After getting dressed I headed downstairs and met with the party. Once again, Tagart had seemingly retired early, so it was just the three of us. “Ok…” I yawned. “You guys got some work for me?”
Dabai took a ring from off his tusk and handed it to me. “Thirteen.” He said. His voice was like that of a desert pirate who took in too much smoke and burned his lungs.
From what I could tell the ring was solid gold, which meant the enchantment on it must have been pretty strong. “So you killed 13, is there anything else I should know?” I turned to Roaren. Ted was the leader for sure, but I had a feeling Roaren was more the thinker of the group… Although that might of just been my bias poking through, sense he was half-elf.
“Hm. Quite a few of them will be damaged, they weren’t clean kills… But, what kind of information are you looking for exactly?”
“I guess I should be able to figure it out on my own but depending on how you kill them it can become more dangerous to harvest certain parts. Some spiders will have abnormalities, ones that are constantly leaking acid from their mouths for instance. Those have to be harvested differently than the rest.”
He crossed his arms. “I’m not sure. To be honest that’s more of a question for Taggart.” He looked past me to Ted. “You would have been in the thick of it, did you notice anything like that?”
He smiled brightly. “Only one, it was that huge one, if it's dangerous don’t worry about it, we will give it to the guild.”
A hard smack hit my shoulder as I turned to look at him with a groan. ‘It’s not like he’s that much to look at either…’
“Uh… Everything alright there?”
I let out a sigh, deciding to try and just forget about it. “It’s nothing.” Turning back to Roaren and Dabai I held up the ring. “When do you guys need this back?”
The troll held one finger, causing me to turn to Roaren for translation. “He has one more ring, so ideally tomorrow we will have filled it up, and you will have emptied that one out, sound good?”
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I sent a bit of mana into the ring to test if I could use the storage enchantment. “Yeah, that should be fine. I’ll go ahead and get to work right after I eat something.”
Roaren nearly shuddered and turned pale. “You’re… Going to eat first?”
They all began staring at me as I sat slowly sat down. ‘Did I do something wrong?’ “O-oh sorry… I can sit somewhere else.” I said quickly, starting to stand back up.
Before I could though, Roaren reached out and grabbed my arm with his clawed hand “No no no, that’s not what I meant at all, please, you can eat with us.”
I froze stiffly, slowly looking down at his hand. It was one thing getting a firm nudge from the dwarf… But having his hand so firmly around my arm made me feel even more uncomfortable. “U-uhm… So… Can you let go now, please…”
As he quickly retracted his hand I timidly wrapped my own over the spot where he was touching me. “Thanks…” I muttered, sitting down. ‘Why am I like this…’
Once again the dwarf ordered me food, this time using Roarens money. Roaren rolled his eyes at the notion but didn’t object for one reason or another, while Dabai Simply smiled, staring at me intently. “I suppose it will be my turn next?”
“Uhm…” I wanted to say he really didn’t have to, but before I could Roaren pulled me to the side and leaned in close.
“I get how this might be uncomfortable for you to have other people paying for your meals… But it really hurts the poor guy when he gets left out.”
I slowly looked back towards Dabai. As heartless as it may sound, he really wasn’t the type I would expect to have… Well… Any feelings, at least not like that. “Yeah, next time it’s on you.” I slowly smirked. “Then Ted will finally have to spend some of his own money.”
The moment my words got out he choked on his mug of ale, making everyone laugh. I was really starting to feel a part of their group, even if all I did was clean the monsters.
I ate another three portions, surprising all of them. I was at least able to read the situation at that time. It was more than obvious why they were shocked. “I starved over the winter, so I’m trying to get my muscle back,” I explained.
A hearty slap from Ted pushed me forward in my seat. “I thought you looked a bit small to be in this kind of work. I bet in no time you’ll be back at full width.”
‘So handsy… And… I’m Not sure how I should take that… Does he think I’m a dwarf like him? Wait, but dwarves are talented at metal magic. You know, my weapons have gotten thinner too, if I were a dwarf I could fix them easily… Wait…’ “That reminds me, Ted, can you use metal magic?”
It took him a moment to catch up with how my thoughts got there, but after a moment he answered without worrying about it too much. “Uhm… Aye, I can use tier one at least, dwarves are basically born with that much.”
“Can you teach me? I’ll pay you if you want.”
He let out a sigh and leaned his chin onto his fist. “Hm… I suppose it depends on why you want to learn it.”
I pulled out my dagger. “I’ve had these weapons for years, but constantly mending them has not only been expensive, it’s worn away at the blade's integrity. I did what I could with just smithing, but magic would go a long way, especially when correcting things like acid damage.”
He took the blade in his hands and silently inspected it, taking so long that I eventually started biting my lip with how nervous I became. ‘He doesn’t look very happy.’