The Newt and Demon

Theo Spencer leaned against the wall of the Marshwolf Tavern, watching as the throngs of people walked past. A memory from when he first arrived flared in his mind, clawing his attention away from the bustling town. He remembered muddy streets, people without aim, and poverty. Impoverished as they were, nothing seemed to dampen the spirits of the locals. Bringing a half-ogre or marshling down was a feat no one had seemed to accomplish. Given enough room to grow, the people within the town of Broken Tusk had seized their chance at greatness.

And to think, it was only the start of something greater.

Theo had invested his efforts into this town as though he was a local. That had earned him the title of ‘Broken Tusker’ just like anyone born here. But along the way he had some help. Perhaps more than a little help. He would be the first to admit that. From the early days when he was in the dark, to the present, he understood how much he had been thrust forward. Piecing things together was easy enough. Those people that had helped him along the way had been waiting for another man. And the alchemist had just met him.

“What’s the plan, boss?”

Dragging his gaze across the scene, Theo’s vision landed on his companion, Tresk. The eager pink marshling gazed up at him with that same Broken Tusker look every other local had. It was a look of infinite potential. As though they could dream it, and that dream would become a reality. Well, they had already done that before so why not make it happen again?

“The new plan is the old plan,” Theo said, pushing off from the building and dusting his coat off. “We’ll secure the votes of the gods and take an entire nation through the void. Simple stuff, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Easy as pie. Except some of those gods hate us. Oh, and you have a bunch of elves to cure. Make sure not to die in the process, cause that would suck.”

“Indeed.”

Tresk had attached herself to Theo starting about a week ago. He was too used to her way to think of anything else. Whatever secret project—other than the magical dragon bones she had been feeding their goose-dragon familiar—had been completed. She was bored and was looking for something to keep her busy over the next few weeks. As for today, there was nothing but relaxation. Until the inevitable happened. Because something always went wrong when he was trying to relax.

Until that time, he would take stock of his progress starting with his attribute sheet.

Theo Spencer

Drogramath Dronon

Level 33

Alchemist

Core Slots: 7

Stats:

Health: 625

Mana: 230

Stamina: 635

Strength: 20 (+11)

Dexterity: 132 (+8)

Vigor: 124 (+8)

Intelligence: 30 (+9)

Wisdom: 342 (+7)

Points: 0

Progress over the last few weeks had been incredibly slow. Theo’s attributes defied what should be possible for someone at Level 33 thanks to a brief exploit he had found. Not listed on his sheet was his incredible willpower, which he couldn’t even begin to speculate as to the level. It was somewhere between his position as an ascendant throne-holder and a god. But the line between those two roles was vast.

Since the plan was to take the entire town along with him and as much of the alliance as possible, the next step would be to work on the buildings, alliance, and town itself. A few more levels and it would exit the phase of Massive Town and enter the city stage of development. He examined the town, skipping over the listed core buildings section.

[Massive Town]

Name: Broken Tusk

Owner: Theo Spencer

Leader: Archduke Theo Spencer

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 30 (20.33%)

Core Buildings:

…

Defensive Emplacements:

Chain Lightning (x12)

Frost Cone (x7)

Fireball (x10)

Firebolt (x25)

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

[Defensive Emplacements]

[Synergistics]

[Dynamic Incorporation]

[Dungeon Information]

Effects:

[Troll Slaying]

[Coordinated Fire]

[Defensive Effects]

Current Resources:

Timber: 10,300

Stone Blocks: 1

Metal: 5,380

Motes: 10,112

Theo laughed at himself. He had given himself the title of archduke, because the system let him. Of all the potential titles for a leader, it was the one he felt closer to. Since he wanted to manage his alliance by setting up independent leaders in the other towns, it made sense. But the more he thought of himself as Archduke Theo Spencer, the less it sat well with him. Since he was betting on the system adapting all the energy they had invested into the town once it arrived on his Throneworld, it was more important now than ever to upgrade it. He then turned his attention to the alliance’s interface.

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[Small Free City Alliance]

Name: Southlands Alliance

Leader: Archduke Theo Spencer

Level: 20 (5%)

Core Towns:

Broken Tusk (Capital)

Rivers and Daub

Gronro-Dir

Qavell

Bal’gon

Current Energy:

62%

Upgrades:

[Zorp]

[Controlled Fire]

[Disaster Shield]

[Defensive Barrier]

This was the screen that had always surprised Theo. Khahar—formerly Yuri Valkov back on Earth—had gifted him a Kingdom Core. The value of the object was immeasurable, and here he was just staring at the screen it provided. More than that, both towns in the region were happy to join the alliance. Rivers and Daub was the closest town, fifteen minutes by tram to the north. Gronro was further still, and had been instrumental at beating back the tide of undeath. Both Qavell and Bal’gon were recent and interesting additions. While Bal’gon was an underground city, populated only by golems and whatever adventurers were brave enough to go down there, Qavell was different.

Qavell had been a thorn in Theo’s side since he arrived on this world. From taxing the locals, to the threat of military action, King Karasan had harassed them. Until Fenian Feintleaf released an undead plague that almost destroyed them entirely. But of course the city became possessed with the spirit of an unknown extra-planar entity intent on destroying everything. After shooting the city down, purging the city of the creature, and befriending the new king, Theo had brought them into the fold.

And the Qavelli people wouldn’t even be the last to join them on their next big adventure.

The space elves. Where to start with the space elves? A resident of Broken Tusk named Xol’sa got Superman’d when he was young. He was catapulted through the void, sent to the mortal realm of Iaredin to live out his life. Instead of superpowers, he got an affinity for planar travel and a job as a wizard. The Bara’their—children of the shard when translated to the local Qavelli language—had stolen away powerful lodestones to make a new world. It didn’t work, and now they were all insane. It fell to Theo to cure them through alchemy, void manipulation, and good old healers.

“I can’t remember the last time you stared off into space for that long,” Tresk said, pulling him from his thoughts. “There’s not that much to do, is there?”

Theo grunted a response, heading away from the town center. If she wanted the answer, she could read his mind through their Tara’hek bond. A tour of Broken Tusk would be far more eventful now than if he would have done it back when he had just arrived. The only things of note when he first got there were the alchemy shop, blacksmith, tannery, farm, and tavern. The town now supported too many businesses to count, including a quarry, logging, a mine, smelter, artificer’s workshop, a ranch, bathhouse, an entire harbor, and most recently a market.

But the newest thing Theo wanted to inspect for the day was related to those same space elves. He tracked a path through his town, spotting the small things he remembered from before the population boom. He passed by Miana’s ranch, waving at the hard-working half-ogre as he went. He greeted the guards on the gates and inspected the merchandise being sold in the market. Only after crossing the river over the stone bridge and coming out onto the open field did he stop to take it all in.

The local stonecutter and quarry operator, Ziz, had been hard at work. Half-ogres were like that. They got bored very easily and often created projects for themselves. Sometimes those projects turned into deadly games with the local wildlife. In Ziz’s case, his boredom had turned into a project to create enough homes for the entire world. That’s what it said in the administration interface, anyway. The reality of it was quite different, though.

Instead of creating individual homes for everyone expected to join the party at the end of the world, he was constructing massive dorms. Buildings made from local materials of white marble and Ogre Cypress sat in neat rows over the open fields. Broken Tusk opened out to the east, nestled between three distinct mountain ranges to the north, west, and south, while being bordered only on the western side by a massive swamp. A river cut from south to north, emptying into the bay. Alongside that river—to the left from Theo’s perspective—was the rail built by Throk, the local artificer.

Ziz had wasted no time to add his touch to the area. He had mirrored the existing stone road, placing another one on the opposite side of the rail. Dotted along the road were the large buildings, other roads shooting off to create small neighborhood-like areas. From his position down the hill, Theo counted about ten buildings already done.

“Does Ziz sleep?” Theo asked, pressing forward onto the road.

“He was buying Greater Stamina Potions from the shop the other day,” Tresk said, ever the tattle-tale.

“We don’t sell those.”

“Salire does when they pay her enough.”

Theo shrugged. Fair enough. The high-tier potions were meant to be held back for the town, but whatever. Salire was a half-ogre born in the north, only to come back to her ancestral homeland to work as a shop assistant. Good thing her aspirations were much higher, resulting in her becoming the second-best alchemist in the world. Theo wasn’t shy about throwing those titles around. From everything he had seen, he was the best alchemist alive, and Salire was the second-best.

“Apparently we just need to feed stimulants to our people and they’ll pave the entire world over. Wish they would’ve asked me, though…” Theo trailed off, looking at the terrain Ziz was working with. “He knows I have my Earth Sorcerer Core, right?”

“Let’s see… A half-ogre having to come to you for help?” Tresk asked, guffawing. “Nah, he’d rather just do it himself and impress you.”

“Fair enough. Looks like we can claim more space from the hills if I dig it out to the west. And the east, actually.”

“Sure, just level the entire planet. We’ll just have a nice flat plane. Is that what you want Theo?” Tresk gave Theo a wild look, her eyes as wide as she could make them. “I didn’t think so.”

“Maybe not, but that would make building things a lot easier. Especially since he intends to do it without magical seed buildings.”

“Good luck finding this many magical buildings. We can always incorporate them later. If we even have time to care about that.”

Nodding, Theo headed on down the road, passing the station for the train. While there was an attendant working there, he didn’t see the train itself. It was likely heading to Gronro or Rivers.

“I’d like to get as many levels in the town and the alliance as I can before we leave. The hope is that the magic translates to Tero’gal.” Theo slapped the side of a house, checking the stability of it. The technique Ziz used to make stone structures employed an ability that allowed him to weld the bricks together with mortar. Which meant it was just about perfect. “Even mundane buildings like this will be useful.”

“Oh! Have we decided on a floating alliance or one on the ground?”

“That depends on Tero’gal. Who knows how it's gonna react.”

“Speaking of, we should decide if Tero’gal is a boy or a girl.”

“What? Why?”

“I mean. I decided, so the planet should decide.”

“Why can’t it just be a planet?” Theo turned, looking at the eager face of his companion.

“Feels weird calling Tero’gal an ‘it’ this far into our relationship.”

Theo had a feeling that Tero’gal didn’t care what people called it. As a sapient planet, it had much bigger things to worry about. Tresk was just projecting. “Tero’gal has to be a dude. Because I’m already outnumbered in the Tara’hek.”

“Fair. I officially declare our planet a boy planet! Planet of the boys! Planet for the boys?”

“Keep digging that hole.”

The best way to find Ziz when he was working on a job was to find the sleeping workers. While he was willing to slam Stamina Potions until he died of a heart attack, his workers weren’t. Theo turned the corner around one building, finding a few Half-Ogres sleeping on the soft grasses. He nudged a few with his foot, but none woke. The sound of blocks being scraped into place told him where to look, though.

“It wouldn’t kill you to sleep,” Theo said, spotting Ziz hard at work on another building. He was doing all the work alone for now, as the rest of his team had passed out.

“Do you like my village?” Ziz asked, turning with a manic look on his face. “Hey, grab a block and pass it over.”

Ziz had an ability that let him grab blocks as though they weighed nothing. But Theo humored him, slotting his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and grabbing the block with his willpower. He hovered the block into place, crossing his arms as he watched the man work.

“Should I karate chop him in the neck?” Tresk asked. “Put him down for a while.”

“No, I’m almost certain that would kill him,” Theo said with a sigh. “Best just to leave him to it… Ziz, do you need any supplies?”

“I got supplies for days! Took all the stone out of storage and now I’m using it. Hey, got any more of those potions?”

“No, and I’m going to cut you off if you keep this up.”

“Come on!”

Shaking his head, Theo turned away from the new construction. There was a lot to get done. With the soul potions ready to go, his next stop was the void… To collect a few hundred wayward elves.

“Are you coming along?” Theo asked, nodding to Tresk.

“Uh, yeah? We’re best friends, aren’t we?”

“Sure. Let’s go.”