"Wow, looks like a 'ammer woz takin' to i'," the apprentice exclaimed as he sought to remove the nails that fixed the broken hinge to the door. "Don' worry like, I'll 'ave this dun in a jiffy."
The apprentice had met with Leon and Mino in the morning as promised and the student had guided them both to his set apart little hut in the woods. He had offered them both tea, wanting to try the dried herb blend he had purchased the day before. Mino had declined, but cheekily suggested that he was looking forward to obtaining a fresh batch of mushrooms. He had left them not long after, once Leon had showed him which direction he needed to take in order to get back to the heart of the school.
Leon lit a little tinder and carefully tempered the fire in the pit until it was burning away nicely. And then he placed the tripod over the fire and balanced the kettle on it in order to heat the water and stew the leaves. The apprentice watched him for a moment before returning his attentions back onto the door. After finally prying off the broken hinge without too much damage to the wood, he began to hammer the new one into its place. By the time the tea had been brewed and seeped through a cut of linen, he had completely fixed both door and frame to the new hinge. He tested his workmanship a few times before carefully shutting the door of the hut and joining Leon, who placed a cup before him.
The tea was fragrant and fresh to taste, with just a hint of sweetness. "'oney?" The apprentice questioned. "You added 'oney t'the tea."
"Y-y-Yeah," Leon replied. "D-do you n-not l-l-like it?"
"Na, it be good," the apprentice told him. "People don' norm-a-ly. 'Oney ain't cheap." Leon agreed with that statement. The small jar of honey was a whole silver, but he had always loved the sticky, sweet product and had decided to splurge. The apprentice passed Leon his empty cup. "I no'iced tha' you don' 'ave a fireplace in ya hut."
"N-no," Leon agreed.
The apprentice scratched his head. "I' be jus' tha'... well I fancied makin' this me'al box with i's own chimney for hea' and cookin' like. But me Master thought like i' be a to'al waste o'time like, seein' as peeple use a fireplace. I was tryin' to come up with a way t'get porridge withou' ash innit!"
Oh, it sounds like he wants to make some sort of stove. Leon was intrigued. "That s-sounds a-m-mazing," he said honestly, causing the young man to beam. He was missing a tooth in front. They discussed it a little more and when Leon was convinced it would work for him, he gave him 2 silver to help begin his personal project and agreed to pay for any additional costs of materials and labour once it was completed and installed.
After the apprentice left, Leon examined what herbs he had in his inventory, noticing that they seemed to remain fresher for longer within the interspacial bag. Perhaps he ought to invest in another one once he made his next trip down the mountain. He was looking forward to testing the keg.
There were enough ingredients for a handful of pills as well as others that could be turned into potions. Namely, the only potion that he knew how to create; the basic purifying potion. Unfortunately, Leo had not created an improved version of the potion. He had not created any improved versions of any potions, so perhaps he hadn't gotten around to it or was just more interested in pills. Leon was curious to wonder how the boy had come to the conclusion that he could make tiny adjustments to the recipes and improve them. Leo had made some comments about the herbs themselves in his diaries, perhaps he had gained some clues from his learnings. If that was so, it would not hurt Leon to follow suit at some point.
Leon began the process of making the potion, using his cauldron to boil the water and not pouring it into the keg until the powered nettle roots were completely dissolved. After adding the sunclover, he slowly added his spiritual energy to the lid until it was sealed. He hadn't been sure just how much energy to use, but the lid sealed with a satisfying clunk and he could not pry it loose with his hands. Now he could leave the potion to itself.
Seeing as his spiritual energy remained plentiful, he decided to create normal pills for the remainder of the day, so that he had plenty to take to the Herb Hall the following day.
Leon went to the cave that contained the mushrooms, once the sun had risen in the sky the following day, in order to gather a few to repay his debt to Mino. He wanted to keep on the young man's good side, his help had been much appreciated and Leon hoped to continue to rely on him. He remembered, while there, that the spring water was salty and wondered if he could extract the mineral from the water. He didn't have time to test this theory today, he decided, so mentally added it to the list of things he wished to do, along with gathering crustaceans, which he noticed had increased in size as they scuttled about in the freshwater river that he had to cross.
With the mushrooms and pills in hand, he went to the central area of the school to visit the Herb Hall, where he exchanged his average pills for a bunch of fresh herbs. He then visited Mino to give him the mushrooms, before filling his stomach with a lunch time meal. Then he wobbled (swollen stomach first) back to his small hut, where he proceeded to separate the herbs. He needed ones for the new potion, ones for the normal pills and ones for the improved pills.
Then he completed the basic purifying potions and created pills, until his spiritual energy was weak. For the last hours of the day, he planted seeds, removed weeds and watered the garden, before dragging himself to the lake for a bath. He was feeling too weary to bother filling the bath tub with buckets of heated water. He ate a light meal of rice and peas before falling asleep.. alone.. in his bed.
The next few days fell into a routine; cultivating in the morning, exchanging pills for herbs before grabbing a large lunch at the food hall, making pills for the afternoon and doing chores until dark. His chores were anything from tidying his home, gardening to fixing the shed. And when all that was done, he might carve a few pieces, before settling down for the night.
A week passed before the request came from the warriors school for him to create 20 clear spiritual pills and 40 blood pills. The reward was a pair of new boots, apparently Pike had seen the state of his, and a leather belt to with a knife length scabbard. Fortunately, he could ask for herbs to fulfil a teacher's request without need to provide proof of his pill and potion practice.
By the end of the second week, his cultivation had stuttered to a halt as he struggled to rise from his bed and he felt too lazy to return to the Herb Hall more than once every three days. He potted around a bit, sometimes making pills, sometimes carving talismans or decorations. He added soil and seeds to his new pots and left them to their own devices. His food supplies began to dwindle.
Even at his slower pace, he completed the number of pills for the request by the middle of the third week, but on the day that he was due to take them from the Hall, he found that it was raining. It was a persistent light rain, the type that refused to be tamed by means of an umbrella and would managed to leak through each seam of your outer clothing until your skin was as wet as your clothes. His hut was in a somewhat sheltered area, but much of the woodlands was open to the elements and he didn't feel like risking falling ill.
So instead, he sought to ease his low mood by heating many pots of water and filling the bath, which he had moved beneath the dubious shelter of the shed. He felt slightly more invigorated after his bath, having washed his hair and cleared his mind. Despite the fact that Jin Li was one high maintenance type of man, Leon missed his company, missed eating together with him and missed bickering with him. He washed his clothes and hung them to dry in the shed, while passing the time by writing the new recipe into the half finished diary that Leo was never able to complete himself. He also made a note to fix the shed better and clear out the rubbish; making it his own personal miniature bathhouse.
Refreshed, he decided that he would take the pills to the Herb Hall the following day. If only the unexpected didn't happen.
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GOT IT