The Newt and Demon

Where are you? Tresk asked. I suddenly feel a sense of overwhelming smugness.

Theo couldn’t suppress his smile, trailing Throk back to town. He met with Tresk outside of the Marshwolf Tavern. Xam had taken to holding the festivities outside. After the pair took a seat, the alchemist explained the source of that smugness. She didn’t have an opinion on the new idea, shrugging it off to await whatever the cook made tonight. It was another variation, unsurprisingly, on Zee-based bread with cheese and wolf meat. The more the days rolled on, the more delicious the dish became.

More people gathered outside than normal, a fact of the recent wave of migrants. Alise was keeping up with placing them all in homes, but there would be a breaking point. The only thing Broken Tusk didn’t lack was space. Before Theo arrived in town, it was sparse beyond belief. That was something that amazed him, even today. How those people clung to life in the unforgiving swamp before the introduction of Drogramath’s power. But it was a problem for the young administrator to sort out.

There was a look in Tresk’s eyes as everyone ate their meal. Theo recognized it as her plotting his demise in the Dreamwalk. He finally had a solution for that, although she might consider it cheating. In his mind, it didn’t matter as long as he got away unscathed.

Zarali joined them at the table after a time, settling in opposite the pair and awaiting her meal. She had a sour look on her face that vanished after only moments.

“I wish you hadn’t revealed my coin-pressing idea,” she said, letting out a labored sigh.

Theo shrugged. It was a good idea, but he sensed enough problems to temper his expectations. A more attainable goal was his plans for a shipyard near the ocean. That required some research, since he’d have to stretch the boundaries of the town a significant distance. There were more issues, compounding the problem. He needed at least 2 rare seed cores, one for a port and another for a shipyard, although that might have been an attachment to the port. Someone would need to build the vessels, then sail them. But the alchemist was never one to worry about doing every step at the same time. He was ponderous in his accomplishments, only worrying about what was right in front of him.

A massive share of his [Living River Water] would have been done brewing at the lab by now. He turned to Zarali, gaining her attention.

“First, we need the metal,” Theo said. “I have Throk… Well, perhaps he’s stretched too thin, but he’s working on a few projects. I’m brewing potions with the [Dissolve] property tomorrow. Hopefully, I can make some tunnels with those.”

“How about spiritstone?” Tresk asked, flashing a grin.

“Not a chance,” Zarali said. “I’m not sure if you can craft spiritstone coins.”

“So, how does this influence the economy?” Theo asked, picking at his food as he rolled ideas around in his head. “Making money out of thin air sounds suspicious.”

Zarali shrugged at that, dismissing his concerns with a gesture. “It seems to work. Both Qavell and Veosta mint coins.”

“Think about it,” Tresk said. “If no one made the money, even with the system generating coins from dungeons, quests, all that, there’s no way there’d be enough to go around. High-level crafters wouldn’t operate. We’d be doomed.”

That was an oddly intelligent thing for Tresk to say. Her most complex thought usually boiled down to the best way to stab something, but she was right. If the coins were consumed at the end of their lifecycle, and the dungeons and quests couldn’t keep up, someone needed to generate enough to meet demand. Theo’s mind wandered to the next logical step. Most places didn’t have a high concentration of energy in the air. Perhaps the mint was worth pushing up before the docks. Still, he wanted to pick anyone’s brain who would listen.

“So, I have a problem,” Theo said, patting Tresk on the shoulder. “I want a dock, but the ocean is too far.”

“That’s not really within my realm of knowledge,” Zarali said.

Tresk shrugged. “Don’t look at me.”

“Fenian should know,” Theo said, nodding to himself. “He’ll be in town soon enough.”

The rest of the meal passed without incident. No interesting topics came up, so Theo spent his time in his mind, thinking about the way the town system worked. As the mayor, he could buy two types of land. There was incorporated land, and unincorporated land. Most seed core buildings couldn’t be built in unincorporated land, but that option was significantly less expensive than the other. With his current finds, he could buy a snaking, unincorporated path to the bay, but then he was stuck. His logic ended there. That path of land needed to be connected to the primary territory, linked with the expensive option. He let out a breath and gave up for the evening. The moment he entered the Dreamwalk, his mind would feel refreshed, as though he slept the entire night.

“Ready for bed?” Tresk asked, her eyes flashing with malice.

“I am,” Theo said.

The pair retreated, bidding farewell to anyone who would listen, and fell asleep quickly. When the dream world sprung up around then, Theo turned to Tresk.

“You’ve been to the ocean, right? Recently?”

“I have,” Tresk said with a nod. He remembered her going there to inspect the monsters from the [Ocean Dungeon].

“Take us there, please,” he said.

In an instant, they were standing on a sandy shore. Mountains rose to the south, and a slow rise of earth to their north. To the east, it was nothing but the endless lap of waves. It was breathtaking, even in the Dreamwalk's haze.

“Unreal,” Theo said, taking a steady breath. “How close is this to town?”

“Well,” Tresk said, turning south and pointing at the sudden rise of mountains. “You could spit and hit the mine from here. Not literally, but you get it.”

Theo turned north again, watching the river empty into the bay. What he understood of ideal launching locations for sailing vessels included the need for a bay. It would break the fierce waves of the open ocean, giving them a steady place to build their boats. He filled his inventory with a few items as he surveyed the area, still dazzled with how perfect it was. A singular issue stuck out to him.

“This is entirely undefended,” Theo said. “Far enough from the walls to be dangerous.”

“Yup,” Tresk said, scratching the top of her head. “If you want a port here, you’ll need to extend the wall.”

Theo didn’t see that as the only option. Something in the back of his mind said there was a way to create something here to act as an extension of the town, without being encased in the same wall. If it was separated from the town, that was one thing. There was also the option to hire an [Earth Mage] and move the entire ocean closer to town.

“Think we can walk from here to town?” Theo asked. Normally the Dreamwalk didn’t want them to move outside of a single scene, but they had done so in places both of them were familiar with.

“Time to test,” Tresk said.

It didn’t go unnoticed to Theo that she didn’t want to leave his side. She had something planned for him, something to test his ability to react to assassins. That was fine with him. He had a plan.

“Imagine an [Earth Mage],” Theo said, gesturing to the river. The place where the river had entered the ocean had been worn away by years of sand erosion. The constant rush of water had dug the beach back, far from where it originally rested. This was evidenced by rocky islands, and the strange presence of outcrops. They defied the normal contour of the land. According to local legend, an [Earth Mage] had already reformed Broken Tusk, rendering it easier for the locals to farm.

“I’m imagining an [Earth Mage],” Tresk said, closing her eyes as she walked.

An [Earth Mage] appeared, faceless and generic in appearance. He was made of shadowy wisps, proving that Tresk’s mental image of the mage wasn’t great.

“He scoops the land out,” Theo said, gesturing to the river. The phantom mage obliged, surprising the companions.

The ocean rushed in to meet the bowl of water, suddenly missing. The pair continued, instructing the phantom until he’d created a channel from the ocean, all the way to the walls of the town.

“I didn’t know we could do that,” Tresk said. “We brought the ocean to Broken Tusk!”

This was a good plan. Theo could hire a mage that made his harbor into any shape he wanted, and the alchemist had always wanted to expand the town over the river. Using an [Earth Mage] gave him a chance to secure his shipyard and port without the need to fiddle with something that might not work. The alchemist folded his arms in satisfaction, looking over the new terrain. The bridge to the north wasn’t in sight, they were only at the very eastern tip of their territory, but the channel they created was massive. He couldn’t picture a boat large enough to get stuck in the waterway, and perhaps the mage could reinforce the edges so they didn’t erode.

“Alright. Good luck,” Tresk said.

Without warning, she vanished.

Theo sensed danger before 10 assassins appeared, poised with blades and diving for him. The world slowed around him, his [Dexterity] jumping as he withdrew 3 items from his inventory. This was his first chance to practice something he’d drilled in his mind a hundred times. He quaffed his [Retreat Potion], tossed an improvised bomb in the air, then threw a [Freezebomb] with the [Web] modifier to the ground. Exactly 1 second after drinking the [Retreat Potion], Theo was hurtled backwards. He felt pain in his neck as he whipped back with unreasonable speed, rocketing away from the scene.

The [Freezebomb] struck first, sending tendrils of ice to wrap around the assassins. Theo ducked when the next part of his plan activated. The improvised bomb hit the ground. If this was the real world, his eardrums would have shattered by the sudden explosion. He watched as parts of the dream-assassins flew off, trailing smoke behind them.

“Wow,” Tresk said, appearing behind him from the shadows. “Working out some anger issues?”

“There,” Theo said, turning to her and folding his arms in front of him. “Now, leave me alone tonight. Once per night, that’s all you get.”

Tresk narrowed her eyes at him, tapping her foot impatiently. “Alright. Fine. You win. Congratulations.”

“I’m fast enough to respond,” Theo said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “And we can refine techniques if you find something that can beat me—more assassins doesn’t count. You can send mages tomorrow.”

Tresk seemed to accept that as a response and she vanished once again. Theo smiled, knowing that she’d do exactly that tomorrow. But, there was an easy response for mages now that he had access to the [Anti-mage] property. A carapace of anti-magic would work well enough, along with a few well-placed bombs. The marshling wasn’t even focusing on the thing he feared more than anything, though. If a mage wanted to capture him, it would be easy enough if they could teleport away with him. But there was always an alchemical solution.

While Theo couldn’t produce new things in the Dreamwalk, he could create them. The difference was that he couldn’t make something out of nothing, but he could go through the motions to create new potions. The one thing that eluded him was the function of constructs. Even after he produced a copper cage, treated it alchemically, and shoved a construct tablet inside it didn’t work. He spent the night working on that problem, retreating to care for plants or do alchemical reactions when his mind went slack.

“I think the key is in the name,” Theo said, turning to Bob.

He forced the faceless mannequin to nod.

“These tablets aren’t the starting point,” Theo said, throwing a marble construct on the ground. “We’re looking for constructs. Things that do things. That’s a bad way to define the word.”

Bob didn’t respond.

Theo went about the night, finding the most efficient way to grind out experience for his alchemy and herbalism core. He still couldn’t figure out plant hybridization, but the experience he gained was absurd. Without the need to rest, he could run between a reagent garden, and a row of stills. By the end of the night, the alchemist had a row of 20 stills running at the same time, with a swathe of land growing reagents. He kicked off reactions that filled the open air with thick plumes of smoke, threw reagents into piles, and knocked his mind against the construct problem.

When they woke in the morning, Theo gained another series of system messages for his efforts.

[Drogramath Alchemy Core] receivedexperience (20%).

[Drogramath Herbalist Core] receivedexperience (24%).

[Governance Core] receivedexperience (0.25%).

[Theo Spencer] receivedexperience (6.3%).

[Theo Spencer] receivedexperience (8%).

[Theo Spencer] receivedexperience (0.083%).

Without Tresk bothering him all night, he was able to do a week’s worth of brewing in a single night. He learned a few things about reagent production, but it was mostly going through the motions. The feeling of being refreshed after a night of work was still alien to him, leaving him feeling disoriented when coming out from the Dreamwalk. It reminded him of when he first traveled through Xol’sa’s portal, only to a much lesser extent.

There were tasks to accomplish for the day, but Theo had finally fallen into a decent rhythm once again. This is when things normally blew up in his face, either as interlopers or monster waves, but as he attended breakfast none of those things happened. Tresk’s confidence in his ability to defend himself was at an all-time high. He could feel it seeping through their shared core, pulsing in his chest. The Marshling pulled out a dagger for him to inspect, part-way through breakfast.

[Marshthorn]

[Dagger]

Epic

Dagger made from the thorns of an infected Troll.

Effect:

Increase the effects of poison.

[Effect Locked]

[Effect Locked]

It looked less like a dagger, and more like a giant rose thorn with a handle. It was curved, and dripped with poison. That must have been poison applied by Tresk, since the item made no mention of having innate poison. Theo took a moment to read the description again before letting the dagger fall to the table with a clatter.

“That’s disgusting,” Theo said, wiping his hand off on his robe.

“Chill,” Tresk said, taking her dagger back. “It dropped as loot. Hey! You’re one to talk. You’re always… Always digging in the mud and stuff. That’s gross.”

“True,” Theo conceded. “At least I’m not shoveling Karatan poop at Miana’s ranch.”

Theo hadn’t exploited half the resources that Miana’s farm would provide. He’d only tested the cheese and the horns, but there was still more to explore. The Karatan would provide wool, which he had a feeling would be alchemical, and the Pozwa would lay eggs. The idea of those goat-like things laying eggs was strange, but if he could turn it into a potion, he didn’t care.

The rest of their meal was shared in quiet conversation. Tresk was interesting in his ideas, but that only went so far. She was a person who tackled problems when they came, possessing none of Theo’s foresight. Over the month, which the alchemist was learning was the entire Season of Blooms—the words were interchangeable—he’d improved his ability to plan ahead. The woodcutting operation was a means to build his boats. Dead Dog Mine was a way to supply his smelter, it all fed into something else.

“We’re going to need cloth,” Theo said.

“Hey!” Tresk shouted, slamming her hand on the table in mock rage. Then, her face shifted. “Not a bad idea. More exports?”

“Sails for the ships,” Theo said, finishing the last of his tea. “Ships, or boats?”

“If your boat ain’t big enough for another boat to fit inside, it’s a boat,” Tresk said, gesturing with a fork. She never even used the forks to eat. “Otherwise, it’s a ship.”

“A sudden, suspicious burst of knowledge,” Theo said, leaning on to the table.

Tresk let out a long sigh. Theo could feel her building herself up, preparing to regale him with some constructed story.

“When I was young, I read a lot of books,” Tresk said. “Mostly about pirates, and their adventures.”

“You can read?” Theo asked.

She narrowed his eyes at him, and he held up his hands defensively. “I can read two languages, you Towa zana.”

Theo didn’t understand the words, they sounded strangely guttural. Through his core, he understood they meant something close to ‘bumbling ass’, although he couldn’t tell if she meant donkey, or his actual butt.

“What language is that?” Theo asked.

Tresk straightened herself up. “Bantari,” she said, looking proud. “I can teach you, if you want.”

Theo nodded. Tresk was a Bantari Marshling, which he took to mean she was a Marshling from the southlands. The whispers he got, both through his core and gossip around town, was that this breed of Marshling was a splinter group from somewhere else. They joined the Ogres in the early days of the region. It was all fuzzy, passed down through the generations through oral traditions.

Tresk taught many words, which were effortless for him to pick up. His superior memory made the task easy, but their core also shunted information to him at an instinctual level. She could rattle off a list of words and their meaning, conjugations and grammar structures, and he’d keep the information as if he were a native speaker. That frustrated the Marshling at first, but once she recalled his stats, she was alright with it. When they were done playing their language games, the alchemist departed with a few words in Bantari, which made his companion smile.

The thing on Theo’s mind was the mine. Throk should have completed a few orders for him, including the copper cages for his construct experiment, but he wanted to dig deeper in the mine. The defensive emplacements should have been the priority, but the way the blacksmith’s mind worked would have him turning his full attention to the water problem. The alchemist approached the Newt and Demon, thoughts of the [Dissolve] property lingering in his mind.

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