Chapter 282: Fertile Conversation (1/2)
After acquiring a recipe book and a hefty pile of ingredients from Gail, Mike continued with the rest of his shopping trip. He made sure to pick up an ample amount of food, water, and daily consumable items, since he could now simply store them in the demi-realm. To add to that, he also purchased several ingots of simple iron. While he could probably make the required materials using Earth Magic, he figured that it would be better to learn the basics from natural ingredients before getting into anything too obscure.
He stopped by the Adventurer's Guild while he was in the area, and left a message for the Broker, since he would like to have one last meeting with the shady organization before starting his travels. If they were as powerful as their resources indicated, then it was possible they had branches in the Riverlands. Getting an introduction would go a long way to ensuring continued access to rare items, books, and, more importantly, information.
While he was there, he visited the Guild's armor shop and picked up another suit of alchemically treated leather armor. Despite some minor differences in the manner of its construction, the armor was pretty much the same as the last few suits he'd worn in the past. He doubted that it would withstand anything that was capable of harming him now that his attributes were so high, but he figured that might change once he'd learned to use it properly.
[This doesn't look overly difficult to make, at least for people with Leatherworking and the right materials. I guess I can use it as a reference for my crafting while at the same time attempting to learn the Light Armor skill.]
With that thought in mind, he also swung by a couple specialized stores to look for more tools. He wasn't sure what all was involved in leatherworking, but he assumed it wasn't too different from sewing. However, he quickly learned that he was naive.
Much like smithing, it seemed that working with leather required a wide array of specialized items to do it at a professional level. This was even more true when working with rare or particularly durable materials. Apparently, some of the monster hides he was planning on using were considered to be expert level in terms of difficulty. If he wanted to tan them himself, he would need even more gear to properly create even the basic ingredients.
[I don't want to put together an actual tannery in the demi-realm, though. From what I recall, they smell pretty bad, and I don't think there is any kind of ventilation. Now that I think about it, I will probably need to figure that out for the smithing part too. I would hate to end up suffocating the others because the forge used all the available oxygen.]
Finally, while he was still hesitating about what route to take with leatherworking, the shopkeeper suggested that he might want to consider looking into tailoring as a possible option. Cloth armor wasn't exactly the best means of protecting oneself, but anyone could acquire the skill to use it effectively, making it rather popular with the more rearguard focused adventurers. Additionally, it was still possible to add magical effects to them through Artifice.
Processing the raw materials was a bit more difficult, so most tailors simply purchased manufactured cloth to work with. Since it looked like Mike was having a hard time deciding whether or not to invest fully in working in leather goods, the shopkeeper thought it might be worthwhile to consider an alternative path that required a small initial investment in time and money, in exchange for having a lower overall return.
[He seems to think that I'm trying to pick out a career or something. Well, whatever. Cloth armor may not actually be a bad idea for some of the others.]
So, while he was at it, he bought a beginners set of tailoring equipment and a fair amount of basic linen cloth to practice with. He then spent some time browsing through the other wares offered in the Mercantile district, but didn't find anything that really struck his interest. Unfortunately, almost half of the shops were still closed with their owners either dead or missing. In hindsight it was slightly regrettable that he had to be leaving soon, since he could only imagine getting excellent prices for most of their goods once things got up and going again.
Once he'd satisfied his curiosity, he grabbed a bite to eat at one of the food stalls that were starting to crop up again and headed back to the dorm. There was still a few hours until the doorknob could be used again, so he figured he'd check in on the others and then try to acquire the Tailoring skill.
Sera was still out, but a quick mental message to Selene confirmed that the Oracle was just down at the practice range, working on her new bow. She must have decided to gain some degree of proficiency over the weapon prior to leaving for the Riverlands. It was admirable, but Mike was a little concerned that she might be trying a bit too hard.
[I don't know much about archery, but maybe there is something I can do. Making some items is a given, but there should be something else…]
His thoughts were interrupted when Tal walked back into the room carrying a massive bag. He was going to ask her about it, when he caught a whiff of the extremely pungent contents that told him everything he needed to know.
”Uff. I'm guessing that's our fertilizer, right? Why are you bringing it in here?” Mike asked while covering his nose.
”This is only the first bag,” She shot back while setting it down on the floor, before turning to head back the way she came. ”We'll need to unload the rest.”
”First? How many…” Mike started asking as he followed her outside, only to see a wagon filled nearly to the bursting point with stacks of the same kind of bag. ”I have to ask, was it your intention to bring all of these inside?”
Tal nodded, while grabbing the next one. ”Had to rent the wagon, so I'll need to unload them in order to return it.”
”Yeah, I don't think the rest of our dorm mates are going to appreciate us bringing in this amount of...fertilizer.”
”Why?”
”Well, the smell is a big part of it.”
A brief shadow of a frown appeared on her face, as if she just now considered the possibility of her actions bothering someone. ”I see. I suppose that would cause some difficulty. To be quite honest, I had forgotten all about it.”
Mike gave a sympathetic smile. ”Well, going noseblind isn't exactly an uncommon situation. Why don't we stack them up over by the side of the dorm, so that we can take them into the demi-realm once I can activate the doorknob again.”
”Blind-nosed? An odd way of describing it.” Tal commented while resuming her work.
He followed suit and started lending a hand. ”Ah, sorry, that's kind of a saying from my old world. I guess the meaning didn't fully translate. It happens sometimes, unfortunately.”
”We never did have a conversation about your linguistic abilities. Perhaps you'd be willing to explain now?”
”Alright, fair enough.”
After scanning their surroundings to ensure there weren't any eavesdroppers, he related the description of Communication Magic to her and gave a brief overview of its various effects while they were still offloading the fertilizer. At one point, however, Tal stopped and concentrated fully on listening to him.