The Newt and Demon - Chapter 5.7 - Aarok's Dream

Theo had grown to dislike laboring away in the Dreamwalk. When he went to bed that night, he corrected his thinking. The dream realm was a place to grind experience, while Tero’gal was the place where he could relax. With that in mind, he focused on raising his Drogramath cores, figuring they were the only way to increase his personal level. Now that both his cores matched in rarity, they leveled at about the same speed.

The alchemist rested in his bed, eyes wide open as he looked over his interface. Alchemy, Herbalist, and his personal level had all ticked up to 26. His poor [Toru’aun Mage’s Core] was still at Level 14. Xol’sa might have been mad, but it often took him a while to work himself up to a seething rage. Theo’s attributes were all over the place at this point. Tresk had told him that generalization was a good thing, so he dumped the latest point into Dexterity. One more point and he would be at 20 Dexterity, which would come with a boost. Every 10 attribute points came with the same boost, often providing a new realm of power.

While those realms of power weren’t documented very well, they were clear. Wisdom of the Soul suspected it was something to do with the way the system was incomplete. It was as though the mortal system wanted to segment people into ranks, but couldn’t.

“Busy day,” Tresk shook Theo, trying to pull him out of bed.

Theo reviewed his administrative interfaces, finding that Alise had created a schedule for the day. Nothing too intense. Open house at the Town Hall by mid-morning, tea with the administrators after that… oh yeah, and a monster wave at midday! Xol’sa had estimated the upcoming monster wave to be somewhere between Level 30 and 50. They had let the [River Dungeon] go for far too long, resulting in an accumulation of power. Since the dungeons converted that power into both quantity and quality of monsters, they were in for a ride.

“Quick breakfast,” Theo said, getting to his feet and slipping on his coat. “Then we have a strategy meeting with Aarok.”

“Yay,” Tresk said, twirling her index finger in the air. “Strategy meetings. My favorite.”

Honk!

“At least Alex found her place in the army.” Theo pat his familiar on the head. She was getting bigger by the day. If she stretched out her slender neck, it could reach up to his chest. Before long, she would be larger than Tresk.

The trio ate a quick breakfast before making their way to the adventurer’s guild. There were some new arrivals from Tarantham that would fight against the monster wave. Theo wanted to have hope in their abilities, but they looked worn down. Tired beyond anything that a potion would help, they needed bedrest and some leisure time before they were in fighting form. There were still a few among the new elves that stuck out to the alchemist. There was a young man with a [Coresmith’s Core] that shone amongst the rough gathering of laborers, artisans, and adventurers.

The problem with Coresmiths was their difficult learning curve. Or so Theo had heard. Like the [Drogramath Alchemy Core], the Coresmiths had a vast learning curve. The materials required to create any cores were also extremely expensive. It just reminded the alchemist that he still didn’t have the coin mint that Fenian promised.

Aarok’s office in the Adventurer’s Guild was always stuffy. Even with the air conditioner, he couldn’t seem to get the stale scent of body odor and dried monster blood out of the air. The half-ogre leader of the guild sat at the head of the table with a series of maps strewn out before him. There was no difference in their strategy for defense. Since Xol’sa could spawn the wave at will, they only needed to sit back and let the monsters come to them.

Theo could hardly pay attention as he thought of the [Living River Water] that the boss would drop. He interjected several times, making sure the adventurers knew to use as many freeze-style attacks as they could. That would ensure that his yield of water was maximized. If the boss’s water soaked into the river itself, or the ground, it would be useless.

“We get it, Theo.” Luras smiled over the table. “Alchemy reagents are more important than lives.”

“In some cases.”

Aarok shook his head, trying not to laugh. “We know what we’re doing. I’ve got units from Rivers and Gronro ready to go. They want to get out on the field and get some real-world practice.”

Theo didn’t like that part of the plan, but he didn’t have Aarok’s experience. If the grizzled half-ogre wanted to send some dwarves out to face fade or fald, that was on him. It wasn’t as though either race of water-dwelling monsters were difficult. So long as they were out of the water. There was one main difference compared to the last time Broken Tusk had defended against the [River Dungeon]. They now had a harbor, which bordered the southern section of the river. It stood to reason that the monsters would head there directly.

“We’re reorganizing the towers right now,” Aarok said, jabbing his finger into the map. “Stripping a few from the western wall, and installing one of Throk’s guns on the eastern wall just in case.”

Aarok’s finger traced a path over the wall. He pressed it into a section of the eastern wall nearest Miana’s ranch. Theo wasn’t sure they could mount a rail gun there, but he nodded anyway.

“We’ll need Theo to use his magic on the walls before we kick the wave off,” Luras traced his finger along the map.

They wanted Theo to ward most of the wall. It would require complex, interlinked wards that would take him hours to complete. The alchemist suppressed a groan, only looking up to nod resolutely at his commanders. He was comfortable overriding much of what his administration team told him, but matters of war? Yeah, that was best left to the experts. None of Earth’s spycrafting methods would work on a wave of monsters, so it was best to leave it there.

Aarok and Luras went over a few things. To Theo’s surprise, Zan’kir had a few things to say. Since he was now the captain of the newly formed defense-based unit, he had much to say. He mostly complained about having only one gunnery team.

“Your squads will still be at the piers,” Aarok gestured to that section of the map. “We’re not dropping our guard just because there’s a wave.”

“Understood,” Zan’kir said, nodding. “You’ll see the Sandscourge Company pull its weight today.”

Theo smiled as the pair patted each other on the back. It had taken Zan’kir a while to get over Khahar’s arrival. Well, if the alchemist really thought about it the Khahari man had betrayed Broken Tusk. Since the result was a [Kingdom Core] and a reunion with his old best friend, he let that all go. He also reflected on how nice it would be to have more Khahari in town. It was becoming more of an elven town with each passing day.

“That’s it,” Aarok said, clapping his hands together. “Everyone knows their post. We’ll have a town alert before we start. You’re all dismissed unless you have other duties.”

Theo, Tresk, and Alex lingered in the office as the others departed.

“Are you living out your boyhood dreams?” Theo asked, smiling at Aarok.

The half-ogre chuckled, running his fingers through his hair. “Somehow, I didn’t imagine it would be this stressful.”

Luras elbowed Aarok in the ribs. “Cheer up, commander. You were made for this job.”

“Hah! Something like that. At least we have the dungeons under Xol’sa’s yoke.”

Tresk and Alex remained in the commander’s office while Theo headed off. He made his way to the Newt and Demon, finding Salire handling town-related business. She was handing out their stock of bombs, enhancement potions, healing potions, and so on. Those things were earmarked for the town during emergencies, so they were either sold at a massive discount or given for free.

“I’m going to work on the new potions,” Theo said, patting Salire on the shoulder. She gave him a smile-grimace hybrid expression. “Let me know if you need help.”

Up in the lab, there was enough clutter to occupy Theo’s entire morning. He cleared away the mess into a crate, vowing to clean it properly later. Of course, he wouldn’t. Creating a proper third tier suffuse-based potion was going to be difficult. But the first part of that task was to distill as much liquor as possible. Banu had already delivered absurd amounts of [Zee Kernels] to the lab, allowing him to get ten mashes started. Once the distillation had started, the alchemist turned his attention to the bottles of [Refined Sow Essence] and [Refined Hallow Ground Essence].

Wisdom of the Soul popped, giving him some much-needed information. To create a proper tier three suffuse potion, he would need to use both essences to create an unbound dilution. It was a concept that was effortless to think about, but almost impossible for Theo to approach. Essence didn’t play well together. The [Suffuse Potion] took the essences and made them play nice. A [Unbound Enchanted Dilution] was just mana-infused alcohol that had an essence mixed in.

Theo clenched his teeth, tapped his foot, then drummed his fingers on a table for good measure. Another message claimed it could work if he introduced essences directly to the dilution. Maybe. An experiment was required.

The alchemist dug through his crates, finding a few bottles of liquor. He tilted his head to the side, searching through his near-perfect memory. There were at least three bottles missing. Someone had been getting drunk off of alchemical hooch. He shrugged, withdrawing a few flasks before heading downstairs. Salire was struggling to deal with the massive number of adventurers in the shop, so he sent a message to Gwyn. She arrived promptly, bowing at the door before entering with a gaggle of junior administrators.

Theo pointed at several crates within the lab. “Bombs, attribute potions, restoration potions. Prices are listed at the desk. Come on, Salire.”

The alchemist dragged the shopkeeper out of the building by the arm, despite her objections. They found their way to a secluded section of town, far enough away to prevent the spread of any fires. “Without my gravel yard, I need a new place to test explosive experiments.”

“Explosive? Should I be worried?”

“Explosions are a part of this life, Salire,” Theo said. It was hard not to smile at her. She was always so excited to explore new alchemy, then worried when they got to the part where things blew up. He placed a flask of liquor on the ground, then stepped back. “Third tier suffuse potions. So, I often thought of those potions as third tier already… so…”

“Does this mean you’re going to craft a fourth tier potion?”

“I guess we could think of it like that. Maybe third and a half? No, this batch is strictly third tier. We’re going to bind two second tier essences, then brew them into a suffuse potion. This is something else entirely.”

“Let me see if I understand the plan. We’re experimenting to see if we can make an [Unbound Enchanted Dilution] with two essences, which lets us brew third tier essences of either essence… and uh… we…”

Theo scratched his head. “Yeah, we’re doing something else entirely. We’re taking base essences and priming them to be only suffuse-made potions. We could distill each one on its own, then just bind it as a standard suffuse combination.”

“Seems like the result would be more powerful this way,” Salire said with a nod. “The potency would increase, because you’re telling the essence what it’s going to be in the end.”

That was a fun way to think about it. Since each essence, no matter how pure, had elements of another property from the base reagent, they were always imperfect. While a perfect potion didn’t exist, if they tailored each step toward the suffuse route, the resulting [Hallow the Soil] potions would be more potent by default. It might also affect the speed that the suffuse potion brewed.

“Phew!” Theo mopped his forehead reflexively, but he was perfectly comfortable. He experienced the sensation of being in a humid environment, but was perfectly content. His coat was paying for itself. He chugged a [Greater Vigor Potion], pausing for a moment as he felt himself become significantly more ‘tough,’ then proceeded with the experiment.

Theo created an unbound dilution with both essences, then observed how they interacted when introduced to the alcohol. As he watched, he noticed how the Zee liquor acted as barrier between the two essences. They didn’t want to react violently, as they were too busy being suspended in the solution. Both he and Salire stood back, expecting a violent reaction. But nothing happened.

“Okay. We learned something.”

“We still need to distill it. And we need a seed sample of both third-tier essences.”

“But look,” Theo said, holding the solution up. “It has both properties. Success?”

“Success,” Salire said, smiling softly. “Back to the lab.”

As annoying as it was, in order to make their special version of the suffuse potion, there was a lot of brewing to be done. It was too much work to get done before the monster wave, but that wouldn’t stop the duo from trying. First, they needed to create [Unbound Enchanted Dilution] for both potion types. After that, they needed to distill the resulting [Bound Enchanted Dilution] to create third tier essences for both properties.

Salire operated in a supporting capacity, often pulling the pipes around from the [Internal Liquid Storage] feature to dispense liquor. Theo handled all the measurements for all ten stills, relying on his [Unstable Material Handling] ability to prevent disaster. They split the stills in half, five working on the [Sow] property, and five for the [Hallow Ground] property. The result would generate five-thousand units of [Bound Enchanted Dilution], which would result in five-thousand units of the final [Hallow the Soil] potion. If the potion came out with the standard naming scheme of [Greater Hallow the Soil] it was third tier. If it was any other name, it was fourth tier.

Theo went downstairs to help Gwyn with the adventurers. After sorting those needy people out, he left Salire to manage the stills so he could ward the walls. The alchemist was cutting it close, but both projects were important. He joined with Xol’sa on the battlements, who was gazing off into the distance.

“Busy day,” Theo said, producing a bottle of [Mana Pills] from his inventory. He got to work, chanting the first layer of his [Defense] array.

“Ah, your wards are improving,” Xol’sa said, pausing and waiting for Theo to respond. But the alchemist was chanting a complex spell, and didn’t want to break his concentration. “Right. I can feel the way you’re lacing the magic over the wall. Since the wall is generated by the system, it’s complex to interact with.”

Xol’sa had a lot of experience in messing with system-generated things. Ever since he got his [Dungeon Engineer’s Core], he had delved head-first into that realm. And he was far better than Theo at it. One thing the alchemist had noted was how willful the walls were. He found the same thing to be true with the integrated towers at the piers. Every layer of spellwork that was laid had to be done so expertly. It was like drawing a circle in chalk over a cracked sidewalk. Every line he made had to connect over those cracks, never breaking the form of the ward’s array.

Theo took a deep breath, popping a [Mana Pill] into his mouth and swallowing. “One down. A million to go.”

“You’re not practicing as much as I would like,” Xol’sa said, tutting. “But I suppose you’re busy. You know, I always wanted you to look at the wards that I’ve seeded throughout the swamp.”

“I have a feeling those wards are different. I doubt they work with Toru’aun’s magic.”

Theo felt Alex flying somewhere overhead. He focused on her for a moment, catching flashes of the ground below. Aarok had assigned her to keep an eye on the coast, making sure no interlopers came to ruin their day.

“I’m learning plenty by just watching you. Dronon magic is strange, isn’t it?”

“Why?” Theo asked, waiting before he began the next ward.

“Spells are typically cast through three modes. Chanting, somatic gestures, or channeled. Remember how I had you learn Axpashi? That is the language you’re supposed to be chanting when you form a ward. But you’re not drawing from raw magical energy, you’re pulling from Toru’aun’s realm directly.”

“That sounds problematic.”

“It’s the problem with all aligned cores. I wonder… can you feel Toru’aun’s power as you channel?”

Theo thought about that for a moment. He had been exposed to a lot of godly power. Ever since he arrived in this world, the area was so soaked with Drogramath’s raw power that it was hard to tell what was normal. Even though he had ventured to Rivers and Daub, he still felt the lingering effects of that energy on his body. When he drew from his [Toru’aun Mage’s Core], he felt something.

“She’s so subtle,” Theo said, shaking his head. “It’s like feeling for that one spot of warm water in an icy stream. I can sense it for a moment, but no longer. It slips through my hands before I realize which god’s power is flowing through me.”

“That might be a problem caused by your patron. Drogramath. How does it feel being a champion?”

Once again, Theo was reminded that he had always been a champion. He didn’t know what it was like to be a normal Drogramathi Alchemist, so he couldn’t say. “I’d bet that was the problem. Wisdom of the Soul agrees.”

Xol’sa nodded, fiddling with his robes. “Speaking of. I was wondering if you could make one of those for me.”

“A soul potion? Which one?”

“Intelligence, of course.”

“Absolutely. Give me three to four days.”

“At your leisure.”

Theo turned his attention back to the wall. At least Xol’sa was mad that he hadn’t been keeping up with his magical studies. It was hard enough juggling his other cores, let alone one that needed such intensive research. The alchemist fell into a rhythm in his chanting, finding it easier to weave the complex wards by the hour. Before he knew it, the monster wave was ready to kick off.