The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 46,47,48 (Patreon)

Chapter 46

Shadow

The Great Shards were more than just giant crystals that looked pretty. They were massive lodestones that worked to stabilize the world’s energy. Without them, the ascendants could do whatever they wanted to rewrite the rules of the system. Bend them, anyway. They soaked mortal energy, preventing the worst of the dungeons from happening, and acted as a regulatory system. With them gone came the thrones, which was the system’s way of putting things into balance.

Xol’sa left Theo with the books, not willing to risk his life anymore. To pull the shards back, they only needed a snare and a beacon. The snare would allow the shard to travel through the void, and the beacon would tell it where to go. That part was simple. The next step wasn’t. Each shard was coded to a region. They would need to figure out which shard went where before even attempting to bring them back.

Which meant Theo had to go to the creepy elf world again. He shivered just thinking about it. As he had memorized the contents of the books, he left them there and descended the stairs. Xol’sa and Zarali were once again going over their plans. He almost didn’t want to ask.

“After the wedding, I’ll need your help,” Theo said. “I’m guessing you can make what I need.”

“Only after you determine where to put the damned crystals,” Xol’sa said, crossing out a large section on a piece of parchment. Zarali gave him a scandalized look. “We don’t need music.”

“We most certainly do.”

“If you can find a single man, woman, child, or monster within the alliance that can hold a tune on anything, I’ll concede the point.”

“Fine.”

Theo slipped toward the stairs, ready to head out. The couple argued, and he snuck away without issue. Breathing a sigh of relief, he headed through the portal and back into Broken Tusk. He counted the things he still needed to do off. Get the shards to save the world or whatever, save Xol’sa’s people, upgrade some buildings, and fix his alchemy process. He had no desire to travel to the creepy world today, so turned his attention to his buildings instead. Something fluttered in his chest as he leaned against the monolith for support.

“He has that look in his eyes,” Sarisa said, emerging from the shadows.

“I think he’s having an episode,” Rowan said, emerging to support Theo. “Are you good?”

Theo clutched at his chest, feeling a strange sense flow over him. It was as though someone was cackling far in the distance. A mad cackle that sent a chill up his spine. A moment later, a message appeared with some useful information.

[Core Evolution]

Your [Zaul Shadowspirit Core] has evolved. You cannot accept or decline this evolution.

“That was unsurprising,” Theo said, taking a steady breath. “Oh, you’re so original, Zaul.”

Theo inspected his new core. This was completely unsurprising.

[Shadow’s Spirit Core]

Unique

UNDEFINED Core

Bound

2 Slots

Level 9 (99%)

Sneaky, Sneaky! Yes, you guessed it. I have infiltrated the ranks of the true gods. Brace yourself, Theo.

Innate Skills:

[Spirit Weaving]

Effect:

[Shadow Wrap]

“Never change, you insane man,” Theo said, shaking his head. Instead of doing anything interesting with the core’s change, he just added some text that put him on edge.

“What happened?” Sarisa asked.

“Zaul ascended to the new pantheon. He’s a true god, now. Sent me a creepy message through the description of his core… of all things.”

Theo unequiped the core, adding it to his inventory. Instead, he placed the Earth Sorcerer’s Core in its spot.

“What? Don’t want a god spying on you?” Rowan asked, laughing to himself. “No seriously, can you spy on me with the core you gave me?”

“I don’t think I can spy on you. But I haven’t put much effort into it. But when Zaul gives you a core, you should always assume he did so for some purpose. I’m not sure the years have treated him well.”

Trusting Zaul was getting harder by the day. The core he gifted Theo was meant to keep him out of the prying eyes of the ascendants. With them gone, he didn’t have to worry. The gods could likely pierce the veil it created, even if it had other uses. For now, he would take it slow. Tresk would refuse to remove her evolved cores, so she could be the tester. For now, he wanted to take his mind off of everything by messing around with his buildings.

“Which building do we like the least?” Theo asked, considering which to test on.

“The manor,” Sarisa said, pursing her lips. “No, just kidding. Wait. Stop.”

“We love the manor,” Rowan said, jogging after Theo. “My bed is so comfy.”

“This is just a test. I doubt anything bad will happen,” Theo said, approaching the exterior wall of his manor. “Why not? If it burns down or something, we can sleep elsewhere. But we can’t test this on critical buildings like the smelter or the mine.”

“You’re going to align the building with your realm, right?” Sarisa asked.

“With my Throneworld, yeah. Why not the manor first? Any aligned upgrade evolutions would be normal. Right?”

“How would we know what’s normal with you?” Sarisa shook her head. “You always do weird crap no one can understand.”

Theo let the power of Tero’gal flow through him, soaking into the wall of the manor. Sarisa was right, though. There was no proof this would even work, only his intuition. But the way the building soaked the energy, adding it to the seed core, told him this would work. The amount of energy the building wanted was immense. A conduit formed between the alchemist and the building, siphoning that power and adding it to the core. The building rocked, swaying from side-to-side as though drunk off the power.

“That’s completely normal. Yep.” Rowan walked to the other side of the street, as though the building would topple over at any moment.

“I have faith in our fearless leader,” Sarisa said, hands on her hips as she stared up at the manor defiantly. “It was an honor to serve you, sir.”

“Oh, stop being dramatic. The core is already soaked with Tero’gal energy. It just needs to be pushed over the edge.”

A system message appeared. Almost nothing about the building had changed. Theo read the message.

[Building Evolution!]

Your [Manor] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Manor]. 

The [Service Competence] and [Endless Comfort] upgrades have evolved.

“Well, it’s done,” Theo called back to Rowan. “You can stop cowering.”

“Really? Just like that?” Sarisa asked.

Theo inspected the building.

[Tero’gal Manor]

Owners: Theo Spencer, Tresk

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 20 (13%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Tero’gal Dreamcloud]

[Expansive Gardens]

[Bonus Dining]

[Subtle Service]

Nothing special, as expected. The name of the building had changed, and some of the timber on the plaster exterior looked darker. Two upgrades had changed. He could also feel the connection the building had to his Throneworld. It was as though a string had been tied between the building and Tero’gal. Theo inspected the Tero’gal Dreamcloud upgrade.

[Tero’gal Dreamcloud]

Relaxing in your manor provides extreme comfort. Sleeping within your manor grants those without access to the Dreamwalk a localized, weaker version of that effect.

Oh, this was good. Rowan and Sarisa could experience the delight of the Dreamwalk. “Examine that Tero’gal Dreamcloud upgrade.”

“Oh, no. I’m sleeping outside,” Rowan said.

“You’re being such a baby!” Sarisa shouted. “I want to experience the nightmare of never having restful sleep again.”

“The sleep provided by the Dreamwalk is beyond restorative, it—”

“Nerd!” Sarisa shouted. “We get it. The Dreamwalk is cool.”

“For someone who accepted a Tero’gal core, you’re too afraid of the manor. This is perfectly safe,” Theo said, slapping the side of his manor. That didn’t convince Rowan. He moved on, inspecting the Subtle Service upgrade.

[Subtle Service]

Workers with servant-based cores will feel no fatigue while performing their tasks while within the manor while also gaining increased experience.

This was slightly better than the old one. It now made it so his ‘servants’ wouldn’t get fatigued while doing their duties. Theo didn’t know how useful that would have been for them, but it was there.

“That one doesn’t change your dreams,” Theo said. “Got a problem with it, Rowan?”

“No, that one is fine.”

“You’re such a baby,” Sarisa said, making a rude gesture at her brother. “So, what does this get us?”

Theo shrugged. We’re not at risk of losing the buildings because they’re not aligned.” Theo paused for a moment, looking toward the town square in the distance. “But if building cores can be aligned, so can town and kingdom cores.”

“You’re going to align the entire nation with your world, aren’t you?” Sarisa asked.

That was one option. Theo’s plan to move this entire region into his world wouldn’t be easy. Since his willpower exploit was cut off, it might be harder, but he had gained quite a lot of that. Likely enough to move it when he wanted. The only thing stopping him were the gods. But now there were rules. Rules that everyone seemed eager to follow. If his nation and his town were aligned with his world, he had a claim to bring them along. The way of life of those within the alliance would continue. Forever, if he had anything to say about it.

Theo had to be careful about the big steps he took from here on out. His original purpose as the Dreamwalker was to find holes in the rules and plug them. He had only taken one action aligned with his station so far by sending Twist back to the mortal realm. But moving an entire region went far beyond his station. He needed that connection.

“Yep. We’re gonna align an entire continent.”

“Is it really an entire continent anymore?” Rowan asked. “I mean, Fenian shredded it like tender wolf meat.”

“Call it a part of a continent, then.”

“I think I will.”

Theo lingered near his manor for a while before Salire came approaching from the distance. The traffic on the east-west road had been light today, making the alignment of the manor a quiet affair.

“I got the order in with Throk,” Salire said, offering a half-smile. “He was pretty mad.”

“Until you showed him the gold, right?”

“Until I showed him the gold,” Salire repeated with a nod. “What are you guys doing out here?”

“Aligning buildings with realms, apparently,” Rowan said.

“Not realms. Worlds,” Sarisa corrected.

“Oh, I don’t care, devil-woman!” Rowan shouted, looking at the building with more fear than ever. “You can get trapped in your own doomed dreamscape. I’m sleeping in the garden.”

“I think I missed a few things,” Salire said, looking pleasantly confused.

“We can align buildings to Tero’gal. I was thinking of trying the greenhouses next.”

“Oh. Interesting. What would that do?” Salire asked.

Theo shrugged. He really didn’t know, but they now had greenhouses that were producing too many reagents. The thought that the system could change the way greenhouses worked had entered his mind, but he had already checked and they were no different. Reagents were still growing at absurd rates, and there seemed to be nothing that would stop them. But the system wasn’t some dumb series of instructions that fired off. It was intelligent enough to put a stop to the exploits they had been using until now, and that might be one of them.

Since they had enough greenhouses, there was no reason not to try. Sarisa and Rowan returned to the shadows while Theo and Salire headed off to the greenhouses. They plucked all the plants from one building, treating it as a fresh start. The alchemist leaned against the building, pressing his hand into the side as he flooded it with Tero’gal energy. It took a while, but an interesting message appeared after a time as the building went semi-transparent.

[Building Evolution!]

Your [Greenhouse] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Greenhouse]. This is an aspected evolution, which requires further input.

Please select which known reagent you wish to align this building to:

Spiny Swamp Thistle Root

Flame Rose

…

The list went on, detailing every reagent Theo knew about. Evolving a greenhouse turned it into a building specializing in one reagent. The alchemist had to think about this for a moment, but a Wisdom of the Soul message appeared, extrapolating what he knew.

“The resulting reagents are going to be more pure,” Theo said. “But we can only put one reagent in each greenhouse.”

“That’s interesting,” Salire said, rubbing her hand on the building’s side. “I mean, do we have much of an option here? We can assume Tero’gal is smart enough to make herbalism and alchemy work together.”

“That’s a great point. Why don’t we go with our healing root first? It only makes sense,” Theo said.

Salire nodded her agreement. While aspects of alchemy had changed, his new Tero’gal Herbalist Core carried over the knowledge he had of reagents. All the properties Theo knew were still there. He selected the Spiny Swamp Thistle Root and stood back. The change within the greenhouse was immediate, the building visibly shrinking before them. After some rumbling, it calmed down. He inspected the resulting building.

[Tero’gal Greenhouse]

Owner: Theo Spencer

Faction: The Southlands Alliance

Reagent: Spiny Swamp Thistle Root

Level: 20 (29%)

“Where did the upgrades go?” Theo asked.

Salire shrugged, inspecting the building. “It still has a level. That’s weird.”

Entering the greenhouse, Theo was surprised to see only four plots. Salire had already withdrawn the reagent plants from her inventory and was planting them in the soil. Tero’gal was all about making quality potions, rather than large amounts. That was his thoughts on the matter, anyway. Time would tell if that was true. A golem lumbered through the threshold, scooting past Theo to inspect the new plant. It wasn’t happy with the way Salire had piled the soil and corrected it.

“He doesn’t think you did a good enough job planting that thing.” Theo tried not to laugh.

“Yes, I don’t think your golems like me. Should we change the other buildings?”

“No. I’d like to wait and see.”

Theo was thinking of the reagents he grew in his greenhouses as low-quality more as the days went on. He looked through the glass of the greenhouse, spotting a dreadful sight. Several people were carrying trellises covered in flowers down the road. Like a soldier on the eve of battle, the alchemist prepared himself for the coming events. Broken Tusk would have its first wedding soon enough.

“Hallow save us all,” Theo muttered, leaving the greenhouse.

Chapter 47

Hazardous Working Conditions

Theo stood outside Throk’s workshop the next day, gawking at the array of alchemy equipment arrayed there. The marshling himself stood among the field, hands on his hips as he glared at the alchemist.

“You wanted some equipment? Here ya go.”

“Do you sleep?” Theo asked.

“No.”

The equipment ranged in function, but was all under the 50-unit requirement. Theo counted twenty pieces, each with a note describing what they did. He realized Throk didn’t make each item here. He had a small army of apprentices that helped him make things. While Thim had taken over the blacksmith, it freed the old marshling up for other tasks. Combined with those apprentices, he seemed more like an artifice designed to create artifices. Never-ending and as much of a genius as always.

Theo flicked Throk another gold coin.

“Your patronage is appreciated,” Throk said, biting the coin and pocketing it. “Now go away.”

Theo gathered each piece of equipment into his inventory, clearing some junk out of the Tara’hek shared inventory before moving off. There was too much equipment here to test in one day, so he would focus on working with the ones he was confident would work. The ones with the paddles would likely work best, but there were several variations on the ones he had requested.

Crossing through the town square, Theo winced as he saw the decorations going up. He had nothing against weddings or Xol’sa and Zarali’s relationship. He just hadn’t come up with anything to say. And he would be expected to say something. Instead of figuring it out now, he buried his head in his work and headed for the lab.

Salire wasn’t in the shop yet. It hadn’t been opened yet. Theo locked the door behind him as he headed up to the third floor. His lips pulled into a tight line as he crossed the threshold to the lab. Unsurprisingly, the still he had been running on the new essence had exploded. Chunks of metal were embedded in the walls. Large gouges were visible on the other equipment. He worked on cleaning up the mess and thinking about what went wrong.

It didn’t take Theo long to reach a conclusion. He found a chunk of iron on the ground. No part of it was exposed, meaning it couldn’t collect anymore of the buildup produced by the essence. Whatever artifice they went with needed to have the capturing system changed regularly, otherwise it would explode. It made no sense coming from a Drogramathi method, but this was new ground to cover.

After cleaning the lab, Theo withdrew the still he expected to work best. It was a small pot-bellied still, just like the others only in miniature. His large stills could hold 500 units of liquid, making them as large as a human was tall. Throk’s newest version was tiny, requiring a stand to be accessible. But the walls were now much thicker, made of joined plates with heating elements sandwiched between. The paddle that mixed the contents within was made of iron—as requested—and could easily be replaced with a latch on the bottom.

“Throk knows his way around artifices,” Theo said, checking the functions on the contraption.

The upgrades were nice, but the still would function much like the others did. They used the artifice shredder to prepare some Spiny Swamp Thistle Root, placing it in the bottom with some water. He used an equal ratio of ten units for both and set the device to work. Of course, Throk had added a one-button approach to the slow heating cycle. He was good at predicting needs.

Once that was running, Theo headed out into the fields behind the Newt and Demon to work with the other devices. He was less confident in them working, but would take anything to improve his knowledge of this new alchemy. The first was the shaker Throk had made—under Theo’s request. It was a normal still with little arms on the side. When the alchemist pressed one of the many buttons on the base, it shook. Violently.

Theo prepared a mixture and a few blocks of iron, tossing them into the device. He activated the slow-heating method and a gentle shake. The sound of the iron slamming against the sides of the interior was awful, but it didn’t immediately explode.

The next interesting artifice was one that spun. Really fast. Theo got dizzy watching the device as it spun, pressing his foot against the side to slow it down after shutting it off. He loaded it up with his mixture and some iron, setting it to work about fifty feet from the first still. How Throk had made it so the body of the still could draw power from the base without visible wires was beyond him. Artificer magic.

Theo started a few more stills, all of which were variants of the first two. They did the same thing as the others, just in different ways. Positioning himself behind a thick Ogre Cypress tree, he waited for a while. A variant of the shaker stills exploded about ten minutes into the test, sending a plume of black smoke into the air. Shrapnel slammed into the tree, some zipping by with force.

“Vertical shaker is too violent,” Theo said, nodding to himself.

“You realize you look like a crazy person, right?” Sarisa asked from behind.

“Says the stalker.”

“You pay me to stalk you.” Sarisa huddled up behind the tree. “Also, that last piece hit rowan.”

“Just a flesh wound,” Rowan retorted.

Theo turned to find Rowan bleeding from the head, prone on the ground. “Feed the poor man a potion. Good god.”

“They’re too valuable for him.”

“I’m good. Seriously,” Rowan said, standing and falling.

Theo tried hard not to roll his eyes, shooting a message off to Sulvan. His reflex was to also send one to the Ogre Bilgrob, but it was unlikely the man still had his core. Perhaps it had reverted to a regular healing core…

“Put some pressure on his forehead, then,” Theo said.

“I told him to hide,” Sarisa said, pressing a rag into her brother’s head. “But he’s not thinking so well.”

“The bugs were biting me,” Rowan said, wincing as Sarisa applied pressure.

Theo closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to yell at someone who had just been hit by a piece of flying metal. “You slept outside last night?”

“I told you I could. Would.”

“How about you, Sarisa?” Theo asked.

“Oh, the Dreamwalk thing was lovely. There’s this elf in town that I like, and we went on a date.”

Theo winced, trying not to think of where that went. “How much control did you have over it?”

“Some. It was more like having a dream I could control, but strange dream logic kept rearing its head.”

Anyone sleeping in the manor could enjoy a minor version of the Dreamwalk. That made sense, since dreams were like little realms. Tero’gal started out as a dream… Or so Theo thought—he never actually got to the bottom of that. Leave it to someone like Tresk to want something so bad she made it manifest into an entire world. The power of marshlings was not to be undervalued, as anyone looking at the stills could see.

Of course, there were problems. Another still exploded, sending another wave a shrapnel through the sparsely forested area.

“I’m hit!” Sarisa shouted, falling to the ground and clutching her shoulder.

“Seriously, people!” Theo shouted, pressing his hand into the tree. He infused it with a defensive ward that would catch any further bits of flying metal. The ward wanted to expand out, covering a massive area. Theo forced his will on it to create something more like a blast shield. “Maybe I should have done that earlier…”

Sarisa groaned, rolling on the ground. “Ya think?”

“I can see the heavens,” Rowan said. “I’m coming, Baelthar.”

“Baelthar isn’t even a god anymore,” Theo said, shuffling over to press the cloth into the downed half-ogre’s head.

The sound of heavy footfalls came from a distance, closing in swiftly. Sulvan, who was looking more beefy than normal, came running over with a worried look on his face. “What did you do?” he asked, crouching near the injured pair.

“Hit them with bits of metal. Not on purpose,” Theo said, releasing the cloth on Rowan’s forehead. “Do you have a Hallow core, now?”

Sulvan offered him a sly smile. “You’re always ahead of current events, aren’t you?”

Light issued from Sulvan’s palms, filling Rowan’s wound. The half-ogre sucked in a breath, shooting to a seated position. “Oh, that’s some spicy healing. Good stuff, Sulvan.”

Another still exploded in the distance, slamming into the barrier Theo had erected. The shards of metal were held in place for a moment before falling to the ground. Yeah, he should have done that from the start. It was easy to forget that Sarisa and Rowan were always lurking in the nearby shadows.

“No luck with the potions?” Sulvan asked, moving to Sarisa. He yanked the bit of metal from her shoulder with exactly no bedside manner and began working on the wound. Sarisa looked as though she was ready to bite him.

“We’re almost there,” Theo said.

“Just a few more explosions and I won’t have to rush around town again?” Sulvan asked, more light spilling from his hands. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Theo watched the man work, feeling some regret that he got his people injured. This was the danger of the alchemy lab being down. Without a person like Sulvan to help, everyday injuries could be deadly. The alchemist was reminded of a time when people in town just dealt with whatever wounds they got. They had no way of healing themselves, so often lived with lifelong injuries that would have been easy to cure. With potions from the capital being so expensive, it was never an option for them.

The potions provided to citizens by the Newt and Demon were sold at rock-bottom prices. But the purpose of the lab was never to make a profit. Sulvan’s ability to heal was impressive, though. Both Sarisa and Rowan were back on their feet shortly after Sulvan attended to them. The former inquisitor looked at them with a kind of warmth Theo would have never expected from the man. Not when he was hunting down dronon under the orders of the Burning Eye.

“Hey, Sulvan,” Theo said, wondering if this was the right time. “You know we left Uharis on the moon, right?”

“I’m still aware of that situation.”

“And you’re still good with it?”

Sulvan took a moment, rubbing his chin as he collected his thoughts. “I thought what I was doing was the right thing because the grip the Eye had on my mind. Uharis enjoyed the work and his schemes were wide-reaching. Theo, are you aware of how rare teleportation magic is?”

“I haven’t really thought about it.”

“Can Xol’sa teleport?”

“He can make a portal between his tower and the town.”

“But he can’t teleport across the world. Uharis could. He was dangerous, and now he’s mad. My recommendation is to either kill him, or prepare to deal with him in the future.”

Sulvan made the statement with such conviction it gave Theo chills. He had taken his vow to Glantheir seriously, devoting himself to pacifism and serving the people. Recommending death for anyone was a leap from those vows. The alchemist wouldn’t take the statement lightly. For now, Uharis was trapped on the moon. But if he ever got his hands on a core that allowed him to move through space, there might be problems.

“I’ll take that into consideration. Perhaps I can imprison him.”

“Maybe. Also, do you have any news on Jan? I understand he escaped, but that’s all I know.”

“You know as much as I do, then.” Theo sighed, trying not to think about an Earthling loose in the world like that. “If I had to guess, he’s going to kill Twist. But my unnaturally high wisdom says there’s something more going on.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know. I never know with you people. There’s always a scheme.”

Sulvan tapped his chin. “Isn’t Jan your people?”

“That’s a good point. Well, thanks for your help.” Theo clapped a hand on Sulvan’s shoulder. “You really turned around.”

“I’m happy to serve my lord, Hallow,” Sulvan said with a wink. He headed off, leaving the group behind.

Theo expected another still to explode, but it didn’t. That just meant the first phases of distillation were working for those that were running. He needed to put some signs and more barriers in the area to prevent more people from being smacked with flying metal.

“Hold on a second,” Sarisa said, folding her arms and glaring at Theo. “How far can you see into the future?”

Theo slipped to the side as Sarisa leveled a punch at his face. Her fist slammed into the tree.

“Our boss let us get exploded!” Rowan shouted.

“You didn’t get exploded. Stop being dramatic. I can only see the future at places where I’m looking.”

“But you were looking at the still when it exploded.”

“Yeah, and I saw I wouldn’t get hit.”

“That’s okay, buddy,” Rowan said, sauntering over. Theo caught his fist before it slammed into his stomach. “Ah, dang. Why did I think that would work.”

Theo pat Rowan on the head. “Don’t worry. I’m not a psychopath.”

The other stills seemed stable enough. Theo went around the area, tacking paper to the surrounding trees and setting shaped wards. At least the one within the lab was working fine. He didn’t want to take on the responsibility, but it was time to investigate the upcoming wedding. Rowan and Sarisa marched along behind him.

“When the super powerful guy tells you he isn’t a psychopath…” Sarisa started.

“He most certainly is,” Rowan finished.

Chapter 48

Back To Square One

Theo looked over his prototype stills, nodding with approval. He had placed many in the clearing, but only three survived. The two variations of the still with the paddle, and the one with the vertical shaking motion. Even with his wisdom, he couldn’t determine why the shaker worked. Perhaps the agitation action allowed the impurities from the mashed reagent to latch onto the iron better. Or maybe there was something about the air being mixed into the contents. Looking inside the finished paddle still, he withdrew the paddle, encrusted with alchemical waste.

This stuff was toxic. Neutralizing the crystalline waste was his priority after ordering a full-scale version of the paddle still. He took the two working stills into his inventory, leaving the clearing behind. The alchemist held a vial of essence up to the fading light of the day, sighing. He inspected the item.

[Healing Essence]

[Essence]

Common

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 95%

2 units (liquid)

Concentrated essence of healing, used to create healing potions.

There was only a single change to the description. Grades were out the window, giving way to the purity entry. Drogramath’s alchemy was the end-path to a lot of other forms of alchemy, so he shouldn’t have been surprised that this wasn’t different. But this meant the Tero’gal potions would fall in line with the other methods. Which meant he wouldn’t get free attribute points for crafting his potions. Now that he had created the essence, the rest should have fallen in line the way he expected. But with only two units to work with, the alchemist wanted to wait.

“Throk,” Theo said, sticking his head into the workshop. He was surprised to find several apprentices working on various projects. Some were related to the rail system, while others were jobs for people in town. Throk himself was hunched over a table, working on a machine. “Let me get a big version of this one.”

Throk barely looked up. “How big?” he grunted.

“Fifty units,” Theo said. “And just one for now.”

Throk grunted his confirmation for the order, and Theo left the still near the entrance. The apprentices laughed to themselves as he left the shop. He headed out into the town, looking at the decorations for the wedding. That was tomorrow, wasn’t it? On the first day of the Season of Death—the first day of autumn. Broken Tusk would experience their first winter in Tero’gal this year. Year one of… something, he hadn’t decided what to call it yet.

“How are things going?” Theo asked, walking up behind Miana.

“Hey, stranger,” she said with a scoff. “You’ve been hands-off with the planning.”

“Things have been busy.”

“Well, we’ve got all the trellises up. I think they have a few boars to cook. Oh, they’re bringing musicians to play throughout.”

“So, what kind of traditions did they settle on?”

“For starters, there’s gonna be a fight.” Miana rubbed her hands together. “That’s local, of course. The other local tradition is the Ogre Snapper wrestling match. Zarali wanted those two. Xol’sa picked a few elven traditions, including the feat of power. That’ll be interesting. Otherwise, I expect a massive party.”

Theo nodded, that didn’t sound so bad. He couldn’t imagine Zarali and Xol’sa fighting it out to prove their love. But when he thought about the space elf, all he could imagine was his people. Standing like statues in some lost realm. “It looks good,” he said, patting Miana on the shoulder. He left the town square, making his way to the temple. There were more people here than ever before, praying to a Throneworld or one of the accepted gods. He rolled his shoulders, settling in on one seat near the front.

“I could just go to your realm,” Theo muttered to himself, keeping his eyes on the floor. “But Ziz worked so hard on this place. Why not use it?”

There was no answer from the altar. Theo didn’t know how praying worked or if the gods would hear him. The ascendants could hear him, before he did everything in his power to shut them all out.

“I don’t know if you do this kind of thing, Hallow. But if you could bless the wedding, that’d be great.” Theo shifted awkwardly in his seat, looking around to the others. They hadn’t looked up. “Maybe bless the whole nation while you’re at it. We might need the help.”

Theo cleared his throat, standing up before he felt any more awkward about the situation. Of the things he still needed to do, the wedding was the one he had the least involvement in. High on his list was helping the space elves. And that required functional alchemy—or so he hoped. There were other projects left to do. Some were small and some were too massive to undertake with limited time. The rail to the north was vital, it would serve as the base infrastructure in Tero’gal. Right now, people had to walk for weeks to get anywhere in the Throneworld.

“So, wedding, space elves, infrastructure… and loose ends,” Theo said, nodding to himself. “Oh, and potions.”

The essence produced by the experimental still looked normal. If it was only a matter of creating a more pure essence, they had done it handily. There might have been implications for the second tier of potion making, but that was a problem for another day. With daylight fading, Theo made his way to the lab for one last experiment of the day. He poured a unit of the precious essence into a vial, and considered his approach.

First tier potions were easy. One unit of essence to one unit of Purified Water and a catalyst to start the binding reaction. It was the most basic recipe an alchemist could use in creating distilled potions. Theo narrowed his eyes at the essence resting in the vial, looking for something that could go wrong. His heightened intuition seemed to agree this would work. With the impurities driven from the essence, he imagined there wasn’t much left to go wrong, but it was interesting to think about the interactions.

Iron Shavings acted as a catalyst in this stage. But when used on mashed reagents, it sucked impurities from the mixture. This might have been why the other distillation reactions he tried had failed, but it was hard to tell. Only the three things, essence, water, and shavings, would cause a positive alchemical reaction. If he had more essence to test with, he would try something different. He dropped the Iron Shaving into the water-essence mixture, taking a step back.

The potion bubbled, turning a pleasant shade of red. It put off a sweet smell that filled the lab, but no vapors came from the vial’s top. He placed the decorative stopper on the vial, holding the new potion at arm’s length. Too much work went into this potion. His first potion made with Drogramath’s tradition was easy compared to this. He inspected the item.

[Lesser Healing Potion]

[Potion]

Common

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 95%

A lesser healing potion. Drink to restore health.

Effect:

Instantly restores 40 health points.

The first healing potion Theo made restored 20 health. Like the essence, it displayed purity instead of grade. This path might have been available to him before. If he had followed Zarali’s advice this might have been his path. Instead, Theo had picked industrialization.

“You’re late for dinner, ya dingus!” Tresk shouted from the stairs.

Theo turned, holding the potion up with a smile. “We got it!”

“Aw, sweet! We’re having steak, get your butt to the manor.”

Theo put the potion in his inventory, following behind Tresk. Alex was waiting outside. The more days rolled on, the less she looked like a goose. She had dangling legs protruding from her chest, making her look more like a nightmare than a giant goose.

“She’s looking more like a dragon by the day,” Theo said, patting Alex on the side. With her neck extended, he couldn’t reach her head. “At least she doesn’t have teeth.”

“Give her time!” Tresk shouted, slapping Theo on the back. “We found some dragon bones.”

“Dragon bones?” Theo asked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, over in the mountains.”

“Uh… Alchemist here? You found dragon bones and you didn’t bring them to me?”

“Oh, come on! You’re gonna crush them and turn them into potions!”

Theo raised an eyebrow. “Potions that I’ll give to you.”

“Damn. You always do this, Tresk.” She growled at herself. “Give the potion man the bones and get powerful potions—that’s obvious!”

“No, tell me more about these dragon bones. Which mountains?”

Theo and Tresk worked their way toward the manor, picking a slow path with Alex close behind.

“We scour the local areas, looking for stuff to fight. Well, you know Alex can fly. So we spotted some bones set in the face of a mountain. They were just brimming with dragon energy.” Tresk let out a satisfied sigh.

“How did she absorb the energy? I know her control and willpower are decent, but… Tresk, is she eating dragon bones?” Theo asked.

“That’s why I didn’t want to give them to you! She needs more bones!”

“How do you even swallow them?” Theo asked, gesturing to Alex’s bill. “No teeth.”

“She swallows them whole.”

“I’m a dragon!”

Honk!

“You’re looking more like a dragon, but I don’t know if that makes you a dragon,” Theo said, smiling up at the familiar.

Alex shot a stream of fire into the air. “I am a dragon!”

“You are the strongest dragon around,” Tresk said. “Don’t listen to the mean potion man.”

Alex was really good at absorbing energy, so perhaps this was a good path. There was something inherently powerful about the dragons. Not enough that they were considered an element, but Alex was listed as a Proto Dragon-Goose when he inspected her. So that was a start. It wasn’t the stage he expected her to enter, but whatever. Goose, dragon-goose, what did it matter? She had a way of twisting herself into whatever form she wanted. A dragon was just as good as anything else.

“Bye, sweetie,” Tresk said, waiting for Alex to lower her head for a kiss.

“Bye-bye.”

Theo didn’t know when Sarisa or Rowan had time to cook the massive steaks, but he wouldn’t complain. The scent of seared meat, melted butter, and some fantasy knock-off garlic wafted as they opened the door to the manor. He let out a heavy sigh, reminded of how little he had eaten today.

“Where are you guys finding suppliers of meat karatan?” he asked, falling into his chair at the large dining table. There were no greens with this meal. No zee to help round it out. Just a big slab of seared meat—grill marks still visible on the surface. The steak glistened in the light,

“Secret supplier,” Rowan said, removing his apron with a smile on his face.

“Still the elves,” Sarisa said, jumping into her chair and rubbing her hands together. “We bought them from the elves.”

Theo cut a piece of steak, failing to resist the smile that tugged at his lips. No cut of meat melted like this, almost as though the steak itself was butter. Of course Tresk took no time to savor it. She only cut it in half, swallowing each part in one bite. What conversation spread around the table was light, centering on the upcoming wedding. The alchemist wasn’t very excited about the wedding at first, but he was warming to the idea. He had imagined a stuffy ceremony, but it was shaking up to be something far more exciting.

“I’m stuffed. Let’s sleep,” Tresk said.

“I’m still eating.”

“Well, I’m not.”

Theo glared at Tresk, cutting another piece of his steak.

“Oh, you stink,” Tresk said, pouting.

Theo took his time with his meal. Not because he wanted to spite Tresk, but because it was good. She didn’t take it well when he took the steps slowly, yawning the entire way. But they dropped into the Dreamwalk all the same, coming out onto an imagined sprawl of Tero’gal’s landscape. He hadn’t even visited the Throneworld today, too interested in getting this new form of alchemy ready for production.

Accessing Tresk’s memory, Theo summoned the cliff containing dragon bones Alex was eating. It looked strange against the lush landscape around them. The top portion of a rocky face poked up from the ground, gray and chalky against the greenery. Several large sections stuck out, bleached white by the sun. While he couldn’t figure out what part of a dragon this was, the bone was massive.

“That’s a gigantic dragon,” Theo said with a nod.

“Yeah, yeah. We ate through most of that leg section.” Tresk gestured to an area missing a bone.

Theo looked at the pieces of the skeleton for a while, biting his lip. “Weird question, but do you think someone like Balkor could raise a dragon’s skeleton?”

“Ugh. Why do you have to spoil the mood?” Tresk asked. “Think you can help us move an entire skeleton into a dimensional storage crate tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I think that might be best,” Theo said, his mind suddenly searching for other dead dragons in the area. What if there had been massive beasts in the north that had died? “Let’s wake up early to take care of it.”

“Excellent idea. Now, can we fight?”

Tresk and Alex left Theo to the dragon bones. Once again, the Dreamwalk refused to allow him to take samples from the bones. It was just in that kind of mood after the influence of the new management.

Visiting the Dreamwalk put a cap on the day, though. Theo summoned his newest challenge, the paddle covered in alchemical refuse. There were many ways to decompose materials, but nothing he could think of that wouldn’t damage the iron. While he will accept this as a situation where the iron was disposable, he still needed to get rid of the alchemy byproduct. The Dissolve Essence might be a way forward, but he didn’t have a good feeling about that one.

“Are you gonna let me figure out how reactive this stuff is?” Theo asked, scraping the buildup from the paddle onto an imagined table. The Dreamwalk didn’t have a problem when he poured various solutions on it, to no effect. The Cleansing Scrub potion did nothing. Dissolve Essence didn’t work.

Theo clapped his hands over his ears as the paddle exploded in a ball of fire. He clicked his tongue, watching as the plume of smoke rose into the air. “Well, now I just scattered the junk all over the place. What if we light it on fire?”

The byproduct popped when it was lit on fire, but Theo observed something interesting. He was surprised the Dreamwalk let him take things this far. Placing a pan over an artifice flame, he scraped the crystalline substance into the plan and cranked the heat. It took a while, and some pretty intense heat, but it eventually went from solid to liquid. Some vapor was released as he allowed it to cool.

The resulting sheet of brown-black material was still toxic. The invention of filth ingots wasn’t pushing his problem forward, but it was a start. Applying heat to the substance was the only thing that had done anything so far. Perhaps some pressure would help…

“There’s only one way to find out,” Theo said, imagining a heated pressure still.