The Newt and Demon

The concerning part about developing abilities related to predicting futures was the unfurling of fates. This was something Theo had expected based on things Khahar told him, but he hadn’t been eager to experience it. He stood by the entrance to the dungeon, tapping his foot as his mind adjusted. Before, it was easy enough to watch future events play out. He would see a person move before they should, and could scrub through the events with relative ease. Now he saw the threads. Only one or two for now, but he suspected it would get worse.

Theo squinted, watching as a new thread appeared from the entrance of the dungeon. He grabbed onto it with his mind, tugging to view the event. It was nothing interesting, but the confusion was still there.

“Imagine if you could tame something like Frank,” Tresk said with a wistful sigh. “I’d ride that bad boy all over the place.”

“Think about the food you’d have to find,” Theo countered. “It wouldn’t be cheap.”

“Bah, I could do it.”

Despite what he had expected, none of the fates Theo viewed ended in disaster. But he got to watch an alert pop up for his future self, informing him of something only slightly concerning. The elves would wake in about a minute. Instead of rushing to the infirmary under the temple, he watched the entrance to the dungeon. There was no movement. Not even after the message came for real.

“I expected a surge of void energy,” Theo said. He wasn’t disappointed, just surprised.

“From the elfies?” Tresk asked, scratching her wet little chin. “Makes no sense, boss. Those elves were already drained of their void magic. Worry about the ones you still gotta bring in.”

Theo grumbled. He wasn’t in the best mood after battling against Frank and the dungeon within. Well, he had one thing to be happy about. With Xol’sa’s help he could now nuke the dungeons. He focused on that and his mood improved significantly.

“Now that I think about it, I’m not really worried about much,” Theo said. He had to admit at least that much to himself. “What’s your take on the dungeon nuke? Think it’ll be effective?”

“Well, I have something that’s gonna help with that… heh heh heh… But that’s a surprise tool we’ll save for later,” Tresk said with a wink. “But, yeah. The giant nuke should work fine for the Ocean Dungeon. Drop the nuke, give it a few hours, then check it out. Easy-peasy.”

Theo wished he had her confidence, but he simply didn’t. There were many things that could go wrong, and he simply wanted to be prepared. The calls for the alchemist to come back and check on the awake elves grew too loud, and he had to leave Tresk, Sarisa, and Rowan there at the dungeon to sort things out.

“See ya,” Theo said, waving as he departed from the dungeon. Tresk did a couple of heroic poses, which gave him an odd amount of confidence to face the issues with the elves.

Thankfully, Zarali, Bilgrob, and Sulvan were handling the situation very well. When Theo arrived at the temple, he found the junior administrators hard at work. Several hundred elves were coming up from the infirmary, squinting around and muttering with confusion. There was plenty of housing for them, but with so many folks coming out of century-long bouts of insanity, they would need to be under strict contracts. The alchemist pushed his way beyond those elves, finding Sulvan waving him over from the area near the altar.

“Theo. Thank you for coming,” Sulvan said. The smile that hung on his face was genuine. “I’m happy to report each elf is awakening without issue. They’re all very confused, but they seem eager to sign contracts with the alliance.”

“Do they remember much from their past lives?” Theo asked.

“Indeed, they do. Unfortunately, it’s nothing good. To boil their story down, they stole the shards that were keeping the world together and ran away to space,” Sulvan said with a shrug. “Things went wrong right away, and they all went insane.”

“That lines up with what we know. How many retained their cores?” Theo asked.

“None. Some even had their core slots burned out, which will require additional recovery time. It’s fairly grim, but this was the best possible outcome for them. We really made a difference.”

“Do you think so?” Theo asked, watching as more elves came up from the catacombs. “I guess we did, huh?”

“More than you know, tiny demon,” Bilgrob said, scooping Theo in a hug from behind. He squeezed—perhaps a little too tightly—before giving him a big kiss on the head. “Spit would be proud!”

“I can go ask if you like,” Theo wheezed. “Please put me down.”

Bilgrob released him, patting the alchemist on the head a few times. “When I was first told of this plan, I thought it was idiotic. But thanks to your alchemy—which makes absolutely no sense to me—we have done it.”

“Don’t discount your healing abilities, Bilgrob,” Sulvan said. The smile on his face seemed to grow wider by the moment. “The potions started the process. But we guided their souls into place, and prevented them from dying as they recovered.”

“Don’t forget about the part where we cleaned their dirty butts,” Bilgrob said, shaking his head. “Another miracle of alchemy!”

“Yes, I’d rather not remember that part,” Sulvan said. His eyes went unfocused as he shook his head. “Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you gave us some time before you bring the next batch. Either that, or hire some more healers.”

“I would hire every healer if I could find some…”

“Why not just take a healing core?” Bilgrob asked. “That shouldn’t be too hard.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Everyone has a role,” Sulvan said. “If Theo takes his attention away from other things, that wouldn’t do.”

It was a good point, of course. Anyone could fit the role if they could find the core. But Theo didn’t remember seeing any healing-aligned cores for sale in the market. Since the Coresmith from Tarantham had visited the port a few times, he expected to see something. But as he searched his memory, he couldn’t remember seeing any healing cores. He supposed that made sense, since most healing cores were gifted by the gods. It was hard to tell if it was even possible to craft one.

“Couldn’t he ask his realm to generate some?” Bilgrob asked. “Then we could distribute them.”

Theo raised his hand. “I’m still here.”

“Are you? Your eyes went unfocused, and I assumed you were musing about something. The way you always do,” Bilgrob countered.

“Fair point,” Theo said, folding his arms. He was still sore about the dungeon trip. For his first journey into a dungeon, it wasn’t pleasant. “Tero’gal cannot generate cores for some reason. It can change existing cores, but not make them.”

“Part of the change with the system, no doubt,” Sulvan said. “Gaining a core from an ascendant was easy enough before they were banished. Until the world resets, I suspect that would be impossible.”

Maybe… It was very hard to say what would work. The issue rested with the structure of the new gods, and their interaction with the system. Whatever, it wasn’t a point worth delving into right now. They couldn’t make healing cores and that was that.

“I can give you a few days to rest before we bring the next elves. I’ll just say that once that happens, you guys can do whatever you want. We’ll have a decent break between that and the end of the world.”

“Perfect!” Bilgrob shouted. “I plan to get extremely drunk and pick a few fights!”

“My only goal is to serve,” Sulvan said, bowing his head. “Hallow has extended his hand, and I intend to take it in earnest.”

“Oh, yeah. There’s also a new god… I should keep a list somewhere…”

“How many more slots are there?” Sulvan asked.

“Three or four. And the Realm of Death might change soon enough. Depending on if that Elrin guy works with me or not.”

“Right… Well, if you could help out with the elves, that would be nice,” Sulvan said.

Theo nodded. He had the power to give contracts to people, so that’s what he did. It was his standard contract that restricted them from harming anyone within the alliance. If they acted against the Southlands Alliance, magical wolves would come to tear them apart. That was the most negative reaction the alchemist had seen to someone breaking his contracts, anyway. The punishment could be different depending on not only the intent of the person breaking the contract, but also how bad the thing they did was.

There would have been a lot to do to settle the space elves into the city, if not for the preparedness of those in charge. Instead the process was almost effortless. Even if there were hundreds of elves to deal with, they simply had to sign their contracts and head off to the dorms. Thea watched with pride as everything was sorted efficiently. Even the food situation was better, although that had required additional staff to prepare the food.

When they no longer required Theo’s help, he went to help keep an eye on the dungeon. But as he stood near the entrance, he watched as the edges of the portal faded, as the archway crumbled and fell to the ground, turning to dust. Despite the bad feeling he had about the situation, the dungeon was destroyed. He pulled up his dungeon information screen just to be sure, and a smile spread across his face as he read it.

[Swamp Dungeon] L30 Dormant

[River Dungeon] L19 Dormant

[Mountain Dungeon] L3 Dormant

[Ocean Dungeon] L-1 Dormant

[Cave Dungeon] L45 Dormant

Theo turned to Tresk and placed his hand on her shoulder. “One less dungeon,” he said, nodding to her.

“I actually can’t believe that worked,” Tresk said. “Seriously, I thought Frank was going to come bursting out of that portal at any moment.”

That’s exactly what Theo had expected. Instead, he felt his mind going numb when his thoughts finally caught up to him. He could only think of doing one thing. Theo and Tresk had hired somebody to work the stills to create the zee liquor. It was intended for the end-of-the-world party, but even after only a few days of brewing, they had a significant stockpile. It didn’t hurt that when it was brewed, it had to be watered down so it wouldn’t render whoever drank it blind.

The alchemist cleared his throat as he composed a message to the city.

[Theo]: The Hills Dungeon has been destroyed. Free booze at the city’s square.

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” Tresk said, cackling. She reached into the small bag on her hip and withdrew an overly large barrel. “I’ve been waiting for such an occasion.”

The half-ogres and marshlings of the town were normally well-mannered. They didn’t go out of their way to cause a ruckus, but once alcohol was involved, all bets were off. They had left alone his store of liquor until now, but the moment he made the city-wide announcement, they broke into the barrels. By the time Theo and Tresk arrived at the city’s square, stacks of the barrels were arranged around the gaudy statue dedicated to Zarali and Xol’sa.

A half-ogre dove from a nearby roof, landing hard on the ground and issuing an audible snap. He stood a moment later and thrust his fists into the air.

“Are they seriously already drunk?” Theo said, jamming a finger at the offending half-ogre.

“You said free booze,” Tresk said with a shrug.

“I suppose I should have seen this coming,” Theo said, crossing his arms.

The alchemist had no plans to partake. He really didn’t enjoy dulling his mind when there was so much risk of danger in the Alliance. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t join in the festivities. Half-ogres were known for their ability to make a game out of literally anything. They wasted no time setting up impromptu booths or breaking off into pairs after getting a drink of the watered-down liquor. It seemed to be potent stuff, and although it wasn’t alchemically useful, it served well enough as a drink.

It only took about an hour for the party to break into complete chaos. Theo mostly stuck to the sidelines, taking part in a few games, but mostly just watching. He was mostly interested in the 10 or so space elves that came out of the dorms to partake, to his surprise. Their minds were very well intact. From what he had been told, many of the elves were having issues adjusting to the mortal realm once again.

Eventually, the first elf to awaken from this batch came up alongside Theo, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Can’t say I ever expected to see this day,” Kalan said.

“As long as you guys don’t mind that we’re moving, then everything should be fine,” Theo said with a chuckle. “Must feel strange coming back to the mortal plane only to leave it so soon.”

“So long as we’re alive, I’m happy,” Kalan said with a weak shrug.

“Yeah, let’s do our best to keep it that way. Make sure your people don’t drink too much. This stuff is pretty potent.”

The party rambled on through the night. There might have been a lot of things to do, but it was nice to take a moment and appreciate what they had created here. Theo planned on taking a break before tackling the Ocean Dungeon. That required a bit of scouting anyway, so he could take it easy until the healers were ready for the next round of space elves and dungeon destruction.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!