D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2104 A Dwarven Backstory

Chapter 2104: Chapter 2104 A Dwarven Backstory

— Kat —

The meal continued more quietly after they’d discussed some options. Steel promised to get more information tomorrow morning and get back to everyone with those extra details to perhaps figure out what it meant for the future. Looking into someone who was angry at Appoline could probably wait but some sort of secret hidden in the poison? That was probably best to look into swiftly.

Once the meal was finished, Steel nodded to everyone and walked back out the front door, off to do… something. “Did… did he just leave? Isn’t it his house?” asked Tweedle quietly. It was one of the few things she’d said all evening.

“Yeah it is his house but he barely lives here,” explained Kat.

“Oh,” said Tweedle quietly, allowing the group to lapse back into silence once again. After five minutes of this, Lily poked at Kat and made a request. [Why not ask Tweedle a bit more about her life? I thought that was why Appoline invited her around.]

Kat shrugged and went along with it, “Hey Tweedle, what can you tell us about yourself?”

“Oh… I’m not that interesting,” deflected Tweedle. “I’m sure you all have more interesting stories…”

“Right…” said Kat slowly. “But we know our own life stories, and we’ve shared a decent amount with each other already. We were curious. How about some questions to get you started, like, what made you interested in alchemy and was there a chance you could have done something else?”

Tweedle nodded, “Oh, um, alright. So… my family is a mixture of painters and potters sort of on both sides. It’s a little odd because you’d think we’d work together all the time but actually it’s mostly a bunch of people getting angry at each other and trying to fight. We… still have some of that.

“My parents got together as a sort of teenage rebellion, going after the forbidden fruit… and got along really well,” Tweedle’s face twitched a few times. “My parents still get along FAR too well and apparently haven’t learnt to check the time. My siblings and I have shown up at home for a weekend dinner… and been scarred mentally more than once.”

Tweedle shivered again, “Right, so… they both have their profession but… I just didn’t click with either of them. I felt like pottery was a bit too messy for me. When I got in the zone it wasn’t too bad but as soon as I realised how much gunk was on my clothes or hands I freaked out and tended to ruins things. Maybe I would’ve gotten over it at some point but,” Tweedle shrugged. “I didn’t need to.

“I picked up painting afterwards but found that I just didn’t enjoy it. Wasn’t all that mentally stimulating for me. I could copy other paintings and life drawing wasn’t too bad… but I didn’t really care about it you know? I’m still not a bad painter and my drawing skills are pretty good because of where I grew up but I just didn’t have the passion for it.

“What I DID enjoy though was mixing paints. I drifted towards that job because a lot of people in the family just didn’t like it but for me there was just something about it that called to me. I could make just about anything given the right ingredients. I managed to improve several old family recipes and nearly doubled the amount of colours the family can use.

“Though,” Tweedle pulled at the edge of her lips with a hooked finger. “Not all of them get the same amount of use, and it depends who in the family wants them. I know my Mum almost exclusively uses one of the earlier yellows I made, but my father uses almost nothing of mine. Though, I did focus more on colours for canvas then for pottery so that’s probably why.

“Anyway, someone made an off handed comment once about how if I ’liked mixing so much I should become an alchemist and make better money’ and… well I’d love to say I jumped straight into it and quickly found my passion but I just asked my parents for a book on beginner alchemy and then completely forgot about it for the rest of the year. It wasn’t until I actually got the book on my birthday that I remembered I planned to check it out…

“And then I put that off for like another six months because I was working on improving our green pigments at the time. I kept failing for some reason, getting colours that were too similar to previous ones for the same or more cost. Well, that or the one time I ended up with yellow. Still not sure how that happened.

“Regardless, I did eventually get to looking into the book… and it just seemed so cool. All of the various ingredients I’d used just for making fancy colours so far could be turned into various magical effects! I mean, it’s hard to describe the amazement at that realisation. Taking some of the ingredients for the red and green pigments and slamming them together would get me a healing potion!

“That was crazy to think about. That these things could be so potent. I never thought I’d have a talent for magic, which wasn’t true because you need that talent for alchemy… but I believed it at the time. Point is, it was wonderous. I started practicing with leftover scraps from making pigments and had… some success. I didn’t exactly develop any new potions but I proved I had the skill for it.

“Once I’d managed that, I started looking around for potential teachers, and Appoline always stood out as the best one. Even though I didn’t want to join the thieves guild… no matter who I asked she was always the best one. They’d talk about how often she actually took classes, how many potions she’d invented or brewed. I think the only criticisms I ever heard was the fact she doesn’t take direct apprentices and the focus on poisons, but well, that second part never bothered me.”

“Oh? But my lack of apprentices does?” asked Appoline with a smirk.

Tweedle froze in place like a mouse that suddenly remembered the was a snake behind it. Apparently she’d forgotten that Appoline was right there listening to her backstory. Tweedle opened her mouth to try to explain but instead of words the only thing that managed to escape her mouth was more of a pained wheeze then anything else.

Appoline gave her a few pats on the head. “I’m just messing with you,”

This did not seem to help Tweedle recover from her shellshock if the fact she collapsed onto the table a moment later was any indication of things. Kat gave Appoline a deadpan look but the elf just shrugged, grin still on her face. Eventually Tweedle managed to pull herself back together. “Um… er… well…” Tweedle shook her head. “That wasn’t… I don’t think I mind?

“I mean, even the people that did make that complaint also said that because you spent so much time either researching or teaching classes you were still really cool, but the fact you didn’t take apprentices was seen as weird…”

Appoline nodded, “That’s fair. Personally, I just don’t see a reason for it. While my recipes are somewhat a secret that’s mostly for my poisons or big money makers. I share plenty and the fact of the matter is… my skills aren’t particularly innovative. As much as I’d like to claim otherwise, all I’ve done for the most part is take the basics and refine them to a razor’s edge.

“Now, I’m sure I could give some advice, but most of it is just mana control. That’s the sort of thing that’s hard to teach. You just sort of… have to be good enough to start and then put in ridiculous amounts of time practicing. I don’t really have any secret for my training either. I simply make a lot of potions and constantly try to push myself, which is nothing you can’t do alone.

“For some people, the reason you get an apprentice is to push off the boring or annoying work off onto them while giving them the basics and sometimes some special recipes… but I don’t like slacking on this parts because they STILL matter. If you aren’t personally cutting the ingredients then you get less of a sense for them. I can also likely cut better then an apprentice and well,” Appoline shrugged. “It’s just a practice thing. Most people don’t practice as much, though my inherent talent probably does help,”

“Surely there’s more to it then that?” Tweedle queried. “I mean, there’s never been anyone like you…”

“I’m pretty sure that isn’t true… but my counter point is this. How often do people really like to work? I have almost no social life. When I’m not brewing potions I’m researching them. When I’m not researching I’m teaching. The only other things I do is eat and sleep, and I probably do that less then I should anyway. What you’re seeing is a lifetime dedicated to a single craft and most people just can’t manage the mental toll of it…” Appoline explained.