Edwin M. Griffiths

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 37,38,39

Chapter 37

Creepy Statue Man

Crossing the 100 Wisdom threshold had extended Theo’s precognition to an absurd level. It had more than doubled since he last tested it, making Tresk’s attempt in the Dreamwalk almost futile. Even when she looked through his eyes, she had trouble keeping up with the predictive effect. The alchemist was most surprised at how uncomfortable he felt with this level of power. He realized how difficult it must have been with Khahar. If that man hadn’...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 34,35,36

Chapter 34

The Barn

Theo couldn’t simulate the creation of new cores within the Dreamwalk. It allowed him to do things that worked with his cores, such as creating golems. But new things like cores just weren’t possible. What it did allow him to do was mess around with energies. This gave him a chance to consider the relationship between realm energy and the mortal world. He found an area in the market, imagining people going about their days to make it feel more like the re...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 31,32,33

Chapter 31

Who Slept With Who

Theo stood in the system’s realm, standing on the raised platform and looking over the twelve spots. He assumed he had the entire place to himself, but a faint glow issued from one spot. Golden light pooled on the ground, soon creating the form of a young person. Or one of the smaller races of the world—it was hard to tell. The alchemist watched as the being was given a form. He was surprised when it reached a hand out for him to shake.

�...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 28,29,30

Chapter 28

Bal’gon

Constructing a mixer artifice to suit Theo’s needs required the keenest mind in the region. Throk acted annoyed when he was called back to Broken Tusk. But his annoyed expression melted away after a while. Especially after he saw Tresk standing in his workshop. The alchemist's ploy to pull at the grumpy marshing’s heartstrings paid off, earning him the attention of the artisan for a while.

Of course, Throk had more ideas than the artificer apprenti...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 25,26,27

Chapter 25

Twist in the Wind

A pulse of light burst from Sulvan, sending both Jan and Twist tumbling back. Theo placed a boot on Jan’s chest while both Sarisa and Rowan restrained Twist. Golems patrolling the town lumbered over, taking the powerful elf and holding him there. The alchemist looked between both parties, watching their future movements with interest. How the hell did they know each-other?

“Let’s hear some explanations,” Theo said. “You first, Twist.�...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 22,23,24

Chapter 22

New Alchemical Methods

Theo gave Sulvan access to a piece of the administration interface, allowing him to give updates about the new arrival. The alchemist settled into the lab. Salire had a way of clearing his mind of the outside world, helping him focus completely on alchemy. It didn’t hurt that the hired artificer had fixed the printing machine.

Salire thumped her hand on a bound copy of her book, an endless smile hanging on her face. “Here it is!”

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 19,20,21

Chapter 19

Quaff Your Potions

The Dreamwalk had become a place where Theo exploited Zaul’s core. While Tresk and Alex spent their time grinding out levels or improving their combat techniques. He doubted it would help them if they needed to fight a wave of Level 90 monsters, but there were other threats they could handle. The marshling had beaten the crap out of a bird guy who was likely at a level uncountable on the mortal plane. But she was juiced up on potions and drawing f...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 16,17,18

Chapter 16

Insight Overwhelming

It took the raiding parties a while to break through the collapsed stone tunnels. Theo folded his arms as he watched them pour forth, extending his aura to ensnare them all. He would have felt bad for them, had they not been so completely prepared for war. Instead, he saw the battle as a reaping of wheat where he held the scythe. As long as he could encourage those souls to move on, they weren’t really dying. But the first wave cam...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 13,14,15

Chapter 13

Deathbloom

The wind whipped by as Theo took the tram north. Several golems working in Gronro-Dir needed maintenance and it had been too long since he had seen the area for himself. While Fenian’s battle with the Worldbreaker had been bad for the continent, he avoided slicing the southlands up. While it was normally fun to see how the people up north were doing, the alchemist was accompanied by the masked elf, Twist. Their deal still stood, and it was his responsibil...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 10,11,12

Chapter 10

Potent Poisons

Theo walked through the swamp with Sarisa and Rowan for the remainder of that day. Something he learned about this area was the expansiveness of it. The swamp behind Broken Tusk went on for miles. While the mountains in all directions but east were visible from Xol’sa’s towers, approaching them was another matter. The group fell through the wizard’s portal after an uneventful day, removing layers of mud with Cleansing Scrub.

“I’m not coo...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 7,8,9

Chapter 7

Curious Potions

Getting a handle on this new class of reagents wasn’t easy. Theo had woken the next morning, his mind focused entirely on the topic. He moved like a zombie, heading down to the first floor of his manor to pick at his food. Sarisa forced him to eat like a concerned mother hen. When he finally snapped out of it, realizing that progress wasn’t something he often made at the breakfast table, he finished his meal to satisfy his doting minders. But the tr...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 4,5,6

Chapter 4

Purge

Qavell was a massive city. Even after losing half of its area, the city sprawled in every direction. Theo and his newly formed strike team stalked the halls of the palace, the king following closely behind. He had only stopped stammering about the monsters within his inner circle after exhausting himself. The alchemist watched as Sulvan Flametouched walked through the inner halls of the palace with practiced precision. It was hard not to wince when he kicked down...

The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 1,2,3

Chapter 1

A Curious Journey

Boulders fell from the sides of a stranded city. The once-capital of the Kingdom of Qavell rested amongst the waves, pieces falling into the ocean below. Wooden constructions leaned against her sides, holding her as firmly as they could as a demon watched from the sides. Theo Spencer observed the teams of workers who darted around the exterior, raising wooden beams from the decks of ships and causeways built by hand.

The city had represented an ...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 68,69,70

Chapter 68

Sure, Buddy

Tresk stalked the halls of the king’s palace, sticking to the shadows to remain out of sight. Alex waddled close behind. This wasn’t a suicide mission, though. They had a way out of things got dicey. She only needed one hit on the critter to be happy. A single slash to apply the Venom effect. That way, if he got away, there was potential for death.

“Looks clear,” Alex said, craning her neck around another corner. A sacred-looking pal...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 65,66,67

Chapter 65

Ascension

Harvesting souls didn’t appeal to Theo. His mind twisted, trying to find a way that this could be a good thing. Any souls that were invited to stay within Tero’gal could be sent to the Realm of Healing to join Glantheir. Was dragging souls out of undead vessels better than allowing them to languish on the mortal plane? The alchemist didn’t care for philosophy, and decided it was the best of an unpleasant situation.

“We need to know what your ne...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 62,63,64

Chapter 62

Silly Splicing

“We could try something silly,” Salire said, kneeling to pat the marshling children on the head. They giggled.

“I’m feeling pretty silly. What do you have?”

“Attribute reagents. Let’s smash them together and see what happens.”

That wasn’t a horrible idea. Attribute reagents were all flowering plants, which should meld together. They might fight against one another because of their innate alignments, but ...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 59,60,61

Chapter 59

Bombardment

The distance between Broken Tusk and Qavell was something like a hundred to two-hundred miles. If Theo had to guess. He remembered a time on Earth when making firing solutions was easy. They could poke a screen a few times and send a shot from orbit. The alchemist would have dismissed Zan’kir’s idea right away if it wasn’t possible. Without computers, the shot was difficult. But with a spotter and a lumbering target?

“That’s possible,” Th...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 56,57,58

Chapter 56

Private Army

It was always a pleasure watching Ziz’s team get to work. They had created so many weird structures, starting with the bridge and the harbor, that they were now a well-oiled machine. Instead of going with a tower design, which was required for the ocean dungeon, they did something different. First, they reinforced the edges of the river with stone walls. Theo helped them smooth the area out as they worked. Next, the created a stone base on the riverbed....

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 53,54,55

Chapter 53

Deadly Toxin

Theo reached a hand out, helping Ziz remove himself from the deep quarry. The wooden ladder strained under his weight, but held. The half-ogre clapped a hand on the alchemist shoulder and beamed a smile.

“Don’t delay,” Ziz said. “You don’t get that look on your face often enough, Theo.”

“It requires some explanation,” Theo said, gesturing for the man to follow.

“I get it,” Ziz sighed. “Gotta ease into it.”

�...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 50,51,52

Chapter 50

Earth Sorcerer’s Core

Unfortunately, Xol’sa had adopted a local Broken Tusker tradition. As Theo sat with him and Zarali in the wizard’s tower, a faint fire crackled in the fireplace. If not for the Coat of Rake, the alchemist would have been uncomfortable. Instead, he sat among those musty tomes with his companions feeling as though he was experiencing a cool summer breeze.

“Earth magic is interesting,” Xol’sa said, rising to pull a few books from h...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 47,48,49

Chapter 47

This Ain’t Zalaban

Theo flailed in his mind, desperate to move or dispel the potion. Nothing worked. He could only look around the remnants of Vesta as words came into his mind but were never spoken aloud. The figure below laughed, soon releasing a rattling cough that chilled the alchemist to the bone.

“What spell is that?” the figure asked, shambling closer to get a better look at Theo. “Alchemy, of course. What a strange effect. I’ve never s...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 43,44,45,46

Chapter 43

Reagent Splicing

The

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 40,41,42

Chapter 40

Drogramath Dedication

A mossy forest, filled with conifers, smooth boulders, and bubbling streams stretched as far as Theo could see. He touched the bark of one tree, finding it to be a fair recreation of Earth trees. Tresk had pushed herself as far as she could go to imagine the dream landscape, and the alchemist was impressed. While she refused to give up her secrets, there was clear progress in the dream's quality. In the distance, she fought with a creature from...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 37,38,39

Chapter 37

Old Gods, New Gods

The cottage in Tero’gal was stuffier than normal. A fire crackled in the fireplace as several gods sat around the table, sipping tea and trading war stories of times-gone-by. Theo watched as Drogramath, Uz’Xulven, Glantheir, and Benton chatted about the way things were. The bear god was the one with the fewest stories to share, barely having been born in the previous age. But he brought a mortal’s perspective to how things were before Balkor...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 34,35,36

Chapter 34

Pursued by Frog-Like Creatures

A familiar landscape spread into the distance from Theo’s vantage point. Standing on the battlements of his imagined town, he looked down to the harbor below. With little effort for his two main cores, he planned to toil the night away to hit Level 28. But it was as important to not neglect his Toru’aun core, which was now teetering on the edge of Level 20. The alchemist’s head swiveled, spotting Tresk and Alex doing combat with ...

The Newt and Demon - Book 5 Chapters 31,32,33

Chapter 31

More Golems

The sound of the dwarven smith Thim’s hammer rang out in the early morning. He formed it into a spherical cage of Drogramathi Iron, magically setting glowing hunks of iron into place with his class core. Theo watched nearby. Artisans were always happy to get rush orders because they got paid rush prices. With Tresk’s move last night, most of the alchemist’s golems had been destroyed. The sudden sway of willpower had annihilated their containment co...