The Newt and Demon-7.50 - Bagpipes

Taking a break from the normal stuff Theo had to do was nice. But he had recently discovered a cache of Spiked Conch Shells on the barrier island. The properties that seemed very interesting. It even revealed a forth property for him to test, unlike the reagents he found on the void island. Best of all, Salire had finished her work on the second floor of the lab, leaving an assortment of alchemy stills open for him to experiment with.

“They’re all yours,” Salire said, patting Theo on the shoulder. Of course, she had another random local working the shop downstairs.

“Thanks,” Theo said, holding one shell in his hands. It really was too spiky, threatening to jab his palm at any moment. “Time to turn this into something.”

“Did you evict the slug within?”

“The what?” Theo asked, rolling the shell over in his hands. He poked himself, of course. “I don’t see anything in there.”

“Otherwise, we’ll be eating some delicious conch.” Salire licked her lips in anticipation. “Keep me updated on the status of that delicious slug.”

Theo winced, leaving the third floor of the lab before she could get weirder.

To the alchemist’s great relief, there was no delicious slug buried in the shell. He had found it on the shore, abandoned among the sand and other shells that had washed up there. So he figured there wasn’t anything living inside. Theo ran it through the alchemical grinder, turning it to dust with little effort. After collecting enough to test all four properties, he commandeered four stills that would produce four second-tier potions. Their experimentation with the new form of alchemy had refined the process to a series of steps that were effortless to follow. Once the stills were running, he only had to keep an eye on them, although they didn’t require nearly as much babysitting as they did in the early phases of development.

While he waited for the stills to do their work, he reviewed one of the newest drafts of Salire’s book. It was an ever-growing project that expanded to encompass everything they had learned about alchemy. Although she had already detailed the new process of infusing potions with other effects, creating these baseline potions was important to understand how they worked. Properties could be strange and often produced unexpected or useless effects.

Both the Sharpen and Poke properties on the shell were brewing up nicely. They didn’t object to the process at all, but the Call of the Sea and Bolstering Horn properties were fiddly. Theo watched as those two stills rocked in place, having some difficulty churning through the mashed reagent. Although they sputtered and protested, it seemed stable enough for him to proceed. But the result was a much slower process, which allowed the first two stills to jump ahead to the finished product within the hour.

The stills churning through the Sharp and Poke properties weren’t completely done running, but enough essence had been produced for him to brew two quick potions and inspect the results. From the qualities of the essence, Theo figured Sharp would make a poison-like potion which could be applied to a weapon while Poke would produce a standard potion. He started with Sharp, finding that it brewed up without an issue. It bubbled for only a moment, creating a cloud gray potion that held a silver sheen and light effervescence.

The alchemist held the potion at arm’s length and inspect it.

[Sharp Potion]

[Potion]

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Uncommon

Created by: Theo Spencer

Purity: 90%

Applying this potion to any object with an edge will make it sharper. The amount of sharpness added depends on the quality of the item and the purity of this potion.

Effect:

Sharpens any object with an edge. This effect is temporary, only lasting two hours.

The strength of this potion depended on exactly how sharp it made something and if the durability of that item came into play. Perhaps it added an edge to a weapon, giving it false confidence to cut through something it otherwise wouldn’t be able to. If the result was a broken weapon, the potion was useless. But if the potion didn’t care about such details, this could be a powerful potion. It would make otherwise weak weapons operate at a higher level.

Theo was certain of one thing. He would need to ask someone who knew about weapons to test it out for him. Only when he got their expert opinion would he declare this a success or failure.

Moving on to the Poke property, Theo was less excited about the brewing process. While it produced a semi-clear, gray essence, it reacted poorly once he added the catalyst. The potion bubbled, almost frothing over the top of the vial as the alchemist held it. That foam sputtered and popped, sending flecks of boiling-hot liquid spraying around the room. As he was considering tossing it out the window, the reaction calmed down until it fizzled into nothingness.

“Well, that was violet,” Theo said, clearing the foam from his face. “Let’s see how good you are…”

The resulting potion had the same silver sheen as the first. Theo was glad to see his suspicions about a normal drinkable potion were correct. He checked the description, raising an eyebrow as he read.

[Poke Potion]

[Potion]

Rare

Created By: Theo Spencer

Purity: 88%

Imbibing this potion makes the drinker better at poking stuff. So long as the thing used to poke is a weapon, the drinker will find all actions in such endeavors more successful.

Effect:

Thrusting-style attacks with weapons deal more damage and are harder to parry.

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

Putting aside the dubious name, this could actually be a good potion. It was strangely specific and Theo wasn’t certain he saw the connection between stabbing things and the shell. Perhaps because of the amount of times he had been stabbed by the shell while handling it. He knew Fenian used a lot of thrusting attacks in his fighting style. A lot of the half-ogres in Broken Tusk relied on spears, which would make this potion valuable. Depending on its power, of course. If it only had a moderate increase to a person’s ability to poke, it wouldn’t be as helpful as raw attributes. Combined, it could be an extremely deadly combination.

That only left the more difficult essences to check. By the time Theo had finished with the first two properties, the other two stills had produced barely enough essence for him to experiment with. He made a mental note to do some serious testing with these new potions, but still moved on to work with the last two essences.

Thinking it had the cooler name of the two, Theo moved on to the Call of the Sea property. The moment he introduced it to the Enchanted Water in his vial, he felt something strange. It was a flash from his new danger sensing ability, but when he pulled on that thread nothing happened. The alchemist’s brow knit as he waited for something to happen. When he dropped the catalyst in, the sense did not return.

“Was that just a general sense of danger?” Theo muttered, looking around for a left field dragon to come crashing through the wall.

Nothing happened.

The reaction for this potion was extremely violet. Not only did it bubble and sputter within the vial, but the area around the container visibly warped. Theo took a few healthy steps back, ready to jump out the window if he needed to. It took a while, but the reaction calmed down. Now his worktable was covered in a thick layer of seafoam that glittered with magical energy. The liquid inside the vial was a swirling mix of blue, wave-like ripples issuing from the bottom and lapping toward the top. Even staring into the vial brought a sense of gravity he couldn’t deny.

When the alchemist inspected the potion, he realized what that sense of danger had meant. He stowed the potion in his inventory, reviewing it from his memory instead.

[Call of the Sea]

[Potion]

????

Created By: Theo Spencer

Come. Return. Become.

Effect:

Looking at, drinking, smelling, or otherwise interacting with this potion will draw the user to the sea. They will be compelled to do so and cannot resist.

“Screw that,” Theo said. He planned on telling no one about the potion and destroying his only sample. The description claimed a person couldn’t resist, but he realized now his extraordinarily high willpower had saved him. Perhaps even the danger sensing ability gifted by Omen’s power set had helped. One thing was certain, that potion was not good.

“I must drink the devil potion,” Tresk said, speaking into the alchemist’s mind.

Theo dropped into the void, traveled to Tero’gal, and deposited the contents of the potion as deeply as he could within the potion. He then dumped several barrels of water onto it and fell back into the void before returning to the mortal realm.

“Absolutely not,” Theo said. “We’re not messing around with crap like that.”

“I was just kidding,” Tresk said. “But good move. You should have set it on fire, though. We don’t need a potion that makes sea zombies.”

“Sea zombies? Oh, people who are drawn to the sea like zombies? Yeah, good point. Anything that takes a user’s will away isn’t good, since we can’t predict what it’ll do. Can’t even reliable use it as a weapon if just looking at it will mess you up.”

Theo searched Tresk’s mind, ensuring she was joking around with what she had said earlier. He absolutely refused to mess around with a potion like that, and had to be sure she was simply making a Tresk-style quip. Thank whichever gods still cared she was just joking.

“What was that?” Salire asked, poking her head down the stairs.

“Knocked some glassware over,” Theo said, giving her a toothy smile and a hearty wave. “Nothing to see here.”

Salire narrowed her eyes, nodding slowly. She slid back upstairs, leaving him to his shady work.

Theo moved on to the Bolstering Horn property, an effect he hoped would produce something more interesting than the others. Not that the first two weren’t good, it was just that the third one was so bad it left a horrid taste in his mouth. The essence itself seemed eager to become a potion. Although the distilling process wasn’t smooth, the brewing was. When he introduced the Enchanted Water to the essence, it barely reacted. Light bubbles formed on the sides of the vial as he added the catalyst and the color shift from pale gray to light blue was instant.

The potion smelled like the sea mixed with lemons. Which was weird but inviting. Theo double-checked that the description of the potion didn’t invite him to do horrid things before he read it more in-depth. The description was… interesting.

[Bolstering Horn Potion]

[Potion]

Legendary

Created By: Theo Spencer

Purity: 95%

Have you ever wanted to be really good at playing a flute? Well, this potion can’t do a damn thing for you. But if you can already do that, this is the perfect potion for you!

Effect:

Depending on the skill of the player and the purity of this potion, playing a breath-based instrument for a set duration bestows boons on those listening. A breath-based instrument is defined as any instrument you need to use your lungs to play.

“I think we just crafted a bard potion,” Theo said, shaking his head as he looked over the description a few more times. The body of the description was written by a Loremaster, he was certain of that. It held the hallmarks of a non-system generated bit of text.

But Theo had to be careful with this one. It wasn’t as dangerous as the last potion, but it could bring a doom to Broken Tusk the likes it had never seen before. He imagined it. Half-ogres with their love for loud things and their inability to carry a tune walking around with flutes, playing as loudly as they could. Perhaps it would even go a step further with Throk creating the most feared weapon of all.

Bagpipes.

Theo shuddered. He then felt a dark energy flood into the room.

“What’cha got there?” Tresk asked, leering from behind.

Theo stowed the potion away as quickly as he could, doing everything in his power to shield his thoughts from her. “N-nothing,” the alchemist said, making himself busy with the items on the table. “Just wrapping up an alchemy session.”

“An alchemy session, huh?” Tresk padded closer, the sense of a predator entering the air. It felt as though a lion lurked behind him, waiting for the moment to pounce. Then he heard it. Two sharp sounds.

Toot. Toot.

“You know, I’ve always considered myself a flautist,” Tresk said.

“No, Tresk,” Theo said, turning with a look of horror in his eyes. “You don’t understand the kind of power this potion holds.”

“Within that vial is the power to change the world,” Tresk growled, lurking closer. “You know I never wanted to be an assassin. I wanted to be a bard.”

“Don’t do this.”

Toot toot toot.

###

From the third floor of the Newt and Demon, Salire heard another strange noise. She had finished the bulk of her brewing for the day and was making plans in her head. Ziz had been working on a structure on the barrier islands and she planned to check it out. With the games approaching—even if they were still quite distant—she had wanted to bolster their stock of healing potions. But a sound came from downstairs. It started with a slam and ended with the shattering of glassware and the shuffling of feet.

Salire rushed down the stairs, throwing the door open to the second-floor lab.

“What in the hells is going on?” Salire asked, her eyes going wide.

Theo stood on a stool, swinging a length of wood through the air. Tresk was on the ground, an instrument made of bone pressed against her lips. She turned, glaring at Salire.

Toot.