Chapter 3 Koh!

  “Yo!” The red haired young smith greeted Isaac and jogged over to him. “Yer the Lord of Darkness ever’body is goin’ on ‘bout, right?” His unrefined speech caught Isaac by surprise. Most people involved in business of any kind at least spoke in a more proper version of Outerworld Standard. Isaac’s use of contractions and the occasional missing unnecessary word placed his speech at about the norm for the common populace. He knew that if he cleaned up his speech then it would help his image but it just felt like too much of a hassle. This smith though, Isaac was decently sure that he hadn’t even been taught how to read, or at the very least had grown up in the slums. Not that it painted the young smith in a bad light for Isaac, no, if it was proven that the smith was actually from the slums and had managed to become a master smith at his age, then Isaac would only have praise for the vibrant young man, but only time would tell.

  “Yes.” Isaac simply answered. He wanted to see where the smith was going with even bothering to come and meet them.

  “Toasty!” The smith exclaimed in what Isaac could only assume was slang for ‘great’ or something similar. “I wanchya ta see this!” The smith’s vibrant personality refused to abate as he practically ripped Isaac’s armor out of the functionary’s hands and held it up for Isaac to see. Each of the scales that were broken had been replaced by mythril ones that had already been enchanted with the same durability and impact deflection that the dragon scales had received, each of the cracked scales had been filled in with mythril that worked to glue them back together, and finally, each of the leather straps had been replaced with mythril chains.

  Isaac let out a low whistle. It was going to cost a fair bit more than he had originally expected but the work was done so quickly and at such a high quality that Isaac just knew he was going to be charged an arm and a leg for it. “The mythril is a little flashy, bu-” Isaac was cut off by the overly enthusiastic smith.

  “That’s what I want yer input on.” The smith told him. “Want me ta blue it?”

  “Actually, no.” Isaac said as he continued to stare at the web of iridescent metal holding the fragments of one of Kahtesh’s scales together. “I like it. It’s like scars that show what the armor has been through.”

  “I was thinkin’ the same thin’!” The smith exclaimed. “Just wanted ta be sure, ya know?”

  Isaac nodded. “Yes. Thanks for checking with me.”

  “ ‘Course!” The smith exclaimed. “Name’s Koh! Nice ta meechya!”

  “Isaac, likewise.” Isaac replied and took the smith’s offered hand. Their handshake was firm and both gave each other an acknowledging nod. “How long did this take you? Were you working straight through the night?” Isaac asked the smith.

  “Nah, most o’ the time’s waitin’ fer my sis ta finish scribblin’.” Koh said and gestured towards the enchantment work on one of the new scales.

  “Your sister did the enchanting?” Isaac requested clarification.

  “Yep!” Koh agreed. “She’s great! Best art-fisher I ever seen.” Isaac had to physically hold back a wince at how much Koh butchered the word Artificer.

  “Where is she now?” Isaac wondered since only Koh had come to see them.

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  “Out cold.” Koh explained. “She worked through the night ta get it all done.”

  “Well, give her my thanks.” Isaac told the overly excitable smith. “We were planning to leave tomorrow morning so it was finished just in time.”

  “She was hopin’ ta meet ya, but I guess it can’t be helped.” Koh sighed.

  “We’ve been away from Safeharbor for too long.” Isaac told Koh. “But the next time I need my gear repaired, I’ll come find you.”

  Koh grinned. “I’ll hold ya ta that.” He replied and offered Isaac his hand to shake on the agreement.

  Isaac chuckled and did just that. “Now, how much do we owe you?”

  “I got no idea.” Koh said with the stupidest grin on his face. “That’s my sissy’s job and she’s out cold.” The functionary behind him just palmed her forehead. Apparently this was not so uncommon as to not be expected because she then took a step forwards and pulled out a piece of paper.

  The functionary took a deep breath. “According to common practice, the mythril was worth three thousand gold, the platinum enchanting metal was worth seven hundred gold, the smithing time was estimated at thirty hours for a master smith making that three thousand gold, and fifty five hours of an artificer’s work for another five thousand five hundred gold. That brings that quoted price to twelve thousand two hundred gold times the rush order’s one point five times multiplier to bring the quoted price up to eighteen thousand and three hundred. You are welcome to negotiate from there.” She finally took a breath and stepped back.

  “Thank you.” Isaac told the functionary. “How about fifteen thousand and not only will I come back to you the next time my armor needs fixed but we’ll also take you and your sister out for lunch?”

  “She’d love that!” Koh exclaimed and they shook on the new deal.

  “Koh you are lucky that the Lord of Darkness is benevolent and that I am here. If neither were the case then you could have been grossly ripped off.” The functionary chastised him. Koh looked like he was about to protest but she held up her hand to stop him. “And before you go saying that it is your sister’s job, she needs to rest too sometimes. The least you can do is learn to quote your own work.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Koh eventually said like a chastised child, which he very much was.

  The functionary then turned and bowed to Isaac and Lenna. “My name is Virra and I oversee Koh as well as a few other smiths here at the Guild. On behalf of the Guild, thank you for working with us.”

  “It’s been fun.” Isaac replied. “Any idea on how long Lenna’s armor is going to take?”

  “I could look into it for you, but from what I remember, it might take a few months.” She offered Isaac a consoling smile. “That armor was shredded.”

  “Well, it is what it is.” Isaac sighed. “Maybe we can find a temporary replacement at the auction.”

  Lenna shrugged. “If not, then I’ll just have to get used to fighting without armor for a few months. It’s doable with the rest of our gear.”

  Isaac wrinkled his nose. He definitely didn’t want Lenna of all people to fight without armor. With how much she used herself as a weapon, the added protection really mattered. Lenna didn’t like getting hit in the first place but her fighting style allowed for trading blows with her opponent. Sometimes it was just better to hit the opponent even if she was going to get hit by them for it.

  After bidding Koh and Virra goodbye, the duo left to get an early lunch before the Auction. The food on offer around Altesia was relatively lacking during that time of year. They hadn’t really realized it before because the inn served whatever they could get their hands on, that involved meat because they catered to adventurers, and the other places that they had eaten were all high end, but the common people of Altesia had to make do with whatever stored well over winter. Spring was actually the time of slim picking as so much of their stored foods had already been eaten. This meant that most of the market stall foods were things like bread and pickled vegetables. There was a stall that sold horribly overpriced butter, so combined with the relatively cheap bread, and some freshly butchered and grilled pork chops, the duo were able to scrounge a meal together.

  “It really did feel like we had to forage for our own food in the market.” Isaac commented.

  “That is just how drow territory markets are all year around.” Lenna replied. “It was one of the things that surprised me the most upon coming to the surface cities.”

  “Is starvation a serious problem there?” Isaac wondered.

  Lenna hummed in thought. “It can be. Starving workers do not do good work so starving to death is very rare, maybe about as rare as it is on the surface, but slaves are rarely fed an adequate amount of food. They try to keep them fed enough to do proper work but not so fed as to allow them the strength to rebel.”

  “I see.” Was Isaac’s only reply. They both felt the same way about the slavery in drow territory but there was just nothing that they could do about it. Even the demigods couldn’t do anything about it, assuming that they all wanted to, because the drow apparently had plenty of their own demigod level powerhouses hanging around or locked away. “Well, enough of the depressing topics, let’s go see what this auction is all about.” Isaac said to get their minds out of the greys of iron cages and stone caverns and back to the yellows of gold coins and daisies. It was soon time to spend far more money than either of them were planning to, but alas, that was just the nature of auctions. There were always far too many interesting things to blow a person’s fortune on.