Chapter: Academy Staff

Rugrat and Erik had found Egbert with Elise’s instructions and looted his spatial bones, he cut a sorry figure missing so many bones as Erik and Rugrat rushed off again like bandits.

Rugrat ran right to the smithy while Erik went to the alchemy lab.

Most people were awake and having breakfast, leaving only a few people in the smithy.

Taran was already heating up the forge, thankfully, with taking down his old furnace he could use his fuel to start this furnace instead of relying on the mana powered flames.

“Taran!” Rugrat said as he stormed into the room.

“What is it?” Taran asked, his brows knitting together at Rugrat’s wide smile and excited expression.

Rugrat didn’t say anything but threw out several blueprints onto the work surface.

“More Blue…” Taran felt his heart thudding in his chest as he unconsciously adjusted his hands, holding the blueprint like a cherished child.

“Oh, look at you, just, perfect,” there were tears in Taran’s eyes as he stroked the top of the forging blueprint lovingly.

A few people nearby glanced at one another in question.

“Is Taran crying?”

“What did Rugrat give him?” Another asked, looking in at the blueprints.

“I just have some coal in my eye you bunch of eavesdroppers!” Taran yelled rubbing at his eyes and slamming the door shut.

The two eavesdroppers looked at one another.

“Definitely crying.”

The other nodded in agreement.

Taran moved to the workshop’s surface, looking over the forging blueprints, there were five in total, all of them were of at least mid Journeyman grade, two were reaching Expert, even Master level.

Rugrat laughed and waved Egbert’s fibula, materials appeared across the furnace room, all kinds of metal ingots, forging designs, and information manuals.

Taran stumbled backwards, his face white as he looked at Rugrat’s smiling face. He nearly sat down, but seeing it was a pile of manuals he hurriedly stood up, still cradling that first forging blueprint in his arms.

Seeing this all he had moved straight past crying to shock.

“Right!” Rugrat said, his eyes shining as he saw it all. “These are all from the Gnomes that were here before, as well as the previous master, he was a blacksmith and formation master. Everything he had he gave over to Egbert who gave over to us now. Manuals, blueprints, materials.”

This was the wealth of the gnome civilization that had lived in Alva Dungeon. Their inheritance wasn’t light.

Rugrat looked at Taran, the look in his eyes made Taran hold the blueprint in his arms tighter.

“Though only people that attend the academy will have access to the blueprints, the manuals and other information will be for everyone,” Rugrat said, he’d dropped the hook and Taran had gone for it completely. Now he was reeling it in.

Taran had a depressed look on his face, he had to admit that Rugrat had him good.

Manuals were good, but they were theoretical, Taran had reached this skill level in smithing making hundreds of items, working with all kinds of materials. Practical experience was the basis of his skill.

To him, the manuals were only surface material compared to what he might learn using these blueprints.

“I’ll be your damn smithing teacher,” Taran muttered.

“Good to hear principal Taran!” Rugrat announced.

“Principal! Wait a damn minute!” Taran said, waving a finger as Rugrat started to stoke the furnace fire.

“You going to stand there or you going to forge something man!” Rugrat yelled as he waved the leg bones again, collected the treasures back inside and tossed it to Taran.

“Why is it stored in a bone?”

“Egbert might have a new set of trust issues,” Rugrat said seriously. Taran opened and closed his mouth and looked at the leg, fighting between disgust and knowing what was inside.

“Argh!” He let out an angry growl but put the forging blueprint down on the workstation and pulled out iron ingots from his own storage ring as he started to heat it up.

***

Jia Feng looked to the others that had been gathered alongside with her by Jasper.

He had been given an order by Erik to round them up. Jia Feng was the most advanced cook in Alva Dungeon. Shi Wanshu was the architect of the logging camp and the watchtowers, both of them had benefited from the different technique scrolls that they had been awarded.

The last member of their group was Zhou Heng, he was a quiet man with a strange appearance. He didn’t look physically odd, but his clothes were immaculate, even though he had repaired them multiple times he took his time to make sure that the quality of his repairs couldn’t be seen, he was a farmer by day but he had repaired most people’s clothes.

He even made the guards old leather armor.

“Did Jasper tell you what this was all about?” Shi Wanshu asked Jia Feng.

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“He didn’t know, he just said that Erik wanted to see us all,” Jia Feng said.

Zhou Heng looked over to the smithy that was going at full blast one could hear hammers repeatedly banging metal into shape.

There was little emotion on his face as he looked back to the Alchemy Lab.

“We will find out soon enough,” Zhou Heng stepped forward, the others were startled into action, following him.

They entered the lab, even now there was an old medicinal smell to the place.

“You stole my femur!” Egbert’s voice could be heard with a non-committal reply.

“I had to walk back using my knees as my hip joints! I lost a foot and a half!” Egbert, said his voice reaching new heights, everyone paused when hearing this.

“Could you be quieter, it’s hard to concentrate,” Erik replied seemingly unaffected.

“You’re not even paying attention! Fine, what are the four stages of alchemy?” Egbert asked, his fury reaching new heights.

“Growing, harvesting, preparing and formation,” Erik muttered.

The three in the hall looked at one another, not knowing whether to advance or stay where they were.

“What do the stages mean?” Egbert demanded, pressing Erik.

“Growing deals with the growth of the plant. Many alchemists create their own gardens of items in different regions or specific formations that will improve the growth and quality of the different ingredients. Also, alchemists might splice together different plants and strains to create more powerful ingredients. Sometimes extremely rare ingredients won’t be grown, but are found in hard to find and secretive locations, such as dungeons, ancient realms, and other special locations. Whether the ingredient is located in one’s own garden, or within a hidden cave, harvesting is vitally important, as is storage. If the ingredient is not harvested properly, then it might become useless. Many heroes travel with at least one person who is well versed in harvesting so that they might claim these ingredients to sell or use them later. One must also store these plants in containers that complement the ingredient or else the efficacy might decline. Then there is the preparation. This is made when you confirm you want to make a specific alchemic product, such as a powder, potion, or pill. For different alchemic formulas, ingredients might need to be prepared in a variety of ways—sometimes boiled, other times burned, chopped up, ground down, frozen, or grilled. Methods of preparation of the ingredients will have a vastly different outcome when you move to the last stage, which is formation. Forming a powder is the easiest; a potion is much harder and creating a pill is in another level of difficulty.

“The more suitable and tailored growing conditions for the plant, the greater the efficacy. If it is harvested properly and stored in the right container, it will retain the highest level of efficacy, with the preparation drawing out this potential for it to be combined with other ingredients in the formation stage according to an alchemic formula to create a substance that will have a great effect on whoever consumes it.”

Erik’s words were calm and relaxed as if this was all natural.

“Hmmpf, well it looks like you’ve learned something, you still need to practice growing, then harvesting and preparation, forming a powder is too advanced right now. Build a firm foundation and you’ll advance faster, take this scroll, it’s one of the five compendiums on ingredients, it should help you out greatly. You have guests.” The door opened to the corridor as Egbert appeared, his upper legs were missing and he was holding one femur in his left hand as he was missing multiple finger bones and his left fibula.

The three in the hall looked at him in his disheveled state.

“Come on in,” Erik said from the alchemy room.

The three shuffled in, Egbert was about to leave when Erik stopped him.

“Egbert, I have a plan for you too,” he said, tossing Egbert his other femur.

Egbert caught it, he seemed to think for a minute before he closed the door and moved to the side, he pulled his legs off and started to put himself back together.

“Jia Feng, our most skilled cook, Zhou Heng the leading Tailor in Alva and Shi Wanshu, architect and woodworker,” Erik said looking at them each in turn.

“I want to hire you all.”

His words sat in the air, heavy and ambiguous.

“What job might we need to do that involves us all?” Shi Wanshu asked, he was the most familiar with Erik.

“I want to raise you to be grandmasters in your field, as you know Alva Dungeon was once a city of gnomes, they had reached a high standard in all manner of crafting disciplines. I need people that are motivated to learn and are willing to teach others. You will be paid to teach others, you will have full use of the academy as well as the workshops. Resources can be subsidized at the beginning and will be sold to you at cheaper prices than they would be at the market. You might be called from time to time to assist Alva Dungeon in one manner or another for compensation. Anything that you create will be yours to do with as you see fit. Taran has already been given the position as principal of the academy, Jia Feng you would teach cooking.” Erik pulled out a thick book and put it on the preparation table in front of him.

Jia Feng’s eyes went wide as she read the book’s cover.

Apprentice’s cookbook, simple but delicious dishes.

“Zhou Heng, a teacher to tailors.” Erik put out a tailor blueprint, a simple pair of pants, that were elegant in nature with simple designs running through them.

Discrete animal hide light armor pants.

Zhou Heng’s breathing turned faster.

“Shi Wanshu, a teacher of woodworking and hopefully architect.” A model appeared on the table. It was a wood house but the detailing was exquisite as if someone had just shrunk a house down.

“Egbert, I’d like for you to be incharge of materials and the library. You know much more than we do about these subjects and it will be your goal to assist people increasing their knowledge and skills by supplying them with the information that they require,” Erik said.

Egbert slowed down what he was doing.

“It would be my honor,” Egbert said, sounding strangely serious.

Erik had a small smile as he looked to the other three.

“I would be honored,” Zhou Heng said, losing his quiet and calm composure.

Erik’s smile widened.

“Me too!” Jia Feng couldn’t hold back, seeing that book in front of her she just wanted to snatch it up and read.

“I as well!” Shi Wanshu didn’t want to be left out.

“I thank you all for your time, Egbert is well versed in a great number of these disciplines, there are plenty more information sources under his protection.”

Erik tossed over a few bones at Egbert, a weird attraction force pulled them back into their original places.

“These are still materials of the academy, so do not lose or damage them, otherwise you will have to pay or replace them,” Erik warned.

Jia Feng slowed her hands and gingerly took the book instead of just snatching it.

Just smelling the book made her mouth water.

“What will the academy be called?” Egbert called.

“Kanesh Academy,” Erik said.

Egbert looked deeply touched as he bowed, Erik lowered his head to Egbert as well before Egbert led them out of the room.

Erik pulled out a number of books, covering the table once again, in his hands a large and heavy book appeared.

A bright white light came from under the door. Jia Feng looked back at the door in alarm.

“Motherfuc…” There was a thud of a head hitting a table before silence.

“Looks like he used the entire compendium in one shot,” Egbert said simply, sounding a little impressed as he continued walking.

“Should we help him?” Shi Wanshu asked.

“If one uses technique books there is a lot of information contained within, it can overload people’s minds unless they are of a higher level, for lower level people it might be too much and they fall unconscious, don’t worry with his recovery abilities he’ll be fine in a few hours,” Egbert said.

They continued out of the building as Jia Feng finally asked a question that had been confusing her.

“What does Kanesh mean?”

“Kanesh? It was the name of this floor,” Egbert said, his voice turning sober.

Jia Feng understood now, it was paying homage to the gnomes who had organized and created this knowledge.