The Newt and Demon-8.5 - I’ve Created Drugs

Theo had fun palling around with Tresk and Alex for the rest of the day. However, as the day wound to a close, they headed back to the manor to have dinner. They only returned after capturing a naked Sarisa in the bay, and putting her under a magical sleep. Rowan wasn’t happy making dinner alone, but he did it. Of course, the alchemist had trouble thinking of anything but testing within the Dreamwalk, so he struggled to focus on the meal after eating. After enjoying a nice hot bath in the bathhouse, the duo proceeded into their dreams, where the marshaling envisioned a scarred battlefield and an army of orcs. Apparently, she had moved on from dragons, at least for now.

While Tresk and Alex wrought destruction over the imagined army of orcs, Theo got to work on experimentation with his new style of potions. He was immediately faced with a fundamental problem. When he tried to generate one of the potions from his imagination, the Dreamwalk pushed back immediately. Then he tried to go through the steps to create one, ending up with absolutely nothing for his efforts. This forced him to take a step back and consider what was going on.

Although it was confusing at first, Theo determined the problem was simple enough. The Dreamwalk wasn’t real. No matter how he looked at it, the Dreamwalk was a realm they were imagining. He understood that the realm was as real as a person’s dreams, which in the world was kinda real. But it was a shadow compared to any of the planes. Since it was connected to Tero’gal, things could get weird. Until Tero’gal defined its own rules for these potions, the dream-version of the realm might not get the memo.

Although he couldn’t recreate the potions here, Theo could at least think about the principles. His newest skill allowed him to ‘bend’ the rules of alchemy. This meant he could avoid distilling potions, favoring his willpower to simulate the effects. What that meant was he was working directly with the reagents, forcing them into a shape of his own making. The downside to that was his overpowered Willpower resulted in absurd effects. But if he could simulate one leg of the process, he could do others.

Infusions were the most interesting and novel form of alchemy Theo had access to. This was a process where he infused an essence with the power of a spell laced in his mana. Although he couldn’t test it out in the Dreamwalk, he was confident he could make it happen in the real world after some practice. The first hurdle to overcome would be taming his willpower, resulting in a more stable potion. Stability for Tero’gal’s potions didn’t mean a lack of explosions, but rather a reduction in the potency of the effects. The alchemist was certain his high willpower was sending the power of those effects over the edge, causing unexpected side-effects.

“So, you’re just too good,” Tresk said, taking a break from slaughtering orcs. Her progress with her cores was going well, and she’d already gone past Level 40. This was after a bit of a blocker on her part. “You’ve gotta figure out how to dumb down the power of your potions, huh? Guess that’s what happens when you spend a billion years in hell.”

Theo shrugged. He wasn’t sure how much his willpower had grown in that realm, but that brought his thoughts back to the issue with King Leon. Perhaps it was too much to hope to find the man, but he could try. Even if it was futile.

“I think I can make it work,” Theo said. “The problem is I started from the top. My goal is to create a base-level Lesser Healing Potion with this new method. Once I do that, I’ll know I have command over my new skill.”

“Cool. So, since you can’t do anything… ya wanna stab some orcs?” Tresk asked, a broad smile on her face as she nodded rapidly.

With a dramatic sigh, Theo withdrew some throwing daggers from his coat. “If I must…”

***

Breakfast was an interesting affair. Rowan reheated the food he had prepared the night before—zee pasta with wolf meat and a thick brown sauce—but Sarisa was absent for most of it. When Theo was just finishing his food, she shambled out from her downstairs room. She looked absolutely disheveled, but at least she had her clothes on. After lumbering to the table, she collapsed and pressed her forehead against the table.

“Rough day yesterday?” Theo asked, patting the woman on the back.

Sarisa picked her head up, dark bags visible under her eyes. “I have a theory,” she groaned.

“Please share with the class,” Theo said, placing his fork onto the table and leaning in. With Tresk’s outburst of knowledge, he was far more willing to take in the opinions of others.

“You must dilute the potion,” she said. “However you do that, I don’t care. But you need to knock down the power of that potion.”

“Well, maybe you could describe the effects. Since I can’t inspect the system prompt, that would be very helpful,” Theo said.

Sarisa took a few steady breaths. Eventually, her brother brought some food over for her along with some moss tea. Only a few sips later, she was ready to talk. “My Dexterity went up by 150, but I think it went into my brain or something. My thoughts were moving faster, but they were jumbled.”

Theo raised a brow, squinting as he worked that out in his mind. “I think that makes sense. You’re not supposed to jump that many points at once. It could easily affect your brain. We’ve seen similar things with other potions. And the same thing happened to me when I used the exploit.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Whatever it is, I hate it,” Sarisa said.

Theo’s plan was to test the effects of his new potions in the Dreamwalk. But since it didn’t want to cooperate, he had to take his tests to the real world. “Perhaps you’ll be interested in helping me test the potions.”

“Absolutely not,” Sarisa said.

Theo dragged his gaze over to Rowan. When they locked eyes, the half-ogre man looked as though someone had shot him in the butt with an Arrow of Surprise.

“Me?” Rowan mouthed, pointing at himself.

“Nothing crazy,” Theo said. “I’ll dilute a healing potion and we can test the potency of the effects.”

“Wait, does that mean I have to get injured?” Rowan asked.

Theo shrugged.

“I expect some serious payment for this,” Rowan said. “You always rope me into these experiments. Why should I suffer if I get nothing out of it.”

“Sure. Whatever you want,” Theo said. “Money. Women. Power.”

“Ew, why are you talking like that?” Tresk asked, punching Theo in the arm.

“What? He’ll go for the money. He always goes for the money.”

Rowan sighed, hanging his head. “You’re right.”

Theo smiled to himself, creating a mental plan for how this would work. There might be some problems with adding water to the goopy potion mix, but he could work out the details later. His plan was simple, and with a willing test subject there was nothing stopping him but time.

“Meet me outside the giant metal cube when you’re ready,” Theo said, standing from the table. “I’ll get to work on diluting the mixture.”

“Got it, boss,” Rowan said.

“Get your money up front,” Sarisa said before pressing her forehead back into the table.

Rowan held his hand out and Theo paid him a few gold coins before leaving the manor. He walked with Tresk, both of them trying not to giggle.

“With the amount of times I plan on hitting him in the head with a shovel, that was a steal,” Theo said.

Tresk giggled, but soon forced her face into a serious expression. “That’s mean. You’re being mean. Why can’t you just hurt yourself?”

Theo scratched his head. “I guess I could stab myself or something,” he said, thinking about which option was better.

Tresk’s pink face was drained of color. “Okay. Club the half-ogre.”

After parting ways with Tresk, Theo headed to the metal cube. People were still brew booze inside, so he conducted his experiments outside under the protection of a series of barriers. He transferred a fraction of a unit of the healing goop to a clean flask, watching with caution. Splitting a pea-sized chunk did nothing to the stability of the rest, which was the first good sign. His instincts said that nothing but Enchanted Water would do, so he introduced the smallest amount of that into the flask first.

It was always best to wait a minute before doing something else when testing alchemical things. When nothing happened, Theo stirred the mixture until it was a paste. He then added more water, bringing it to a consistency more like what he had with his regular potions. The alchemist then did it again, creating different consistencies. When he was done, the one with the most water in it looked most like his normal potions. Normal folks would’ve believed it was a normal potion, if not for the lacking system pop-up.

Theo did the same with another potion, intent on changing his plan slightly.

“I’m here,” Rowan said, jogging up to the metal cube and huffing for breath. “Sorry, had to make a stop.”

“That’s okay,” Theo said, producing a shovel from his inventory. “Ready to get started?”

Rowan’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, you were serious? Isn’t there a better way to do this?”

“Sorry. This is the only way,” Theo said, hoisting the shovel.

Rowan closed his eyes, ready to get bonked. Theo placed the shovel on the ground, instead going with his backup plan. He had wanted to use health as a metric for the potion at first, but he had another resource he could count. Using his mana was easy enough, and it wouldn’t give Rowan permanent brain damage. The half-ogre opened his eyes after Theo cast a spell.

“So… gonna hit me?” Rowan asked.

“No, I thought of something better,” Theo said. He had spent exactly 50 mana. He wasted no time, drinking the mana potion he had created. It restored 20 mana, putting it at the tier of a Lesser Mana Potion. “There we go…”

“What’s going on? Should I hit myself?”

“No. I’m testing against mana instead of health,” Theo said. He cast another spell, expending mana until he was down 100 points.

“So what am I here for?” Rowan asked.

“Moral support,” Theo said, handing over the second most dilute version of the Lesser Mana Potion. “Drink this and tell me if you feel anything strange.”

Both Theo and Rowan drank their potions. The alchemist expected he wouldn’t feel any effect thanks to his high Vigor. Rowan started tweaking immediately. He itched at his chest, scratching at his neck and fidgeting in place.

“Feels like I have bees in my skin,” he said. “Why does it feel like I have bees in my skin?”

“Well, it was just a mana potion,” Theo said. He made a note that the potion restored 50 mana points. So it was doubly as effective as the last one, which made sense. If he kept going down the line, he expected each one would double. Now he turned his attention to Rowan. “Any other symptoms?”

“Bee skin, heart is racing… I dunno. I think I can see colors that aren’t real,” Rowan said.

“Excellent. I’ve created drugs,” Theo said with a sigh. “Back to the drawing board with this one. I think there are some elements of the Manashroom that bled into the final product. This is why the refinement phase of alchemy is so important. Which means I need to replicate that with my new method.”

“Whatever you do, do it fast,” Rowan said. “I’m hearing things. And they aren’t nice things.”

“Let’s get you home before you eat someone’s face,” Theo said, leading Rowan away by the arm. He jogged back to the giant metal cube, putting all the flasks back in his inventory. The last thing he wanted was for some random citizens to get ahold of his drugs.

New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com