The Newt and Demon

There was an empty plot of land on the opposite side of the adventurer’s guild. That’s where Theo placed the sawmill, not wanting to risk placing it outside the walls. He spotted Sledge and her people working the trees outside of the wall with a small contingent of adventurers guarding their progress. The alchemist hadn’t considered how dangerous the job of felling the mighty Ogre Cypress was, but as a towering tree came crashing down, it was brought to the fore of his mind.

Ogre Cypress were much like the cypress trees on Earth. Theo had only learned of them from books, as most of the forests back there were long-since dead. The cypress that enjoyed swamps didn’t grow exceptionally tall back there. That’s where the Ogre variant differed. They towered to impossible, unmeasurable heights. Their boughs stretched out to shade the vast swamp, and the width of their trunk was wider than 5 Half-Ogres interlinking their arms. Without magical help, Sledge would have a hard time bringing the mighty trees low.

The resounding boom and the following tidal wave of water signaled the fall of a tree. Cheers echoed through the swamp and Theo watched the power of Sledge’s cores. She was using a [Woodworker’s Core], but improvised a method to remove the many scraggly boughs from the side of the raw timber. He watched her climb atop a felled tree and run, at full speed, from one end of the other with a saw lowered. The moment it touched a branch, that limb would fall off with a clean cut.

Theo descended the battlements and fed the building a few high-level cores. The building that sprouted up with squat with a shingled roof. It had a small living area on one side and a workshop on the other. Inside the work area was a massive bladed saw, fed by a series of rollers. Sledge could load a sectioned log on the roller and feed it into the saw, which was powered by a mote port. The alchemist realized how nice of a location this was, as there was a section between it and the wall where logs could be stored. He set Sledge as an operator and headed out into the swamp.

With a cadre of adventurers guarding the area, Theo found Sledge working the log. She looked at him with a sly grin, staring down from the top of the massive tree.

“Coming to admire my fine work?” Sledge asked.

Theo cast his eyes over the other 5 workers, who were manually removing the branches that Sledge missed. She’d gathered 2 more workers since he saw her last, likely part of the 5 migrants who arrived before the siege.

“I’ve come with cores,” Theo said, smiling.

“Thank the Gods,” one worker said, wiping sweat from his brow.

Theo gave each worker a logging core and handed the [Forester’s Core] to Sledge. “This is for whoever you elect,” he said. “This is your operation, so delegate it however you want. Do you want to see your new [Sawmill]?”

“Absolutely,” Sledge said, tumbling from the log and falling face-first into the mud. This didn’t seem to dishearten her. She simply stood and wiped the mud from her face.

Theo led the way back into town, gesturing at the [Sawmill]. “I’ll upgrade it a few times for you. That’s part of our contract, after all. Did you want to go over the upgrade options with me?”

“Yeah,” Sledge said, half-hearing his words as she went to inspect the mill. She nodded in approval, walking through the open workshop to the other side. The work area was open, allowing her to pass the massive logs through with ease. How she was going to haul them here was beyond him, but that was her problem to solve.

“You should give it a name before we start,” Theo said.

“Swamp Snapper Mill,” Sledge said, nodding in approval. She held up her hand with a missing finger. “One got me earlier.”

Theo shook his head. She wouldn’t need his alchemical salve. According to Tresk, the Marshlings regenerated digits automatically. He named the mill and inspected it.

[Sawmill]

[Swamp Snapper Mill]

Owners: Belgar (Theo Spencer)

Operator: Sledge

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 1 (0%)

Rent Due: 7 days

Wood Type:

Ogre Cypress

Gardeth Wide Oak

Wood Quality: Perfect/Excellent

Expansions:

None

The quality of the wood was surprising. Everything else was always perfect quality, but the screen claimed it was a mix of perfect and excellent. He shrugged it off and fed the mill high-level cores until it hit level 5. He picked random directions for the place to expand, watching as the building shifted and widened by magic. The process only took a few cores, and the upgrade screen popped up. The alchemist read all available upgrades off to the Marshling.

[Ogre Strength]

All trees felled within a radius (scaling with the level of the sawmill) will weigh a fraction of their actual rate for all operators of the sawmill.

[Felling Accuracy]

All trees felled within a radius (Scaling with the level of the sawmill) will fall within a determined direction with great accuracy.

[Efficient Sawing]

Increase the speed logs are sawed (Scaling with the level of the sawmill).

The good news was that each option scaled with the level of the mill. Theo didn’t have a preference on which one Sledge picked. They all had their merits.

“The one that makes logs lighter,” Sledge said, nodding. “Most laborers have high [Strength], but the cypress are too big.”

Theo nodded, selecting the option without opposing her decision. She would be the person managing the mill, not him. He offered more [Monster Cores] until the sawmill hit level 10, where he intended to stop the upgrading for now. The alchemist wanted to go wide with his upgrade efforts, not investing too much in any one building. A new option appeared alongside the 2 others he didn’t pick.

[Felling Accuracy]

All trees felled within a radius (Scaling with the level of the sawmill) will fall within a determined direction with great accuracy.

[Efficient Sawing]

Increase the speed logs are sawed (Scaling with the level of the sawmill).

[Baelthar’s Cunning]

Any action taken to fell nearby trees in a radius (Scaling with the level of the sawmill) will not attract the attention of monsters.

As he read them out, Sledge nodded. She needed very little time to pick this one. “Baelthar’s Cunning,” she said. “That one’s easy.”

Theo nodded, selecting the option for her. The building had grown at least 20 paces in every direction, increasing the floor space considerably. The living area on the side could now house the workers Sledge recruited comfortably, and the upgrades were all powerful for cutting down trees. With eyes wide, the workers watched the alchemist upgrade the mill, surprised that he’d put so many resources into the project. He departed, allowing the angry Marshling to sort things out from there.

The farmer’s fields were in perfect balance compared to the last time Theo had checked in on them. The windmill spun endlessly, churning out different coarseness for the Zee kernels and creating a large stockpile of flour. Banu was happy with the way things were going, especially since he stopped using so much of the alchemist’s potion. While the way forward could be the enriched soil, ‌cultivation was the key. Cultivated Zee grew larger than the regular kind, reaching well over twice the height and twice the units by volume by the time of harvest.

“I’m working on hybrids,” Banu said, puffing his chest out with pride. “Experimenting with different splices to create new plants entirely.”

Theo hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. He had an approach to problems that went one step at a time, never going beyond his bounds. The garden behind his building held pure plants which were quickly reaching maximum cultivation, but hybridization was a logical next step. He wondered if Zarali had considered something like this before congratulating the farmer on his accomplishment.

The representative that normally came to export the Zee refused to take more than he’d ordered, leaving the farm with a massive stockpile. According to Banu, Fenian sold them quite a few [Dimensional Storage Crates], which allowed for the long-term storage of the crop. Theo mentioned the brewing trade deal with Rivers and Daub, highlighting the possibility of exporting the crop directly to them. They went back and forth for a while before the farmer promised to upgrade his windmill to get expansions related to efficient milling. The alchemist’s deal with the farm didn’t detail his responsibility to improve their core buildings, quickly learning that the plots of earth represented a seed core building.

Unlike most places in Broken Tusk, the farm had a slow trickle of [Monster Cores]. This was a keen investment by several generations of Banu’s family, revealing a foresight Theo thought impossible in the town. The farm’s seed core had a trait that allowed crops to grow quicker, which explained their shorter seasons. Even with the magical energy flooding from the dungeon, stuff just grew too fast here. With several more stops on his list, Theo left the farmers to their work after a long, uneventful chat.

Theo turned his attention south, passing by the smithy as he went. Zarali was yelling at Throk. He yelled back twice as loud. A grin spread across both their faces and they fell over laughing at something. The barrel they were working on together seemed completely changed from before. The wood had turned a pale pink color and the copper bands bore inscriptions in the old Drogramathi script. He concluded she was teaching him how to inscribe sigils on the copper, likely something to harvest the energy of Drogramath.

The town was buzzing with activity by the time Theo made his way southward. He checked his mayor’s screen on the way there, finding additions to almost every screen. Alise made a notes section on each screen and scribbled numbers and lists of relevant information. With her at the helm of the daily grind of mayoral duties, he was able to invest his time into alchemy and improvements for his various investments. She was fresh at the job, but took to it like she’d been doing it her whole life.

Theo stopped to chat with Perg, who seemed to use less and less of his alchemical tannery potions by the day. She claimed it was a secret she would take to the grave, quickly revealing that it was a perk of upgrading her building. The seed core tannery did a lot of the work for her, leaving little room for the alchemist’s potion to take hold. He had revolutionized her industry, only to find his own technique rendered useless with enough upgrades. She assured him she still needed the potion, just in much smaller quantities. They chatted for a while before he departed, determined to upgrade 3 more buildings today.

It wasn’t clear if Nira ever took a break. The woman was working the smelter when Theo arrived, only grunting at him when he arrived. It took a long time to beckon her down from the scaffolding, pulling her aside to tell her about upgrading the buildings.

“Sounds good,” Nira said.

Theo inspected the smelter before proceeding.

[Smeltery]

[Midnight Damsel Smeltery]

Owners: Belgar (Theo Spencer)

Operator: Nira Weir

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 1 (0%)

Rent Due: 3 days

Expansions:

None

He was surprised to see that she’d given it a name. He also didn’t want to inquire about it, noting the sheepish look on her face. The name must have been personal and it wasn’t time to dredge such things up. He fed the smeltery cores until it leveled to 5, selecting random directions for the building to expand.

[Preservation of Heat]

Any crucible within the smeltery will retain its heat better, requiring less heat between pours.

[Fan’glir’s Flames]

Reduces the amount of slag during smelting, resulting in more usable metal.

[Lightweight Crucible]

The crucible now weighs a fraction of its previous weight.

“They’re all good,” Nira said as Theo read them out. “Go for the fire god’s one.”

“Fire god?” Theo asked.

“Fan’glir,” Nira said, nodding. “Elven patron of flames.”

Theo bowed to her expertise, selecting [Fan’glir’s Flames] and moving on to shove more cores into the building. Thanks to the high-level cores, it hit level 10 quickly. He read off the new option.

[Preservation of Heat]

Any crucible within the smeltery will retain its heat better, requiring less heat between pours.

[Lightweight Crucible]

The crucible now weighs a fraction of its previous weight.

[Pattern Alloy]

Introducing 2 raw metals that align allows you to pour a patterned alloy.

“This one is hard,” Nira said, knitting her brow. “[Pattern Alloy] is tempting. That’s hard to do by hand.”

“What value does a patterned alloy have?” Theo asked.

“Well, assuming when I pour it into bars, the pattern remains, we can combine 2 materials to make a better one. But it’s more than that. The resulting material will be better than a traditional alloy,” Nira said.

“Alright. So, what is an alloy?” Theo asked.

Nira let out a sharp breath, as though his question was stupid. The alchemist knew nothing about metal working, and less about how metals worked together. After a moment, she continued. “Two metals combined. Thing is, I assume this is different than normal metalworking. Actually, this seems like a high-level upgrade.”

“Why would we want to combine 2 metals?” Theo asked. “That seems bad. Copper with iron would just make weak iron.”

“Maybe,” Nira said. “Like I said, this is magic. We might end up with some very powerful combinations. Honestly, the other upgrades aren’t that great. I have high [Strength] and we have no shortage of motes. So, [Preservation of Heat] saves us on motes, and [Lightweight Crucible] saves us on labor. But [Pattern Alloy] gives us something totally different.”

This was the most Theo had ever seen Nira talk. She seemed excited about the possibility of [Pattern Alloy]. If Broken Tusk could produce something unique, that would be an advantage. Since they had no shortage of raw metal, they could afford to experiment with different metal, creating a form of bar metal that no one had seen before. That was a longshot, but it’d be worth it to try.

“Go for [Pattern Alloy],” Theo said. “The others aren’t that useful.”

“Agreed,” Nira said, nodding.

Theo selected the upgrade. Unlike most others he’d seen today, Nira wasn’t interested in talking. She left him outside the smelter without another word, returning to work the crucible. The alchemist made his way to Dead Dog Mine, finding several miners resting outside. Gridgen wiped sweat from his brow and greeted him with a hug.

“We’re digging deep, boss,” Gridgen said. “The miners swear they smell mithril.”

“I have a solution for that,” Theo said. “Focus on collecting nuggets, I have a means to make new tunnels.”

“Really?” Gridgen said, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s great.”

The other miners seemed skeptical, but Theo brushed their stares off. He explained the situation and fed the mine cores. Unlike free-standing buildings, seed core production facilities like the mine or the quarry didn’t expand when they leveled up. The alchemist suspected the levels increased the rate of resource spawns, but didn’t know for sure. When the building was upgraded to level 5, he read off the options.

[Miner Fortitude]

Mining actions within the mine will consume less stamina.

[Grom Rang’s Banishment]

Monsters are less likely to find your mine.

[Miner Quickness]

Anyone with a [Miner’s Core] (or variant) will move 25% faster within the mine.

There really wasn’t a good option here, besides [Miner Fortitude]. Anything that allowed a person to work longer was a great. Theo was happy when Gridgen selected this as his first expansion, choosing that option and feeding the mine more cores. After a moment, the mine hit level 10 and a new option appeared.

[Grom Rang’s Banishment]

Monsters are less likely to find your mine.

[Miner Quickness]

Anyone with a [Miner’s Core] (or variant) will move 25% faster within the mine.

[Automatic Deposit]

Items mined within the mine will automatically deposit into a designated storage crate.

Theo thought this one was an easy pick. The miners wouldn’t have to pull the nuggets out from the earth and then walk them over to the dimensional storage crate. They could simply mine something and it would appear in the crate. Gridgen agreed with this one as well, having no interest in [Grom Rang’s Banishment] or [Miner Quickness]. Monsters weren’t a problem, since the southern wall was only 100 paces to the south. Moving quicker in the mine wasn’t needed, either. Until the mine grew to such a size that they needed more speed, the current setup was fine.

“Well, that’s nice,” Gridgen said, chuckling. “Are you upgrading the smeltery today?”

“I already have,” Theo said. “Got some interesting stuff from that one. Now, I need to upgrade my building.”

Gridgen laughed, clapping his hand over Theo’s shoulder. “You’re always working, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Theo said, flashing a grin.

The alchemist spent some time talking with the miners. Alise had been by several times to make sure they had everything they needed, something that surprised Theo. He knew she was checking on everyone, but her dedication to the job was absurd. Each miner was happy, although they hinted at Theo’s plan for childcare. That was an idea that hadn’t made it that far, although Xam’s defensive approach with the tavern was a start. He promised to get the plan moving once their trade deal was established, something that would inject even more money into the town.

Theo departed after a while as the sun hung low in the western sky. He slicked his hair back as he arrived at the Newt and Demon, intent on getting it to level 20, even if it took every [Monster Core] in his inventory.

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