[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 111 – Hagglin’

Cal pressed his nose hole against the pane of glass, fogging it up with his breath. “Look at the pretty tools!”

Slyrox watched him, then motioned at her mask. “Psshkoh! How does that work?”

“What do you mean?”

Slyrox shook her head and shrugged.

Smudge floated above their heads. Cal had tied a string around the slime, fastening it to his wrist so the slime wouldn’t fly away. He was enjoying his Air essence a little too much, but Cal didn’t blame him.

Children occasionally mistook the slime for a toy or a balloon. One or two times, an older human attempted to buy Smudge from Cal as if he were operating one of those street side cart shops.

When Smudge winked at the human and his children, they hurried off. Though many of the kids wanted to stay behind to play with the balloon.

Nobody said anything unkind.

The tales of who had saved the town were circulating faster than the disease had. Even though most people were still in bed or recovering slowly, the story managed to spread on wings of its own.

Those that were well enough to be out and about fanned the flames of the story, telling anybody who would listen about how a small band of monsters saved Talvar.

With each retelling, it became more grandiose, more daring and dashing, until when Cal heard it just outside the tinkerer’s shop, he hardly recognized the description of himself in the story.

Looking rather tired and pale, the owner welcomed them to his shop, coughed weakly, and motioned to the window display. “I see you had your eye on some jeweler’s tools. Fine, er… eye, you’ve got there. Very fine. They’re my best set, cut through gems like a hot knife through butter.”

“I would like a set, please, sir,” Cal said, plopping his purse on the counter. “I dearly wish to become a Jewelcrafter.”

The merchant, Kemu, despite hearing the story of the monsters who had saved them, rubbed his hands eagerly together. This was the easiest sale he’d make all week. Adventurers with money and little discernment were his favorite brand of customer.

It wasn’t that he was cheating them, necessarily. However, the discerning customer would know that they could make a much better kit for far less, and with better items.

It’s not my fault if I need to offload old merchandise, the owner thought to himself.

Slyrox watched the merchant closely. This one was more scrutinizing and shrewder than the skeleton.

A mittened hand hopped up and swiped the purse from the counter. “Slyrox will see best tools. Diamond-grafted blades, adaman pliers, S-tier polishing stones!”

Half of what the little critter said didn’t make any sense to the merchant, but he understood her well enough. She wanted to see the back-room merchandise. The things he usually only reserved for those who were in the trade.

Which meant she was a tough customer, and his day was about to get much worse. Already weak and tired from barely surviving the plague that visited Talvar, Kemu wasn’t feeling up to the hardcore session of haggling that he could feel coming on.

Like any merchant worth his wares, he could see where this was going. And while he normally would have taken great pleasure in the verbal jousting, he was not feeling well enough to do it today.

Should have kept the shop closed, he thought to himself.

“Or we check other shops to find muchly best deal,” Slyrox added sharply. Those smoky lenses gleamed fiercely in the candlelight.

“No, no,” he said tiredly. “Let me get some stuff in the back, okay?” He paused at a door at the back of the shop. “If you steal anything, I’ll know it. So don’t try it!” With that perfunctory warning out of the way, he disappeared into the back.

“Pyuu,” Smudge said from somewhere near the rafters.

“You thinks he tongue-flap that about everyone?” Slyrox asked sourly. “Or just us?”

“Sounded kinda rehearsed,” Cal told her.

She nodded slowly, somewhat appeased. She did not like being bullied.

“I’ve been with Shrubley for a while, Slyrox. Every shop we tried to go to ignored us or wanted us out. They treated us very… poorly, Slyrox. This man has treated us like little kids who look a bit mischievous. I think that’s much better than how he could treat us.”

Her floppy ears bounced as the koblin turned her head to him. “How… muchly longer?”

Giggling, Smudge formed a human-like hand out of his gelatinous mass to cover his mouth. His efforts were less than effective.

Cal glared up at the slime, then looked back at the koblin. “Long enough,” he said stiffly.

“Here we are, friends,” Kemu said, bringing in a tray of intricately carved boxes. Inside the velvet-lined interiors were tools that gleamed with silver, ruby, and gold accents. “No touching, I’m afraid,” he told them. “Strictly look with your eyes only.”

“How much?” Cal asked after he managed to get his voice back.

Slyrox took out what looked like a jeweler’s loupe and fastened it to her smoky lens. She hopped up onto the counter and began to examine the wares with deep interest, though she did manage to avoid touching them.

“If you have to ask, I’m not sure you can afford it,” the owner said.

“That’s not very nice,” Smudge told the merchant from the rafters.

“Pssh-koh!” Slyrox looked up at him. “This is fake gold!”

Kemu pulled the box back and glared at them. “What do you mean? I got this from a very reputable merchant! My brother-in-law wouldn’t dare cheat me.”

“You were… how you say, swindled?” Slyrox said matter-of-factly.

Kemu’s face went a deep shade of purple. He took the beautiful set of tools and disappeared into the back.

There was a great deal of cursing and a few splashes of liquid, as if he was mixing something.

“What’s he doing back there?” Cal asked.

“Methinks he did not know,” Slyrox told Cal and Smudge quietly. “And is checking.”

Kemu came out, his apron stained with purple, and his fingertips likewise splashed with purple splotches. The tools he had once had on such fine display were weathered and sad looking.

He took a deep breath, and for a moment Cal was sure he was going to yell at them and tell them to leave, but instead he pushed the boxes of tools toward them. “I can’t sell these. The false gold has been stripped out, and the glass ruby is useless for holding mana as I was told it could. My sister is going to hear about this!” He leaned down. “If you ever see Gerry of Gerry’s Emporium over in Lemwal, tell him Kemu is going to give him a black eye the next time he sees him!”

“We can has?” Slyrox asked.

“Sure, go ahead. They’re nigh worthless.”

Slyrox chose not to argue and took the tools, handing them over to Cal. Kemu kept the fancy boxes.

“Many thankings!” she called as they left the shop.

Cal felt bad, so he bought a few tins of gem polish.

“But how can I use this to craft?” Cal asked Slyrox once they were outside.

Slyrox checked up and down the street to make sure the coast was clear before she added, “I can fix! They look bad, but they are not. The blades are much better than anything he has in the shop, very good. Is ugly, but not useless. Many people… they do not understand the difference.” She looked down at her large floppy shoes.

Cal suddenly hugged her tightly as his little bony arms could manage. “Thank you, Slyrox! You are such a good friend.”

The koblin squeaked, then embraced him back. This caught Cal by surprise. He wasn’t at all used to physical contact. And what little he was, generally, hadn’t been anything other than a presage to getting his bones stolen.

“Pyuu!” Smudge called from above. “Shrubley!”

The pair turned to where Smudge was looking and saw the unmistakable form of the Countess with Shrubley on one side, and Konko on the other. The aspiring Alchemist tried very hard to stay as far away from Shrubley while hiding somewhat in the Countess’ long shadow.

“All right children, it’s time to go,” Miranda announced.

“But we haven’t finished our shopping,” Cal told her.

“You can do it in the next town. We have that quest now, remember? That takes priority. We need to find another Dungeon, and I don’t think we’re going to find one here, do you?”

“I have been informed they do not grow on trees,” Shrubley told them.

Miranda eyed him as if he was making fun of her, but the little shrub radiated pure innocence. I hate it when he does that. She clapped her hands to get their attention. “Come on now, wrap up your things and let’s go.”

“We could give them a few minutes,” Shrubley countered.

Instead of arguing, the Countess put her hands on her wide hips and shook her head. “Fine. Go on then, you have five minutes until we leave.” Cal, Slyrox, and Smudge ran off. “With or without you!” she yelled after them, startling a small knot of gawking adults.

“That was very kind of you,” Shrubley told the Countess.

“We’ll see about that. You have never tried to wrangle an adventuring party before. It is not an easy task. Allow them a little slack and we’ll be spending the entire day looking for them.”

Shrubley nodded. “In the meantime, let us buy some treats!” He approached one of the few food stands currently open and purchased a [Spiced Meat Pie].

Konko looked to the side around the Countess and squeaked when she saw Shrubley turn and smile at her. His shrubby body made a surprisingly good impression of a mouth. It helped to humanize him a little.

That just made Konko even more anxious.

“I could try brewing that potion you showed me, Countess, once we are a few miles away from town,” Konko said.

“That will do nicely.”

“What is the potion for?” Shrubley asked, infinitely curious. He took a bite out of his food, which Konko looked away from.

“He’s not a vegetarian?” she whispered to herself quietly.

“You understand how the poison infiltrated the town?” Miranda asked.

Shrubley nodded. He had learned a great deal about how the mana currents worked from his discussions with the Countess.

“We can concoct a potion that is sensitive to such movements,” Miranda explained. “Think of it a little like a weathervane. We can see major shifts with the potion in hand and follow them a bit like a compass could to their epicenter. Usually they’re pretty useless, and you have to tailor them to the exact mana density of your area. However, there should be very few Dungeons here, so they should stand out easily.”

“I could try to ask them,” Shrubley offered. “What you told me about the–”

The Countess slapped a hand over his leafy mouth. “Shh! What did I tell you?”

Shrubley looked up at her like a little puppy. “I am sorry,” he told her. “I forgot in my eagerness to be helpful.”

My heart. Miranda pulled her hand away and motioned for them to follow her. As she led them to the gates of Talvar, she motioned toward the distant mountains that ringed the valley. “Once we’re far enough away, we’ll be able to tell if there’s a Dungeon nearby.”

“Unless it is too weak to alter the currents,” Konko said.

“Then that would mean there is no Dungeon,” Miranda told her. “No Dungeon, especially not in this area, would be so weak as to be indistinguishable from the poor mana density here. If it was, then it wouldn’t be a Dungeon at all, which present as condensed forms of mana. In fact, just clearing the Dungeon we had here–”

“Dungeonley,” Shrubley corrected helpfully.

Miranda glared at him, but it was about as useful as spitting on a fire. Shrubley was unfazed. “As I was saying. Simply clearing… Dungeonley, very likely increased the average ambient mana density of the area. We’ll need to be much farther away for the potion to work. And to do that–” Here she looked directly at Shrubley. “–we will need to leave, soon.”

“I’ll go get them,” Shrubley said, turning and hurrying up the street to gather his friends. By the time he found them, it would likely already be past the time they were given to return. He did not wish to anger the Countess.

“For a woman with infinite time on her hands, she is a stickler for punctuality,” Shrubley mused to himself.