Master Of None

The old man had opened the counter and let them follow him, ”Sir are you sure nobody will come in and want to purchase something while we are away from the counter?”

”Huh? Purchase something? This entrance you used isn’t for the shop, this is for members of the alchemist building.” Su and Walker felt they had just been slapped, the place they had entered following Remey was only for members. Why had Remey gone this way? ”What did this brat not tell you she was here so much when she was about this high that we made her a member?” The old man lowered his hand to his waist showing that Remey must have been that height the first time she showed up here. ”The brat wanted medicine for someone in her family that was sick, I swear she bothered me for hours.”

”I did end up winning and getting you to teach me how to make some herbal teas and basic salves. You even let me watch you create simple potions.” Remey jumped in explaining he first victory over the old man.

”You simply stalked me and snuck in I never taught you anything.” The old man was being coy trying to hide the fact that he had intentionally done so. 

”Oh and I am sure all the herbs you accidentally threw out or dropped and said weren’t yours were not actually gifts for me?” 

”Gifts! Ha! I say, Ha! I never give gifts especially to rude children like you.” The old man was about to argue back even more but he had led them down a hallways and through a door. Inside was a spotless room with a shiny cloth on the floor. It looked to be some form of metal but also could move and fold, Walker and Su had no idea what this was. ”This room is for evaluating delicate monster parts or herbs there are magic runes on this sheet to stop an item from degrading pleas place your item here.” The old man was pointing out many glimmering symbols. Walker recognized some symbols that were similar to the ones on the library shelves that kept the books safe.

Walker removed the snow Golem arm on to the sheet, luckily it was separated from the rest of the body and could be taken out of his inventory separately. There was not melting or change in the arm from when he first collected it. The arm started to melt much faster than expected but it was put to a stop when the old man placed a finger on the sheet. Cold air seemed to emanate from the sheet freezing the melted portion and keeping the rest frozen.

”Hmmm this is a significant find, you managed to get an entire arm. This must have been very lucky, snow golems are dangerous and hard to fight.” Hearing the old man Walker was about to explain the situation that had occurred but Remey jumped in first.

”We have the whole body. Our party leader will place it in the next VIP auction in the Garnet family auction house, we have a ticket. Naturally we will keep some for our personal use, but most will be sold. Aren’t you happy? We brought you an entire arm to claim before anyone else.” Remey was slick, she had used this to her advantage, She knew the old man would want more for his supply but used the arm as a taste to get him hooked. Furthermore she told him where he could get more later. These in combination made Remey a shrewd client for the alchemist building. 

”Well haven’t you planned everything out, you get smarter every day.” The old man was smiling at this but his eyes said he would start to push hard. ”I appreciate your kindness when you come here first, I know some friends that also happen to have VIP tickets for the Garnet family auction next week. They have been talking about a special herb supposed to be sold there this year.” Having been given the hint he gave one of his own to give a fair trade. Walker made sure to memorize this, if this herb was very rare he may need to try to purchase it for Gil’s mother to grow. His dreams of a garden full of everything they needed would come true!

”Sir, we know that you could make the most of this item here, the arm should be able to create a large amount of potions. I do have an additional deal though, naturally this would lower the cost you spend on this high quality potion ingredient.” Su seemed to have started to learn from Remey, Walker feared this sales woman duo. 

”Well if the deal is that good I would consider it, speak.” The old man was not in to a drawn out mood today and instead wanted to purchase this item and start his experiments right away, he would not entertain a foolish idea.

Remey seemed to pick up on what Su was thinking and allowed her to take the reins. ”We have the entire body of this snow golem. Of course we can not sell it whole. If you are able to help divide it up and keep its quality we can come to an arrangement for that arm there.” The old man saw exactly why they had come here. Remey already knew the specialties of this room could keep a product from degrading, this meant the entire body could be cut apart and stored before it melted and absorbs impurities. Ideally what would be left were bottles of pure water.

”Such a logical and wise friend you have.” The old man gave Remey a glare knowing he needed to take the deal to get what he wanted but unhappy it would take time. ”Fortunately I always have special vials around just for these kinds of things. We will put on engraved gloves to take apart the body and separate it in to large vials. Based on the size of this arm I would say the entire body would fill about five hundred vials. A single potion should only need ha;f a vile to have its effects enhanced.” Walker absorbed this information and put it aside for later use. He was surprised to hear the large number of vials it would fill but was not surprised by the fact that there were that many large vials just empty and waiting to be used.

”I will buy the arm for two thousand gold. No more than that, if you did not ask for the assistance to divide up the body I would have paid another five hundred.” The old man turned around and left the room, soon a rattling was heard approaching. With a slight bang the old man pushed in a large cart with crates filled with vials. ”Well what are you waiting for let’s deal with this arm then you can place the rest of the body here.” With his encouragement they donned metal like gloves exactly the same as the sheet and started to scrape small pieces of the frozen golem arm in to vials. The single arm filled most of what the old man had brought in. Almost within a second of being filled and capped by special corks the snow melted leaving crystal clear water in each.

The process had taken about half an hour, and the old man picked up a plaque similar to the adventures plaques they all had. The difference was that engraved on it were leaves on a vine, his gold plaque had five leaves on it. Walker took his plaque and with a tap to each other a slight glow of magic appeared. The system notified him that 2000G had just been transferred to their party account. This was the end of their transaction.

The old man left the room shouting back, ”Get the golem body out so we can start it, I want to be done in no more than two hours!” With that he pushed in more vials of vials and they all got to work. After only an hour and a half and some extra cold fingers the four had filled a total of five hundred and nineteen bottles. 

”That golem was definitely a nice size, I would say on the larger side of the medium snow golems. The largest I have heard about was double maybe triple this size.” Walker and Su could not imagine fighting something of that size, they had struggled so much with this one!

”We can leave you to go experiment with your new ingredient, its been years since you used your last bottle showing me that potion.” Remey tossed the vial in her hand to him, ”That’s for all your help back then.” Remey left the room right after saying that. The old man smiled at the vial in his hands. Years ago he had made a potion for a fever to give Remey. He had used the last bit of pure water to increase its effects and Remey had always remembered it. 

Walker and Su gave a kind nod before they followed Remey out the door, Walker could swear he heard the old man say one last thing. ”She’s really grown up.”