The Newt and Demon

6.58 - Something Below

Theo and Salire stood outside a set of barriers the alchemist had established. The lone centrifuge sat in the center. The pair had left the lab to take up a position in the fields behind Broken Tusk. He figured this would go one of several ways. The idea was to use centrifugal force to remove impurities from the mix. But that was a purely physical application. Most likely, they would need to run the resulting mixture through a still and a vapor pressurizer to get it to the second tier. But once they had that, he could make the potions they needed… Probably.

“Look at it spin,” Salire said, nodding with approval. And no explosions.”

“Yeah, I'm happy about the lack of explosions. Assuming we get this to the right level, I need you to work on something else.”

Salire withdrew a notebook, nodding along.

“I need some Intelligence Essence. I think we can use the old suffuse potions we have laying around.”

“Searing Regeneration and Intelligence…. Hmmm,” Salire tapped her chin. “I see where you’re going.”

Theo smiled to himself. As the days rolled on, he grew more proud of her. There was a point where he thought he was the only special boy deserving of Drogramath’s alchemy. Now he knew there were many people in the world who would excel if they just had the right tools. Salire’s curious nature did more for her alchemy than anything else, and the tenacity of a half-ogre didn’t hurt.

“We can expect the suffuse binding process to go wrong, though. Hard to say if Tero’gal would bind properties together the same way. And according to Tero’gal, the existing Searing Regeneration essence isn’t as good as it could be.”

“We won’t know until you blow us up!”

Theo did the math in his head. Assuming his stock of Searing Regeneration worked with his suffuse potion was wasteful. If he was wrong, he would need to wait another day to test this new potion. He had plenty of Troll’s Blood and a good amount of Veostian Karatan Cheese sitting around to do a limited run of both. He snapped his fingers, turning to Salire.

“Insurance. I need you to get a batch of Suffuse running from Veostian Karatan Cheese, along with a batch of Searing Regeneration from the Troll’s Blood. Do 100 units of each, dedicating any remaining stills to the Lightning Poppy.”

Salire performed a sloppy salute. “Yes, sir! What, uh… What will you be doing?”

“Consulting my checklist here… Goofing around.”

“Ah, yes,” Salire said, taking on a much more formal tone. “Goofing around it is, sir. Would you like some hot tea before goofin’ about?”

“That would be splendid. I’m sure we can hear this thing explode from miles away if something goes wrong.”

Theo joined Salire, heading back to the lab. She brewed some moss tea, which thankfully hadn’t suffered a change from their switch to Tero’gal cores. It wasn’t as good as the stuff Sarisa or Xam made, but it was still good. The alchemist enjoyed the calming moment as he thought about his next little adventure. Perhaps if Tresk and Alex could tear themselves away from running dungeons and finding dragon bones, they could help him with an issue. Probably not.

The alchemist felt Tresk in the distance, drilling Alex on various combat maneuvers. One side of the coin was Theo’s freedom from Tresk’s antics. The other was him missing her for being gone so often. But their connection transcended distance. Even if they weren’t together physically, most emotions were shared through the bond. That was a sense of constant comfort, her brazen confidence often bleeding into his mind without his command.

“Thanks for the tea,” Theo nodded, gesturing to the stills. “If you need help, let me know.”

Salire waved him away. “Begone, alchemist.”

Theo headed off from the Newt and Demon, wandering in no particular direction. Without the Dreamwalk to boost his willpower, he felt like he hadn’t been pushing himself hard enough lately. Even after they worked the kinds out of the alchemy process, there would be far less work to do in the lab every day. That meant more time for infrastructure projects. Especially now that Void had given him the green light to move most of a continent.

The alchemist felt the Shadow core in his chest. He reached deep, brushing his senses against it. After a deep breath, he spread his aura outward. It covered the local area immediately, racing out to cover Broken Tusk a moment later. It stopped just north of Qavell, refusing to go any further. Even without his Dreamwalker’s Core helping, he could interdict his entire town and Qavell. The worst case would mean he would bring along everyone from the alliance, just crammed into a smaller space for now.

Theo swapped his Tero’gal Mage’s Core for his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and headed over to the mines. Gridgen was taking a break outside, which begged an important question. “Are you ever not on break?”

Gridgen offered a sheepish smile. “This happens when you don’t have a taskmaster breathing down your neck.”

Theo cracked a smile. “I don’t plan to be that taskmaster. Anything interesting going on?”

“Not really. We’re working on a few tunnels is all. Hard work the lower we get, but we avoided the caverns on our way down.”

Theo had a moment of hesitation. He was here to work on the path that led through the mountain and down the coast. With his insane willpower and Earth Sorcerer’s Core he would make quick work of carving a path into the stone. But he could use this obvious cheat to help the miners out. His only question was if they wanted that help. That was a hard question to ask, though. The alchemist imagined himself asking if the miners wanted him to trivialize weeks of work in about five minutes…

“Don’t you have fancy rock-moving powers?” Gridgen asked, putting an end to Theo’s internal debate.

“I do have amazing, overpowered rock-moving powers.”

“Wanna move some rocks for us? If you’re not too busy, that is.”

Theo nodded. “Yeah. Let’s move some rocks.”

The mine had become more of a honeycomb of random passages than a mine. The miners themselves were doing exploratory digging, chasing down every cluster of nuggets they could with no regard to organization. Although the chaos was clear, there were stairs that led downward. Someone had taken the time to carve simple ramps into stairs, making it less dangerous for one to descend. Although the leader of the mine was a short human, the passages had been hewn to accommodate people of all sizes. Even with that, the alchemist’s horns scraped against the ceiling a few times.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The sound of pickaxes ringing against stone soon met their ears. At the end of a narrow hall, Theo watched as a team of workers struck at the wall. They cursed, swigged from jars of booze, and were otherwise about as surly as sailors. Only when they spun to find the owner of the mine did they straighten up, striking at the wall with much more power.

“What’s the goal with this one?” Theo asked.

“We’re looking for a vein of something new,” Gridgen said, walking over to pat the wall. “Everyone has a good feeling about this path.

“A very good feeling… Sir,” a random miner put in. The others mirrored his tone.

“Step aside,” Theo said, gesturing for the miners to move away from the wall. They scampered back like frightened children.

Theo reached out with his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and his will. The Shadow’s Spirit Core joined with it, a shock of power flooding through his body. With a flick of his wrist, the alchemist sent a fissure rocking through the stone. He felt the weight of the mountain above him, and the stone below. Jabbing forward with his hand, he drove the fissure deeper. The stone cracked, chipping off in vast splinters. He jabbed his will as far as it would go, smashing the existing stone to either side. A endless, perfectly straight pathway appeared in a flash.

“Oh, yeah,” Gridgen said, letting out a shuddering breath. “That’s the good stuff.”

“Boss, is he gonna replace us?” one miner asked.

“The archduke is too busy to help you lazy lot,” Gridgen said. “Let’s see if we found anything worthwhile.

Theo found himself immensely entertained as he walked with the miners. The marveled at how perfectly ‘hewn’ the tunnel was. But the tunnel was a stark reminder of what he was fighting against. These kinds of powers needed to be plugged. The system needed a reset so no one could take advantage of such holes. These were holes left by the previous false gods. Holes that were nurtured instead of patched. But at least the miners thought it was cool.

“How about a few levels deeper?” Gridgen asked. “I got a good feeling about that.

Theo shrugged. A few more sharp gestures and a staircase appeared, leading them down even deeper. And deeper still when the next level produced nothing. This went on long enough that the alchemist became concerned about air quality. He ordered one miner to run off and request a ventilation system from Throk. But a few hours of ‘digging’ later, and the miners got excited.

“I got a good feeling about this!” Gridgen shouted, his voice echoing off the walls of the tunnel.

“You’ve said that for every tunnel I’ve created,” Theo said.

“But I feel really good about this one.”

Theo shrugged, walking down the dim corridor with nothing but a magical lantern to light the way. The group paused when the ground around them rumbled slightly. The alchemist shared a look with Gridgen, who shrugged.

“I’m wise enough to know that ominous tremors don’t mean good things,” Theo said. He spread his senses outward, piercing through the rock. He retracted them when he felt something beneath them. “Best be quick…”

“I’ve heard stories about this,” a miner said, bringing up the rear with his pick at the ready.

“You’re always telling stories,” Gridgen grumbled. “Maybe if you… Wait, I see something glittering in the dark.”

“Just silver,” Theo said, squinting against the darkness. “Looks like we went to the core of the planet for silver.”

“Not silver you fork-tailed idiot!” a miner shouted.

Theo turned to him and the man clapped a hand over his mouth.

“No, he is a fork-tailed idiot,” Gridgen said, rushing over to the nugget embedded in the wall. He smacked his pick into the wall, and the ground rumbled again. Everyone went silent.

“Best let the fork-tailed idiot take care of it,” Theo said, pulling the nugget from the wall. He handed it over to Gridgen. “Congratulations on your silver. Let’s go.”

“Not silver,” one miner whispered. “Inspect it.”

Theo did exactly that.

[Mythril Nugget]

[Metal Ore]

Epic

Quality: Perfect

A raw nuggets of Mythril. Needs refining.

“A dwarf would scoop your eyes out with a spoon just to touch that,” Gridgen said, his voice breathy and hushed.

“I’ve heard stories!” the story-telling human man said.

“He might be right about that, Theo. We should talk to someone about this. Maybe the old goat of a dwarf at the smithy.”

“What kind of stories?” Theo demanded.

“Demons in the darkness. Dwarves that dig themselves into caverns filled with demons.”

Theo gestured to himself. “You’ve found the demon.”

“Not actual demons,” Gridgen corrected. “Big beasties or something.”

“We’ll seal this tunnel off,” Theo said. He kept a straight face. That of an annoyed taskmaster. Not of a frightened dronon that had just touched something powerful with his senses. Whatever was below them felt powerful. The kind of powerful that would move mountains. He noticed the disappointed look on the face of the others. “After we gather the other nuggets in this tunnel. But you’re not to dig this deep again, okay?”

“Understood, boss,” Gridgen said, smiling the entire time.

After gathering the rest of the nuggets in the hall, the group headed to higher floors in the mine. Theo sealed the way behind them, intending to put as much rock between his miners and whatever creature lurked in the dark. They were extremely upset by this action, but there was nothing else to do. Until he knew more about what they might face, no amount of fortune would be worth losing the lives of his people.

Gridgen joined with Theo, heading off to the mine. Their resident dwarf might know something about the nuggets. And now that Theo’s bag was filled with those nuggets, it seemed like a kingly prize to present to Nira and her team of smelters.

“Thim,” Theo said, poking his head into the Blacksmith’s Workshop. “I’ve got a question.”

“I’m already working on your project,” Thim growled, holding up a plate of Drogramathi Iron for him to see. “Said it would take a few days…”

“That’s not it. I need some dwarf lore.”

Thim set the piece he was working on down, assuming a more relaxed posture. “What is it?”

“I’ve been told this is rare,” Theo said, producing a Mythril Nugget.

Thim raised a brow at first. Until he inspected the item. He stumbled back, almost falling into the forge. “What are you doing with that?”

“See? Beasties,” Gridgen said, nodding with satisfaction.

“Where did you get it?” Thim demanded. “And can I have it?”

“Sure,” Theo said, tossing the nugget over. Gridgen’s mouth fell open.

“What are you doing!? We gotta smelt that!”

Theo shrugged. “Payment for the dwarf lore.”

“A payment big enough to build a house, raise a family, send them off to the best scholarly cults in the world, and retire!” Gridgen shouted.

“That’s far from the mark,” Thim said, bringing the nugget so close to his face he had the tip of his nose pressed against it. “In the dwarven holds, you’ll hear about dwarves digging too deeply. But finding a Mythril Nugget meant you were close to the nest of something nasty. They only appear near underground pockets of magma, which are often home to fearsome creatures. Lava Hydras, Lava Dragons… Basically, any monster related to lava and magma loves living there.”

“So, we were inches from death,” Theo said, shaking his head. “I should have known better. We dug from above using my core. I have a feeling if we dug it manually, we would have disturbed whatever it was living underground.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Thim said, rubbing his thumb over the surface of the glittering metal. In the light of day, it had a green sheen to it. “The quality of the metal this produces doesn’t justify the price, though. This is more of a status item back in the dwarven holds.”

“Time to visit the smelter, I think,” Theo said.