The Newt and Demon

Dealing with the flaming monster was therapeutic. Theo felt a lot better about himself after taking care of it. It was dangerous, but he needed a little excitement after things had calmed down so much. While he would be the first to claim that he enjoyed his quiet life in the Alliance, the small spurts of exciting moments became something he looked forward to. It felt odd, but those spats of danger were often highlights of his time here.

Putting himself in dangerous situations wasn’t just about the adrenaline rush. It had more to do with seeing his hard work pay off, observing the effects of his potions, the teamwork of his people, and how efficiently the town was being run. Zan’kir’s people were able to respond to a strange, flailing, flaming monster. Within about 30 seconds of spotting it—sure, they were already on the lookout for a fleet but still—they aligned their weapons and fired with expert precision. After the last void-infused dungeon wave, it was nice to see them take on something slightly more challenging.

Theo, Tresk, Sarisa, and Rowan walked back to town. They all exchanged their memories of the events. Of course, in classic Broken Tusk style, the tale grew taller even before they reached the walls. The alchemist had to put a stop to it when Tresk greatly inflated the number of flaming beasts they dealt with. It was one thing to claim that it was as large as the mountain itself, but two, and three of them? That was too much.

Thinking about what had happened with the last dungeon wave, Theo was hesitant to retrieve more space elves. Everyone was on high alert, expecting something strange to happen with the dungeons. After reaching the town proper, lingering in the market for a while, the alchemist inspected his dungeon information readout.

[Swamp Dungeon] L30 Dormant

[River Dungeon] L19 Dormant

[Mountain Dungeon] L3 Dormant

[Hills Dungeon] L-1 Dormant

[Ocean Dungeon] L1 Dormant

Theo stopped looking at the things on display by the merchants, reading over the list several times. The Hills Dungeon was at level negative one. His brow furrowed as he thought about what that meant. The dungeons had started draining power the moment Void Energy was released into the town. While he didn’t understand exactly what Void Energy was, he had only assumed that it would siphon what heavenly energy those dungeons had accumulated. Dungeons grew in power when their level increased. So what would happen with a dungeon that went into the negatives for its level? Something tickled in the back of his mind, something to do with computers back on Earth, but he couldn’t remember what it was.

“I need to talk to some people,” Theo said, turning to look at Tresk. She had just bought some grilled fish from a vendor and was shoving it in her face.

“What about what?” Tresk asked, through a mouthful of fish, bones and all.

Theo only frowned, opening his administration interface and sending messages to the appropriate people. He set up a meeting with the town’s leaders, as well as Xol’sa. Of course, the resident’s space elf was incredibly busy, but he would come if the alchemist said it was an emergency. Anyway, the man had a Dungeon Engineer’s Core. He would want to hear about this if he hadn’t already noticed.

There was no better place for a meeting than Town Hall. Since they had expanded the building, it had many rooms for meetings, comfortable chairs, and a buzzing atmosphere. Sarisa and Rowan return to the shadows, providing Theo with their watchful, unseen gazes. As expected, the town hall was as busy as ever. Junior administrators moved around the first floor, helping citizens and foreigners alike with whatever questions they had. These were matters that were below the top brass of the governmental structure.

Theo and Tresk found their way to the upper floors, entering a large meeting room and settling into a pair of chairs. Alise was already there, drumming her fingers on the table as she looked between the two of them.

“What have you done this time?” she asked, her eyes flitting between them as though either Theo or Tresk would break under her stare.

“Don’t look at us,” Tresk said, slightly offended. “We actually didn’t do anything this time. Blame the void.”

Elise kneaded her temples, letting out a heavy sigh. “We’re busy enough as it is,” she said, seeming to calm down. “Do you have any solutions?”

Theo smiled, nodding to the door as Xol’sa stepped through. “Just the man I wanted to see.” He gestured for me to take a seat.

“Yes, yes,” Xol’sa said, taking his seat and shaking his head. “I saw the energy of the dungeons changing. Well, I felt it mostly, but then I checked the interface. I really don’t know what it could mean.”

“You really don’t know?” Alise asked, looking between Theo and Xol’sa. “I thought you two were supposed to know the most about this.”

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. Introducing void energy into the mortal realm was a risky thing. It was hard to predict what would happen since the void belonged in the void, nowhere else. This was similar to how the space elves had doomed themselves by creating their island in the void. The effects of constant void exposure had on the island were unpredictable. Theo would have assumed that the entire place would be destroyed, but it was likely the power of the shards that kept it afloat.

The alchemist explained as much to Alise. While he didn’t expect her or Xol’sa to do anything about it, he thought it would be prudent if they knew.

“So, do we have a plan of action?” Alise asked.

“That should be fairly simple,” Xol’sa said. “We treat it just like anything else. Assume that the Hills dungeon is now very dangerous. We should keep a close eye on it and make sure that there are plenty of troops ready to respond if it attacks.”

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“We should also consider sending adventurers in,” Theo said, nodding to Tresk. “People who are strong enough to withstand a high-level dungeon, but who are also smart enough to run away if the need arises.”

“So you need someone who is both strong, and a coward,” Tresk said, nodding in her sage-like way. “Interesting.”

“We need to understand what the dungeon is,” Theo said, correcting Tresk. “We need to know what ‘negative one’ means when it comes to a level. I don’t really know if anybody has encountered that in this world.”

“None that I am aware of,” Xol’sa said. “In all my studies, I’ve never heard of anything going below level one, let alone into the negatives.”

“Could we destroy the dungeon?” Tresk asked. “Maybe blow it up or something. With a nuke. From orbit?”

“Destroying a dungeon is slightly more complicated than that,” Xol’sa said. “I’m not sure if we could use explosives or not.”

“Could you do that, though?” Alise asked. “Could you do some research and see if you can figure out how to destroy the dungeon? If you’re not too busy, that is.”

“Facts have recently come to my attention concerning my attempts at the Tethers and Beacons,” Xol’sa said. “I think I’m at a point where I can say that they will likely work with Theo’s newest friend. I believe they will work. We’re just waiting on him.”

Theo turned to Xol’sa, his eyebrows raising. “Are you really almost done?” he asked. “Was Elrin’s information really that helpful? Did he tell you that much?”

“I only need this slightest nudge to go in the right direction,” Xol’sa said. “And yes, the nature of the shards, the tethers, and the beacons… have finally come under my understanding. I think.”

“Great,” Tresk said. “Now we just need the scary guy with the halberd and the tiger. And everything will work out just fine.”

Alise took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She nodded at each of them. “I appreciate you bringing this to my attention,” she said, sounding as though she was growing more tired by the moment. “Let’s hope we can handle it.”

“Just hold in there, okay?” Theo asked, trying to reassure his best administrator that everything would indeed be okay. “Once we go to Tero’gal, everything will be a lot easier.”

“You say that now,” Alise said, giving Theo an accusatory look. “But I know once we get there, there will be even more work for me to do. I’m managing an alliance right now, and you want me to manage a planet?”

“Actually, it’s a planet and a moon, which is also a planet,” Tresk said.

“You need to work on your tap talks,” Alise said, glaring at Tresk.

“I’m the peppiest around. Ain’t no one peppier,” Trask said, standing up with such force that her chair clattered to the ground behind her.

Theo could feel Tresk’s intent to go probe the new dungeon. Well, it was an old dungeon, but being downgraded to -1 made it a new dungeon in his eyes. He wasn’t sure how safe it would be, but sending somebody to investigate was a good idea. And the perfect person for the job was the angry little lizard.

This wasn’t the first weird thing the system spat out in recent memory. There were some old upgrades aligned with gods that displayed a messed up entry. But the group gathered in the meeting room had their own tasks to accomplish. Xol’sa would get back to working on the beacons and tethers, finishing up whatever else he needed to do. Tresk would investigate the dungeon. And Theo would get back to his lab.

As he left the town hall, watching as Tresk headed off on this newest adventure, Theo spied on her. He wouldn’t be ashamed of keeping an eye on his companion. If she got herself into trouble, he could help pull her out. Or at least send someone else to go after her. For now, he pretended to go back to the lab with nothing on his mind. Of course, Salire was hard at work up in the lab. Ever since Theo had lost his Champion status, she had closed the gap between them. It was more like he had closed the gap by going down in skill.

“Everything going well?” Theo asked, looking over the stills on this floor. There were still some more working on the second floor. “Smells good, anyway…”

“Yeah, I robbed a few free stills for some restoration potions,” Salire pointed at the ones she was talking about. “With the healers busy they’re more important than ever. I’m working with the administrators to figure out what we need most of.”

The Newt and Demon was the only organization providing healing in the region. There were tons of potions that normal people would find a use for in their everyday life. It wasn’t all healing and attribute potions coming out of the shop. But even now, they were unlikely to focus on anything but curative potions. Even stamina and mana potions were off the table.

“Troubling times, aren’t they?” Theo asked, inspecting the brewing essence. The quality was great, meaning they would produce some seriously good potions from this batch. His attention was drawn away from the lab. Alex was somewhere outside, having already dropped Tresk off at the dungeon. “Hold on. A dragon-goose is calling for my attention.”

Salire chuckled to herself, getting back to tending the stills. Theo made his way downstairs, walking outside to see his familiar doing circles in the sky overhead.

“I am bored,” Alex said. “Entertain me.”

Theo frowned up at the dragon-goose. “What is it, you goofy creature?Have I not noticed how much Tresk is your babysitter?”

“Perhaps,” Alex said, shooting an impressive stream of fire. That got a few cheers from the random people on the street below. “But I am bored now. You must entertain me.”

Theo scratched his head, rubbing his horns as he thought. Sometimes Alex could be quite the diva, while others she was completely chill. He let out a steady breath. There wasn’t that much to do in town besides work and fight monsters. With the dungeons acting strangely, they could really only work. That’s when he remembered he basically owned a nation and a few businesses that made a ton of money. He was rich.

“Wanna go shopping?” Theo asked, smiling up at the dragon-goose.

A hard beat of her wings sent a torrent of air rushing down. Theo watched as Alex tracked a path straight to the market, descending before he had a chance to catch up. He broke into a jog, following her to the open-air market. With a giant dragon-goose-thing roaming the market, people kept their distances. She might have been known to them, but Alex rarely went on the ground and mingled with the locals. The alchemist found her honking at a random foreign vendor, although he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“Uh, can you make a big version of this one,” Theo said, gesturing to an ornate cloak.

“What?” the human man asked, his back pressed against a wooden pillar.

Theo snapped his fingers a few times before pushing Alex away. Of course, he couldn’t move the massive creature. She just moved under his command. “The pretty cloak there. Can you make one dragon-goose sized?”

“Uh… Yeah?” the man said, his eyes twitching. “Is it gonna eat me?”

Theo looked between Alex and the vendor. “Not likely. Unless you’re a dragon.” He tried to chuckle to defuse the tension, but it didn’t work. Instead, he negotiated for a price. The man working the counter could apparently make another version of the cloak big enough for Alex to wear.

“What else?” Theo asked, looking around.

“Uhm… Hrm… A crown?” Alex said, her voice echoing through Theo’s mind.

“A crown it is,” Theo said, eager to distract the goose for as long as possible. “Let’s find you a crown.”