The Newt and Demon

It seemed as though Everyday Thea was facing the results of the ascendants' expulsion from their fake heavens. Now that things had calmed down around town, he had time to better examine the effects on his buildings. While he had expected to need to search far to find the first building with an erroneous entry under its expansions, he needed to look no further than the lab. It should have been obvious, of course, since the Shrine to Drogramath was still sitting on the third floor, waiting for offerings that would never come. The building had two upgrades that he needed to sort out. The shrine and Drogramath Distillation Specialty.

At least he had a path forward to fix this problem. Changing the building’s alignment to Tero’gal would fix it. He just hadn’t had the time.

Standing outside of the building, Theo directed the flow of energy. It was easy to grasp those threads of power. The only thing he could feel in the air was latent magic, Tero’gal’s power, and that of the void. It was a heady mix, but nothing he couldn’t handle. When the building's alignment finally changed, he received a system message detailing the differences. This was different than the message he had seen in the past. If only slightly so.

[Building Evolution!]

Your [Alchemy Lab] has evolved into a [Tero’gal Alchemy Lab].

The [Drogramath Distillation Specialty] upgrade has evolved.

The [Shrine to Drogramath] upgrade can be upgraded, but requires your input.

The next screen that appeared looked much like the screen Theo got when he was upgrading a building using monster cores. It provided him with a selection of three options, but the interesting thing was that they weren't recycled from his previous selections.

"Now that's interesting," Theo said, looking over the list.

Increases the purity of potions based on the strength of Tero’gal power in the air.

[Suppression Through Force(fields)]

You may create a small cubic force field over a small area. Alchemical actions within the field are less likely to explode. One explosion may be contained every day (resetting at midnight).

[Stable Mist]Nôv(el)B\\jnn

A stabilizing mist seeps through the lab, reducing the chance your essences will explode. During brewing, less alchemical waste will be generated.

This might have been the best selection of three upgrades Theo had ever seen in his time here. Each one was incredibly useful, and he wanted them all, but of course, he could only pick one. First came the Subtlety in Crafting upgrade, which would increase the purity of his potions. Compared to the others, this was the worst, but it was still amazing. This would be the perfect upgraded take if he were sprinting for higher-tier potions, since the purity typically dropping the quality of those potions would also drop. That would also affect the stability of the essences, but he moved down to the next one, thinking it over.

The next possible upgrade, Suppression Through Force(fields), was incredibly tempting. This one would allow Theo to place a small force field, like the ones he used with his mage's core, to prevent an explosion. He was leaning towards this one, but the next upgrade was also very helpful.

Theo bit his lip as he thought about the stable mist upgrade. One of the worst issues working with Tero’gal’s alchemy system was the alchemical waste it generated. This limited them in many ways, including the stability of the potions. He really wanted the force fields, but this one might be the best pick. Before he selected it, however, he thought it over. He weighed which one would give him the most.

If it came down to it, Theo could use his magic to create force fields within the lab. The force field provided by the upgrade would be guaranteed to absorb an explosion, but the one he generated wouldn't. He figured there were techniques he could use to replicate the upgrade, so he decided against it. Instead, he went with the one that was basically passive. Stable Mist would affect every single batch they created, meaning it was more valuable to him.

"That's my justification, anyway," Theo said, "selecting the upgrade."

After making that pick, Theo inspected the skill that had replaced Drogramath Distillation Specialty. It was effectively a copy of the first, and he saw no changes to the upgrade except for the last line. He nodded with approval as he read through the upgrade.

[Tero’gal Distillation Specialty]

Specialize your lab in Tero’gal Distillation. This option is only available to those dedicated to Tero’gal.

Effect:

Reduces the likelihood that essences will explode when interacting.

Increases the rate of distillation in all stills.

Increases [Wisdom] bonus for all [Alchemists] within the [Alchemy Lab].

Occasionally increases the yield during the distillation process.

Theo wanted to laugh at the way Tero’gal had co-opted Drogramath's own form of distillation. It was as though the old ascendant had his work copied, like a kid in school. The alchemist wouldn't complain. This made things easy, and all these things were still quite familiar. When he was done, he inspected the lab itself, seeing what kind of progress they had made.

[Tero’gal Alchemy Lab] [Alchemy Shop]

[The Newt and Demon]

Owners: Theo Spencer, Tresk

Shopkeeper: Salire Hogrush

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 30 (2%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Alchemy Shop]

[Tero’gal Distillation Specialty]

[Stable Mist]

[Alchemical Garden]

[Internal Liquid Storage]

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

[Lab Extension]

There might be time before the end of the world for him to put a few more levels on the buildings in town. It might have been a superstitious way of thinking, but Theo wasn't eager to bring the buildings too high above his own level. It also meant that he needed to upgrade the town itself, and the next stage for them was to become a proper city. He knew that Broken Tusk wouldn't lose its charm if it got an interface update, but he was still reluctant to do so.

At least there were other buildings for him to upgrade, which could distract him. Theo ran through his mental list of buildings in town that were aligned with any gods. He smiled to himself as he remembered the smelters. Nira had been insistent on avoiding aligned upgrades, and she had made a great call. But the mine wasn't so lucky. It had a dwarf-aligned upgrade that needed fixing. Theo made his way there, taking his time and chatting with people as he went. More people were in town lately, since the party invitation went out.

They were surprised to see that Gridgen, the mine's operator, wasn't standing outside today. But the sound of pickaxes ringing against stone still echoed from within the mine's mouth. The alchemist approached, placing his hand on the mine and summoning the interface. He acted as a conduit, channeling Tero’gal energy into it. It took a while, but eventually the mine evolved, providing the same familiar message he had seen when upgrading the lab. Unlike the lab, he didn’t get an option to select which upgrade he wanted. Instead, he was presented with what had replaced Grom Rang’s Banishment. And he wouldn’t complain.

[Tero’gal Mining Stealth]

Workers in the mine are undetectable to anything outside of its confines.

Tero’gal was helping Theo out. This upgrade would have been super helpful when that creature was lurking beneath the mine. This upgrade would’ve made it impossible for the miners to be detected, shielding them from the weird fire monster. The alchemist sighed, reserving himself to the idea that he didn’t always get what he wanted when he needed it. Next he inspected the mine itself, making note of something interesting.

[Tero’gal Mine]

[Dead Dog Mine]

Owners: Theo Spencer

Operator: Gridgen Dev

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 30 (2%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Ore Type:

Copper

Iron

[Material ERROR]

Mythril

Ore Quality: Perfect

Expansions:

[Miner Fortitude]

[Automatic Deposit]

[Miner Quickness]

[Tero’gal Mining Stealth]

[Escape]

[Rail Carts]

Although Theo had aligned the mine to Tero’gal, that didn't fix the issue it had with providing aligned ore. Instead, it now just showed an error where it should have shown the aligned metal. After finishing up at the mine and avoiding any deep conversations with the man who ran it, Theo laughed before he could be drawn into one. He felt both Tresk and Alex nearby, flying through the skies above, moving between the dungeons to create more reports.

The next building that tickled his mind was the sawmill. When the ascendents were removed from their realms, Theo had taken steps to push the alignment of the buildings toward his own realm. But he had to focus his energy then on realigning everyone's course first. At least now he had the time to focus on this. The sawmill had an upgrade aligned with Baelthar, and he had a feeling it would be a simple replacement rather than a selection.

Sledge was still taking care of her brood of marshlings, and a half-ogre had taken over the sawmill. They barely paid attention to him as he approached, siphoning energy from his throw-world into the building. Although the building was on a far lower level than most others in town, he had no intention of upgrading it today. He was just switching its alignment so it could take advantage of another useful upgrade. This one came quicker than he expected, meaning the building had been absorbing energy from the air, or perhaps his minor efforts had generated more of an effect than he thought.

The building rolled over, switching from one alignment to another upgrade. Theo inspected the new upgrade, nodding with approval.

[Tero’gal’s Cunning]

Any action taken to fell nearby trees in a radius (scaling with the power of Tero’gal’s energy in the air) will render you invisible and soundless to monsters.

This upgrade was far better than the other. The older version of this ability only prevented attracting monster's attention. This new version made a person invisible and silent to monsters—a much more pointed statement about being completely undetectable. He inspected the upgraded sawmill, wincing at the level once again.

[Tero’gal Sawmill]

[Swamp Snapper Mill]

Owners: Belgar (Theo Spencer)

Operator: Sledge

Faction: [Broken Tusk]

Level: 10 (50%)

Rent Due: 7 days

Wood Type:

Ogre Cypress

Gardeth Wide Oak

Wood Quality: Perfect/Excellent

Expansions:

[Ogre Strength]

[Tero’gal’s Cunning]

The next stop Theo planned to make was his small farm on the outskirts of town. It was the farm Tresk had playfully named "Hunk if you're hungry," and it had one upgrade aligned with the demon ascendant. He headed over, checking on his golems working the fields as he went. They were hard-working things that barely required any attention from him. Although he had completely ignored them since the last time they were destroyed, they had re-sown the fields and harvested them several times, providing the town with much-needed wheat.

Swapping the small field over to the power of his throne world was even easier than the small mill. It rolled over almost immediately and provided him with the same familiar prompt. Theo inspected the single upgrade that had been replaced.

[Tero’gal Cultivation]

Your farm is now aligned with the power of Tero’gal. So long as Tero’gal power is present, your crops will grow at a substantially faster rate and provide a higher yield.

If the energy of Tero’gal is high enough, you are given better control over the hybridization and evolution of crops.

This was simply a better version of the old one. Where the old upgrade only provided higher yields, this one had better yields and shorter grow times. Not only that, but it would give him the option to better control the hybridization of crops. One big problem was that a crop hybridized on its own, creating unwanted mutants that made it difficult to organize things.

Theo didn't bother inspecting the farm when he was done. Instead, he went to the large farm on the hill that was run by Banurub. It had the same upgrade as his, and when applied with the other aligned energy, it rolled over, but not as quickly as the two buildings before. The alchemist was happy to see that it gained the same version of Tero’gal Cultivation as the last one.

"Are you messing with my fields?" Banu asked, stomping over.

Theo saw through the ruse and waved him away. "I'm just making them better, you old goat," he said, flashing a smile. "I had to change the alignment on your farm since you basically had a useless one. Actually, I've only got one more stomp to make after this."

"Yeah, well, the sooner you're gone, the better," Banu said, acting far grumpier than normal.

Theo would leave it there. He understood why Banu was upset. With the end-of-the-world party coming up, the farmers were under immense pressure. Ziz and his gang took the task to heart, putting everything they had into building as many structures as possible. But people without shelter didn't die; people without food did. This meant the farmers were the most important people, and the half-ogre didn't appreciate the pressure.

The Alchemist realized that he should be putting more effort into expanding his farm, run by his golems. He had enough willpower to create a massive army of Plant Golems. His estimates for how much wheat he could produce with additional farms weren't limited by the amount of golems he could create, but by the amount of space he had to work with. Looking to the east of the farmer's hill, he spotted decent tracts of land that were still uninterrupted by the construction of the temporary housing.

"I might be able to help take some pressure off of you," Theo said, not bothering to look back at the blustering farmer. "Once I go upgrade the butcher, anyway.”

"Yeah, go do your weird stuff over there," he said, stomping off.

Theo did exactly that, heading back into town and visiting the last building he needed to change the alignment on. The butcher only had a single upgrade related to another realm: Touch of Bohor, which was aligned with a Toora ascendant. It was aligned with one of the bearfolk Ascendants before it was displayed as an error. The woman who ran the shop didn't seem to care; she was soft-spoken most of the time and never complained about anything, so long as she had air conditioning.

Theo applied his aligned power to the building. It took longer than all the others today to switch to an aligned building, but he wouldn't complain. When the system message appeared, it displayed the replaced upgrade. It wasn't better or worse; it was just different. The upgrade also seemed less moody.

[Touch of Tero’gal]

Meat produced in this butcher provides a large boost in energy and reduces fatigue.

In some ways, this upgrade was worse than the last one. The one aligned with Bohor made food that was more sustaining and filling. But that wasn't the way of Tero’gal. Instead, it provided a person with a large energy boost. While that was cool, it wasn't as good as food that you needed to eat less of.

"Oh well," Theo said to himself, "Time to go buy some farms, I guess."