They worked late into the evening that night, making an assortment of chisels, hand tools and kitchenware that sold well at the shop. By the time they were done, Dominic had made most of the essentials for a camping trip, and he was actually getting some decent experience on the first level of his chosen craft.
[Apprentice Smithing] Level 1 (190 points)
He was over halfway to the second level of Smithing, but Dominic was beginning to realize just how basic the trade skill gem he had traded for was. It taught him the very minimum of the basics when he attuned to it. So little that one night in the forge with a competent smith had nearly doubled his knowledge base.
There would be a whole Journeyman Smith's worth of knowledge locked away in the Skill Core, but at the start, you couldn't access any of it.
The room that Pops led him to was a simple place, with only a bed and a small table. The bathroom was down the hall, presumably shared with Pops and whoever else was living above the shop in the small dorm rooms. But at least it had a latch on the door and a thick window that didn't leak.
The constant burning of coal for the steam vehicles made the air terrible outside, but inside the bedroom, it seemed to be filtered somehow and much cleaner than it had been either outside or in the forge.
The answer lay in a simple device hidden on the far side of the bed, a fan with a filter mounted to the front of it. The filter had clearly caught a lot of filth on the back, but the fan was blowing clean air around the limited space with a gentle breeze, making it much more pleasant in the bedroom.
It was a magical device, and presumably ran on mana, but Dominic had no idea if he could even recharge it. He could use spells, but this was Dwarven magic, not human or Dragon, so it was possible that he wouldn't be able to recharge the device and would have to ask for assistance when it stopped blowing.
Assuming he was here that long. But if one day out hunting Goblins was enough for a two-week stay, then he just needed another day to get enough for the week's food. Or, he could work the shop and find out what Pops was going to pay him as an apprentice. That might be enough all by itself.
The thought of food made his stomach growl, but it was now late at night, and he wasn't going to wander the streets after dark looking for somewhere to eat. He would do that in the morning.
Morning that came much too soon, with the shops opening at sunrise and the sound of steam-driven cargo carriages whistling and bouncing down the road with their terrible suspension, waking him from a deep sleep.
Dominic wanted to go back to bed, but hunger wasn't going to let him, so he reluctantly got dressed and went to the single bathroom on this floor to freshen up.
There were fresh towels and a selection of unused soaps in the shower, all of which smelled of various liquors. Dominic shook his head at Pops' version of scented body products, then chose one that smelled of peppermint schnapps. It had a definite alcoholic note to it, but the peppermint wasn't bad.
He made his way downstairs to the smithy, intending to head out to find some food, when the scent of roasting meat reached his nose. Pops had two plates out on the workbench and a pot of something boiling over the forge.
"Take a seat, breakfast will be just a few more minutes." He instructed.
While he talked, Pops dropped a large amount of butter and a mug full of a yellow slurry that Dominic hoped was beaten eggs into a cast iron skillet, then stirred the pot.
"Smithing is hungry work, so we eat heavy in the morning and again at lunch, then snack in the evening, or just drink ourselves to sleep," he laughed.
The pot turned out to be a thick beef stew, served with scrambled eggs and fresh bread.
"That bread comes from two doors down by the way. If you need more, just head over there and tell the old woman not to cheat my apprentice." Pops instructed.
"Will that get me a discount, or will it double the price?" Dominic asked in his best serious tone, but the aging blacksmith just laughed at him.
"With that old woman? Who knows? She likes kids, though, and you're a good two centuries younger than she is."
"Two centuries?" Dominic asked in shock. He had assumed the old woman would be human.
"That's most people's response, and she will deny it, but she's been an old woman for as long as I've lived here, and I was born in this forge." Pops laughed, making his freshly braided beard dance with the movement of his head.
The first customers of the day came in as Dominic was washing his bowl, a group of five teenagers in practical leather armour and carrying ornate rifles. No, that wasn't quite right, one of them was in cloth robes and carrying a staff, not a rifle. That must be the group's cleric or spell caster.
"What can I help you with this morning?" Dominic asked politely.
"We have need of a very particular sort of tools. I need a five millimetre engraving chisel suitable for wood, a fine point auger no more than one millimetre thick, and a silver engraving pen." The leader of the group explained.
"Well, I know we have the chisel and the auger. Those are here and here, let me see if we've got a silver engraving pen in stock." Dominic replied.
The first two were tools that they had made last night, but they hadn't worked with any valuable metals.
"In the store room, third shelf, seventh box." Pops called up from the forge.
How he heard anything over the noise was anyone's guess, but the tools were right where he said they would be.
"And here is your silver engraving pen. That one's a bit more expensive than the standard tools. Your total will be twenty-four silver coins." He explained.
"Can't you cut us a bit of a deal." The leader asked, while aiming a conspiratorial, and entirely too friendly, smile at Dominic.
That was going to get old fast. If someone was going to treat him like a gullible kid, why couldn't it be some cute guardswoman or a barmaid? He might just let them get away with it.
Maybe he should stop shaving and let a beard begin to grow in.
No, he hated the scratchy feeling, even if it did make him look closer to his age in human years.
"For a fine and upstanding gentleman like you, twenty-two silver and twenty copper." Dominic agreed, and saw him begin to celebrate before realizing that the price hadn't actually changed.
"He's got your number, Nick. Don't worry, we know how Pops is. The price is the price. Hey old man, come say hi." The spell caster called out.
"I can say hello just as well from back here. Bother my new apprentice, I'm busy."
The adventurers laughed and shook their heads, used to his antics.
"We will see you later, don't work the boy too hard, you hear?"
Pops chuckled at the interaction as he watched from the forge. Young Dominic hadn't realized that the innate magical Charisma of dragon blood didn't discriminate, and all humans would find themselves drawn to a smiling dragonkin, like they would be drawn to a puppy.
The door didn't even have time to close before another customer walked in, looking hurried and somewhat panicked.
"Are you the one named Dominic? Princess Alexis requests your presence to accompany herself and Princess Elanor on her hunting group for the day." The man asked the moment that he stepped foot inside the small shop.
Well, that was certainly unexpected.
But Dominic would have rather not gone out again with the children from the Academy, even if the youngest Princess was the most competent among them.