The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 1,2,3

Chapter 1

Decisions

Theo Spencer leaned against the wall of the Marshwolf Tavern, watching as the throngs of people walked past. A memory from when he first arrived flared in his mind, clawing his attention away from the bustling town. He remembered muddy streets, people without aim, and poverty. Impoverished as they were, nothing seemed to dampen the spirits of the locals. Bringing a half-ogre or marshling down was a feat no one had seemed to accomplish. Given enough room to grow, the people within the town of Broken Tusk had seized their chance at greatness.

And to think, it was only the start of something greater.

Theo had invested his efforts into this town as though he was a local. That had earned him the title of ‘Broken Tusker’ just like anyone born here. But along the way he had some help. Perhaps more than a little help. He would be the first to admit that. From the early days when he was in the dark, to the present, he understood how much he had been thrust forward. Piecing things together was easy enough. Those people that had helped him along the way had been waiting for another man. And the alchemist had just met him.

“What’s the plan, boss?”

Dragging his gaze across the scene, Theo’s vision landed on his companion, Tresk. The eager pink marshling gazed up at him with that same Broken Tusker look every other local had. It was a look of infinite potential. As though they could dream it, and that dream would become a reality. Well, they had already done that before so why not make it happen again?

“The new plan is the old plan,” Theo said, pushing off from the building and dusting his coat off. “We’ll secure the votes of the gods and take an entire nation through the void. Simple stuff, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Easy as pie. Except some of those gods hate us. Oh, and you have a bunch of elves to cure. Make sure not to die in the process, cause that would suck.”

“Indeed.”

Tresk had attached herself to Theo starting about a week ago. He was too used to her way to think of anything else. Whatever secret project—other than the magical dragon bones she had been feeding their goose-dragon familiar—had been completed. She was bored and was looking for something to keep her busy over the next few weeks. As for today, there was nothing but relaxation. Until the inevitable happened. Because something always went wrong when he was trying to relax.

Until that time, he would take stock of his progress starting with his attribute sheet.

Theo Spencer

Drogramath Dronon

Level 33

Alchemist

Core Slots: 7

Stats:

Health: 625

Mana: 230

Stamina: 635

Strength: 20 (+11)

Dexterity: 132 (+8)

Vigor: 124 (+8)

Intelligence: 30 (+9)

Wisdom: 342 (+7)

Points: 0

Progress over the last few weeks had been incredibly slow. Theo’s attributes defied what should be possible for someone at Level 33 thanks to a brief exploit he had found. Not listed on his sheet was his incredible willpower, which he couldn’t even begin to speculate as to the level. It was somewhere between his position as an ascendant throne-holder and a god. But the line between those two roles was vast.

Since the plan was to take the entire town along with him and as much of the alliance as possible, the next step would be to work on the buildings, alliance, and town itself. A few more levels and it would exit the phase of Massive Town and enter the city stage of development. He examined the town, skipping over the listed core buildings section.

[Massive Town]

Name: Broken Tusk

Owner: Theo Spencer

Leader: Archduke Theo Spencer

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 30 (20.33%)

Core Buildings:

…

Defensive Emplacements:

Chain Lightning (x12)

Frost Cone (x7)

Fireball (x10)

Firebolt (x25)

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

[Defensive Emplacements]

[Synergistics]

[Dynamic Incorporation]

[Dungeon Information]

Effects:

[Troll Slaying]

[Coordinated Fire]

[Defensive Effects]

Current Resources:

Timber: 10,300

Stone Blocks: 1

Metal: 5,380

Motes: 10,112

Theo laughed at himself. He had given himself the title of archduke, because the system let him. Of all the potential titles for a leader, it was the one he felt closer to. Since he wanted to manage his alliance by setting up independent leaders in the other towns, it made sense. But the more he thought of himself as Archduke Theo Spencer, the less it sat well with him. Since he was betting on the system adapting all the energy they had invested into the town once it arrived on his Throneworld, it was more important now than ever to upgrade it. He then turned his attention to the alliance’s interface.

[Small Free City Alliance]

Name: Southlands Alliance

Leader: Archduke Theo Spencer

Level: 20 (5%)

Core Towns:

Broken Tusk (Capital)

Rivers and Daub

Gronro-Dir

Qavell

Bal’gon

Current Energy:

62%

Upgrades:

[Zorp]

[Controlled Fire]

[Disaster Shield]

[Defensive Barrier]

This was the screen that had always surprised Theo. Khahar—formerly Yuri Valkov back on Earth—had gifted him a Kingdom Core. The value of the object was immeasurable, and here he was just staring at the screen it provided. More than that, both towns in the region were happy to join the alliance. Rivers and Daub was the closest town, fifteen minutes by tram to the north. Gronro was further still, and had been instrumental at beating back the tide of undeath. Both Qavell and Bal’gon were recent and interesting additions. While Bal’gon was an underground city, populated only by golems and whatever adventurers were brave enough to go down there, Qavell was different.

Qavell had been a thorn in Theo’s side since he arrived on this world. From taxing the locals, to the threat of military action, King Karasan had harassed them. Until Fenian Feintleaf released an undead plague that almost destroyed them entirely. But of course the city became possessed with the spirit of an unknown extra-planar entity intent on destroying everything. After shooting the city down, purging the city of the creature, and befriending the new king, Theo had brought them into the fold.

And the Qavelli people wouldn’t even be the last to join them on their next big adventure. 

The space elves. Where to start with the space elves? A resident of Broken Tusk named Xol’sa got Superman’d when he was young. He was catapulted through the void, sent to the mortal realm of Iaredin to live out his life. Instead of superpowers, he got an affinity for planar travel and a job as a wizard. The Bara’their—children of the shard when translated to the local Qavelli language—had stolen away powerful lodestones to make a new world. It didn’t work, and now they were all insane. It fell to Theo to cure them through alchemy, void manipulation, and good old healers.

“I can’t remember the last time you stared off into space for that long,” Tresk said, pulling him from his thoughts. “There’s not that much to do, is there?”

Theo grunted a response, heading away from the town center. If she wanted the answer, she could read his mind through their Tara’hek bond. A tour of Broken Tusk would be far more eventful now than if he would have done it back when he had just arrived. The only things of note when he first got there were the alchemy shop, blacksmith, tannery, farm, and tavern. The town now supported too many businesses to count, including a quarry, logging, a mine, smelter, artificer’s workshop, a ranch, bathhouse, an entire harbor, and most recently a market.

But the newest thing Theo wanted to inspect for the day was related to those same space elves. He tracked a path through his town, spotting the small things he remembered from before the population boom. He passed by Miana’s ranch, waving at the hard-working half-ogre as he went. He greeted the guards on the gates and inspected the merchandise being sold in the market. Only after crossing the river over the stone bridge and coming out onto the open field did he stop to take it all in.

The local stonecutter and quarry operator, Ziz, had been hard at work. Half-ogres were like that. They got bored very easily and often created projects for themselves. Sometimes those projects turned into deadly games with the local wildlife. In Ziz’s case, his boredom had turned into a project to create enough homes for the entire world. That’s what it said in the administration interface, anyway. The reality of it was quite different, though.

Instead of creating individual homes for everyone expected to join the party at the end of the world, he was constructing massive dorms. Buildings made from local materials of white marble and Ogre Cypress sat in neat rows over the open fields. Broken Tusk opened out to the east, nestled between three distinct mountain ranges to the north, west, and south, while being bordered only on the western side by a massive swamp. A river cut from south to north, emptying into the bay. Alongside that river—to the left from Theo’s perspective—was the rail built by Throk, the local artificer.

Ziz had wasted no time to add his touch to the area. He had mirrored the existing stone road, placing another one on the opposite side of the rail. Dotted along the road were the large buildings, other roads shooting off to create small neighborhood-like areas. From his position down the hill, Theo counted about ten buildings already done.

“Does Ziz sleep?” Theo asked, pressing forward onto the road.

“He was buying Greater Stamina Potions from the shop the other day,” Tresk said, ever the tattle-tale.

“We don’t sell those.”

“Salire does when they pay her enough.”

Theo shrugged. Fair enough. The high-tier potions were meant to be held back for the town, but whatever. Salire was a half-ogre born in the north, only to come back to her ancestral homeland to work as a shop assistant. Good thing her aspirations were much higher, resulting in her becoming the second-best alchemist in the world. Theo wasn’t shy about throwing those titles around. From everything he had seen, he was the best alchemist alive, and Salire was the second-best.

“Apparently we just need to feed stimulants to our people and they’ll pave the entire world over. Wish they would’ve asked me, though…” Theo trailed off, looking at the terrain Ziz was working with. “He knows I have my Earth Sorcerer Core, right?”

“Let’s see… A half-ogre having to come to you for help?” Tresk asked, guffawing. “Nah, he’d rather just do it himself and impress you.”

“Fair enough. Looks like we can claim more space from the hills if I dig it out to the west. And the east, actually.”

“Sure, just level the entire planet. We’ll just have a nice flat plane. Is that what you want Theo?” Tresk gave Theo a wild look, her eyes as wide as she could make them. “I didn’t think so.”

“Maybe not, but that would make building things a lot easier. Especially since he intends to do it without magical seed buildings.”

“Good luck finding this many magical buildings. We can always incorporate them later. If we even have time to care about that.”

Nodding, Theo headed on down the road, passing the station for the train. While there was an attendant working there, he didn’t see the train itself. It was likely heading to Gronro or Rivers.

“I’d like to get as many levels in the town and the alliance as I can before we leave. The hope is that the magic translates to Tero’gal.” Theo slapped the side of a house, checking the stability of it. The technique Ziz used to make stone structures employed an ability that allowed him to weld the bricks together with mortar. Which meant it was just about perfect. “Even mundane buildings like this will be useful.”

“Oh! Have we decided on a floating alliance or one on the ground?”

“That depends on Tero’gal. Who knows how it's gonna react.”

“Speaking of, we should decide if Tero’gal is a boy or a girl.”

“What? Why?”

“I mean. I decided, so the planet should decide.”

“Why can’t it just be a planet?” Theo turned, looking at the eager face of his companion.

“Feels weird calling Tero’gal an ‘it’ this far into our relationship.”

Theo had a feeling that Tero’gal didn’t care what people called it. As a sapient planet, it had much bigger things to worry about. Tresk was just projecting. “Tero’gal has to be a dude. Because I’m already outnumbered in the Tara’hek.”

“Fair. I officially declare our planet a boy planet! Planet of the boys! Planet for the boys?”

“Keep digging that hole.”

The best way to find Ziz when he was working on a job was to find the sleeping workers. While he was willing to slam Stamina Potions until he died of a heart attack, his workers weren’t. Theo turned the corner around one building, finding a few Half-Ogres sleeping on the soft grasses. He nudged a few with his foot, but none woke. The sound of blocks being scraped into place told him where to look, though.

“It wouldn’t kill you to sleep,” Theo said, spotting Ziz hard at work on another building. He was doing all the work alone for now, as the rest of his team had passed out.

“Do you like my village?” Ziz asked, turning with a manic look on his face. “Hey, grab a block and pass it over.”

Ziz had an ability that let him grab blocks as though they weighed nothing. But Theo humored him, slotting his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and grabbing the block with his willpower. He hovered the block into place, crossing his arms as he watched the man work.

“Should I karate chop him in the neck?” Tresk asked. “Put him down for a while.”

“No, I’m almost certain that would kill him,” Theo said with a sigh. “Best just to leave him to it… Ziz, do you need any supplies?”

“I got supplies for days! Took all the stone out of storage and now I’m using it. Hey, got any more of those potions?”

“No, and I’m going to cut you off if you keep this up.”

“Come on!”

Shaking his head, Theo turned away from the new construction. There was a lot to get done. With the soul potions ready to go, his next stop was the void… To collect a few hundred wayward elves.

“Are you coming along?” Theo asked, nodding to Tresk.

“Uh, yeah? We’re best friends, aren’t we?”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

Chapter 2

Greater Reforge Soul

The space elves had carved a small piece of the void out for themselves. The area had a theme of dense jungles mingling with strange forests containing trees Theo dind’t recognize. Conifers and deciduous trees mingled together with the tropical fare, giving a confusing backdrop to the stone ziggurats. As always—lurking from the jungle or poking their sunken-eyed faces around rocks—were the elves. They gazed on the alchemist and Tresk with a kind of madness that only his potent Reforge Mind potion could cure. Too much time in the void had broken their minds, although he thought of them as having simply lost their senses.

Zarali, Sulvan, and Bilgrob were ready back in town. They had a capacity of 150 elves for now, which was more than Theo had expected. Alongside that was Salire’s efforts to create enough potions to handle the influx. Not only did they need to heal the minds of the elves but also their souls. Things had finally lined up, and he was excited to get started.

“How do we round them up?” Tresk asked.

Theo took a seat on one of the many stone steps leading to the temple. He glanced at the shard behind him, reminded of another thing he had to fix in a short time. That relied on Elrin and his strange connection with the shards, though.

“Wait for them to come. And subdue any that attack.” Theo shrugged. He hadn’t found a better way to handle them. “You brought the rope, right?”

“See, this is funny,” Tresk said, withdrawing a length of rope from their shared inventory. “Because you normally find an alchemical solution to the problem.”

“A sleeping potion would be nice, right?” Theo asked with a sigh. A few elves moved closer to the steps, rushing when they thought no one was looking. One tripped, face-planting on the soft ground. The poor elf remained there as though she had successfully crossed the distance. “If this wasn’t so sad, I’d be laughing.”

Tresk laughed. “I’ll give a good chuckle for both of us.”

The first elf to go down was a woman. She was disheveled, her eyes sunken with a mad look in whatever light remained on her face. Another problem with lingering in the void as a mortal was the way it sapped a person’s strength. Theo suspected it took just about everything from these people. Each attribute was tied to a piece of that person, and the void sucked away every drop they had. Tresk overpowered her with almost no effort, pinning the woman to the ground and tying her up tightly.

“One down,” Tresk said, tossing the woman up near the shard. “A lot to go.”

It wasn’t the most glorious way to handle the situation. But Theo watched as his companion captured elves. He helped when there was more than one, joining in to use his predictive powers to outclass the elves.But their capacity to control this many elves was lacking. Once they had about fifty, the alchemist realized it was too much for them to handle by themselves.

“We gotta settle,” Tresk said, running after another elf that had broken their bonds. “They’re ready on the other side, right?”

Theo nodded, tightening the knot on one elf. The elven man looked up at him with a wild look, gnashing his teeth. “Right,” he said, expanding his aura to encompass each elf. Through his will, he selected the elves, and not the structure. Shouts of fear rose as they fell into the void. More shouts came when those elves were cut off from pure void energy. The alchemist’s shadowy aura guarded them from the effects. “Stop slapping that one.”

“She won’t stay still!” Tresk shouted, giving the elf a few good slaps on the face. Oddly, it seemed to work. “Just have a nap, lady.”

The floating bubble of condensed willpower and loaned power from Shadow approached the mortal realm. In a flash, fifty elves, a demon, and a newt appeared underneath the temple in Broken Tusk. While Theo wasn’t great at steering to the exact location on the mortal realm, he could alter his course by a few miles if he needed.

Zarali bound over, her eyes wide. Theo was reminded of the difference in her personality compared to when she first arrived. She had gone from reserved to bubbly after getting married. The one thing he loved more than anything about that was the way it seemed to help her care about others. As a Drogramathi Dronon, those emotions were hard to feel. But nothing would compare to the absolute redemption of Sulvan Flametouched.

“This is all?” Sulvan asked, administering the first Reforge Mind potion. He wore a simple robe today, stained with dirt. The look of empathy on his face was clear to everyone around.

Bilgrob wasn’t so empathetic. The full-blooded ogre lifted a nearby elf by one leg, forcing a potion down his throat. “They’re so squishy…”

“Just get them under as fast as you can,” Theo said, helping with the process. “Before they claw your eyes out.”

“That’s a possibility?” Zarali asked, jumping back slightly.

“Not if you hold them like this,” Bilgrob said, dangling the unconscious elf in the air.

“Have more respect, Bil,” Sulvan growled. “These people have been through enough. And they have a long road to recovery.”

Bilgrob shrugged, placing the elf on the ground. The group worked through the elves, giving each a potion to cure their minds. After that came flashes of gold and silver light as the healers took care of minor wounds. They explained something about the power of the god Hallow soothing their souls long enough to cure them, but Theo didn’t understand much about that divine magic. He knew alchemy and the void, and was content with his specialty.

One fact of the Reforge Mind potion that sucked was how it couldn’t interact with the Reforge Soul potion. All healers agreed it would be too risky to give both potions at one time. They feared for the stability of the elves, and refused to give them both at once. That would increase the time it would take the elves to heal significantly. Until then, they would stay under the care of the healers in their cells.

“Time to do a few more runs,” Theo said, breathing out a heavy sigh. “Ready for another late night, Tresk?”

“Oh, yeah. I love late nights. Hey, let’s bring Alex this time.”

###

The capacity for elves within the temple was apparently two-hundred. And Theo was exhausted. Their plan was to do this in waves. The only problem there was knowing how many elves there were. It wasn’t as though every elf on the island in the void gathered near intruders. Theo was certain most were hidden in the jungles and forests around the area.

“This is going to be a lot of work,” Zarali sighed, placing her head on Theo’s shoulder. “At least we know what we’re doing.”

Bilgrob shuffled awkwardly to the pair, doubling over to put his meaty head on Theo’s shoulder. “Yes, we’re so exhausted. Care to cuddle?”

Theo shrugged them both off, getting enough distance so he could flee if needed. “What about imported healers? Have we had any luck with those?”

“You’d have to ask Alise.” Sulvan peered through the doors of the cells, checking on each patient. “But I think she might be busy.”

With the elves sorted for now, that only left Theo with his next leg of the task. As was her new goal in life, Tresk followed along. Upon leaving the temple, Theo stopped as his eyes turned to the sky. A dark shape looked overhead as Alex swooped around. Her slender neck angled toward the ground as she dove, wings spreading wide as she stopped herself. Her draconic features had really come out lately, especially as she grew. A bit smaller than an Indian Elephant, she bore the features of both a goose and a dragon. Dragon horns, scales, and spikes marked her body while streaking patches of feathers joined them. She had four limbs and a pair of wings. At least her feet were still webbed. The spiked tail was a nice addition for combat, though.

“Coming along?” Theo asked. “You’re tall enough. Maybe you can watch us work on the third floor while you’re outside.”

“Yes, I am quite tall,” Alex said, speaking into their minds.

“You’re the tallest dragon-goose I know,” Tresk said, nodding with agreement.

Within the Newt and Demon were enough distillation artifices to choke out the occupants. If not for the extraction devices—in the case of the second floor, a simple fan in the window—that certainly would’ve happened. Salire was on the third floor, working through an endless line of potions. Theo recognized the scent before he had even entered the building. The Soul Blooms stolen by Tresk resulted in a massive supply of Reforge Soul potions.”

“Theo!” Salire said, looking over to him with a pleading look. “I could really use some help. Pretty sure the essence has a limited lifespan.”

Theo smiled as he rubbed his hands. Salire had already set everything out that needed work. She had even created the Enchanted Water needed to mix with the essence. As expected, this new version of the potion didn’t require a long brewing time within the vial. According to their early tests, if there was a brew time it was less than an hour. With hundreds of the potions to brew, he wanted nothing more than to get it done and move onto the next leg of the project.

Although Salire had overseen most of the distillation this time around, the quality of essence she produced was excellent. With the new system in alchemy, it was all about getting the purity number as high as possible. Theo considered 95% to be their target, since that would almost completely remove the chance for a bad reaction. Salire had hit that number with only minor help, resulting in a batch of incredibly pure Soul Essence. Combined with the pure Searing Regeneration Essence, and Suffuse Essence, the resulting Reforge Soul potions were going to be awesome.

Theo watched as Salire kicked off a reaction, combining the two properties with a Suffuse Potion. The reaction was as violent as the suffuse actions normally were. But Tero’gal’s alchemy was always more subtle than Drogramath’s alchemy, as long as the required materials were of a high purity. The vial sputtered for a moment, releasing a cloud of noxious gas. But the resulting potion within the vial was very impressive, and suffered from none of the expected problems related to brew time.

“I think you’ve outdone yourself this time around,” Theo said, holding the vial high to get a better look. There was a slight cloudiness within the vial, but it seemed otherwise perfect to him. He inspected the item, reading the description provided by the system prompt.

[Greater Reforge Soul]

[Potion]

Legendary

Created by: Salire Hogrush

Purity: 91%

Alignment:

Imbibing this potion reforges a mortal’s soul. The process is extremely painful, but all impurities, imperfections, and scars are cleansed.

“That gave some decent experience!” Salire said, jumping with excitement.

The 91% purity was what excited Theo. He wouldn’t say it to Salire, but distilling the Soul Bloom was devilish work. The reagent was prone to bad reactions, as the flower was incredibly delicate. He suspected the lizard-folk they stole them from had been cultivating the flowers for years. The resulting reagent was impressive, leaving him feeling worse about the theft. But if the choice was between saving a bunch of elves and not offending the lizardfolk, he would save the elves every time.

“That’s a good one, right?” Tresk asked, looking over the potion.

“She’s batting well above her ability,” Theo said. The words forced a flash of red to spread across Salire’s cheeks. “We’re talking about an alchemist that actually knows her stuff. I made things like this around Level 20, but I was Drogramath’s Champion.”

“Yeah, you were cheating the whole way through. Salire is actually good,” Tresk slapped Theo on the lower back, almost hitting his butt. She was just so short. “When does she take over the shop?”

“Stop!” Salire said, covering her face with her hands. “I’m trying to brew potions here. The angry lizard never gives compliments.”

“That’s true, angry lizard. You’re being weirdly nice.”

“Yeah, well, I can do math. I know we’re gonna spend forever with our friends so I’m trying to make a better impression. Less stabbing, more hugging. That’s what I always say.”

“You’ve never said that,” Theo corrected.

“But I could’ve.”

Clearing away the rest of the potions was fairly easy. It was time-consuming, taking the group until after dinner to get the job done. Theo was already tired from staying up the previous night, but it was wearing on him. Tresk actually helped, using their shared [Tara’hek Union] skill to steal some of Theo’s alchemical abilities. At least that made things go faster, finally giving everyone the break they needed to get some dinner.

Theo invited Salire over for food before they left the lab. Before heading out, they double-checked that each of the 150 potions they had brewed was safely stowed away. While the yield for Tero’gal alchemy was much less than Drogramath’s version, he couldn’t have been prouder of what they had accomplished. When the group arrived at the manor, they found that Sarisa and Rowan had prepared some food for them. While it was nothing special—just some delicious meatball and pasta style dish—each was grateful for the meal.

“The good news is we get to do that tomorrow,” Theo said, giving Salire a playful wink. “And the day after that. And so on until we cure the elves.”

“Oh! Do I get to steal more things?” Tresk asked.

“No, you stole enough for us to cure way too many elves.”

“Bah! Can I steal some stuff anyway?”

Theo shrugged. “Yeah. Just make sure you only commit petty crimes. Nothing too crazy.”

“Hooray! Tresk shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “I’m a criminal!”

Chapter 3

Sniff Test

Theo wasn’t sure how many more all-nighters he could pull. But the elves needed saving, didn’t they? At least he and Tresk had the foresight to take the night in shifts. Since he had increased his Vigor to 124, he felt as though he could go at least a week without proper sleep. How that would make him feel was another matte. But as he took his shift watching the stills, it gave him time to reflect on how those attributes worked.

The goal of the ascendants was to leverage their position to get certain changes made to the system. One of those changes was the way attributes worked and their effects on people. Theo’s Intelligence was only at 30 for a very good reason. Increasing Wisdom or Intelligence beyond a certain point had effects on the mind. Pumping Intelligence made a person cold and logical, while doing the same for Wisdom replaced a person’s personality with their intuition. Both roads sucked, and the alchemist had only overcome his massive Wisdom with the Wisdom of the Soul potion. Unfortunately, someone could only drink one of those.

While there was likely some effect from higher physical attributes, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Intelligence or Wisdom. But then there was the system of advancement itself. A person could gain a new core slot every 10 levels, and each of those cores had to be leveled to gain personal levels. The only way around that was to do a core dedication, which gave a person a main- and sub-slot for their cores. They could still equip other cores, but only experience from those main cores counted toward a personal level. Without the dedication feature, it would’ve been difficult to reach Level 100… So why encourage that system in the first place?

There were likely many other facets of the system that just didn’t work. But that was for the council to decide. Once they had enough leverage to claim their spot in the system. The system itself still seemed reluctant to recognize them. Or perhaps it had some other plans in mind. Whatever the case, Theo was certain they would work things out. As for the plan with Kuzan… he was less confident with that by the day. The Venom poison might have worked before, but there was no guarantee it would work again. It just seemed like a horrible gamble.

Theo had an idea on how to get what they wanted without using the poison, but still needed to find the perfect person to fill the role. Unfortunately, it would be hard to convince a mortal to ascend to godhood. As strange as that sounded, not everyone wanted the responsibilities of a god. Perhaps they had all learned their lessons from the ascendancy nonsense.

The alchemist nudged Tresk, watching as she stirred on the ground. “Your watch,” he said.

Tresk blinked a few times, jumping to her feet. “Why, thank you good sir,” she said with a bow. “If not for my incredible Vigor, I’d put a boot up your bottom.”

“Thanks to my incredible Vigor,” Theo corrected, crawling into the sheets they had dragged into the lab. “You know what to do, right?”

“No. I can just open my brain to your instincts, though. Don’t worry about it!”

Theo grunted, resting his head on the pillow and drifting off immediately. That was a massive advantage given to them by the Tara’hek. Instant sleep, no matter the circumstances. Of course he drifted into a gray-black void with nothing inside. He would experience time as it happened outside of the incomplete Dreamwalk, but his body would gain the restorative effects of sleep. There were worse ways to spend the night.

Drifting through the nothing, Theo felt himself being pulled somewhere. The Dreamwalk was the manifestation of his shared dream with Tresk. It represented their desire to create, and had given something akin to matter thanks to that shared goal. When one member wasn’t within the pseudo-realm, it appeared like an endless void. But he had never felt that magnetic pull. Too late, he realized what was happening.

Dancing fire raged overhead. Theo heard the shouts as someone, somewhere joined in battle. He stood atop a massive stone wall, looking down at fields of monsters. Next to him were elven defenders, shooting down with bows and arrows, or manning massive cannons that belched fire. The scene flashed and he stood in a burning city, mutated goblins all around. Then an island, a tundra, three more cities, and finally Earth. But it wasn’t the Earth he remembered. It was one of fresh devastation, rather than the century-long devastation he was used to.

Monsters descended onto some unknown city, pushing through the ranks of defenders. Theo steered his mind away from the dream, finding his way back to the gray void. He had tapped into Tresk’s ability to hop between dreams. Without his command, his mind had sought out the man he met only days ago. Whoever Elrin was, he had fought to defend both Iaredin and Earth. Perhaps it didn’t matter now, but the situation they found themselves in now was a fine mirror for that long-gone battle.

He was content to drift in that void until it ended. To his surprise, it represented a much-needed break from his endless thoughts.

###

“My turn to be rude,” Tresk said, tapping Theo in the side with her foot. “Wakey wakey. Eggs and… sausage. They made us eggs and sausage.”

Theo shot up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. His body wasn’t quite as sore as it should have been, and he wouldn’t complain. He rose to his feet, accepting the plate of food offered by Tresk before taking a seat. “Any problems?”

“A few. But I sorted them out,” Tresk said, beaming with pride. “Looks like they have a few more hours to go, but this batch is brewing quickly.”

“Good. Or bad, hard to tell,” Theo said, picking up his fork and spearing a sausage. “The smell seems right.”

“Ah, yes. Sniff the essence, Theo. That’s always the best way to tell if a potion is good.”

Theo craned his neck, narrowing his eyes at one flask. The clarity of the Soul Essence looked great to him. If he had to guess, they were beyond 95%, which would make some delightfully potent potions. The final potion might reach 93% after being mixed with the Suffuse Potion and Burning Regeneration. Also, the sausage was great. Whisper always outdid herself with the sausages she made.

“So, what kind of mischief are we getting up to today?” Tresk asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, Theo devoured the rest of his sausage. “We’re gonna watch the stills. Do you have something in mind?”

Tresk shrugged. “Something dangerous would be fun.”

Theo tapped his chin. Sometimes he wished his brain didn’t agree with her. But a bit of danger would be fun, especially to break up how boring things had been around town. “Well, there is some horrid creature living under the mine.”

“Oh! That’s the thing you were blocking out in your brain!” Tresk shouted, jumping with excitement. “I wanna kill a giant monster!”

They could at least do some scouting to figure out what the monster was. Theo had three concerns relating to attacks. The first was the underground area in general. There was a network of connected caves under town where a race of elves could attack. That very same race of elves was the one Theo thought Twist was from. Perhaps they were descendants, but most of that man’s people were locked away in the queue, or with Death. The next attack might come from the dungeons. Something was wrong with the dungeons, and no one had figured out how to fix them. That was likely because Xol’sa was too busy. The last attack would come from the giant monster under the mythril portion of the mine.

Theo was broken from his thoughts when the bell downstairs rang. He smiled at Salire as she ascended the steps. The half-ogre woman clapped her hands with excitement.

“More potions? You guys work too hard,” she had, crossing the room and patting Tresk on the head. “Do we have a new apprentice alchemist?”

“I’m the master, baby,” Tresk said, striking a pose. “Just kidding. I steal his knowledge. Can you watch these? We’re gonna go slay a giant monster or something.”

“Uhm… Sure? What monster are you two going to slay?” Salire asked, looking slightly concerned.

Sarisa and Rowan appeared from the shadows, both of their arms crossed. “We’re not coming,” Sarisa said.

“You weren’t invited, stinky.”

“Now I wanna come,” Sarisa said.

“Yeah, let’s kill a dragon,” Rowan agreed.

Theo checked his stock of potions, finding that they had enough Foresight potions for a fight. From what little he knew about underground monsters, it seemed likely they were indeed dealing with a dragon or dragon-adjacent creature. Leaving it alone was easy enough. But letting something like that fester under the town only invited disaster. Taking care of it now fell in line with his proactive way of thinking.

“Scouting first,” Theo said, finishing his food and setting his place aside. Tresk sucked it up into their shared inventory. “Let’s try not to engage unless the monster is weak. If it’s a monster at all.”

“Heck yeah. Nothing will go wrong,” Tresk said, pumping her fist. “We’re all gonna live forever!”

Theo gave Salire all the information she needed to know about the run. It was another full run of the Soul Blooms, and should have been ready around midday. After that came the task of giving everyone working the mine that day a day off. When they complained, he sent them to work for Ziz for the day at their normal rate. At first he thought people cared about still being paid, but soon realized they just wanted to keep busy. After the mine was cleared out, it was time for some scouting.

Tresk was the first to press her face against the stone deep in the mine. She nodded to herself, giving Theo the thumbs-up.

“Yeah, I hear something big down there,” she said, telepathically sending the words. “The rock is also very warm.”

Theo nodded at Sarisa and Rowan, who both took a swig of their potions to buff up. The alchemist knelt, pressing his hand against the stone. He used his Earth Sorcerer’s Core to bore a tiny hole, being careful not to shift the stone too much. Tresk them pressed her face against the stone and pulled back quickly.

“Oh, that’s weird,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Big fire monster.”

Theo assumed her previous position, peering into the hole. It was indeed a big old fire monster. All he could see was a flash of flame moving past about fifty feet straight down. When it moved, the ground shook. A few ideas flashed through his mind. Perhaps they could solve this problem without engaging in direct combat. If they planned, they could at least weaken the creature. But the aura it put off was certainly that of a monster. And a strong one at that.

“Does this connect with our main chamber?” Theo asked into Tresk’s mind.

“Make it bigger. I’ll go check.”

Theo nodded, widening the hole for a moment. Tresk slipped into the shadows, activating her stealth ability before dropping into the hole. He shut it closed behind her, viewing the events from her eyes.

Tresk drew on her connection with Theo, gaining attributes to survive the fall. With a pretty sweet roll, she took stock of the area. Like most of the underground caverns, this one was a mixture of naturally forming caverns and passageways. While it was hard to figure out what the monster was, it was at least twice the size of Alex and lingering in the area as though searching. With a form obscured by flickering fire, the six-legged monster scratched at the ground, releasing a low rumbling moan.

It wasn’t a dragon. But the creature was unlike any other Theo had seen. Not that he had traveled the underground area, cataloging each monster. But monsters were typically fantasy-themed things or several creatures smashed together. There was no part of the monster’s stunted body that made sense. Without a tail, and with a too-short neck, it was just confusing. And the fire didn’t help things, making it difficult to understand anything about it.

“I think this creature is stuck,” Tresk said.

“Really?” Theo asked, watching through Tresk’s eyes as she got an angle on its face.

“No eyeballs that I can see.” Tresk kept to the edge of the enormous cavern, tracking a path to avoid the light of the fire. Theo could almost feel the heat washing over himself as he observed through her eyes. She found a spot where the stone looked strange, as though it had bubbled up from below. “What do you think about that?”

It would be better if Theo could get down there and see for himself. At this distance, his Earth Sorcerer’s Core couldn’t get a read on it. But it appeared as though the rock had gone molten, only to cool. The only thing he could think was that the beast had risen from the depths through some lava tube, only for it to be sealed within the room. No other passage was wide enough for it to fit through.

“What’s the plan?” Tresk asked.

The monster let out a long growl, the sound echoing loud enough for Theo to hear it above the cavern. Killing the monster would be a challenge, especially in that dark room. With only the beast’s light to help, things could get tricky. For once in her little lizard life, Tresk didn’t lunge forward to attack the monster. The alchemist waited for it to happen. It felt as though she might burst forward at any moment, driving her daggers into the monster’s fiery hide. But she didn’t.

“So, are we not fighting?” Rowan asked.

“We might not need to,” Theo said, orienting himself to a direction he thought might be east. “I’ve got two plans. One is slightly more dramatic than the other.”

“Let’s go with drama!” Sarisa said.

“Agreed,” Rowan nodded. “Drama sounds more fun.”

“Drama it is…”