Duncan quickly finished his business with Clara delivering the dirty clothes and move on. He came to Timor’s shop.
It was called “The Golden arrow” which he got from his Identify skill.
“That’s not a good name. Gold is probably too heavy and soft for arrows,” Duncan mused.
He tried the door and it was locked. Having no other choice, he went across the street and went to Elland’s. The now familiar chimes rang and Elland appeared from the back door.
“Ohhh. It’s you. Good morning,” Elland said in surprise.
“Good morning. Is there something wrong or why are you surprised?” Duncan asked.
“Ahh it’s just the way you acted yesterday I thought you would need some more time to recuperate,” Elland said as he waved his hands.
“Nah. I am fine. Do you have any new recipes we could work on?” Duncan asked.
Elland put a finger on his chin in thought.
“The purified essences you brought yesterday could be made into some death magic antidotes. I lack the main ingredients for anything else right now. Mayor usually supplies them with the orders and I spend them for finishing the orders,” Elland replied.
“Death magic antidotes? Like the one you gave to Bolgar when he was down?” Duncan asked.
“Yeah. That’s the one. Come,” Elland said and gestured for Duncan to follow him.
Elland demonstrated with one set of ingredients as Duncan used Observe on him. Afterwards Duncan did his magic of fast-forwarding another 7 sets of ingredients before they ran out.
The whole process was similar to the basic antidote just that the ingredients needed ware rarer and needed more quantity. Duncan got 2 whole levels in Alchemy for it rather quickly, so he was more than satisfied.
“They are all superior besides this one. Do you want the potions or would you prefer money?” Elland asked as they finished.
“I will take one of the superior ones and you can treat the rest as a tutoring fee. If that’s alright with you?” Duncan said as he thought about it.
“Are you sure? These ingredients are rather rare,” Elland asked and Duncan just nodded.
“I didn’t have the time to translate those books.”
“There is no hurry,” Duncan replied.
“I am going to go back to Wazsh’s now. Want to come for a glass of wine?”
“I will go there later. I have to clean up a bit,” Elland replied upon which Duncan left.
He tried Timor’s shop once more but it was still locked.
Looking at the noon black hole sun he was reminded how long it has been since he saw the sun at his home.
“Soon,” he mumbled as he made his way back.
From the entrance of the bar, he made his way directly to his bed, deposited another diamond in the drawer and took a blob of toothpaste back with him.
In the cool down for going back he checked how much a diamond of that size cost. He found some info on them that they cost between 1300 to 16000 dollars per carat. A carat was apparently 0.2 grams. He didn’t a precision scale but he had a ruler and he measured it and calculated it with an online tool which said it was around 2 carats worth.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He also checked for reputable jewelry stores. There were a couple on the same street uptown. Half an hour and two bus transfers away.
Duncan was tempted to learn some more skills from Youtube but he knew he needed to save up time for his trip to the jewelries. He returned immediately after he got the information.
“OK. Now what?” Duncan said as he raised himself from his bed.
He considered his options and decided to visit Bolgar for a personal project. He tossed the bit of toothbrush into his inventory and off he went.
At Bolgar’s he was greeted by a sound of hammer hitting steel and as he entered the now familiar heatwave assaulted him. The dwarf turned around.
“I. I could not help myself,” Bolgar said in embarrassment.
Duncan observed the neatly stacked steel ingots and smiled.
“Good day to you too…”
Bolgar got red in the face more than he usually was after drinking two beers as he watched Duncan.
“Use them as you wish. There will be more. While you are hammering away could you make me a something like a thin handle which tapers off into a thin sheet of steel?” Duncan said smiling.
“How thin?”, Bolgar asked and Duncan showed him his index finger.
“About twice as long for the whole thing. And the thin part should be around my thumb size wide,” Duncan explained.
Bolgar nodded in understanding and got to work. After about 15 minutes he doused the finished thing in water to cool it. Afterwards Duncan used a pair of pliers and sheers to make an U shape around the toothbrush bit and bent it down around the edges.
Bolgar was looking at him attentively.
“What are you going to use that for?” Bolgar asked when Duncan finished.
“It’s a toothbrush,” Duncan replied and gestured on how he intends to use it.
Bolgar just shook his head and went back to pounding out steel ingots.
“Your rotten yellow teeth could use one too… I really hope I don’t get tetanus from this,” Duncan thought as he observed his masterpiece.
“I will go and grab some more ore from the mine,” Duncan said as he checked the time. He still had an hour to go before he could return home.
The dwarf gestured for him to go and Duncan made haste for the mine. He quickly found the place he was mining at and picked up everything that would fit inside his inventory, before he made his way back and dumped it at Bolgar’s.
“That’s enough of good quality iron for a while. It would be a shame to use superior iron on mayor’s orders but this will do nicely,” Bolgar nodded as he inspected the goods. Duncan nodded and then made his way to his bed.
He considered using Bolgar’s bed or chair. The bed was too small and having to explain why he is unconscious on a chair was not worth the hassle. Also, the hygiene the dwarf kept left a lot to desire for.
He moved the blob of toothpaste to his main inventory. Replaced it with a diamond and returned home. He quickly dumped it in a drawer. As he was waiting, he had an idea.
Duncan quickly found the Youtube app on his smartphone, searched for aikido lessons. Opened up the first video and set the setting to 2x speed and willed Observe into action. The video was 8 minutes long so it played for just 4 minutes. Afterwards he got to learn a level 1 Unarmed skill which netted him a bonus in strength, dexterity and agility.
He happily returned with his new gains.
Duncan had an hour and a half to kill now. He thought of what to do and decided to try out his new toothbrush first. He did not add the toothpaste this time and just moistened the brush. The brush part was just a third of the length of a normal toothbrush but it worked. Duncan didn’t enjoy the taste of iron in his mouth though.
He put it in his inventory since he figured if the food stays warm the steel toothbrush won’t rust.
Going downstairs he didn’t see Wazsh. He checked the bar and it was empty. There was only one place where Wazsh could be at this hour and that was his garden.
Looking around he noticed Wazsh digging a patch of land and he Observed on instinct. As Wazsh noticed him, he stopped and came closer as the lengthy Observation finally ended.
“Do you need anything?”, Wazsh asked.
“Nah. I am OK,” Duncan said as he mentally clicked YES on the Gardening skill.
[
You have Learned Gardening Level 1.
Strength +0.1
Dexterity +0.1
Agility +0.1
Vitality +0.1
Endurance +0.1
Perception +0.1
Wisdom +0.1
]
“Woah. Someone really loves Gardening,” Duncan said as he looked at all those stat gains.
“Yes, I do. Do you have a problem with that?” Wazsh said looking at him seriously as if he just found out Duncan had made out with his sister.
“No. No. That looked… hmm, intense,” Duncan said.
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Wazsh said clearly annoyed.
“Sadly, I don’t,” Duncan replied.
“Then go dig up the rest of the patch,” Wazsh said and threw him the shovel.
Wazsh only did a quarter before being interrupted. Duncan nodded and went to work. He focused on the patch and started digging in fast forward. Soon by his time he was half done. He stopped for a drink and then continued. At three quarters done he had another small break. Finally, as he finished his back hurt, his arms ached and he was sweaty all over. What hurt the most was that when he looked towards the backdoor to the kitchen, he saw Wazsh laying there and drinking beer.
“Not. Even a level up in Gardening… Damn it!” Duncan lamented in his mind.