1.1.14 – Marta’s Charm

“Get ready Ash, breakfast is ready! We’ll be heading to town after we eat.” I was already up when Marta called from the kitchen. I just chose not to move as my legs were still aching from overusing Lightning Infusion yesterday.

I finally decided to get up as I had a long day ahead of me. I needed to go to town and sell the Glimmerwasp Nectar and get some additional materials for my enchanting experiments. Walking normally was fine but heading down the stairs was a nightmare. This was probably why those gym bros always avoided leg workouts.

Marta was on the way up to get me when she saw me limping down the stairs. “What happened to your legs? I thought you said you had no injuries?” I could only give Marta a sheepish smile as I continued limping down.

“It’s nothing, just overusing my legs. I did a little too much jumping” I lied.

“Here, sit down. Let me take a look” Marta said as she guided me to the kitchen. My thighs looked a little swollen and a little red. This was despite the bodily boost from an Orange core coupled with my Nature’s Constitution mutation.

I could see her casting her usual Vigor as her hands glowed green and I felt a soothing sensation sweep through my legs.

“This is the most I can do. Hopefully walking to town with those legs will teach you a lesson to be less reckless next time” Marta said with a huff before she continued with serving breakfast to all of us.

The sun was fully out by the time we were on our way to town. I offered to carry the pouch full of nectar until we reached town. It was a bit lighter now that I had decided to keep a little in a jar for our own use, risking the wrath of an imaginary Mr. White telling me not to eat our own supply.

Since I promised Marta no more hunting Glimmerwasp, in the short term at least, I thought it would be a pity if the rest of the kids did not get to try some. Selling the rest should net me enough coin to get me started with my project.

“Let me do the talking when we get to the apothecary” Marta said as we walked along the Old Mill Road.

“Why are we heading to the apothecary and not going to Garrick?” I asked out of curiosity, though fully trusting Marta to have my interest at heart.

“The nectar has medicinal and alchemical uses besides being a fancy dessert for the nobles. So the apothecary will be willing to buy it at market prices. Besides, Sylvia is an old friend, you don’t have to worry about her short changing you”

“Old Garrick is wonderful but a merchant always gets their cut. I’m not letting him get a cut of your hard earned nectar that you risked your life for” Marta added.

We reached the apothecary which was located closer to the middle part of the town. The smell of dried herbs and bitter concoctions hit me full on as I followed Marta in. I passed Marta the leather pouch before we reached town to make sure that no one would suspect I was the one who harvested them. Though I doubt many people would think a barely eight year old boy had hunted down giant wasps that had venomous stings.

Marta and Sylvia exchanged some small greetings while I looked around the store, curious to see what they had on display. There were all kinds of herbs and reagents to one side but the main section had some bottles with different colored liquids in them.

It seemed like potions do exist in some shape or form in this world. Something to take note of if I ever considered being an adventurer like Gallum. I only started paying attention to Marta’s conversation when I saw her reach for the pouch.

“So the actual reason I am here today is that we came across some nectar.” She pulled out the stopper on the leather pouch to let the nectar’s aroma drift out.

“So much! How did you get this? You didn’t suddenly become a hunter or adventurer did you?” Sylvia looked at Marta with a raised brow.

“A kind hunting team stopped by the orphanage on the way out. I had helped heal some of their wounds and gave them some food and water to replenish their supply. As a way of thanks they gave us some of the nectar they had collected.” Marta lied, not really sounding convincing. I guessed even she found it a little far fetched herself.

“Awful lot of kind hunters donating to the orphanage lately. I heard from Garrick some time back some hunters also donated some boar to you.” Sylvia said suspiciously.

“I don’t know what to say, must be my charms” Marta said jokingly. “Anyway, this is obviously too much of a luxury to use for me and the kids, so I decided to sell it to get more supplies for the coming winter. Do you think you can give me a good price?”

“Sure thing, I can give you the same rate I buy off the other merchants. The current going rate is about 2 small silvers per 10 grams of nectar.”

She took out an empty jar and what looked like a weighing scale in this world. She did some calibration which I guessed accounted for the weight of the jar. She then proceeded to empty the contents from the pouch, making sure to get every last drop.

“It is about one and a half kilogram of nectar you have! The hunters killed at least 10 wasps or more to get this much.” Sylvia exclaimed. Marta glared at me when she heard that, giving me a look that said “We’ll talk more about this later”. I just feigned ignorance, angry Marta was a problem for future Asher to worry about.

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“I’ll round it up and give you three small golds for the lot” Sylvia said. Being a potions master or an alchemist must have brought in some serious moolah as she just agreed to pay a large sum for the nectar. This also meant the potions must not be cheap, as I carefully took a step away from the nearby shelves, afraid to break something.

“That’s awfully kind of you, my charms must have worked on you as well” Marta gave Sylvia a playful wink which prompted Sylvia to just roll her eyes. “Do you mind paying me in silver? I’m afraid nothing I buy would ever need a gold coin and silver is just more convenient”

“Of course. Just wait a minute while I put this nectar away”. That was sharp of Marta to ask for change as using gold coins to buy anything and asking for change would just attract the wrong kind of attention. Especially for a place full of defenseless children that was managed by a single woman.

I saw Sylvia head to the back of the shop for a few minutes before heading back out with a small cloth pouch that seemed to be bulging with coins. “Here you go, I don’t have that many small silvers so I included some large silvers if you don’t mind. You can count them” Sylvia said as she handed Marta the coin pouch.

“No need for that dear, I trust you. Thank you again for being so accommodating. We must be off now to get some supplies, I’ll see you around Syl” Marta said as she kept the coin pouch.

“Well, you must invite me to your wedding if you ever take to any of the hunters that had fallen for your charms” Sylvia teased. Marta just laughed and waved goodbye as we headed out.

I reminded Marta that we had to stop by the blacksmiths before we headed back as I needed to pick up supplies for my experiment. We decided to stop by Branwen’s smithy to say hi and give the business to her boss.