The Runic Alchemist

Damian sensed a mana thread made of his own mana reaching out to him, connecting with his body.

'Everything as expected?' Damian asked in his mind.

Prince replied, 'Yes, but it feels weird not having your thoughts to entertain me..'

Damian's brow furrowed as he looked at the expressionless white golem.

Prince suddenly exclaimed, 'Oh! I can see your face getting angry! Hmm, you look good enough.. nothing compared to my real body, though. I was one real handsome fella!'

Damian was about to sever the mana thread link when Prince said loudly, 'Wait.. Wait.. Wait.. Won't you give me some of those cool runic inscriptions? It's a sacrium body, after all. I should have some nice attacks, right?'

Damian thought for a second and replied, 'You can figure out a way to give yourself a voice.. you won't be getting any attacking spells for now.'

'Come on, man, we spent 30 happy years together—more than any couple I know.. Shouldn't you trust me by now?'

Damian squinted at him and simply replied, 'I don't even know your name.'

That shut the guy up. The mana thread was severed, and Prince sulked, controlling the golem to sit in a corner. Damian ignored him and continued his work. Everything else was done—he still needed to finish the swords, but he needed time to decide what spells to use, so he put them aside for now.

After removing the excess liquid mana, Damian stored all the mana generators and emptied two entire tanks of mana liquid into Dreamlight's storage tanks. It took him half an hour to repair the damages that had happened to the ship. He also replaced the broken generators with new ones—now, all three generators in Dreamlight were locked for his use only.

Morning was approaching, but it was still dark outside. Mornings in this snow-covered region must start quite late. Massive mountains surrounded the area, blocking the sun. But from atop the stone structure, it should be easier to see.

Damian took out a bottle of fine alcohol from Dreamlight's storage. He wanted to sleep after this, so it should be fine to get a little drunk. He wasn't a regular drinker, but he had missed this while inside the trial.

Once all the work was done, Damian stepped outside the ship, bottle in hand. He sat on a wooden bench he had made. Lucian and Jacob were still playing—or practicing—it was hard to tell. But the moment they noticed him, they stopped and walked over. Lucian sat beside him, a little sweaty from all the movement, her simple dress highlighting the curves, while Jacob just flopped onto the ground beside the bench, shaking the earth under his weight.

"Want some?" Damian asked, creating two overly fancy-looking wooden cups.

Lucian eyed the bottle for a moment, then took the cup. Damian poured her a little, then filled his own cup and set the bottle to the side.

"How good is he?" Damian asked, glancing at Jacob.

Lucian smiled while taking a sip. "He's perfect. Jacob can learn anything once you show it to him a few times. The white metal you used looks really nice for his round body."

"It's sacrium," Damian replied.

Lucian gulped down the alcohol—then immediately burst into a coughing fit.

Damian laughed as she turned and glared at him.

"You can use sacrium now?!" she asked, shocked.

"Somewhat.. yes."

"Why make a golem? Why not weapons?" she asked.

"I will.. later." Then, after a brief hesitation, he added, "Not for everyone, though."

"Of course," she said, understanding the weight of such a weapon in someone's hands.

Most runesmiths, even when crafting their life's best weapons, could only make them last a few months to a year of continuous use. If the runic spells were used too aggressively, the lifespan barely reached a month or two. And that was with only advanced to high-level spells—each costing hundreds of gold.

But when inscribing runes inside the artificial core sacrium boxes he had made, Damian felt he could use even his most powerful spells, and sacrium wouldn't even budge. Even five overwhelming spells wouldn't make a dent in the metal. Having just two would make that weapon last for centuries, maybe even longer.

"Hm.." Lucian chuckled.

Damian took a sip from his cup and squinted at her. "What're you laughing for?"

She smiled, gazing into the distance. "Nothing, just remembering how I tried to stop you from pursuing the rune shaper class on the first day we went into the forest with Thomas.."

Damian also smiled, the memory refreshing in his mind. That was the day he first discovered he could see other people's spells in runic circles. He placed his cup down and took something out, showing it to Lucian.

"I still have his runic bracers."

Lucian took them in her hands, tracing her fingers over the engravings. "They're broken.."

"Yeah. Let me see if I can do something about it now."

Damian took the bracers and pulled out one of his artificial mana cores. Activating it, he filled the bracers with his mana threads.

There were multiple mana nodes, but they were separated, causing the spell to lose power by the second. Damian analyzed the entire structure, predicted where the next mana nodes should be, and used heated steel to fill the gaps—creating new mana nodes and connecting them one by one.

It took about fifteen minutes, but at last, Damian finished. The spell shone brightly inside the bracers, renewed with energy. When he tested it, it worked like a charm.

The second his mind entered his spatial storage, Damian spotted Threadripper's body. He immediately took it out.

Lucian just stared at the dead corpse, then back at Damian—again and again.

Damian felt like he should explain.

"Ah, it's Threadripper.. We fought once."

"They never found his body.." Lucian muttered, barely listening.

Damian searched the corpse and found two spatial storages. Then, without hesitation, he lifted the body and burned it off to the side with some fire spells—a bit away from them. It provided good light and warmth.

The storage contained some gold, food, and fancy clothes. There were a few swords, some dungeon relics, and runic and enchanted tools. Nothing too special. He could make far better things now, anyway.