The Newt and Demon - Chapter 5.22 - Chatting with Droggy

A calming breeze blew down from the mountains west of the Tero’gal Ocean. No one had come up with a better name for the places here. Things were always referred to as ‘the ocean,’ or ‘the mountains.’ There were many mountains within the realm. Certainly, there was only one ocean. But the cornerstones of history that saw things being named were lacking here. It just was, and the beings within the realm accepted it.

Drogramath adjusted his coat, popping his boots off awkwardly as he approached the white sand beaches. The demon god dug his toes into the sand. The phantom of a smile graced his face, before it returned to a neutral countenance.

“I like your realm.”

“Really?” Theo asked, finding a fallen log to sit on. “I’ve noticed how the gods all pick themes.”

“My realm is a confusing landscape of glass structures. Massive greenhouses to grow my reagents.” Drogramath looked off into the ocean. The sound of the waves lapping against the shore played a calming melody. “Balkor’s was a word of undeath. Tworgnoth rests on a copper throne, in a cogwork realm. This seems more like the mortal realm than anything.”

The entire exchange had been weird. Theo’s thoughts hadn’t landed on how he felt about the situation. Yuri prevented gods from interacting with the mortal realm, but that didn’t stop the owner of a Mortal Dreamrealm. Whatever that was. The alchemist could invite whichever god he wanted into his realm. They could come to sip tea, or dip their toes in the ocean. Any thoughts of ascension wars, or ploys back on the mortal realm seemed to fall away. The facade of power melted, revealing the gods for what they truly were.

“You’re just people. Aren’t you?”

“A simple question, with a difficult answer,” Drogramath said. The demon god flinched. “Ah. An official warning from the Arbiter. He doesn’t want me telling you the truth about Dronon.”

“Don’t get yourself in trouble for my curiosity.”

Drogramath shrugged. He seemed so easily defeated. The gods were so long-lived, perhaps he stopped caring a long time ago. That energy Theo had witnessed at the start of all this had somewhat vanished.

“The world was seeded. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“We call the first conflict for the heavens the First Ascension War. Or the First War of Ascension. People from Earth were seeded… Ah.”

A loud pop, and Khahar appeared behind Drogramath. The Arbiter was scowling.

“Why bother giving us free will if we can’t tell him?” Drogramath asked, sounding bored. “Why does it matter if he knows?”

Khahar glared. He was at war with himself.

“When the world was seeded,” Khahar said, picking up where Drogramath left off. “People from Earth were sent first. Not everyone was sent at the same time. You’re a good example of that, Theo.”

“They say things were good for a while,” Drogramath said.

Khahar scoffed. “We were at each other’s throats from the start. But ascension was never an option. Not until the Second Seeding.”

Drogramath shrugged. “The first races were the elves, the dwarves, and the Khahari. When the Dronon were seeded… things erupted. Ascension was unlocked, and we were behind.”

“Enter the cycle of destruction and rebirth,” Khahar said. “The best theory is that a different being brought the Dronon here. One of malicious intent.”

“The baleful eye,” Drogramath sighed. “What a mockery.”

“The point is,” Khahar continued. “There might be a Third Seeding. Or a fourth. We just don’t know when it will happen.”

That was too much information for Theo to process at once. The Dronon weren’t from Earth. And there might be more people from different places coming to this planet. They weren’t exactly aliens though, were they? Everyone in this world was an alien. Nothing native existed in this world. What a haunting thought.

“Why tell me?” Theo asked.

“Good question,” Khahar growled.

“Because he deserves to know. This Mortal Dreamrealm is outside of the plan, isn’t it? Anything outside of the plan stinks of him.”

Khahar answered before Theo could ask. “That Baleful Eye Drogramath was talking about… The Harbinger set this world in motion, then stepped away. The other being left a series of instructions hidden away in the system. This place is likely a result of that.”

“So, wait… I thought I was caught in a heavenly pissing match. You’re saying the dick-measuring contest is even bigger?”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Drogramath trailed off.

“I’m saying we don’t know. Until we have control of the system, we can never know. Even then, I’m not sure we can do anything about it.”

“Okay,” Theo said, standing and stretching. “I’m going to push all that crap out of my head and take a walk.”

Neither Drogramath nor Khahar called out as the alchemist walked away. He might have had more pieces to the puzzle, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted any of them. And Yuri wanted to take control of the system? That’s what those thrones were about. Taking control away from the monitor system so they could hunt down whatever vestigial code the Baleful Eye left. Theo walked along the beach for some time before the demon god came to walk with him.

“You’re the first Drogramathi to do industrial alchemy,” Drogramath said, keeping pace with the alchemist. “At scale, anyway. I had a small operation back in the day.”

“How does that work?” Theo asked, trying not to laugh. “Did you show up with a [Drogramath Alchemy Core]?”

Drogramath chuckled, perhaps for the first time since Theo had met him. “I had a basic [Alchemy Core]. Before the war, it evolved into a [Demon Alchemy Core]. Now I just have an [Alchemy God Core]. I don’t care for god-level alchemy, though.”

“Did you always intend for Drogramathi alchemy to be so helpful?”

“You’re missing the point. My alchemy outpaces every other class in the first leg of the race to ascension. By Level 50, every class you’re helping will do their own thing better. Priests can heal better, laborers can build better, and so on. You’re a generalist. With all the good and bad that comes with that.”

“What was the name of your planet?”

“Ard. Doesn’t sound right in the mortal tongue, but close enough.”

“What… uh… was the base for your species? We were apes.”

Drogramath laughed again. “Something close to the reptiles of this world.”

“Fun. A real life lizard-dude.”

“Indeed.”

Drogramath must have thought that Theo took offense to this new information. But he didn’t. It was like being told a moon was slamming into the planet. What was he going to do, stop the moon? It was so far out of his reach that he didn’t care. He would enjoy his time in the Southlands Alliance and that was that. No need to worry about anything else.

“You should stop by, if you can,” Theo said, gesturing vaguely to his world. “This must feel close to being on the mortal realm.”

“It really is. The closest I’ve seen was Baelthar’s realm. The Eternal Game. It’s an endless forest filled with beasts to hunt. The biting bugs are horrid, though. The ogre claims it helps with the realism…” Drogramath trailed off, shaking his head. “Vile little midges.”

The author’s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Another comfortable silence set in between them. Theo could feel that the demon god had something to say, but didn’t know how to express it. After a moment, he gathered himself up and spoke. “It was nice to see Zarali,” Drogramath said. “Her brood had a hard time with life.”

“Seems like every new batch of Dronon has a hard time.”

“They do. Better than it used to be, though.”

“How does that work? Can you spawn new dronon in from your realm?”

“Not exactly. But kind of. We only need one living dronon to make more. We possess a follower, then create a clutch of eggs through them.”

Theo winced. “Alright. Less details.”

“The conditions are specific, but we end up with a brood. They’re born with the ability to care for themselves, but they’re still children.”

“Man. We should get a brood of Drogramathi in Broken Tusk.”

“Perhaps in a few years. My resources are… dwindling.”

Theo and Drogramath walked the beach of the massive ocean. The demon god was eager to chat about whatever, although several topics seemed off-limits. The more time they spent together, the more the potioneer seemed to brighten up. He was even smiling by the end of the conversation, and the alchemist thanked the grace given to him by Glantheir. Perhaps spreading those good vibes was more valuable than anything else.

Naturally, Drogramath had to appear before Zarali before he left. Both she and Belgar pressed their faces into the dirt when they saw him. They openly wept, making conversation impossible. Theo watched from afar, then busied himself with other things. He waited for them to finish up before taking his charge back to the mortal realm.

Theo stood before a row of imagined stills, looking off into the scenery that Tresk had created. His trip into Tero’gal had presented many questions, but it was also a relief. He got to meet Drogramath face-to-face. That was fun. He also learned a bunch of weird stuff he didn’t know what to do with. To ease his mind, he decided to exploit the Dreamwalk to test some reagents out.

A beam of pure fire lanced through the air, scattering the clouds above. Tresk wanted to fight against dragons. Again. So long as the massive beast didn’t disturb his equipment, he didn’t really care.

First up was the [Grimeling Ooze]. The stuff was absolutely foul. It stank before being added to the stills, and now generated a putrid miasma after being heated. The alchemist distilled the Sludge, Rust, and Deteriorate properties as second-tier essences. He didn’t have a good feeling about any of them, but it was worth investigating. Another lone still was creating essence for the Assail property from the [Reanimated Skeleton Fragment].

Perhaps he should have asked Drogramath about the dangerous properties on some reagents. But it was all part of the concept of a generalist. If he could do everything, then some things were bound to be dangerous.

Theo banished the grimeling stills away the moment the essence was done brewing. All three flasks were filled with a murky, brown-green liquid. It was the most color he had ever seen in an essence. He moved to his worktable, preparing a vial for the first reaction.

“Huzzah. I’m sure sludge will produce a useful potion,” Theo said, mocking the nasty little flask on his table. He mixed the essence with enchanted water, then added metal shavings to kick off the reaction.

The scent was almost unbearable. Although he was in the Dreamwalk, the alchemist doubted that the smell would leave his mind soon. He didn’t know what he expected, but he inspected the resulting potion anyway.

[Potion of Sludge]

[Potion]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Alignment:

Drogramath (Minor Bond)

Grade: Excellent Quality

The drinker sweats a thick, stinking type of grimeling sludge.

Effect:

For one hour, the drinker’s sweat is replaced with grimeling sludge.

“Straight in the trash,” Theo said, banishing the potion forever. “Absolutely not. Nope.”

The second essence, [Refined Rust Essence], had a slightly red color to it. It smelled slightly less than the other potions, but perhaps that was simply Theo’s nose dying a slow death. As he crafted the essence into a potion, he was surprised at where his hands led him. Sometimes, potions didn’t want to be brewed as a standard potion. This one wanted to be a bomb. The alchemist went through the motions, adding his enchanted water and flecks of iron to create a [Rust Bomb]. He inspected the result.

[Rust Bomb]

[Bomb]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Alignment:

Drogramath (Minor Bond)

Grade: Excellent Quality

Covers the target in a sludge that eats away at all metal.

Effect:

Unless cleared away or purified, this sludge will eat all metal (magical or otherwise) for fifteen minutes. The rate of decomposition depends on the rarity of this bomb.

While the [Rust Bomb] wouldn’t go straight in the garbage heap, it was weird. There was one situation that Theo could think of for this bomb. When Fenian led the giant elven construct to their gates, this would have been perfect. Any metal-based monsters would be destroyed with ease. But there weren’t any, as far as he knew. Since the potion destroyed magical metal items, there was a scenario where he could toss the potion at a knight, depriving them of their weapon and armor.

“You go into the ‘maybe’ pile,” Theo said, moving on.

Next up was the Deteriorate property. It was an unlockable property, but that didn’t mean it was good. The impression Theo got from looking at the essence was strange. Memories of the [Cleansing Scrub] came back to him. There was an entire class of potions that were considered cleaning agents. Those potions were normally poured over things, rendering some kind of effect. The alchemist added the essence to a vial, mixing equal parts enchanted water and a metal shaving. The reaction wasn’t as gross-smelling as the others, but it was still foul. A plume of black smoke filled the air as the reaction occurred. A moment later, the potion was ready for inspection.

[Potion of Deteriorate]

[Cleaning Agent]

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Alignment:

Drogramath (Minor Bond)

Grade: Excellent Quality

Submerging any item in this potion for at least one day will completely destroy it.

Effect:

Items (magical or otherwise) submerged in this potion will be destroyed without a trace.

Items must be of equal or lesser strength to this potion.

Length of time taken to destroy items depends on the relative power between the potion and the item.

“I don’t even know what to think about that one,” Theo grumbled.

The grimeling was, as expected, a useless creature. There might have been a niche use for the [Potion of Deteriorate], but Theo couldn’t think of it. Even in a scenario where he needed to destroy a dangerously powerful item, that item’s power was the problem. The description of the potion said it couldn’t destroy items more powerful than itself. So, he moved on to the next potion.

The [Reanimated Skeleton Fragment] was an interesting item. Theo had already confirmed that this fragment did not drop from undead out in the world. Those undead generated by Balkor dropped nothing, unless they were carrying something in life. The fragment came from dungeon-generated monster versions of the undead. It held a property, withering, which was useful for poison modifications. Hone Edge was a decent property. Reanimated Dead was one of those properties he wouldn’t touch even if he needed to. That only left the vial of green-silver liquid in his flask. [Refined Assail Essence].

From the outside, Theo had the sense that the Assail property was much like Berserk, or Desperate Attack. It would draw on the life of the imbiber to power an attack. He mixed the essence with enchanted water, watching as a faint cloud of greenish smoke rose from the vial. The scent wasn’t unpleasant, but was distinctly related to the smell of gravedust. Gravedust, being a catalyst in the alchemical world, had a smell between fire-cracked bones and fresh earth. He shook his head, casting off his musings to inspect the potion.

[Potion of Assail]

[Potion]

Rare

Created by: Theo Spencer

Alignment:

Drogramath (Minor Bond)

Grade: Excellent Quality

The next physical attack performed by the drinker ignores all resistances.

Effect:

Applies the [Assail] property to the drinker’s next attack. This effect ignores all resistances, regardless of their source.

This potion came with implications. A Wisdom of the Soul message popped up, confirming what Theo was thinking.

[Wisdom of the Soul]

The wording of the item prompt is too specific. Generally, resistances are considered to be a reduction in damage, or a resistance to that damage. But, the prompt claims that the source of those resistances doesn’t matter. Anything protected by system-generated resistances would be vulnerable to this potion. While you don’t have enough information, this potion might even eliminate the damage reducing effects of the invisible rank function.

Wisdom of the Soul was often cryptic. Theo had to remember that the ability granted to him by the [Wisdom of the Soul Potion] was taking guesses at points. The only drawback to the potion was that it limited the effect to physical attacks. The alchemist wasn’t much of a physical attacker, so it was something for Tresk.

Theo stretched, rolling his shoulders to relieve imagined tension. His alchemy session was fun, even if it was stinky. The most satisfying part about alchemy was taking a reagent and refining it into something usable. The resulting potion might be useless, but knowing if it was useless or not was the important part.

Tresk flashed a sense of recognition through the Dreamwalk. Dawn was drawing closer, and she was interested in getting an early start on the day. Theo finished up his experiments and prepared himself to fall back into the real world.