The Newt and Demon

“So the Elf wants a million potions?” Tresk asked.

The pair assumed their regular seats near the window in the lab, the sun barely a glimmer on the eastern horizon. Tresk was going through the random junk she found in the dungeon yesterday, and cursed her patrol duty with the adventurer’s guild today. She wanted to get more cores and more strange ingredients for Theo, but the guild took priority.

“He’s offering very good money,” Theo said. “But I think my next project is going to be expensive.”

“Maybe,” Tresk said, idly sipping her tea. “You’re already rolling in money. Just gonna make more.”

Theo idly ate his soup, remembering his lack of laborers. “Hey, could you harvest reagents while you’re on patrol?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“[Moss Nettle] and [Manashrooms], mostly,” Theo said.

“Perfect,” Tresk said. “We usually clear out that horrid cave, anyway.”

Theo filled her in on the details of the Dwarven merchant, Thistum, yesterday. She was surprised he would pay so much for stone blocks, but most of the houses in Broken Tusk were wooden. They wouldn’t know about the difference in stones or what a higher quality meant. The alchemist didn’t pretend to be an expert, but he trusted the judgment of Fenian. Ziz and his laborers could pay off their debts in a few short weeks if they kept at it, but they had to be careful not to burn out.

“Well, I’m off,” Tresk said, pressing her forehead against Theo’s.

Tresk departed, leaving Theo in the lab to organize his thoughts. The problem with today was the long list of things he needed to get done. The potions for Fenian were one thing, but he needed to sort out Aarok’s research that the capital promised to teleport in and find some laborers. If he kept giving everyone better jobs, there’d be no one to collect his herbs.

Theo pulled his threadbare robe close and left the Newt and Demon. The sun had risen, casting the stone streets in streaks of long shadows. He found his way to the square, greeting a few townsfolk before inspecting the monolith.

[Small Town]

Name: Broken Tusk

Owner: Kingdom of Qavell

Mayor: Theo Spencer

Faction: [Qavell]

Level: 10 (1%)

Features:

Alchemy Lab

Blacksmith

Large Farm

Tannery

Tradesmen

Adventurer’s Guild

Upgrades:

[Stone Walls and Gates]

[Stone Roads]

He knit his brow, disappointed that they hadn’t reached [Town] status. Theo summoned his mayor interface and scrolled through a few menus. It was mostly statistics and information about taxes, but he found a section on expansion.

[Broken Tusk] can be upgraded to a [Town] when the following conditions are met:

Small Population: COMPLETE

Expanded Land Ownership: INCOMPLETE

Theo tilted his head. Since he became the mayor, he hadn’t gone into these menus. He urged the system to drill down on the concept of land ownership and what it meant. A box appeared defining it for him.

[Primary Land Ownership]: Land owned directly by the settlement. This land is directly incorporated into the land and receives all the benefits of the settlement’s upgrades.

[Expanded Land Ownership]: Expanded land is land not incorporated into the settlement, but still falls under ownership. An example of [Expanded Land Ownership] is a forest outside of a city, designated for hunting. Expanded land cannot contain another settlement, but may contain dungeons, towers, etc.

Theo summoned his mayor map and zoomed out, mentally clicking on the swamp to the west. The tag of [Expanded Land Ownership] popped up, detailing the cost of the land and the benefits of obtaining it. From what he understood, it was something that prevented others from settling on your land. The other advantage of owning the land was that Broken Tusk would have first rights to delve the dungeon, including the destruction of its core. This ‌sent a chill down his spine. Someone could have come along and simply destroyed their dungeon.

The price of the land was ridiculously cheap, compared to other sections of land. The system informed him houses couldn’t be built on the land, and it was only meant as a management area for the [Swamp Dungeon]. It was 50 silver coins to own the land. Theo bought it without hesitation. The wall to the west didn’t move out to incorporate the swamp, as he expected, but a sense of accomplishment tingled in his mind. A new screen he’d never seen popped up in the middle of his vision, complete with a goofy fireworks effect.

[Broken Tusk]

has grown to a [Town]!

Theo patted himself on the back for a moment before delving deeper into the mayor screens. Qavell technically owned most of the property in the surrounding area. When he bought the parcels from the interface, he was paying them for the right to own it. Currently, he was at over 50% ownership of Broken Tusk, but that was just for the land. The seed core for the town itself was available for purchase on the screen for 5 spiritstone coins, which must have been the next tier of currency.

“Do you ever rest?” Aarok shouted from across the way.

“Not really,” Theo said, smiling.

“You’re going to make Miana feel bad,” Aarok said, beaming as he approached the alchemist. He clasped a hand over his shoulder.

“Miana isn’t a demonic alchemist, you can’t blame her,” Theo said with a wry grin. “Right, let’s see if the capital came through on their promise.”

Aarok followed him inside of Miana’s old building and into her office. Sitting on the old desk was a stack of scrolls and tomes, arranged neatly next to the communication crystal. Theo stuffed the crystal in his inventory and gestured for the Half-Ogre to take the papers.

“This is what they sent, I guess,” Theo said.

“By the gods, this is a lot of material,” Aarok said, scowling at the papers.

“Yeah, they like me. So, this is now your building,” Theo said, gesturing vaguely to the adventurer’s guild. “It’s not a seed core building, so I don’t need to transfer the rights to you.”

“Thanks, Theo,” Aarok said. “One day, I’d like to get a proper core building for the guild.”

“Well, I’m sure we can work on that… What time do you think it is? Do you think Fenian is awake?” Theo asked.

“Morning? I don’t know,” Aarok said.

Theo withdrew Fenian’s crystal from his inventory and held it tight. He felt the familiar trilling sensation for a moment before the Elf’s voice flooded through his mind.

Good morning, Theo, Fenian said.

Morning. I have a question about some potions. I created a [Lesser Sprinting Potion] and [Lesser Regeneration Potion]. Are they useful to you? Theo asked.

The sprinting potion is, but not the regeneration one. Honestly, neither are useful for my current order, Fenian said.

Understandable. Another question, do you have any seed cores for adventurer’s guilds?

Sure. They’re a bit pricey compared to workshops and such. Three gold, Fenian said.

“What are you doing?” Aarok asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Talking to Fenian,” Theo said. “He can bring a seed core for an adventurer’s guild around—three gold.”

Aarok nodded. “The guild can afford that.”

Theo tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. Since when could the guild afford anything?

Alright, bring it around next time. Aarok wants to buy it, Theo said.

Sounds good. Listen, I’ve got to go. Talk to you later.

The connection severed before Theo could say another word. He didn’t mind and was surprised that Fenian answered to begin with.

“So, the adventurer’s guild is rich?” Theo asked, laughing.

“Luras has a contact in Rivers and Daub. He got us in with the network of adventurer’s guilds in the northlands,” Aarok said. “We’re getting a few coins to help us get started.”

Theo couldn’t have been happier to have someone other than himself funding everything. He was worried about ownership of the guild falling outside of the hands of Broken Tusk, but it was nice not having to manage it. A thought suddenly struck him about the guild.

“Hey, can I post a contract with the guild?” Theo asked.

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Reagents, mostly,” Theo said, shrugging.

Aarok nodded, pulling a stone tablet from nowhere. He punched his finger on the surface and a screen appeared in Theo’s vision.

“The guild has a template for this kind of quest,” Aarok said. “Just put in your request, how long you want it to run for, and payment.”

Theo inspected the screen and filled it out. He reviewed it before pressing the submit button.

[Supply Run]

Quest

The proprietor of the Newt and Demon is requesting all adventurers to collect reagents for his potion empire.

Objectives:

Collect [Spiny Swamp Thistle Root] (1 silver per 500 max 1000)

Collect [Moss Nettle] (1 silver per 500 max 1000)

Collect [Manashrooms] (1 silver per 500 max 1000)

“Seems like more money than they’d normally make,” Theo said with a shrug.

“People will snatch this up right away,” Aarok said, submitting the quest. “You were smart to put a maximum amount on the reagents—they’d have cleaned you out.”

“Will they be able to see if they’re harvesting the right stuff?” Theo asked.

“They’ll get quest notifications when they collect the right item,” Aarok said, nodding. “So, there’s normally a deposit fee for the quest, but you’re the mayor.”

Theo frowned. He hated when people did stuff for free. “How much is it?”

Aarok laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Theo. Everyone in town owes you more than you know. Just leave it at that.”

Theo narrowed his eyes at the Half-Ogre. “Fine, but I’m gonna get you something nice. You can’t stop me.”

The pair shared a laugh, then spent some time talking about smaller things before Theo departed. Aarok had to get the old building in working order for the guild. Xam would be happy that adventurers wouldn’t be crammed in her tavern all the time.

Theo left the square, running his regular route through the forest to collect reagents. His [Drogramath Alchemy Knife] sent out the familiar ping, the strange shape revealing itself underground once again. This time, the alchemist’s curiosity got the better of him, and he started to dig. He removed his gloves, digging into the earth with clawed hands. Several fat roots were in the way, but he cut through them easily with his knife. Before long he removed the gigantic lumpy ball, hefting it out of the hole and inspecting it.

[Swamp Truffle]

[Alchemy Ingredient] [Food]

Epic

These extremely rare truffles, found typically in swamplands, are prized for their flavor and properties.

Properties:

[Experience Boost] ???? ????

Theo’s heart skipped a beat as he read the property on the truffle. If a noble house was training up their low-level people, what could be better than [Experience Boost]? He knew ‌Fenian would pay a lot of money for any potions that gave increased experience and stuffed the item in his inventory. He judged ‌it was 5 units by weight, which was absurd for a single reagent. It also helped that he could see the truffles scattered underground, clustered here and there.

It was too good to be true, but his intuition told him there were some drawbacks to using any potion derived from the truffle. He returned to the lab immediately, intent on running a tiny batch to determine what kind of potion the truffle could make. Theo washed it off with [Purified Water] before putting it through the grinder and into the [Drogramath Still]. He topped the water off and set the [Flame Artifice] to work, mentally informing Tresk about his discovery.

That sounds too good to be true, Tresk said, scoffing.

I figure there’s going to be some restrictions, Theo said, watching as the silvery liquid dripped into the flask.

Isn’t that always the way?

Theo did nothing else while he cooked down the 5 unit batch. He inspected the essence before moving on, sensing that there was something odd about it.

[Experience Boost Essence]

[Essence]

Epic

Created by: Belgar

Grade: Great Quality

5 units (liquid)

Concentrated essence of Experience Boost

The thing that tipped him off about this essence was the quality. He used the same technique he always did to make the most potent extracts, usually getting excellent quality, but this was only at great. Theo ran his fingers along the side of the flask, trying to figure out what made him so uneasy. Something swelled in his chest, radiating a warmth that sent his heart beating His [Drogramath Alchemy Core] wanted him to do something and he obeyed.

Theo cleaned the [Drogramath Still] out with [Cleansing Scrub] and dumped the 5 units back in. When the still was done running, he was left with 1 unit of the same essence at excellent quality. As the alchemist stood there, looking at the flask, he understood what happened. The [Experience Boost Essence] was incredibly unstable. Anything below excellent quality would simply explode when he tried to introduce a catalyst. His core practically screamed at him when he went to add the new essence to a vial of [Purified Water]. Instead, he introduced it to a solution of 1 [Stabilized Water] with his standard 2 [Copper Shavings]. The reaction was still violent.

If not for the indestructibility of his glassware, it would have shattered. The 2 unit reaction sent ribbons of light and electricity dancing through the lab, almost striking him in the process. The smell it put off was like cotton candy and the solution had a rainbow color when it was done reaction. Theo inspected the new, dangerous potion.

[Lesser Experience Boost Potion]

[Potion]

Epic

Created by: Belgar

Grade: Excellent Quality

Drink to receive bonus experience.

Effect:

Imbiber will receive 25% bonus experience for 5 hours. This effect doesn’t work above character level 10 and may have deleterious effects if used over time.

“Yeah, I’m not drinking that,” Theo said, laughing.