Chapter 92: Marching Tea

Author's Note: There will be a second chapter today, though the chapter is going to be slightly shorter than normal.

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The drawing was confirmed the next morning. Pico said that the official requests would be sent out a few days later. Arthur spent most of his time trying to control his nerves. He was aware that there wasn’t any real reason to freak out about any of it yet. That was especially true since he didn’t know anyone but Spiky going, or even that they were seriously considering it. But he still found the whole thing gnawing at him. He tried to keep busy.

“Arthur,” Karbo said. “Zoning out is all well and good, but I’m gonna need you present for this next part.”

Arthur shook himself out of it, bringing his view back into focus on the dozen or so warriors that had collected around the dungeon nearest to town. Karbo walked to the front, his shoulders pulled up straight and strong with a very un-Karbo-like authority.

“This is not a hunt,” Karbo said. “It’s an extermination. We are going to intentionally overhunt this dungeon, then keep going. The objective is drawing down the number of monsters in the dungeon so far that the dungeon will have trouble recovering. And can anyone tell me why?”

“To get levels,” Chuck said. “In case any of us are called to the frontier.”

“That’s part of it, Chuck. And I'll be glad if you get them. But it’s only part. And the other part?”

A much smaller infernal in the back raised her hand. When Arthur had first arrived on the Demon world, he had seen Karbo and assumed all infernals were huge. While they were a bigger kind of demon compared to most, that assumption was inaccurate. It took a while before Arthur realized that assuming anyone was really like Karbo was a mistake.

“To create a lull,” the smaller infernal said.

Karbo snapped his fingers.

“That’s right. Normally, we avoid overhunting because it leads to shortages. The dungeons go bare for a while, we can’t get materials, we can’t get combat experience, and overall, it’s a loss compared to if we had been more responsible. If we had planned. But that same lull can be a tool.” Karbo stalked the front of the group like a general. “If we do this right, we can make a two or three month gap in full-speed monster spawning. And that leaves most of us with nothing to do.”

Chuck raised his hand.

“That seems bad, Karbo. And these are all dungeons we normally keep under control.”

“Well, it is bad, in some ways. It’s a tradeoff. But it’s how things are done. Imagine if I got called to the frontier, and half of you decided to go voluntarily. That’s a sudden shortage of manpower. I don’t expect that, but gaps like that take time to fill. We need to make the space for whoever stays to grow into the combat role, and for talent from other cities to move in. It’s a precaution. One we take seriously.”

Karbo thumbed back at the dungeon.

“And that means that this dungeon is dangerous for us today in a way it normally wouldn’t be. We’re hunting more monsters faster. Anything particularly nasty that you might normally avoid? Today, we’re seeking those out and taking them down. We’re walking from the top of this dungeon to the bottom hunting in a way we normally wouldn’t. And that means danger. A lot of the habits that kept you safe are going out the window.”

“Then why him?” The infernal pointed at Arthur. “No offense, but my duel sense says you can’t fight.”

“Karbo asked me for a favor,” Arthur replied. “And I owe him one.”

“That’s right.” Karbo put his hands over Arthur’s shoulders and lifted him up, showing him to the class like he was bragging about a trophy. “This guy can make magic tea. It doesn’t do a ton, but I asked him here to make something that would keep up your stamina, and help you keep your mind in the game for longer. It’s a big deal. Be nice to him.”

Karbo set Arthur down, and Arthur did his best to pretend like being hoisted in the air hadn’t compromised his dignity as he started unloading his tea things.

“Well, let’s get this started,” Arthur said. “Karbo, you wanted pep and vitality. Anything else?”

“You can do more?” Karbo asked with a surprising amount of interest.

“Strength, Dexterity. Slightly better eyesight. I can do a lot, it just comes at a cost. Splitting up effects makes the bonus weaker on each individual thing,” Arthur said.

Karbo looked greedy for a moment, then slumped.

“No, just the original plan. It’s a shame. I would have liked to have been stronger. But there’s too many people with different stat needs. Vitality is the only one that generalizes.” Karbo’s arm suddenly shot out and grabbed at something off to his side, then came back holding Corbin. “What would happen if you made a single dexterity enhancing drink? Just for this one?”

“My name is Corbin,” the stealth cat said. “And how did you see me?”

“I could smell you. And shush. I’m trying to help you out.”

“One more drink shouldn’t be a big deal. He won’t be able to have both drinks active at the same time though.”

“Then do it. He doesn’t use much energy. It’s lots of rest in between attacks for the stealthy ones.”

Arthur nodded and got to work. Nothing about this particular job was hard. There were no special ingredients or hard-to-understand visualizations involved. He just had to make a basic tea with his most basic ingredients, infuse with all the majicka he could dump, and they’d be done. It was a boring task in most ways.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t try to make them a bit better and add a bit of complexity. He did Corbin’s drink first, managing to get a minor stealth bonus in with the slight dexterity buff he generated. Then he went to work on the greater group’s tea. Technically, he only had to imagine a person feeling strong and over-caffeinated. Instead, he built a story in his mind.

Arthur imagined himself walking with them, keeping a pace he normally couldn’t handle. His legs just refused to fail him. At the same time, he thought about his eyes darting back and forth, taking the surroundings in without missing a single detail. In the fictive world, he had been doing this for hours, but he wasn’t bored or tired. He was strong and alert. He thought he could do it for days.

It worked. Majicka poured out of him as the notification popped up.

Marching Tea (Minor)

There’s combining effects, then there’s making something completely different. This tea has all the components you planned on. It maintains alertness. It augments vitality to allow for higher performance that persists over a longer period of time. On paper, it’s the same as an over-pepped stamina tea.

But this is a sum-greater-than-the-parts drink where the alertness and stamina buff synergize with each other instead of simply layering. The drinker of the tea will find themselves alert for longer and keep going longer in a way that defies simple description.

Effects: More than slight increase in both alertness and vitality.

Arthur distributed the drinks, watched as the assembled meatheads threw them back in seconds, then sat on a nearby rock.

“All right. That should do it. Arthur, just wait here. It shouldn’t be longer than an hour or so,” Karbo said as he led the way into the dungeon.

What Karbo was doing wasn’t unique. Pico and Itela had been all over the town the last few days, finding vital people who were key parts of the city, and altered their planned work to get ready for the potential of big changes. The wellers had suddenly found themselves with a budget to shore up tunnels that otherwise would have waited another year for improvements. The smiths, Milo included, were pumping out piles of fléchettes, weapons, and armor to shore up the city’s monster-fighting armory resources.

Even Arthur had been asked to make tea components that could be used during monster waves, or for emergency medical needs that might pop up. He had dumped the better part of his excess majicka into such pearls for the last few days, helping to add to the city’s growing stockpile of just-in-case resources.

It wasn’t all for the city, of course. Itela had cleared that up for him.

“We aren’t going to send our best and brightest out without help, Arthur,” Itela had said. “We have transporters moving as we speak, stockpiling products at the border. Things that the new settlements will need to get started. Like weapons, tools, and food. It’s the city’s duty to contribute to all that.”

“And tea plays in, somehow?”

“Yes, it does. Your tea is an interesting product. Any cook anywhere can use it to promote healing,” Itela said. “In those first days, that’s going to be important. You’d be surprised how scuffed up people get when they’re working in a hurry. Anything that helps hold those injuries at bay means that they can keep working and gets everything set up sooner. And it takes the burden off whatever poor cleric they send out there.”

“Who would you send, if you had to choose?” Arthur asked.

“Out of my clerics? Not many. This expansion caught us at an odd time. I’ve been shipping out my best to frontier towns for some time now. Just at the moment, I have one cleric under me who is has enough experience to pull it off. But she’s… well, she’s soft. She’s optimized for city work. She wouldn’t do well in the wild.”

And so it went. The preservers were pulling from their own stocks, organizing any food they thought the city could spare into crates to be loaded onto wagons. The alchemists were using up the city’s entire excess of ingredients, making emergency stashes of healing pills meant to cover the needs of an entire settlement for years.

And the warriors were training. Settlements were smaller targets than cities, but they got monster waves just the same. No one settlement could keep itself safe from them by itself, so the government was bolstering a sort of roving frontier militia, one that could be called up when scouts saw the worst coming, thin the monster herd with partisan tactics, and go all-out defending a particular settlement when necessary.

“Are you ready?” Karbo said, busting out of the dungeon covered in dust and the glow of recent combat. “I can take you to set up at the next dungeon now if you are.”

“And the others?” Arthur asked.

“Will follow. They’re safe. There’s nothing left in there that can threaten them.”

Arthur took a quick Karbo flight to the next dungeon, made another batch of drinks, and then sat waiting again until it was time for the next. And the next. And the next. By the time they were done, they had cleared out the better part of eight dungeons, only stopping when one of the warriors made a stupid mistake and caught a jaw’s worth of teeth in his leg.

“That’s enough for the day. We can continue on tomorrow.”

“How many more of these, Karbo? Not that I’m complaining.” Chuck flexed. “I picked up two levels from that.”

“Three more dungeons. Arthur, we shouldn’t need you for that. It will be a much shorter day. Unless you want too, of course.”

“Can’t. I have a shop to run. And Itela has plans for more tea. I guess every little bit helps.”

Karbo clapped him on the shoulder. “It does. And just keep it up. It may not feel like it, but you’re saving lives.”

Arthur paused for a second. He could vaguely remember a phrase from Earth, “a smile can save a life.” But as far as he knew, people didn’t go around with giant smiles on their faces.

But in the demon world, everyone didn’t just say cheap phrases. They truly believed that what they did would save lives. The entire city was bustling with activity as people smiled, sweated, and did their bit in a Rosie the Riveter sort of way. They weren’t just happy to do it. They were proud.

And just like that, it was time for the drawing.