The Newt and Demon

Theo stood in the Marsh Wolf Tavern, looking over the glazed eyes of what few patrons had come in. He drummed his fingers on the counter, finding Xam in a similar state. Given time, she produced decently cooked food that would be good enough for the morning. After paying, he headed out and jumped with shock. He let out a breath, looking up at the muscular form of Zarali looming over Broken Tusk. Averting his gaze, he rushed to the manor to deliver breakfast.

Rowan and Sarisa had crawled out of bed, but were still on the floor, groaning and clawing at the floor. Theo placed a bowl of soup by each of them, setting out food for himself and Tresk at the table. Neither of them were as bothered, but they hadn’t hit the mead as hard as the others. It was a matter of volume or Vigor. The alchemist took his seat at the table, spooning soup into his mouth.

“Let’s not visit more dreams,” Theo said, shaking his head. “I won’t soon recover from Fenian’s mind.”

“Yeah, that elf is freaky.” Tresk tipped the bowl back, eating her soup in one go.

“Did you see Salire at the party?”

Tresk shook her head then shrugged. “Once. She was plastered pretty early.”

“That might have been the correct strategy. I thought it went well. Right?”

Tresk shrugged again. “No one died. So, yeah. Good stuff.”

Theo was hopeful for Throk’s productivity today. He wasn’t at the party, so hopefully he wasn’t hungover. There were many things to consider from the recent change, but something that was unaffected was his golems. The alchemist’s army of golems was still going strong, doing their work without a care. He still needed to consider what it meant to work with his [Tero’gal Greenhouse], but perhaps he would now have enough time. The rate of growth within the greenhouse was slower, and there were fewer spaces. Also, there were no upgrades.

Compared to the way the Tero’gal Manor had updated, it was strange. Perhaps there was an advantage to keeping buildings unaligned in this new world. Just like people selecting cores provided by the true gods, or the ones that remained neutral, there were advantages and disadvantages to both. He chose to pause his experimentation with the greenhouses until the first crop of spiny swamp thistle root came in.

“We need to carve time out of your schedule to look at the corrupted core of Qavell,” Theo said, finishing the last of his soup.

“What, am I gonna purge it or something?” Tresk asked. “I’d rather see what the dragon bones do for your alchemy.”

“Dragon bones are fun, but this shouldn’t take long.”

“Bah.”

Theo left Sarisa and Rowan on the ground after covering them each with a blanket. He left wineskins filled with water near each of them, ensuring their hydration when they woke. The issue with Qavell’s corruption shouldn’t have been too hard to solve. The alchemist reflected on that as they rode Alex over to the city, gaining angry shouts from the guards below. He figured the hardest part of fixing the city was wrangling Tresk for a few hours while her Dreamer’s Core interfaced with the Town and Kingdom Core.

“King Hanan,” Theo said, bowing his head slightly as he entered the palace. The king was standing with his arms folded, looking tired. “You attended the party?”

“Yes. Some half-ogre convinced me to drink more than I wanted.” The king rubbed his face, slapping his cheeks. “It will take half the day for me to wake.”

“I hear that,” Tresk said.

“We’re going to look at the core, if that’s okay,” Theo said, waiting for the king’s approval. It was only polite.

“Be my guest.”

Too hungover to care, the king gave the pair access to the lower levels of the city. They moved through the maze, finding their way to the ritual chamber shortly after. Little had changed. Theo had performed regular maintenance on the shielding, and could now use his abilities to enhance it further. But if this worked, they wouldn’t need to contain the corruption.

“The Venom spread further since last time,” Theo said, gesturing with a copper knife to the veins of poison pulsing through the corruption. “My fear is it will infect the city itself.”

“Yeah, that poison was great.”

“Are you getting any notifications?” Theo asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Something about corruption spreading, end of the world, blah blah.” Tresk sighed as little spectral wings sprouted from her back. “You getting anything?”

“Nope.” The corruption had to proceed to a stage where the Throne Cores would recognize it as a threat. Fenian’s core had only reacted to the entity after it manifested, and now the Dreamer’s Core didn’t like the way the corruption was spreading. And it was spreading, if only at a glacial pace. “Work your magic, little lizard.”

Tresk spit into her hands, rubbing them together. “Presto, chango!”

Theo watched as the marshling held her hands out, her eyes pinched tightly. “I dunno what I’m doing,” she said after a while.

“You could try smacking it.”

“I’d rather not.”

Tresk tried quite a few things before giving up. They lingered near the core, unable to figure out how to jump-start her Dreamer’s Core. Giving up, they sent Alex off to find Fenian. A half-hour later, she flew back to deposit his limp body onto the steps of the palace. The alchemist hoisted the elf over his shoulder, marching back to the ritual room. He had passed out on someone’s roof in Stabby Grove, although no one around the area was conscious enough to give a report. If someone wanted to attack the alliance, now was the perfect time.

“He’s not dead, is he?” Tresk asked as Theo placed Fenian in the ritual room.

“He has a pulse,” Theo said, rolling the elf onto his stomach. Wings sprouted from his back, the room filling with a droning thrum. “There we go. Anything new on your end?”

“Yep. System message says we can purge the corruption with love and friendship or something.” Tresk spit into her hands once again, pinching her eyes shut and reaching out. “Oh yeah, baby. I’m feeling the juice.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Theo watched the process with interest. Mist formed in the air, flowing from both Fenian and Tresk as it entered the city’s core. Floating baubles of light burst against the monolith, removing corruption where they landed. For this purging to work, both members of the mortal realm team needed to be here. The alchemist was reminded of when he met Death, and how he kicked Twist out of the heavens. Perhaps he should spend more time in the realm of the gods, enforcing the rules. Maybe that was Khahar’s job…

“We’re about five percent done,” Tresk said, clicking her tongue. “This is some repair process by the system. It says this corruption is a foreign entity that isn’t allowed on any plane, let alone the mortal one. And I know your theory.”

Theo nodded, finding himself lost in thought. “I have little information about this guy, but I think he’s like the Harbinger from my world. Maybe another one of his kind, or a shadow of the real thing. We don’t know the capacity and will of the entity, so I find it hard to make plans against it.”

“This could be the answer, though. Just cleaning up the mess bit-by-bit.”

“Maybe. It might be the job of the Dreamwalker and the Arbiter to sort this stuff out.”

Theo and Tresk threw theories around, not reaching much of a conclusion. It was hard to find an answer with such little information. The alchemist considered the power of his Tero’gal Mage’s Core, and the things he might do with it after leveling a bit more.

“What if we put a ward over the entire planet?” Theo asked.

“The planet is big,” Tresk countered.

That got Theo thinking. Mostly about the shards he was destined to recover. “What if that’s the purpose of the shards?”

“That would solve your problems, wouldn’t it?” Tresk asked, laughing to herself. She swayed slightly, stopping the repair to wipe sweat from her brow. “This sucks. I need a break.”

It took about half the day for Tresk and the unconscious Fenian to remove the corruption of the core. But they succeeded. Theo even brought Hanan back to check his interface, finding that every trace of the corruption was gone. The alchemist hoisted Fenian over his shoulder when they were done, finding it much harder to move through the palace with those wings. They took him back to the manor, rather than depositing him onto whatever roof he came from.

“Are you sure he’s alive?” Tresk asked as Theo placed the elf onto a soft bed.

“He has a pulse,” Theo repeated with a shrug. He slapped Fenian in the face, causing him to groan. “There. He made a sound.”

“That could have been air escaping…”

“He’s fine,” Theo said, waving a dismissive hand. “Don’t you have more dragon bones to find?”

“I’m kinda sleepy myself. Did too much work today.” Tresk stood there, looking over Fenian with a hooded gaze. “I’m gonna stand here for a few hours and stare at him like a creep.”

“Okie dokie,” Theo said, heading out from the manor. With only half of the day left, he had two tasks he wanted to tackle. Processing the alchemical waste would take too long. But he could discover the properties on the dragon bones and getting his lab in working order again was within his grasp. He wasn’t surprised to find the shop, experimentation floor, and lab of the building empty. But there were some new fancy stills, courtesy of Throk. “Instead of partying, he was working. I can appreciate that.”

The new stills were of an extremely low capacity. There were new fancy gizmos, and the thickness of the still itself had increased significantly. Throk had heard about the explosions rocking through the town, and sought to mitigate that. He created a more efficient bomb, or a safer still. It was hard to tell which. There were also improvements to the iron paddles, which should have made them collect more impurities. He inspected one of the five that Throk had delivered.

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Artifice Still]

[Alchemy Equipment]

Epic

Created By: Throk

A 50 unit capacity Drogramathi Iron still with attached advanced condenser, internal heating elements, protective plating, over-pressure valve, and rotating paddle attachment.

Effects:

Distillation time reduced.

Occasionally produces more essence.

Reduces the chance of explosive reactions.

Attachments:

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Bubble Plate]

[Custom Drogramathi Iron Vapor Pressurizer]

[Custom Artifice Heater]

[Custom Artifice Timer]

[Custom Artifice rotator]

The pressurizer was optional. Theo could remove that to test the baseline operation of the still. If the first step to this new alchemy was so different, he couldn’t imagine the second being any easier. Running first tier essence through a pressure condenser might cause an explosion. Then again, it might not. But he wasn’t going to test that within his lab. The testing chamber seemed more appealing by the day. Perhaps it was time to accept that upgrade…

“After we get this going,” Theo told himself, preparing for a run with his new still. He only planned to run one batch for now. Throk had a way of ironing out problems, though. After a few rounds of feedback, the alchemist expected this to run perfectly.

It felt strange holding the large alchemical grinder over the small still. Theo found it was far easier to mash the reagents in a different vessel before transferring them to the still. He relied on his core and abilities to measure the right amounts out, placing a mixture of essence and water in equal parts into the still. After that, it was a matter of setting the programmable heating and stirring settings to the right spot and letting it sit for about a day.

Fermentation was a problem, but it was a problem for another day. Baby steps.

Theo looked up from his work, watching as Salire stumbled into the lab. Her face went a deeper shade of red when she spotted him. Messy hair, wrinkled clothes, and dark bags under her eyes marked her as one of many who had over indulged.

“You never take a break, do you?” she groaned, shuffling into the lab.

“I try not to. Throk is right there with me. I’ve got a new still running.”

“Good,” Salire said, slumping over a table and hanging her head.

Theo got to work, filling an empty still with some water. He added moss, and poured them both a cup of tea before handing a mug over to her. “Not as good as what Xam makes, but good enough for a hangover.”

Salire accepted the cup, nodding as she took her first sip. “Delicious.”

Theo took a sip of his. It tasted like moss with a hint of citrus. Although he had a cup with breakfast, another wasn’t unwelcome. The slightly sweet scent of the distilling essence mingled with the earthy smell of the moss. Salire perked up slightly, but still rested against the table with her shoulders slumped.

“Are we calling this a success?” she asked.

“Not until this batch finishes unattended,” Theo said. He worked on spreading a barrier of containment around the working still. Now that Salire had mentioned success, failure was on his mind. At least he could use his barrier wards to experiment within his lab, rather than retreating to the clearing behind the lab. “I was thinking about something…”

“Huh?” Salire looked up with bloodshot eyes.

“The first Tero’gal potion I made was twice as effective as Drogramath’s version.”

“Even if it took significantly more time and effort,” Salire added.

“Yeah. But I hope that’s a trend. We’re forced to craft less potions, but we’ll need to craft less. Because these new potions are going to be more effective.”

“Yeah,” Salire said, her head thumping against the table. “Sounds perfect.”

That was the plan… for now. Run the new stills to ensure they were functioning correctly. Next came the need to figure out Tero’gal’s second tier of alchemy. During these experiments, Theo wanted to check the reactiveness of various reagents. That would let him know if the base purity of any reagents could be influenced by his aligned greenhouses. He would play it by ear from there, pushing himself in whatever direction he needed to go.

Theo clapped his hands together. Salire jumped, sputtering. “No sleeping on the job.”

“I’m awake,” Salire said, pushing off from the table. She shook her head, blinking away her tiredness. “What are we doing?”

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