The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 67,68,69 (Patreon)

Chapter 67

Arena Upgrades

Upgrading buildings was always fun. Theo had feared that the size of the building would influence how many Monster Cores it required for an upgrade. But that wasn’t the case. It needed the same amount any other building did, even if it didn’t get as many upgrades since it was an incorporated building. Yet the idea of adding upgrades to a building so large was exciting, so he got to work. Nothing came at Level 5, but at Level 10 three options appeared.

“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Theo said, clearing his throat as he read the options for Ziz to hear. He wasn’t sure the stonemason needed to hear them, but it was interesting to see what the system would generate for the new building.

[Spoiled Broth]

People attending events in the arena are less likely to vomit while exiting.

Theo stopped reading after the first one. “Excuse me? Is that something that should happen?”

“Is that it? Just one pick?”

“No, but that’s gotta be the strangest upgrade I’ve ever seen. What does exiting the arena have to do with vomiting? And why would that be a normal thing?”

“Best to move on to the next one,” Ziz said, nodding to himself.

Theo cleared his throat again, hoping for better picks. “Next up…”

[Keeping Score]

Any event, no matter how complex or simple, may have its participants tracked on a scoreboard. This board will appear in the style of the building owner’s choice and will be visible to all attendants to see.

[Safe Combat]

Combatants fighting in the arena (in sanctioned matches) will not die as long as this building has power.

“Okay, that’s more like it,” Theo said with a sigh. “Both of those are awesome.”

“Which one has more value?” Ziz asked, scratching his chin.

That was hard to say. Technically, Keeping Score was better since it affected more things. The Safe Combat upgrade made sure no one died, and that was a real threat. Theo decided they were both incredibly useful, and planned to pick both of them. At least the first pick was garbage, pulling it from the running.

“Let’s go with Safe Combat first,” Theo said. “You know how rowdy people can get. Then we’ll pick Safe Combat at Level 20, and hope for something cool at Level 30.”

“Fancy Level 30 arena, huh?” Ziz asked, chuckling. “I can get behind it.”

For now, Theo was happy to pick the Safe Combat upgrade. The combat sports were going to be some of the most intense, so it made sense to have this upgrade. Once Theo made his choice, the arena shimmered with energy. The alchemist looked on with confusion, eventually inspecting the building to check something.

[Large Arena]

Owner: [Broken Tusk]

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 10 (42%)

Energy: 0%

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Safe Combat]

“Ah, so we have to feed this thing motes,” Theo said. “That makes sense. If we want to use the Safe Combat feature, we need to ensure this thing has enough power to support it. Which means we need to overload it with a crapload of power from Throk’s fake coins.”

“Or real coins,” Ziz said, winking. “Assuming you’re rich.”

“With the amount of cores I’m spending on this, you’d think I’m rich,” Theo said, adding more cores.

Tresk appeared from nowhere, ever the punchline. “Because you are!” she shouted as blood poured from her forehead.

“You’re dripping,” Ziz scolded, pointing at the ground. She had already dripped a fair amount.

“Are you okay?” Theo asked with a wince.

“Oh, yeah. Sledge’s babies are super fun,” Tresk said. She turned around, revealing the tiny teeth marks in her tail. As she gripped her tail to reveal the damage, Theo spotted a missing finger. “They even got my tail.”

“And your pointer finger,” Theo said. “Are they seriously that dangerous?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ziz said. “That’s why you don’t bother a marshling when they have babies. I’ve seen men die trying.”

Theo shivered, going back to work. He watched as Tresk chugged a few potions. Apparently, marshling babies were mildly venomous so she had to drink a potion to counteract that as well. The alchemist was glad he wasn’t the one to grab Sledge, but he wouldn’t say a word to his companion. She had taken one for the team. Or she was a masochist. Either option.

“Okay,” Theo said, adding the last of the cores. “Nex option coming up. We’re not even considering Spoiled Broth, so this is between the new one and Keeping Score. You guys ready?”

“Yeah!” Tresk shouted, her left eye twitching a few times.

“Let’s hear it,” Ziz said, being completely normal.

The new upgrade option appeared after the building hit Level 20 and Theo read it for his companions to hear.

[Energy Net]

So long as this building has power, attacks performed within the arena (during sanctioned matches) cannot leave the arena floor.

If there was going to be a lot of magic going on, this one would be helpful. The more Theo thought about it, the more he realized how helpful it would be. He wondered if he should even get the scoreboard. The idea was solidified in his mind when he considered some of the attacks he had seen in his day. Things could get ugly if he allowed those attacks to shoot out to the crowd.

“When I get to tossing my daggers, sometimes I don’t care where they go,” Tresk said. “I’d get that one.”

Theo nodded. That was the reality of it. If he didn’t pick that option, people like Tresk would get reckless. He wanted the scoreboard badly, but selected Energy Net for safety. He was basically locked in to picking Keeping Score when he brought the building to Level 30. The only thing he had going for him was that he had run some dungeons. Which meant he had some decent monster cores to work with on top of his normal stock.

“Guess I am pretty rich,” Theo said, getting back to it. As he shoved cores into the building, he checked his stock of monster cores and did some math. He had more than enough cores to get the arena to Level 40, so why not? “Here comes the next one.”

[Shuffled Seating]

At the cost of energy, rearrange the seating of the arena.

“Looks like we’re going with the scoreboard,” Ziz said, cackling. “The seats are perfect where they are.”

That wasn’t just Ziz being prideful of his construction, either. The seating was fine just the way it was, and Theo had no desire to rearrange it. He only thought for a moment before selecting the Keeping Score upgrade. At least this one wouldn’t consume energy.

“This next leg will technically be very expensive,” Theo said, laughing to himself as he pulled those costly cores from his inventory. He held one for only a few moments before putting it into the arena. The stretch from Level 30 to Level 40 would normally take a while, but with some decent cores it happened quickly.

When the new upgrade popped up, the alchemist read it aloud.

[Viewing Wards]

At the cost of energy, allows access to customizable viewing screens. The content of these screens can be controlled from the control room. The amount of screens and the size of those screens can be adjusted from the control room.

Theo looked back to the arena and shrugged. With how many seats Ziz had built, it would be hard for some people to see what was going on down below. Especially if he considered the kind of competitions that were going to happen within the arena. Since the only other options sucked, he went with this one.

“That one has me excited,” Ziz said, rubbing his hands together. “The vision for this arena is coming together.”

Theo wasn’t so sure about that. The idea for the arena had started as a distraction, but had snowballed into something greater. Once other people got interested in it, there was no stopping them. Alise claimed the project was stressful, but the alchemist hoped she was secretly having a good time. If she didn’t complain about the random jobs she was given, she wouldn’t have been doing her job.

“So, have you thought about prizes?” Ziz asked.

“Money makes sense to me,” Theo said. “I don’t even know what the competition categories are, though.”

“You should get a list from Alise. Maybe you could find prizes that make sense for them.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. Theo checked the list of events in the administration interface. Alise had built out a few items, but it was far from complete. First were the combat games, which were broken into a bunch of brackets. Each tier would need a prize, along with a prize for the top three and a grand prize. Next were athletic solo and team games, performance-based games, crafting games, and so on. Some had brackets, while others were free-for-all.

“I’m going to need some help getting this list together, along with appropriate prizes,” Theo said, scratching his chin.

“Look elsewhere!” Ziz shouted. “This isn’t my strong suit.”

Theo nodded. Ziz was right. They lingered around the grounds of the arena for a while, but the alchemist eventually left. He had whittled away much of the day going on an adventure with Ziz, and was now curious how his apprentice’s apprentice was doing. He headed back to town and lingered on the first floor of the lab for a while. He took in the scent of whatever they were brewing on the third floor. Although there were notes that lingered in the air that were promising, there were others that were concerning.

Theo walked up the stairs, taking his time and sneaking as well as he could. He took a deep breath, detecting completed potions and something burning all the same. After he got as much information as he could from the scent, he cracked the door, then flung it open.

“Uh-oh,” Salire said, grimacing. She stood over a section of the lab that had clearly been on fire mere minutes before. “She didn’t do it. It was me.”

Eleanor looked mortified, her complexion white as thick beads of sweat dripped down her face.

Theo strode over, inspecting the charred floorboards. The damage was in the center of the floor, meaning it hadn’t come from the stills. From the way the burned section smelled, he assumed Eleanor had dropped some reactive essence onto the ground. It likely responded to some old residue on the floor.

A smile spread across his face.

“Almost blow the lab up?” Theo asked, his voice containing exactly no anger.

“Almost set it on fire,” Salire said. “Not intentionally, of course.”

“Looks like some seriously reactive stuff,” Theo said.

“It's my fault,” Eleanor blurted out, meeting Theo’s gaze with too much conviction. “I was irresponsible and—”

Theo held up a silencing hand. “If I had a gold coin for every time I almost blew up the lab, I’d have a handful of gold coins. Remember, the building is magical. It takes a lot more than just a small fire to destroy it.”

“Yeah, like a bomb,” Salire said, nodding. “Leave the bombs to Theo, and you’ll be fine.”

“Really?” Eleanor asked, fidgeting with her hands.

Theo nodded. “I don’t see many people who catch my eye, but I think you’ve got some latent talent. A few fires in the lab won’t get you in trouble with me or Salire. But, if you think an experiment will explode, take it to the giant cube.”

“The giant cube?” Eleanor asked, some of her fear dissipating.

“Yeah, you can’t really miss the giant metal cube,” Salire said. “Now, get out of here, Theo. We’ve got some more stuff to go over before the day is done.”

Theo bowed slightly, shaking his head as he was kicked out of his own lab. But Salire knew what she was doing. Eleanor needed to get some Broken Tusker confidence in her if she was going to fit in. That was something that could only come by blowing a few labs up. The alchemist was certain his lab could take it, especially compared to the nonsense he put it through.

Chapter 68

Deep Slug

Although the Dreamwalk was working with Theo a lot more than it had been in recent memory, it still wouldn’t allow him to test new reagents. He had a bunch of weird stuff he found at the bottom of the sea he wanted to test. That wasn’t even to mention the stuff he had to take from the ogre island nation of Slagrot. The alchemist stood on the slopes of an imagined volcano, glaring down at his companion.

“You sure this is Slagrot?” he asked.

“Of course it is,” Tresk said, folding her arms.

Theo looked down at the scene before him. Tresk had put very little effort into her lie this time. It was a landscape that appeared to have been drawn by a child. Almost none of the features made sense, and it took the alchemist a while to realize what was going on. She was generating the scene based on second-hand information, maps, and drawings she had seen earlier in her life.

He then realized the representation was topographically accurate… Mostly. The details were all wrong, but he didn’t need details. He needed to know the best way to sneak to the top of the volcano.

“I see what you did,” Theo said, smoothing his hair. “We might need some heat-resistance potions.”

“Just make a spell,” Tresk said, waving the thought away as though it was obvious. “Ya got the parts to make it. Field of No Fire or something.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound fun,” Theo said. “I don’t think the heat from the volcano is even the problem. The ogres are going to be a much harder thing to deal with.”

“Yeah, like this,” Tresk said. She reimagined the landscape, creating a roving fortress below them. Ogres poured from the fort, rushing up the side of the volcano like a tide. “So we’ll need to find that stuff we need while under attack.”

“Well, how do you know they’ll attack on sight?”

“You’ve met some ogres,” Tresk said, shaking her head. “They’re gonna attack us right away and you know it. Doesn’t matter if we come in the front or the back, they’re gonna try to bash our heads in. And that’s how they say ‘hello’!”

Theo clicked his tongue, freezing the army below. “Just realized I got conned into helping Fenian. I didn’t even try to refuse.”

“Cause you’re a pushover,” Tresk said.

“I didn’t hear you complain, and we basically share a brain.”

“Cause I’m a pushover too,” Tresk said with a shrug. “Fenian’s little quest sounded cool. We get to see a foreign place… Hey, so why don’t we just go wherever we want whenever we want?”

Theo shrugged. “I like the Southlands. Using the void to travel seems like an abuse of power, anyway.”

“Why? We all have a job to do as holders of thrones, so we need to use the powers we’ve been given to get it done. Removing Balkor’s energy is part of my job, so you can use your teleporty powers to help.”

“Except you can just steal my powers.”

“Come on. Let’s go somewhere,” Tresk said.

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. We’ll teleport all over the damn planet. Why not?”

Theo wasn’t sure where he would visit first, but there were some historical sites he was interested in. Both Bantein and Partopour were of interest to him, since he knew little about both places. Tarantham was big on his list, but that might be complicated thanks to the secluded nature of the elves. He couldn’t forget about the Khahari Desert. It was unlikely the khahari would give him trouble, and perhaps he could get a few answers about the vanished dragon.

Because come on. If the dragon went anywhere, it was the Khahari Desert.

“Sounds like an awesome plan,” Tresk said, giving the thumbs-up. “While we’re abroad, we should steal a bunch of stuff.”

“Remember what happened the last time you robbed someone? I’m still waiting for the lizardfolk to respond appropriately.”

“Nah, they know I’m kin.”

“Yet I feel the ogres won’t be so happy.”

The plan wasn’t exactly good, but Theo couldn’t think of any other way to go about this. All he could do was ensure Fenian didn’t go off the rails this time. The way he handled Qavell wasn’t ideal, especially with the end of the world coming. It wasn’t just that the alchemist didn’t like the loss of life. It was that there was no loss of life. The people who had been wronged by the elf would have a chance at revenge on the other side, meaning Fenian had to look over his shoulder even after the change.

While Theo had done what he could to extend offers of friendship, Fenian had set upon a warpath. Perhaps they would get a new Herald before the end of this.

Tresk eventually shifted the scene to something that better suited her. Before long they were standing on an open field, small dragons coming at them from every angle. As always, Theo found a quiet corner among the chaos and worked on creating potions. He had been spending more of his time in the Dreamwalk just hanging out, but the understanding that he needed to make some more powerful potions pushed him to get some decent experience. And the Dreamwalk was the perfect place to do it.

After Level 30, everything became very slow. Theo could crank out an untold amount of potions, but the experience gain was slow. Gaining fractions of a percentage point per potion was now the norm, meaning it would take several thousand just to get a single level. Even if the lab was geared toward quantity, he didn’t really have the time.

Since Salire and Eleanor were likely going to take the top floor of the lab tomorrow, Theo picked only two reagents to test on the second floor. The stills there were fine, but he didn’t want to work with new materials in the cramped space. He imagined two items, watching as they fell onto the table before him. The Dreamwalk might have been resistant to new experimentation, but it relented and allowed him the first three properties of each. The first item was a gray sea slug looking thing that oozed a viscous black liquid from both ends.

Theo winced as the slug went up in black smoke. It filled the air with the smell of the sea with a hint of asphalt. After imagining another, he inspected the system message that appeared.

[Deep Slug]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Epic

A slug found in the deep place of the world.

Properties:

[Pitch] [Mana Poison] [Undulate]

There were a few weird things about the reagent. It didn’t mention the slug’s habitate being the deep sea, instead claiming it was just from deep places. That was fine, but the properties were too strange. Pitch was a property he had seen before, and it was moderately useful for constricting potions. Mana Poison was one he had never seen before, and would likely make an interesting poison-style potion. But Undulate? Theo didn’t even want to consider what that one might do.

Instead, the alchemist moved on to the other reagent for now. This one was a long shell with a pearlescent sheen. When the light caught on the surface, the color seemed to shift. Theo had harvested this reagent among large clusters that lived near rocks. The shell would open up on either side, revealing the meaty body of the creature within. He had sensed no reactive properties of the meat, but the shell would be useful.

Once again, the Dreamwalk was happy to allow the act of dissolving the shell. It revealed only three properties once again, drawing a question Theo didn’t care to answer for now. Instead, he leaned close to inspect the reagent. For things that only appeared on the bottom of the ocean floor, he was surprised that some loremaster had already given it a name.

[The Most Delicious Clam Ever]

[Alchemy Ingredient]

Rare

You will never find a more delicious clam. If you’re holding the shell of this succulent clam, consider yourself lucky. Your skin graces greatness.

Properties:

[Propulsion] [Cloister] [Energy Shimmer]

Theo snorted a laugh. Whichever loremaster had discovered this clam didn’t take themselves seriously. The alchemist wasn’t certain it was technically a clam, but he doubted the person who found it had cared. Instead, they sought to share the information of how yummy the clam was to the world. Theo had given the meat to Tresk, who had no opinions of the flavor. Perhaps that was because she didn’t taste her food when she shoved it down her gob.

“Pretty interesting stuff to experiment with,” Theo said, waving the clam shell through the air as he approached Tresk. She was in the middle of fighting off about twenty dragons the size of Earth chickens. “I’ve got some fun properties to play with.”

Tresk grunted, dodging to the side as a dragon tried to bite her tail. She followed up with a few poisoned slashes that made the imagined monsters think twice. The marshling then turned, giving him the thumbs-up. Then she was eaten by all the dragons in a comical display. Yet she didn’t blame Theo, instead getting back into once respawning herself. For this exercise, Alex mostly stayed out of it. She sat on the sidelines, watching as the marshling was torn to bits time after time. Perhaps she would get the hang of it one day, but today’s mock battle didn’t play out in her favor.

“What the heck does Undulate do?” Tresk asked.

Theo didn’t have a sense for what the property would do. Sometimes the properties would speak to him, but this one felt like a complete blank. He shrugged. “Maybe it makes you wiggle around,” Theo said, wiggling.

“Ew. Stop wiggling.”

“I’m not wiggling,” Theo said. “I’m undulating.”

“Well stop doing whatever you’re doing, you’re grossing me out.”

“Hey, what about Propulsion?” Theo asked. “Some sea animals use water to propell themselves, maybe that’s what it means.”

“You think so?” Tresk asked. “Energy Shimmer sounds cool. As does Mana Poison. Bet that’s a poison that poisons a person’s mana.”

“Which means it's either a better or worse version of the Anti-Mage property,” Theo said. “Guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m going to find out tomorrow.”

“More potions is better,” Tresk said.

Theo snapped his fingers. Something had almost slipped his mind. “We need to find prizes for the tournament. Different brackets and all that, so I want to have some special prizes ready. Even if Alise has some already planned, I want to add to the pot of things.”

“Money is too easy,” Tresk said. “We need cool prizes. Rare prizes.”

“We could do potions, of course. If Elrin agrees to take us into some underground dungeons, we can gather some powerful items.”

“Oh, what about Soul potions?” Tresk asked. “Those would be crazy valuable.”

“I’ll add that to my list,” Theo said with a nod. “Anything else aside from money?”

“Potions or items is all I got,” Tresk said. “Well, we have a bunch of boats in the harbor. Too many boats. Maybe you could give them a boat.”

Theo mimed writing the item down onto a list. “Boat… check. Items, money, potions, boats. I think that’s a decent starting place.”

“Right. And once we see the full list of events, we can make a better decision.”

Theo hadn’t been eager before to either make a list of items to get out to actually get them, but he was starting to get into the spirit. It had been difficult to get started on the project, but like all the other locals he was finally feeling it. When it was time for the Dreamwalk to end, Theo took his time going down the stairs, taking a seat at the large dining table. Rowan served them this morning, bringing plates of the karatan steak they had for dinner last night.

“Where do you even find cattle nowadays?” Theo asked.

“Miana’s farm,” Rowan said. “I bribed her to give me first dibs. Anyway, eat up!”

Theo looked down at his ill-gotten steak and shrugged.

Food is food.

Chapter 69

Mana Poison

Upgrading the arena brought to Theo's attention that the games he was partially helping to organize were approaching quickly. It was easy to ignore them when they were far off, but as everything came together, it became undeniable how close they were. He left the manor, walking the streets for a while and checking to see what Tresk would do. She had a role in a project he wasn't involved in.

“Less work for me,” Theo said with a sigh.

If one had a sharp enough nose, they wouldn't need to enter the lab to know that work was already being done. More than likely, Salire had told Eleanor to arrive early, likely to drill more of the basics into her. Alchemy fundamentals could carry a person through many tiers, and Theo wouldn't fault her for going over them so much. Although he wasn't sure how he would handle it, he knew his apprentice's approach was sound.

Instead of poking his head into the third-floor lab and interrupting whatever work they were doing, he focused on the second floor, where he had more than enough equipment to brew the two reagents he had selected. He felt excited to reveal what these properties would do. Since the second floor was limited, he started with the Deep Slug, running two of its properties, even though there was enough space for three. The first property was Pitch, one he had explored thoroughly in the past. Today he would take it easy, working at a leisurely pace that betrayed the busy work around him.

As Theo worked with the slug, he had an idea of what each of the two properties would do. The first, called Mana Poison, was indeed a poison, as Tresk had suspected. He felt it would afflict the target with something that damaged their mana, but the details were too far off for him to understand. So, he set the still to work and considered the second property. Ungulate was strange. It would create a potion with qualities he couldn't determine. Something in the back of his mind told him it was one of the many useless potions he had brewed., but it was best to check.

While the potions brewed, Theo concerned himself with organizing the second-floor lab. It had become something of a storage space, as the third floor was far better for performing alchemy. Theo doused most surfaces with cleaner and moved items around in the dimensional storage crates until the area was easier to navigate. After opening a window on either side of the room, he enjoyed a decent cross breeze, one that wasn't tinged with as much humidity as he had become accustomed to. The Season of Fire was truly dying and giving way to the Season of Death.

“Do we have any festivals for the new season?” Theo asked through his mental connection with Tresk.

"We used to do a lot of hunting," Tresk said. "But I don't think the swamp has as many wolves as it once did, so I don't think we'll be doing much more than the games."

Theo clicked his tongue in frustration. He realized they hadn't named the competitive games they intended to hold within the city. A few names filtered through his mind, but he wasn't certain about any of them. The alchemist didn't consider himself very good at naming things, and Tresk was even worse. If he mentioned it to her, she would call them the "Murderer Death Games" or something similarly foolish. It was best to leave it to the administration staff to come up with something interesting.

Leaving the stills to do their thing, Theo headed out into the city and followed a line of commotion to the docks. He noticed some people disembarking from afar and lingered only long enough to learn they were from Bantein. He hoped they wouldn't be offended by the lack of accommodations in the Southlands Alliance. After all, Ziz had built massive bunkhouses, intending to house large numbers of people rather than providing singular experiences. The alchemist got a decent look at the people who had disembarked from that ship. He had seen how regal they looked. Those kinds of people had particular tastes.

Theo retreated to the lab before anyone could snag him and found that his potions were ready for testing. He started with the mana poison property, brewing it and watching the reaction. It was about what he expected from a poison potion. The scent it emitted was sharp, stinging his nose and forcing him to recoil as the essence bubbled in the vial. He fanned away the air, coughing as he waited for the reaction to subside. When that was done, he inspected the result.

[Mana Poison]

[Poison]

Rare

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 75%

Coat your weapon with a potent poison, affecting the target’s mana pool.

Effect:

Targets afflicted with this poison will have their mana pool tainted for 1 hour.

When the target attempts to use their mana, their spell has a chance to backfire. The backfire effect depends on which spell was cast, along with the level and skill of the caster.

“Oh, that’s a nasty one…” Theo winced as he read the description over. There was a surprising number of poisons that targeted mages. The alchemist had to wonder if the system had it out for them, or if it was a reflection of the alchemy system itself. He shrugged, adding this to a list of useful poisons Tresk would like before moving on to the next property… Undulate.

As expected, it was weird. The color was a murky brown, and the reaction was very close to the tar-like reaction of the Pitch property. The result was a sludgy liquid that barely sloshed around in the container. It was beyond nasty, and Theo had no interest in drinking it. Still, the gentle flush of experience his core experienced was worth it. When the reaction had calmed down, he inspected the result.

[Undulate Potion]

[Potion]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 89%

Drink to undulate.

Effect:

Your body undulates one way or the other, depending on reasons.

Theo frowned as he read the potion’s description. The description of the potions could be vague, but this one was extremely unclear. Both the description and the effect provided him with absolutely no information about what the potion did, and he couldn't deny his curiosity.

"Rowan, did you want to make a shiny gold coin?” Theo asked.

“No, no, no. Not this time. You're not going to trick me,” Rowan said, appearing from the shadows and folding his arms. “I remember what happened last time you had me drink a potion like this.”

"Really?" Theo asked, shaking his head. "Don't you want to undulate?"

"I've never wanted anything less in my life," Rowan said. "Find somebody else to test it on. That stuff looks nasty."

Of course, Rowan was right. The potion looked unappealing on many levels. Not only did the substance itself appear to be little more than tar in a bottle, but the smell was terrible, and the effects were vague. Unfortunately, a potion like this could be powerful, but he needed someone to help him test its limits. Of course, he could wait until the dream walk, but the alchemist was impatient. He didn't want to delay starting on the next reagent and was eager to figure it out. After attempting to convince Rowan and Sarisa to take it, he finally gave up.

Theo prepared the stills to run three more properties. He would have to settle for testing the potion in the Dreamwalk for now and finally resigned himself to that fate. That's when a knock came from downstairs. It wasn't from the front door of the lab, but rather the door leading up the staircase. He raised an eyebrow and looked between Sarisa and Rowan before going to check it out. At the base of the stairs stood a half-ogre local with a moderately concerned look on their face.

"Got some fancy-looking official to see you," the half-ogre said, fidgeting nervously with their hands. "Over in the town hall."

“Thanks,” Theo said in a flat tone. It must have been from that ship he had seen earlier. He knew little about the people from Bantein. The cultures between that nation and Partopour seem to blend in his mind, as he hasn't had enough exposure to them. They were both very neutral and had little sway in the region. The only thing he was certain of was that they were a melting pot of races, drawn from all corners of the globe and brought together on a singular continent.

"I didn't expect today to be a politics day," Sarisa said, following behind Theo as he left the lab. He didn't bother telling his apprentice upstairs where he was going. They were still knee-deep in training sessions. Instead, he headed out and made his way to the town hall. As expected, there was some amount of fanfare there, with foreigners standing outside and looking around the city with confusion. Inside, administrators were scattering here and there, doing everything they could to make these honored guests happy.

“Theo!” Alise shouted from afar, stomping over with a sour look on her face. “Got some fancy asshole up in an office waiting for you. He won’t speak with me about whatever crap he wants. Insists he needs to talk to ‘the leader’ of the town. Whatever in the hells that means.”

Theo grunted a response, setting his jaw and looking at the stairs that led to the upper floors. “Think he’ll be a problem?”

“He’s already a problem!” Alise shouted, clapping a hand over her mouth as she said the words too loudly. Eventually, she sighed. “Just handle it, archduke.”

Theo locked his eyes on the stairs for a while before eventually climbing them. He found the office she was talking about and opened the door to discover a man dressed similarly to Fenian waiting for him. The man was as tall as most human men, standing at about six feet. He faced away from the alchemist, looking out the window and rubbing his chin. Eventually, he spun around and offered a faint smile.

"Archduke Theo?" he asked in a low, rumbling voice. He had an aging face with short brown hair poking out from underneath a wide-brimmed hat. The ruffles on his chest waved as he turned, reminding the alchemist far too much of the elf. “Sorry to summon you, but I had to meet you directly. I’m Thomas of House Farveil, heir to Bantein and extremely excited about these games you’re hosting.”

Before Theo even had a chance to respond, the man crossed the room, holding out a hand and shaking Theo's with a firm grip, but not firm enough to paint him as someone with a high strength attribute. The alchemist found himself slightly confused, but not altogether disappointed. He had something like a prince in his town, which meant his people had to be on their best behavior.

"I'm sorry we weren't able to give you a welcome," Theo said, finally releasing the man's grasp. "You're just here for the games? Are you planning on participating?"

"That's the idea," Thomas said, his smile widening slightly. "We've traveled far to see the end of the world in your lands. My father doesn't believe me, but from the rumors I've heard, you'll offer safe passage to the other side, won't you?"

"You should get to the other side just fine without my help," Theo said. "The only difference is that you'll appear on a predictable schedule compared to the reincarnation we’re expecting.”

“Perfect,” Thomas said. “Now, would you mind giving me a tour of your city? It’s quaint.”

Theo tried not to twitch too much as he considered the best way to pitch this man into the ocean. He eventually took a calming breath and gestured to the door. “Let’s go.”