The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 10,11,12 (Patreon)

Chapter 10

New Gods

Theo had a pleasant breakfast the next morning, but he picked at his food, thinking of the things he had to do that day. While his essences would finish brewing sometime, he had a few hours to kill before they were complete. Tresk hadn’t run off yet, although she had already eaten all her food. Alex’s big eyes lingered near one window, peering in to see what the group was doing. He figured the best thing for them would be to make a trip he hadn’t wanted to make.

“We’ve got to see the system today,” Theo said, breaking the long silence.

“Ew, I don’t like that place,” Tresk said.

“We’ll never make progress on the deal with the gods if we don’t go and visit them.”

“Fine, fine,” Tresk said. “I know you get lonely.”

The real reason Theo wanted to bring Tresk along was that it would be nice to have the authority of another throne-holder with him. Being a liaison was one thing, but always arriving without the help of others was challenging. He didn’t think Khahar would want to come. He wasn’t certain the man could even leave his realm, as he had avoided doing so since taking command. While that was moderately suspicious, most things that man did were suspicious.

After finishing their meal, Theo and Tresk went outside and wrangled Alex. The dragon-goose wasn’t eager to go into the void, but she agreed to come along. Before leaving, the alchemist left word with Salire that they would be gone for a few hours. Then it was only a matter of parting the veil between the mortal realm and the void, and falling into it. A sense of comfort washed over him as they angled for the central star formation of the area.

“So, what’s the plan?” Tresk asked. “Are we doing ‘good cop’ or ‘bad cop’?”

“Good cop, I think,” Theo said. “I’m not trying to rock the boat, but we need to get a feel for what the gods think of us.”

“Well, Hallow is in our pocket, isn’t he?” Tresk asked. “And I’d bet money on Shadow, leaning towards you. Void as well.”

“That just leaves death, fate, omen, and the elemental gods, which I don’t know if there are elemental gods yet.”

“Fine, fine,” Tresk said. “So we’re just going to be on our best behavior and set the stage, right?”

“It feels like you’re actually learning,” Theo said. “Are you trying to be less of a goblin lately?”

“Something like that.”

Theo landed in the system’s frigid wasteland shortly after. Tresk and Alex worked close behind him as he approached the stage. They moved quicker than usual, as the cold seemed to have intensified in recent days. This place was the one area where they could meet with the gods. Right on the border of the seal, it allowed them to communicate directly.

The system promptly appeared; its crystalline form hovered in the center of the platform. Both Theo and Tresk lowered their heads for a moment. Alex honked.

“And what can I do for you today?” The system asked, “Have you made progress?”

“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Theo said, sharing a nod with Tresk. “But that’s not why we’re here. I’d like to arrange a brief meeting with the gods to plead my case.”

The system took longer than Theo was comfortable with to make up its mind. It squirmed for a moment before it inclined her head. A moment later, six spots around the circle lit up. Ghostly figures appeared, all different, and all glowing with their respective colors. Or, with Shadow, it was the lack of color. Theo hadn’t seen Zaul in a while; their last meeting was in the Ascendants’ dark realm. But even now he was cloaked in enough shadow to make it almost impossible to discern features.

Death was the first to speak. “So good to see you, Theo.” His words sounded far more honeyed than normal.

“What is this meeting about?” Omen groaned.

“Silence, brother. You’re not looking very professional right now, are you?” Fate asked, nudging the boy who shared the circle with her.

Theo couldn’t help but drag his eyes toward the right side of the circle. While the left side was almost filled, only one person stood on the right. It was a Kahari woman, standing tall with her shoulders back and a proud look on her face. There was something familiar about the pattern in her fur. He couldn’t place it. Which was strange since he had a perfect memory. He felt an attention from the woman that was hard to place, as though words were eager to escape her lips, but she couldn’t utter them.

“Plead your case,” the system said.

“As the gods are aware, we are preparing for the world to reset. I know that some of us have our differences, but if we don’t work together to make it happen, then everyone will be poorer for it.” Theo took a few long moments to gauge the reaction on everyone’s faces. Like the gods they were, they remained stoic. “As a concession for our work, I would like permission to bring my alliance into my throne world.”

“Have you considered the imbalance that might cause?” Void was the first to speak up, folding his small arms and glaring at Theo.

“No worse imbalance than anything that has been done in the past 60,000 years.” Hollow spoke next.

“A history you and your people are responsible for,” Void shot back.

“I side with the dronon,” Death said, his voice drawing out and gaining the attention of the assembled gods. “Perhaps he can learn that all can move past this without issue.”

So, Death was aware of their plan to kill him. That was interesting, seeing as the seal of passage was in place, and no information should have been getting in or out of the heavens. Theo couldn’t see the iron-fisted Kuzan making a deal like that on such a whim. Instead, he figured that the once-emperor of the Elven Empire knew more than he was letting on. And this might work to Theo’s advantage if he could play it well. But now was not the time. He needed to focus on negotiating for his goals.

“I vote in favor,” Shadow said.

“Against,” Omen said.

“For,” Fate said.

The mystery khahari inclined her head toward Theo. “I’m for the action.” Her voice was almost melodic, filling the platform with a soothing sense.

“I can feel your confusion,” the system said, nodding toward Theo. “This is our newest member of the heavens, Silver.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” Theo said, bowing his head to the Khahari woman. “And thanks for the support.”

“The decision must be unanimous,” the system said, turning to Void and Omen.

Of course, that wasn’t the original deal. But Theo wouldn’t open his mouth right now. It was best to remain silent and see how things went.

“There’s an amount of instability that will be introduced into the void and the system if he brings his town to his planet. We’re talking about a lot of effort on your part, system.” Void folded his arms, glaring at Theo.

“Yet the reason why your void will be stable is because of Theo’s efforts,” Hallow interjected.

“Not to mention,” Death said, “you’re talking about a holder of a throne of power. Even I’m not foolish enough to go against all of them.”

“The thrones exist in a reactionary creation,” the system said, looking between the assembled members. “It’s true that they act as a balancing mechanism for both the mortal plane and all other places in this universe. It is within their power to strike at the heavens if the need arises.”

Void looked even more grumpy after that. A small discussion broke out about the impacts that bringing a piece of the old system into the new one would cause. Every time Death spoke in Theo’s favor, he was shocked. He was certain they were supposed to be mortal enemies, and the plot to drive the god from his realm was still in play. There’s no reason to cut it short just because he shows them goodwill now. The alchemist was cooking up a slightly more devious plan to handle Death, but it required some time and the favor of Elrin.

“You have my vote, if only to leave me alone,” Omen said after about an hour of debate.

“And you don’t have mine,” Void said, growing even grumpier.

“As mediator of this assembly, I recognize that the vast majority of gods favor this action,” The system said, nodding to everybody but Void. “As such, I demand that you give the Dreamwalker a quest to prove his actions worthy.”

“A quest,” Void sputtered. “What kind of quest am I going to give him? I don’t want him to mess up the post-reset system. How is a quest gonna fix that?”

“Then would you agree to leave it in my hands?” the system asked. “The assigning of the quest, that is.”

“Sure, why not? As long as you can guarantee it won’t break anything,” Void said.

The system simply nodded. She turned to each member and swiped her hand. When she did, the god was dismissed, vanishing from the platform. Theo didn’t miss the look death gave him as he vanished. It was strange, and he couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. More like an expectation of the future from underneath that black hood.

“I don’t appreciate your plan to kill Death,” the system said. “Although it’s within your rights, we would need a new one to hold the realm.”

“Then that’s my proposal,” Theo said. “A way to ensure that death commands the realm and I get what I want.”

“I’m listening,” the system said.

“I understand the importance of each godly realm. They’re fairly obvious when you consider their namesakes. But there is one that stands out among them.” Theo took a few long moments to gather his thoughts. “Are you the one who designed the Thrones of Power? You did it in reaction to the ascendants’ power grab, didn’t you?”

“Correct.”

Theo held up two fingers. “Two positions in the realm of Death. The leader, and an arbiter. Create another throne and give the holder authority to oversee what Death does with the souls of the dead.”

“You want me to create a new position of power based on your desires?” the system asked, seeming slightly annoyed at the suggestion.

“I’m basing my decision on logic, not my feelings,” Theo clarified. “That’s too much power for one god to hold, and is there a mechanism for somebody to assault his realm and take it from him?”

The system took a long time to consider the proposal. Theo waited, sharing looks with Tresk and Alex. As the moments wore on, he became increasingly nervous that his idea would be declined.

“I’ll consider it,” the system said. “Perhaps that will be your task, but I need time.”

As the system often did, it vanished without saying much else. Theo didn’t wait either. He surrounded his companions with his aura and dropped them back into the void. Only once they were there did he feel comfortable talking.

“That might have gone well,” Theo said, scratching his chin as he considered his options.

“I can feel that silly little plan warming its way through your brain,” Tresk said. “You think something like that would work? Do you think our plan to murder Death isn’t going to work?”

“There’s no point going into this without a backup plan,” Theo said. “Killing Death or driving him from his realm is going to be difficult, if not impossible. We’re talking about killing a proper god, not an ascendant.”

Theo had been an accomplice to killing an Ascended before. Balkor was dead, or mostly dead, thanks to Fenian’s actions. But the demon god of undeath had only been an ascendant. He was basically a juiced-up mortal commanding a realm. He wasn’t that hard to kill, but death had protections that the ascendants didn’t. Their realms were completely unknown to the alchemists. They could have been anything, and there could have been defenses none of them could penetrate.

“My only thought for killing Death was to poison his realm,” Theo said. “But we would have to find it, apply the poison, and hope it took hold. What if he resisted it, or had some other defense?”

“Yeah, I get it. But we’ve never backed down from a challenge, have we?” Tresk asked.

“And then we have to find another person to assume the mantle of Death,” Theo said. “We have to think long term now. More importantly, we have to run this by the other throne holders. I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“Okay, okay,” Tresk said. “So, this alternative you’re thinking of… We create another throne that does what? Manages Death specifically? Isn’t that the job of you and Khahar?”

“Yeah, that’s our job, but we can only do stuff when the gods break the rules. I want to impose new rules.”

This could have turned into a long debate, but Tresk nodded along. Theo could feel that she sensed the wisdom in his caution. She understood that the assassination attempt would be nearly impossible. She also felt his reliance on the newest player on the field. If they could get Elrin to agree to be that arbiter, things might work out.

“For now, we’ll give the system enough time to think about it,” Tresk said. “The system seems to take what you say seriously, which means she’s taking all our positions seriously. That’s good news, isn’t it?”

Indeed, that was a good thing, as the group approached the mortal realm once again. Theo looked forward to turning his attention to potions, but he now had a path forward with the gods and his plan to bring his burgeoning alliance—with all the weird magical stuff that came with it—with him.

Chapter 11

Fluff, Pitch, Expand

They arrived back at the lab just in time for the essences to finish brewing. For testing today, they were going to create potions based on the Pitch, Expand, and Fluff properties. While the alchemist didn't have much faith in these properties providing powerful effects, he was excited to see what kind of wacky things they would produce. Salire was waiting for him on the third floor, organizing everything and preparing for another run of the restoration essences.

"Just in time for the fun stuff, huh?" she asked. “Leaving all the grunt work to me.”

"You're the apprentice, aren't you?" Theo asked. "Nah, I'm just kidding. If you want to go up and talk with the gods in my stead, you're more than welcome."

"I'm good. Very content down here where things are easy to understand." How did your meeting go?

"I think the system likes me," Theo said, questioning his own statement. "It's really hard to tell. She's basically this floating crystal lady. And once again, I'm reminded that she is neither a woman nor a man; she's just a system."

But everything was ready for Theo to get started on the items. He assessed the quality of each essence and determined that they were excellent, far better than the stuff they had been producing. When the lab first started running, they had brewed each essence at the second tier, and still had no plans to run third-tier essences until they could get that technique down. For testing potions, Theo always preferred to run them at the lowest possible tier.

"Oh, are we starting with fluff?" Salire asked, bouncing with excitement next to Theo.

"What could the Fluff property possibly produce?" Theo asked, laughing to himself. "I really need to know."

Theo got to work brewing the potion. He took only a few moments to appreciate its 98% purity before getting to work. It took to the enchanted water and the iron shavings very well, creating a bubbling mixture that gave off the smell of hot sand. But the amount of vapor produced was minimal, and the fumes didn't seem noxious. When the potion finished brewing in the vial, they both stepped in to inspect the result.

[Fluff Potion]

[Potion]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 98%

Imbibing this potion creates a thin fluffy layer on the drinker’s skin for an hour.

Effect:

Reduces the amount of damage you take from lightning attacks by 50%.

Your skin is itchy for the duration of the potion.

"Excuse me," Salire asked, grimacing as she read over the description. "That sounds disgusting."

"I will give you a gold coin if you drink it," Theo said.

For about half a second, it seemed as though she might take him up on the offer, but eventually, she scooted the potion away from herself, shaking her head. "I think that might be just a bit too much for me. Is this potion useful?"

A 50% reduction to lightning damage would be great if we ever fought anything with lightning attacks," Theo said, smoothing his hair back and trying to envision any other scenario where he could use it. Maybe if he needed to have itchy skin for an hour, but that didn't seem likely. No, the damage reduction was the only good thing about the potion. The secondary effect was an obvious negative.

"Do we have an example of a potion that provides a negative effect along with a positive one?" Theo asked.

"Uh, yes, that would be the Carapace Potion. That's the one that creates segmented plates all over your body, but increases your defense,” Salire said.

Theo thought the carapace potion differed from this one, though. The plates that formed in a person's body provided the defense, and using this potion as an example, the two things were unrelated. Unless the thin, fluffy layer acted as a mechanism to resist the lightning. But that didn't seem likely.

"Let's move on before I have a crisis about this strange potion," Theo said, shaking his head. "Which one did you want to do next?"

"Let's do Pitch," Salire said. "I think we know what that's going to make."

There were many essences in this world that were unpleasant to work with. Theo swirled the flask of pitch essence and felt the urge to pinch his nose. The scent was offensive, but didn't burn his nostrils like some others. Instead, it just smelled like concentrated tar back on Earth. He wouldn't want to be in a closed room without ventilation with this essence, but it wasn't enough to make him gag.

A strange property of the essence was that it was fairly thick. As he poured it into a round, bomb vial, he watched as it came out more like syrup than any other liquid essence he had worked with. But it took to the enchanted water and the iron shavings without a problem, producing a vapor that intensified the scent in the air. Salire cracked a window and waved her notebook, drawing the smell out where the extractor fan failed.

But the brewing process went well, and eventually, the bomb-style potion was completed.

[Pitch Bomb]

[Bomb]

Common

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 98%

Effect:

Hitting a target with this bomb will cover them in magical pitch.

Effect:

Targets affected with the pitch will gain weakness to fire damage.

The sticky substance created by this bind roots a target for up to 10 seconds.

The pitch produced by this bomb is incredibly flammable.

 "These are far more interesting than the bombs we've seen in the past," Theo said, reading over the description a few times.

The effects were interesting in themselves. To root a target in place was a great effect for a bomb, and Theo had used it several times in the past during monster waves. But gaining a weakness to fire and having the potion itself be flammable was kind of insane for a common-rarity item. These were the effects he would expect to see from a modified potion.

"These potions are weird," Salire said, stooping to get a better look at the potion. “We're getting some pretty strange effects."

"I'm not complaining. These are some pretty good effects, but... it's hard to know what to think about them. Anyway, do you want to do the next one?"

"I'd rather not mess it up," Salire said. "You can handle the brewing if you don't mind."

Theo shrugged. She only seemed to lack confidence when he was in the room. Otherwise, when left alone, she could brew some of the most difficult potions he had ever attempted, such as the reforging potions. After a few moments of thought, he realized she was just being nice, allowing him the honors.

The Expand Essence was strange. It was a normal liquid essence like those he commonly worked with, but its look and scent were completely foreign. It was a very cloudy essence with an inoffensive scent he couldn't quite place. It had a decently powerful magical presence, enough to stir even Theo's stunted senses. He got to mixing the potion, adding the correct amount to a vial. He topped it with enchanted water and added the iron shavings before observing the reaction.

If the appearance of the cloudy essence wasn't strange enough, the reaction was even stranger. It was a slow process that took a while to begin and lasted far longer than it should have. Strangely enough, it put off almost no vapor. The alchemist couldn't smell anything in the air, no matter how close he got to the vial. But once it was done, the cloudy gray mixture remained, and the potion was complete. Both leaned in to inspect what had been created.

[Expand Potion]

[Potion]

Rare

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 98%

Imbibing this potion causes the drinker to expand.

Effect:

For one hour, the imbiber expands in a random direction by an amount between 50 to 100%.

"I'll give you ten gold to drink that one," Theo said, staring at the description in amazement. "That has to be one of the worst potions I've ever seen in my entire life."

"Yeah, that's easily the worst one I've ever seen. Why would anyone want to expand in any direction, by any amount, for any amount of time? I don't get it."

It was a truly puzzling potion. Both Theo and Salire looked at the potion with glossy eyes, unable to figure out any practical uses. Perhaps this went back to the alchemist’s thought of creating a new batch of modifiers. If the Expand property could be used to increase the size of an explosion on a bomb, it could be useful.

“Well, that was interesting,” Theo said, finally breaking the silence. “Not very useful, but interesting.”

“Right, so we’ll set those aside and never look at the Expand potion ever again. What’s next?”

“Fermentation testing,” Theo said, nodding to the enchanted barrels on the far side of the room. “I don’t have much of a sense for these properties, so we’ll need to test some more.”

Salire had figured out most of the corks with their new brand of fermentation. The good news was that it was basically the same as the old one. She claimed it had some more manual control required during processing, and that the automatic enchanters Zarali had made weren't as effective, but it didn't change much about their process.

Theo approached one of his alchemy barrels and reached out, inspecting it.

[Enchanted Alchemy Fermentation Barrel]

[Alchemy Equipment] [Enchanted]

Epic

Created By: Sledge

Modified By: Zarali

A 200 unit capacity barrel capable of fermenting any reagents placed inside. Placing a mote with the mash is required for the process to take effect. Additional motes and mana may be required over the course of the fermentation.

Effects:

Creates a fermentation reaction when reagents are placed inside with a mote.

Speed of fermentation is greatly increased, depending on the strength of the mote.

Enchantments:

Siphon Power

Distribute Power

Crafting Speed

Crafting Effectiveness

Alignment: ERROR MISSING

 Well, the alignment tag on the item wasn't surprising. Ever since the ascendants were foisted from their realms, stuff aligned with the Pretender gods hadn't been working. But a quick inspection revealed that all the other parts were functioning correctly. Adding moats to the fermentation process was the old way they did things. They had migrated to using Zarali’s mana processing machines, but now those were having problems.

"Good thing we've been practicing our mana control," Theo said, turning to narrow his gaze at his apprentice. "Haven't we?"

"I've actually been practicing," Salire said, standing up straight and striking a pose. "You can't yell at me for once."

"That's good," Theo said, considering which properties he would focus on first. Fermentation was a simple process of focusing on a property when adding a reagent and then extracting a modifier from that property. After it took a bit to ferment, they needed to run it through a still, but the process was quite simple.

"I say we go through these weird ones. We should use the Pitch, Expand, and Fluff properties to see what kind of weird modifiers they'll make."

Salire agreed and began getting everything ready for the brew. They had enough barrels to handle ten at once, but they would start with three. Theo helped her process the reagents into a mashed form, adding them to the barrels and standing over each one in turn. He allowed mana to drip from his hand, watching as it impacted the surface and sent magical ripples outward.

It didn't take long to sense the differences between before and after the system changed. Just like regular alchemy, the fermentation process was now much more volatile. That's why, when loading the barrels, he only put in a small amount compared to before. After watching it for about half an hour, he was surprised to see that no chain reactions were occurring in the raw reagent mash.

"This is far more stable than what I expected," Theo said, getting close and having a good sniff of the fermentation barrel. "Unlike our Taro’gal stills, I don't think these are going to explode."

"Explosions were an option?” Salire asked. "Maybe we should have done this outside."

They watched the fermentation barrels for a while, but it seemed as though nothing was going to happen. If any volatile reaction were to occur, it would have been much later. Theo was satisfied and turned away, intent on leaving and doing some town management for a while, but he was stopped by his apprentice at the door.

"I don't think you should neglect your magic either," Salire said, looking slightly concerned. "We've been focused so heavily on alchemy, and I know there's a lot left to do, but your ward-based magic has been very helpful so far."

Sometimes Theo got so inside his own head that he forgot things, especially when it came to his many cores. Taking the dedication to his alchemy and herbalism core was a great way to help him narrow his focus, but those other cores were still powerful. Neglecting them was a great way to narrow his range of abilities, and that simply wasn't something he was interested in.

"That's some extremely good advice," Theo said, patting her on the shoulder. "I don't want to neglect my Tero’gal Mage’s Core."

"Maybe you can come up with some magic that will help us deal with a gigantic crowd of people rushing toward us from every corner of the planet."

"Well, that is a very pointed and specific example you're using there," Theo said, smiling wide. "Yeah, you're right. I think I need to spend some time crafting some new spells. I might have an idea."

"Just something to think of," Salire said, shooing him out. "Now let me work on my restoration potions while you go play archduke."

Theo left the lab and headed out onto the streets of Broken Tusk. He stopped, looking at the minor changes that had happened to his mage core. As he cycled through the list of cores, his vision fell on the Dreamwalker's Core. He drilled down to the one skill attached to it. The Passage skill.

It was impossible to know if a peaceful resolution could be reached before death, or before others who seemed to crave his demise. This was a skill he hadn't shared with the other throne-holders—one that would likely allow him to pass into the heavenly realms. He wasn't averse to the idea of taking death out of the picture, but he just didn't have the same history the others did. Tarantham had never really bothered them, not as much as the dronon or Qavell.

Fortunately, it was a problem for another day.

Chapter 12

Evolution

It seemed as though Everyday Thea was facing the results of the ascendants' expulsion from their fake heavens. Now that things had calmed down around town, he had time to better examine the effects on his buildings. While he had expected to need to search far to find the first building with an erroneous entry under its expansions, he needed to look no further than the lab. It should have been obvious, of course, since the Shrine to Drogramath was still sitting on the third floor, waiting for offerings that would never come. The building had two upgrades that he needed to sort out. The shrine and Drogramath Distillation Specialty.

At least he had a path forward to fix this problem. Changing the building’s alignment to Tero’gal would fix it. He just hadn’t had the time.

Standing outside of the building, Theo directed the flow of energy. It was easy to grasp those threads of power. The only thing he could feel in the air was latent magic, Tero’gal’s power, and that of the void. It was a heady mix, but nothing he couldn’t handle. When the building's alignment finally changed, he received a system message detailing the differences. This was different than the message he had seen in the past. If only slightly so.

[Building Evolution!]

Your [Alchemy Lab] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Alchemy Lab].

The [Drogramath Distillation Specialty] upgrade has evolved.

The [Shrine to Drogramath] upgrade can be upgraded, but requires your input.

The next screen that appeared looked much like the screen Theo got when he was upgrading a building using monster cores. It provided him with a selection of three options, but the interesting thing was that they weren't recycled from his previous selections.

"Now that's interesting," Theo said, looking over the list.

[Subtly in Crafting]

Increases the purity of potions based on the strength of Tero’gal power in the air.

[Suppression Through Force(fields)]

You may create a small cubic force field over a small area. Alchemical actions within the field are less likely to explode. One explosion may be contained every day (resetting at midnight).

[Stable Mist]

A stabilizing mist seeps through the lab, reducing the chance your essences will explode. During brewing, less alchemical waste will be generated.

This might have been the best selection of three upgrades Theo had ever seen in his time here. Each one was incredibly useful, and he wanted them all, but of course, he could only pick one. First came the Subtlety in Crafting upgrade, which would increase the purity of his potions. Compared to the others, this was the worst, but it was still amazing. This would be the perfect upgraded take if he were sprinting for higher-tier potions, since the purity typically dropping the quality of those potions would also drop. That would also affect the stability of the essences, but he moved down to the next one, thinking it over.

The next possible upgrade, Suppression Through Force(fields), was incredibly tempting. This one would allow Theo to place a small force field, like the ones he used with his mage's core, to prevent an explosion. He was leaning towards this one, but the next upgrade was also very helpful.

Theo bit his lip as he thought about the stable mist upgrade. One of the worst issues working with Tero’gal’s alchemy system was the alchemical waste it generated. This limited them in many ways, including the stability of the potions. He really wanted the force fields, but this one might be the best pick. Before he selected it, however, he thought it over. He weighed which one would give him the most.

If it came down to it, Theo could use his magic to create force fields within the lab. The force field provided by the upgrade would be guaranteed to absorb an explosion, but the one he generated wouldn't. He figured there were techniques he could use to replicate the upgrade, so he decided against it. Instead, he went with the one that was basically passive. Stable Mist would affect every single batch they created, meaning it was more valuable to him.

"That's my justification, anyway," Theo said, "selecting the upgrade."

After making that pick, Theo inspected the skill that had replaced Drogramath Distillation Specialty. It was effectively a copy of the first, and he saw no changes to the upgrade except for the last line. He nodded with approval as he read through the upgrade.

[Tero’gal Distillation Specialty]

Specialize your lab in Tero’gal Distillation. This option is only available to those dedicated to Tero’gal.

Effect:

Reduces the likelihood that essences will explode when interacting.

Increases the rate of distillation in all stills.

Increases [Wisdom] bonus for all [Alchemists] within the [Alchemy Lab].

Occasionally increases the yield during the distillation process.

Theo wanted to laugh at the way Tero’gal had co-opted Drogramath's own form of distillation. It was as though the old ascendant had his work copied, like a kid in school. The alchemist wouldn't complain. This made things easy, and all these things were still quite familiar. When he was done, he inspected the lab itself, seeing what kind of progress they had made.

[Tero’gal Alchemy Lab] [Alchemy Shop]

[The Newt and Demon]

Owners: Theo Spencer, Tresk

Shopkeeper: Salire Hogrush

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 30 (2%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Alchemy Shop]

[Tero’gal Distillation Specialty]

[Stable Mist]

[Alchemical Garden]

[Internal Liquid Storage]

[Lab Extension]

There might be time before the end of the world for him to put a few more levels on the buildings in town. It might have been a superstitious way of thinking, but Theo wasn't eager to bring the buildings too high above his own level. It also meant that he needed to upgrade the town itself, and the next stage for them was to become a proper city. He knew that Broken Tusk wouldn't lose its charm if it got an interface update, but he was still reluctant to do so.

At least there were other buildings for him to upgrade, which could distract him. Theo ran through his mental list of buildings in town that were aligned with any gods. He smiled to himself as he remembered the smelters. Nira had been insistent on avoiding aligned upgrades, and she had made a great call. But the mine wasn't so lucky. It had a dwarf-aligned upgrade that needed fixing. Theo made his way there, taking his time and chatting with people as he went. More people were in town lately, since the party invitation went out.

They were surprised to see that Gridgen, the mine's operator, wasn't standing outside today.  But the sound of pickaxes ringing against stone still echoed from within the mine's mouth. The alchemist approached, placing his hand on the mine and summoning the interface. He acted as a conduit, channeling Tero’gal energy into it. It took a while, but eventually the mine evolved, providing the same familiar message he had seen when upgrading the lab. Unlike the lab, he didn’t get an option to select which upgrade he wanted. Instead, he was presented with what had replaced Grom Rang’s Banishment. And he wouldn’t complain.

[Tero’gal Mining Stealth]

Workers in the mine are undetectable to anything outside of its confines.

Tero’gal was helping Theo out. This upgrade would have been super helpful when that creature was lurking beneath the mine. This upgrade would’ve made it impossible for the miners to be detected, shielding them from the weird fire monster. The alchemist sighed, reserving himself to the idea that he didn’t always get what he wanted when he needed it. Next he inspected the mine itself, making note of something interesting.

[Tero’gal Mine]

[Dead Dog Mine]

Owners: Theo Spencer

Operator: Gridgen Dev

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 30 (2%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Ore Type:

Copper

Iron

[Material ERROR]

Mythril

Ore Quality: Perfect

Expansions:

[Miner Fortitude]

[Automatic Deposit]

[Miner Quickness]

[Tero’gal Mining Stealth]

[Escape]

[Rail Carts]

Although Theo had aligned the mine to Tero’gal, that didn't fix the issue it had with providing aligned ore. Instead, it now just showed an error where it should have shown the aligned metal. After finishing up at the mine and avoiding any deep conversations with the man who ran it, Theo laughed before he could be drawn into one. He felt both Tresk and Alex nearby, flying through the skies above, moving between the dungeons to create more reports.

The next building that tickled his mind was the sawmill. When the ascendents were removed from their realms, Theo had taken steps to push the alignment of the buildings toward his own realm. But he had to focus his energy then on realigning everyone's course first. At least now he had the time to focus on this. The sawmill had an upgrade aligned with Baelthar, and he had a feeling it would be a simple replacement rather than a selection.

Sledge was still taking care of her brood of marshlings, and a half-ogre had taken over the sawmill. They barely paid attention to him as he approached, siphoning energy from his throw-world into the building. Although the building was on a far lower level than most others in town, he had no intention of upgrading it today. He was just switching its alignment so it could take advantage of another useful upgrade. This one came quicker than he expected, meaning the building had been absorbing energy from the air, or perhaps his minor efforts had generated more of an effect than he thought.

The building rolled over, switching from one alignment to another upgrade. Theo inspected the new upgrade, nodding with approval.

[Tero’gal’s Cunning]

Any action taken to fell nearby trees in a radius (scaling with the power of Tero’gal’s energy in the air) will render you invisible and soundless to monsters.

 This upgrade was far better than the other. The older version of this ability only prevented attracting monster's attention. This new version made a person invisible and silent to monsters—a much more pointed statement about being completely undetectable. He inspected the upgraded sawmill, wincing at the level once again.

[Tero’gal Sawmill]

[Swamp Snapper Mill]

Owners: Belgar (Theo Spencer)

Operator: Sledge

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 10 (50%)

Rent Due: 7 days

Wood Type:

Ogre Cypress

Gardeth Wide Oak

Wood Quality: Perfect/Excellent

Expansions:

[Ogre Strength]

[Tero’gal’s Cunning]

The next stop Theo planned to make was his small farm on the outskirts of town. It was the farm Tresk had playfully named "Hunk if you're hungry," and it had one upgrade aligned with the demon ascendant. He headed over, checking on his golems working the fields as he went. They were hard-working things that barely required any attention from him. Although he had completely ignored them since the last time they were destroyed, they had re-sown the fields and harvested them several times, providing the town with much-needed wheat.

Swapping the small field over to the power of his throne world was even easier than the small mill. It rolled over almost immediately and provided him with the same familiar prompt. Theo inspected the single upgrade that had been replaced.

[Tero’gal Cultivation]

Your farm is now aligned with the power of Tero’gal. So long as Tero’gal power is present, your crops will grow at a substantially faster rate and provide a higher yield.

If the energy of Tero’gal is high enough, you are given better control over the hybridization and evolution of crops.

This was simply a better version of the old one. Where the old upgrade only provided higher yields, this one had better yields and shorter grow times. Not only that, but it would give him the option to better control the hybridization of crops. One big problem was that a crop hybridized on its own, creating unwanted mutants that made it difficult to organize things.

Theo didn't bother inspecting the farm when he was done. Instead, he went to the large farm on the hill that was run by Banurub. It had the same upgrade as his, and when applied with the other aligned energy, it rolled over, but not as quickly as the two buildings before. The alchemist was happy to see that it gained the same version of Tero’gal Cultivation as the last one.

"Are you messing with my fields?" Banu asked, stomping over. 

Theo saw through the ruse and waved him away. "I'm just making them better, you old goat," he said, flashing a smile. "I had to change the alignment on your farm since you basically had a useless one. Actually, I've only got one more stomp to make after this."

"Yeah, well, the sooner you're gone, the better," Banu said, acting far grumpier than normal.

Theo would leave it there. He understood why Banu was upset. With the end-of-the-world party coming up, the farmers were under immense pressure. Ziz and his gang took the task to heart, putting everything they had into building as many structures as possible. But people without shelter didn't die; people without food did. This meant the farmers were the most important people, and the half-ogre didn't appreciate the pressure. 

The Alchemist realized that he should be putting more effort into expanding his farm, run by his golems. He had enough willpower to create a massive army of Plant Golems. His estimates for how much wheat he could produce with additional farms weren't limited by the amount of golems he could create, but by the amount of space he had to work with. Looking to the east of the farmer's hill, he spotted decent tracts of land that were still uninterrupted by the construction of the temporary housing.

"I might be able to help take some pressure off of you," Theo said, not bothering to look back at the blustering farmer. "Once I go upgrade the butcher, anyway.”

"Yeah, go do your weird stuff over there," he said, stomping off.

Theo did exactly that, heading back into town and visiting the last building he needed to change the alignment on. The butcher only had a single upgrade related to another realm: Touch of Bohor, which was aligned with a Toora ascendant. It was aligned with one of the bearfolk Ascendants before it was displayed as an error. The woman who ran the shop didn't seem to care; she was soft-spoken most of the time and never complained about anything, so long as she had air conditioning.

Theo applied his aligned power to the building. It took longer than all the others today to switch to an aligned building, but he wouldn't complain. When the system message appeared, it displayed the replaced upgrade. It wasn't better or worse; it was just different. The upgrade also seemed less moody.

[Touch of Tero’gal]

Meat produced in this butcher provides a large boost in energy and reduces fatigue.

In some ways, this upgrade was worse than the last one. The one aligned with Bohor made food that was more sustaining and filling. But that wasn't the way of Tero’gal. Instead, it provided a person with a large energy boost. While that was cool, it wasn't as good as food that you needed to eat less of.

"Oh well," Theo said to himself, "Time to go buy some farms, I guess."