The Newt and Demon-7.53 - I Like Mushrooms

The sun shone through the window in the manor’s dining room. As it was a spacious thing, drawing light from both the foyer and adjoined kitchen, the light shooting through the windows drew long shafts over the floor. Theo had to think for a moment to remember what they had for dinner last night, realizing after a moment the answer was sitting right in front of him. Literally, since Sarisa and Rowan had served leftovers once again. Smoked wolf meat stew.

“What a creative way to spice things up!” Tresk praised. Not that she tasted anything the way she dumped it down her throat.

“Yes, very smoky,” Theo said, taking another bite of the stew. He knew better than to ask how they had smoked the meat, instead praying someone else had done the job. The brother and sister duo could find some creative ways to prepare food.

Today’s agenda was still in the air. There was a lot of work to do for whatever contest they came up with, but it was far enough away that no work was required of Theo himself. Construction efforts came first, then they would worry about designing the games. But the thing that drew most of the alchemist’s attention was the Swamp Dungeon and the random shard which now rested in the center of the farm.

Elrin had deposited that shard just in time to save the last dungeon, much to the delight of the local adventurers. They could now maintain their access to an instanced dungeon, gaining levels and loot as much as they wanted. Theo was happy to finally have a singular dungeon. If enough adventurers ran that dungeon, monster waves would become a thing of the past. Local monster waves, that was.

Monster waves from afar were still a threat. After the dragon had emerged from the dungeon in the north, Theo couldn’t predict what would happen. Yet Gronro had yet to report anything significant from that direction. No monster waves, no negative boss monsters… It was all too confusing, and the alchemist didn’t know if their current preparation was enough to keep future threats at bay.

All these thoughts made Theo want to accomplish a few things today. The construction of the arena was far enough off that he didn’t have to worry about it. So, he would make his first stop to talk to Salire at the Newt and Demon. He would then meet up later with Tresk to discuss the dungeon with Xol’sa. But for now, he had some information to relay to his apprentice.

The lab was a mixture of scents that were all quite familiar to the alchemist. Some potions were brewing somewhere within the lab, and a lazy-looking half-ogre manned the counter on the first floor. He barely offered a grunt as Theo ascended the stairs, finding Salire on the third floor. She was working over some stills and looked up to offer him a tired smile when he entered.

“Perhaps it’s about time you get your own apprentice,” Theo said, approaching the stills to inspect what she was working on today. As expected, it was a mixture of attribute potions.

“I’m not sure I would be okay with that,” Salire said. She moved between each still, ensuring the lids were clamped on tightly. Crouching down, she peered through the clear glass flasks to check their contents. She nodded with approval for each one, and then stood to shake her head at the alchemist. “If I lose control of what I’m doing here, then I’m uncertain what I’m actually doing with my life.”

“That’s a bit too deep for 8 in the morning,” Theo said, although he didn’t actually know if it was 8. It could have been 9 for all he knew. “Just think about it. Even if it’s a lab assistant to help you get things going, it might help take some of the stress off you, especially since I don’t help at all.”

“Yes, you are suspiciously bad at helping me with this junk, aren’t you?” Salire said with a wide grin. Poking fun at her boss was always a great way for her to improve her mood. “For now, I’m fine, but normally when you come here, you have something to assign me. So, what is it?”

Salire was keeping a running list of the strange potions Theo came up with. He wanted her to add a few to a more restricted section of the book. Perhaps he was finally at a point where he could trust her with these dangerous recipes. It’s not as though he expected her to go blabbing about the potion that would force a person to drown themselves to everyone who asked, but he still felt oddly guarded about it, even if he couldn’t explain why.

“The Wisdom potion might be pretty useful,” Salire said, making a note of it in her ever-expanding book. “But that’s hard to say. We might need to find a form that gives more consistent results.”

The pair went back and forth on possible applications for something like this. It was hard to say what the adventures of the town wanted, especially with so few of them holding mage-style classes. Instead, Theo was happy just to have it added to the book, and they could figure out what to do with it later. He spent a brief time going over what the lab’s production was at and sneaked in a conversation about what Salire wanted from an apprentice.

“I’ll handpick them, of course,” Theo said with a haughty shrug. He dusted his shoulders off and gave her a wink. “I’d like to think I’m the best at determining what makes a good alchemist.”

“Unfortunately, you’re not the best at determining what makes an outstanding employee,” Salire said, shaking her head. “So you can leave it to me. I don’t mind if you want to interview them before they start, but I want to be the one who does the picking.”

Theo smiled, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “We can do that. Just let me know when you have somebody.”

Once everything was settled at the lab, Theo headed out. He truly had no plans to spend more time there and favored his new position as a researcher rather than a grunt worker. The alchemist could get down to it if he needed to, but discovering new combinations of potions in the function of reagents was far more interesting to him at the moment. He still had the matter of creating his own form of magic to convince his mage’s core to move away from ward-based magic, but that would come another day.

Xol’sa’s portal shimmered in the center of the city. It was always hilarious to see it thrumming away right next to the statue that depicted him in such an indignant way. It always made Theo smile when he passed by it, and this time was no different. He felt the familiar wave of cold wash over him as he stepped through, appearing at the foot of the massive wizard’s tower in the swamp.

The energy within the swamp felt slightly different. It was as though something was missing, and Theo couldn’t deny that it affected him. There was no longer the strange intermingling of heavenly energies in the swamp. Instead, it felt like the regular background flash of power that should have been there all along. Only now did he realize that the thick, godly energy that had suffused the air since he arrived in this world was wrong, and what he was experiencing now was right. It was going to take some getting used to.

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

If he had to pick one word to describe it, it would be “clean,” as though the air itself had been scrubbed of this foreign energy and made right once again. He made his way up the floors of the tavern in the tower, passing by the familiar magical devices and finding Zarali on the second floor. She was lounging with a book and offered barely a half wave as he moved past. The sound of Tresk arguing with Xol’sa came from the top floor of the tower, and the alchemist was happy to see them in a heated debate.

Arguing with Tresk was like arguing with a brick wall. There was absolutely no point to it.

Tresk seized the wizard by his robes and pulled him down to her level. “I don’t care what it takes. I want to portal directly into the dungeon’s core. I want infinite resets. I want to fight waves of monsters that would make you crap your pants.”

Xol’sa looked up to Theo as though the alchemist could help him. “Could you tell the lizard that she wants the impossible?” he asked.

“I could tell her, but she won’t even listen to me,” Theo said. “Tresk, if you want to fight more monsters, just fly Alex north and find dungeons there. I’m sure they’re untamed and filled with level 100 monsters.”

Tresk released Xol’sa’s robe and turned to Theo, shaking her head. “Those dungeons are harder to find than you think,” she said. “I saw one releasing a monster wave, but the monsters weren’t going anywhere logical. They were just wandering around. And it was only level 10.”

“Anyway, would you care to hear what I’ve learned about the dungeon and the interaction of the energies from the shard?” Xol’sa asked, folding his arms as though Tresk’s presence there was slightly annoying. At least he had a half-smile on his face, revealing that he thought it was at least a little amusing.

“Teach me, Mr. Wizard,” Theo said, leaning against the wall and looking down at the marshy soil below.

“We made some assumptions when the shard appeared. Based on our observations of how the dungeons worked before, we knew they were drawing energy from the heavenly realms. When we introduced the elves to the town, they began releasing void energy. That energy was absorbed by the dungeons, and it transformed them negatively. Now we’re observing the dungeon as it has that negative energy purged, but something interesting is happening.”

“The shard is also purging the heavenly energy from the dungeon,” Theo guessed.

“That’s right. Not only is the void energy being removed, but so is all the other heavenly energy. This means we’re left with something very strange—something that I haven’t experienced for most of my life. We’re looking at pure energy. If you think about the way mana has alignments to elemental factors, energy is the same.”

Energy was easiest to explain as the raw form of mana. It permeated the air and acted as the raw ingredient to create mana. This was the same substance that condensed to create dungeons, monsters, and so on. If this was pure energy, that meant there would be pure mana. It was an interesting concept to consider, but Theo wasn’t knowledgeable enough in the ways of a mage to understand the full impact, so he deferred to his expert.

“What kind of impact are we talking about here?” Theo asked. “Anything negative?”

“Those negative aspects could be considered as things like buildings or people who previously relied on aligned mana no longer getting it. That could cause them to revert to a previous state,” Jamie said with a half-hearted shrug. “But I don’t believe there’s anything we are unprepared for.”

“And the dungeon?” Theo asked. “What kind of changes are we seeing?”

“More and stronger monsters,” Tresk said, stepping in. “That pure energy is the perfect food for the dungeon.”

“Stronger? Maybe,” Xol’sa said, scratching his chin. “Think of it more as the energy being more diversified. When Drogramath’s energy dominated the area, we found swamp-themed monsters. Since the dungeon has the ‘swamp’ title, it will continue to do so, only with less variance.”

“Basically, we’ll see normal monsters,” Theo said with a shrug. “Someone boil it down for me. Good thing or bad thing.”

“Good thing,” Xol’sa said. “The types of monsters and how strong they are represent one facet of the dungeon. But remember my special core?”

“His super special core,” Tresk said. “Dungeon Engineer.”

“Right. That one.” Xol’sa cleared his throat. “The pure energy provides a better base for me to use my core. Meaning I can take greater control over the dungeon. More instances, more control over how many monsters per instance, and so on.”

Theo saw that as an absolute win. “Which means we’ll have a ton of happy adventurers.”

“Exactly right,” Xol’sa said. “We’ll have a powerful training ground. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

Theo was getting more excited about their single dungeon by the moment. It was going from “pretty cool” to “totally rad” by the second. When the other dungeons started acting up the first time, things got complicated and annoying. Now with only one dungeon, everything would be well-controlled. And if Xol’sa could create multiple instances, that was even better. They wouldn’t need to worry about scheduling conflicts and other boring administrative stuff like that.

“Correct me if I’m getting the wrong impression, but this is exciting,” Theo said. “Feels like we’re returning to form.”

“You should be excited,” Xol’sa said with the scholarly air he always had. “But my concerns drift to the north… yet again. Once I’m done working on the Swamp Dungeon I’d like to talk about expectations to clear dungeons afar. Or an equally useful solution from that Elrin fellow.”

“There’s something about the balance of world-level magic he has to worry about with the shards,” Theo said. “That gives us time to have our end of the world games and all that, but it means dungeons around the world are going to act up.”

“We can’t police the entire world, dude,” Tresk said. “Best we can do is worry about the region.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” Theo said with a shrug. “Our current plan is… what? Hope the dungeons in the north don’t generate monsters that can fly?”

Xol’sa shrugged. “That’s the plan from what I understand. Only nearby dungeons should truly be affected by the void energy. And now that energy will be absorbed by the nearby shard. So, this shouldn’t be a long-term problem.”

“Yet I feel a lizard at my side itching to explore the dungeons which might have been affected. I mean, consider the idea that the dungeons north of the region were being maintained by Qavell. There’s some solid evidence we should be managing them now,” Theo said. “The question becomes: do we deal with the monsters they spawn, or manage them before they create those monsters?”

“Ah, yes. Preventative or reactionary. An excellent question that only our esteemed leader can answer,” Xol’sa said.

Theo grumbled, eventually shrugging. If he had to deal with the dungeons to the north, he could at least take the victory for the Swamp Dungeon. That fact made up for the junk he’d have to deal with otherwise, so he was happy.

“You should tour the underground defenses while you’re at it,” Xol’sa said, smiling to himself. “They’ve done a great job bolstering that place. The dragon and rock-folk might be gone, but has been built in their place is… Frightening.”

“More guns than you can shake a Fire Salamander at,” Tresk clarified, banishing away Theo’s confusion.

The selfish thought of an alchemist entered Theo’s mind. There were a ton of great mushrooms in the underground area. A trip down there would result in some mushrooms which were both delicious and great reagents. So long as he played it cool…

New n𝙤vel chapters are published on novelbuddy.cσ๓.

“I like mushrooms,” Theo blurted out.

“Underground adventure time?” Tresk asked, bouncing with excitement. “Let’s go!”