Theo was excited for a nice, calm morning the next day. He woke and ate a pleasant breakfast at his table, taking his time and watching in amazement as Tresk did the same. Now that she wasn’t so busy with the dungeons, she seemed to have fallen back into her habit of shadowing him for most of the day. Alex lingered outside, doing whatever a dragon goose does, while Sarisa and Rowan ate with them.

    Despite his standing invitation, Salire still didn’t feel the need to eat breakfast with him. Perhaps it was just too weird, having breakfast with your boss every morning.

    That peaceful breakfast was broken when someone knocked on the door. Opening it, the alchemist found Xol’sa, a smile on his face. He let himself in, finding a place at the table and laying out long sheets of paper, and waiting for Theo to take his seat.

    “That’s the look of a man who actually has good news for me, for once,” Theo said, sitting down at his place and picking at his food.

    “Of course, I’m done with the tethers and beacons, and I’ve made some decent progress on the negative dungeon. Thanks to Tresk, actually.”

    Theo turned, looking at the marshal, who shrugged as though she had done absolutely nothing.

    “What can I say?” she asked. “I picked through your memories and saw some computer stuff.”

    Xol’sa went on to explain what the dungeon was doing. It was an idea about computers that Theo had heard once on Earth, and Tresk was able to pick through his memories and find it. But the system expected dungeons to always have a positive value. When it went negative, weird things would happen. It was called an undertow, or underflow, or something. Anyway, once it went negative, it started looking in weird spots in the system’s code to populate the dungeon. That resulted in a completely random dungeon. Every aspect of it was random, which was slightly concerning.

    “We can have a dungeon that never produces a wave, or a dungeon that produces a wave every second for the rest of eternity,” Xol’sa explained. “The point is that if a dungeon is completely random, we can see anything, and that’s a problem.”

    “I thought you said you had good news for me,” Theo said.

    “Of course, I do. I have several paths forward that I can take to fix the dungeon. Unfortunately, each one requires us to get to the dungeon’s core.”

    This wasn’t good news at all. Theo picked up his food and sipped his tea for a minute as he thought. If they needed to get to the dungeon core, then that meant they had to clear the entire dungeon. He couldn’t remember a time when the adventurers in town had said they cleared the swamp dungeon—maybe back when it was young and he had first arrived.

    “I thought the whole problem was that the randomness made it impossible to clear the dungeon,” Theo said.

    “A correction,” Tresk said, pointing her finger into the air. “I said it was too dangerous to look for it, but we’re understanding a bit about this particular brand of randomness.”

    “That’s the thing,” Xol’sa said. “Once the dungeon goes into the negatives, the randomness it produces is consistent.”

    “So it isn’t random,” Theo said.

    “No, it’s random upon generation. This means that once it shifts from a positive to a negative number, it creates a set amount of randomness. Those elements remain. Perhaps not forever, but we can’t know yet.”

    So it was good news after all. If the dungeon wouldn’t change while people delved into it, then they could map out a course and take the safest route. Dungeons in this world were interesting things. The swamp dungeon was the most clear-cut example; it was a series of floors heading down. Clearing a floor often gave you access to the next one, but Tresk often skipped floors. The dungeon that had been generated as a negative dungeon, on the other hand, was an open field, so it was a different sort of dungeon. But if it remained consistent, they could clear it. They were certain of that.

    Theo withdrew two communication crystals from his inventory. “I have a proposal,” he said, placing Fenian and Elrin’s crystals on the table.

    “Are we going to call in the big guns?” Tresk asked.

    “That’s the plan, anyway. If Tresk links up with either of these two, then they won’t have a problem clearing the dungeon. That’s the idea, anyway.”

    “I have no objections,” Tresk said. “Although, I’d rather have stealthers with me.”

    The group debated the plan’s specifics for a while, but it seemed straightforward. Shoving more powerful people into the dungeon would work if they could avoid the giant Sky Whale. That seemed to be the biggest threat, along with the wide-open fields. This is why Tresk wanted stealthers to avoid attracting attention from afar. But since the dungeon was not currently producing an immediate threat, they could take time to formulate a plan.

    Theo held Elrin’s crystal and squeezed it tightly. He felt the familiar haptic buzz in his mind, but the man didn’t answer. When he tried again, he received the same effect. Sighing, he placed it back on the table and picked up the other crystal.

    “Theo, my dear alchemist,” Fenian said, his voice honey-sweet.

    “What do you need?” Theo asked, sensing the familiar sweetness as a call for help, rather than anything else.

    “I’ll remind you that you called me,” Fenian said. “But it’s interesting that you know I need something. Are you watching me right now?”

    [Pitch]

    [Bomb] [Modified Bomb]

    Common

    Created by: Theo Spencer

    Purity: 72%

    Shatter against a surface to release flames that stick to the target.

    Effect (Modified):

    A sticky tar-like substance adheres to the target, lingering for twice the time but dealing half damage.

    This was a very balanced effect from the modifier. Sometimes modifiers would change the way a potion worked entirely, but this one just altered the length of the damage-over-time effect while reducing the damage. It wasn’t a good or bad potion; it was just a different application. This kind of potion would be perfect to fight against a troll, since trolls often regenerate their health over time. Applying a potion like this would ensure that the regenerative effect was minimal.

    “That’s shockingly good,” Salire said, looking at it. “I was expecting something far worse, but... can’t be mad about that, can we?”

    “No, let’s check out the Expand property next. That’s the one that I think might be the most useful for other potions.”

    To get an idea of what a normal modifier would do to a potion, Theo often used it on his standard healing potions. This would be no different, and he had several of the new potions to work with. He selected a standard healing potion, withdrawing the expand modifier and transferring both to a new vial. The reaction was very pleasant; there were no strange things going on, so he was happy about that.

    The light pink of the potion shifted, becoming paler as the essences mixed together. Both he and Salire leaned in to inspect the effects of this potion.

    [Healing Potion]

    [Expand]

    [Potion] [Modified Potion]

    Rare

    Created by: Belgar

    Purity: 90%

    A healing potion. Drink to restore health.

    Effect (Modified):

    A healing aura emits from your body, restoring 30 health over 15 seconds to all those within 100 paces.

    This was a weird one. It was hard to tell if it was good or bad. It took the normal 75 health that the Tier 2 potion healed and reduced it to 30. But it didn’t have a target limit on how many people it would heal. Unfortunately, it also didn’t specify whether it healed only allies, or allies and enemies. Theo saw this as an interesting thing, though. If it took the standard effect of a potion like this and turned it into an aura, that would be amazing for other potions, like attribute potions.

    “This one might be a winner,” Salire said, rubbing her hands together.

    The more Theo thought about it, the more he realized that it was indeed an amazing potion, and applying it to others might change the way they performed group combat. He went from mildly interested to excited.

    “I want to test this on other potions. I really do. But first, we really need to see what the Fluff property provides.”