The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 7,8,9 (Patreon)

Chapter 7

Curious Potions

Getting a handle on this new class of reagents wasn’t easy. Theo had woken the next morning, his mind focused entirely on the topic. He moved like a zombie, heading down to the first floor of his manor to pick at his food. Sarisa forced him to eat like a concerned mother hen. When he finally snapped out of it, realizing that progress wasn’t something he often made at the breakfast table, he finished his meal to satisfy his doting minders. But the truth was he was hungry. And the woman’s food was always delicious, even if it was just sausage and eggs.

Whisper’s secret blend of herbs and spices were a coveted thing within the town. She refused to give them up, often going silent when anyone asked. The tactic worked, and the secret remained with her.

As always, there were no answers to be found at the breakfast table.

“Busy day?” Rowan asked, checking Theo with his shoulder as the alchemist moved to exit the manor.

Theo paused, checking his administration interface. It was a busy day for someone else, but not him. The ward he had placed on the city was holding firm, forestalling any issues that would arise from corrupted cores. That only left the structural integrity of the city left to deal with. While he could help with that, it was more work than moving a few boulders around. Ziz’s team made regular reports, and they had a solution that involved Throk and about half the alliance as a workforce.

“Not that busy,” Theo said. “I need to figure out what’s going on with these plants.”

“Oh, I’m real good with plants,” Rowan said, throwing his arm over Theo’s shoulder. The way only a half-ogre could do. “Tell me your problem and I’ll help ya.”

Sarisa laughed somewhere within the manor as Rowan walked with Theo. They exited the building together, marching down the road at a snail’s pace.

“We never expected wild reagents to be better than cultivated ones,” Theo said. Rowan wasn’t good with plants. Let alone ‘real good.’ But there was no point in not humoring the man. Half-ogres had wisdom that couldn’t be matched. Straight to the point and unabashedly honest, they often found the easiest solution for every problem.

“Doesn’t take a master herbalist to figure that one out, Theo.” Rowan laughed, nearly tipping the pair over onto the cobbled street. “You can’t direct the godly energy in the swamp, can you? So your fancy greenhouses can’t create those fancy plants.”

This wasn’t the problem Theo was trying to solve, but he smiled and nodded. That was true enough, and he appreciated the insight. He changed the topic. “How is your relationship with Baelthar?”

“My what with who? Fine, I guess. He doesn’t care what I do.”

“Have you prayed to him?” Theo asked, gesturing to the temple looming in the distance.

Rowan spat on the ground. “Screw that. Any god I follow needs to be strong enough to stand on their own.”

“Fair enough.”

Theo entered the Newt and Demon. The sign was flipped to ‘open’ and the bell rang when he stepped through the threshold. Salire was already on the third floor, working on some standard potions for the shop. She looked as though she had been working the stills for a few hours already, even if the sun had just risen. They shot ideas back-and-forth but didn’t have an answer for their problem. While she worked, the alchemist left for his Herbalist’s Workshop. One theory remained in his mind.

“Don’t get too close to that,” Theo said. Rowan had drawn too close to the deadly plant in his experimental garden. “You’ll die. Horribly, if the description is anything to go by.”

“Ah. Got it.”

Theo recalled the description he had generated in the Dreamwalk. Something nagged him at the back of his mind, and he realized it might not have been completely accurate. Breaking the rules of the system had become a hobby of the Tara’hek. But something lingered in his thoughts, and he intended to generate a research report right after he planted the reagent. As the alchemist kneeled near the garden plot, a thought came into his mind as a Wisdom of the Soul message appeared.

[Wisdom of the Soul]

You’re fairly certain this won’t work. Putting aside the problem with a powerful wild reagent taking root, there’s a high chance this plant will react with the soil itself. When you planted the spirit fruit within the dream realm, you did so because it would not bind to regular soil.

Only soil enchanted with an absurd amount of holy energy could possibly support this plant. It might also explode, killing you and everyone around. Who knows! Maybe you should try it…

“I get it,” Theo muttered, moving away from the garden plot. He brought the most potent sample they had harvested into the workshop, laying it down for inspection. He recalled the research properties it had given him before and compared them against what was right in front of him. There was only one line that was different.

“Will likely produce unknown potion?” Theo asked, turning to Rowan. “I didn’t see that in my dream.”

“Then keep dreaming, cause I dunno what that means.”

Theo grunted a response. He was certain he had generated an accurate report in the Dreamwalk. But that last line was missing. Wisdom of the Soul jumped in again, giving a rare two-for-nothing deal on the problem. It confirmed that breaking the bounds of the Dreamwalk had unintended consequences. The combined willpower of the Tara’hek was powerful, but the system was almost omnipotent. They had spat in the face of something that was beyond them, and he felt lucky to have gotten bad information rather than something worse.

Theo had enough samples of the powerful Spiny Swamp Thistle Root to produce at least one potion. The urge to rush into the lab and brew it was squashed as the alchemist chose caution over haste. He first entertained the idea of planting these new plants in Tero’gal, deciding against it for now. He would explore his reasons for that later. Instead, he went to the lab and sucked a still into his inventory. Salire didn’t question it, and he brought it to the sparsely wooded area behind the lab. The span between the lab and the harbor was clear enough for him to run his experiment.

“Where is Sarisa, anyway?” Theo asked, shoving his bodyweight against the still to get it into place. When it didn’t work, Rowan helped. THe Potion of Hauling could have helped with this, but it seemed like a waste.

“Dunno. She asked me to be your babysitter.”

“Don’t you babysit me every day?”

“Yeah, but one of us has to talk to you. And she normally volunteers.”

Theo stopped shoving after the still was level, glaring at his guardian. “I’m not some senile old man.”

Rowan shrugged.

“I’m not!”

“Light the fire, geezer.”

It was harder to do smaller batches with Drogramath’s alchemy. The temperature mattered far more as the mash within could easily be burned to the bottom. Even Throk’s absurdly awesome stills couldn’t do much to help with that. But under an expert’s hand—the foremost expert on Drogramathi Alchemy living today—made it look easy. Within the hour, he had a sample of Refined Healing Essence to examine. It was exactly like the normal version. Even if it felt more potent in his hands.

“Before I was working for you, one of Ziz’s boys dared me to break into your place and drink a whole bottle of that stuff.”

“You would have died,” Theo said casually. He portioned one unit of the liquid into a vial from his inventory. “Maybe. Actually, I don’t know. Wanna try?”

Rowan looked as though he would try for a moment. He reached his hand out reflexively, but pulled it back when Theo offered him a vial. “Nah, I’m good.”

“For science!”

Theo was proud when Rowan refused again. It was easy to get him and his sister riled up with challenges. He was glad to see survival instincts improving across the board with half-ogres.

“This is weird,” Theo said, swirling the essence in a vial. There was something off about it he couldn’t put his finger on. “This feels close to the spirit fruit. Like the potion is going to complain when I brew it.”

“Stop stalling.”

Theo introduced the other ingredients required to create a reaction. As he suspected, there was almost no reaction. The flake of metal fell to the bottom of the vial like a leaf on the wind. Small bubbles formed at the bottom, but didn’t produce the violent reaction it should have.

“Nothing happened,” Rowan said. Theo pulled the vial back when the man tried to flick it.

“It needs time to brew,” Theo said, feeling himself slipping through the cracks of reality. As he did, he watched as the vial remained where it was. Not in his hand, but floating in the air for only a moment. Rowan caught it before it hit the ground and the alchemist canceled his trip to Tero’gal.

“Just dropping stuff!” Rowan said, huffing. “Isn’t this thing valuable?”

Theo took the vial from Rowan and looked at it, brow cocked as his tail flicked through the air. This wasn’t just curious now, it was interesting. He put a stopper on the vial and added it to his inventory. “Let’s try again.”

“Sure.”

Theo let himself slip through the crack again. Half his body had vanished from the mortal realm when he heard a popping sound. The vial had ejected itself from his inventory and Rowan caught it once again. After canceling his trip yet again, the alchemist glared at the vial. “It doesn’t want to go.”

“Pretty sure potions aren’t as willful as you think.” Rowan laughed, holding the vial out for Theo to take. “Are they?”

“I think my exploit has been patched.”

“Your who got what?”

This would be awful if someone had fixed his exploit. Taking spirit fruit and potions to the heavens to allow them to brew had reduced the time for brewing potions significantly. The person who would have done that was Khahar, of course. But it didn’t feel like that. Something was off.

“This has to brew here. On the mortal plane,” Theo said, holding the vial up. “Time to make a few more. I guess.”

Theo finished the other potions and sucked the still back into his inventory. He placed it back in the lab, pulling Salire aside to show her the new potions.

“It feels potent,” she said, hesitating to reach out to it.

“Trust your instincts on that one. I don’t think this is reactive right now. Rowan flicked the vial, but give it a few hours and I think we’ll have a potent potion.”

Even the temperature of the air had changed the rate at which the bubbles were forming at the bottom. Theo felt itchy after watching that. Wisdom of the Soul had no more wisdom to dispense, but his time working with potions had taught him well enough. New things in alchemy meant fresh problems.

“Crank the air conditioner in here, please,” Theo said, taking all but one vial into his inventory. “We need to leave the air off on the second floor and open the windows. Put the first floor at a decent temperature, but not this cold.”

“On it!” Salire shouted, adjusting the knob for the air conditioner in this room.

If Theo was right, this was another realm of potion making he hadn’t expected. Not only could he not use Tero’gal to make these potions develop faster, but he had to babysit them. And he was almost positive this was the answer. Salire dashed off to fix the other floors, leaving the air running at full blast on the third floor. The bubbles slowed at the bottom of the potion, almost stopping completely.

When Salire returned, she had her notebook in her hands. Since Theo had nothing to do unless he wanted to help with Qavell, he helped her rework some sections of their book. They hadn’t found a printing press yet, and he didn’t have the courage to ask Throk to drop other things to make one. It was also unlikely that anyone would read a copy of their book, but that wasn’t the point. Putting this knowledge to the page was more important than finding a base of readers.

Once he had no more excuses, Theo swapped his Zaul core for his sorcerer core and headed out. With potions on every level of his building and one in his inventory, the experiment would run its course. He didn’t want to proceed before he had more information. As he walked through the town, he realized the irony in what he was doing with his alchemy. Zarali and Belgar had been dronon that were single-minded for perfection. When Belgar was alive to perform his alchemy, he accepted nothing but the best. He took his time with each step to ensure it was perfect.

Theo’s way of brewing potions was different. His method was born of a need to help these people. Broken Tusk had more problems that a person could count at the start. Alchemy bridged the gap between what they lacked and what they needed. That meant Theo produced vast quantities of potions to fit that need. Now he thought about the old ways of doing things. As the Champion of Drogramath, he would embody the ideals he resisted. As much as he disliked the slow way, it had to be done. This was the way forward to the true fourth tier of Drogramath’s alchemy.

Ziz and his people had done well on Qavell so far. The work had been constant and more problems arose by the day. Theo worked his way down the beach, walking over the causeway as the waves lapped against his feet. He pulled his coat tight to fight against the sun overhead, feeling the cooling effect of the magical item envelop him. False ground had been seeded near the base of the city. Immeasurable tons of rocks were resting in the waves and a team of people were working with metal cables to stabilize the city.

“How are we doing, Ziz?” Theo asked, clapping a hand over the mason’s shoulder. He jumped slightly, turning to smile at him.

“Poorly!” Ziz spat on the wet ground. “Have you ever tried to wrangle an entire city? Everything I’m trying is failing. See those massive pillars? The ones… you know… the size of a city? My stone welding can’t keep them together. Those cables keep snapping—and if the GODS DAMNED tide comes in one more time, I’m going to kill the sea.”

“So, about what we expected?”

“Yeah.”

Theo took a deep breath. There was little he could do to advance his potion making and his ascension to the Throne of the Dreamwalker. He had time to kill.

“Come on. I have an idea.”

Chapter 8

Unknown Reactions

It took Ziz a while to clear away all the workers near the city. Theo waited near the shore, watching as those people dispersed into the surrounding area. He had wanted to wait to try this until things got dire. Since nothing was working, that moment felt as though it was approaching swiftly. While he had an arsenal of potions, there was only one he could think of that would pair well with his plan.

Until this point, Theo had been moving a handful of stones at a time. It was more efficient than having people carry them by hand, but it was still slow. Collapsing the mountain range to the west had been an option. Their tests had revealed that it was too hard to control the way the mountain fell. The alchemist held a Greater Intelligence Potion in his hand, waiting for the area to clear. He had swapped his Toru’aun Mage’s Core out so that he could equip both Zaul Shadowspirit Core and his Earth Sorcerer’s Core. The Spirit Weaving skill attached to the Shadowspirit core allowed him to empower one skill.

Earth Attunement was the skill that allowed him to move things aligned with the Earth element. Spirit Weaving didn’t have a time limit, but Theo was certain this would work. The skill was already empowered with his willpower, but would experience at least a doubling effect. Consuming the intelligence potion would send him up a few realms of power for that attribute, unlocking even more power. If he drew some willpower from Tero’gal, all the effects combined might make this work.

“Everyone is cleared out,” Ziz said, thumping Theo on the shoulder. “Try not to kill anyone in the city.”

Theo nodded. He drank the potion first, swaying on the spot as his Intelligence rocketed past 40. Once he could stand on his own, he activated the Shadow Weaving ability and focused on his Earth Attunement skill. In an instant, the mountainside lit up. His head swam again. If Ziz wasn’t there to keep him from falling, he would have pitched over onto the gravel pathway. With almost 50 Intelligence fueling the skill, the alchemist reached out with his mind.

The side of the mountain was almost a vertical wall of stone. It towered higher than the city itself. In Theo’s vision, it was a sheet of green energy, pulsing with the will of the planet itself. He reached out with his mind, pressing his willpower against those nodes. His aura flickered out as a turbulent bubble of shadows, pressing against that mountain and gaining a few screams from those lingering too close.

“Here we go,” Theo grunted, tugging with all his might.

Seams appeared in the mountain. The green energy buckled under the potent combination of Zaul’s skill and Theo’s own potion. Those seams grew larger as Theo yanked, pulling house-sized boulders down from their perch. More stone fell the more he yanked and the alchemist shifted his focus, watching as the shadow bubble battered the wall. An avalanche—if a vertical drop of rocks could be called that—came next. Piles of stone formed at the bottom.

Theo split his concentration, yanking boulders down as he distributed them around the work site. Those who had remained to watch the event had long-since fled, but Ziz stayed where he was. Shouting words of encouragement, the half-ogre pumped his fist every time a large rock fell from the cliff. The alchemist had piled about fifty feet of boulders and rocks around the base of Qavell when the skill wore off. His shoulders slacked and he lost hold of the massive rock he was holding with his willpower. It slammed into the sea, sending more waves rushing his way.

“One minute of work and a month of progress!” Ziz shouted, cheering with excitement. “That was awesome!”

“This is going to take a week,” Theo said, swaying some more and nearly falling over. He had trouble contending with the cold logic spreading through his mind. High Intelligence was far worse than Wisdom. It was as though all emotion had drained from him, leaving him feeling like an automaton, slave only to logic.

“Sounds about right. One-day cooldown on that bad boy?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. Your normal rock-moving ability can still help, though. Unless you’re too busy.”

Theo wasn’t that busy. He didn’t want to be that busy, anyway. He agreed to help Ziz, no matter how long it took to set the city straight. It would be a grueling week of work, but he could do it. If only for the sake of the people in the city above, he would do it. Drinking a steady line of Greater Intelligence Potions was easy enough, but the heavy lifting was done by the Shadow Weaving skill. The alchemist might not admit it, but the effort to collapse part of the cliff had taken something significant from him. He was drained beyond what he would express and only took light work during that first day.

It took fewer than a week to get the job done. Including the first day of work, Theo spent four days moving material from the mountains to support the city. Laying a base of stones, no matter how large they were, wasn’t good enough. The stonemasons of the town worked to bind massive sections together with their magical mortar ability, creating something more like bedrock than a pile of gravel. Ziz had other ways to bind everything together, but the alchemist was often too exhausted to watch closely.

The only thing that made the days doable was Theo’s ability to retreat into his private realm. He looked over the pile of stones, shaking his head at the sight. It looked as though an army of giant ants had moved the boulders, creating a pile that surrounded the entire city. Ziz and his teams were climbing over those boulders—not unlike ants—and welding the last few things together. This wasn’t the final form of Qavell as it rested outside of Broken Tusk, but it was enough to keep it from tilting over. Estimating the amount of material that had moved would be impossible. It was about a mountain’s worth, and that’s all Theo cared to think of it as.

“I’m taking off. For about five minutes,” Theo said, dabbing a layer of sweat from his forehead. He was perfectly cool in his coat, but the stress of abusing his Earth Sorcerer’s Core had piled up over the day. Midday had drawn over the town and gone, leaving them with the bright sun of the mid-afternoon.

“Okay,” Sarisa said, looking around awkwardly. “Whatever.”

Theo wrapped himself in his aura and fell through the veil. He didn’t use his Tero’gal Dreampassage ability, instead planning to probe the void for something interesting. Once he was done with this bit of work, he would finally see what his newest potion had become. The one in his inventory hadn’t budged, but the others planted throughout the lab had progressed well enough. They produced different shades and unique quantities of bubbles. Even the shades were different, rendering each with interesting differences of stability.

Theo coasted along the first ribbon of the heavenly reality, hovering near the Bridge and soaking in the feeling. He would consider the sight, but there wasn’t much to see. The void was a long stretch of nothing, punctuated randomly by stuff. ‘Stuff’ was the best way to describe it, as the alchemist could never get a feel for it all. But it was easy enough to understand the blockade the Bridge provided, keeping the heavens where they were and the mortal plane where it was. If he strained, he could feel things off in the distance. The high heavens nearby, which included both the Prime Pantheon and Demonic Pantheon. There was something else near those two groups, but it was hard to say.

Interesting, Theo thought, pushing beyond the bridge. It was like observing the fabric of everything up here from a top-down view. Near the edges of the two pantheons there was something that felt more solid than even the bridge. Theo pressed himself against it, but couldn’t find a spot where it was weak. After fumbling up against something he couldn’t understand for a while, he gave up and approached the bridge. This time, he allowed Uz’Xulven to detect him.

Moments later he was landing in Tero’gal, eager to enjoy some tea. Several gates to other godly worlds were already up. Some had stopped waiting for him to show up and just took the realm as an open invitation to chill. The spirits had taken up new sports, but that wasn’t surprising. Those gods that were already enjoying Benton’s fine tea hardly noticed as the alchemist entered the room, taking his seat to partake.

The conversation that was already in motion didn’t stop for him, rolling through the group with opinions on heavenly politics. It was a topic that Theo had no interest in, so he remained on the sidelines. The trip to Tero’gal was refreshing enough that he decided a hike was in order. Several hours after arriving with the gods and drinking his share of the tea, he headed out on the path.

It would take more than a few hours to cover the distance from the main spirit hub to the outer reaches. Theo took his time on that road, waving to the denizens of his realm as he passed. A group of power walking spirits came up behind him at a point with cries of “on your left.” He was eager to see the newest trend of the locals die and never return.

What few souls had joined Tero’gal in recent memory were settling well enough. Theo had been shocked to see that people weren’t flocking to his realm. He expected a torrent of souls pouring into this place, crowding it with their ethereal presence. Since the void didn’t seem overly full of lost souls, the alchemist could reach only one conclusion. They had picked other realms to call their home. It made him wonder what attracted his current population of lost spirits. Asking them was useless, as they rarely remembered why they came.

Even Belgar wasn’t immune to the dizzying effects of the void. Only Theo had the honor of traversing the void. Perhaps it wasn’t a responsibility he wanted, but there it was. The alchemist settled in by the lake he had created. He adjusted the time-scale of the realm, setting the current time to the mid-morning. The local souls would get used to a day-night cycle. He left the internal clock of the realm running, allowing the fake sun in the sky to move in an Earth-like cycle.

“What about a moon?” Theo asked himself, tapping his chin.

Between the Simulated Reality and Landscape Manipulation upgrade, he could form the world to look like just about anything. As he reached out to the realm, he felt as though a moon wasn’t out of the question. Like the sun, it was cosmetic. Instead of a singular moon, he settled on eight. The number was significant, representing the phases of Telbarantis back in the mortal plane. That moon shifted through a range of colors, changing each day. Green, blue, red, yellow, orange, gold, white, and black. Why not have them all at once?

“Even if the spirits don’t like it we can change it later,” Theo said, resting on the sandy beach. He could see a village created by the splinter group of spirits on the far shore. It would be easy enough to teleport over there, demanding that they reunite with the others. But what was the point of that? Tero’gal was meant to be a living thing, not some diorama created by a god. Minor changes, such as the sun and moons, were as far as he would go. That and the occasional trail or feature of the land.

This strategy had proved fruitful from the start. Theo remembered the way spirits acted in other realms. They all danced to someone else’s song. Within Tero’gal, the spirits themselves made the music. Those lost souls wrote the tempo for their lives, dancing however they saw fit. Industries had sprung up throughout the realm. Logging, mining, clothcraft, and so on. While there was no central currency, people bartered for their stuff. Since almost a year passed for each day Theo was away, those things had moved quickly. But not as quickly as things moved on the mortal realm.

If Tero’gal was an analog for the mortal world, Theo could have spread a city over everything in sight. Seed core buildings had a way of creating a civilization overnight. Not the souls of Tero’gal, though. They build their structures by hand. They mined the ore without classes, chopped trees without them… A mortal would puke if they considered doing any of these things without classes.

“My perfect little world,” Theo said, scoffing. “An example for the gods… or what?”

Theo stopped by the Dreamer’s Throne before he left. Tresk came here every day to reassert her power. This was the perfect hiding place. If another person were to come and take it, they would need too many skills that most mortals didn’t have. If a god wanted to claim it, they would deal with the ire of the Arbiter. Even if Khahar didn’t come to help, the Guardians of Faith expansion on the realm would be interesting to contend with. That and the Bubble upgrade, which made it harder for hostile gods to perform interdiction actions both into and out of the realm.

Once he was satisfied with his trip to the realm, Theo allowed himself to slip through reality. He fell back to where he was, finding the weight of the mortal realm comforting. When he entered the lab, Salire had a strange look on her face. It was a mixture of excitement and dread.

“Interesting results,” she said, gesturing to the vial that had been stored on the first floor.

“What is that?”

Theo looked upon a pile of something. Where the vial once was, there was now a mass of material. It appeared as though someone had poured molten metal onto the vial, only to let it cool there. While none of the wood around it was damaged, heat still emanated from the pile.

“Some unknown reaction,” Salire said.

“Are they all like this?”

“Not the one upstairs. Top floor. The second floor is a mess.”

This was an unexpected turn. Aside from explosions, this was the single most reactive thing Theo had witnessed with alchemy. There were plenty of times where he had intentionally forced two reagents to react, resulting in an explosion, but never anything like this. He inspected the stuff on the ground, finding it to be rock-hard foam. It had bound with the floor itself, creating an awkward situation where it was nearly impossible to remove. A job for Ziz and his boys, perhaps.

“What are we waiting for?” Salire said, almost breathless. “The one in the air conditioned room worked!”

“Let’s go.”

Chapter 9

Then You’ll Wait

The one potion that hadn’t violently spewed foam into the Newt and Demon sat on a table in the lab. The air had been cranked beyond reason and frost had formed on the windows. Theo drew the Coat of Rake closely around himself, shivering a moment after they entered. He watched Salire suffer in his sundress. The alchemist turned the air off, opening a window to let some of Fire’s heat inside.

“Won’t it react?” Salire asked.

She should have known the answer, and Theo wouldn’t deny he was slightly disappointed. He shook the thought away, realizing she was being cautious. “I don’t think so. The period of instability is when the reaction is working. Maybe.”

“Just don’t cover the good stills with foam,” Salire said, wincing as Theo picked the vial up. Her voice dropped to a low whisper. “Be careful.”

The liquid within the vial glittered. Flecks of shining red floated throughout the pink liquid. It was a healing potion, that much was clear. But it was so unlike the other healing potions that Theo doubted himself for far too long. Something in his chest said this was an undiscovered potion. Something no other alchemist had crafted before him. He maintained a stoic expression, but the excitement was building in his chest. Before he could stop it, a smile spread across his face.

“Did you inspect it?” Salire asked, edging closer. Not close enough to see the description on the item, though.

Theo was waiting and he didn’t know why. How many potions had he inspected after creating and why was this one any different? If he was right about this being an unknown potion, there wouldn’t be a description. After a moment more of hesitation, he inspected the potion. And received a prompt he didn’t expect.

[Potion of Significance]

You are the first person to create a potion of great significance. This potion has never been created by another mortal. Please select an attribute to boost from the following list:

Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Willpower, [ERROR], Affinity, Mind, [ERROR], [Teleport Point: Strelon Highlands], [Teleport Point: Skaral Desert]...

Theo blinked at the options, unsure what the hell was going on. There were too many things to process in such a short time. Just as he reached out for one of the weirder ones, the message window vanished and reappeared.

[Potion of Significance]

You are the first person to create a potion of great significance. This potion has never been created by another mortal. Please select an attribute to boost from the following list:

Strength, Vigor, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Willpower.

“What?” Salire asked, flicking Theo in the cheek. “What is it?”

His mind was reeling. The places listed for teleport weren’t places he recognized. That didn’t mean they weren’t there. He filed them away in his near-perfect memory and considered which attribute to boost. Willpower was an option, but the alchemist discarded that idea. Gaining willpower was far easier than attributes. He went with Wisdom instead. Between Intelligence and Wisdom, the second was the only one he could increase infinitely without fear he would become a being focused entirely on logic. He remembered the way he felt when he imbibed his Greater Intelligence Potions.

Salire was pulling at his arm when he selected Wisdom. The message flashed away and another came to take its place. The alchemist’s head felt woozy as the increased attribute took hold.

[Potion of Significance]

Based on the importance of this potion, your Wisdom has been increased accordingly.

You have gained:

Permanent +10 Wisdom.

Theo leaned against a table, eyes wide as he read the message. Over and over until it sank into his brain that he had jumped ten levels in a moment. The alchemist had increased his wisdom by an entire tier of power in a blink. It couldn’t be real, could it?

“What is it!?” Salire shouted, resorting to punching him in the arm.

“I just got a permanent plus ten to Wisdom.”

“WHAT!?”

There was something wrong with that prompt. Theo was sure of it. But when he went to check his personal screen, there it was.

Theo Spencer

Drogramath Dronon

Level 30

Alchemist

Core Slots: 6

Stats:

Health: 120

Mana: 210

Stamina: 130

Strength: 20 (+11)

Dexterity: 20 (+8)

Vigor: 23 (+8)

Intelligence: 28 (+9)

Wisdom: 40 (+7)

Points: 0

It didn’t even count the additional Wisdom as a modifier like it did with gear. This was insanity. He sputtered, trying to put his thoughts into words. The amount of Wisdom he had gained in such a short time sent his head spinning. His brain tried to catch up with the increase. Even Wisdom of the Soul couldn’t help him with such a drastic change. For a moment, he saw Salire’s movements before she made them. Only a fraction of a section before she did, but he could see a ghostly form of her moving before she did.

“WHAAAAAT!?” Salire said, pummeling him at this point.

“This is a ‘potion of significance’ but I don’t know what that means. It gave me the option to pick an attribute to raise… I thought it would be a point, but it gave me ten.”

“That’s insane, Theo. You’re lying.”

“Honest, Salire.” Theo could feel his hands shaking. Because he understood the implications. The swamp was filled with these plants. At least ten reagents he could think of that would be easy enough to farm up for more significant potions. He licked his lips as he inspected the potion itself. Somehow, his mouth became drier. “I think I know why the other potions failed. Inspect this.”

[Elixir of Life]

[Elixir]

Unique

Created by: Theo Spencer

Grade: Perfect Quality

Alignment:

Tero’gal (Perfect Bond)

Drink to remove all harmful effects, restore a person to full health, heal all injuries, regrow all digits and limbs, and restore a person to their natural state.

Elixir Restriction:

Only one Elixir of Life may be consumed or crafted(worldwide) every five days.

“That would have come in handy earlier,” Theo breathed. The vial that the elixir sat in betrayed its importance. Even with the fancy flourishes Salire had made, it wasn’t good enough. This thing needed gold leaf, gemstones, and a stopper made from dragon bone. This was the single most powerful potion Theo had ever crafted. It might have been the most powerful potion anyone had ever crafted.

“You’re kidding me.” Salire wouldn’t even reach out to touch it. “This is insane. I’m not seeing this, am I?”

“If we’re both seeing the same thing, I gotta say it might be real.”

The door to the lab swung open. Fenian stood with a wild look in his eyes, twin rapiers ready for combat. He locked eyes with Theo, narrowing his gaze.

“What have you done?” Fenian asked, his words coming out with hate.

Theo had already gathered his willpower, ready to retreat into the void the moment the door flung open. Now he focused on Fenian, prepared to send the elf into the void if he needed to. He wasn’t a simple elven trader, but even his champion status wouldn’t save him from the bite of the void. After a few tense moments, both parties relaxed.

“I felt something,” Fenian explained. “An event that sent a shiver down my spine.”

“I made a potion,” Theo said, stuffing the potion into his inventory.

“Sad to see your trust in me has fallen so far,” Fenian said.

Theo gestured to the rapiers in Fenian’s hands. “Says the guy with the stabby things.”

Fenian rolled his shoulders, nodding after a moment. The weapons vanished from his hands and he took a breath. “May I explain?”

“Feel free.” Theo hadn’t let go of the elf with his will. He could drop him into the void with a twitch. How did they come to this point?

“My Herald’s Core twinged in my chest. I almost got my wings back, but the feeling passed. Something was breaking the rules. And that something was in your lab.”

Perhaps it was his increased Wisdom, but Theo understood. He recited what the first message had told him, including the items that clearly shouldn’t have been there. “Do you think that was it?” the alchemist asked.

“Let go of me and I’ll explain,” Fenian grumbled, gesturing to his feet.

The shadows that Theo was commanding—those that made up his aura—were wrapped around the elf’s legs. “Oh. Sure,” Theo said, allowing his aura to back off. Just a bit.

“My dear, sweet alchemist. Of course that was it,” Fenian said, sauntering over to lean on a table. “You should have led with that. I might have cast that creature to the ground, but it didn’t die. I’m almost certain it lingers in the system. Like a disease. Perhaps he is lashing out.”

Theo rolled his shoulders. There were many people in this world. Most of them wouldn’t make him tense up like that, but Fenian was different. He had never expected the elf to betray him, but that look in his eyes was something else. There was fury in there that the alchemist had never seen. But it was gone. He was once again rendered as a jolly elf before his eyes, and both Wisdom of the Soul and his Wisdom attribute agreed everything was cool.

“It might have been worth fighting you for this,” Theo said, producing the potion from his inventory.

“You dirty little demon,” Fenian said, grasping for the potion. Theo pulled it away. “I’ve seen nothing like that. Not in all my years.”

“I’m in a realm of potion making that no one has been to before. Since all the dronon die before they get here.”

“Make more!” Fenian shouted. “As many as you can. By Parantheir’s pendulous—”

“Please. No colorful idioms.”

“That’s a find, Theo.” In an instant, Fenian regained his composure once again. “Excellent. Well, as long as you’re not breaking the rules… everything is fine.”

“Fenian,” Theo said, grabbing the elf by the shoulder as he made his way out the door. “It might take some time, but I’ll make sure you have one of these. Just in case… you know.”

“In case I almost die again? I would appreciate that. Farewell, Theo. I need to check on my Karatan. Good thing someone in this mudball knows how to care for my babies. I’m coming, Galflower!”

Salire and Theo watched as the elf bound from the room. The alchemist relaxed in an instant. If there ever was a test to see how loyal Fenian was, that was it. The Elixir of Life was priceless. Snatching it would have ensured that Fenian could accomplish almost anything. Was there a mortal alive that could beat a version of the elf with two health bars? Unlikely. The alchemist watched as Fenian departed, unsure of what the encounter meant. The elf took a few things seriously, and his post as the Herald was now one of them.

“Theo, what does this mean?” Salire asked.

He had almost forgotten she was there. The alchemist turned to his apprentice and smiled. “Means I need to find more fourth tier reagents.”

Before heading out into the swamp, Theo considered what a potion of significance was. The Spiny Swamp Thistle Root they found in the swamp couldn’t be replicated in his garden. He was certain of that. While cultivated reagents still had held an important role, there was much to consider about the wild ones. The plants would have been old. Not months, but years. There was a limited supply of those plants and they couldn’t be moved to Tero’gal. Perhaps the system had seen something like this coming, putting Theo at a disadvantage for once. There was no way to game it.

“I’ll stay here,” Salire said, laughing nervously. “If that’s fine.”

Theo nodded. She had a few orders to craft and it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. He headed out the front of the Newt and Demon and breathed in the humid air.

“Thoughtful Theo,” Sarisa said, leaning against the building. “Contemplative Theo?”

“Pensive Theo,” Rowan said, emerging from the shadows.

If Theo focused hard enough, he could almost feel what the pair were going to say next. This was the trick Khahar had used to predict the future. He must have had an absurdly high Wisdom, allowing him to make those predictions with some accuracy. It was hard to tell how he was feeling, though. He needed to grab onto this strand of power and tug before it vanished. And to think the answer to his problems were here. In Broken Tusk. His pensive posture was broken when both Sarisa and Rowan drew their weapons.

“Has the way been cleared?”

Lurching down the street, the masked elf turned his head to one side. Twist had been extremely patient, which betrayed how weird he was at the core.

“You can head north if you want, Twist,” Theo said with a shrug. “The corruption near the city might be too much.”

“I’d rather not walk.”

“Then you’ll wait.”

“Agreeable,” Twist said, nodding. A single eye stared back at the alchemist from under the mask. “There are a few problems that might concern your town. In the underground. Forces are moving this way. Thought you should know.”

Without explaining himself further, the masked elf slunk away. The group watched him go, shaking their heads. He was unhinged, but it was hard to say if his state was harmful.

“Come on,” Theo said, moving away from his building. “We need to find more reagents.”

“Alright, what are we looking for?” Rowan asked, jogging to catch up.

“I’ll tell you after we take Xol’sa’s portal.”

Reagents were easy enough to identify. The ones they were targeting today were the easiest to spot. Mage’s Bane, Roc Berries, Widow Lily, Moss Nettle, Stone Flowers, and Water Lily were all extremely common within the swamp and the surrounding areas. Theo recalled that they had found the previous sample deep in the marsh, away from the places that adventurers normally ventured. With mountain ranges on all sides of the swamp except the east, folks rarely ventured deeper than needed to reach the dungeon.

Theo and his party stepped through the portal, finding themselves on the first floor of the wizard’s tower. The alchemist considered his jump in power if he found a potion of significance for all six reagents. Sixty attribute points, placed however he saw fit. His Wisdom could jump to 100. Just the thought sent his mind spinning. Ascending six ranks of an attribute in a short time presented an intoxicating thought.

But they needed to find those reagents first. And it needed to provide enough essence to craft a potion, making the problem more daunting. There were also the responsibilities of an archduke to consider. Theo hoped that Alise could manage things while he distracted himself.

“We never really went this far,” Rowan said, pulling against the sucking mud of the swamp. It almost claimed his boot. “Of course, there wasn’t a dungeon out this far for the longest time.”

“You’re telling me this wasn’t the place where poking snappers with sticks was born? Color me surprised,” Theo said, pressing forward. The worst part about trudging through the swamp was getting sucked into the mud. But their goal wasn’t those deep places. He would find most of the reagents he wanted on the edges, near the slow rise of those hills in the distance. “A shiny gold coin for whoever carries me on their shoulders.”

Rowan and Sarisa considered it for a moment, looking at each other. They shared a look only siblings could before dunking Theo’s head into the mud.

“Nice try,” Sarisa said, pulling him out of the mud with an audible squelch. “Get moving, mister alchemist. We’ve got too much ground to cover for you to be slacking.”