Novel Full Chapter 1903 Creeping Vines
Chapter 1903: Chapter 1903 Creeping Vines
— Kat —
“So? Need my advice boya? Not a surprise, let’s see what we have here…” Villea the baker stated as she swung around the back door behind the counter. Kat was surprised at Villea’s appearance. She was perhaps the thinnest elf she’d ever seen. Most were somewhat tall and willowy but Villea easily reached two metres tall, nearly matching Cruze.
She was also, rail thing. Bones were clearly wherever she remained uncovered by her clothes. She was wearing an apron that was also clearly a dress with the bottom having some nice filigree of various pastries on display. There was a small white apron that seemed to be attached to the grey dress and she had a tiny chef’s hat. Likely because of her already prodigious height. Even just this small one nearly scraped against the ceiling and would hit doorframes.
Now, Kat had heard the old saying ’never trust a skinny cook’ and you’d think it could apply here. A baker that looked malnourished… but in her right hand she had a half-eaten baguette that she’d clearly been munching on as she worked. Further reinforced by the fact that she took another bite when she was waiting for Cruze to answer.
Her hair was interesting as well. It was made up of thick blonde hair braided together into pigtails… that were pulled forward and met in the front, acting as a sort of necklace for Villea. Of course, Villea was a professional and the whole setup was covered in a bit of netting to keep any hair from getting into the food.
“Sorry master,” apologised Cruze as he took a step back and bowed.
“It’s fine my not-so-young apprentice,” admitted Villea with a slight smile, revealing a few wrinkles. It was also at this point Kat realised that Hedera was shivering slightly. “Not all of these are mushrooms we’ve gone over yet and I’m trying to teach you how to bake, not to go out and gather ingredients yourself. Give me a moment to examine these all…”
“Hedera why are you shivering?” whispered Kat.
“I… I think that’s the old queen Bouganvillea…” Hedera said as quietly as she could.
“What… like Auctifer’s mother?” asked Kat.
Hedera shook her head, “No, one generation further back… I… I thought she was dead…”
Kat glanced at the elf. “She looks pretty alive to me…”
“She’s Rank 4,” Hedera whispered. “Maybe Rank 5… she’s not anywhere near as strong as Thyme but… but very comparable to your own strength. It’s hard to tell exactly with you both here like this…”
“I’m still not sure why this is a concern…” said Kat.
“I just said, she’s meant to be dead! Or at least… she’s listed as dead in the history books we covered in school. I… I’m no longer quite so certain that’s true. It’s possible she’s just a relative but…” Hedera didn’t want to finish. She was already wary of saying so much right next to the potential ancient elf.
Kat just shrugged though. She couldn’t tell how strong Villea was, and if she was just the baker it really wasn’t her problem. Plus, with her here as an ’actor’ it probably wasn’t right to ask any of these questions. At the same time… Hedera did seem rather concerned.
Villea clicked her fingers and pointed to one of the larger mushrooms. “This one? Got any more?”
It looked… like a normal mushroom to her. It was white with slight grooves running alongside it. “I don’t think so? Not if that one doesn’t count?” Kat pointed to another large mushroom that was an entirely smooth white cap.
“No it doesn’t, that one over there,” Villea gestured over to the smooth mushroom, “will paralyse you if you use it in baking. I’m somewhat surprised you managed to pick it…”
“I have regeneration and I didn’t notice any issues when picking anything here,” admitted Kat.
“That would do it. You’ve got a few here that are deadly if eaten but handling them is fine, and a few others that have spores that can cause moderately annoying side effects… that I suppose you simply didn’t notice,” stated Villea.
“Yup,” agreed Kat.
Villea sighed, “Well I suppose you’re good enough for the job then. Let me just…” Villea waved a hand and vanished the mushrooms, probably into a storage device of some kind.
After a few moments she summoned them back onto the counter, including the large ones, keeping them split into two distinct piles, one was a lot smaller than the others. “This smaller pile consists of mushrooms I’d be willing to take off your hands for… ten orbs. The other pile is useless to me. Most of the orbs are coming from this one here,”
Villea tapped the white mushroom with grooves. It was… perhaps a little more grey then the smaller mushrooms that looked to be the same type. Kat really wasn’t sure. “If you can find more of these I’d be willing to pay well. The rest… well if you had more of them I might give you a good deal but frankly I can’t use most of them myself. They’re useful sure but if you want your money’s worth you’re going to need to find someone else to sell them to. Otherwise, I’ll take them off your hands. Just the large mushroom alone is worth… six or seven orbs? Something like that,”
Kat nodded. *What do you think Lily? Worth just handing over everything or just the biggest one? Also what should we do the extras?*
[Hmm… depends on if we want to bother shopping around. We could just ask if she knows who to sell them to?]
“Do you know who would pay good money for them?” asked Kat.
Villea snorted. “If I knew that I’d buy them off you and hand them over. Berry does come to mind but frankly the girl is awful with money and I don’t expect her to really pay me what they’re worth. Still… if I don’t get Cruze to ask around for me, that’s probably where they’ll end up. Though she’s not in town at the moment so if you were hoping to strike your own deal with her you’ll have to wait,”
Ah… I suppose Berry would want them to experiment with. “Would she want some of the potentially dangerous ones?” asked Kat.
Villea sighed, “Probably but I’d really rather you didn’t encourage her quite that much. In fact, just to avoid such a thing, I’m willing to safely dispose of these for free,”
*Think this is some sneaky trick to use them herself or actually a desire to keep them away from Berry? It also seems like… for as mundane it is, the first notable choice here. If we agree, we might get better deals from her or a quest or something. If not… well maybe we get something from Berry?*
[Counterpoint… perhaps we shouldn’t be treating this too much like a game? She’s made an offer, perhaps just because she doesn’t want to see the damage Berry could cause someone. If she’s really as old as Hedera insists, then it’s possible she has a better idea of what you can make with those mushrooms than Berry does.]
*Hmm… maybe? Also why does she seem to be glaring at you a bit harder?*
[Odd… do you think she heard me mention her age? Even if our heads?]
The fact the glare intensified a bit seemed to signal ’yes’ *Alright. Quickly. Let her destroy mushrooms yes or no?*
[Yes. She scares me more than Berry does, especially when Berry isn’t around.]
“Of course,” said Kat. “Feel free to get rid of them for us, it would be more convenient than finding a way myself,”
“Excellent,” agreed Villea as she wiped away the extras. “And these?”
“Ten orbs is fine,” said Kat.
“Excellent,” Villea wiped away the next lot. “Before I hand over the payment… would you like anything from the store? I’m willing to let go of one thing for each of you, unless it’s a full loaf in which case that’ll count for both,”
“Oh um…” Kat glanced at Hedera who gave a nod. “Sounds good, do you mind if we take a look?”
“Of course not. I’ll leave your payment with Cruze here, and if you want to make any additional purchases he can take it out of that,” said Villea as she deposited ten orbs on the table and strode back into the kitchen, taking another large bit of her baguette as she did so.
Kat decided to ignore that and look at what was on display. There were of course, loaves of bread all set into a cupboard behind Cruze and while there were a lot of differences… they weren’t labelled and Kat had no idea what the differences meant really. The display was mostly sandwiches with a few cupcakes, a sliced larger cake, and a display of meat-filled pastries. Kat also noted, one singular line of donuts.
“What are you thinking Hedera? I know nothing much about the bread here…” admitted Kat.