The Grand Weave

Khrem carried the vials in a small crate with a cloth layer to pad the bottom. Together we walked out of the sidestreet and continued down a suspiciously familiar road.

As we exited the main thoroughfare, my suspicions were correct as we approached a familiar building. Without stopping, Khrem pushed open the doors to the adventurer's guild and walked in.

Unlike yesterday, the guildhall was empty, but Khrem continued deeper into the room. When he walked down a hallway, I examined the decorations lining the walls. Like the main room, countless trophies of different fish were stuffed and mounted along the walls. They varied in size, shape, and colours, with each one proudly displayed on a wooden plaque.

At the end of the hall, Khrem stopped at a normal-looking door. He knocked twice, paused, and then knocked twice again. After knocking, he lowered his hand, and we waited. It wasn't long before there was a commotion behind the door.

After nearly half a minute, the door opened slightly. A cloud of green smoke spewed from the crack in the door. I took a step back as Khrem covered his nose and backed away. Looking at Khrem and trying to guess facial reactions on a sharkman's face was difficult, but from his body posture, I could tell he was more annoyed than worried.

I was probably safe if the journeyman alchemist wasn't worried by the mysterious green smoke. Still, I was ready to grab the man and dash backward if something strange started coming out next.

When the smoke started to clear, I could see a shadow spread across the floor. Soon a glove-covered hand wrapped its fingers around the frame of the door and pulled it open.

It took me a second to recognize who I was looking at. The man standing before looked like Travis, the guildmaster, except his hair was now a neon green along with the top of his face. Upon seeing us, he blinked a few times and removed his goggles.

"Khrem? What are you doing here? Don't you usually run your stall in the C-market at this time of day?" When I stepped from behind the sharkman, the guildmaster cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "You're one of the people from yesterday. I didn't catch your name...?"

"Cyrus. And quick question, what happened to your hair?"

"My hair?" The guildmaster searched for something in the room before finding a small hand mirror and holding it up. He examined his face and rubbed along the stained part of his skin. Moving to his hair, he pinched a strand and squeezed till a line of green stained his gloves. "Damn, billywag sacs. Three times out of ten, they randomly decide to explode on you. Usually takes weeks to get the stain out if you don't know how."

Looking past Travis, I saw shelves lined with jars and packages. Along the back wall was what I assumed to be an alchemy station fitted with a small cauldron. A bowl filled with neon green goop was on a small table next to the cauldron.

Khrem tapped his foot and continued to stare unblinking at Travis. "Sir. You promised to let me observe the next time you were going to harvest a billywag."

Travis' eyes widened, and he gave a shaky smile. "Ah, I do recall saying that. My bad. Sorry Khrem, I'll make it up to you."

"Fine."

"So what's the reason you're here for? And weren't you and your team going to delve the dungeon today?"

I pointed to the crate in Khrem's hands. "Already delved it. We entered early. That's partially why we're here."

"Oh? How so?"

Khrem reached into the crate and grabbed one of the vials. He handed it over to Travis, who began examining it with interest. I let the man investigate the item for a bit and watched his face. Outside of narrowing his eyes when he inspected the three runes etched into the glass, he seemed satisfied with the items.

"These were obtained from the ghostfish on the first floor. Khrem said he didn't know the uses for them, and so he couldn't give me an appropriate price. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me their worth."

He continued examining the vial before handing it back to Khrem, who placed it back in the crate. "I'm not surprised he refused to offer a price. Even with the dungeon within walking distance to most people, it's rarely delved often enough. Even rarer when the dungeon offers material like this. Most adventurers would lack the proper vials and tools to collect the ectoplasm properly."

"What's it used for?"

"Death resistance and water resistance potions would be the simplest, but that can be achieved with simpler ingredients. I know of a master-level recipe that uses this stuff to make some intangibility potions, but I don't know the other requirements."

I frowned, and my shoulders sank. The uses were a lot less cool than I thought, and that meant they probably weren't that valuable. "Does that mean they're useless?"

Travis laughed and shook his head. "Gods no. This is incredibly useful. It's just unknown exactly how so. The chance to experiment with rare material is always a welcomed boon." He paused and glanced at the vials again before looking at me. "That's a lot of ectoplasm. I won't pry, but I know for a fact the dungeon doesn't reward that much in one go. Tell me, do you have more of these vials? They're of fine make with those enchantments. It's rare to see a solidify rune used in such a way."

So the third rune that Khrem couldn't identify meant 'solidify'; that was good knowledge to know. I had already drawn the runes inside my journal and added them to the ones I knew. Slowly, I would fill out the entire book with runes. If I ever wanted to learn enchanting, it'd be wise to continue expanding my compendium any chance I got.

To the guildmaster, I shook my head and held up my hands apologetically. "Not at the moment, no."

"Shame."

"So what's a fair price for them? And are you still willing to buy them, Khrem?"

Khrem glanced at me before returning to staring at his mentor. For his part, Travis scratched his chin with his gloved hand, staining his beard and skin green. Finally, Travis nodded his head to Khrem and smiled at me.

"I'll give you two gold for the crate. How does that sound?"

I did some quick mental math in my head and estimated he was giving me about thirty-three silver per vial. That was not a fortune by any means, but it was much more than I expected. I could have tried bargaining for more, but I just wanted to get out of there and cook food for everyone.

Sticking my hand out, I waited for the guildmaster to grasp my wrist before smiling. "Deal."

Travis raised an eyebrow but remained silent. He returned to his workshop and moved to one of the desks in the back-right corner. After searching a few drawers, he grabbed a sack of coins and pulled out two gold.

Once I received payment from the guildmaster, Khrem also pulled out the silver he owed me for the materials left at his stall. With my coin pouch filled, I tucked it away and said farewell to the two. Already I could see them in action around the workstation with one of the vials of ghostgoop propped up on a stand.

Smiling, I exited the guildhall and stretched my arms. My stomach decided enough was enough and let out a low rumble. I never thought I'd be so excited to eat fish before, but beggars can't be choosers.

After returning to the inn, I found Alish'trala walking out of the building with a cloth-covered basket. Just as she put a sign on the door, I approached and waved hello. "Closing early tonight?"

She jumped and turned around, but she visibly calmed down when she saw me waving. With an annoyed look, she crossed her arms and scowled. "Don't go sneaking up on people like that! I almost threw my basket at you."

"Sorry, sorry."

After apologizing, her scowl faded, and her face changed to a happy smile. "The rest of your team mentioned a cookout and how they brought some food for a campfire cookout. Word quickly spread, and now a good portion of the village is coming along to celebrate. I figured I'd bring some bread to add to the feast." She lifted the corner of the cloth covering the basket and revealed dozens and dozens of steaming buns. When she focused back on my face, she paused at my reaction. "Uhm, is something wrong? Why do you look like someone stole the fish off your line?"

I took a deep breath and let it out. In and out. Repeating this process, I pinched the bridge of my nose and gritted my teeth. Eventually, I looked up and glared at a spot behind the innkeeper. "You're telling me the others are at the beach preparing a giant feast and that most of the village is there too?"

"Yeeeeesss... That's correct. Is something wrong?" Alish'trala asked hesitantly.

"Nope, nothing at all. Everything is a-okay," I said in the most deadpan voice possible.

Obviously, the innkeep didn't believe me for a second, but she gave me a tight smile and walked with me to the beach. Even before I could see the open waters, I could hear the sound of many people talking all at once. It sounded lively and boisterous, and with every step, I added more weight till I was practically dragging my feet along.

The first thing I spotted was Arturous' slumbering form. He stood like a fuzzy mountain amongst the throng of people. Next to him, several of the more muscular beastkin were stacking logs of wood that sat inside a raised stone circle. Judging by the size of the soon-to-be campfire, it looked like they were prepared to cook a meal fit for the massive bear snoring next to it.

I quickly counted more than sixty people, along with several packs of children running around playing tag. Members of every race were present, and they all chatted happily as some worked to set up tables and seating for the crowd.

I said goodbye to Alish'trala and watched her join a group of women who were carefully watching some of the youngest kids. Looking around, I couldn't spot the others, so I had to roam slowly. Eventually, I felt a large pulse of mana coming from my left, and I turned and walked in that direction.

When I parted past a particular thick crowd of people, a breeze blew against my skin, bringing a chill that overpowered the midday heat. As I got closer, I saw a piece of ice the size of a large man being carved away by some of the villagers. Standing next to it was Igas chatting with the rest of the team.

My eyes narrowed, and I approached the group slowly. Eodyne was the first to spot me, and she immediately looked away. All but Teddy suspiciously found something interesting on the ground to look at by the time I entered within talking distance. Teddy, at least, had the decency to look somewhat apologetic.

"So I know I agreed to do some cooking tonight, but that didn't include servicing half the village. Anyone want to explain what went wrong?" I asked in a steely voice.

Teddy gave me his dazzling smile, but I resisted his charm and waited silently. Seeing I refused to budge at his attempts, he let out an awkward laugh before speaking. "Yeah, our bad. We stopped at some of the local shops and stalls to pick up some ingredients, but it somehow ended up with news of an impromptu feast spreading like fire amongst the village."

"I don't know how to tell you this, but I am definitely not cooking for fifty-plus people. I'm not that good."

"Good news about that. A lot of people brought some food, so we should be fine. And if you don't want to cook, which we don't blame you if you don't, plenty of people here are willing to take over. Even if you did cook anything, a couple of folks will still bring their own things to cook for the feast," Celanae explained.

"You know what? No, fuck that. I promised to cook food. But I'm only doing this because I'm a man of my word, and Arturous deserves a treat." The others visibly relaxed, but I held up a hand to stop them. "Still, a dick move. Totally not cool."

The others winced, and hiding in the back, already sinking into the shadows, was Isaac, who looked extra guilty. I wasn't about to interrogate them, but I could already imagine how a game of telephone somehow blew up to a full-on village celebration.

After the others handed over all the different packages of ingredients, I asked for a large table I could use to prepare the food, and Celanae led me to an elven woman with a skill called Raise Stone. It was a creation-type skill that allowed her to conjure stone from the ground. After introductions, she created a massive table of flat rock that stopped around my waist.

Several villagers paused what they were doing and observed me stepping up to the table. When I summoned all ten of the glypul fish onto the table, there were a lot of oohs and ahhs.

The combined weight of all the large fish was almost too much for the table, and the stone began to crack. Seeing this, the woman from before stepped in and reinforced the legs while adding a couple of feet of length. I thanked her and turned back to the daunting mountain of fish meat in front of me.

A quick scan of all the different ingredients inspired little confidence. I recognized some things, such as the blue tubers that were similar to russet potatoes. But as I dug through the bags of food, I could only despair as I stared at all the utterly alien stuff.

I grabbed a round bulbous fruit with purple stripes and used my nails to slice off a thin slice. It tasted like a mix between an apple and a lemon, with the consistency leaning more towards an apple. Setting it to the side, I went through the rest of the ingredients and slowly devised a plan on what I was confident enough to use.

Next came the most annoying part. I summoned a knife and stared at the fish corpse before me. I wasn't an experienced chef, but I at least knew how to degut a fish.

Staring at my tiny combat knife compared to the enormous mountain of fish, I decided to ditch the knife altogether. A part of me warned against showing off, but these were villagers who mainly looked like your average person. The only evil glare around the beach was coming from myself. And I very much doubted the gaggle of children staring at me would pose any threat in the near future.

With a flush of mana, a little spider appeared in my hand. Many villagers gasped, and I was starting to get annoyed. Everything felt ten times worse, being the one in the spotlight. Holding the spider up proudly, I tossed him onto the nearest fish corpse and turned away to prep some of the other ingredients.

I bet that stupid guardian never imagined his skill would ever be used to debone a fish. Somehow, the thought of a skeleton convulsing while having a mental breakdown was enough to brighten my mood.