Theo stopped by the Newt and Demon to set the stills to work. Salire stopped him to discuss their current orders, going over the things he missed from the other day. The interruption would have annoyed him, but she produced 10 gold coins from nowhere. The shopkeeper had a sheepish smile on her face, holding the money out with a nervous hand.

“I heard about the town’s money problem,” Salire said. She was too nice for her own good. A person with less honor would have pocketed the money and said nothing of it. Theo wouldn’t have noticed.

“We’re fine. For now. Sit on the cash and try doing something with it,” Theo said, waving her away.

“All 100 gold of it?” Salire asked, wincing. It was likely the most gold she’d ever seen.

“I forgot Azrug bought all our old gear,” Theo said, looking around to the [Dimensional Storage Crates]. They would have been empty by now. “Reminds me to ask Fenian about a mint… He seems busier than normal. Right?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Alright. Give me 75 gold, keep the rest for whatever. Like I said, use it to start a new scheme. Level your cores,” Theo said, clapping a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Be the best you.”

“Thank you,” Salire said, bowing slightly. She’d been around the Elves.

Theo placed the money in his inventory, intending to lose it as quickly as possible. If Fenian had the mint, he’d buy that. Otherwise it would go into the town’s coffers to pay wages. Either way, he didn’t want it sitting too long. Unspent money was a waste, after all.

The alchemist kicked off all his stills, dipping into the reagents his golems were harvesting. He made a note to check on the greenhouses and caves more often. After cleaning each still, he mashed [Manashrooms] for the first, [Swamp Truffles] for the second, and [Flame Roses] for the last. Throk’s artifice timers made it easy to set the flame and walk away. Of all his projects, the idea of mass-producing potions aligned best with the [Swamp Truffles]. It was better to have far too many [Hallow Ground] derived potions than the others, with the undead approaching. Again, it was best to let Throk get over whatever he was having problems with.

Theo flushed the contents of his storage vessels inside, placing them in 200 unit flasks and storing them away with his new organization system. He checked the larger, 10,000 unit exterior tanks and found them at various levels of fullness. They contained healing, stamina, and mana essences that were of dropping quality, compared to his new creations. It would be worth holding them there, though. Emergencies were hard to plan for, and any essence was better than none.

Fenian was still around, socializing with Elves. They broke off upon seeing their mayor approach, bowing their heads and moving on. The Elven trader performed an overly exaggerated bow.

“My lord,” Fenian said, his voice quivering. “That’s how they treat you. How are things, my dear alchemist?”

“They’re fine,” Theo said. “Stop bowing. Did you find the mint?”

“No. Not yet,” Fenian said. “A devilish task. I’ve been sent a different task from that lovely woman Alise.”

“Right. The bulk materials. Think you can get a good price?”

“Not likely. But I’ll get a price. Material trade in Tarantham is regulated. The Bridge can’t penetrate the Khahari Desert, so that’s off the table. The Veostians are broke, and Qavell… Well, they’re not buying anything at the moment.”

“So, you really are fencing the materials. Whatever works. Where are you going?”

“Excuse me?”

“Alise mentioned you were leaving for a week,” Theo said, locking his gaze onto Fenian’s eyes. He felt a compulsion to exert his will. Perhaps it was Alex in his satchel urging him on, or his own intuition. But after a moment, nothing happened. The Elf remained silent for a few heartbeats, then shrugged.

“A debt to be paid,” Fenian said, grabbing his left forearm and wincing. “I think you’re ready, though.”

“Ready for what?”

Fenian massaged his forearm, closing his eyes. “I may need more of the potions before I leave. The [Hallow Ground] ones. And a few special requests. I’ll pay this time. [Potions of Limited Foresight], [Potions of Retreat], the [Elemental Wind] enhanced [Dexterity Potion], and anything you have that works against mages.”

Theo let his intuition play the logical course of actions out. Each item would help Fenian run away, and fight a mage. A question lingered in the alchemist’s mind. Who the hell did the Elf intend to fight? Another question. What was his end goal? To what end?

“I’m happy to do it. Even if you won’t tell me what it’s for,” Theo said.

“For the sake of the continent,” Fenian said. He moved closer to Theo, leaning in and lowering his voice. “I am bound not to speak of it. Remember your contracts? When the job is done, I can tell you everything. I promise. Just a little more trust. One more step into the darkness.”

This wasn’t just a matter of trust. Theo trusted Fenian with almost everything. The Elf had done nothing but good for him and his town, so why would now be any different? Perhaps another leader might see the descent of the undead as a bad thing. But not Broken Tuskers. The unspoken words on everyone’s lips sang freedom from the kingdom. Open rebellion, if necessary. The alchemist placed his hand on Fenian’s shoulder.

“We’re with you, Fenian. No matter what the hell you’re doing, we’re right there with you. If Qavell has to fall… Well, we’re happy to see it,” Theo said.

Fenian nodded. That was all he could say, though. Theo could almost feel the bonds of a contract radiating from the man, coming off in wreaths of strange power. It was like raw mana leaking into the air, forming chains that pulled him down.

“Just so,” Fenian said, taking a long breath. “I’m glad to hear it. Keep the faith, Theo. And work on my potions.”

“I’ll have them done today,” Theo said. “An arsenal.”

Theo didn’t want to tell the Elf the potions would be effortless. Maybe if he pretended it was difficult, he could raise the price a few gold. There was no point working on the potions until he’d made his rounds, but as the alchemist worked through the streets of Broken Tusk, stopping first at Sledge’s sawmill, he realized the problem of the day. The workers at the sawmill said the marshling was off servicing homes and installing air conditioners. It was a matter of going door-to-door, asking everyone when they saw her last. He felt as though he was going in circles, until he finally caught up with her at a home near the smeltery.

“I have a question,” Theo said.

Sledge was standing on a ladder, leaning against the interior wall of a home. She wove bone-white mana into the boards of the wall, mounting a stand for the artifice air conditioner. The home’s owner watched on, clasping their hands together with anticipation. The marshling refused to answer Theo’s question, waiting to finish her process before communicating. She walked over to the homeowner after she was done, holding her hand out. The owner dropped several silver coins, putting a smile on her face.

“What is it?” Sledge said, snatching her ladder and making for the door.

“You’re interacting with the [House Seed Core] when you do that, right?”

“That I am,” Sledge said. “Thanks to your goofy air-cooler, I’m getting a load of experience. Keeps me away from that psychotic elf, too. Out there just burning trees.”

“Right,” Theo said, keeping up with the stomping Marshling. He’d see what the progress on the boats was today. Just after he talked to Sledge. “Could you interact with the [Town Seed Core]?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Sledge stopped. She spun around, almost hitting Theo in the head with her ladder, swishing her fat tail across the smooth cobbles. “Alright, Theo. You have my attention.”

Theo gestured to the road they stood on. It was one of 2 major roads that ran through town. North-south, and east-west. His plan was to create smaller roads that shot off from the main thoroughfares, creating small districts of town like the neighborhood. Those dirt roads were built before they got the [Roads] upgrade on the town. The system must have identified them as such, and generated the cobblestone road for that section. Now it fell to the fabricator to do that. He explained the general idea of telling the [Town Seed Core] to make new roads. She nodded the whole way through.

“Alright. Yeah. Maybe—it depends on how complex the magic array for the roads system is,” Sledge said. “The sight behind the scenes for something simple like a [House Seed Core] is dead easy to understand. A few instructions here and there and poof. I can install something. But telling it to make new roads? Might be a challenge. You got a place in mind?”

Theo led Sledge to the area near Zarali’s enchanting workshop. If they could take a section of road, sending it toward the wall, then north to connect near the Adventurer’s Guild, it would be perfect. They’d create a series of roads running north to south, sectioning the area off and allowing more artisans to move in. Including his weaver. The Marshling studied the road for some time, abandoning her ladder and pressing her face against the cobblestones. The alchemist thought he could hear her sniffing the road.

“Oh, yeah,” Sledge said, standing after a while. She swiped her hand through the air, summoning a glittering white series of symbols. It wasn’t exactly Axpashi, but it was similar enough that Theo could read pieces. “Welcome to the language of creation. Looks a lot like that arcane babble, right? Wrong! It’s not. This is the big daddy language of the world, Mister Mayor. The scribbles that made life.”

“A bit dramatic,” Theo said, leaning in to study the array. Like most arrays, it was represented as a large circle bordered by symbols. The inner workings were all interconnected smaller circles, each representing a concept. After studying it for some time, the alchemist understood very little of it. There was something about roads, another bit about expansion, and a suspicious mention of ducks and other waterfowl. “How do you interact with the nodes?”

“Like this,” Sledge said. She beckoned dripping white mana to her hand, then shoved it through a node in the array. The ground trembled beneath their feet for a moment and she tutted. “Don’t be like that, baby. Work with mama.”

Theo winced.

“Right, so it’s complex. Looks like I can… Yeah, just gonna reach in here and… Nope, that’s not the one,” Sledge said, the cobbles beneath their feet vibrating. The stopped when she twisted her hand the right way. “Alright, there it is. Let’s make a line that way…”

A dotted yellow line appeared on the ground, heading toward the western wall. The wall wasn’t completely visible from here, but the way the line changed and bent revealed that Sledge was still fiddling with the system. After a moment, she got it to extend west, then cut a 90-degree angle toward the Adventurer’s Guild. Theo just watched in shock as the Marshling worked her magic. This was magic, after all. Fenian told him this was a form of magic, but he didn’t believe it until that moment.

“You’re a genius,” Theo said. The line solidified on the ground, then the ground rumbled again.

“There’s a bunch of features the seed core doesn’t support,” Sledge said, digging her hand deeper into the floating array. “Pretty sure this is going to consume materials from the town’s storage… Not that we lack materials. Just a warning, you know?”

Sledge turned her hand, mana bleeding into the air to cast motes of glowing white light to the ground. The town rumbled again. Stones sprung up from the ground, moving out to cover the yellow line. In moments, where there was just soggy soil was now a road, perfect in every way. The Marshling couldn’t hide her grin.

“Alright. That was the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while,” Theo said, slapping her on the back. She swayed on the spot, swiping a hand to dismiss the array. “You alright?”

“Took most my mana,” Sledge said. She paused for a moment, then looked up at Theo. The Marshling tried to make her eyes look bigger, a frown spreading across her face. “How am I going to work for the rest of the day? How am I going to feed my family?”

Theo groaned. He withdrew a gold coin from his inventory and placed it in her hand. “That’s for future work, too. No way I’m paying a gold every time we need a road.”

“Why not?”

Theo glared at her, but she just shrugged.

“Worth a short, right?” Sledge asked. “I’m more than happy to lend my talents where they’re needed. No need for payment. I’m keeping this coin, though. But, hey. There’s limitations you’ll want to hear about.”

“Such as?”

“Can’t make anything outside the walls, yet. There’s a skill I can get later that lets me turn exterior buildings into pseudo seed core buildings. For now? Just within the walls. This is also taxing on me. I’m not joking when I say it took most of my mana, but it took something else. Like the town was sapping my willpower for the day. That’s happened before when I installed 30 air thingies in a day.”

Theo nodded along as she spoke. Those were some very lenient restrictions. The skill she mentioned was the most interesting part. The alchemist was already talking with Ziz about different projects outside the town’s gates, so that would be perfect. They already had the bridge. The road Ziz’s guys were constructing was another example.

“Alright. I’m going to have a word with my staff about you,” Theo said. “We’ll want to take you on as the town’s fabricator officially.”

“Which means?”

“You’ll be Lady Sledge Grob,” Theo said. “You’ll also get paid for your jobs. Mostly, I want you to know how important you are to us.”

Theo had never seen Sledge show much emotion besides anger. Was greed an emotion? But at that moment she blushed, averting her gaze from the alchemist and stammering. Alex chirped excitedly from her bag.

“Fine by me,” Sledge grumbled.

Theo tried to engage in some small talk, but Sledge claimed to be too busy. She brushed him off and stomped away, forgetting her ladder. When he shouted after her, she scurried back to grab it, and continued to stomp away. The alchemist found a spot to plant his [Weaver’s Seed Core], favoring the first turn of his new road. He planted it, and fed enough high-level monster cores to grow it. There was no sense in upgrading it until he had his weaver inside. It was always better to ask the operator what the best option was.

With that sorted, Theo went back to the lab to check on his distillations. They were still going, so he hadn’t been gone for that long. While he waited for them to complete, he worked on Salire’s checklist and a few of Fenian’s potions. The alchemist mass-produced his best [Hallow Ground] potion, the one modified with [Aerosolize]. That drained that last of that modifier, but gave the Elf 100 new potions to work with. It was always fun creating the [Elemental Wind] [Dexterity Potions], though. Once the stills were done running, he had enough to fill yesterday’s order of potions.

Before heading downstairs, Theo crafted enough [Mana Constructs] to keep his golems going for a few days. When he went down, Salire had a new list of requests from patrons. Half-way up the stairs, a town-wide message came in from Aarok.

[Aarok]: Theo, please report to the Adventurer’s Guild. This is not an emergency.

“Not sure if it’s just a thing, now,” Theo said, turning around on the stairs. “But we really don’t need to say that everything isn’t an emergency.”

Salire laughed, a nervous smile on her face. “Think it’s urgent?”

“Everything is urgent,” Theo said, drinking a [Potion of Lesser Foresight]. He felt the latent power of precognition flowing through his body, spreading like a dull fire in his chest. “I’ll be back.”

Like a good mayor, Theo went straight to the Adventurer’s Guild. It was full of people checking out contracts on a big board. There was even an attendant accepting new contracts behind a heavy oaken desk. The alchemist stopped by there first, putting in an adventuring contract for [Swamp Onions] with a limit of 5,000 units. The clerk happily accepted his money, scurrying off to post the contract on the board. The adventurers nearby howled with delight.

“Easy contract!” one shouted.

Theo realized it might have been better just to create [Lesser Plant Golems], then send them into the swamp. But there was something about posting a paper contract that was just delightful. The look in the adventurers’ eyes was worth it.

Aarok was waiting in his office with Luras and Bal. The triplet brother looked shaken, nursing a tea in the corner. Both Half-Ogres had a grim look on their faces.

“We’ve had another attack,” Luras growled.

The air conditioner, nestled in the top-left corner of the room, kicked on. It flooded Aarok’s stuffy office with a cleansing breeze. Theo didn’t know how to respond to the information. If Elves wanted to betray their contract, dying to some magical beast, that was their concern. Not his.

“More dead Elves,” Theo shrugged.

“Not an Elf,” Bal said, nodding to himself. He took another sip of tea.

“Young Bal here barely got out with his life,” Aarok said, gesturing to the man. “Seems he’s chugging your [Lesser Potion of Foresight] every day. Dodged some guy’s attacks and got out of there. Attack happened in the swamp, just outside the dungeon.”

“I just wanted to kill some Goblins, y’know?” Bal asked, laughing a mirthless laugh. “This guy jumped out of nowhere—hooded bastard—and took a few swings at me. Hah! I already drank your potion, Theo. All he got was air.”

“Have you dispatched anyone to investigate?” Theo asked.

“Our best tracker,” Luras said.

Funny. Theo thought Luras was their best tracker. His heart sank when he realized who their best tracker was.

“You sent Tresk?”

Tresk, where are you? Theo asked.

Tracking some bad guys. That’s my job, Tresk said. Oh, shit!

The mortal realm parted, and Tresk appeared next to Theo, dripping with mud and both daggers drawn. She heaved breath, looking around. “That’s my panic button,” she said, turning to look at Aarok. “They got away, boss.”