The Newt and Demon

Tresk got clever with her assassination attempt in the Dreamwalk that night. Instead of ordering her minions to attack simultaneously, she staggered them in stages. It was hard to hide intent through the Tara’hek, and Theo already had a solution for that problem. His mana control in the real world was bad, but within the dream realm it was acceptable enough to not kill him instantly. When he tossed a [Reveal Construct] in the air, bathing the surrounding landscape with a pale glow, it dropped stealth on the 20 assassins she’d generated.

“That’s cheating!” she shouted, looking over the mangled bodies of her creations.

“Try again tomorrow,” Theo said, patting her on the shoulder.

The Marshling only pouted for a moment, moving off to train and come up with better ways to kill him. Theo could feel she was happy about his success in thwarting her. That was the point of the exercise, after all.

The landscape Theo chose tonight was the exterior of Broken Tusk, following that snaking river off to sea. He generated his [Tunneling Potion] and decided on the best way to carve out the landscape. His first attempt ended in failure. He dug from the sea, toward the town, which resulted in the ocean rushing in to destroy the earth at the side. When the sea joined with the river, the effect was worse. This meant there were several problems.

Theo’s potion worked underwater, but that wasn’t the problem. His team of stoneworkers wouldn’t be able to move in and reinforce the walls of the harbor with marble. When he dug from the sea’s side of the harbor, the water came rushing in. If he dug from the river’s side that came to flood the area. Both approaches left him unable to build the stonework.

Standing over the newly refreshed landscape, Theo tapped his chin. It didn’t help his concentration that he normally spent his time in the Dreamwalk training alchemy. It was a waste of time, but this was important. The alchemist dug a shallow version of the harbor from the river’s side almost the entire way to the ocean. It was a massive rectangle dug into the earth. This approach was almost workable. The flood of the river was slow, and there were solutions he could employ to empty the basin. Thanks to how low the area of the swamp was, the footprint he created was no deeper than he was tall.

The river filled the shape he’d carved out, and Theo reset the landscape once again. He dug the same shape again, only far deeper this time. Deep enough to hold the boats he hoped to create. He worked the channel toward the ocean and imagined a stone wall holding in the massive quantities of soil on either side. At some point, the Dreamwalk was smart enough to know there was a water table, and he hit it. But the harbor continued out to sea, with Theo creating stone walls with his mind and applying his potion to remove dirt. The sea rushed in, but he continued digging his channel out into the bay until it was deep enough for his vessels.

Theo stood back, looking over his work. There were problems to sort out, but he’d managed most of them. As long as he could remove the water from the river faster than it could accumulate, this plan would work. A massive surge from the ocean met the already resting river water, creating a brackish mix that spat sea-foam into the air. The alchemist looked over his new harbor and nodded, trotting over to the head of the structure. It would come almost all the way to the eastern gate, where the bridge used to be. In the Dreamwalk version of Broken Tusk, the bridge remained.

The system refused to allow him to expand the walls of Broken Tusk, but he could imagine it. An expansion east, perhaps a single expansion, would see the wall over the river. Instead of expanding all the way to the ocean, he could save money by creating his own harbor. A flash of pride raced through his body, content with the modification to the landscape. The only mystery left to the process was how the town’s seed core would bridge the wall over the river and harbor, but that wasn’t a problem for now. It had always been intelligent enough to understand the shift of terrain, automatically placing their gates in the best spot. He hoped for the best.

Tresk had suggestions for the harbor, highlighting weaknesses in the plan. Her concerns centered on Ziz’s ability to do the work, but conceded the point. The stoneworkers would have time to practice on the bridge, and there was no shortage of stone for them to practice with.

“What’s your take on Fenian?” Tresk asked, sitting on a stump and observing the strange harbor. “He’s lying about something.”

“Little lies,” Theo said, waving her away. “Small things that don’t involve us. For example, he didn’t tell us about what ruins he was exploring. But he had to get rid of the guardian. We were just a simple solution. He knew we’d be happy to get the materials.”

“I can live with that,” Tresk said.

The Marshling had a soft spot for anyone who had done a favor for her in the past. If it didn’t affect her directly, she had trouble relating to others. With time, the Tara’hek would give her more of a heart. She’d get more of Theo’s generosity, he hoped as much anyway. Or perhaps, she was just growing as a pillar of Broken Tusk.

“What’s the deal with the flooding project, anyway?” Tresk asked.

“The idea is to dig a channel, so we don’t have to take the town to the sea,” Theo said, gesturing at the large swathe of earth he’d removed. “We bring the sea up to us.”

“How does that work?”

“Well, the landscape rises,” Theo said, making a motion with his hand to explain the point. “But if we dig at, or under sea level, we can let the ocean rush in. No need to expand the town out. No need to get close to the [Ocean Dungeon].”

“Yeah,” Tresk said, nodding. “Makes sense. Why do we care about boats?”

That was a decent enough question. Theo was pulled toward the idea of owning a merchant fleet since the idea first came to him. It would be costly, likely taking years to make money off of the idea. But that wasn’t the point. From what he understood, Qavell didn’t own a merchant fleet. They didn’t have a single vessel to their name, leaving the market wide open. Without competition, they could ferry exotic goods from one place to the other and make absurd profits for just operating the fleet.

“Trade,” Theo said, distilling the concept down for his companion. “We’ll move standard goods, but there’s the concept of bringing in scarce materials from places where they’re abundant.”

Tresk seemed to accept that answer. She nodded, motioning for him to take a seat next to her on a log. He did, and she pressed her head into his side. She wasn’t nearly tall enough to rest her head on his shoulder, even if that’s what she wanted to do.

“Ever feel like we’re getting in over our heads?” Tresk asked.

“Never,” Theo said. “No, we’re right where we need to be. In the thick of it.”

“Agreed,” Tresk said.

Theo felt the pull to get things done in the Dreamwalk, but this was nice. It wasn’t wasted time if the time they got was extra to begin with. They just sat there, watching the ebb and flow of the imagined ocean for hours. The sounds and smells were real enough to make the experience extremely pleasant. A tingle ran up the alchemist’s spine, a sense of belonging that he wouldn’t trade for the world. Every moment he spent in this place was worth the effort it took to keep things running. No where he’d ever lived had felt as much like a home as Broken Tusk.

With the harbor problem sorted, Theo turned his attention back to alchemy. He assessed where his current cores and personal level was as he worked the stills and fiddled with constructs. His alchemy and herbalism core were on the same level now, sitting at level 14, while his personal level was at 13. That was enough to prove his idea that each core provided a third of the total experience pool wrong, but he focused on his [Governance Core]. It would hit level 10 the moment they left the Dreamwalk, he could feel it. That brought another problem.

The skill list was endless, and the restricted list was equally daunting. When a core hit a multiple of 10, he was allowed to purchase a skill related only to that domain. Flicking through the menus, Theo found a few that stuck out. One gave a small reduction in taxes, so small to be useless. Another reduced the cost to upgrade with monster cores, but once again the bonus was small. The one skill that stuck out among the others was [Districting].

[Districting]

Governance Skill

Rare

Allows the user to create and manage districts within their town.

Effect:

Create and manage districts.

Districts will appear on all town-related maps.

Requires: Level 10 Administration-related core.

The [Governance Core] was a class that provided a lot of bonuses up front. The crawl to a higher level would see less benefit than that initial burst, but Theo was happy to play the long game. [Districting] was interesting, if only because it mentioned managing districts. There was something about it that said it would improve something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

One thing Theo learned about making constructs was their nebulous nature. Without the skill, he was stabbing in the dark. Within the Dreamwalk and without the skill, he was flailing at phantoms. The alchemist could only build up so much knowledge without proper experimentation, but he tried anyway. Only when Tresk suggested the concept of Golems did his mood brighten. He filed that thought away, intent on exploiting that nugget of information later.

Morning finally came, and Theo sat upright immediately. His mind spun with the possibilities, but nothing would come of the revelation until he got the skill. Golems were enough of a myth back on Earth that he’d seen before. The small piece of information contained within Tresk’s suggestion related to the origin of the creatures. They were made of inanimate matter, powered by something. That’s what made it click in his mind. He was working under the idea that he could create a pseudo seed core and grow a construct, embedding it with alchemical properties. After seeing the power source in the guardian, he had a solid direction.

“Golems, huh?” Tresk asked, belching. She ate Xam’s offering in moments, not even trying to savor the spicy flavor. The food was, as always, leftovers from last night.

Theo placed a few things on the table, clearing away Tresk’s plate to demonstrate. “A monster core to power the thing, surrounded in appropriate inanimate matter, then doused in essence to drive its nature.”

Tresk leaned in, smacking her lips. “The monster core tells it what material to use, the essence drives what it does. Gotcha.”

Tresk normally didn’t care about this kind of stuff. Not the way it functioned, anyway. She was always interested in using his potions, not so much the brewing part.

“Well, time to set districts,” Theo said, selecting the [Districting] skill and slotting it into his [Governance Core]. A sense of expansion filled his mind, then faded.

Theo opened his mayor’s interface and found that his map had changed. A panel opened up on the side, complete with tools to draw out new districts. There was a pen tool, a text tool, and even a fill tool. He chuckled and drew out his districts while he ate his breakfast.

“I can change the names at any time,” Theo said. “What should we name the quarry area?”

“Rocktown,” Tresk said, nodding resolutely.

Theo named the northern stretch of the town “Rocktown”, then moved on. There was a middle section, between the area with the quarry and the farms, where most adventurers were housed. Tresk apparently knew he was going from the north to the south, and spoke up before he had a chance to pose the question.

“Stabby Groves,” Tresk said.

Theo named the adventurer’s area “Stabby Groves”.

“Sea of Zee,” Tresk said, naming the farmer’s area before he could even think about it. And then it was so.

She named the area just north of town “Town Time”, and the central area “Tuskburg” before moving on to the other sections of town. The small stretch of land between “Tuskburg” and the vacant hills she named “Cool Kids”. Those same hills, mostly absent of people, she named “The Dreadwastes”. The entire area surrounding the mines was simply called “Dead Dog”, Miana’s ranch area was called “Cheese Empire”, and the section along the wall to the east she named “In Memory of a Very Angry Water Elemental.”

Theo laughed the whole way through. The other members of the town, especially those in command or administration positions, wouldn’t let the silly names stand. But for the time being, it was fun to play with the things the system provided. As if by heavenly command, Alise came stomping over to the table. She narrowed her eyes at the mayor and huffed a breath.

“Most of these names are fine,” she said, clearly consulting her administration interface. “But…’In Memory of a Very Angry Water Elemental’? That’s just…Theo, did you let Tresk name the districts?”

“Yeah,” Theo said, sipping his tea.

“We’ll need to change them,” Alise said.

Theo waved her off, producing the [School Seed Core] from his inventory. “Got you a present.”

Alise’s eyes glittered. She snatched the core up, mouth hung open, as she tried to form words. “I just hired a Brogling!” she said, finally getting the words to come out. “The parents agreed to pay a weekly fee to have their children cared for. This is better!”

Theo groaned. He didn’t hate Broglings. He just didn’t like their names. “What’s his name?”

Alise had to consult her interface for that one. “Graplaptappin Tublubbin Grappin,” she said, stumbling through the words.

The last Brogling Theo met was named something similar. He just called the man “Grub”. This guy would also need a nickname. “Credentials?”

“Former researcher for a scholarly cult. Zaul, specifically,” Alise said. She finally saw this as a meeting, and took a seat at the table.

The mention of Tresk’s patron had her attention. “Zaul? Oh, that’s cool. Real cool.”

“There he is!” Alise said, waving over to the tiny man.

Broglings only came up to Theo’s knee. They looked like puffed-up field mice, completely with a sweeping tail and short snout. Everytime Theo saw one, their little whiskers were jostling as if they were constantly sniffing the air. The little man came over, doubling over as he bowed. He was wearing a clean black robe, and a chain hung from his neck. The amulet at the end of the chain held an image of the god Zaul.

“Graplaptappin Tublubbin Grappin at your service,” he said.

“Do you have a nickname?” Theo asked.

“None,” the Brogling said.

“May I give you one?”

“By all means, mayor,” he said, bowing once again.

“Bob,” Theo said. “You’re Bob, now.”

“Then, Bob it shall be,” he said. “I’m eager to work with the children. I find most small towns don’t appreciate the importance of an education.”

“Have you seen many small towns?” Theo asked.

“Between here in Slagrot? Just about every small town there is,” Bob said, laughing. “All those small settlements between Rivers and Qavell, the plains outside the city and those mountain holds between the territories. Then the fishing villages in Veosta, the hamlets in Tarantham. I’ve seen them all.”

That seemed to be a point of pride for Bob. He was well traveled, beyond any of Theo’s expectations, which would render another service. The alchemist needed reliable opinions about other nations, and an objective one for the Kingdom of Qavell. He withdrew a single gold coin from his inventory and flicked it over to the Brogling, who caught it with surprising grace. A disciple of Zaul, indeed.

“If you wouldn’t mind binding yourself to a contract,” Theo said, dipping his head.

“I’d expect nothing less from someone looking to educate and protect the children of his town,” Bob said, bowing his head to meet Theo’s gesture.

The pair spent time writing the contract. It was extremely verbose, detailing all of Bob’s responsibilities with the children. Theo made sure to put a section in there regarding the teacher’s knowledge, and his willingness to share with the town. Broken Tusk was willing to put aside whatever money he needed to better the lives of the children, to an extent.

“Not that I don’t trust your dedication,” Bob said, grinning. “When you come to a new town, look for the kids. Are they fat and happy? Playing in the fields? Or are they working the mines, starving? That’s a true test of a town’s worth.”

Theo swelled with pride at the comments. They finalized the contract, signing it with their souls. Bob took possession of the [School Seed Core], and Theo carved him out a section of land in Town Time. Now he realized how absurd the names were.

Alise had some other business for Theo to attend to, so Tresk left for her daily adventure. The alchemist explained his plans about the harbor, which she thought was a great idea. He still needed to distribute the [Stonemason’s Cores] to Ziz and his men, but word got out that they were already planning on replacing the ruined bridge with a marble one.

“Right,” Theo said, smiling to his assistant. “I’ll pass these cores out. Make sure Bob has everything he needs.”

Alise looked sheepish for a moment, casting her eyes away from Theo’s as though she had something to say. She finally found the courage to say, “can I change the district names?”

“Keep the themes,” Theo said, nodding at her. “But, yeah. Change them.”

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