Book 4, Chapter 58: A Local Specialty
I was practically quivering with anticipation as I crushed a grape and dripped the juices on the refractometer. The beaven, young and old, all leaned in closer to watch what I was doing. The three Digger-turned-Goldstone youngsters did the same, their extra height on the beaven allowing them to sit at the back.
Though not as far back as Mirelda, who towered over everyone present. She was here ostensibly to learn how to make wine, but was really just in it for the beaven petting. I could see her just out of the corner of my eye, desperately trying to hold back from patting the fuzzy little kit standing in front of her.
It was an understandable desire, and one I had to stop myself from doing every time I met with Deathbringer; he didn’t appreciate it.
“What is that tool, Dungeon Masterrr?” One of the kits asked.
I chortled at the nickname, which was far superior to ‘The Forefather of Brewing’! I lowered the penny-whistle-shaped tool down for them to see it better. “It’s a refractometer. It takes light and funnels it through this hole at the top, and then we can read the brix of the grape using this scale etched on here.”
The brix refractometer was one of the many tools I’d had Copperpot and Whistlemop copy back when I still had my [Pete’s Miniature Remembrance] Ability.
I sighed fondly, remembering back in the day when I’d explained the use of it to Aqua and Richter.
“Those little numbers can be used to determine how much sugar is in the grapes. You want around 22 to 26 degrees of Brix for a good red wine, 20 to 24 for a white wine, lower if you’re making a low alcohol sparkling wine, or higher for a stronger red. From our testing, Romero’s elven wine is a higher ABV than most reds, so I suspect that the Spirit Grapes will come out closer to 28 degrees or maybe even 30.”
I passed the tool around to all my eager beavers – heh, that joke never got old. They took turns politely looking through the refractometer and eagerly chittered at each other. I noted one of the dwarves in the front of the class paying close attention while they spoke, and wondered if he was learning the language, or had an Ability that translated for him. Val was hard at work teaching some of the Beaven dwarvish, but they really struggled getting their teeth around some of the more gutteral words. Thus far only two of the Beavens had managed. The [Druid] – a white furred beavette by the name of Treetoucher – and one of Deathbringer’s wives. It seemed the beavettes were better able to pronounce the words due to their smaller front teeth.
“Are those the grapes from your dungeon?” Mirelda asked, gesturing at the basket I held under my arm.
“Nah. I wanted ta get a baseline first. They’re just some regular old grapes I got from a South Erden importer.” I pulled out a notepad using [Paper Pusher] and jotted some numbers down. “They’re around 23 degrees Brix, which I expected.”
I pointed at some barrels off to the side of where we were standing. “Those are from the Vineyard. And the crates beside them are Spirit Grapes courtesy of Val and his friends amongst the Tender Sprites.”
We were currently in the beaven encampment, rather than the Vineyard. Eventually we’d move our wine-making into the Thirsty Goat, but I still wanted to keep the beaven and the fact I was making wine a secret. Thankfully, Deathbringer’s ‘Boss Aura’ kept all the lesser monsters away so we could work in peace.
I was momentarily distracted by a *Bing!* and went to check my new notification.
The gnomes need your help. Influence 4,000,000 gnomes with your otherworldly alcohol knowledge.
Gnomes influenced: 100/4,000,000
Rewards: [1 x Deific Intervention]
Do You Accept?
Yes/No
I absently hit ‘Yes’, while I walked over to pick up one of the barrels of Cascadia grapes. They were a dark crimson colour, closer to the colour of wet blood than any grape I was used to. I crushed one – thankfully it still smelled and tasted like grape – and took the reading. 26 degrees brix. The Mana inside was barely visible, but… that made sense for something that grew at the entrance to the dungeon, where the Mana level was always the lowest.
I then levered open a crate of Spirit Grapes to reveal the inside.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
The mass of Spirit Grapes smelled heavenly, with that unique musk that came from a really sweet fruit. Think of a mango that’s gotten overripe. I picked one up and examined it both with my [Arcane Crafter’s Eye] and my actual eye. It looked quite similar to a Pinot Sauvignon actually, if a bit darker, with murky green and blue mana running through it. Its veins were barely visible when I held it up to the light, so the juice inside was thicker as well. I pinched it onto my refractometer and went through the motions.
30 Degrees Brix. About what I’d expected.
I called my students over to the barrels, and pulled another half-dozen refractometers out of my pocket.
“Now, be good students and take turns checking the Brix readings of these. Take note of them on your notepads. These were all harvested in the early afternoon, and yes Brix readings can change from even something as small as time of day. The most common factors we can control for grape Brix are fertilizers, canopy management, pest control, and basic irrigation. We usually can’t control the other big factors, which are total rainfall, sunshine, outdoor temperature, and soil composition. That’s why grapes from the same field can have ‘good years’ or ‘bad years’ depending on the whims of the weather.”
In fact, one of the reasons I suspected Romero preferred Spirit Grapes was that the Tender Sprites were able to control all the usually ‘uncontrollable’ variables. Every year was a good year when you had monsters controlling the temperature and the soil composition, and Anima dungeon always had good weather.
“When you’re done. Dump these barrels into the big wooden tubs that Kirk brought in.” I pointed at one of the larger log longhouses where we’d put most of the winemaking equipment. Master Romero had been kind enough to lend me a couple of his special temperature controlled barrels, and one of his old maceration tanks. It’d taken some doing by Richter, but we now had a miniature setup for winemaking that looked nearly like Romero’s. Of course it was missing some of the fancier things, like anti-gravity pipes, a magic press, and a temperature controlled fermentation room, but it would do for now. Much like Anima, the temperature and weather in Cascadia was consistently good, so it should be fine.
While the students, and Mirelda, had fun doing refractometery, I pulled up my new Ability.
This Ability is always available.
Huh, so it was [Paper Pusher], but for brewing tools. Neat.
I pulled up my Status to check up on what I had. It was getting time to Specialize again, what with all the Milestones I was sitting on, and I had some ideas in that direction.
Agility: 16.7
Dexterity: 16.6
Wisdom: 18.1
Intelligence: 22.1
Perception: 18.4
Charisma: 24
I also had one use of [Karmic Reversal] if I ever needed it.
Not bad, not bad, even if I did say so myself. All my politicking had brought my Charisma up to a very respectable 24. That put me at near politician level, and it had come in handy during all my negotiations over the past year. Words came smoother, and I had a bit of a sixth sense when it came to reading people.
My Dex and Agility were both still garbage though. Not that it really mattered since none of my work required much fine control, and I had no interest in combat. At least the extra strength helped with lifting boxes!
But my Milestones were really filling up. It was time to Specialize again, and I had some ideas in that direction. [Big Money], as a dimensional ability, had combined to give me the incredible gift that was Cascadia. Dimensional Abilities as a rule were already somewhat uncommon, and I now had two of them. [Paper Pusher] and [Tools of the Trade].
I also had [Fetch Friend], [Wayfinder], and [Long Stride], all of which were travel Abilities.
And I did a lot of traveling these days. In between running out to the beaven settlements, performing beer ambassador duties in Tree, and sprinting around City Hall in Kinshasa, I spent a good part of the day just running around.
A Specialization in that could be very helpful.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any super rare Abilities this time, like a Personalized or Godly Milestone, so I was unlikely to get anything amazing. But, my personal quests were coming less and less often, and I suspected I was reaching the end of my Godly granted powerboost.
From now on it was going to be getting Milestones the long and hard way.
With that in mind, I sat down under a tree and started plotting out my options. My mind was made up – I was leaving this dungeon one Specialisation stronger!