Chapter 10:
Outdoor Goods
“HEY, PHARMACIST.” Annabelle dropped in to buy her usual round of beloved potions.
“Morning. You’re early today.” In fact, the drugstore wasn’t even fully open yet. We were just getting ready.
“Well, you’ve seemed busy durin’ the days lately,” she replied. “And I didn’t want to make more work for you, but…”
“What is it?”
“I…I want to make a tent order.”
She’s so quiet. “Can you afford it?”
“Of course I can!”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude. We’ll put one in, then. How many tents would you like?”
Annabelle was captain of the Red Cat Brigade, the mercenary squad protecting the town, so she might’ve planned to use the tents while training her men.
She raised her index finger. “One.”
“Will that be all…?” I asked hesitantly. Wait… Is this tent for personal use? Maybe she wants a secret base like Noela’s? In that case, I shouldn’t pry. “Everyone wants one of those deep down, Annabelle. Don’t worry.”
“Huh? Uh…yeah, all right.”
Are we on the same page? I wondered. “Uh…what do you plan to use your tent for?”
“Well…nothin’ in particular. I guess I want one so I can take a load off,” Annabelle sighed. “Look, the Red Cat Brigade live in barracks, right? Wherever I go, the guys are always watchin’.”
Ah…I see. “You’d like a spot where you can be on your own?”
“Y-yeah, exactly! See, you totally get it, Pharmacist!” Annabelle seemed thrilled that someone understood her plight.
She wants to go camping solo, eh?
“What’re you grinnin’ about?” she asked bluntly.
“Nothing. I just totally understand where you’re coming from.”
“Really…? Well, I’ll take one tent, then. Oh, and keep this secret from my men. If they find out I’m goin’ campin’, they’ll want to tag along.”
“You got it.” We were a pharmacy after all, so I generally made sure not to talk about anything that infringed on customers’ privacy.
It was pretty mysterious that people seemed to want to try camping just because the business association was producing tents. Still, it was important to have personal space. I hadn’t really craved that since arriving in this world, but I thought maybe I should camp solo sometime. I couldn’t exactly get alone time at the drugstore, since Noela often kept an eye on me.
“What talk to Red about, Master?”
“Nothing much.”
“Garoo?”
As I opened the store, Mina told me she was going shopping in town. I asked her to put in an extra tent order.
“I just need to go to the meeting hall, right?” she asked.
“Uh-huh. As soon as you tell them, they’ll know what to do.”
“All right! See you later, then.”
Noela and I saw Mina off. Once we’d opened the store, things were quiet, so I headed to the lab. If I go camping solo, there are definitely some things I’ll need… I can make those on the sly right now.
“What make, Master?” Noela demanded, peeking in from the doorway.
“Whoa! You scared me. Didn’t I ask you to watch the store?”
“Groo! Help Master.” In other words, she wanted to pitch in because she was bored.
“I was thinking of making potions,” I told her.
“Noela go back! Would only distract you.” Tail wagging, she hurried to her post.
“Thank goodness she’s so easy to handle.” Grinning, I returned to my work.
I already had a tent. Next, I needed tools to start a fire. I want to light one the traditional way!
I’d never gone out of my way to formulate something that would make more work for me. Running a little magic through a fire stone allowed you to start a fire immediately, so those were super useful day to day. Still, going into the wild and getting by with limited tools was part of what made camping so much fun. Sure, I could’ve brought stones or Hell Flame, but I wanted to enjoy the discomfort, if that made sense.
Kindling Gel: Solidifies when applied. Rubbing two treated surfaces together firmly produces sparks.
Perfect. “If I put this on sticks or something…” I could kindle a fire easily.
I carried my new creation into the yard, found two branches, and applied the gel to them right away. As I did so, the gelled sections turned lead gray, instantly becoming as hard as metal.
This should work. I tentatively rubbed the branches together.
Pa-shoom! Sparks burst from the gelled spots. For a second, the sticks resembled firecrackers.
“Whoa!” I exclaimed. Extinguishing the branches, I retried the process several times, careful not to set anything else alight. “The gel doesn’t seem to wear out. Don’t tell me it works forever once you’ve applied it…?”
Was it possible I’d created a substitute for fire life stones? Mina said she replaced those twice a month. If a life stone died while she was cooking or something, and she didn’t have an extra, something like this would be a lifesaver.
Looks like I accidentally made a really handy product. Still, we’d never need the kindling gel if we didn’t run out of fire life stones.
“What wrong, Red?”
“Hey, is the pharmacist here?”
“Master make potions. No get in way!”
“I ain’t plannin’ to, dum-dum.”
Overhearing the conversation in the drugstore, I headed back and found Noela blocking Annabelle’s path. “Noela, it’s fine. No need to stop her. What’s up, Annabelle?”
“Tasty taste done, Master?!” Noela demanded.
Oh, right. Whoops. “Uh…those potions will take a little longer.”
“Groo… Understand. Patient.”
Sorry, Noela. I’ll make you a potion as soon as I’m done here. “Um, Annabelle, did you forget something?”
The mercenaries’ captain shook her head, her ponytail swaying. “Is my tent ready?”
“Unfortunately, those take a while to finish after they’re ordered.”
“O-oh…really?” she seemed disappointed.
“Mina just took your request to the business association, though. Ah—she’s home now.”
Mina carried a basket of groceries into the drugstore. Speak of the devil. Wait a sec… Those poles poking out of her basket look awfully familiar.
“How’d dropping off that tent order go, Mina?” I asked.
“Um, about that… An adventurer canceled their order, and the business association gave me their tent.” So, the rods in her basket were actually tentpole sections. Mina pulled a canopy from her bag as well, smiling. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
Annabelle jumped into the conversation immediately, looking amazed. “Th-that’s a Kalta tent?!”
Mina hesitated.
“Groo?”
Since the girls seemed confused, I explained this morning’s visit. “Annabelle ordered her own tent earlier.”
Noela, our first tent tester, proudly held her head high and nodded dramatically. “Red! Red! Tents very good indeed!”
“You’ve used one already?”
“Noela first to use!”
“Really?!”
Annabelle had the money for the tent with her. She passed it to me, and I’d take it to the meeting hall later. When Mina handed her the tent, she seemed stunned. “This is it… A tent! It’s so light. Amazin’!”
I won’t lie, seeing someone react to a Kalta tent firsthand is pretty thrilling. It felt even better that I hadn’t created the tent solo. The entire business association’s efforts had produced it.
“It’s pretty easy to put together,” I assured Annabelle.
“Got it. If it’s simple, I’m sure I’ll have no problem. Really appreciate this, Pharmacist.”
Before she could leave, I called, “Um, hold on a sec!”
Rushing back to the lab, I grabbed some of the kindling gel I’d just made and then returned to the drugstore. I handed Annabelle the container. “You can use this to start fires without life stones. Give it a try if you want.”
“Th-thanks. When’d you have time to make me somethin’ like this…?”
“Don’t mention it. I actually made this earlier. If you go camping anytime soon, let me know how it works out.”
Annabelle nodded, leaving the drugstore with her tent and kindling gel in hand.
“Do you think the Red Cat Brigade’s going on an excursion?” Mina asked, cocking her head.
“Apparently, Annabelle wants to use that tent by herself.”
“By herself?” Mina looked even more befuddled.
“Master! Hurry! Tasty taste!”
Noela was impatient to drink her potion, so I headed back to the lab.