The Runic Alchemist

“How are you here? No, wait..”

Anthony murmured, then something seemed to click in his mind.

“Let’s first return to Sanctuary, we can talk at length there,” Sam replied with a smile.

Had Anthony always been so.. old?

No, it had to be his own childish memories playing tricks on his mind. For a man in his mid-forties, Anthony was quite healthy. With his uncle back, Sam was eager to go back to Sanctuary and show him around.

Damian would be happy to see his gamble had paid off and they were not releasing a criminal for nothing. Nowhere in the mana contract did it say they couldn’t hunt Shadow Reaver afterward. The island of demons was not that big.

Sam had promised himself that he wouldn’t let Evrin’s attackers go free, not for his own selfish reasons. It was his responsibility.

“Did they take me because of this reason?” Anthony asked, his eyes focused on the beastman standing beside them.

Sam also looked at the large Gorilla-man.

“I don’t know.” The gorilla man replied.

It wasn’t unwillingness to answer but a genuine lack of information. The beastman truly had no idea why their leader, Shadow Reaver, had taken Anthony hostage.

Anthony shook his head as if throwing away the thoughts that had occupied his mind and focused back on Sam.

“You have grown so much! You are a young man now.”

Sam smiled as the man ruffled his hair a bit. Even though for others a decade had passed in the time they were in the Highsword dungeon, for Sam, Lucian, Maelor, and others, who had come last out of the dungeon, only five years of physical change had happened.

Damian was already near 20 physically, while Sam was only 15 in the dungeon. After the exit, he too had reached twenty while Damian’s body had barely changed. Lucian, Maelor, and Reize, all who were with them while exiting the dungeon, had grown five years older.

“How long have you been inside?” Sam asked.

“A long time. Eldoris had only started entering Ashenvale back then.”

“That’s.. around 15 years,” Souldealer said with wide eyes.

Sam gritted his teeth in anger, his fist tightening on their own.

“Calm down, you will hurt him.” Lucian held Sam’s shoulder, warning him.

Sam immediately stopped any leakage of aura or mana that had started on its own. For mundanes, it was truly deadly.

“Let’s go,” Sam said, taking a step forward.

But Anthony did not move with him at all. Sam looked back and caught his uncle staring at the beastman.

“Did he do something to you?” Sam asked.

“No,” Anthony realized Sam was looking at him. “But, I wasn’t alone inside.”

Sam’s eyes widened.

“There are more prisoners?” Lucian immediately asked.

“Yes, two to be exact. And four guards who kept watch over us.” Anthony replied.

“Go, get everyone back. If you left even a single person inside, you won’t be so happy to be still alive anymore.” Sam said, his face dark.

The Gorilla beastmen gulped down hard and entered the dungeon again, even though minutes before, he was breathing with his lungs out; the strain of continuous running and fighting had finally caught up with his powerful pugilist build.

“He was.. scared,” Anthony murmured. “The second-ranked senior leader of the Shadow.”

“Your nephew is a Transcendent now.” Lucian spilled the beans.

Sam smiled, seeing the shock on his uncle’s face.

“Come, there are a lot of things I want to tell you,”

///

[In the Sanctum building, after the small late-night meeting, Damian’s POV.]

After questioning him for half an hour about the explanation he had given, at last the guests left the room. Still, Land-breaker, Mindseer, and Voidshaper had remained behind. For some reason, even Reize and her sister had remained behind.

The two sisters shared the floor with the other VIP guests, so when everyone came asking what had happened, they too had joined in.

“Is there anything we can help with?” Land-breaker asked.

“It’s nothing that important,” Damian replied. “The shadow organization will pay when the time comes.”

“That they will..” Voidshaper said, hints of suppressed anger visible on his face.

It didn’t feel right to hide the leader of the organization that had attacked their home. But not everyone would agree with the contract he had made. It was selfish, but they had not sworn to serve the realm. One of them was in trouble, and they had done what they could to save him; it was as simple as that.

Shadow Organization’s connection to the Demons was something that irked Damian the wrong way. It wasn’t like they never did messed-up missions for other nobles and merchants for money. The beastmen following Neo should also have the same prejudice against Demons as the humans, and still, the organization had agreed to work with them.

What reward could be so great?

It was the stolen Highsword weapons and runic tools that had given the beastmen rebels the power to still persist against the countries hunting them. But still, that was something they had looted without knowing what they would get from the Highsword treasury.

“Can we meet these prisoners?” Mindseer asked.

Highsword and Sanctuary had a very close relationship, and Mindseer had helped a lot in successfully doing this whole opening event. A simple request like that, he could not just refuse.

“I will see what I can do,” Damian replied.

The three from Highswords nodded. Damian added,

“It will be after a few days..”

They looked at him for a few seconds but accepted it anyway.

The Highswords left at last, leaving behind only Reize and her sister. Damian was about to ask her why that was when he suddenly sensed a waygate opening a few floors below. Sam and a human stepped out of the portal.

He didn’t need to guess who the human was.

The minuscule mana signature inside Anthony had not changed at all; only Damian could now sense it with much more clarity. At least something good had come out of this whole headache-inducing situation.