The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 43,44,45

Chapter 43

Evolution

“Sweet. Now we have a juiced up super detective from Earth roaming the northern wastes. What could go wrong?” Theo asked.

“We don’t know what his plans are.”

“Is it a coincidence that I cast Twist from Death’s realm at the same time Jan went rogue?” Theo asked. “He’s going after Twist. They knew each other, and the relationship didn’t seem friendly.”

Aarok’s brow furrowed as he steepled his fingers. “Twist was a snake. If he dies, he dies.”

Theo sighed, rolling his shoulders. Aarok wasn’t wrong to assume Twist had an agenda, but was it malicious? He wanted something in the northlands back in the day, so he must have found it. That was likely how he got to the true heavens… But Twist had been a big help with information. He had warned them about the underground area, especially after Pogo and the Russian rock people stopped defending the area. No, the masked elf’s motives were too mercurial for even the alchemist’s high Wisdom and his Soul messages.

“We’ll let them fight, if only to keep our people out of it.” Theo leaned against a bare wall, allowing his intuition to search all possible outcomes. “Unless we feel like trudging north. Which I don’t.”

“I don’t like rogue adventurers under my watch.”

“Then go find him. But be warned. If the system gave him access to what he had before, I don’t think you’ll fare well. The more I learn about Earth before my time, the more I’m convinced I know nothing.”

Aarok folded his arms, gazing up at Theo with a grumpy look on his face. “Bah.”

“Cheer up. It could have ended poorly. Better to let the overpowered idiots fight it out in the wastelands.”

Aarok sighed, but eventually nodded.

“Anyway, I’m faster than hell now. If Jan wants to start something with us, I’ll wrestle him.”

Aarok looked up from his desk, raising an eyebrow. “Are you serious? Do you need to see a healer?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. Come on, try and hit me. I’m fast now.”

132 Dexterity was a lot of Dexterity. But that wasn’t the only reason Theo was so fast. He watched as the ghostly image of Aarok stood from his desk, withdrawing a bow from nowhere. He knocked an arrow, pulled the string back, and released an arrow. The arrow would have slammed into the space next to the alchemist’s head. When the real arrow flew, he snatched it from the air and sent it spinning back at Aarok. The arrow thumped into the desk.

“Okay.” Aarok said, looking between the arrow and Theo. “I’m a bit impressed. How did you do that?”

“I’m fast. Faster than I should be—and I’m only going to get stronger.”

“I should put you in the militia.”

“No, thanks. But if Jan shows up, I’ll have something for him.” Theo thought about any other topics they could cover. That seemed to sum the problem up well enough. Twist was gone and Jan was gone. Unless either returned, there was no reason for them to act. Jan had only even got away because he was working on the railroad project to the north. The only person who could have chased him was Aarok, but he wasn’t built for combat.

“We’ll leave it where it is for now. I guess.” Aarok dismissed the conversation just like that. Theo found his way out of the office, but knew the leader of the guild would establish more patrols. More night watches. Anything to keep the town safe with another loose end out in the world.

Theo had other things to worry about. Glantheir might have given him some time with his Drogramath cores, but that time would run out soon enough. It was better to get it over with now, transitioning to the Tero’gal cores while he had a moment to take a breath. The only cores he wanted to worry about today were his alchemy, herbalism, and governance cores. The power in his Toru’aun core was fading slower than the others. He could delay it by a few days.

Making his way to the temple, Theo passed a few people along the way. Most were those who had visited the temple to get their cores changed, so it was an interesting contrast to the task he had before him. Considering his Drogramath Governance Core as a stepping stone to this moment, the whole thing seemed cyclical. The Drogramath Dedication ability had set him on the path of changing cores, and now here he was. Ready to switch away from devolution to a pretender god.

Theo sat on the steps to the raised platform in the temple, focusing on the power of Tero’gal. Becoming a conduit for that power had become second nature. He allowed it to flow into his alchemy core, feeling it fill with renewed energy. The change it produced was strange. There was an invisible connection he used to feel. Something that linked him to Drogramath. With that god gone, he was left feeling a vague sense of emptiness that only his Tara’hek Core and Tero’gal filled.

The change didn’t take long. Theo felt the essence of his core changing. He felt his connection to Tero’gal grow, as though he was standing right there. A flash of recognition moved over him, giving some unseen nod to his actions. A moment later, he was on the floor, looking up at the high ceiling of the temple. He read the message that appeared in his vision.

[Core Evolution]

Your [Drogramath Alchemy Core] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Alchemy Core]. The following abilities have also evolved:

[Drogramath Distillery Specialty], [Drogramath Inventory], [Drogramath Dedication]

It made sense those abilities would evolve. They were specific to Drogramath, after all. He went through the list of abilities, checking for changes.

[Tero’gal Distillery Specialty]

Alchemy Skill

Legendary

You embody the perfection of distillation. Distillation produces potent forms of extract, although these extracts are considered extremely volatile.

Effect:

Allows the user to operate specialized distillery equipment at near-perfect efficiency. Tero’gal distillation equipment focuses on the production of potent potions, distilled from magical reagents.

Allows the user to gauge, by eye, the exact quantity of mixtures in units.

+12 Wisdom

The changes here were subtle. The increased wisdom—from 2 to 12—was welcome. But the text of the description had changed, along with the first line of the effects. It mentioned Tero’gal distillation specifically, which was interesting. This must have been the thing Salire wrote in her notes. The mention of potent potions was concerning, but they would push through that like everything else. Drogramath Inventory had changed, but only by calling it Tero’gal Inventory. It had no changed effects, granting the same 32-slot inventory as the one before.

Theo suspected Drogramath Dedication to be the ability most impacted by this change and inspected it. He wasn’t wrong. 

[Tero’gal Beacon]

Alchemy and Herbalism Skill

Unique

The holder of this skill is a beacon that reflects the ideals of Tero’gal. They are either held in esteem or are one of the creators of that world.

Effect:

Removes the meta barrier between the core user’s soul and all Tero’gal cores.

Two Tero’gal cores may be selected, never again to be removed.

All other cores will be considered sub-cores, and may no longer add to your personal level.

All other cores will be capped at the average level between your two main cores.

Once per day, you may infuse any skill, spell, ability, crafted item, etc with the power of Tero’gal, increasing their effect significantly, depending on the power of Tero’gal.

The skill still provided the base for what made Drogramath Dedication an excellent skill. Theo was happy to see he hadn’t lost that advantage. But it also removed some restrictions, and added an effect similar to his Zaul core. Could he Tero’gal-wrap something now? That required testing. He inspected the core itself before moving on.

[Tero’gal Alchemy Core]

Legendary

Alchemy Core

Bound

5 Slots

Level 33 (25%)

[Alchemy Core] given to the followers of Tero’gal

Effect:

Increases the synergy of [Alchemy] abilities.

+12 Wisdom

[Unstable Material Handling]

[Tero’gal Distillery Specialty]

[High Pressure Refining]

[Reagent Deconstruction]

[Tero’gal Beacon]

No surprises there. It had taken the Drogramath Alchemy Core and made it slightly different. Theo focused on evolving his herbalist core next. It was much like the first process. The core drank the power up as though dying of thirst, evolving just as quickly as the last one. Theo got a similar message when it evolved, once again sending him to his ass.

[Core Evolution]

Your [Drogramath Herbalist Core] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Herbalist Core]. The following abilities have also evolved:

[Drogramath Herbalism], [Drogramath Fermentation]

Theo cracked his knuckles, inspecting the first skill on the list.

[Tero’gal Herbalism]

Herbalism Skill

Rare

Denizens of Tero’gal inherit their creator’s knack for identifying reagents. This skill allows you to identify the properties of reagents by tasting or decomposing them.

Effect:

You have a sense whether something will produce alchemical ingredients.

+6 Intelligence

This was the most plain change for his skills. It was clearer on what he could do to find properties on reagents, but only added another three points for his intelligence. He moved on to inspect the next skill on his list.

[Tero’gal Fermentation]

Herbalism Skill

Epic

Fermentation allows an herbalist to extract even more from reagents. Accepting this skill allows you to understand the fine workings of reagents, pulling even more from the already useful plants.

Effect:

Fermentations you perform happen rapidly, compared to those without this skill.

Allows the modification of reagents to produce special modifier essences.

+12 Wisdom

The skill had switched from Intelligence to Wisdom, which was strange. But it was effectively the same thing. Theo read through the text a few times before he was satisfied. His most important cores had evolved into something he could use without worrying about if Drogramath died or not. He sat in the temple for a long time, looking up at the ceiling.

When Theo entered this world, he viewed Drogramath as an antagonistic figure in his life. As he thought back on it, he realized he was right. No matter how a person looked at it, the false gods of the world had tried to use him for their purposes. From the first time Drogramath tried to interdict him, to the placating tone he used when the end was near. Mortals were puppets for the ascendants to use, and the alchemist couldn’t be happier after they had been cast from their false thrones.

Bowing to Void, Death, and the others seemed like a fine thing to do. Because those gods had not interfered with the mortal world. Yes, Void had visited the mortal world, but only for a moment. After he teleported way, he joined the heavens and never returned. So long as those gods kept to themselves, he would be happy. Whatever the new system of divinity was, it would be better than the old one.

“Copper for your thoughts?” Tresk asked, coming to sit beside him. She had avoided him, trying not to get her cores evolved until the last moment. A Wisdom of the Soul message appeared.

[Wisdom of the Soul]

Check the new pantheon. You have a bad feeling that a shadowy dude not only evaded the wrath of the new gods, but found himself a seat at the table. You know this because the power in your Zaul core hasn’t faded. Neither has the power in Tresk’s cores.

“We might have a problem,” Theo said, patting Tresk on the head. “You’ve never met Zaul, have you?”

“Nope. He whispers stuff to me sometimes, but I can’t ever understand him.”

“You know what?” Theo asked, dusting his butt off after leaving the dirty floor of the temple. “Sounds a lot like not my problem. Just expect your cores to evolve soon. I think Zaul ascended to true godhood.”

“That nutty buddy?” Tresk asked, snorting. “You sure?”

“I’m almost positive. Come on. I want to check out this new alchemy Salire is working on.”

Theo headed off from the temple, Tresk following close behind. He paused outside of the temple, turning his head slowly to gaze at Alex. He blinked a few times before he could understand what he was looking at. A pair of lizard feet were poking out of her chest, and her normal webbed feet were looking more like that of a dragon. He swallowed, turned, and walked toward the Newt and Demon. Stranger things had happened.

Tresk hopped up the stairs first, screaming as she threw open the third floor’s door and scaring Salire. Theo was up soon after, finding his assistant panting for breath and hurling curses at the marshling. She had moved all the equipment around, placing them into sections of the lab.

“How is it looking?” Theo asked.

“Bad.” Salire said, pausing to make a rude gesture at Tresk. The marshling returned the favor. “I’m questioning the stability of essences when they come out of the stills. I’ve got a sample over there I don’t wanna touch.”

Theo spotted the sample she was talking about. Moving to inspect—without touching—he found it was a first tier Healing Essence. Nothing fancy. But silver globs of something rested atop the mixture, dancing and sizzling. It was a different kind of reaction than he was used to. Impurities had snuck into the mix, but instead of creating an unusable essence, they had risen to the top after distillation.

“This is very weird,” Theo said, looking closer. He planned on grabbing it, but watched as a phantom version of himself hoisted it only to explode. “Yeah, no one touch it. Actually…”

Theo took the essence into his inventory. “There. Well this is a big problem. Theories?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a still coming that should help. Unfortunately, our production is going to be much slower.”

That sounded fine to Theo. The frantic way they treated potions now always annoyed him. It was a constant grind to get more. As interesting as the industrialization of potion making was, it was exciting to see another way. The alchemist withdrew the book he and Salire had written, thumping it on the table.

“I hope you’re ready. We gotta write a new book.”

“Boo. Books are boring,” Tresk complained.

“Books are not boring. You’re boring.” Salire glared at her again.

Tresk could be abrasive at times. She had drifted far from the times where she would watch Theo perform alchemy in his lab. But she had her own life which usually involved stabbing things. “Let’s get to it,” Theo said, clapping his hands. “Maybe we can cobble together something that will work.”

Chapter 44

Duels and Mage Cores

There was once a thriving city in the endless crater. Jan stood at the edge of that crater, following the line drawn for him by his skill. Rain poured overhead, pooling in spots near the edge of the hole before falling down the edge like an endless waterfall. The pool that had collected in the bottom was vast, soon to be an impressive lake if the rainfall continued. He found a seat on a rock, looking down at the shattered mask of Twist. It would be easy to pull the trigger now. But that was an act that would provide no closure.

The masked elf stirred eventually. Pushing himself to a seated position and casting aside his broken mask. The scarred features of an aging warrior greeted him. Twist nodded, rubbing his head as though the fall had only given him a bump.

“How long have you been waiting for this?” Jan asked, gesturing with his revolver.

“Not as long as you would think,” Twist said, rolling his shoulders. He checked his hips, finding his weapons there.

“We thought you were on our side, you know. Thought you were one of us. Should’ve never trusted an alien.”

Twist scoffed, looking up to the sky above. A bolt of lightning streaked across the clouds as the rain ran down his face. “Does it even matter? You won. There. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“No. I want to know why you joined Death’s side. Why did you open the Gate?”

Twist released a heavy sigh, falling back into the mud. “Because I thought my people could survive. A hope that we wouldn’t become fuel for this transition.”

Jan leaned in, training the revolver on the elf. “You don’t listen. You’ve never listened. That’s what we stopped, you idiot. We put a pause on the whole damn thing. That’s why we’re here!”

“You’re lying. Again.”

“Why would I lie?”

“Well, the Gates helped, didn’t they? Your friends were in trouble, and you helped them. That should make us even.”

“It doesn’t and you know that. What you brought to Earth cannot be forgiven. None of this would have happened if you didn’t.” Jan considered if he wanted a fair fight or not. There was something within Twist that could be redeemed, but he was too damn angry. If the elf did nothing back then, they could have been spared sixty-thousand years of shit for this world. That deserved a little blood. “Come on. Just like the old days.”

“A duel?” Twist asked, scoffing. “I can’t believe you’re going to try setting terms.”

“Yeah, a duel. Like I said, I think your people are somewhere. Maybe the queue they were talking about. We can talk about it after you’re full of holes.” Jan rose to his feet, preparing to fire. Twist was always fast. He tightened his grip on his other weapon. That Throk guy was a genius. “Ready?”

“Fine. Ready…” Twist vanished. Jan pulled the trigger on the modified sawnoff he held in his coat, facing backwards. The elf went flying back from the force of the magically enhanced weapon.

“Same old tricks,” Jan said, stalking toward Twist. “You gotta work on that, buddy.”

Twist groaned, rising to a seated position. The pellets hadn’t pierced his skin. But it must have hurt. He growled, launching himself toward Jan with his weapons sweeping out.

“The first tier should be almost the same.” Theo quaffed a Health Potion, the burns on his forearm fading in an instant.

Salire blinked from the ground, her face covered in soot. “Throk isn’t going to be happy we blew his equipment up.”

“We can afford to scrap ten old stills.” Theo kicked at the pile of Drogramathi Iron. “Small-scale tests are going to work best for now. That might just be the key.”

“It wouldn’t make the first step pressurization, would it?”

[Wisdom of the Soul]

It is impossible to conclude what the Tero’gal Alchemy Core would want for a first stage of distillation. More than likely, your focus should be on controlling variables before or during the distillation process.

“My magic cheating pop-up said we should control variables before or during.” Theo shrugged, not completely sure what it wanted him to do.

“Perhaps we can use something to draw out the impurities beforehand?”

Theo thought about that for a moment. His Drogramath Distillery Specialty changed to Tero’gal Distillery Specialty, and the description changed with it. If only perfection was accepted during the process, she might have been right. But he found it hard to reprogram his thought process. He had been using Drogramath’s alchemy since he arrived, and had only entertained the other forms of alchemy to distribute recipes to others.

“When you’re creating a salve with the standard form of alchemy, you create and bind a paste with the reagent. Let’s move forward assuming our reagents are twice as volatile, and our skills won’t help us.”

“Worth a shot,” Salire said, withdrawing ingredients from her inventory.

For the first test, they added more iron shavings than they needed. The resulting explosion was less impressive than the last, so they tried it again. This time, they used hunks of iron, rather than shavings. Ground Spiny Swamp Thistle Root went into the still with Purified Water and an equal chunk of iron. The idea was to use the iron as a gathering agent, rather than a catalyst. When this also caused an explosion, the pair took a break for discussion and theories.

Theo listened to the ideas Salire had, but found his attention drawn far in the distance. He felt something, although it was difficult to describe. He dismissed the chill running up his spine, turning back to his work. The working theory was that Tero’gal’s alchemy would be more ‘perfect’ than Drogramath’s version. That meant impurities had to be removed before or during the first phase of distillation.

“Reduce the amount of material going into the still,” Theo said, pushing himself to his feet. He worked a knot out of his back by stretching, tilting his head to either side until he heard a satisfying pop. “We’ll introduce iron at a two-to-one ratio.”

“Think it’ll work?”

Theo kicked the remnants of Throk’s old still, searching until he found what he was looking for. He picked up the chunk of iron, holding it out for Salire to see. “Chunks of crystalized impurities gathered on the iron.”

Salire pursed her lips, her nose almost pressing against the iron as she looked at it. “What about a bunch of small iron balls, instead of one big one? More surface area, maybe?”

“That’s worth a shot. This might lead to problems, but I have a feeling this might work. We just need to find a bunch of…” Theo trailed off, watching as Salire withdrew exactly what they needed from her inventory.

“From an unrelated project,” Salire said, waving him away. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Suddenly, I’m more worried.”

If Theo and Salire were right, this would be the biggest roadblock for their new form of alchemy. It would produce a lot of alchemical waste, and the yields would be quite small. Whatever essence they could squeeze from the stills would be a tenth of what they could produce before. But the alchemist always had a problem with the amount of potions they were cranking out. Perhaps this was the system’s way of hamstringing the process, removing an unfair advantage Drogramath had on the world.

When the still exploded the next time, Theo got more insight than he had expected. Salire ran to get one of the junior artificers to make adjustments to their remaining stills. Theo flicked the man a silver coin when he was done, going over the change. The floor for the heat had been lowered significantly. It could go as low as a gentle heat, barely above room temperature, while only going as high as before. His thoughts were of a slow heating. A ‘perfect’ heating.

“It isn’t exploding,” Salire said, hiding behind a tree.

The mixture contained iron balls in ratio of ten-to-one to the mashed reagent. The water was still at a one-to-one ratio with the reagent, but the quantity was minimal. Five units for this first test. Theo started the heat at just below the ambient temperature around them, which was decently hot, even with the Season of Fire fading. 

“This is the boring part,” Theo said, kneeling to check the gauges on the artifice. He had it set to increase the heat over the next five hours, finally boiling at the end of that time. “You’re following, right?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure I like it.” Salire sighed. “Our Drogramath power stabilized the mixture before. Now we have to rely on skill.”

Theo laughed to himself. They had all the tools and experience they needed to figure this out. Both had an intimate understanding of Drogramath’s alchemy. They had crafted countless potions, worked the stills for days at a time, allowing them to understand the inner workings of the art. This might have been a different process, but it was close enough. The alchemist himself had run into a problem with alchemical waste while learning how pressurization worked. This was an adjacent problem he was certain he could solve.

“The theory is simple. We need to throw out all concepts of imperfection. Anything that would result in a less pure run has to go. In theory, we could run a batch of perfect reagents from the wild. Except those are extremely rare.”

“Makes sense,” Salire said, still unwilling to come out from behind the tree. “I think.”

It didn’t have to make sense. They just had to keep trying until something worked. The longer they tried different things, the more they could narrow down what the exact problem was. Thanks to Throk’s artifices, they didn’t need to watch the still as it worked. Salire headed off to take stock of their potion supply, issuing an order to the town to ration them for now. Theo left the notes to her, since he had no interest in it. He enjoyed the end result of the book, just not the work that went into it.

Theo took his break from alchemy to take care of something else that was important. Both his governance and Toru’aun cores were important to daily life. He didn’t use his Toru’aun Mage’s Core often, but when he did the applications were important. With her power fading in the core by the day, he needed to take care of it. While he was at it, he would fix up his governance core. Although there was likely to be almost no changes to that one. Hopefully.

Theo made his way to the temple, finding more people than ever praying there. He assumed the altar and got to work on his cores, starting with his Drogramath Governance Core. This one seemed the most willing to change of all the others he had worked with. It accepted the power from Tero’gal, evolving without an issue. When the message appeared, there were almost no changes on the core itself besides the name. The only skill that evolved was the Order From Chaos skill, which changed to something slightly better.

[Subtle Stockpiles]

Tero’gal Governance Skill

Epic

Creates a Consumable Stockpile within the nation’s storage. Those with permission may grant others access to this stockpile, allowing them to withdraw designated consumables from the stockpile while within the nation.

Effect:

A Consumable is added to your Kingdom Core.

While it was unclear what the system considered a consumable, this was an upgrade. Because potions were absolutely a consumable, this just added more things they could toss in that storage. The alchemist moved on, working on evolving his mage core. This one was less willing to change. When it did, the entire class changed. Theo wiped his brow after the message appeared, feeling something within him change on a fundamental level.

“This is gonna be a lot of reading,” Theo muttered to himself, pulling the class core up.

[Tero’gal Mage’s Core]

Unique

Mage Core

Bound

4 Slots

Level 29 (93%)

A mage core given to the followers of Tero’gal. This time of magecraft finds its roots in the Illusion Mage class, adding elements of reactive wards based on alchemy principles. Willpower may be woven into your spells, increasing their effectiveness.

Innate Skills:

[Sensitive Weaving]

Effect:

[Ward Mastery]

[Willpower-Fueled Ward Propagation]

[Sympathetic Effects]

[Intuitive Nodes]

The only skill that hadn’t experienced a change was Intuitive Nodes, since that was a Tero’gal skill already. Looking back on it, Theo should have realized this was the way forward for him. When all his skills began showing up related to Tero’gal, he should have noticed he was soaking up a lot of the energy from his old realm. He went down the line, looking at how every skill had changed.

[Ward Mastery]

Tero’gal Mage Skill

Legendary

Subverts the nature of your wards, allowing you greater access to effects and the ability to place them on any item, person, monster, surface, etc.

Effect:

When casting your warding spells, you may apply them to anything.

Understanding the property of an alchemy effect allows you to add that effect to a ward.

This skill had evolved from Surface Application, and the change was welcome. It was less specialized in the description, but Theo doubted the effect would be much different. The restrictions on the length his wards would last on various surfaces was gone. It made direct mentions to alchemy this time, which might allow him access to more powerful effects.

[Willpower-Fueled Ward Propagation]

Tero’gal Demon Mage Skill

Rare

Infuse your wards with willpower, creating a feedback loop.

Effect:

Increases the length of your wards based on willpower.

The change here was simple. Instead of fueling his wards to last longer in general, he now fed them his willpower. Which meant his wards would last forever. This evolution was an upgrade no matter how he looked at it.

[Sympathetic Effects]

Tero’gal Demon Mage Skill

Epic

Allows the user to link the effects of their spells.

Effect:

Your spells can now be linked to work together. This operates outside of the spell crafting system, and must be done by an ad hoc basis.

Linked spells will produce new effects, increased durations, instability, etc.

This skill had evolved from the Linked Wards skill, which had previously allowed him to connect two wards. Now he could connect two spells, not just wards. That brought something up in Theo’s mind. This core wasn’t focused on just wards. It had a specialty in wards, but if the descriptions were accurate, he could now cast spells like a normal mage. Perhaps a mage fueled by willpower, rather than hard work and study, but a mage nonetheless.  The alchemist had a sudden need to cast a bunch of overpowered spells.

“Perhaps best if I move somewhere safe,” Theo said, looking around at the people praying in the temple. “Can’t just go exploding the temple.”

Chapter 45

Absurd Duration

“What gives?” Tresk asked, folding her arms and pouting.

Standing in the Dreamwalk, Theo looked over the imagined space, his eyes tracing the lines of the hills outside Broken Tusk. He could see his golem-operated farm here, although none of his creations were working. The area seemed calmer than it normally was, as the buzz of activity they normally experienced was absent. He felt no urgency to get things done, instead experiencing only the soothing effects of the dream.

“They finally caught on to us,” Theo said, shaking his head. He wasn’t surprised. The new gods wouldn’t let this fly forever. He had expected them to clamp down on it sooner, but knew they weren’t at full strength. “I can’t use my willpower exploit.”

“I just want to see some dragons.”

“The dragons you make are always a little weird, anyway. Even with Pogo as reference.”

Tresk narrowed her eyes at him. “Weird? How?”

“Too many toes,” Theo said, dismissing the subject with a wave. “This is good, though.”

“Yeah, we love the new gods. Praise the new gods and whatever. I’m just worried about when my Zaul cores go poof.”

“Not gonna happen. I think he’s making a run for the new pantheon. They’re gonna call him Shadow or something like that. Since they don’t use their real names.”

“Hah! Gottem. Alright, guess I’m fighting regular monsters. Lame! Wait…”

The Dreamwalk shuddered under their feet. The dark entity she had fought above Qavell came into view, looming menacingly in the sky. Without delay, Tresk mounted Alex and took to the sky. Theo sighed. Why would the system allow her to summon that but not a dragon? Probably because she was attempting to make her own version of a dragon, rather than the real one. She had summoned a vision of the dark entity that was close enough to the real thing. Of course, she was using the Tara’hek Union skill. It made Theo feel funny, but offered no other negative effects.

Turning away from the battle after watching for a bit—Alex’s dragon-like features were becoming more visible by the day—Theo turned to his alchemy studies. Tero’gal’s form of alchemy was already turning out to be very weird. 

As expected, the Dreamwalk was restrictive again. No amount of willpower would allow him to overpower the dream, forcing him to stick to only the things he had done before. It was an understandable restriction, considering how much they had already exploited it. Instead, he turned his attention to what he knew and his sharpened instincts. Tero’gal didn’t just generate a form of alchemy that was aligned with the ideals of the Throneworld, it took into account other things.

Drogramath’s alchemy was never meant to produce industrial quantities of potions. The designer thought his people would be on the run for their entire lives, never settling down. The system was correcting itself, and Theo doubted this would be the last time. For now, all Theo could do was figure out how his new style worked.

“Go over what you know. Work from there.”

Theo’s wisdom told him he was already on the right track. He imagined a 50-unit version of Throk’s stills—one that he had made for very small batches. It filled half-way with mashed reagents at a thought, filling the rest of the way with Purified Water. The thing about Tero’gal Alchemy was how sensitive it was. Water was inert, as far as alchemy went, but heating the mixture had caused explosive problems. Assuming heat was the only problem was shortsighted, though.

As if taking a page from Theo’s own thought process, the system and Tero’gal had designed a form of alchemy that took many factors into account. Quantity was the most important. Adding too many reagents into one place would cause an explosion. Next came the heat. High heat runs were out of the question. Only the lowest possible heat—below boiling at first—would work. That heat needed to be run over a very long period. Next came the unseen interaction within the still itself.

The interaction of heat with impurities was unknown, so he couldn’t test it here. He could only make theories. As the heat increased, more impurities were released. Those impurities were pulled from the mix by the blocks of iron, allowing the water to mix with the mashed essence. It didn’t seem to matter if the iron stayed at the bottom of the mixture, but that was fine.

“So, that’s how it works,” Theo said, nodding as he was confident in himself. He couldn’t test it, but this was good enough for now. Reagents, water, an iron block, slow heat, and small batches. That was it. “Then we have another problem…”

Theo reached inward, feeling his Tero’gal Mage’s Core. This was the core most similar to his Toru’aun core. It was a standard mage’s core specializing in runes. The Dreamwalk allowed him to practice with his wards. He could reproduce all the things he had done before with no exceptions. Unlike his previous core, it was much easier to form spells ad hoc. And the Willpower-Fueled Ward skill was powerful. He applied a ward to a nearby stone, inspecting the effect.

[Lesser Reveal]

[Advanced Ward]

Creates a reactive field of [Reveal]. Field only activates when enemies are detected in range. 

Trigger:

Detect Enemy

Duration:

9537 days.

“That’s not normal.”

The first time Theo had cast the Lesser Reveal ward, it lasted a day. With unending willpower, the duration was stupid. Willpower added a bit to the power of wards without skills, but it influenced the size most of all. He created a goblin, watching as a bubble sprung from the rock. It encompassed most of Broken Tusk, which was another improvement over the sphere it had originally created. But that wasn’t new. Theo had used a defensive ward to repel an entire city, even if it almost killed him doing so.

Of all his cores, his Earth Sorcerer’s Core needed no attention. Aligning it with Tero’gal would give him nothing. Theo slotted the core, reaching out with his will. The landscape changed in an instant, tons of dirt mounding up into a pile. He pushed the earth around as though playing with sand, feeling almost no strain on his willpower.

“This would have been useful when Qavell was falling into the ocean…”

Since the Dreamwalk was being weird, Theo felt as though he had a moment to breathe. He realized how much this place had become another dimension where he worked. Instead of probing into his skills, he headed to the coast. The emerald waters of the bay lapped against his feet. The towers he had helped create loomed overhead, standing as sentinels against whatever threat Broken Tusk faced. Qavell sat in the distance, lording over the coastline.

Theo had never earned the right to see that place before it was moved. He sat on the beach, allowing the water to lap against his feet as he gazed out to the ocean. This would be a relaxing trip to the Dreamwalk. For once.

“I get it,” Twist groaned, pushing himself to a seated position. “How many shots do you have, anyway?”

Jan watched as the masked elf probed at his chest, feeling the places where the bullets had pierced. “Do you remember what you said to me?”

Twist sighed, falling flat onto his back. Through the one hole in his mask, he gazed skyward. Rain splattered against his mask. The wet mud beneath his body soaked through his tattered clothes. Jan wouldn’t give this up until the elf admitted he was wrong. Although he had no intention of killing Twist, he wanted to inflict some pain. As if acting like a judge, he deemed the elf worth of punishment, not death.

“I try to think of you as little as possible,” Twist said. “When did you get so strong?”

“Do you remember?”

“Let me think… We were standing at the Gate in Boston when the monsters came out. You said something about the biggest betrayal of your life. Was it a blood oath you swore? I can’t remember.”

“I said I would hurt you,” Jan said, stepping over the prone elf. He leveled his enhanced shotgun again, putting pressure on the trigger. “I was going to make you pay. Why did you sneak into the heavens? Why did you seek an audience with Death?”

“He promised me something.”

“There exists no being in the universe more insane than Kuzan, you idiot. He was a ghost in the other world. Dead for how many thousands of years?”

“Three-thousand, I think.”

“You saw what the other version of Death did and thought this one would be different. You’re not that stupid, Twist.”

Jan didn’t need to see the elf’s face to know he was smiling. He tossed a dagger from nowhere. It embedded itself in Jan's shoulder, but he didn’t flinch. The weak poison on it wouldn’t affect him anymore than the rain falling on their heads.

“You’re not him,” Twist said. “You’ll never be him.”

“Never claimed to be,” Jan said, pulling the trigger again. Twist grunted at the low-power impact. He could end it here, but that wasn’t good enough. Payment was due in blood. “What did you want from Death?”

Twist coughed, pulling himself into a seated position. His clothes were ruined, but at least his mask held firm. “He has the souls of my people.”

“No, he doesn’t. He wasn’t Death in the old world. He wasn’t Death after the change—he doesn’t have them. They were placed in the queue, just like the rest of us. When that bird-guy put a stop to the war, he only paused it.”

“What are you suggesting?” Twist asked.

“There’s only one person on this planet bloodthirsty enough to help me get my revenge.”

“That’s laughable. Who couldn’t you kill on your own?”

“Come on,” Jan said, extending his hand. “I think I’ve shot you enough for today.”

“I hope there won’t be more shootings in the future,” Twist said, being pulled to his feet.

“The damage you caused to Earth was minimal. Shockingly,” Jan said, patting Twist on the back. “My nephew told me all about what you did before then. One sin isn’t enough to condemn you to death.”

“How many are, then?”

“About five,” Jan said, turning away. He could feel Twist’s murderous intent, but it faded. “Come on. We’re taking a trip to see the elves. Leon has some questions to answer.”

“Okay. I’m with you, now,” Twist said, jogging to catch up. “I’ve never killed a ghost.”

Salire took notes as they inspected the still in the morning. The slow heating was going well, and the iron block inside was collecting unwanted material. The theories Theo had formed, along with the tests he and Salire had already done seemed true. But there were a lot of intricate parts that needed to be sorted out.

“How long do you think this will take?” Salire asked.

“This is just a test,” Theo said, inspecting the essence in the flask. The condenser worked fine, it was just the still part they needed to work on. “I don’t think we have everything down yet.”

“At least the back end is working fine,” Salire said, flicking the condenser coil. A drop of essence fell into the flask.

“Let's get a few orders in with Throk. Get me one that has a spinning paddle of iron in the middle, one with a copper paddle, both of the previous but with a pressurized tank, and one that jiggles.”

“Jiggles?” Salire asked, writing what he said down, but shrugging. “Whatever you say, boss.”

Theo turned the still off, watching as Salire bounded down the stairs. This version was very close to what they needed, but it was missing something. “Hey, Salire!” Theo shouted down the stairs. “Tell Throk to make like… twenty versions. Just whatever he can think of to move the contents around, heat them in different ways, add pressure, and so on.”

“Got it!” Salire said, digging into the money box. “He’s gonna need a serious bribe!”

Once Theo was satisfied that the still was off, he headed out. There was a rental merchant on the first floor, but there wouldn’t be many sales. While they had a few things on hand, almost everything had gone into reserve for the town. Until they had a reliable way to make more potions, selling them was the least of his worries. Thankfully, his income stream didn’t cease with the potions. His ventures throughout town would allow him to toss gold coins around just as he had done before.

Theo headed through Xol’sa’s portal, finding both him and Zarali on the second floor. He tried to turn around when he saw them planning for the wedding, but was unable to escape.

“Theo!” Xol’sa shouted. “I have something for you.”

Zarali rolled her eyes, going back to diagrams of the venue. She grumbled to herself.

“What is it?” Theo asked, praying to whatever new god would listen.

“Research for your problem. Come on,” Xol’sa said, gesturing up the stairs.

“Don’t be too long!” Zarali shouted. “Also, Theo… How is my brother?”

“Too much to explain,” Theo said, shrugging. “He’s kinda… the leader in Tero’gal, now. Yeah, it’s weird. I’ll take you the next time I go.”

“I’m too busy,” Zarali said, waving him off. “I just wanted to make sure he was alive.”

Dronon were brutal. Theo headed up the stairs with Xol’sa, finding an endless scatter of books strewn about the room. The wizard was far too excited about this.

“So, you’re aware that most records from the early days of the world are gone, right?” Xol’sa asked.

“Of course,” Theo said, looking over the books. Most were written in languages he didn’t know, but he spotted a few scribed in Cyrilic. “The Khahari?”

“That’s right. With Khahar gone, they’re giving up some of their secrets. I suppose that was an order… or something. Anyway, there are some interesting mentions of those giant crystals we saw with my people.” Xol’sa grabbed four books, setting them out next to each other. “You can read this script, right? The Sacred Language of the Khahari?”

“Yeah, this is Russian from my world. Khahar thought it was funny to pretend like it was a sacred language.”

“I don’t see the humor. Anyway, it took me a while to learn the language. But they recorded the time when the Bara’thier left the world. It was early in this world’s life. Even before the First Ascension War.”

“That’s interesting,” Theo said, reading over the sections Xol’sa had marked. “Wait, they knew the method they used to move the shards?”

“That’s right. Khahar left behind the recipe to ensnare the Great Shards.”

It wasn’t as complicated as Theo had expected, but there was more information about those shards. He read through the books, even after Zarali was shouting downstairs. Xol’sa stood there, waiting for Theo to reach the good part.

“Your people didn’t send themselves adrift on their own,” Theo said, looking up at the space elf.

“They certainly didn’t. It seems the various dronon races had as much interest in leaving.”