The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 19,20,21 (Patreon)

Chapter 19

Quaff Your Potions

The Dreamwalk had become a place where Theo exploited Zaul’s core. While Tresk and Alex spent their time grinding out levels or improving their combat techniques. He doubted it would help them if they needed to fight a wave of Level 90 monsters, but there were other threats they could handle. The marshling had beaten the crap out of a bird guy who was likely at a level uncountable on the mortal plane. But she was juiced up on potions and drawing from Tero’gal, so that leveled things out a bit.

Theo focused himself on training willpower within the Dreamwalk. Each time he wove his spirit around the Hallow Ground Potion, ensnaring the minds of hundreds of undead, his willpower increased. The absurd amount of undead he imagined flooded the area, stretching over the bank of the river outside of Broken Tusk. If the creatures he summoned weren’t stationary, waiting to be brought under his control, this would be a grim sight. It was hard not to wonder if this is what the people in Vesta saw before the end.

“No matter,” Theo said, pulling the crowd under his control. “I’ll get them.”

Waking up from the Dreamwalk, Theo felt himself being drawn from his bed by the scent wafting from downstairs. Perhaps Rowan and Sarisa felt bad about their recent mocking, but they had prepared a spread. It was unclear who the supplier of bacon was, but he wouldn’t complain. Alongside thick cuts of smoke-cured bacon, Whisper’s sausages sat on plates piled high with eggs from Miana’s pozwa.

“You guys went in for it, huh?” Theo asked, piling his plate with the things he liked best. He ignored the zee-grits and loaded his plate with slightly spicy sausages, bacon, and eggs.

“Gimmie!” Tresk shouted, snatching at all her favorite things. It was sausage. She had a plate filled with sausage and nothing more. She ate them like a duck.

The administration screen had been filled with more information. Now that Theo knew where to look, he found Xol’sa’s newest project concerning the dungeons and their growth. Once breakfast was finished, he met up with the mage to take a look at the wards and arrays he had constructed. His magic was a combination of his Planar Mage class core and his Dungeon Engineer core. They worked together to create physical objects, shaped like the lodestones Zarali crafted. Each was a tether, pinning an aspect of dungeon energy to the mortal plane and allowing for manipulation.

Sarisa and Rowan stood in knee-deep mud with the pair. Xol’sa had it worse, as he was two-feet shorter than the others.

“Feels as though your wards aren’t attuned to the energies of the dungeon well enough,” Theo said, getting closer to inspect the ward. He allowed his aura to wash over it, making up for his lacking magical abilities.

“Well, that’s why you’re here,” Xol’sa said, waving his hands through the air. The code that ran the objects revealed itself. Magic circles filled with endless sigils and runes sprung into the air. Those runes were the Axpashi Language, and detailed instructions that steered the flow of magic. “You’re the best example of the magic that flows through here. Tero’gal and Grodul’harak. With you around, this is a simple… few… steps… and, done!”

“That was easy,” Sarisa grunted.

“At least he can serve as a magical point of reference,” Rowan said, nodding along.

Theo shot them both a look. “Did I step on your toes by accident?”

“No! You left us in the swamp!” Sarisa shouted. “Back to work, demon-boy!”

Theo grumbled, turning away to smile privately. He deserved all the mocking they sent his way. And it was pretty funny. Someone of less self-assuredness might take those jabs personally.

“You guys wanna see something messed up?” Theo asked.

“Not me,” Xol’sa said, turning away to trudge through the swamp. “I have wards to attend to.”

“Is it a dead body?” Sarisa asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Are we gonna throw rocks at a body?” Rowan asked, seeming more excited than he should have been.

Theo produced three Sense Spirit Potions from his inventory, handing one to Rowan and one to Sarisa. “Close to the mark. Let’s go.”

The group trudged through the swamp. Theo would have left them behind, but he needed to save his trip to Tero’gal. He could have forced his way into the realm, but that left him feeling uneasy. Even in his own realm, if he didn’t use the Tero’gal Dreampassage skill he would be a trespasser. They arrived in town, passing through the square and heading just beyond Miana’s ranch. The market area was coming along, with a few traders peddling their wares. Those traders would have been from foreign nations, arriving by boat.

But this was the area Theo had picked to focus his efforts. Through manipulation of his concentrated aura, he had made the market the focal point. A single lodestone stood in the market’s center, radiating his will to every golem. The effect of that lodestone would make the two half-ogres present crap their pants.

“We should stand on the wall for this,” Theo said, finding the nearest set of stairs that led to the battlements.

“I don’t like where this is going,” Sarisa said. “I can read, you know.”

“Not well.”

“Still, I know what the potion says. You’re going to make us look at creepy spirits.”

“She’s afraid of spirits.”

“No, I’m not.”

“There’s a spirit right behind you!” Rowan shouted.

Sarisa did not look back.

“Quaff your potions,” Theo said, tipping the contents of his potion into his mouth.

“Quaff?” Sarisa asked, giggling. She drank her potion, letting out a strained yelp a moment later.

Theo felt a chill run up his spine. A field of spirits spread from that lodestone, attracted to his willpower like moths to a flame. They gazed upon it, standing in concentric rings that radiated as far as he could see.

“There’s thousands of them,” Rowan croaked.

“Ah. I might have pulled a few too many in.”

“You did this? Why?”

“I think these are the souls from Vesta that refused to leave.” Theo studied the crowd. He couldn’t tell what race they were from. They could have easily been half-ogres or elves, it was impossible to tell. “I drew them in with my willpower. Something about the way the undead were banished attached them to that… flavor. I don’t have a better way to describe it.”

“Are you abducting these people, Theo?” Sarisa asked. “Should we be concerned?”

“I’m helping them along. They get to skip a step this way. I think.”

“How do I turn this potion off?” Rowan asked. “I don’t want to see these things anymore.”

“The potion expires in an hour.” Theo spread his willpower over the field of spirits. He could feel each one in his senses, flashing like candles struggling against a breeze. The lights seemed eager to move on, pushing toward the void even without his intervention. “Now you see them…”

The spirits soaked through the veil, vanishing from the mortal plane.

“Now you don’t.”

“Ah. That’s better.” Rowan nodded with approval, folding his arms over his chest.

“I still feel uneasy.”

“You’ll get over it.” Theo focused on his Tero’gal Dreampassage skill. He slipped through the veil, following those interdicted souls over the bridge. He thought he could hear Uz’Xulven yelling at him as he passed. A moment later, he set foot in Tero’gal. “Ah. That’s a line.”

As expected, the spirits had arrived before him. Belgar had directed them into an orderly queue, creating a line that stretched throughout the realm. The pending requests section of his interface for Tero’gal claimed there were exactly 1143 spirits waiting to interview for acceptance into the realm.

“Thanks for organizing this, Belgar,” Theo said, clapping a hand on the dronon’s back. “Great work.”

“I usually do this. You just don’t see it! What prompted this flood of souls into the realm?”

“I figured out how to drag souls from the mortal realm here. If they don’t want to say, we’ll send them off to whichever realm they want to live in.”

“For a moment there, I thought you’d force them to remain within our realm. Hah. Glad I was wrong.”

Theo rolled his shoulders, withdrawing a chair from his shared inventory. Tresk always had useful stuff in that inventory. He questioned why there were exactly one-hundred small stones, but shrugged it off. She likely had a good reason. Or no reason—either was acceptable.

“Now,” Theo said, facing down the first lost soul. “How can I help you?”

The task might have been daunting, but it needed to be done. If Theo wanted to be the gatekeeper of the souls he trapped, he needed to interview each one. But five minutes on the mortal plane would equal twenty-four hours here, giving him plenty of time to go through each one. It wasn’t as though the spirits expressed their life’s story, bogging him down with each stage. They gave him basic thoughts and feelings.

“Would you like to stay in Tero’gal?” Theo asked one soul. He assumed it was an elf. The spirit gave off a sense of thrilling combat. One-on-one duels and endless improvement for martial forms. “Parantheir it is.”

Many of the souls didn’t want to stick around, but he didn’t expect them to. They were sent to many realms, most of which Theo had never heard of. It helped when Uz’Xulven came over to yell at him for moving so many people over her bridge, but she remained. The dronon goddess assisted him, interpreting the vague senses the spirits gave him.

“No, he’s talking about Udok,” Uz’Xulven said, slapping Theo in the back of the head. “Come on, man. Get it together.”

“The dwarven gods all feel the same.”

“You’re just lazy. Come on, you still have a few hundred to go.”

All the spirits had been sorted out. Those that wanted to leave were sent off to their new homes, while those wishing to remain were ushered off by Belgar. More confusing than anything was how souls scaled in the heavens. When the realm reached 800 souls, it hit Level 40. But when the ticker counting the amount of souls reached 1000, nothing happened. Only when it hit 1300 did it roll up, meaning that new levels would require 500 souls per level. That was a lot of souls. 682 souls joined the realm by the end, which wasn’t a bad number.

“I could use some tea,” Theo said, groaning as he stood. He had been hunched over for so long that his back was hurting.

“The others are already gathered. Well, they’ve been gathered for a few years. A game of poker is afoot!”

“A years-long game of poker? I need to see this.”

Theo followed Uz’Xulven to the cottage. When he opened the door he saw Khahar and Benton sitting at the table together with other gods watching in the wings. The bear god didn’t break his concentration, but Khahar smiled up at Theo when he entered. The alchemist helped himself to some tea, grabbing a cookie before finding a seat on the outskirts of the battle. He reviewed his upgrade options for his realm.

Tero’gal already had a ton of great upgrades. His latest upgrade turned the realm into a proper sphere. Well, Earth was an oblate spheroid, but it was close enough to his home planet. A part of that upgrade had made him more eager to get more souls for the realm. Once the power of the realm had grown enough, it would have a proper ‘space’ area outside of the atmosphere. While he didn’t know why it was important to him, he knew he wanted some space.

There were upgrades for the realm which would allow him to turn it into any shape he wanted. He could form Tero’gal to be a domain of eternal darkness, a sprawling garden that went on forever, or something wacky like a giant volcano filled with pigs. It didn’t matter what he thought about, he could form his realm that way. But the thing he wanted most of all for his realm was something that felt real. He didn’t want something that was manufactured. Even if this place didn’t look exactly like Earth, he would settle for something that felt like his new home back on the mortal plane.

Several upgrade options stood out, but nothing could beat the ones that made this place feel real. For the first time in a long time, he felt himself being drawn away from those options. Tero’gal now housed two of the four thrones in this universe, and something tied to willpower caught his attention. It might not have been perfect, but anything that scaled with willpower was worth investigating. The alchemist examined this upgrade option, certain it would help defend those thrones against interlopers.

[Willpower Barrier]

Your realm can generate a barrier based on the collective willpower of all its inhabitants. Smaller barriers will be more resistant to damage than larger ones. Barriers may be created by owners of this realm anywhere within the realm’s boundaries. Interdiction events and invasions will be impossible until the barrier is destroyed.

This upgrade offered nothing to make the realm more Earth-like. But Theo had seen a long string of those upgrades, and felt it was prudent to defend the thrones. This also stacked with the Bubble] upgrade, which would make it even harder for anyone to invade directly to the thrones. Not that he thought this would happen anytime soon. It was good to be cautious, though. He inspected his realm.

[Tero’Gal]

Mortal Dreamrealm

Owners: Theo Spencer, Tresk

Faction: Unaffiliated

Level: 41

Souls: 1382

Expansions:

[Harvesting Array]

[Defensive Towers]

[Landscape Manipulation]

[Guardians of Faith]

[Bubble]

[Simulated Reality]

[Sphere]

[Willpower Barrier]

Pending Requests: 0

Theo was happy with where his realm was. It was a mix of quality-of-life upgrades and defensive ones. Whatever made the spirits within the realm happy made him happy. He turned his attention back to the game between Benton and Khahar, watching as the bear god made plays with expert precision. If the alchemist was honest with himself and others, he would admit that he had never been good at poker. Back on Earth, he was trash. Khahar mopped the floor with him, but he still tried. For Yuri, it was more about getting to know someone rather than winning or losing.

He was getting to know Benton very well.

The gods went nuts. Benton had done something impressive while Theo was taking a sip of his tea.

“Ah!” Benton said, clapping his hands together. “Really?”

Khahar smiled a toothy smile at the other god. “It appears as though you’ve won.”

“Seriously? I’m sure you could win it all back.”

Khahar held his hand up, silencing Benton. “I have business to attend to. I overextended myself and allowed you to take everything. Never reward bad moves. Or no one will learn.” Khahar vanished before Benton could say another word.

“Thanks, dad!” Uz’Xulven shouted. “He’s such a drama cat.”

“Anyone else want to play?” Benton asked.

The gods and Theo shared a look. His request was met with a collective, “no.”

Chapter 20

Uh-Oh

Xol’sa did a better job of siphoning energy from the dungeons than Theo had expected. The magic that drove the dungeons was well beyond him, even if he understood their habit of drawing energy from the realms. There was some interaction between the heavenly realms, the void, and dungeons. The alchemist just couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Perhaps more Wisdom would help.

After Theo left Tero’gal, he checked his administration interface. While he tried not to babysit the projects going on in town, it was hard not to peek. The administrators were using town funds to buy Monster Cores. That just got the alchemist thinking about their taxation system, and how flawed it was. But he hardly cared. He siphoned all the money he made from his various businesses into the town. He didn’t expect it to happen at first, but Ziz was doing the same.

This would have been an unsustainable economy back on Earth. But this wasn’t Earth. The Southlands Alliance didn’t have to rely on things produced by extensive labor. Magic provided most of what they needed. But the people in the alliance were still very independent, keeping their own fortunes and contributing the rest to the cause. Tero’gal had developed on its own, becoming egalitarian without Theo’s intervention. He wasn’t sure if the spirits needed food, but they ate it. Food was produced through hunting, farming, or fishing and deposited into a pool. Although the spirits had splintered off, they still contributed.

It wasn’t worth worrying about how many coins the towns under his control were generating. That money would go right back into the town, improving it every step of the way. Alise’s latest report claimed they would have a stockpile of Monster Cores in a few days. More ships were coming and going from the port every day. And everyone was playing nice in the waters around Broken Tusk. The sailors had comments about the giant city right outside of the harbor, but it was business as usual. This world was filled with enough weird things that they hardly seemed to notice.

Business as usual.

Theo’s eyes watered as the wind whipped his face. Sarisa and Rowan hung their heads out of the train car, howling against the wind. Everyone was getting used to the trains and it was hard to tell if that was a good thing. The alchemist just wished there was something Throk could do about the wind. The reports coming in from Gronro were promising, though. Ziz had some kind of hidden time dilation skill for his cores. Theo was convinced of that. The man worked about 34 hours in a day. The thought was hyperbolic, but the evidence was there.

The train came to a stop at the station near Gronro, allowing the three passengers off. The half-ogre operating the train nodded, cautioning them to watch their heads and horns while exiting the car. Gronro was looking better than ever. Theo drew in a deep breath from the fresh mountain air, feeling the chill on his exposed face. Plant life had returned to the area in full. Shrubs and grasses grew everywhere. Even in the icy mountain region, pine saplings broke through the rocky earth. Heading to the northern side of town, and nodding to a gaggle of half-ogres and dwarves, Theo saw more signs of growth near the northern wall.

A dusting of snow clung to the ground just north of the gate, growing more intense the further the group walked. Sarisa complained, requesting Theo to teleport them. She didn’t seem to care that it was impossible. Rowan enjoyed the sights, though. Especially when the massive bridge came into view in the distance.

The normal teams Ziz employed weren’t working on the bridge project. Theo was confident he could spot a Broken Tusk half-ogre from two-hundred paces.

“Grot is doing big things,” Theo said, nodding with approval. He approached the bridge that spanned the chasm. A chasm that Fenian had created. “I guess I should have expected a dwarf to be so good with stone.”

The bridge was some hybrid between a suspension bridge and one with… pillars. Theo would be the first to admit he knew nothing about bridges. Massive towers rose on either side of the chasm, supporting braided cables that swooped along the length of the bridge’s road. It was wide enough for four monorail tracks to be placed. Far too wide for any practical purpose—this seemed more like something someone built to brag.

“Theo!” Grot’s booming voice echoed across the mountain pass. The dwarf rose from a group of citizens from Gronro. They were tweaking part of the suspension cables part-way down the bridge. “What do you think?”

“Do you guys sleep?” Theo asked.

“Hired help, ya silly demon. You didn’t see the gang of workers coming from the port the other day? Hundreds of ‘em. Elves, khahari. I saw a few broglings lifting stones. Funny bastards, those broglings.”

“Hired help?” Sarisa asked, scoffing. “Dang that’s a good idea. How many laborers did you ship in?”

“These were stoneworkers. People with cores for the job. Got ‘em out of Bantein. Gave us a discount. Since they think the alliance stopped the undead.”

“Yeah, don’t let them think otherwise,” Theo said. “We might need more help in the future. How long did you have them hired for?”

“They’re working on the next bridge already. Alise said she sorted out the details of the deal.”

Grot didn’t need to ask if Theo was unaware of the deal. He buried his head in the sand with administration work. “Excellent. I like that. How sturdy is the bridge?”

“Oh, quite sturdy.” Grot placed his hands on his hips, thrusting his chest out with pride. “Only the best workmanship in my town. Cost a pretty penny, but you paid for most of it.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to pay for this.” Theo searched the area, finding piles of supplies off to the side. Stones were stacked out in the open, while other things were kept in Dimensional Storage Crates. Lengths of monorail track were laid over the ground, no care to how they were stored. Throk had big things planned for these bridges, and no one was wasting time. 

“Well, you did. Thanks for that. We’re heading north from here… Ah, well… Kinda. Fenian made a mess of the area. We need to angle northwest before we head true north.”

“How confusing.” Theo approached the bridge’s edge, tapping his foot on the stone. He shot a look at Sarisa. “Could you step on the bridge?”

“What? You want me to step there? I don’t trust it.”

“The bridge is perfectly safe,” Grot protested.

Theo shook his head, stepping onto the bridge. It was fine. The wind picked up as he came to the midpoint, sending the bridge swaying slightly, but it was safe. A bit of play in the bridge’s structure meant the builders knew what they were doing. Although the span wasn’t that long, the bridge had been constructed in a grandiose fashion. He wouldn’t complain, since it made the Southlands Alliance look fancier than it was. The more the alchemist thought about it, the more he realized that a fancy rail system was pretty fancy. He didn’t know what the other nations had, but… come on. It was cool.

After making it to the far side of the bridge, Theo surveyed the area with his aura. “Far less necromantic energy than I expected. I think I should talk to Balkor soon…”

“Keep your god business to yourself,” Grot grumbled. “I don’t want to be involved.”

Theo didn’t want to be involved. But here he was.

Teams were working on the next section of bridge. Theo observed the foreign workers, noting how efficient they were. He chatted with a few group leaders, getting their impression of the region and the recent war. Most expressed regret for the loss in Vesta and Qavell, but they were hardened against this cycle. They were excited to see what could be built in place of those nations.

The tactical advantages of the bridges were obvious. It took effort to build them, but enough that collapsing them was out of the question. If another army of the dead were to crash over the landscape, the Southlands Alliance would destroy their own bridges, isolating but protecting them from the assault. Theo was happy with the progress, bidding Grot farewell and making notes on his administrator screen. He instructed Alise to assign someone to manage this project, or at least provide aid to Grot if he needed it.

The tour was fun. Theo enjoyed checking in on these projects, but the day was wearing thin. He didn’t need to ask Rowan and Sarisa if they were up for a trudge through the swamp. They wouldn’t be eager to do something so daunting, and he wouldn’t blame them. Clapping his hands together to gain their attention, he nodded with conviction.

“Okay. We’re having a free day.”

“Free day!?” Rowan shouted.

“Free half-day,” Sarisa corrected.

“Let’s head back to town. I’ll cloister myself in the manor or something and you two rapscallions can do whatever you want.”

“Oh, he treats us so well, brother.”

“Truly, a saint.”

The only thing Theo could think of doing was working on his alchemy and herbalism. Since he discovered the Night’s End flower, he had driven himself further away from his experimental garden. It would be worthwhile to explore different ways to cultivate reagents, but he could do that from the manor. It would be alchemical spitballing with a single participant. Maybe Salire would be interested in it, but he needed some alone time to figure this out.

The ride back to town was uneventful. While Sarisa and Rowan seemed excited about the break at first, they were more against the idea as Theo found a seat in his study. He promised to leave the mortal plane while they were gone, sitting in the void while they weren’t protecting him. That made them happy enough, and they scampered off to do their own things. The hired guard that appeared outside of the manor roughly ten minutes after they left didn’t evade his notice.

Theo fell into the endless expanse of the void, staying on the near side. One could think of it as left and right, east and west. He remained on the side closest to the mortal realm, studying the area as he thought about a solution to his problem. Tier 4 potions were an issue. They produced powerful potions with absurd effects. The only problem is that only one of them could be crafted or consumed a week, which was completely bullcrap. His plan was to harvest the free attribute points from discovering those potions, but it didn’t remove the problem.

Tier 3 potions were fine for what they did. They allowed a person to heal a large amount of health and mana, or to enhance their attributes in a blink. But it seemed as though the system only planned for Drogramath’s alchemy to go to the fourth tier, not bothering to design anything that came after. This might have been a problem with the wild reagents Theo had used. He suspected using wild reagents was the culprit, but that would require extensive experimentation.

“I doubt splicing is the key,” Theo said, listening to his voice echo through the endless darkness. “Mixing reagents just makes different reagents.”

Mixing reagents wasn’t the key to creating more powerful reagents. That meant the only way to make them more powerful was to… make them more powerful. Theo had little time to think about it in recent days, but it made enough sense. He had to find a way to enhance the reagents he already had. Perhaps that was from cultivation, some mana infusion, or something else that would kick-start his plants to be ready for Tier 4 and above.

As Theo thought idly about his problems, he gazed off into the endless nothing. This side of the Bridge was calmer than the other, providing a view of the blackness from all directions. Beyond that bridge were the heavenly realms, which clouded the horizon like a backlit nebula. The heavenly realms that rested beyond that point looked like glittering stars from here. He felt himself fading less on this side of the Bridge. Perhaps it was close enough to the mortal plane to anchor him. Questions had a habit of building themselves lately, spiraling into more questions that seemed impossible to answer.

Something strange caught his attention in the distance. Theo moved through the void, eyes locked on a patch of silver he couldn’t explain. He looked down at the amorphous shape of the mortal plane below, then forward again to the silver. He pushed his senses to wash over it, feeling something familiar. The alchemist understood how souls got lost in the void, but had never seen one in the wild. This soul felt different than the others he had felt. There was something fundamental missing within it.

“Hello, little guy,” Theo said. “Are you lost?”

But the sense of self within the soul didn’t respond in such docile tones. It raged against its bonds, forcing Theo to withdraw his hand. Moments lingered on in the void. He used that time to consider what was so strange about the soul. He realized it wasn’t that the soul was missing something. Something had been added. A thing that had no business in the void. It should have broken down when crossing the barrier between the realms.

“Now, why do you have a body?” Theo asked.

The mass of silver had no response. It didn’t want Theo inspecting it, but had little choice. Everything was laid bare in the void. That was by design. The alchemist prodded, finding other things within the glittering cloud of silver. He felt objects attached to the person’s body. Clothes, perhaps. None of it felt magical, but everything felt familiar. He wouldn’t allow an old hope to build in his chest. This felt nothing like her, and he knew better than to assume the impossible.

No, he was certain this was a dude. Lingering in the void… for what reason, exactly? Theo searched the area, not finding another similar soul. He marked this place in his mind and set off through the void, scouring the place near the mortal plane for inspection. There were a few more clouds of silver, but none felt like the first. They were all weaker in spirit, and had given themselves to the void. He returned to the first silver soul, almost pressing his nose against it as he inspected.

“Now, why…” Theo trailed off, his left horn scraping against the soul’s edge. Something resonated in that moment. The alchemist felt a vibration spreading through his body, as though his trespassing form knew something was wrong. The soul burst into light. “Uh-oh.”

Theo watched as the soul shot like a rocket, angled for the mortal plane. He chased after it.

Chapter 21

Fallen Soul

Theo fell after the plummeting soul, piercing through the veil of the mortal world. It impacted before him, slamming into a vacant area outside of Broken Tusk with a flash of light. When the alchemist arrived on the plane, he landed nearby, eyes locked on the crater created by the fallen soul. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. It was the most confused he had been in a while.

Standing in the crater, eyes wide with confusion, was a man. Earth humans were much smaller than Theo remembered. This guy would have been a tank back there, but not compared to the height of a dronon or the stature of a half-ogre. His head was freshly buzzed and a scar ran the length of the left side of his face. He wore thick-treaded boots and a comically out-of-place gray trench coat.

“Damn,” he muttered, eyes searching the area. The most concerning part of the single word was that it was in English.

Theo had seen that expression on people before. The desperation before they drew a weapon and started blasting. He crossed the distance between them in moments, making observations about the man’s lacking speed, and gripped his forearm before he could reach into his coat. The alchemist yanked the hand free, finding a sawn-off shotgun with gadgets attached to the side.

“You’re fast, demon,” he said, struggling against Theo.

20 Strength was apparently enough to overpower this guy. Theo thought about his observations before, the idea bolstered by a Wisdom of the Soul message. He didn’t have a class core, or access to attributes. He was a baseline human from Earth, likely freshly plucked and deposited into this world’s queue.

“Who are you?” Theo found it odd to speak words in English. How long had it been? He wrenched the gun from the man’s hand, holding it limp at his side.

“Jan Turowski,” the man said, eyes still darting around. “Figure I’m in a mound of shit by now. Where am I?”

“Broken Tusk in the Southlands Alliance.”

Jan licked his lips. Theo could see him calculating how to get his gun back. The ghost of the man jumped forward and the alchemist kicked forward. When the new arrival moved, he was met with a foot and fell back onto his ass.

“Message received.” Jan coughed from the ground, rubbing his chest where Theo had planted his foot. “Is this the other place?”

“The what?” Theo asked, sputtering.

“Maybe not.” Jan looked around, reaching under his coat again.

Theo crossed the distance again, pinning the man’s hand to the ground when he withdrew another gun. They always had another gun. This one was an old world revolver. No fancy tech attached to the side. “Got anything else in that coat? Care to pull out a kitchen sink?”

Jan’s lips curled into a smile, even as he rested on his back. “Yeah, I have a few tricks. But I know when to admit I’m beaten. Do they grow everyone so big around here?”

“Mostly. Let’s start again. My name is Theo Spencer. Are you from Earth?”

“Where else would I be from?”

“What’s the year?”

“2053.”

That was about 250 years off from when Theo left. He grit his teeth, unsure how to take the time nonsense going on. Building a mental map of what had happened, he confirmed his suspicion that there was something going on with Earth well before the Harbinger showed up. The governments of the world either suppressed information or it was lost. It was impossible to tell.

“Funny bringing weapons like these here,” Theo said, brandishing the shotgun. “They’re unlikely to work. You have a lot to learn if you want to survive.”

“Really? Looks fine to me.”

Theo held the gun up, trying not to roll his eyes. He pulled the trigger. Two barrels bucked against his hand as he fired, pain jamming down into his shoulder. He cursed, dropping the weapon and shaking his hand out.

“See?” Jan asked, winking from below. “She works just fine.”

Theo glared at the man, scooping up the shotgun and adding it and the revolver to his inventory. Jan raised an eyebrow, betraying his calm demeanor. The alchemist sighed when he felt Tresk and Alex drawing near, and released his shadow aura to block out unfriendly eyes. That got more of a reaction from the earthling.

“Woah! What is that!” Tresk shouted, walking through the barrier. The horse-sized goose came next, honking.

Now Jan’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“An Earth human,” Theo said. “Who I will release if he promises not to grab anything else from his coat.”

“Promise.” Jan took on an apologetic tone, eyes locked onto Tresk. “Is that a lizard?”

“Kinda.” Tresk shrugged, responding in Qavelli. Her English sucked, but she read Theo’s memories in real-time to get the translation.

“We talking French around here? Is that a goose?”

Honk!

“You guys have anything hard to drink around here in fantasy land?” Jan asked, sitting up once Theo released him.

“Oh, yeah!” Tresk shouted, withdrawing some zee liquor from their shared inventory. She handed it over to the man, nodding with approval. “Dang, he’s so small. Smaller than the humans around here.”

Jan offered her a confused look.

“She thinks you’re small,” Theo translated.

“I’m pretty big where I come from,” Jan said, taking a swig from the flask. He winced before smacking his lips and nodding with approval. “Shit could strip paint. I like it.”

Theo clicked his tongue, uncomfortable being out in the random field. “On your feet, soldier. We need somewhere private to talk. Just stay inside the bubble.”

“What happens if I leave the bubble?”

Theo gave Tresk a look. “Did you get a notification when you saw him? Something related to your special core?”

“Nope.”

Considering his next move, Theo opened his interface and issued a command. Xol’sa still knew a lot about dimensional travel, even if the alchemist was becoming the master of the void.

“Still… Just stay inside the bubble.”

“Understood. Stay inside and shut the hell up. So long as you don’t kill me, we’re cool.”

Theo led the party back to Broken Tusk. He had a lifetime around people like Jan, and wasn’t interested in expanding his experiences. Twitchy people like him had seen stuff. Perhaps he was a soldier back in the old world, or a cop. The alchemist didn’t know enough about the older version of Earth to make an assessment, but the answers would come. Jan’s head swiveled as they walked through town, spotting all the sights that must have made him question reality. They arrived at the study in the manor shortly after.

“Sit,” Theo commanded, gesturing to the one chair. It was just Theo, Jan, and Tresk. Alex could no longer fit through the door.

“Yes, sir,” Jan said, taking a seat. He checked the door and the windows.

“What do you remember?” Theo asked. “What happened before you came here?”

For the first time, Jan’s expression shifted. He looked up thoughtfully, as though recounting the events of some ordeal. “The whole thing started in Connecticut. I was looking for my nephew. Came across some wild shit.”

“What kind of wild shit?” Theo asked.

“I’d say you wouldn’t believe me, but… You’re a demon. And she’s a lizard… and… I don’t know what he is,” Jan gestured to the door.

Xol’sa bowed his head, cocking an eyebrow at the man in the chair. “Who is this?”

“Jan,” the man in the chair responded. His eyes were locked on the extra-planar elf. He took another sip of the booze. “I’ll need more of this.”

“The glowing blue elf was the breaking point for you?” Theo asked.

“Yeah.”

“So, Connecticut. Your nephew. Go on.”

Jan shrugged, taking another long drink. That liquor was for alchemical purposes, but Theo bit his tongue.

“Some weird stuff was happening. My nephew Ahmad disappeared and I was on his trail. Found a sniff of him in Hartford. Some old book shop just got a load of junk from an estate. Ahmad had made inquiries to the shop before he vanished. Boy was bedridden. Body was eating him alive. Funny how medicine can fail like that.”

This was more backstory than Theo expected to get out of the guy. It must have been weighing on his mind. When Tresk went to say something, he kicked her in the shin.

“I figured out who bought the book and tracked her down. Feisty girl named Maria up in New Hampshire. College kid. Then I got my ass beat by a six-year-old.”

“What?” Theo asked.

“Busted down Maria’s door ready to get some information about Ahmad. Found this little girl with pointy ears talking with that college kid. Trained my shotty on them and the next thing I knew, the child was twisting my arm. Nearly broke it off.”

“A powerful class core?” Xol’sa asked.

“There were no classes back on Earth,” Theo said.

“Yeah, there were,” Jan said, shaking his head. “Not sure where you were hiding, but there were plenty of people with those cores from what I remember. I never had one, but that Maria girl did.”

This flew in the face of everything Theo knew. It would take time for him to reconstruct his timeline of events, but that didn’t matter right now. Now he needed to hear the rest of the story and get Xol’sa’s help to figure out what happened to this guy.

“So, the powerful child…” Theo inclined his head, waiting for the man to continue.

“She said her name was Fate, always talking about her brother Omen. Never saw the brother, but I ran some operations with Fate and Maria. They said my nephew was trapped in another world, but they could get him out. Even if he was different. Got his diseases cured with a new body. Other fantastical shit that would make any uncle drop everything to see. Especially when that uncle had been watching his nephew die for the past eighteen years.”

Theo was gripped. He leaned in, waiting for more.

“Never saw my nephew. I couldn’t keep up with the others, but some went into that other place. They said Ahmad was fine. Fighting for the fate of the world or something. The last thing I remember was an eye. A massive eye looking down at me. Darkness after that.”

Theo shot a look at Xol’sa, who had his ‘pondering wizard’ expression on. “I’ve read of a massive purple eye in the sky, leering down on people.”

“The eye was red,” Jan corrected.

Xol’sa shot Theo a look. “Told him the wrong color trying to catch him.”

“Okay. What does it mean?” Theo asked.

“I’ll need to run some tests on him.”

“Hooray.” Jan delivered the word with no enthusiasm.

“Are we gonna kill him afterward?” Tresk asked.

Theo opened his administration interface, drawing up a contract. “No, I’ll bind him in a few contracts.”

“A few what?” Jan asked.

“Magical contracts,” Xol’sa explained. “You’ll be killed by spirit animals if you void the contracts.”

“I saw a guy explode after voiding a contract,” Tresk added. It was a complete lie, but it got Jan to twitch. She understood the assignment.

Theo presented the contract to Jan, laughing as the man flinched back. “Read those over. Or not, you don’t have a choice but to sign them.”

Jan grumbled, poking at the air to swipe through the many pages of the contract. It forbade him from harming anyone within the alliance or her allies. It also protected the interests of the alliance, spanning further than he would normally allow a contract to span. But it was the only way to get an unknown factor under control.

Under Theo’s command, Tresk went off to hire three adventurers from the guild to watch Jan. The man was putting on a strong front, but the walls would come crashing down. Some might think execution or banishment was the right move, but this guy would be a trove of information about old Earth. He mentioned both Connecticut and New Hampshire. Both locations were mostly destroyed in Theo’s time. If the only thing he got out of the exchange was information about the world his people left behind, it would be worth it.

“There. Guess I’m your slave, now,” Jan grumbled. “What should I do?”

As if summoned by the words, the door swung open and Sulvan stepped in. “Is this the guy?”

Theo nodded. The only god Theo trusted completely was Glantheir. What better way to introduce Jan to the world than through a servant of that god?

“There’s a group of adventurers waiting for you outside. They’ll keep him in line. If needed.”

“Let’s go,” Jan said, groaning to his feet. “I’m getting too old for this shit as it is. What are we doing, boss?”

Sulvan pulled at Jan’s coat, cocking a brow. “You’ll need some new clothes to blend in.”

Jan tried to smack Sulvan’s hand away, but failed. He cleared his throat. “I’d rather keep the coat, thank you.”

Sulvan seized his hand, reaching inside to withdraw a knife. “To conceal this?”

“Get him a spear or something,” Theo said. “Daggers kinda suck.”

“Hey!” Tresk shouted.

Theo gave her a flat look. “Your daggers only work because of your classes. Unclassed folks are better off using weapons with range.”

“Agreed.” Sulvan gestured for Jan to exit the room. “Let’s get to work. Qavell is stable, but we have a lot of work to do.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the room was cleared, Xol’sa nodded at Theo. “This is a strange turn,” he said with a shake of his head. “What are you thinking?”

The only thing Theo could think of were the other souls he saw in the void. If that was the queue of souls ready to head down to the mortal plane, interacting with them was a bad idea. More information about what Earth was like would be nice, but he couldn’t predict who he would find.

“I’m thinking I opened a can of weird. We need to watch that guy. He’s not showing it, but this is new for him. He’ll be scared, looking for a way to get out.”

“Would that be so bad?” Xol’sa asked.

“He’d die out there. Even if he could hop a ship out of town, or head north… Yeah, I think nothing friendly is waiting for him without a class. Even if he had his guns.”

“Well, that was some serious excitement for today.” Tresk stretched, rolling her shoulders. “I think you should bring more souls from the queue. Might make things more interesting.”