The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 19,20,21

Chapter 19

Dorms

Of course, the new infused potion would be a hit among the adventurers, and Tresk was eager to test it out. Before heading to bed, she tested the effects of the potion. Upon drinking it, she was teleported backward about 50 paces. Afterward, she seemed like a toddler who had been given a foot-long pixie stick. All her movements were sped up, including her speaking. The inane babble was almost impossible to understand, but at least the effects didn’t last that long.

Instead of making several thousand potions, as Tresk had requested, they went to bed. Of course, in the Dreamwalk, she reproduced as many of those potions as she wanted and darted around the countryside like a psychopath. Waking up the next morning, Theo took his time at breakfast. There were many things to consider for the day, and he had a mental checklist of the things he wanted to accomplish.

“You should just make potions all day.” Tresk said. She had lingered near the breakfast table, although there was dungeon work for her to do.

The high-level monster course she had brought him would be very helpful for upgrading some key buildings in town. As Theo faced the prospect of welcoming more guests, he felt it was necessary, but all those plans he had building in his mind were shattered when a few sharp knocks came at the door.

Alise strode in alone, as usual, holding an item in her hand. Theo recognized it from a distance as a seed core, though he couldn’t identify the type.

“I’m going to need you to do something,” Alise said, holding her core out and smiling a placating smile at him. “I’m kind of busy today, and I finally got my hands on something that will be useful for our space elves.”

Theo walked over and inspected the items. They were a specialized type of house seed core. When Alise withdrew several more of them from her inventory, he realized how helpful they would be. “How did you find a dormitory seed core?” he asked.

“Some luck. Also I put in a request with an elven trader. They cost quite a bit, but I’ve been told you can follow an upgrade path that will allow you to add vastly more space.”

“Well, I’ll get working on this right away,” Theo said, turning to narrow his eyes at Tresk, “rather than brewing more potions.”

Tresk went nuts, but her shouting didn’t last long. She had a busy day, head-in-the-dungeon. So she departed right then. Alise also had a stock of monster cores he could use to upgrade the buildings. But the first task would be finding a place to put them.

There were several open areas within the town walls that would be perfect for them. Theo had been experimenting with drawing new roads in the town for a while, and there was a large area of open land to the west of his shop. It was around the area where he had placed the weaver’s building and Zarali’s enchanting workshop. Once breakfast was cleared away, he got to work, heading out and praying that his abilities would work in conjunction with a fabricator that hadn’t worked in a month.

Sledge was still tending to his clutch of eggs. He was reluctant to visit her since, apparently, she only hissed at people when they came. After finding a suitable spot for a crossroads, Theo forked off the main road just south of the Weavers building. He drove west for a while, created another intersection, and then drove north along that road until it ran alongside Whisper’s butcher. That way, the roads would seem somewhat planned. And it provided a new route from the westernmost gate to the south.

Back at the tea junction he had created, Theo planted the first seed, watering it with moats to watch it grow. The building that sprang up was fairly large to start with. It was a two-story structure with a row of windows on every side. It was of local construction, consisting more of a mix of stone, timber, and a bit of plastic. He was happy to see that it held the signature blue roof.

Theo headed inside, not bothering to inspect the building right away. Instead, he found a very pleasant entryway with a hall on either side and a staircase leading up to the second floor. There were twelve rooms on either side on the first floor, and the same amount on the second. Each room was no bigger than a large closet, but they all had a small dresser and a bed. It was more than anyone could hope for, and he had three of them to his name. Forty-eight rooms in total, which wasn’t nearly enough to house all the elves, even if they doubled up in the rooms. With three buildings at his disposal, he had a potential of 144 rooms, but he didn’t want to place the other buildings yet—not until he leveled this one up to see how large he could make it.

Exiting the building, the alchemist looked up at it and appreciated the general style. It was pleasant enough to look at and represented a very real way he could house many people. He wondered how difficult it was for Alise to acquire it.

“Time to shove cores into a building, I guess,” Theo said, smiling to himself as he got to work.

Using low-level monster cores, Theo quickly leveled up a building to level 5. He was then given a list of three options to choose from. He reviewed each one, selecting those that would enlarge the building.

[Decent Comfort]

The rooms within this dormitory are slightly more comfortable.

Something slightly more comfortable was questionable. The elves aren’t sold on this one, but if the other two options were unsatisfactory, you could certainly make it so the elves were at least decently comfortable.

[Expanded Rooms]

Increases the size of each room slightly. This increases the overall size of the building.

That wasn’t exactly the upgrade Theo was looking for, but it certainly beat the first one. He would likely pick this one unless the last one was incredible.

[Clean Walkways]

The spaces between rooms are cleaned automatically at midnight.

With the last upgrade option being rather stinky, Theo went with the second one to expand the size of the rooms. He stood outside, watching as the building shifted before his eyes, expanding to the left, right, and behind the building. The system was smart enough to know that if there was an object blocking the building, it should grow in a different direction. This was one of the reasons why he hadn’t placed the other two buildings. Once he had an idea of their size, he could put them all down. But for now, this would do. The alchemist got back to work shoving cores into it. The next option appeared, and he read it.

[Balcony]

Second floor rooms gain a balcony.

Theo clicked his tongue. The balcony upgrade sucked. Maybe it would add some flair to the building, but it only affected the second floor and it didn’t solve the problem he had. For now, he went with the decent comfort upgrade and added more courses to the building. It eventually hit level 15, and he was presented with another disappointing upgrade.

“What’s up with this upgrade path?” Theo grumbled, reading over the upgrade.

[Fresh Air]

The air within the dormitory is cycled, making it fresh at all times.

To his surprise, Theo went with the clean walkways upgrade for this one, and then he angrily shoved more cores into the building. He needed something, anything, to give him more space. Each upgrade came with an expansion of the building’s size, but that did nothing for the count of rooms inside. It still remained 12 on either side per floor. When the next upgrade finally came—the level 20 upgrade—Theo breathed a sigh of relief.

[Third Floor]

Adds a third floor to the dormitory that mirrors the contents of the other two floors.

“Finally!” Theo shouted, selecting that upgrade. He then did some mental math to see how many rooms he had.

Theo now had 216 rooms between three buildings. Which still wasn’t enough. Upgrading a building beyond Level 20 was an investment. But he needed the rooms. He continued shoving cores into the building, the cost of this project increasing with every core he added. But today, luck was on Theo’s side. The level 25 expansion option appeared, and he couldn’t help but hoot with excitement.

[New Wing]

Adds a wing behind the current building. This wing mirrors the original, although it’s slightly smaller.

Theo selected the option and watched as the building reformed itself. The roots tangled and grew together, forming a new section in the back of the building. It was three stories, just as the upgrade promised, but only slightly smaller than the original. The alchemist went inside, finding that the staircase had been moved slightly to the right, with a doorway leading to the new wing. He entered, finding that it mostly mirrored the design of the original, and then got to counting rooms. The main building had twelve rooms per side. This one had ten. It was actually far more than he had expected when he did some mental math to figure out how many rooms he now had.

If Theo followed the same upgrade path for the other two buildings, he now had access to nearly 400 rooms. 396 exactly, which might just be enough for them to get by. There were an estimated 500 elves, and they could sort out the odd-ones-out with homes. The important part was that this was now viable. They could now house many of the elves once they awoke. This was a massive relief for him.

Theo got to work on the other buildings. He could space them out perfectly now that he knew how big they should be. And it didn’t take too long, since he didn’t have to make decisions during each upgrade process. He eventually stood back, inspecting one of the buildings and nodding with approval. Of course, each one would need a name before he was done, otherwise Tresk would swoop in and give them a dumb name. He wasn’t sure if he knew enough of their language to give them meaningful names, but he tried.

Et’er, Tot, and Gael. Home, hearth, and fire.

[Dormitory]

[Gael]

Owner: Theo Spencer

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 25 (0%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Expanded Rooms]

[Decent Comfort]

[Clean Walkways]

[Third Floor]

[New Wing]

Looking up at the buildings, I felt a sense of pride and considered how monumental this would be for the town. He heard the fluttering of a bird’s wings overhead and focused his gaze before scoffing. He then folded his arms and waited for what happened next. A cloaked figure dropped from the sky, landing in front of him, with its giant, menacing halberd.

“Elrin,” Theo said, shaking his head. “Nice of you to drop by. And you need a place to stay. I’ve got a few hundred rooms available.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Elrin said, looking over the buildings. “I’ve only recently become aware of the seed core system, and I’ve got to say this would have been useful back in my day.”

“Yeah, it’s an interesting bit of magic, isn’t it?” Theo asked. “Are you stopping by for any particular reason?”

“My plans stretch far,” Elrin said, “but I’m waiting for the return of the shards, as your wizard has made any progress.”

“I think he’s ready to go. We’re just waiting for the elves to heal. Unfortunately, they’ve come with a fair amount of void magic, which has caused some issues in the world.”

“Yes, those issues are stretching far and wide. Although I doubt it’s as bad as it is here,” Elrin said, looking around as though he saw the invisible sheen of power overlaying the town. “I’ve relocated one shard to its proper place, which should have helped with the void magic issue.”

“Really?” Theo asked. He tapped his chin and smiled. “You know, we did actually notice a fairly large change in the way the void energy was being absorbed, but I didn’t know that was you.”

“Indeed, I’m also aware of your half-baked plan to kill death,” Elrin said, “and I must say that I don’t approve.”

“That’s not my plan,” Theo said, shaking his head and holding his hands up. “That’s Fenian’s plan, and it really isn’t going to work, is it?”

“Back in my time, when the gods rose to power, their thrones could be challenged. But the throne of death was a particularly difficult one to crack,” Elrin said, his eyes going slightly glossy as though he were visiting the past. He shook his head as though casting off the stupor. “Death’s true realm is an endless sheet of black, with a single portal. All souls in the world pass through the portal and await judgment. Unfortunately, in my time, death was powered by those souls.”

“Do you have an alternative for dealing with him? I’m not sure we can trust Kuzan with such power.”

“You never knew the true man. He’s changed quite a lot,” Elrin said. “Are you aware of his origins?”

“Just bits and pieces,” Theo said. “The stuff you let slip.”

“He was a devious man. Well, not really a man at all, but a shade. His soul was trapped in the system of our ancient history, and he lingered across the land for untold thousands of years. When the change happened, he was deeply integrated into the system, and given a purpose—that purpose was to destroy everything. Including your world.”

“Sounds like a real ass.”

He led armies against the civilized world, raising beastmen, hordes that ravaged the land. “We were part of a defense alliance that held him at bay for the most part until he figured out how to get into your world,” Elrin explained. “The few times I spoke to him, I felt as though there was some reason behind the madness. When I gathered, so far as that when everyone was transported here, he regained much of his sanity. I fear he’s not the same insane man I knew back then.”

“Well, I have a plan that you might not like,” Theo said. “If Kuzan is as reasonable as you say, this might make Fenian and the others angry, but it might just solve our problem.”

“Let’s hear your plan.”

Chapter 20

Seal of Judgement

“I don’t see the other gods going for this plan,” Elrin said, folding his arms. Theo knew a giant, menacing tiger was somewhere around here, but he couldn’t see it. “And what makes you think I would care for such a position?”

Theo’s plan was pretty simple, actually. Checks were already in place to keep things in order, but the domain Khahar had been given was not expansive enough. The alchemist instead proposed a position that watched the gods directly. He would be a balance in their system, an impartial person who maintained order.

“This is just a planned idea,” Theo said, “an idea to get the system thinking about the way the gods work.”

“I have a relationship with the system in this world,” Elrin said, scratching his head. “Perhaps I can propose another alternative.”

“Well, if you decide to do something, let me know. Currently, I don’t believe there’s a way for mortals to pass into the systems domain, so you’ll need me to take you.”

“Yes, that’s not a bad idea.” Elrin said, “Let’s go now. And I can see what we can get away with.”

The giant tiger appeared from nowhere, padding over to Elrin and pushing against his chest.

“Right now?” Theo asked, looking around. “I mean, I guess I don’t have that much to do today. Why not? Let’s go.”

Wrapping his aura around the group, Theo plunged them into the void. Elrin did not respond at all as they vanished, and had even less of a reaction as they traveled through the darkness. The system’s small dot in the universe appeared, but the alchemist couldn’t take his attention away from studying his traveling companions. They were completely unaffected by the void, which was certainly strange. The space elves weren’t as affected because they had been exposed to void energy for so long, but this guy should have been different.

The group landed on the snowy field, and Elrin drew a deep breath. A ghost of a smile flashed across his face before he turned to Theo. “Stay here while I talk with the system. Trevor will keep you company.”

“The cat?” Theo asked, gesturing to the giant tiger beside him, “Okay, I guess.”

The dark tiger looked up at him and purred. Theo reached down reluctantly, scratching behind the beast’s ear. To his surprise, it turned its head, pushing into his hand as though to request more scratches. “Your friend is a little strange,” Theo said, pointing forward at the cloaked man who vanished behind a sheet of driving snow.

Trevor purred, yawning and stretching, which earned him some butt scratches along with the ear scratches. A blue light flooded the area as Elrin summoned the system. Theo couldn’t help but feel as though he were an insignificant part of it all. But that was his purpose, wasn’t it? The Dreamwalker’s job wasn’t to manage this; it was to move people around and keep the void in check.

“I’d rather not talk to the system,” Theo said, smiling as he figured out which spots Trevor preferred to be scratched. “That’s a lot of responsibility he has.”

Elrin spoke with the system for about an hour before he returned through the icy gale. Theo was freezing by this point and was eager to summon his aura to bring them back to the mortal plane. Throughout the trip, they were silent except for Trevor, who would purr and yawn for more pets. They finally landed back in front of the three dormitories, and the warmth of the Southlands Alliance washed over them.

“The system has agreed to a favorable deal,” Elrin said. Although he didn’t seem exactly happy about it.

“What exactly was the deal?” Theo asked.

“Not for you to know,” Elrin said, shaking his head. “Ivaran won’t be happy. But... Death was at the meeting. I’m surprised at how sane he seemed. The system even assured me that he had spent the past 60,000 years on this planet mending his mind and improving himself. I don’t know if I believe it, but the system doesn’t lie.”

“Can you tell me anything you two agreed on?” Theo asked.

Elrin looked to the sky and smiled to himself. “I believe you’ll be getting a notification soon enough. Until then, I’ll get back to my machinations. There are a few more things I need to set in order before the shards arrive.”

Before Theo could say anything else, the man vanished from before him. Whatever deal he had struck with the system must have been widespread. The only direct system message he received was one related to the nature of the world’s changing.

After Theo gawked at his new buildings for a while, he departed and went to the town hall to make a report about the new dormitories. Alise was happy with the numbers he gave her, claiming that they had enough extra housing to take care of the odd elves out. The town had needed a dormitory system for a while. They had handled overflow of citizens by frantically building new buildings until there was just about no space left for them in an organized neighborhood setting.

“I told you to do something, and you did it the same day,” Alise said.

“Hey, sometimes I have a clear enough schedule to get this stuff done.” Theo said, smiling at the woman. “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

“You’re the leader, aren’t you supposed to ask me that?” Alise asked, winking. “I don’t think there’s anything of concern right now, but—”

Alise fell to one side and Theo caught her. The ground shook beneath their feet as the world rumbled. It went on for a few moments before it stopped. The bells in town rang and a system message appeared.

[Dreamwalker’s Core Message]

A seal has been set in place. A recent imbalance in the heavenly realms has forced a change with the Monitor System. The Seal of Judgment has been set in place. This seal only affects the inner realms.

Theo sent a town-wide message clarifying that the rumbling was from a system action and that people shouldn’t have been concerned. But still, he read over the message several times, gawking at how Elrin had convinced the system to enact such a drastic change in such a short amount of time. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something called the Seal of Judgment would monitor the actions of the gods.

“I feel like we should be concerned,” Alise said, fidgeting nervously.

“Maybe we should be, but not for the reasons you think,” Theo said. “I took Elrin to chat with the system, and five minutes later, the monitor system placed a new seal over the heavenly realms.”

“I really wish I knew what that meant,” Alise said.

“The system won’t let me inspect what the seal does, but... Ah, there it is,” Theo said as a haptic buzzing entered his mind. He withdrew Fenian’s communication crystal.

“My dear alchemist, could you please tell me before you do something that shakes the foundations of this world?” Fenian said, sounding extremely annoyed. Somehow, we also sounded very polite at the same time.

“Elrin just had a chat with the system,” Theo said. “I think he had them institute a check against the actions of the gods.”

“Oh, that actually sounds like a good thing. I thought it was going to be a bad thing,” Feniansaid, pausing for several long moments. “Hold on. Does this interfere with my plan to kill him?”

“I imagine it directly interferes with your plan to kill a god, Fenian. I really was hoping you wouldn’t understand that killing a god isn’t a good thing or an easy thing.”

“Maybe not,” but it was something to do,” Fenian said. “What am I supposed to do with my time now?”

“You could take up crocheting, or maybe learn a useful skill,” Theo said, shaking his head. “Or better yet, why don’t you try saving more people in this world, getting them to the Southlands Alliance so we can bring them along?”

“You used to be fun,” Fenian said, now sounding more annoyed than ever. “If I could travel to the system, I would go there myself and file a complaint.”

“Find something constructive to do with your time, Fenian,” Theo said, “If we can solve problems like this before they’re a problem, then that’s a good thing. You need to take the wins when you get them.”

While Fennean grumbled about it for a while, he seemed to accept this as fact. He actually did have some useful information for Theo. There were a few ships leaving ports around the world and heading for the Southlands Alliance. But there were also nations of the world that knew what they were doing. It’s not as though everybody was idle and without information. There were still powerful people in the world who could figure out what was going on. Most impressively, a ruler in Bantein was doing exactly what Theo was doing, using the same technique Khahar had used to ascend.

While it was slightly concerning, Theo was happy to wash his hands of the whole ordeal. Even after they finished their conversation, he had a feeling Fenian wouldn’t drop it so easily. The heavens might have been sealed, but that elf was determined.

“So, is this a good thing?” Alise asked, laughing nervously.

“Yeah, this is better for us. As long as it doesn’t make the gods mad, which it shouldn’t. Building layers between us and them is a good idea. That’s the way it’s meant to be.”

Theo chalked it up as one less thing he had to worry about. Getting the system on their side had never seemed like an option, so he considered this to be a win. Instead, he turned his attention to the party. Which seemed silly in comparison, but whatever. He already had some liquor for the party, but Alise planned to leave the mixing of the pure zee booze to Xam. He only needed to provide the unmixed product. Ziz’s housing project was going well and he was upgrading the rail and road while he was at it.

Rivers and Gronro had been mostly silent for a while, but they were also preparing for the celebration. There were no lizardfolk on the horizon, either. While communication with Bantein and Partopour was decent enough, the lizardfolk were totally silent. Tarantham was the same as always, only sending trade envoys and ignoring whatever animosity that had formed between them.

“Damn, I should’ve asked Erin to help with the dungeons,” Theo said, shaking his head. “Hard to get that guy to answer the phone as it is.”

“Leave me out of that,” Alise said, coming up behind Theo and pushing him toward the door. “Go away before you rope me into it.”

“Understandable,” Theo said with a nod. “Later.”

There were some interesting things Theo could tackle. He had the wisdom to put Salire up to asking Throk for new machines, rather than doing it himself. Getting the mana injection artifices was now a priority, as it now had two important functions. The first was getting pure third tier potions while the other was gaining access to more of the imbued potions. Yet he didn’t need to have direct involvement in the early stages of the first steps.

That brought the things on Theo’s to-do list down. Instead of rushing off for some more work, he headed out and walked the streets of his town. Traffic everywhere had increased significantly. People from all over the world now walked their streets. Some were there on regular business while others had come specifically for the party. Even if it hadn’t started yet, the guarantee of continued existence after the world was over was strong.

Theo ran into Salire near the monolith. She had a few artifices in her inventory—straight from Throk. She agreed to get testing with them, allowing him to turn his attention to the town. Tresk didn’t farm up a bunch of Level 45 Monster Cores for nothing.

“It feels like a building-upgrade kind of day anyway.”

Chapter 21

Tiny City

Broken Tusk was currently at level 30. Theo knew that when it broke through the next barrier, it would finally leave the status of “massive town.” That was one factor preventing him from upgrading it. There was something appealing about it being a town rather than a city, but one more upgrade cycle and it would become a tiny city.

“Farewell, town,” Theo said, patting the monolith.

Thanks to the glut of monster cores, Tresk had brought him enough to get it to at least level 35. Theo wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend that many cores bringing it all the way to 40, but that depended on the upgrades available to him during the level 35 offering. He started shoving the cores into the monolith and felt the power radiating outward. Technically, the levels for the town would allow him to expand their territory, which would be fine. He had no plans to purchase many more adjacent sections, but the option was always good.

“Here we go,” Theo said, inserting the last few cores until it upgraded to a city.

A message appeared, overlaying even the town’s upgrade option.

[Broken Tusk] can be upgraded to a [Tiny City]. The prerequisite conditions are met.

Upgrade to [Tiny City]? Y/N

From what Theo understood, this was an upgraded name only. It was a gate that he was required to pass if he wanted to continue expanding his town. Well, expanding his city. He selected “Yes,” and another pulse of magic radiated through the area. Nothing else happened, though. He opened the upgrade menu and looked at his new option.

[Deep Roots, Verdant Fields]

Your crops produce more food. Your trees are thicker. Your mines run with deep, rich veins. This upgrade improves all the natural resources within your city’s domain. All natural resources produce more and are replenished faster.

Yeah, that was a difficult upgrade to decline. Theo was surprised the system gave him such an excellent upgrade, but he wouldn’t complain. He selected it without question before inspecting the city.

[Tiny City]

Name: Broken Tusk

Owner: Theo Spencer

Leader: Archduke Theo Spencer

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 35 (5%)

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

[Defensive Emplacements]

[Synergistics]

[Dynamic Incorporation]

[Dungeon Information]

[Deep Roots, Verdant Fields]

Effects:

[Troll Slaying]

[Coordinated Fire]

[Defensive Effects]

Current Resources:

Timber: 15,500

Stone Blocks: 0

Metal: 1,320

Motes: 50,001

He viewed it in simple mode, filtering out the buildings and defensive emplacements in the town. It was otherwise too much information, but there was something else interesting to note from the pop-up. Their resources had become dwindling recently. Ziz and his boys were constantly chewing through their supply of stone and rarely added it to the town. Only when there was damage to buildings or the walls did he bother putting any in there.

Perhaps with the newest upgrade, they would have access to more resources. It really was a great upgrade, and Theo couldn’t have been happier with it. There was apparently a city-wide notification about the town being upgraded to a city. A ripple of cheers spread through those gathered in the street, and the alchemists couldn’t help but smile. If he included non-citizen residents within the city’s domain, Broken Tusk had nearly 6,000 people mingling.

That seemed to be far too many people.

All of the core population stayed within the walls, protected from the strange dungeon. Some of the new population and all the overflow found their homes outside the walls, typically in the areas between Broken Tusk and the rivers. Ziz’s constant building of homes along the way had already bore fruit.

But Theo liked to leave most of the administrative tasks to the people he hired to do such things. Instead, he often made his way to the new demon to meet with Salire and see how her experiments were going. He caught her upstairs, holding her hand over the mana container, part of a mana-injection artifice. She turned, her cheeks going a deeper shade of red as she spotted him.

“I can’t perform while you’re watching,” she said.

Theo stifled a laugh and nodded. He turned around and said, “I’m waiting.”

“God, that’s even worse,” Salire said. “Theo, I think I might need some help filling this with mana.”

The smile on Theo’s face widened as he turned and approached the artifact. First, he gave it a look to see what Throk had come up with. The design was similar to the first one he had created, with some interesting differences. It was easier to check how much liquid was in either tank now, and there were improvements to the mixing chamber. He could easily fill the mana tank for her, but this must have been a teaching moment.

“Have you been practicing your mana control?” Theo asked, looking at the small amount she had managed to conjure. It filled about a quarter of the reservoir but seemed as pure as any he could produce.

“I have, and I thought it was working for me, but I just can’t get the volume you can produce,” Salire said. “Do you have some kind of secret?”

“Let me see you try,” Theo said, stepping back and folding his arms.

Salire gave him a flat look before taking a steady breath. She held her hand over the mana container and produced a few drops. Theo used his aura to sense inside her soul. He felt the mana swirling around and generally not obeying her requests. She struggled on for a few more minutes before he stopped her.

“I’m not really an expert in these kinds of things,” Theo said. “But it seems like you’re not making as strong a connection with your soul as you could.”

“What does that even mean?” Salire asked. She was clearly frustrated. “I’m telling my mana to come to my hand, and it doesn’t want to come to my hand.”

“Take a breath, Theo said. Close your eyes and imagine your soul. Tell me what you see.”

“Some random colours. Maybe a kind of mist swirling around,” Salire said.

“Try imagining your soul as cores floating in a void. Picture them as bits of light, sticking out against the darkness. Reach out and touch your alchemy core. Inside it should be the mana you want to use. All you need to do is bring it out into your soul and then guide it through your body.”

This was just how Theo had come to imagine the stuff, invisible stuff happening in his chest. He worked with her to get the technique down, and it only took an hour for her to understand how this technique worked. He had taught her originally, but had failed to follow through and make sure she understood every aspect of mana control. It was really the only part of Image’s skill set the alchemists needed to understand.

“That’s much better,” Theo said. He watched as she opened the faucet of her soul and poured her mana into the container.

“Damn, now I can finally test this thing.” Salire grumbled as she added some essence to the other side of the equation. “I thought I’d have something ready for you to check out by the time you got back, but I guess not.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Theo said. “Let’s see how it works.”

Theo didn’t really understand how Throk was such a genius with artificing, but he had made adjustments to this model that made it more efficient. Perhaps it was the valves that connected each reservoir to the mixing chamber, but when it started operating, it vaporized and added the two parts of the mixture to the chamber much more efficiently. The vapor spent less time in the mixing chamber and was sent over to the condenser coil with much more haste.

When the first drop of essence hit the flask at the end of the line, Theo picked it up for inspection, replacing it with an empty flask. He judged that the purity of the essence was fairly high for the third tier, but it still wasn’t as good as it could be. At 80%, it was better than what he expected. Even if their second-tier potions were in the high 90s, jumping a rank and only dropping 10% was amazing.

“When do you think you’ll be ready to learn infusion?” Theo asked.

“I don’t know if I can keep up with you on that one,” she admitted. “You might be the only person creating those potions.”

That was likely true, but it got Theo thinking. He had created two reforged potions, one for the soul and one for the mind. He was once again thinking about what else he could reforge, or how he could use that property to make another powerful potion. The thing about infused potions was that they seemed to be without limit. If he could find the specifications for a spell, he could infuse it into a potion.

One thing that sucked about the way mages operated in this world was that they were slightly secretive about their knowledge. Theo had been to the market several times and had never seen a spellbook available. His only point of reference was the instruction manual given to him by Xol’sa. And that particular space elf was still busy with his own projects, too busy to drag him off and teach Theo some random spells. Although the value of an extra planar spell was obvious.

Salire reported that their current brewing efforts were going well. She was still focusing on producing the standard array of potions they offered at the shop and had no plans to stop. But soon they would return to mass production of specialty potions, and she even mentioned taking custom orders in this shop again. Despite everything happening with the end of the world, things were getting back to normal.

After Theo finished instructing Salir on how to properly control Hermana, he returned to flipping through the magical textbook he had been given. He reviewed his mental list of potions and tried to find the best combinations. For now, he would keep it as a mental list, working on the actual preparations later. When he was finished, he headed out to check on his liquor brewing enterprise.

The people hired to manage this were doing well. It wasn’t a complicated process, and the stills did most of the work. The materials just needed mashing and adding to the artifice, and it would handle everything else. Theo was satisfied with their work and left them to it. If there was a discrepancy in the amount of liquor being produced, he didn’t want to know about it. It was too much effort to count every barrel of sight-stealing moonshine.

The alchemist found himself outside, sitting on a random log, and messing with his magic. Most of his magic was derived from the properties of potions and reagents. He had a few that were incredibly useful, such as the defense ward, which would create a barrier around something. Going through his mental list of properties, he picked one to mess with and tweaked his way through the standard list of triggers and reaction types.

“Well, that one seems rather nasty.” Theo said, adjusting the parameters on the ward. It was indiscriminate, so he narrowed it down to only affect enemies. He then inspected it, chuckling to himself.

[Field of Hopelessness]

[Advanced Ward] [Linked Ward]

Creates a reactive barrier that inflicts [Hopeless] to all enemy targets within the area.

Trigger:

Detect Enemy

Duration:

50 days.

The Lost Hope property came from the bones of an ascended dragon. It was a property Theo didn’t think he would have much use for, but as he fiddled around with the ward, he decided this would be a decent way to create a field of pacification. Other properties could be mixed to create fields as well. He could make a field of pure elemental magic. For example, a field of fire that reacted only when enemies were present. Fortunately, this advanced ward could target only enemies, leaving allies unaffected.

One thing Theo was interested in doing was taking something like this and infusing it into a potion, but so far, he could not extract combinations of properties and use them with his magic system. He decided he should be happy with the infusion system he already had. He could now recreate rare properties simply by using his magic. That alone made it worth pursuing this art.

Once Salire was done with her testing of the new stills, he could get to work on both testing the infused potions and creating more third tier potions. For now, he had some time to relax. Except Theo has an allergy to relaxation, so he messed around with properties instead.