly was gifted at her craft of potion making, she knew how to make a potion of almost any situation that Bjorn could come up with.
At the end of the 2 fortnights they had made an impressive collection of potions. Most of the potions were made by Medera, there were a few that Bjorn could lay claim to having done by himself, but not many. Much of the work that they had done had been limited by the tools that they had access to. Medera had only the one alchemy set, with many of the potions requiring most, if not all of the tools that came with it, their progress in making the potions had been slowed down.
“In town we need to pick you up one of your own sets, there is a talented glassmaker who travels around, I hope he will be there this time. I also need to buy more vials from him, most people in town return the vials that they use and are empty, but I am running out.”
Another nice thing that came out of their constant working together, Medera spent a lot of their time when instruction wasn’t needed working on Bjorn’s common skills. After the first fortnight he got a prompt.
Congratulations you have gained a basic understanding and speaking ability of the language: Common, now there will be more people who can understand you and realize how stupid you are.
Every night they also took precautions against the undead, Medera took a herb called nightsbane and rubbed it on the ground every night before bed. The herb will slow down the skeletons, but it won’t stop them. The effect that nightsbane had on skeletons had 2 different purposes. First it wards them away, so hopefully it will cause them to avoid the house all together, and secondly it makes them produce a sound that could make the most stout hearted fear. Making the herb also function as an alarm clock.
Thankfully in their time preparing there weren't any signs of the undead. On the last night before they left to head into town they packed up everything that they needed, each potion and herb had its place, and its purpose. They had an extravagant meal that night, Medera made them a hearty bread, while Bjorn found them a baddit, which provided just enough freshmeat for Medera to slather it in doogleberries, giving the meat a sweet smokey flavor. With it getting closer to winter, baddits hibernated during the winter so the creature had put on fat, making the meat nice and marbled. The grease from the meat and the bread was a welcome change from the rather bland food that Bjorn had been cooking and eating for the last few months.
That next morning they set off together at the break of dawn heading along the mountain face moving south. It was going to be a 5 day trip to get to Nontorum. Much of their days were spent hiking up and down the rugged landscape of the mountains. If he was to guess, they weren’t making more than 7 or 8 miles of progress per day. All the while Bjorn continually cast his simple light spell whenever his mana came close to maxing out. The fourth day was the only day anything noteworthy happened.
As they got to a ravine Medera made it across no issues, but Bjorn’s foot slipped on a rock as he went to jump across, making him lose his balance as he landed. Luckily Medera was paying attention and caught him and helped him regain his balance. Bjorn got scolded for that one, seeing how he would have lost half of their work. Not because of him slipping would have caused him to plummet to his death. That wasn’t even brought up once for the entire hour long tirade about how big of an idiot he was.
There had to be something to be said about Medera’s surefootedness in the mountains. Not once in their 5 days of traveling did she slip, stumble, or even catch her foot on something. She also led them on without any sign of wavering or questioning on where she was going.
The last day of their trip the mountains seemed to be shrinking, getting close to the edge of the mountain range. The paths became less steep, and the trees weren’t growing as tall as they had been while near the cabin. The trees near the cabin were growing over 500 feet tall, and here at the foothills of the mountains they grew to a more modest 150 feet tall.
As the sun was setting on the last day they crested another “hill” and could see a town clinging to the side of the mountain. Looking down on Nontorum it was a quaint town, there were over 300 buildings. Off to one side there was a clearing where tents and wagons could be seen, multiple campfires were set up already burning. Many of the buildings had lights that could be seen in the windows. Around the entire town a rough palisade wall had been built, no doubt to try and keep any of the critters they had seen out. There was also a 4 foot trench dug around the base of the palisade, off to one side there was a small path across the trench leading to the gate of the palisade.
“Well there is no use in standing around as the chill is starting to set in.” remarked Medera. “Let’s head into town, there is an inn near the field that is used for trading, let’s get us a room for the night.”
Making their way up to the gate there were two people stationed at the opening in the wall. Both were lightly armed with swords and knives on their belts, they both had spears that they held in their hands. Their armor was light weight leather armor, nothing too restricting, but still protected their more vital parts. One of the guards was an elf, the other one a dwarf.
Upon seeing Medera and Bjorn approaching the elf turned towards them and started to position to bar their way, when the dwarf bellowed. “Medera you old fox! I was hoping to see you here again, made it another season without biting the shaft.”
“Etri, my old friend. It is good to see you, it looks like you have put on a bit of weight, has Meradith been over feeding you?” Medera said as she came in to give Etri a hug. Pulling back, “Your beard has more gray in it than I remember.”
With a snort he said. “It seems your age is playing tricks on you, for it has always been speckled with gray. But nevermind that, who is this you have with you? He looks a bit too young for you. I thought you always liked them older.” Etri said as he gave Bjorn an assessing look.
Medera turned and smacked him on top of his head. “There is no need to be crass. This here is Bjorn, I found him being mauled by a bear in the woods. I saved him and turned him into my porter, which is why he has that pack on.” Moving forward he stuck out his hand. Etri stepped forward and grabbed Bjorn by the forearm.
“Don’t let Medera fool you young man, she may talk a big talk, but she is actually a softy at heart.”
“I’m learning actually, she was as cold as ice when I first met her, but now she is teaching me alchemy. Seems she has taken me under her wing.”
“Has she now? That is no small thing, if she is teaching you, you must be worth something. I shouldn’t be keeping you, my shift ends in an hour, I expect I can find you at the Dancing Dog tonight? The first round is on me.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Thank you Etri, I will take you up on that. Good to see you.” Replied Medera as her and Bjorn headed through the gate. They started to head up the main street. The buildings on either side of them were a rough hodgepodge of wood, stone, and thatch. There didn’t seem to be much planning that went into the buildings, some were cut stone, fitted perfectly together, others had cobblestone bases with wooden walls, there was even one that had cloth walls. The street they walked on was wide enough that 10 people could easily walk abreast without issues, it was made of fine cut stone that was fitted together perfectly.
It was easy to tell what each building was used for, most of the buildings were houses, there were a few exceptions that could be seen. Such as the blacksmith, the cobbler, a tannery, a weavers shop, a mill, just to name a few. There was more variety than what Bjorn expected there to be. It makes sense though, all of the goods that he took for granted back on earth could be obtained by going down to the supermarket had to come from somewhere, towns in the medieval period were mostly self-sufficient, the problems arose when the towns became too populated to supply its own goods fully.
The streets had people traveling down them, and were by no means crowded. Most people nodded to the pair and then continued onwards, a few stopped Medera wanting to catch up with her but didn’t make her dally for too long. Before long they made it to the clearing in town, it was a large open area which had tents in the process of being set up. With the sun setting most of the work had come to a halt.
“Come on this way.” Medera said as she started to head towards a 3 story building with a sign hanging over the door with a carving of a dancing dog engraved in the wood. Opening the door light and laughter poured out onto the street. Heading inside, the building's first floor was a large open area. A bar on one side with an open doorway leading into the kitchens. Directly to the side of the bar there were stairs leading upwards. Along the walls of the taproom booths had been built into the walls. 6 tables were in the middle of the room, all with 7 to 8 chairs around them. The bar was about 3/4ths full.
Shouldering her way up to the bar, many of the patrons welcomed Medera as she passed and gave Bjorn a welcoming smile. Once they made it up to the bar the barkeep was nowhere in sight. Medera loudly exclaimed, “What a lousy establishment, I walked for days on end to get here and there isn’t a soul in sight to pour my old weary bones a drink!”
From inside the kitchens there was a loud bang followed by a string of curse words. “Hold your horses you impatient twit, I’ll be there in just a minute.” An angry reply came. Soon a large light green woman with small lower tusks that jutted into her upper lip came around the corner. As soon as her eyes laid to rest on Medera she stopped in her tracks. “By the gods, Medera, you made it.” All anger had drained from her voice as she rushed forward and picked up the small dwarf in a large bear hug. Spinning her around both women giggled happily at the sight of each other. Afterwards she set Medera down and immediately they started talking. The words came out gushing, questions and responses happened at the same time. As soon as the orc asked her question Medera started to reply, halfway through her response another question came flying out.
“... And then a mauler came over the hut and we tried to kill…” “Who is this scrawny little human with you?” “We were able to kill it and get its core. This pipsqueek is someone I saved…” “So you got the core that should fetch a hefty price.” “He has been following me around and won’t leave me alone. What happened to your favorite table?” “Oh, a band of travelers started a fight with John and they slammed into the table, breaking it.” “John, how is he? Wait, he broke the table?” “Yeah I kicked him out and won't let him back in.”
Trying to keep track of the conversation was starting to give Bjorn a headache. “Enough!” He said, “Slow down, some of us can’t seem to think as fast as you.”
The orc looked over at Bjorn, “Right right, sorry, I just haven’t seen Medera in a year, when she made her trek into town last spring I had to go down to Ogden’s crossing to pick up a shipment of hops. Introductions, I am Brumhilda, and your name young master human?”
“I am Bjorn Ward, at your service my lady.” Not knowing why he spoke that way or why it felt right, he bowed. He was attracted to the orc, for some reason his eyes were drawn to her and he had a feeling of being compelled to do whatever she asked of him.
“Brumhilda, knock that off, Bjorn is a nice kid, there is no need to charm him.”
“Sorry.” Brumhilda apologized looking crestfallen. “I got so excited I lost control there for a second.”
Medera took up looking over at Bjorn. “Brumhilda here has a special ability called compulsion. It allows her to make people more susceptible to liking her, and listening to what she says.”
“It is one of the most useful things I have to help me keep the bar here in order and keeps the crowd mostly tame.”
One of the patrons spoke up loudly. “Yeah and she uses it to get too many of my coins!”
Brumhilda looked back and said. “That's not even close to the truth, Jeddidia you just have a love for the drink.”
“Too true, too true.” He said and turned back to his drink.
Turning back to Medera and Bjorn, “So how long will you be staying? The entire festival? Of course you're welcome to stay for free, although if you want a second room I’ll have to charge you.” She said as she looked Bjorn up and down.
“No no, 1 room will be just fine thank you, we will probably stay the entire time, but if we sell all of our stock and get everything we need we might just leave early. There is a bite to the air that has come early this year, I fear we are in for an early winter this year.”
“All too true.” Brumhilda said. “You can have your usual room, if you want supper I have a meat pie I’ve been working on all day today, and of course all the drinks you can want. Although Bjorn, you’ll have to pay for yourself, you aren’t quite cute enough for me to buy you a drink.” She said with a wink.
After depositing their bags upstairs, they came back down, a serving girl gave them both a slice of the pie, and both a cup of an amber liquid. Upon tasting the drink it was a light beer with just a bit of bitter hop flavor. After the long days on the road both the pie and beer went down very easily.
Halfway through their second cup of ale Etri came in and joined them at the table. He and Medera started to chat away. Not too long afterwards Bjorn excused himself and went up to bed. A while later Medera came staggering in and took the other bed and soon was snoring.
The next morning Bjorn woke up and Medera was still snoring away. Getting up he headed down to the taproom. There was a middle aged man behind the bar cleaning up. “Ah, you must be Medera's friend. Would you like to break your fast?”
Sitting down at a table he soon came over with a biscuit and a cup of water. “Here you go, oh and for your food and bar tab it will cost you 8 coppers.” Handing over the money Bjorn tucked into his food. Soon after the man came back to the table. “If you’d like, we have a bath out back, I can draw you some water and you can use it for 5 coppers. We even have the ability to heat the water if you want.”
Bjorn hadn’t had a warm bath since he came to this world. “I would love that.” He said and handed over the coppers. 15 minutes later the man came back and led him through the kitchens. There was a door out back of the kitchens leading to a fenced in yard. There was a small building built into the ground. Opening the door there was a spiral staircase heading downwards. The corridor they were walking down had small glowing stones set into the walls providing a surprising amount of light. Reaching the bottom there were 4 different doors leading off of a small chamber.
“This one is your room, there is a small lever there, it is used to control the temperature of the water. Here is soap and a towel, take however long you want. Just let either myself or Brumhilda know when you are done.” The man said as he turned around, closing the door behind him. Stripping down Bjorn lowered himself into the water, it was pleasantly warm, after he fully cleaned himself he turned the heat of the water up. Moving the lever the water heated up about a minute later, taking some time to get it to the right temperature he just sat there and soaked.
Bjorn must have dozed off at some point because when he went to get out of the bath his clothes had been washed and folded, and he didn’t remember hearing anyone enter. Getting dressed he headed back to the taproom. Entering he saw Brumhilda and Medera sitting at a table talking. Walking over he told Brumhilda that he was done with the bath and it was wonderful.
“Glad you enjoyed it, I'll get someone down there to take care and clean the bath. What is on the agenda today for you 2?”
It was Medera who replied. “We are going to set up the stall and then I was going to go catch up with people who I haven’t seen in a long time. You’re welcome to do whatever you want Bjorn, There isn’t much else we need to do, the first day of the market starts in 2 days. So feel free to explore.”
“You’ll be wanting the stall you and I built a few years ago I’d assume. It’s out back there is a little work you’ll need to do to put it back together.” Brumhilda replied.
“Thanks for holding on to that for me, and yes we will use that.” With that Medera and Bjorn got up and left the table. Heading out back Medera walked over to a stack of wood, and grabbed a piece. They hauled all of the wood to a clear area of the field and spent the better part of the morning putting the stand together. They said their goodbyes and Medera set off. Leaving Bjorn by himself. He spent most of the first day lazing around town, looking at what there was to see and exploring. The second day he spent it exploring the countryside.
Nontorum was a mining village, they quarried stone to be sent down the mountain to Ogden’s crossing. Ogden’s crossing was a larger town situated at a meeting of 2 rivers. It was a sort of transport hub to move goods around. With not much else to do Bjorn explored the farm lands around Nontorum, he even went and explored the quarry. There weren’t many people working there today due to the festival coming up. Most people took the day off so they could rest. Someone yelled at him telling him saying he wasn’t allowed there. Taking his word Bjorn continued exploring around the town, but most of the land was tamed so there wasn’t much adventure. Agricultural practices were interesting though.
Some of the plants that they grew looked like what you'd expect to see on earth. There were potatoes and carrots, broccoli, and asparagus. Others looked like a mix between wheat and cabbage. There was a long stock and at the top were the seeds in the wheat were there were small heads of cabbage. Other plants didn’t even look remotely close to anything that was grown on earth.
All of their fields were irrigated in some way. There were natural springs all over the place, and the town used those springs to great advantage. Sometimes they just let the field be flooded with water. Others there were canal systems dug into the ground letting the water flood only in certain spots. Bjorn’s favorite was closest to the town, they had small cleavely built gates that they used to control the water flow, by opening and closing gates when they wanted they could provide water to whatever part of the field they wanted. If they had all the gates closed they diverted the water to a field lower down that grew something that needed to be fully submerged to grow.
Finally it was market day. On this day when Bjorn woke up Medera was already gone, heading down to the taproom it was empty. Poking his head back into the kitchen, no one was around. Grabbing a piece of stale bread left over from last night's dinner he walked out to the market field, and it was pandemonium. People were all over bustling about. There was a clamorous din of everyone talking, looking for wares, and trying to haggle over the price of whatever they were trying to buy. Making his way through the crowd he made it to Medera’s and his booth where there was an orderly line out.
As he walked up Medera had just finished exchanging coins for a lady. Handing over the change and a potion the lady curtsied and left with a beaming smile on her face. “Ah, about time you showed up. I thought I was going to have to do all the hard work around here. Put yourself to use and help these people.”
The next person in line was an older gentleman. “Hi Medera, and new guy. I am having a hard time working these days. I am having a lot of pains in my joints, here, and here, it’s mostly a stabbing pain. Do you have anything for that?”
Medera thought for a second. “Is the pain a lingering pain? Or fleeting?”
“Lingering.”
“We should have just the thing that should help.” Turning to Bjorn she was about to ask for a potion but he had already retrieved it. It was a potion of strengthening. When they had made the potion, Medera had told Bjorn that one of the uses for the potion was to help alleviate the problems of arthritis. Nodding to him she took the potion. “We have this potion, it should help a little bit with the problem, there is no guarantee that it will fix the problem. It will cost you 1 silver.”
“Oh, that’s a bit steep.”
“You know I don’t sell a potion that won’t work. This potion took the both of us a whole day to make.”
“With expenses as they are, I can’t do full silver. I still have to afford to eat, you know. I can do 70 coppers.”
“You're basically asking us to work for free at that price. Let’s do 85, that should allow you to afford to eat for the next 2 span.”
“Yes, eating is well and good, but I also have to afford wood to heat my home for the winter. It feels like it's going to be a cold one, how does 78 work for you?”
“You’re basically asking for us to give it away for that. But I do agree with you. It feels like it’s going to be a cold one. I’ll give it to you for 78 coppers.”
With that they both were happy and traded the coins for potion which he drank right away and handed the vial back. As he walked away Bjorn could see his gait became smoother and easier. Medera turned towards Bjorn. “You get the basic jist, Help me sell these potions, 30% of what we sell i’ll let you keep to get whatever you need.”
That day they sold most of their stock of potions. After his first sale Bjorn got a notification.
You have gained a new skill: Trade. There are few in this world that can do everything and provide everything they need by themselves. Everyone uses trade in some way, whether it is bartering, or the exchange of coins, it is essential to any society.
You have advanced your skill level in trade, reaching skill level 3. Items you buy and sell prices will be 1.5% more in your favor, this also includes bartering.
After the first day Medera counted out all of their proceeds from the potions and gave Bjorn his share of the pay. 24 silvers and 60 coppers, bringing his total up to 36 silvers and 99 coppers respectively. Thanking Medera, they packed up what they didn’t sell, and went back to Brumhilda’s inn. The common room packed when they got inside, dropping their bags in their room, they both went back down for an evening of merriment and food.
The next morning Bjorn woke up to the sound of Medera rolling out of bed. “You’re up early, I wasn’t expecting to see you for another hour. I also wasn’t expecting to see you up here last night especially with how handsy that barmaid was with you.”
On Bjorn’s end it felt like someone had implanted an ice spike behind his eyes. He had a splitting headache, and his mouth tasted sour. “What barmaid? I don’t even remember coming up to bed last night.”
Chuckling, “Oh, to be young again. Well any matter, I don’t think ill be needing your help today, we don’t have much stock left, so if you want to spend the day browsing and finding anything you want or need. Remember winter is just around the corner, so some sort of winter clothes would be much advised.”
“Thanks for the advice Medera, I'll keep that in mind.” Bjorn said as he turned around and went back to sleep.
Having a late morning, Bjorn spent the day perusing all the various different stalls and vendors there were. Finding odd nicks and bobs that caught his attention, he didn’t spend much of his money. Except he did splurge and buy himself a good set of winter clothes, he also got himself an alchemy set. Those two items cost him 20 silver. He also bought a block of salt, a few bags of arrowheads, a nice knife, a nice sticky sweet bun. With so many new things to look at Bjorn barely made it through half of the stalls. That night Medera gave him another 4 silvers and 12 coppers for his work on making the potions; she had sold out the rest of their stock.
On the last day of the market the glass ware salesman Medera had talked about showed up and they bought over 200 new vials from him, they also bought used vials back from people for a copper for 2 vials. It was the same rate the salesmen charged for his new vials. On that last day the tanner found them and told them that the deer hide that they brought wouldn’t finish curing, but there was another hide they could take with them and they wouldn’t have to pay. Taking the offer Medera directed Bjorn back to the blacksmith to get some leatherworking tools.
With the last day coming to an end and Bjorn was starting to head back to the inn there was one item that just caught his eye. Not quite sure what it was that drew him to it, he went over and took a look at it. It was a small orb, it looked like it was made out of glass. On the inside of the orb there were 8 different lights swirling around inside, the lights itself didn’t actually penetrate the shell of the orb. “What is it?” Asked Bjorn
The shopkeeper who looked half asleep looked over and lazily said, “I don’t have the faintest idea, if you want it you can have it for 15 coppers.”
Going back and forth on what to do Bjorn thought. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”, “I’ll take it.” counting out the coins he walked away a strange orb richer, and started to walk away.
“Oh, no refunds, all sales are final.” called the shopkeeper after Bjorn.
As Bjorn walked into the inn he found Medera and Brumhilda talking at the bar. Shouldering up to the bar he took a seat next to Medera and set the orb on the bar in front of her. “Any idea what this is?”
She looked down curiously, picked up the orb and turned it over in her hands. “A glass bauble?”
“I don’t know why but something attracted me to this orb so i bought it for 15 coppers.”
“Well I think you fell victim to one of the oldest tricks in the book. You got scammed my friend, for it looks just like an orb of glass. It sure is pretty to look at, but it doesn’t seem to have much of a use.”
Getting visibly upset Bjorn snatched the orb back, turning a beet red and stuffed it into one of the pouches on his belt.
“Anyways.” said Medera and paused for a few minutes before saying, “You better get to sleep, we have another long trek ahead of us.”
The next morning they took off early, paying off his outstanding tab Brumhilda was oddly sappy. “You take good care of her, you hear? I expect to see the both of you in the spring, otherwise I'll come find you myself.” Picking Bjorn up in a bear hug she set him down. Saying their final goodbyes they set off for the cabin.
The 5 day trek back home was rather uneventful. Cresting the hill looking down on the cabin, they both sighed in relief, just appreciating the fact that they made it home. Other than a few animal tracks walking through their yard their home was surprisingly undisturbed. Both weary from the road they set their packs by the door and settled in for the night.
(If you don’t care you can skip to the next chapter.)
You have advanced your skill level in alchemy, reaching skill level 11. Potions you make will be 11% increased effect and 22% increased duration of effect.
You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 8. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 24%.
You have advanced your skill level in light magic. reaching skill level 2. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.