I spent a good while with Kayla and Max, just enjoying their company. But eventually, we were interrupted by Gorlin walking up to our table.
“David sends Gorlin to get you, he did,” Gorlin said, nodding his head emphatically.
I held in a sigh, “Alright, you’ll take me to him then?”
Gorlin just nodded again and turned around to walk away.
I gave Kayla and Max an apologetic smile, “Sorry, I’ll talk to y’all later.”
Kayla waved as I stood up, “Alright, we’ll see you later, Alex!”
Max just nodded, raising his hand in farewell. I turned to follow Gorlin as he led me away from the table. I initially expected him to take me to David’s room. But that wasn’t the direction he led me at all.
Instead, he started taking me towards the exit of our cell block. I frowned and panned my vision slightly allowing one of my minds to see what was happening at the end of the hallway. David was standing at the end of the hall with an entourage, the door leading out was open.
On the other side of the door was a group of soldiers and some workers, they didn’t look like slaves so I had to assume they were craftsmen and actual laborers. People who were actually good at their job and got paid for it.
They were working on moving the baskets full of fruit that I had made for them. I stepped around the corner to hear David talking with one of the soldiers, but he stopped and turned when he noticed me approaching with Gorlin leading me.
“Ah, the elf of the hour. I’m glad you were able to make it over here quickly. Perri here had a few questions for you,” He said with a gesture to the soldier next to him.
Perri flashed me an extremely photogenic smile. So much so it seemed almost blinding in the slightly gloomy lighting of the caves and tunnels.
He was about average height, in between me and David on the scale. He had a ruggedly handsome face, a strong jawline with a well-shaved stubble slowly growing back in. But the aesthetic of it was carefully groomed. I couldn’t see what his hair was like inside his helmet. It was also just possible that he was bald.
“Well, it’s less questions I want to ask you and more questions some of the chefs want to ask. My job is just to take you to them. So whenever you’re ready we’ll head out.”
I frowned slightly glancing between him and David. David just shrugged.
“You should probably go with him, you’re not likely to get in trouble. Although I would say refrain from taking any deals or offers without first discussing them with me.”
I nodded slowly, “Alright then.”
“Great,” Perri exclaimed, “Follow me.”
And with that, he turned and walked away. We passed by the people working on moving the baskets. They had commandeered one of the hovering transport carts we used out in the gorge to transfer the dirt and stone that we knocked loose. Here they were just stacking the baskets inside on top of each other carefully.
Perri just marched us past them and took me through to the main cavern.
[Level 63³]
‘Ping’ [Identify] Has leveled 11 > 12
A decently high level as well. Perri glanced at me as soon as I checked his level, but turned back around without saying anything.
As we walked I found out something. Perri was apparently pretty popular with people. Lots of people ended up walking with us for a while, just talking with him or asking him questions. Whenever they did I just tried to stay back and out of the way. I didn’t want to give them a reason to get pissed off at me right now.
“Hey, Perri! How’s it going?” One guy asked, talking boisterously.
This man was big. As tall as I was, but probably about 100 lbs heavier. He was well-built, with strong arms and broad shoulders. He wasn’t overly muscular though and he wasn’t built like a strongman either. Just bigger, but not fat.
“Hey, Joe. It’s going, head chef wanted to talk to this guy so I’m bringing him over there,” Perri gestured with his thumb back at me.
A bit of annoyance flashed through my mind at him bringing attention to me, but I didn’t say anything and tried not to react.
Joe glanced at me, frowning slightly before turning back to Perri.
“One of the slaves? Why would they want to bother with one of them? I’m not sure I feel safe with any of them near our food.”
Perri let out a snort, “They’re no more dangerous around it than you are with your grubby ass hands. Nah, look more closely. This ain’t just any of the slaves. Although it’s kinda hard to tell with his hair in the way.”
Joe turned back again to get a better focus on my features. Eventually, he saw my ears and a glint of recognition flashed through his eyes.
“Ah, the elf. Lurks’ little boy toy then? Still, that doesn’t answer why they would want to bother with him.”
“You won’t be complaining when you find out what he can do. Apparently, he can create fruits and stuff and he planning on selling it to the camp. Not sure what he plans on doing with the money. But that ain’t any of my business. Nah, the chefs wanna know exactly what he can make and how much. Cause you and I both know how hard it is to get stuff out here, what with the Gorge being difficult to get carts down.”
Joe’s mouth made an ‘o’ shape as Perri talked, “Yeah you’re right about that one, Perri. Hell, that’ll be good for us then. So I guess we’re going to be getting some better stuff to eat around here then? It’s not often we get meats and stuff anyway, but having something that can fill out the interim would be good I think. Getting actually seasoned foods more often will be very nice as well.”
“That’s the hope anyways. But I wouldn’t count on being able to get it all the time. To start with he’s only made fifty baskets of the stuff. And while those baskets are pretty big, there’s not enough to feed several thousand people. Even with the chef's skills and classes.”
“Man, that sucks,” Joe turned back to look at me again, “Why did you only make fifty? Can you not make more?”
I shrugged, “It took me around 8 hours to make the fifty that I did, I could potentially make more. But why should I? I also make some for the chefs in my cellblock so that I can eat something nice as well.”
Joe frowned a little, “You have a chance to make people's lives a bit easier in this hellhole and you’re for a reason why?”
I came to a stop and stared at him incredulously.
I struggled to come up with words to say that wouldn’t get me in trouble before finally managing to squeeze out, “I’m. A. Slave.”
Joe at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed about that.
“Ah. Right. Yeah, that makes sense I guess.”
Perri just laughed, “Don’t mind Joe. He’s a good guy. Or at least tries to be, tends to let his stomach think before his brain though.”
I just nodded slowly and stepped in behind them again without saying anything.
Absolutely ridiculous.
***
We eventually crossed clear over to the other side of the main cavern. As we approached there were tons of tables and chairs. A decent amount of them were currently being occupied by a lot of the soldiers. Eating obviously.
Perri led us past them towards what were clearly the kitchens. They looked vaguely reminiscent of the one that Jolene worked in, except theirs had way better equipment and more attention to detail put into designing it.
Whereas the ones in the cellblock looked more like an afterthought than an actually planned installment. I wasn’t all that surprised, they could’ve made the ones we had just as good if they wanted to. But why would they? They had absolutely no reason to go that far. Anything else would’ve honestly been a waste of resources, hell they probably tried to find a way to justify not doing it in the first place.
Perri walked up to the counter and yelled out, “Ay big man! I brought him!”
A while later a man walked out from around the counter.
I had to hold in a slight snort of laughter. The man had a striking resemblance to Jolene in the height department. What was with the head chefs being impossibly short? Beyond that, he had short-cropped brown hair. His only other discerning feature was a scar running along his right cheek.
“Good. Very good,” He said as he approached. He had a slightly gruff voice that was at odds with his height.
“So you’re the elf then?” He said it as a question, but I knew it wasn’t really one. He took a moment to look me over.
“Alright then. So tell me about this skill you’ve got. I’m assuming it's just something simple like [Fruit Production] or something like that?”
I frowned at his use of the word simple, but I didn’t plan on bringing it up at the moment, instead, I just nodded.
“Yeah, fruit, vegetable, and plant production. So three skills in total.”
“How many of those baskets can you make in an hour?”
“About 10 every hour. Give or take a bit,” I replied.
The chef nodded slowly and thought for a moment before he spoke again.
“What would it take to get you to up this to fifty baskets a day, rather than a week?”
I immediately shook my head, “That’s just not possible, unfortunately. At least, not while I’m a slave. There will never be a guarantee that I’ll have the time to make them. I fight in the cage matches and I have… other obligations as well beyond that.”
He frowned, “You could just stop participating. And what other obligations? The whole point of me asking this is to find what you would deem as an acceptable tradeoff to stop doing other things and focus on this.”
I was about to retort angrily when Perri laid a hand on my shoulder, clearing his throat.
The chef turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What I think he actually means,” Perri started off slowly, “Is that Lurks makes him fight in the cage matches and his other obligations are with her.”
The chef just sighed rubbing his forehead, “Damn that woman, constantly getting in the way of the good things in life. Fine. Nothing I can do about that. Let’s change it around a little then. What would it take you to increase production above fifty baskets a week at all?”
I shrugged, “Not really my place to say. This was a joint partnership with me and a man in my cellblock. Without his connections to, I’m assuming Perri, this wouldn’t even be happening. He’s also the business mind behind this so I’d recommend talking with him about stuff like this.”
The chef sighed again, “Fine, I’ll do that when I have time. What I want to know is what you can make with the skill currently. I don’t recognize some of these fruits or veggies but even the ones I do recognize seem slightly off as well from what I’m used to.”
“I can make anything I’ve seen in person at least once. I’m not sure if I have to eat it or not as well, it would be something I have to try with something new. As for everything else, all of the things I made are as they would have appeared in my home region. I can at the very least promise that they’re edible and not harmful given that we’ve been using them in my cellblock for a while now.”
“Very good,” He said, “I might gather a group of things I’d like you to make assuming you don’t already know about them, but for now that satisfies what I wanted to know I think. You can take him back now, Perrigan.”
With that the chef turned around and walked back into the kitchen, barking orders at the chefs around him who responded with varying levels of enthusiasm.
“Alright then, let's get you back to your block then.”
I nodded slowly, turning to follow him.
“I think we’re going to be working pretty closely together from now on so I’ll introduce myself properly,” He said, “I’m Perrigan, but most people just call me Perri.”
He didn’t stick out his hand as part of the greeting, which seemed odd to me, I wasn’t sure if that was a social status thing, a him thing, or a cultural thing. I guess it really didn’t matter in the end.
I responded to him in kind, “I’m Alexander, but most everyone just calls me Alex.”
Perri nodded, giving me a blinding smile, “I look forward to working with you then, Alex.”
This time he did stick out his hand.
His enthusiasm was a bit infectious. I couldn’t help but start to like him a little bit.
I smiled back at him, “I look forward to working with you too.”
I spent a good while with Kayla and Max, just enjoying their company. But eventually, we were interrupted by Gorlin walking up to our table.
“David sends Gorlin to get you, he did,” Gorlin said, nodding his head emphatically.
I held in a sigh, “Alright, you’ll take me to him then?”
Gorlin just nodded again and turned around to walk away.
I gave Kayla and Max an apologetic smile, “Sorry, I’ll talk to y’all later.”
Kayla waved as I stood up, “Alright, we’ll see you later, Alex!”
Max just nodded, raising his hand in farewell. I turned to follow Gorlin as he led me away from the table. I initially expected him to take me to David’s room. But that wasn’t the direction he led me at all.
Instead, he started taking me towards the exit of our cell block. I frowned and panned my vision slightly allowing one of my minds to see what was happening at the end of the hallway. David was standing at the end of the hall with an entourage, the door leading out was open.
On the other side of the door was a group of soldiers and some workers, they didn’t look like slaves so I had to assume they were craftsmen and actual laborers. People who were actually good at their job and got paid for it.
They were working on moving the baskets full of fruit that I had made for them. I stepped around the corner to hear David talking with one of the soldiers, but he stopped and turned when he noticed me approaching with Gorlin leading me.
“Ah, the elf of the hour. I’m glad you were able to make it over here quickly. Perri here had a few questions for you,” He said with a gesture to the soldier next to him.
Perri flashed me an extremely photogenic smile. So much so it seemed almost blinding in the slightly gloomy lighting of the caves and tunnels.
He was about average height, in between me and David on the scale. He had a ruggedly handsome face, a strong jawline with a well-shaved stubble slowly growing back in. But the aesthetic of it was carefully groomed. I couldn’t see what his hair was like inside his helmet. It was also just possible that he was bald.
“Well, it’s less questions I want to ask you and more questions some of the chefs want to ask. My job is just to take you to them. So whenever you’re ready we’ll head out.”
I frowned slightly glancing between him and David. David just shrugged.
“You should probably go with him, you’re not likely to get in trouble. Although I would say refrain from taking any deals or offers without first discussing them with me.”
I nodded slowly, “Alright then.”
“Great,” Perri exclaimed, “Follow me.”
And with that, he turned and walked away. We passed by the people working on moving the baskets. They had commandeered one of the hovering transport carts we used out in the gorge to transfer the dirt and stone that we knocked loose. Here they were just stacking the baskets inside on top of each other carefully.
Perri just marched us past them and took me through to the main cavern.
[Level 63³]
‘Ping’ [Identify] Has leveled 11 > 12
A decently high level as well. Perri glanced at me as soon as I checked his level, but turned back around without saying anything.
As we walked I found out something. Perri was apparently pretty popular with people. Lots of people ended up walking with us for a while, just talking with him or asking him questions. Whenever they did I just tried to stay back and out of the way. I didn’t want to give them a reason to get pissed off at me right now.
“Hey, Perri! How’s it going?” One guy asked, talking boisterously.
This man was big. As tall as I was, but probably about 100 lbs heavier. He was well-built, with strong arms and broad shoulders. He wasn’t overly muscular though and he wasn’t built like a strongman either. Just bigger, but not fat.
“Hey, Joe. It’s going, head chef wanted to talk to this guy so I’m bringing him over there,” Perri gestured with his thumb back at me.
A bit of annoyance flashed through my mind at him bringing attention to me, but I didn’t say anything and tried not to react.
Joe glanced at me, frowning slightly before turning back to Perri.
“One of the slaves? Why would they want to bother with one of them? I’m not sure I feel safe with any of them near our food.”
Perri let out a snort, “They’re no more dangerous around it than you are with your grubby ass hands. Nah, look more closely. This ain’t just any of the slaves. Although it’s kinda hard to tell with his hair in the way.”
Joe turned back again to get a better focus on my features. Eventually, he saw my ears and a glint of recognition flashed through his eyes.
“Ah, the elf. Lurks’ little boy toy then? Still, that doesn’t answer why they would want to bother with him.”
“You won’t be complaining when you find out what he can do. Apparently, he can create fruits and stuff and he planning on selling it to the camp. Not sure what he plans on doing with the money. But that ain’t any of my business. Nah, the chefs wanna know exactly what he can make and how much. Cause you and I both know how hard it is to get stuff out here, what with the Gorge being difficult to get carts down.”
Joe’s mouth made an ‘o’ shape as Perri talked, “Yeah you’re right about that one, Perri. Hell, that’ll be good for us then. So I guess we’re going to be getting some better stuff to eat around here then? It’s not often we get meats and stuff anyway, but having something that can fill out the interim would be good I think. Getting actually seasoned foods more often will be very nice as well.”
“That’s the hope anyways. But I wouldn’t count on being able to get it all the time. To start with he’s only made fifty baskets of the stuff. And while those baskets are pretty big, there’s not enough to feed several thousand people. Even with the chef's skills and classes.”
“Man, that sucks,” Joe turned back to look at me again, “Why did you only make fifty? Can you not make more?”
I shrugged, “It took me around 8 hours to make the fifty that I did, I could potentially make more. But why should I? I also make some for the chefs in my cellblock so that I can eat something nice as well.”
Joe frowned a little, “You have a chance to make people's lives a bit easier in this hellhole and you’re for a reason why?”
I came to a stop and stared at him incredulously.
I struggled to come up with words to say that wouldn’t get me in trouble before finally managing to squeeze out, “I’m. A. Slave.”
Joe at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed about that.
“Ah. Right. Yeah, that makes sense I guess.”
Perri just laughed, “Don’t mind Joe. He’s a good guy. Or at least tries to be, tends to let his stomach think before his brain though.”
I just nodded slowly and stepped in behind them again without saying anything.
Absolutely ridiculous.
***
We eventually crossed clear over to the other side of the main cavern. As we approached there were tons of tables and chairs. A decent amount of them were currently being occupied by a lot of the soldiers. Eating obviously.
Perri led us past them towards what were clearly the kitchens. They looked vaguely reminiscent of the one that Jolene worked in, except theirs had way better equipment and more attention to detail put into designing it.
Whereas the ones in the cellblock looked more like an afterthought than an actually planned installment. I wasn’t all that surprised, they could’ve made the ones we had just as good if they wanted to. But why would they? They had absolutely no reason to go that far. Anything else would’ve honestly been a waste of resources, hell they probably tried to find a way to justify not doing it in the first place.
Perri walked up to the counter and yelled out, “Ay big man! I brought him!”
A while later a man walked out from around the counter.
I had to hold in a slight snort of laughter. The man had a striking resemblance to Jolene in the height department. What was with the head chefs being impossibly short? Beyond that, he had short-cropped brown hair. His only other discerning feature was a scar running along his right cheek.
“Good. Very good,” He said as he approached. He had a slightly gruff voice that was at odds with his height.
“So you’re the elf then?” He said it as a question, but I knew it wasn’t really one. He took a moment to look me over.
“Alright then. So tell me about this skill you’ve got. I’m assuming it's just something simple like [Fruit Production] or something like that?”
I frowned at his use of the word simple, but I didn’t plan on bringing it up at the moment, instead, I just nodded.
“Yeah, fruit, vegetable, and plant production. So three skills in total.”
“How many of those baskets can you make in an hour?”
“About 10 every hour. Give or take a bit,” I replied.
The chef nodded slowly and thought for a moment before he spoke again.
“What would it take to get you to up this to fifty baskets a day, rather than a week?”
I immediately shook my head, “That’s just not possible, unfortunately. At least, not while I’m a slave. There will never be a guarantee that I’ll have the time to make them. I fight in the cage matches and I have… other obligations as well beyond that.”
He frowned, “You could just stop participating. And what other obligations? The whole point of me asking this is to find what you would deem as an acceptable tradeoff to stop doing other things and focus on this.”
I was about to retort angrily when Perri laid a hand on my shoulder, clearing his throat.
The chef turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“What I think he actually means,” Perri started off slowly, “Is that Lurks makes him fight in the cage matches and his other obligations are with her.”
The chef just sighed rubbing his forehead, “Damn that woman, constantly getting in the way of the good things in life. Fine. Nothing I can do about that. Let’s change it around a little then. What would it take you to increase production above fifty baskets a week at all?”
I shrugged, “Not really my place to say. This was a joint partnership with me and a man in my cellblock. Without his connections to, I’m assuming Perri, this wouldn’t even be happening. He’s also the business mind behind this so I’d recommend talking with him about stuff like this.”
The chef sighed again, “Fine, I’ll do that when I have time. What I want to know is what you can make with the skill currently. I don’t recognize some of these fruits or veggies but even the ones I do recognize seem slightly off as well from what I’m used to.”
“I can make anything I’ve seen in person at least once. I’m not sure if I have to eat it or not as well, it would be something I have to try with something new. As for everything else, all of the things I made are as they would have appeared in my home region. I can at the very least promise that they’re edible and not harmful given that we’ve been using them in my cellblock for a while now.”
“Very good,” He said, “I might gather a group of things I’d like you to make assuming you don’t already know about them, but for now that satisfies what I wanted to know I think. You can take him back now, Perrigan.”
With that the chef turned around and walked back into the kitchen, barking orders at the chefs around him who responded with varying levels of enthusiasm.
“Alright then, let's get you back to your block then.”
I nodded slowly, turning to follow him.
“I think we’re going to be working pretty closely together from now on so I’ll introduce myself properly,” He said, “I’m Perrigan, but most people just call me Perri.”
He didn’t stick out his hand as part of the greeting, which seemed odd to me, I wasn’t sure if that was a social status thing, a him thing, or a cultural thing. I guess it really didn’t matter in the end.
I responded to him in kind, “I’m Alexander, but most everyone just calls me Alex.”
Perri nodded, giving me a blinding smile, “I look forward to working with you then, Alex.”
This time he did stick out his hand.
His enthusiasm was a bit infectious. I couldn’t help but start to like him a little bit.
I smiled back at him, “I look forward to working with you too.”
