The Runic Alchemist

Both Damian and Asher’s levels rose quickly. The delays also became more frequent, along with the monsters. The Highswords joined up soon. The one lonesome group of humans became an unstoppable force, tearing through this strange volcanic ecosystem like an avalanche against the dungeon monsters.

The temperature had become annoyingly unbearable, so they activated their fireproof suits. To make the most out of their oxygen, Damian sometimes used a wormhole to skip a large distance and avoid monsters—only when the sky ahead was slightly clear. The suit did its job—at least they stopped feeling like they were living inside an oven.

Two days passed, then three, four, five—and at last, after more than a week of relentless fighting, killing, flying, and resting only to skip nights, Damian finally sensed something. It wasn’t the typical Emperor-rank monster’s mana. It was a massive force—similar to the Demon Lord, but different. The Demon Lord’s mana was more oppressive, overpowering. This one felt like it was ever-present, like the natural order itself—something that would stand tall even after millions of years had passed.

It was not evil, but a constant judgment. An Overseer.

The Sun God was here.

But he wasn’t alone. There were mana signatures around him—more oppressive than his own. That didn’t necessarily mean they were stronger, but they were definitely more saturated with mana and deadly intent compared to the Sun God. Five, to be specific. And there were even more Emperor-level monsters, some with mana pools larger and more sinister than anything they had faced until now.

But these five were terrifyingly powerful. One among them was actually very close to the Demon Lord in terms of sheer mana pool and presence.

Damian was surprised to sense so many powerful beings alive in this part of the world. Why hadn’t they gone out into the world? What were they doing here?

The mana wasn’t distinct yet—they were still quite far away. Still, maybe they had sensed them too.. it was hard to tell.

“What is it?” Runefather asked, noticing Damian’s expression as they flew at high speed beside each other.

“He is here..” Damian revealed, stopping mid-air and creating an invisible shield around them. “And there are five others.. possibly above Emperor rank.” He described in detail what his mana sense had picked up.

“Five!?” some of them echoed in disbelief.

“What do we do?” asked Lifewarden.

Damian looked around. Not all faces were conflicted, but some were. He was going to go—alone, if he had to.

“We go..” Sesha said firmly. Worldscribe nodded, as did Silverspell and Runefather.

“Alright..” Lifewarden said. “It is our only possible way back.”

Damian looked ahead. The sky was filled with wyverns of all sizes. There was another strange addition to these airborne monsters: groups of faceless red-robed mages launching fire spells, gliding through the air with no effort or visible spell. Then there were these flares of light that released waves of continuous solar heat as attacks.

Damian activated his second Sacrium Mana Cube—one wasn’t enough anymore—and continued straight ahead. Black, gold, and red auras slashed and cleaved through the horde of wyverns. Lifewarden, Silverspell, and Worldscribe launched spell after spell, targeting the red-robed mages before they could retaliate.

Damian had once thought the poison Sesha used had limited practicality, but he was completely wrong. She could manipulate the state of the poison any way she liked—gas, liquid, even solid poison constructs like flying spears and swords, or her favorite: arrows. One hit, and whether it was wyverns or mages, they dropped dead instantly.

The solar flares were particularly annoying to deal with, so Damian handled them mostly himself. Only an invisible box or freezing them with ice attacks worked effectively. On average, Damian and Asher took care of most of the monsters using Damian’s seemingly unlimited mana, sparing the Highswords to handle those that slipped through and got too close, with their limited mana.

The six mana signatures were not moving. Were they waiting? Or did they simply not sense the group yet?

The monsters, however, were moving in large numbers, all slowly gathering near them. The airborne enemies were much faster than the ones on the ground. Every few meters forward meant more fighting, more enemies. Damian noticed that neither the wyverns nor the mages ever landed on the land below. And those who died and fell were quickly devoured by the Big Lava Snakes, Flame Knights, and massive wolf-like beasts with fire trailing from their dark fur.

Damian deliberately switched to low flying. Since the monsters hated each other so much, he instructed the Highswords to just swat the flying ones down and let the ground monsters fight among themselves. He himself used the spell Asher had shown him a while ago to form two massive hands. He integrated the spell with his Mana Hand spell, allowing him to control them at a distance, and began swatting any flying monster that got in their way directly down to the ground in massive numbers.

Of course, they still had to be wary of the Emperor-rank threats: magma golems, the Wyvern Lord, Fire Elemental Titan, and the Ash Phoenix—an enormous bird with molten feathers and wings of ash. These enemies needed more attention and a few more attacks than the rest.

In just over four days of the first week they had been traveling, Damian had reached level 150. But he did not ascend and simply continued piling up experience points. Asher had already reached level 200. He wasn’t crippled in experience point gain like Damian, so it was to be expected. Asher had helped out a great deal—he continuously used many runic weapons Damian had made and given him to cover their backs. Alongside his own spells, the guy had killed just slightly fewer monsters than Damian himself.

But just as they had expected, he didn’t receive the “Enlightenment” or the Ascension skill option that people like Damian often got. Becoming a third-ranker would have to wait for Asher. The guy was focused on leveling his skills, so it wasn’t as devastating to his metal heart as it might be later when he would have nothing left to do.