The Newt and Demon

7.3 - Sniff Test

Theo wasn’t sure how many more all-nighters he could pull. But the elves needed saving, didn’t they? At least he and Tresk had the foresight to take the night in shifts. Since he had increased his Vigor to 124, he felt as though he could go at least a week without proper sleep. How that would make him feel was another matte. But as he took his shift watching the stills, it gave him time to reflect on how those attributes worked.

The goal of the ascendants was to leverage their position to get certain changes made to the system. One of those changes was the way attributes worked and their effects on people. Theo’s Intelligence was only at 30 for a very good reason. Increasing Wisdom or Intelligence beyond a certain point had effects on the mind. Pumping Intelligence made a person cold and logical, while doing the same for Wisdom replaced a person’s personality with their intuition. Both roads sucked, and the alchemist had only overcome his massive Wisdom with the Wisdom of the Soul potion. Unfortunately, someone could only drink one of those.

While there was likely some effect from higher physical attributes, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Intelligence or Wisdom. But then there was the system of advancement itself. A person could gain a new core slot every 10 levels, and each of those cores had to be leveled to gain personal levels. The only way around that was to do a core dedication, which gave a person a main- and sub-slot for their cores. They could still equip other cores, but only experience from those main cores counted toward a personal level. Without the dedication feature, it would’ve been difficult to reach Level 100… So why encourage that system in the first place?

There were likely many other facets of the system that just didn’t work. But that was for the council to decide. Once they had enough leverage to claim their spot in the system. The system itself still seemed reluctant to recognize them. Or perhaps it had some other plans in mind. Whatever the case, Theo was certain they would work things out. As for the plan with Kuzan… he was less confident with that by the day. The Venom poison might have worked before, but there was no guarantee it would work again. It just seemed like a horrible gamble.

Theo had an idea on how to get what they wanted without using the poison, but still needed to find the perfect person to fill the role. Unfortunately, it would be hard to convince a mortal to ascend to godhood. As strange as that sounded, not everyone wanted the responsibilities of a god. Perhaps they had all learned their lessons from the ascendancy nonsense.

The alchemist nudged Tresk, watching as she stirred on the ground. “Your watch,” he said.

Tresk blinked a few times, jumping to her feet. “Why, thank you good sir,” she said with a bow. “If not for my incredible Vigor, I’d put a boot up your bottom.”

“Thanks to my incredible Vigor,” Theo corrected, crawling into the sheets they had dragged into the lab. “You know what to do, right?”

“No. I can just open my brain to your instincts, though. Don’t worry about it!”

Theo grunted, resting his head on the pillow and drifting off immediately. That was a massive advantage given to them by the Tara’hek. Instant sleep, no matter the circumstances. Of course he drifted into a gray-black void with nothing inside. He would experience time as it happened outside of the incomplete Dreamwalk, but his body would gain the restorative effects of sleep. There were worse ways to spend the night.

Drifting through the nothing, Theo felt himself being pulled somewhere. The Dreamwalk was the manifestation of his shared dream with Tresk. It represented their desire to create, and had given something akin to matter thanks to that shared goal. When one member wasn’t within the pseudo-realm, it appeared like an endless void. But he had never felt that magnetic pull. Too late, he realized what was happening.

Dancing fire raged overhead. Theo heard the shouts as someone, somewhere joined in battle. He stood atop a massive stone wall, looking down at fields of monsters. Next to him were elven defenders, shooting down with bows and arrows, or manning massive cannons that belched fire. The scene flashed and he stood in a burning city, mutated goblins all around. Then an island, a tundra, three more cities, and finally Earth. But it wasn’t the Earth he remembered. It was one of fresh devastation, rather than the century-long devastation he was used to.

Monsters descended onto some unknown city, pushing through the ranks of defenders. Theo steered his mind away from the dream, finding his way back to the gray void. He had tapped into Tresk’s ability to hop between dreams. Without his command, his mind had sought out the man he met only days ago. Whoever Elrin was, he had fought to defend both Iaredin and Earth. Perhaps it didn’t matter now, but the situation they found themselves in now was a fine mirror for that long-gone battle.

He was content to drift in that void until it ended. To his surprise, it represented a much-needed break from his endless thoughts.

###

“My turn to be rude,” Tresk said, tapping Theo in the side with her foot. “Wakey wakey. Eggs and… sausage. They made us eggs and sausage.”

Theo shot up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. His body wasn’t quite as sore as it should have been, and he wouldn’t complain. He rose to his feet, accepting the plate of food offered by Tresk before taking a seat. “Any problems?”

“A few. But I sorted them out,” Tresk said, beaming with pride. “Looks like they have a few more hours to go, but this batch is brewing quickly.”

“Good. Or bad, hard to tell,” Theo said, picking up his fork and spearing a sausage. “The smell seems right.”

“Ah, yes. Sniff the essence, Theo. That’s always the best way to tell if a potion is good.”

Theo craned his neck, narrowing his eyes at one flask. The clarity of the Soul Essence looked great to him. If he had to guess, they were beyond 95%, which would make some delightfully potent potions. The final potion might reach 93% after being mixed with the Suffuse Potion and Burning Regeneration. Also, the sausage was great. Whisper always outdid herself with the sausages she made.

“So, what kind of mischief are we getting up to today?” Tresk asked.

Thinking about it for a moment, Theo devoured the rest of his sausage. “We’re gonna watch the stills. Do you have something in mind?”

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Tresk shrugged. “Something dangerous would be fun.”

Theo tapped his chin. Sometimes he wished his brain didn’t agree with her. But a bit of danger would be fun, especially to break up how boring things had been around town. “Well, there is some horrid creature living under the mine.”

“Oh! That’s the thing you were blocking out in your brain!” Tresk shouted, jumping with excitement. “I wanna kill a giant monster!”

They could at least do some scouting to figure out what the monster was. Theo had three concerns relating to attacks. The first was the underground area in general. There was a network of connected caves under town where a race of elves could attack. That very same race of elves was the one Theo thought Twist was from. Perhaps they were descendants, but most of that man’s people were locked away in the queue, or with Death. The next attack might come from the dungeons. Something was wrong with the dungeons, and no one had figured out how to fix them. That was likely because Xol’sa was too busy. The last attack would come from the giant monster under the mythril portion of the mine. ?

Theo was broken from his thoughts when the bell downstairs rang. He smiled at Salire as she ascended the steps. The half-ogre woman clapped her hands with excitement.

“More potions? You guys work too hard,” she had, crossing the room and patting Tresk on the head. “Do we have a new apprentice alchemist?”

“I’m the master, baby,” Tresk said, striking a pose. “Just kidding. I steal his knowledge. Can you watch these? We’re gonna go slay a giant monster or something.”

“Uhm… Sure? What monster are you two going to slay?” Salire asked, looking slightly concerned.

Sarisa and Rowan appeared from the shadows, both of their arms crossed. “We’re not coming,” Sarisa said.

“You weren’t invited, stinky.”

“Now I wanna come,” Sarisa said.

“Yeah, let’s kill a dragon,” Rowan agreed.

Theo checked his stock of potions, finding that they had enough Foresight potions for a fight. From what little he knew about underground monsters, it seemed likely they were indeed dealing with a dragon or dragon-adjacent creature. Leaving it alone was easy enough. But letting something like that fester under the town only invited disaster. Taking care of it now fell in line with his proactive way of thinking.

“Scouting first,” Theo said, finishing his food and setting his place aside. Tresk sucked it up into their shared inventory. “Let’s try not to engage unless the monster is weak. If it’s a monster at all.”

“Heck yeah. Nothing will go wrong,” Tresk said, pumping her fist. “We’re all gonna live forever!”

Theo gave Salire all the information she needed to know about the run. It was another full run of the Soul Blooms, and should have been ready around midday. After that came the task of giving everyone working the mine that day a day off. When they complained, he sent them to work for Ziz for the day at their normal rate. At first he thought people cared about still being paid, but soon realized they just wanted to keep busy. After the mine was cleared out, it was time for some scouting.

Tresk was the first to press her face against the stone deep in the mine. She nodded to herself, giving Theo the thumbs-up.

“Yeah, I hear something big down there,” she said, telepathically sending the words. “The rock is also very warm.”

Theo nodded at Sarisa and Rowan, who both took a swig of their potions to buff up. The alchemist knelt, pressing his hand against the stone. He used his Earth Sorcerer’s Core to bore a tiny hole, being careful not to shift the stone too much. Tresk them pressed her face against the stone and pulled back quickly.

“Oh, that’s weird,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Big fire monster.”

Theo assumed her previous position, peering into the hole. It was indeed a big old fire monster. All he could see was a flash of flame moving past about fifty feet straight down. When it moved, the ground shook. A few ideas flashed through his mind. Perhaps they could solve this problem without engaging in direct combat. If they planned, they could at least weaken the creature. But the aura it put off was certainly that of a monster. And a strong one at that.

“Does this connect with our main chamber?” Theo asked into Tresk’s mind.

“Make it bigger. I’ll go check.”

Theo nodded, widening the hole for a moment. Tresk slipped into the shadows, activating her stealth ability before dropping into the hole. He shut it closed behind her, viewing the events from her eyes.

Tresk drew on her connection with Theo, gaining attributes to survive the fall. With a pretty sweet roll, she took stock of the area. Like most of the underground caverns, this one was a mixture of naturally forming caverns and passageways. While it was hard to figure out what the monster was, it was at least twice the size of Alex and lingering in the area as though searching. With a form obscured by flickering fire, the six-legged monster scratched at the ground, releasing a low rumbling moan.

It wasn’t a dragon. But the creature was unlike any other Theo had seen. Not that he had traveled the underground area, cataloging each monster. But monsters were typically fantasy-themed things or several creatures smashed together. There was no part of the monster’s stunted body that made sense. Without a tail, and with a too-short neck, it was just confusing. And the fire didn’t help things, making it difficult to understand anything about it.

“I think this creature is stuck,” Tresk said.

“Really?” Theo asked, watching through Tresk’s eyes as she got an angle on its face.

“No eyeballs that I can see.” Tresk kept to the edge of the enormous cavern, tracking a path to avoid the light of the fire. Theo could almost feel the heat washing over himself as he observed through her eyes. She found a spot where the stone looked strange, as though it had bubbled up from below. “What do you think about that?”

It would be better if Theo could get down there and see for himself. At this distance, his Earth Sorcerer’s Core couldn’t get a read on it. But it appeared as though the rock had gone molten, only to cool. The only thing he could think was that the beast had risen from the depths through some lava tube, only for it to be sealed within the room. No other passage was wide enough for it to fit through.

“What’s the plan?” Tresk asked.

The monster let out a long growl, the sound echoing loud enough for Theo to hear it above the cavern. Killing the monster would be a challenge, especially in that dark room. With only the beast’s light to help, things could get tricky. For once in her little lizard life, Tresk didn’t lunge forward to attack the monster. The alchemist waited for it to happen. It felt as though she might burst forward at any moment, driving her daggers into the monster’s fiery hide. But she didn’t.

“So, are we not fighting?” Rowan asked.

“We might not need to,” Theo said, orienting himself to a direction he thought might be east. “I’ve got two plans. One is slightly more dramatic than the other.”

“Let’s go with drama!” Sarisa said.

“Agreed,” Rowan nodded. “Drama sounds more fun.”

“Drama it is…”