Departing the potion shop in such a manner left a foul taste in Kori's mouth, the things she had said and the way she said them was something that Kori had never experienced before. Sure, Bolst was a bit mean the night of the festival, but he was drunk and she knew he didn't mean to say the things he did in that manner. Renava on the other hand, she had been nearly as venomous as the spiders Bolst got in so much trouble over.

"Why was she so… so… terrible!" Kori cried, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

Har pulled the youngling close with his arm across her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "I have my theories, but honestly even that doesn't excuse her behaviour." There were hints of his own anger bleeding into his voice. "I'm sorry, Kori, if I'd known she'd be like that I would never have brought you there."

Between sniffles and snorts, the tears now flowing freely, Kori tried to respond and say it wasn't his fault, but her words were mangled by a sudden sob.

Seeing his young charge in such a state nearly drove Har marching back into the vile woman's shop. Instead, if Kori was of such a mind to notice, she would have seen the gears turning as he furiously planned and schemed. He would make certain that this would be a day long remembered by everyone involved.

Har led the pair through the city, stopping when he found a bench near the markets where shoppers would eat whatever fare they had acquired at one of the nearby street vendors. They rested there while Kori composed herself, receiving stares from passers by wondering what had happened to have the young kobold in such a state. Of the few inquiries to their wellbeing that he received Har gave non-committal responses that everything would soon be fine. Anyone paying even a modicum of attention could have easily seen that he was seething beneath the surface.

Once she had settled somewhat, Har left her on the bench while he too sought out something to eat, figuring that a bit of tasty food would go a long way towards returning some joy to Kori's day.

When he returned with a pair of flatbreads laden with meats and a tangy sauce, both massive in his hands being human sized portions, he found his assumption correct. By the time Kori had eaten even a quarter of her food, all that remained of her tears were pale lines down her scales where they had passed.

The young kobold polished off her oversized meal by the time Har was even half way through his own and he could even see her eyeing his remaining portion. Which he graciously tore in half and shared with her.

Kori, stomach full and tears dry, found herself shifting away from the hurt the woman had inflicted towards anger.

She called me grubby… and clumsy… ok, that one might not have been too wrong… but she even called my ointment foul! There's no way I'm going to let her get away with that!

"I'll show her… I'll make better potions than she ever could and won't tell her how!" Kori declared, as though withholding her help towards improving was the gravest of punishments.

The sudden vehemence of her declaration took Har by surprise, the final mouthful of his flatbread catching briefly in his throat as a startled laugh threatened to choke him. With a few coughs and hammering his fist against his chest, he finally gasped out the choked chuckle.

"I think we can do a little better than that." Har said cryptically.

No matter how she prodded him, Har didn't elaborate on his statement, but Kori could see the machinations that she had missed earlier now. If she'd learned anything from her new mentor, it's that careful planning went in to being a merchant, and she had no doubt that he applied the same to the other aspects of his life.

"Now, let's put that… unpleasant… woman behind us for now." Har said. "We have another stop to make; this one should be a much more fruitful use of our time."

Kori wasn't sure where he meant, the potion maker being the only stop she had requested, but followed along as Har led them further towards the northern gates of the city, directly away from the kobold enclave to the south.

The further they went, the less maintained and elaborate the buildings became until they neared the gate and things were once again the way they were on the southern side. Though where the buildings there were mainly those for large businesses dealing in raw materials and supplies, the ones here were all homes and the smallest of shops. The neighbourhood was definitely one predominantly for the humans, the structures tall and larger than those in the gnomish district had been by far. Though the gnome's homes were much nicer in general than those located here.

"Why are we all the way on the other side of the city?" Kori asked curiously.

"Remember when I told you about what class we suspected you might end up with?" Har responded, asking his own question rather than answer hers.

"Yes. You said you thought it might be a mix of potion maker and herbalist, right?" That wasn't exactly something that she'd forget anytime soon, since it was the only clue towards what would likely define the remainder of her life.

"Exactly." Har replied, "So if the potion maker won't be of any help, we might as well visit the other group that will be. And I assure you, they're much friendlier than she was."

Kori's eyes lit up, with everything else that had happened, and her former excitement to learn about potions, she had forgotten that the town had a thriving group of herbalists. "You really think they'll help me?"

"I don't see why not, they're a pretty welcoming bunch." He laughed, "They might not have known what to make of your ointment, but they were still pretty interested in it. I'm sure if you talked about it, they'd be happy to share a bit of their own knowledge." She caught a slight glint in his eye and a suppressed grin as he spoke the last part.

As the pair approached what could only be the herbalist's abode the unmistakable scent of drying herbs and flowers drifted on the breeze. The building wasn't much to look at, a squat wooden thing that might have had three rooms within, but it sat back from the road and had a large fenced area to the side. Within the yard hung bundle after bundle of herbs, flowers, and other plants from neat rows of cord stretched end to end half a dozen meters long. Some of the bundles Kori had an inkling towards their nature, her herbalism Skill helping her remember the names and properties of plants she had recorded in her tome, while others were completely foreign to her.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Though she would need a closer inspection to identify the specific strains, she could easily spot nettle, mint, chamomile, hibiscus flowers, and more besides, among the myriad bundles. As they walked towards the door, she even spotted a singular bundle hanging directly from the porches overhang, yarrow. The hung flower instantly brought a passage from her tome to mind.

"Yarrow, considered a symbol of healers and herbalists. It can typically be found hanging near the door of any who practice these professions as a recognizable symbol welcoming to those who seek these services. They are believed to signify protection and wellbeing."

This was definitely the spot they were looking for.

Excitement began bubbling up within her once again, new knowledge lay behind the door in front of her, but she was hesitant to step forward. Her earlier experience lingered, silently whispering 'what ifs' to the fearful parts of her mind. What if they were the same as the potion seller? What if they yelled at her? Or called her grubby? Or thought her ointment was foul?

Har's visage soured at seeing her hesitation. He'd never seen her do anything but run headlong towards whatever she thought could sate her endless curiosity. Forcing a grin, he marched up the last few steps towards the door, pulling Kori along beside him, and reached for the conveniently positioned knocker. There were two upon the door, one for tall people and a separate one, lower for those of a shorter stature.

It only took a few moments for them to hear a call from behind the door, "Come on in, I'll be out in just a moment!" a woman's voice yelled from somewhere within.

Har opened the door, but pushed Kori ahead of himself to let her take the lead. As she entered, she saw the space was the entire front half of the building. It was nearly as crowded as the potion sellers' shop had been, but where the latter was cramped and uninviting, this was warm and welcoming. Instead of everything being walled away by a wide counter and out of reach, here there were shelves upon shelves, each separated into stacks of drawers and cabinets labeled with countless different ingredients. They were mostly herbs and plants, but some had powdered minerals, bones, or other oddities that Kori was unable to fathom the uses of. Where the rows of shelves and drawers met the walls, there were even more of the compartments lining all the way to the ceiling beyond what even the tallest human she had encountered could reach, and ladders affixed with wheels that could slide across the tall shelves so that any could manage them.

The scents of herbs from outside was nothing but a prelude when it came to the interior, dozens of aromas vied for supremacy, combining into an overpowering medley that made it feel like she had walked into a wall of fragrant greenery. Before Kori had even fully crossed the threshold, she already had her tome in hand, staring at each example as the pages flipped back and forth. Each time she found a match and confirmed it; the translated name was added to the page. Nearly a dozen such matches were found and noted by the time a half door in the rear of the room swung open. Her little inkwell held by Har as she moved back and forth.

The older kobold's sigh of relief at her behaviour was completely missed in Kori's bustle to find and identify as many of the ingredients as she possible could.

The woman who entered from the rear of the building had many features in common with Renava, she was tall and thin with her white hair bundled up at the back of her head and what Kori was beginning to understand as signs of age in a human, fine wrinkles around her eyes. But that was where the similarities ended. Unlike the nasty woman, this one's smile was bright and her words full of joy. "Welcome, welcome. It's wonderful to see you again." She said, directing herself towards Har, all the while watching Kori scurrying around the room examining everything she could without opening the drawers or touching things. "My, aren't you an excited little kobold." She said with a laugh.

Hearing the woman address her, Kori stopped short, nearly tripping over her own feet before catching herself on a stack of drawers, which thankfully weighed considerably more than she did and didn't budge from her actions. She slowly started to make her way back towards Har while mumbling out a quick "Sorry".

"Oh, don't worry about it at all, dear, go, explore, touch, smell. Investigate!" She waved her onwards, her laugh carrying through to her tone, "I'd love to see what you're writing there when you're done." When she saw Kori's grin return and she restarted her excited discovery, though at a bit more sedate a pace than previously, the woman returned her attention to Har. "Now, what can I do for you today?" She asked.

"If I'm being honest, you've already done more than I could have hoped for." He said, waving towards the excited youngling. "I was here a few weeks back, had an ointment that a member of the clan had discovered and wanted your take on it." He reminded the woman.

"Yes, yes, I remember. Interesting stuff, very similar to an herbalist's ointment to stave off infection, except it was imbued with mana and applied a healing effect over a period of time, correct?" She replied, the ointment having clearly made an impression.

"Exactly that." Har said, before pointing towards where Kori was halfway up a ladder trying to balance her tome, write something with her pen, and not fall off of the ladder, all at the same time. "Well, believe it or not, but that little ball of mayhem was the one who discovered it." She joined him in a little bout of chuckling at the youngling's antics, as she had apparently managed to successfully jot down whatever it was that she'd been trying to.

Though the look of mirth didn't fade much, a twinge of surprise came across her visage alongside it, "Truly?" She asked, "I'm not good at telling with you kobolds, but she can't have had her Class for more than a year yet?"

Har turned his attention to the woman with a rueful grin, "That's the thing, she doesn't even have it yet."

A look of complete shock replaced the mirthful one from moments before, not that Kori could really see any of that as she continued to seek out as many translations and additions that she could for the herbs within her tome. Much of what they had here was known to her in one way or another, but there were a few new herbs that she was determined to add to the book and novel uses or information on some that she did have that wasn't present yet.

The older pair continued their conversation, to which she was mostly oblivious, while she lost track of time. There was just so much to learn laid out in front of her. At some point the herbalist brought out a pot of some of the best tea she'd ever had, but even that was mostly forgotten and the only reason it wasn't cold was that her cup was being topped up on occasion between her trips back and forth from the little sitting area beside the counter where it lay to take a sip.

During her brief visits she heard a number of snippets of the pair's conversation, a mention of Renava's name in distaste, something about an alternative for luminous moss, and inquiries about renting some space for a few days. The last caught her attention briefly, but by then there were just a few dozen hard to find herbs that she couldn't find to update her tome with the Vorisian names and she was being stubborn, wanting to find them herself.

Kori eventually wore herself out scampering around the storefront, and up and down the ladders dozens of times, and had to ask for help from the woman, Imelda, to find the final few. It turned out that three of them were completely unknown to her, for which Imelda was equally excited to learn and quickly copied down the information that Kori presented her with, as well as her sketch, and most of the others weren't things that she kept out, as they were more than a little toxic.

Long before she'd completed the final addition to her tome for the trip, the visit had already proved to be a fruitful endeavour, though the Skill level was more an added benefit than what Kori saw as the true gain.

<<Skill proficiency improved. Basic Herbalism level 4 -> 5. Maximum level reached>>

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