The Newt and Demon-8.4 - Math is Useless

“I know a space elf that’s gonna be unhappy about this,” Theo said.

Instead of teleporting directly back to the mortal plane, Theo brought Tresk to his own planet. They had already said hello to Belgar and settled into a small cafe along the main road. The tea was pretty good, but the alchemist had more on his mind than just that.

“I failed to see the problem,” Tresk said, sipping her tea and smacking her lips. “Xol’sa can adapt. We’ve had to adapt to strange things before.”

Yet Theo couldn’t get his mind off the way things might change in the future. Altering how certain attributes worked was one thing, but what if they changed them entirely or added new attributes? The whole situation with his new potions made him think more and more about how the system could change. The possibility of multiple systems of advancement made his head hurt to consider.

Eventually, Belgar came to join them at the table, ordering himself a cup of tea and settling in with a heavy sigh. “Things have been busy,” he said, running his hands through his hair and shaking his head. “We finally have our power sets developing, but nobody has system messages to inspect what their powers do. We just have to figure it out by trial and error.”

“That tracks with what just happened on the mortal plane,” Theo said. “I made some potions that did not have a system prompt attached to them. I figured it was connected with the way a Tero’gal is developing its own system, but it might not coalesce until after the switch.”

“What about Tresk’s own realm?” Belgar asked, dipping his head toward the marshling.

“My realm is lazy,” Tresk said, waving the question away. “You’re going to have to give it more time before it comes up with anything solid.”

“I doubt Yuri would tell us anything about it, and I haven’t received any word from Fenian on how his situation is developing. We’ll just have to wait and see. For now, at least you guys have some powers you can work on. Did you develop anything interesting, Belgar?” frёewebnoѵēl.com

Belgar shrugged, holding his hand out, palm up, to produce a small flame. “Basic elemental control powers. Kinda like sorcerers back home.”

“That’s a great place to start,” Theo said. “Just fire?”

“No clue. It works sometimes. Others it just feels too far out of my grasp,” Belgar said.

Theo knew Belgar could make it happen if he tried hard enough, but if he were honest with himself, he didn’t really know much about the man. Sure, he inhabited Belgar’s body, but that was long after the man had died. What he knew about him had more to do with his dedication to Drogramath and his alchemical abilities. While Belgar had never risen to the heights Theo now occupied, he had been working with far less and under the scrutiny of the Cult of the Burning Eye. He was dedicated to his craft, and would one day see his way to the other side of this.

Tero’gal was developing on its own. The people who inhabited it had some say in how the landscape was transformed, but if the planet itself didn’t like where the plan was going, it would change it. The example of the elves who attempted to start a war was at the forefront of the Alchemist’s mind as he sipped his tea. Perhaps the willfulness of the planet meant that to create his own system, he simply had to sit back and wait for everything to work itself out.

“We should really get back to the mortal plane,” Tresk said, tugging at Theo’s coat with a nervous look on her face. “I really don’t know how the space elf is going to react.”

“Yes, and I suppose we should catch Sarisa before she destroys the entire town,” Theo said. “I’m assuming nobody has caught her yet.”

“The one good thing is that we’ve been under time dilation for a while now,” Tresk said, giving two thumbs up. “It should have only been a few minutes on the mortal plane, depending on how intense Silver’s time dilation is.”

Although there seemed to be something urgent to take care of back on the mortal plane, the interest lingered within the cafe for quite some time. Belgar had stories to share about things that had happened there, and it always felt as though he was missing out. But the alchemist eventually bid farewell to the de facto mayor of the entire world and folded space in on itself. A moment later, they appeared at the base of the wizard’s tower, and it didn’t take long to hear the confusing tangle of screams from within.

“That’s a bad sign,” Tresk muttered, looking up at the tower’s heights. “Think he’s freaking out?”

Theo took a moment to listen in on the screaming. It didn’t seem angry so much as confused. He shrugged, pressing forward and opening the door. About half-way up the stairs to the second floor, he realized no one else saw the message about the Seal of Intelligence. He tried not to laugh as he ascended to the second floor. Xol’sa stood atop a chair, both hands clutched over his head. Zarali was on the ground, trying to talk him off the proverbial ledge.

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“What did you do to me, demon!?” Xol’sa shouted, pointing a finger at Theo.

“Wasn’t me this time. SIlver, the God of Water, did it. Blame her.”

“What?” Zarali asked, turning and glaring at Theo. “Sounds like something you’d say to keep the heat off of you. What have you done, vile dronon!?”

“You’re a dronon too,” Theo said, holding his hands up defensively. “Seriously. They put the Seal of Intelligence in place and I had nothing to do with it.”

“The Seal of—Are you serious?!” Xol’sa shouted. His countenance was locked in an expression of rage for only a few moments before it softened. “The Seal of Intelligence?” he asked, this time with a much more even tone. “Oh. Did the god give you the details on how it works?”

“My guess is that the personality-changing effects of the attribute are gone. Along with that, your intelligence relative to your attribute score should also be completely gone. Instead, you’ll find that system-related aspects of the intelligence attribute are enhanced,” Theo said, pausing for a moment. “That’s just my guess, though.”

“He thought he was going crazy,” Zarali said with a soft chuckle. “I’m glad to see it’s just some system shenanigans and not something wrong with my dear husband.”

“I’d be happy to take you outside and test you if you wanted,” Tresk said, cracking her knuckles. “I’ve got some ideas on how we can figure out what happened.”

“Why, in any of the realms, would I trust you?” Xol’sa said, pointing an accusatory finger at the poor marshaling. Of course, Tresk was too hard-headed to take an insult like that on the chin. She simply thrust her chest out and nodded. “Okay, I guess we don’t have any other plans.”

“Perfect, let’s go,” Tresk said, jerking her head to one side. Theo couldn’t help but search her thoughts to see if she actually had a decent plan, but he was even more shocked when he found she had a step-by-step list in her mind on how to determine the effects of the seal. At first, he was impressed, but then he was scared. If Tresk had figured out how to actually use her brain, might everybody on the planet be in trouble?

Tresk’s plan for testing the elf was actually comprehensive. She had him run through a series of normal spells he would cast and compared them to his old performance. Then, she had him go through some cognitive tests, which revealed a decrease in his mental capacity. When she was done, she was holding something like a clipboard with a sheet of parchment on it. She had taken notes the entire time.

“The good news is that your spells are about 10 to 20% stronger,” Tresk said, giving a thumbs up. “The bad news is you’re about 20% stupider. But that’s just taking everything at face-value. We’ve seen this happen with Theo before when the Seal of Wisdom took effect. His memory declined slightly, but it is still near-perfect.”

“Wow. Didn’t know you were paying that much attention, Tresk,” Theo said.

“Yeah. What happened with Theo was his memory leveled out.” Tresk pointed a finger at Xol’sa. “Good news is, doesn’t seem like you’ve been leaning too much on your Intelligence attribute. It’s hard to define exactly what the intelligence attribute did before the seal went into effect. However, I think we can say that it sped up your mental capacity for tasks like spell work, problem-solving, and extrapolation. Honestly, the effect was minimal if you consider how many points you have invested in the attribute.”

“That was an oddly in-depth analysis,” Xol’sa said, scratching his chin. “So, the thing to take away from this is that I did lose some of my intelligence, but I’ll adjust. Is that what you’re saying, Dr. Tresk?”

“Because it’s so hard to define what intelligence is, especially as it related to the attribute, yeah,” Tresk said with a shrug. “I think of it like this: if you take more Strength, you get stronger. But how you use that strength is what matters. Just because you have the attribute doesn’t mean you know how to use them muscles. You need to build up your brain muscles again.”

“What do you think we should do? Should we make him do a bunch of math questions or something?” Theo asked.

“Math is useless,” Tresk said, waving her hand. “Unless you’re a merchant, there’s no point in learning math. Even then, they have a little calculator in their interface. No, he should focus on things related to spells. Building his spell arrays in his head and bringing them into the world as quickly as possible will help him flex those brain muscles.”

In that moment, Theo realized why Tresk was so knowledgeable about this topic. The alchemist’s primary attribute was wisdom, meaning that when the seal of wisdom took hold, it affected him deeply. Although he had put little stock into it, Tresk had obviously anguished over the idea and had done everything she could to understand exactly how it worked. He was impressed by her dedication to their bond and wondered if he had done anything to consider her various plights as seriously.

It was hard to imagine a better person to be bonded with.

Theo, Tresk, and Zarali came up with a few simple exercises for Xol’sa to start with. However, they soon realized that the wizard didn’t really need their help. He only needed a starting point to work from, and once the fear of losing his most important attribute faded, he could construct a workout regime that would bolster his mind.

As Theo and Tresk were departing from the tower, the alchemist scooped the little marshling up and placed her on his shoulders like a child. She laughed, holding onto his horns as they walked through the swamp. Of course, they could just use the portal to get back to town, but the alchemist was so impressed with the way his partner had responded that he wanted to take a pleasant stroll through the squelching swamp.

“You know, that was really impressive,” Theo said, the smile still hanging on his face.

“I know it was,” Tresk said, playing the drums on Theo’s head as they walked. “I’ve done more thinking about attributes than most people, probably. I’ve always had a problem with the way they change people’s personalities. The worst of it is how intelligence makes a person too logical. The wisdom one isn’t so bad, but I’m just thankful that the physical attributes don’t suffer from the same issue.”

“So, what are you doing for the rest of the day?” Theo asked.

“Scrolling around and flying on my dragon-goose, probably,” Tresk said.

“Sweet. Let’s go.”

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