The Newt and Demon

Constructing a mixer artifice to suit Theo’s needs required the keenest mind in the region. Throk acted annoyed when he was called back to Broken Tusk. But his annoyed expression melted away after a while. Especially after he saw Tresk standing in his workshop. The alchemist's ploy to pull at the grumpy marshing’s heartstrings paid off, earning him the attention of the artisan for a while.

Of course, Throk had more ideas than the artificer apprentices to improve their design. He came up with a modular design, allowing Theo and Salire to swap the mixers into their current stack of distillation equipment. If they wanted to make a Refined Essence line, they could easily swap the gear attached to the stills. Once they were ready to use the same stills to use the mixers, a few turns of a few collars would have the equipment swapped and ready to go.

Throk pulled Tresk aside after creating the first full-scale version of the mixer and handing it over. Unlike the first attempts, it was about as large as Tresk herself. While this would allow for considerably more vapor to be processed at once, it also required much more mana. Theo pulled the item into his inventory, rubbing his hands with excitement. Throk gave his daughter a tight hug as they left, and he could feel the warmth flowing from his Tara’hek partner.

“Let’s get this back to the lab,” Theo said, departing with Salire before things got too sappy. Of course, they wouldn’t. Tresk and Throk just weren’t like that. They were lizards, after all.

“We have enough Refined Bound Healing Essence to test this out. Plenty of bound healing dilution, too.”

Another hired helper was working in the Newt and Demon today. Theo didn’t know what kind of deal Salire had given them, but he didn’t mind. Things had been too busy for him to babysit every project around, but there were a few things in town that needed his attention. He couldn’t help but think about them as he ascended the stairs. When they were done with their testing today, he would head down to the underground town to upgrade it.

“We need to force Hanan to make a choice soon.” Theo popped the condenser from one still, attacking the mixer instead. “Can’t have a huge city outside of my town unless they wanna join up.”

“Are you still determined to let him make his own choice?”

Theo was less certain about that by the day. At first Hanan seemed like a guy who was overwhelmed with choices. Now he was taking too long on purpose, dragging this out as long as he could. Qavell had been reduced to so few people, it wouldn’t be hard to overpower them. Not that the alchemist had plans to do so, but the option was on the table. For now, he only wanted to concern himself with alchemy.

“I don’t trust myself to make the Drogramathi mana,” Salire said, smiling at Theo. “Only the big strong champion can do that.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it once you’re high enough.” Theo laughed to himself, placing his hand over the second part of the mixer. He drained some of his mana, watching as the liquid mana filled it half-way. Each section of this new mixer could hold one-hundred units. The device was shaped like a big tuning fork with tubes entering or exiting in three spots. Those one-hundred units were measured for gas, resulting in half-unit containers for liquids. “This will boost our quality.”

Salire nodded, kicking the still on to feed the device vaporized essence. Theo hit the switch on the other still, feeding bound dilution to the mix. The apprentice alchemist turned to her notebook, writing everything about the process. They would need to amend their book. The alchemist had a moment to watch the process as it worked, making sure everything blended well. There were no problems so far.

“Man, I’m feeling some weird stuff again,” Theo said, looking at the ceiling of the lab. “First when Fenian vanished, then an hour later this. What’s going on?”

Salire laughed. “You remind me of my grandmother. She swore she could tell a storm was coming by the way her tusks felt.”

Theo shook his head, smiling at the idea of an old half-ogre predicting the weather with her tusks. “Looks like the mixing process isn’t instant.” He cut the flow of essence from the still before turning the heat off. “We’ll need some tanks to hold the gas form of the essence so we can feed it to the mixer slowly.”

“The pressure tanks can hold essence in gas form forever, right?” Salire shrugged. “I guess I’m going back to ask Throk for more stuff.”

Theo and Salire planned out some holding tanks for this new process. They had wanted to take a shortcut, but realized it wasn’t possible. Essences and bound dilutions boiled at different rates, requiring them to do these steps separately. Sledge was still out for the count, so the tanks would need to be placed within the lab itself. As long as they didn’t explode, that was fine. The alchemist sent his apprentice off, heading to the mine to upgrade the underground town.

“About time we upgraded that thing,” Sarisa said, jogging after the alchemist.

Theo had withdrawn the Monster Cores set aside for the project. He was eager to get to work on the project, putting the whole underground problem behind him. It left a bad taste in his mouth after Twist revealed himself to be something other than a simple underground elf. The implications of that level of betrayal would be hard to process for a while. But why did he need a ride to the place Qavell once was if he was some powerful guy. The alchemist shook his head, dislodging through distracting thoughts.

“Alise bought up some towers, but my golems have been doing a decent job against the pale elves.” Theo nodded as he strode past the smelter buildings. “I guess I expected a bigger threat.”

“When an underground dragon goes missing, I think you should be worried no matter what.” Rowan scoffed, shaking his head. Yeah, the idea of an entire dragon vanishing without warning was a bit much.

The miners were working, even with the stuff going on in the underground. Theo nodded and greeted them as he passed, sending his senses down to his golems. They had been killing both elves and monsters down there, although the golems didn’t care which. Several of his creations had been destroyed, but that was unsurprising. They took orders from the adventurers, and had been sent out to meet oncoming attacks. As predicted, cave-ins were nothing to the pale elves.

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“Let’s get some walls going,” Theo said, approaching the monolith for Bal’gon. “I guess we should just do a standard upgrade path, right?”

“I really don’t see why not.” Sarisa approached the monolith, looking at how curiously the thing was shaped. Stone Walls and Gates first, then Defensive Emplacements after that. That’s all you need.”

Theo looked around the abandoned area. It looked much like it had when everyone fled aside from the new structures that had been erected. He shoved Monster Cores into the monolith, watching as the level of the building went up. His first selection was for walls, while his second was for roads. There were no other good options, as a water tower upgrade seemed lame. The alchemist paused at Level 15 to inspect the town after selecting the last upgrade.

[Tiny Town]

Name: Bal’gon

Owner: Theo Spencer

Leader: Rowan Fletcher

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 15 (4%)

Core Buildings:

NONE

Defensive Emplacements:

NONE

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

[Defensive Emplacements]

The ground had rumbled when he selected the walls upgrade. Much like those in Broken Tusk, the walls down here were high. The battlements running their length would provide defenders breathing room against attackers. Although they hadn’t added emplacements yet, Alise had bought enough to make any attacker think twice. Theo made his way to those battlements, finding the bodies of monsters down below and his golems moving between them.

“Let’s put our money to work,” Theo said. He selected a spread for ten Chain Lightning towers along the length of the wall. “Once these are in place, Throk can hook them up to be completely automated.”

“Should take pressure off the adventurers.” Rowan peered out over the wall, tearing his attention from Theo’s work. A tower sizzling with the power of lightning sprung up, ready to lash out at any attackers. “Hey, is that the new guy?”

Theo stepped to the side, squinting against the darkness to spot a human man in the distance. It was the new guy. Jan swung a large hammer at a goblin-like monster in, caving its head in. So the outworlder had decided to stay. The man that set off a chain reaction of unknowable impact was a hammer-using servant of Glantheir. That would have been interesting enough, but he seemed like he was having a good time.

“What are your thoughts on him?” Theo asked.

“Ask again in a few weeks and I’ll tell you.” Rowan shrugged, seeming almost unwilling to form an opinion. “I can’t really get a read on him.”

Theo nodded, silently approving of the answer. He had the same impression of the man. Jan was impossible to understand. Like a cornered animal that gave up out of nowhere to work with his captor. Perhaps he was just waiting for the right time. He knew who Twist was, after all. And Twist knew him. What that meant was anyone’s guess, but Jan had already spilled the beans. That included making an official report to the town, which had been immortalized in writing.

“Something weird was happening back where I’m from. Hundreds of years before I left.” Theo sighed as he leaned against the wall. “I’m not sure I want to know what it was.”

“Don’t be a baby.” Sarisa punched him in the arm. It hurt less than he expected. “You’re always in the middle of this crap, so put on your big boy pants and deal with it.”

“I don’t blame Theo for being confused and cautious.” Rowan came in with a rare disagreement with his sister. Well, it was a disagreement with Theo. They were normally a united front to make fun of the alchemist. “Thinking about the way Twist walked around the town when he was part of something so big makes me anxious.”

Sarisa pursed her lips, gritting her teeth for a few moments before nodding. “I guess you’re right.”

Theo checked his interface, finding a note from Salire. It would take a few hours for Throk to work on the new pressure tanks, so she told him to have them ready for tomorrow. That worked for the alchemist, as he felt himself flagging for the day. With little more to do for the day, he wanted to relax and have some food. He thought about going to Tero’gal, but decided that he had enough of that for now. The others would enjoy tea in his realm, but he didn’t need to be with them right now. He needed food and a bath.

“That’s enough of this for now. I’ll put in a work order to have these towers automated. The adventurers can feed them motes by hand for now.” Theo looked over the small amount of work he did today. It wasn’t much, but he was proud. “Anyone hungry? Wanna go to Xam’s?”

Tresk appeared next to Theo in an instant. “I do!”

“Then let’s go.” Theo pushed forward, leading the way up the tunnels to the surface. “I wasn’t made to live in the underground. Not again.”

“Oh! Were your people underground dwellers on Earth?” Sarisa asked, jumping up-and-down with excitement.

“You bet he was,” Tresk said, jabbing a finger at Sarisa. “They lived underground and ate dirt. Theo’s old body is actually half-mole.”

Theo shot her a look, narrowing his eyes.

“Really?” Sarisa asked, eyes glimmering.

“Yup.” Tresk struck a pose, holding the procession up. “Let me tell you a story about the time Theo became king of the Mole People. It all started with a stone, or so the legend says…”

Tresk’s story was nonsense. She told it as the party marched to the Marsh Wolf Tavern. Theo tried not to shake his head as much as he wanted, since Sarisa bought most of the story. On their way to the tavern, they picked up a few citizens that wanted to come along for a meal. When the party settled into the second floor of the tavern, they had to spread out over several tables.

Theo paid little attention to his meal as he considered how things were going. The train to the north was going well, along with the various roads spanning those new chasms. His new form of alchemy would produce fourth tier essence tomorrow at the earliest, so that was good. There might have been entities running around the world that he couldn’t hope to understand, but he was a step closer to pushing through the void.

As always, there had been some bumps along the way. Jan and Twist were a concern. There was a monster wave that would hit in a few days—if Xol’sa’s calculations were correct. The extra-planar elf claimed the arcane math for that kind of thing was tricky. But the underground was sorted, Qavell was stable, and the food set before him was good enough to draw his attention away from his problems.

“Is Xam’s getting better at cooking?” Theo asked.

Tresk sighed. “Yeah. I love your cooking, Sarisa… But you don’t have a core.”

Sarisa nodded. “I won’t pretend as though I can compare.”

“I like your cooking better.” Rowan grumbled as he pushed the food around his plate.

The group chatted around the table until the sun threatened to fall below the horizon. After that they retreated to the bathhouse. While Theo had neglected his private bath, it was still there waiting for him. The entire party soaked in the large natural-style tub and let felt their collective tension walk away.

Theo breathed a sigh of relief, the sensation of the bath’s bolstering effects seeping into his bones. With so many things settling around town, he appreciated how the warm pool acted as a bookend. Heading into the Dreamwalk would make him feel even better. Tomorrow would bring with it alchemy. If he had enough time, he could also dive into the void in an attempt to push past the barrier.

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