Hills rolled far into the distance, racing to the edge of the horizon. All parts of Tero’gal were unnamed and unexplored. A vast virgin landscape only explored by the spirits that lived here. Those lost souls seemed reluctant to explore with their master’s approval. Or perhaps they were happy enough with the growing village near the spring. Theo had fallen into the realm for some peace and was joined by Tresk and Alex. After some tea and sweets—provided by Benton, of course—they hiked in a random direction.

Standing on a spar of strange, glittering rocks, Theo looked out over his domain. It was hard to tell how much time was passing within the realm. And it was hard to care with the view they had. The alchemist felt as though he had a better idea where this was going. Logical extrapolations of the information he had led him to face an interesting reality about this private realm. Most gods shaped their world to be what they wanted. From what little Khahar had said about Khahak, it was shaped as a fortress for the Arbiter. Uz’Xulven’s shadowy realm was formed to be a bridge between worlds. Benton’s realm was the embodiment of winter and death.

But Tero’gal was different. It was formed from the bond of the Tara’hek. If there was an ideal that formed the world, it was one of cooperation and friendship. And it was a world. That’s what Theo was coming to realize. The bond was forming an entire place outside of mortal reality. He had theories about where Fenian’s goal would take them, most of which involved the formation of realms.

“Because what is it that sets the mortal realm apart from the heavenly realms?” Theo asked. “Second question. Do you think we can move through our realm easier?”

Tresk shrugged. “That was my first thought, but… Nah. I can’t think of it any other way than interdicting myself from one point to the other, and it doesn’t work.”

Perhaps you should study with Xol’sa. Learn more about how planar magic works.

Theo stroked Alex’s slender neck, nodding with approval. The goose was getting larger by the day.

“Yeah, maybe. Hey, how about we just enjoy the view for about five seconds before we talk shop. Good?”

The alchemist nodded, gazing off into the distance. There was something unsettling about the world, as it didn’t experience night. Tiredness and the passage of time were a suggestion here. But even more disturbing to him was the lack of alchemy ingredients. Perhaps that was a hint brought by the heavenly system as to the realm’s origin. There was a field of plain Earth wheat growing in the prepared field. Before he had harvested most of it. At first, he thought those little things were hints. Some kind of connection to Earth. Through the lens of time, Theo realized it was likely a reflection of subconscious things.

The group walked without aim, climbing the mountains to the west, then descending into a valley below. The ground leveled out in time, then dipped until something came into view. Far in the distance, resting like a sheet of piercing blue with little specks of white, was a body of water. Inspired by the spirit of discovery, they pressed on for timeless hours before reaching the water. The strand of white sands was marked with beach grasses and palm trees dotted along the coast.

“Salt water!” Tresk shouted, splashing around with Alex. Waves came with slow, lapping motions.

Theo popped his shoes off, storing them in his inventory, and waded until he was waist-deep in the warm water. He studied the sandy bottom, looking for life. But there was nothing to find. The realm only seemed to generate plant-life. Given enough time, would other life evolve? Likely not.

“I’m thinking about ecology lately,” Theo said, swishing his hand through the water.

“Oh my god, Theo. Is this our beach episode?” Tresk asked. “Slap on the sunscreen and break out the cooler!”

“There is no sun, and I don’t have a cooler.”

“Alright. Spoilsport,” Tresk said. A crate appeared in her hands suddenly. She waddled back to shore, dropping it down. She then produced two lengths of Starbristle cloth that looked suspiciously like beach towns.

“Did you prepare for the beach episode?” Theo asked, approaching cautiously. “What’s in the box?”

“Snacks. Beers. You know. Beach stuff.”

Theo popped the lid open, finding an array of snacks and open-topped mugs of Rivers mead. With a great shrug, he plopped onto his beach towel and grabbed a beer. Cheese and dried sausages were becoming a popular snack in Broken Tusk. Whisper had a large part in that effort.

The alchemist took a sip of his cold mead. Tero’gal was different than the Dreamwalk. Everything felt muddy in the dream realm. It was as though he was experiencing things through a sieve. Everything was sharp here. Almost a perfect analog to the mortal realm. Time was the only sense that came in fits and starts. Tresk grabbed her own beer, and a fistful of snacks before laying down on her towel.

“We’re past the honeymoon phase,” the Marshling declared.

“I don’t know. I still like you.”

“No, with the realm. We’re just enjoying our time here, rather than grinding experience constantly.”

That had been a topic that had crowded Theo’s mind lately. He was getting very good at relaxing. That was a necessary feature of the leveling system, though. While more effort meant more levels, there were roadblocks. The blockaids that kept him from leveling could be mental, but they could also be skill-based. It was always good to take a back-seat and enjoy the beach episode.

The pair took turns speculating as to how big their realm was. All members of the Tara’hek agreed it was larger than the Southlands Alliance. Benton had informed them that this kind of growth would have been dangerous. If they didn’t have the protection of the Arbiter, other realms might get interested in them. Especially when Tero’gal rose out of the minor realms, finding itself with more competent gods who didn’t need to follow the rules of a child’s sandbox. But it was all speculation.

Theo had thought of seeding reagents within Tero’gal, but that plan fell apart before it started. Plants that bore alchemical ingredients didn’t seem to spread. He was reminded of how the nuggets in his mine spawned. They were generated as nodes, rather than naturally occurring material. It was the entire reason Broken Tusk was successful. Whoever pulled the strings behind the scenes had given him an unfair start.

Tresk and Theo stuffed their beach episode stuff into the shared inventory to walk the length of the white sands. Alex waddled close behind them, darting off to play in the water here and there.

“Surprised we haven’t turned this place into a way to produce more stuff,” Tresk said. “We got some workers, after all.”

“I’ve thought about it. But I have a few problems with the idea.”

“Like what?”

“Fenian convinced me he was doing the right thing because all those souls would just go to the heavens. What happens when we capture those souls and force them to work forever?”

“Free labor?”

“It’s just another kind of torment. Why not make this place more like the heaven from my Earth’s lore?”

“Which one?”

Theo shrugged. “One of the good ones. Where you just hang out all day. Live the good life.”

“I’m not opposed to the idea. Hells, the only reason I brought it up was because you’re always pushing for more things. More production. More people. Levels. So on.”

“Yeah, I’m working on it.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“And you’re doing well. I’ve been having a great time relaxing. Enjoying your company.”

And my company, right? Alex asked.

“Of course.”

The group’s aimless wandering produced nothing but exploration. The landscape of Tero’gal was vast and varied, but each section was always warm. Even the mountain passes were only slightly colder than the lowland areas. Without access to the land mass’s edge, they could watch their point of return in the sky. The scene they viewed moved even slower than before. By the time the group wanted to leave, they had found where the beach curved. They poked their heads into a dense jungle, but went no further before piercing through the realms.

Uz’Xulven didn’t interdict them as they returned to the mortal plane. The Bridge was silent. Theo took that as a good thing, stumbling as he landed back in the manor where he started. Tresk ran off, leaving him with Alex. The pair took seats in one of the many rooms in, giving the alchemist time to review the day’s administrative reports.

Alise was writing one, which he watched in real-time. The lizard-folk had little natural resources to offer. According to the administrators they were a shamanistic people who valued connection to spirits over worldly things. But their lands had a lot of dungeons, resulting in an excess of both items and cash. Azrug was interested in scooping up those items, and Squeak was interested in stone for their temples and metal for their smiths.

After reading the report for a while, Theo left with Alex to check up on Salire. She had cleaned everything out and was running some first tier [Lesser Healing Potions] to get experience. The alchemist worked with her for a while, running her through mana-control drills. When he summoned a drop of his mana into the real world, it blazed with purple fire. Hers was like a dim ember, barely casting enough light to be visible.

“You’ll get it in time,” Theo said, unconfident in his words.

“I know. Gotta keep practicing.”

Theo departed from the lab. Three people were on his mind lately. He stood outside of the tannery and took a deep breath. There was absolutely none of the foul smell that had previously marked the area. He knocked on the front door and waited. Perg cracked the door, a wide smile painting her face when she spotted the alchemist.

“Been a while,” she said, nodding to him.

“Yeah. You know how it is.”

“Archduke and all that.”

“Yeah. How is it going?”

Perg threw the door open, revealing the pits of her seed core tannery. “Going well enough. Let me show you around.”

The tannery had come a long way. Perg was processing hides manually before Theo showed up. He replaced the arduous dehairing and curing process with an alchemical one. Now she did everything with the seed core building, making it even better. But she only made leather. She sold the cured leather at market value and nothing more.

“You should take over Luras’s old workshop,” Theo said, looking down in a pit of slime. The building had an upgrade that eliminated the smell. Thank god.

“Yeah? Sounds like more work.”

Theo shrugged. “Hire someone, then. That building is just sitting there—someone should take it over. Have you considered taking an aligned crafting core?”

“I’ve thought about it.”

“Think about it some more. You know I’m always looking for stuff to fund.”

“Moneybags over here.”

“Don’t be a stranger, Perg. Stop by the manor. Hang out.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said with a wink.

Theo left the tannery with a strange feeling. Half-way to Nira’s smeltery, he realized what it was. People usually just did what he said because he had money and means. But Perg was living her best life. Just making leather stuff and enjoying her time off. The alchemist was understanding why that was a good thing.

Nira had gone absolutely ape-shit with her smeltery business. Theo didn’t remember approving more smelters, but there were more smelters. Three buildings now stood in a row, all with the double-crucible upgrade. She had at least twenty people working while she stood back, supervising. The alchemist approached her, clapping a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She spun around, fists up as though ready to fight.

“Oh. Just you,” Nira said, relaxing. “Thought you were Gridgen.”

“You guys having trouble?”

“No. He likes to scare me,” Nira said, turning her attention back to her workers. She shouted curses at them, instructing them on the proper way to work the crucibles.

The heat that came from the triplet smelters was unreal. Parts of the cobblestone road were blackened by the constant heat. No plants grew near the buildings, creating a ring of charred earth. As expected, Nira wouldn’t say a word unless required by law. The alchemist was happy just to watch the process, making sure his investment was running smoothly. While he had invested money to get the smeltery running, the ingots produced here and sold at market value funded public works.

That thought made Theo feel better, anyway. He departed the smelter without saying another word to Nira. The Midnight Damsel was half-way between the town’s heart, and Dead Dog Mine. Gridgen and his wife Sarna had done an excellent job running the mine so far, and they hadn’t changed the name given by Tresk. The weird tentacle dogs were still spawning in there, so why not?

Of all the industries in town, mining was the busiest. Theo climbed the hill that led to the mine, passing by more people than he remembered meeting. Most would have a [Miner’s Core]. Those that didn’t would have some kind of laborer’s core. Neither operator of the mine was outside, so the alchemist plunged into the dimly lit interior. They had expanded the first tier of the mine significantly, giving them access to more copper. The next level down, where the iron spawned, had even more tunnels carved out. Only the Drogramathi Iron level had seen little progress.

Theo found his way to the gate system, letting himself and Alex through, until they arrived at the familiar room. It was the place where he had first found the goose’s egg. A Tworgnoth artifice that bound the creature to him forever. The alchemist pressed his hand against the stone, feeling the heat from below. A Wisdom of the Soul message popped up with information he had already assumed. It was likely that there were expansive caverns below.

“And it’s reasonable to assume that there are monsters down there.”

Could be, Alex said, honking.

“You remember nothing about this artifice. Right?”

Nope.

“No secret knowledge about what’s below?”

Noooope.

Theo lingered near the old, spent artifice for a while. Footsteps echoed through the tunnels. The alchemist turned, spotting Gridgen descending the ramps with a wide smile on his face. He had his young son, Gasem, with him. “We’re still waiting for permission to dig deeper.”

That was a hairy situation. Theo could give the order to dig deeper, but he didn’t want to go over Aarok’s head on this one. It wasn’t a matter of who was right and who was wrong. It was a matter of the town’s safety. Assuming there were monsters below was a good idea, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Once they cracked through, they would need a workforce to manage it. Guards, artifice weapons, and so on. Time that the workers didn’t have right now.

“I’d rather be on my toes about this, Gridgen. Anyway, how are things going in the mine? Is everyone good?” Theo asked.

The miner kneaded his shoulder, then shrugged. “Everyone is fine. Just fine. Some folks were talking about more pay, but I don’t know. Not sure what we’d do with the money.”

Theo nodded. He hadn’t worried about that problem until that exact moment. But this was going to be a common theme over the next few weeks. That brought into focus the need to have a ferry between the alliance and the lizard-folk. Everyone was getting stir-crazy being locked behind the walls of Broken Tusk. No, it wouldn’t be a singular solution. He couldn’t predict what kind of vacation people wanted to go on. The alchemist would focus the town’s efforts on getting the maglev ready, and operating the ferry.

“People need to spend their money,” Theo said. “What if you could visit Gronro or Rivers? Within a day.”

“You’re talking about the new transport system, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That would be nice. Get out of the town. See some of this alliance we’re a part of.”

Theo scratched his chin, letting his thoughts form on the matter. He sifted through his administrative reports, finding that Ziz was working on the maglev now. That was good. So long as Throk could pull himself away from his work, the project would be done quickly. The alchemist made notes in the administrative reports, allocating more funds to the project.

Broken Tusk was fairly flush with cash right now. There was no reason to sit on it like a dragon hoarding wealth. As always, the alchemist wanted to distribute that money into the town through investments. And there was no better way to do it than with massive projects that defied logic. He chatted with Gridgen, getting a tour of the newly expanded mine, as he dug through recent reports. He focused on the report brought back by the expeditionary force. They took basic measurements of distance on the way to the lizard islands.

“Gods. How am I going to do this conversion?” Theo asked as the pair finished their tour of the iron level of the mine.

“Huh?”

Theo watched as Gasem played with Alex. The basic unit of measure they used here was a halm. Meaning that all the reports from the ship came back in halms, ahthalms, and so on. The alchemist ruffled his hair and pulled on his horns as he tried to do the conversion in his head. A halm was about half a foot. So the distance from Broken Tusk to the islands was approximately the same distance to Gronro. Maybe a bit further.

“Gridgen. Tell me the truth.”

The miner shifted nervously on the spot. “Alright.”

“Is it unreasonable for me to build a train over the ocean?”

“Uh…” Gridgen’s eyes darted around the mine. “Is this one of those questions that you’ll take ‘yes’ as an answer?”

“No.”

“Then I think it’s a great idea.”

Theo nodded. “Throk is going to be pissed.”