The Newt and Demon

Tresk produced another strange breakfast the next morning. Theo woke to a rich smell that he couldn’t place, but upon entering the lab, he found his companion cooking a comically large leg of some avian creature. She looked up with a smile, constantly scooping the juices up and basting them over the meat. The alchemist had very little in the way of reference for what poultry should look like. On Earth, he’d sucked down most of his meals in processed tubes of paste. Even then, he knew the dark, almost black color of the meat wasn’t normal. Sitting on the edges of her copper pan, safe from the intensity of the flame, was the juice she was scooping and wedges of some fruit.

“How much stuff did you buy from Fenian?” Theo asked, taking his traditional seat.

“A lot,” Tresk said. “But, hey. This should inspire you.”

“I think it will,” Theo said, checking on the kettle. It wasn’t boiling yet. “I was married to this idea of finding creatures aligned with Drogramath, but I think that’s a bridge too far.”

The alchemist produced a purple gem from his inventory, one of the [Cut Zaulize]. He rolled it over in his palm, but found no answers.

“That’s pretty,” Tresk said, her eyes going wide.

“I bet you think it is,” Theo said. “It’s a gem aligned with your [Assassin’s Core].”

Tresk wanted to take the gem for herself, but Theo refused. There was the inherent danger in her holding something aligned with the God of Shadows, even if she had a piece of that god in her chest. He wanted to run it by Xol’sa before conducting any test, but the plan was simple. As with most things in his alchemy, he wanted to smash it to powder and try brewing it, or using it as a catalyst. The Marshling thought that was a brutish way to go about it, but he waved her off.

The massive bird leg, a creature Tresk couldn’t remember the name of, tasted gamy. Without the addition of the overly sweet fruits to balance the greasy flavor out, it would have been too much. Instead, those wedges cut through the overpowering meat to present a relatively light breakfast. Theo felt overfull by the time they were done, but it only seemed to energize Tresk. She departed shortly, leaving him there to finish his tea.

Theo checked his cultivated [Spiny Swamp Thistle Root]. Fortunately, it survived being in the presence of the hungry Marshling and had started to chit, as Banu called it. Small nodules were poking from the side of the thing, some ending in green sprouts. Instead of reserving some of the root for alchemy, he cut the thing into 4 sections, each having at least 1 sprout on the surface.

Before leaving his lab to tend the garden growing out back, Theo inspected the refined modifier essence he made yesterday.

[Refined Surge]

[Essence Modifier] [Refined Essence Modifier]

Rare

Created by: Belgar

Grade: Great Quality

150 units (liquid)

A refined modifier essence. Add to a completed potion to add the “surge” modifier. Surge applies bonuses as an instant, temporary effect.

The description was as he expected, but the quality was not. He expected the resulting modifier essence to drop to ‘good’ quality, but it remained at ‘great’. It only took a moment of thought to realize he’d swapped out the normal [Copper Shavings] for [Iron shavings], which made sense. The pressure device worked on intent, exactly like the stills, but the catalyst for the reaction affected the quality. The better the catalyst, the better the results. With normal potions, the quality changed the strength of the effect. A high quality [Healing Potion] restored more health. The alchemist hadn’t yet discovered what a modifier essence’s quality did, but he suspected the associated effect would be stronger. It was only logical.

Before moving on to create a modified [Healing Potion], Theo had a seat and retreated into his thoughts. From his experimentation, he knew several things changed the overall quality of a potion. Combining a potion with a lower quality modifier essence reduced the quality of that potion, splitting the difference between the two. After a few moments of thought, he determined the defining factor. The thing that he could change most easily to improve the quality of his potions.

“Reagent quality,” Theo said with a satisfied nod.

The alchemist could use higher-quality catalysts during the refining phase, or more precise methods during distillation and fermentation, but if the base of his potions was poor, the result would be poor. Theo’s conclusion was that his garden would become vital for crafting potions beyond the first tier.

Theo was short on [Refined Healing Essence] for his current needs. Going downstairs, he found Azrug talking to a small group of people, 5 in all. They were settlers, all former laborers in some destitute northern town. It was a familiar story by now. They worked their way south, finding nothing but expensive lodgings and even more overpriced land ownership. Broken Tusk needed bodies, more than anything, to fulfill the next upgrade requirement. The alchemist beckoned them to follow him out the front door, finding his way to the 3 massive storage tanks on the side of the building.

“We’ll set you up with some shared lodgings, for now,” Theo said, withdrawing a barrel from his inventory and filling it with [Healing Essence] from the tank. “For now, you’ll have work duty with Gridgen.”

5 sets of eyes turned on him with confusion and hope. A tiny Brogling man was the first to speak after the statement.

“Work duty? We get jobs? And a house?” he said.

Theo moved to the back of his lab, the entourage following. He cleared the waste trap on his pressure vessel, setting those aside for future testing, and used the magical port on the side to suck up 200 units of [Healing Essence], repeating the process until the storage tank was empty. He dropped in [Iron Shavings], turned the dial and watched as the machine hummed to life. The group startled at the noise, scampering to a safe distance to observe. The alchemist urged them to follow him south, toward Gridgen’s house.

“This is temporary. When you have the funds, I’ll sell you a plot at cost,” Theo said. “Until then, I’ll plant 2 houses for you to share.”

It was then that Theo regretted not buying more house seed cores from Fenian. He had a few spares, but was running low.

“Do we get a wage?” the Brogling asked, a murmur spreading through the small group.

“A fair wage by Broken Tusk standard,” Theo said. “Gridgen will figure out your pay. Just follow the road south to Dead Dog Mine.”

The alchemist knelt twice, planting 2 [House Seed Cores] near Gridgen’s home. He lacked the [Monster Cores] to grow the houses, but could still access the menu and add each new settler as a guest. They looked at him with excited eyes, as though he just handed them a gold coin each.

“Any questions?” Theo asked.

“South. Just follow the road? There’s a mine there? I think we can handle it,” the Brogling said, nodding with his companions.

Without another word, the group trotted southward, over the hard cobbles and toward their salvation. Theo didn’t consider it a merciful thing to do. It wasn’t something outside of his responsibilities as mayor, and some might consider the act selfish. They’d get reasonable wages, but he was taking the largest share of the profit. It was also an experiment in its own right, to test how Gridgen would handle 5 new workers.

Theo asked if Tresk could stop by the new houses and feed them monster cores, to which she agreed. He made a mental note that they should start dumping the cores into the Newt and Demon. Putting off upgrades after level 10 made sense, since each level after that was painfully slow. He made his way back to the lab and pressed his hand against the wooden wall, inspecting it.

[Alchemy Lab] [Alchemy Shop]

[The Newt and Demon]

Owners: Theo Spencer (Belgar), Tresk

Shopkeeper: Azrug Slug

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 11 (31%)

Rent Due: 5 days

Expansions:

[Alchemy Shop]

[Drogramath Distillation Specialty]

The logic of the system told him level 15 would provide a new upgrade, and access to old upgrades. The [Root Cellar] upgrade was almost entirely useless. It provided a place that reagents wouldn’t rot, but his inventories and storage crates did the job for that. He also didn’t take the [Experimentation Room] in the past, because he wasn’t aware of the explosive nature of essences. His fear was that the new offered upgrade would be better than the [Experimentation Room].

1,000 units of [Healing Essence] would take a while in the pressure vessel. This left time for Theo to take care of his garden, which wasn’t much work. He planted the 4 sections of the [Spiny Swamp Thistle Root] in alchemically enhanced soil, and checked up on the existing 10 plants. Without the constant rain, they were drooping slightly, so he watered them.

Theo then took to wandering the town, finding a minor diversion when a citizen told him the water tower was low. Instead of running water back and forth from the river, he concocted some [Potion of Infusion] to coat the inside of the copper tower. The essence required for the infusion potion might stink, but the resulting effect was anything but gross. After popping the lid on the top, the alchemist watched his potion go to work. It rippled across the copper, permeating unseen pores and hardening the surface against alchemical reactions.

Then it was only a matter of finding enough bored townspeople to run between the river and the tower, filling the thing’s massive capacity. With the tower hardened against alchemy, Theo performed the purification in the tower itself, saving himself a lot of time. It was a much needed distraction, helping smooth over the time it took for his pressure vessel to complete.

Theo found his way to Sledge’s workshop, finding it empty. He nodded to himself, understanding the allure of her [Fabricator’s Core] to be too great. The alchemist made a note of that experiment, finding it hard to mentally label it. The woodworker found something she wanted to do, and he shouldn’t fault her for that. There would be more migrants. More chances to find someone willing to chop lumber for a living.

Despite his plan to let Gridgen do whatever he wanted with the mine, Theo wandered southward. The excuse was to find more [Mage’s Bane] and [Roc Berries], but he hoped to get a look at Dead Dog Mine. The southern hills were full of those ingredients, which already solidified a theory in his mind. Reagents grew like plants, as obvious as that thought was. [Water Lilies] preferred the wet, clean water of the river. [Spiny Swamp Thistle] needed damp soil, but not soaking wet, while [Marsh Tubers] needed rotten, fetid swamp water.

Theo harvested several hundred units of both reagents, taking 10 whole plants of each into his inventory as well. The [Roc Berry] bushes were the most difficult, as their roots ran deep, snagging around stones and gripping other nearby roots. The alchemist returned to the Newt and Demon with his prizes, pushing aside his desire to check on Gridgen. He felt like an overprotective parent, his heart urging him to check on them. But that wouldn’t serve anyone. It would only create a dependency he didn’t want to deal with.

Both the [Mage’s Bane] and [Roc Berry] plants took to the enhanced soil well. All 20 of them perked up from being slightly wilted, and Theo weighed his options. It seemed best to let them adjust to their new homes rather than dropping a growth potion on them immediately. It wasn’t an idea that came from the whispers of his [Drogramath Herbalism Core], though. This was raw intuition, and he could have been wrong.

Those thoughts fell by the wayside when a voice, huffing and out of breath, came from the edge of his building. Xol’sa, the normally calm extra-planar Elf, looked disheveled. “Mayor, I need to discuss something,” he said, doubling over and holding a stitch at his side.

“To the tower?” Theo asked, smiling.

The alchemist’s gut reaction to intense situations had deadened to almost nothing. If the monster wave was coming, they were ready for it. If it was something else, there was nothing he could do but listen and prepare. Everything else was wasted energy.

“To the tower,” Xol’sa repeated, hobbling northward.

The portal was still a strange thing, something that sent Theo to his knees when he used it. He sent a message to Tresk while he recovered on the cold stone floor of the wizard’s tower. She would be there in moments, but he asked her to remain in the shadows. Perhaps it was an idea to get a better measure of the Elf. Either way, Xol’sa led him to the roof of the tower, summoning the webwork of runes and sputtering.

“I delayed the wave, as you can see here,” Xol’sa said, gesturing vaguely.

Theo squinted, moving closer to the runes. He withdrew the early warning crystal from his inventory. It hadn’t progressed beyond orange, which he took as a good sign.

“Everything looks good,” Theo said. “The crystal hasn’t progressed, yet.”

“That’s the problem,” Xol’sa said, drawing himself up. He took a long, steadying breath, but the worry still sat on his face. “The energy being used to drive the monster wave isn’t just something that’s altering the timer. Look here.”

The Elf summoned another section of the arcane symbols, zooming in on a circular section. Theo could have been staring at any language at this point, it made little sense to him. Runic symbols ran along the outside, bordered by a circle, then another set. In the center was a series of symbols that were constantly changing.

“So, these are changing,” Theo said, pointing. It was the only thing he could observe without hazarding a wild guess. “If this is essentially the code of the dungeon, or the magic in the area that means…”

Theo trailed off. Xol’sa watched him expectantly.

“They’re numbers,” Xol’sa said, nodding.

“Ah,” Theo said, understanding washing over his mind. “It’s a counter, then. Counting up, what exactly? Energy.”

“Energy,” Xol’sa said, nodding. “Here’s my theory. Extra-planar power is flowing into your dungeon, like a node. This dungeon is connected to many others throughout the realm, other nodes. Energy flows like a river and we built a dam.”

“That sounds bad,” Tresk said, emerging from the shadows. Xol’sa jumped in surprise.

Theo was so accustomed to her jumping out of nowhere that it didn’t affect him. He ran his hand over his chin a few times, trying to understand the implications. Even without magical knowledge, he knew that water trapped behind a dam needed to go somewhere. What liquid didn’t escape would build up behind that barrier until it burst.

“What does this energy do?” Theo asked.

“Many things,” Xol’sa said, clutching his chest. “Primarily, it is the basis for generating monsters. From what I understand, the system converts this energy into matter, namely monsters and loot. The energy is normally drawn from the area around the dungeon, but your dungeon is leaking.”

Theo waved him off. “The leak makes sense,” he said, pacing to the edge of the tower. He cast his eyes over the rise of stone in the distance. “So the dam is building up energy in the dungeon. What happens when it’s overfull?”

Xol’sa’s mouth went agape. “You’re too calm for this, mayor.”

“I can’t crap my pants every time something weird happens around here,” Theo said. “I need practical solutions to the problem, not panic. What happens when it fills up?”

“A max level monster wave,” Xol’sa said.

“So, the longer we delay the timer, the stronger the wave gets,” Tresk said, nodding. She perched herself atop the edge of the tower’s wall, looking over into the swamp. “Sounds fun.”

“It’s dangerous,” Xol’sa said, sputtering.

“So, this is your job,” Theo said. “The swamp is unforgiving. I need to know how long we can let it go without destroying the town. I need ideas on how to divert that power.”

Xol’sa’s brows knit tightly. He walked around the edges of the tower, muttering to himself. Theo caught a few words as he went, but didn’t recognize the language. When the Elf rounded the circular tower for the tenth time, he stopped. He swiped his hand a few times, summoning more of the intricate magic symbols. This carried on for a few minutes before he turned to regard the alchemist.

“The timer is a safety mechanism designed to release the monsters at a level-appropriate range, preventing too much energy from building,” Xol’sa said, tapping his chin and swiping through the symbols some more. “I cannot control it, not with any precision. Not without damaging the dungeon or exploding it.”

“Now that sounds dangerous,” Tresk said.

“You understand that everything I’m doing is beyond the scope of my level,” Xol’sa said, leveling his gaze at Theo. “I’m carried through these motions by the whispering of my core. The voice of my people. I have an idea.”

A smile spread across the alchemist’s face.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Stoppering the river gave us a week,” Xol’sa said, swiping back to the timer. “As I mentioned before, the dungeons are linked. Unlike an actual river, we should siphon the energy off to the other dungeons. Have your other dungeons grown recently?”

“No,” Tresk said.

“Then there is the flaw,” Xol’sa said, going back to the offending section of the runes. It was the section describing the timer, that which the Elf changed with his magic. “I’m having difficulty imagining a metaphor for you.”

Theo didn’t need any help understanding it, the entire thing seemed logical. The single river analogy was lacking. It was more like a split in a river where the [Swamp Dungeon] was upstream. No, it was more like a…

“A confluence,” Theo said. “A point where two or more rivers join.”

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