The Runic Alchemist

Sanctum Academy, Meridian Keystone, Drona Larven.

“—such ambitions and talents are the very things Sanctuary needs from our youth. We are the first explorers. We have travelled the whole world and found thousands of dungeons. All those still unexplored dungeons are waiting for us to charge in with courage, use creative tools and strategies to uncover the secrets hidden within. Some of you will become explorers, some scholars, some will make a name for themselves through our entertainment industry, maybe create or join a guild, or become part of large production work. I bid you all—” Third Keeper of Sanctuary continued his speech.

Drona stared at the stage mindlessly. He was standing in an orderly line before the large stage surrounded by his classmates. Not really focusing on Uncle Sam’s words. Same as every year, the speech barely had any changes in it. He was more interested in the hushed conversations of the two girls beside him.

“That’s the lady Spellmaster. She looks so different from what they teach us in history about her.” Miura murmured.

“Girl, look at a row behind her! It’s Elias Sunblade! All five members of the GASM guild! Ahh, so cute.” Zer’s annoying voice replied.

Drona still remembered that day when he was five years old. Uncle Sariel and Aunt Amy had just moved to Sanctuary on Uncle Sam’s invitation. He was left alone with an overly energetic honey-blonde-haired brat of a girl, Zer. She was the opposite of her calm and kind parents: teacher Sariel and Aunt Amy.

“Beast Nation Guild leader, Lord Kamisen! And even Darkwood guild leader and vice-leader Lord Sylian and Lady Olivia!” Miura’s surprise was never-ending.

They weren’t alone. Most of the students were murmuring among themselves while glancing continuously at the famous people sitting in the parents’ section. Seeing so many popular faces together was indeed something new. The recording of this will be on all news channels today.

“The Sunblade kid came first, right? There is no way lord Void King would miss this. Where is he?” Zer asked impatiently.

Miura scanned the whole parents’ group and even the stage, but found him nowhere. In the end, she looked back, meeting his eyes.

Drona’s heart skipped a beat.

‘God, those cute emerald eyes combined with her fluffy orange ears are a deadly combination!’

With a fake cough, he replied,

“I don’t know. They did not receive any word of his arrival.”

Zer kneed him in the side while giggling like a maniac that she was. The slight changes in him that appeared whenever Miura was around were only recognized by her. The demon with whom he had spent his entire childhood and junior academy.

‘Why does she have to be best friends with this girl!’

Miura only stared at them, confusion clear on her face; the slight movements of her ears were so cute!

“Creep..” Zer whispered.

A vein popped off on Drona’s forehead.

‘I will kill her! One day for sure I will kill her!’

———

After the opening event, Sanctum Academy, Sam.

The large office of Headmaster Frostmother was quite packed. Once the speech and the rewards were given, the first day of the academy’s new year started.

Without any invitation, they all just followed behind Lucian and Fiona as if it had been decided beforehand. Sam had several things on the schedule for the afternoon, but it was rare for their friends to gather together like this. Even though they lived so close to each other, they were always busy with things.

“Aww.. She’s so cute. Her horns are already out, huh.” Lumi said while happily cradling Thalindra in her arms. (Damian & Vidalia’s 3Y old daughter.)

“I’m telling you, Lady Vidalia, she’s going to be more talented than Orian!”

“Both my nephew and niece are equally talented.” Elias reminded her.

“Look at her cute face, she’s so calm. She’s obviously better! I will train her myself!” Lumi shot back.

Grace added, “Orian’s horns came later, right?”

Vidalia nodded with a smile, “Yes, he was five. Lazrin said it’s common to have such a difference.”

“Did you look at her face? I can’t believe she’s grown so much.” Riky said to his sister and daughter-in-law.

“She was fidgeting all over when called on stage.” Ely laughed.

Luca added, “I am just glad she went through with it and did not freeze like last time.”

“She’s so talented, but because of her extraordinary classmates, she doesn’t realize it.” Kora joined the conversation, and Yomi, standing beside him, agreed with the statement.

From another corner, Amy said, “—his addition has indeed improved their team.”

“Yeah, Quazshi’s party needed support for a long time. They experimented with others, but Evante, with his Esper class, is a perfect fit.” Kamisen agreed.

Sylian Darkwood added, “Grimblade is truly going after hundreds. A transcendent leader is indeed quite powerful, but I don’t think it’s sustainable for the guild.”

[Quazshi, aka Grimblade: An ex-Dawnstar, ex-sanctuary transcendent seed knight who transcended in Damian’s party, then returned to Sanctuary to start his own guild.]

In the past decade, Sanctuary had changed drastically.

Sam did all that he could as a keeper for the growth of the country that was now considered the biggest and richest country in the world. Following behind Damian’s gathering of unlikely people to start a dungeon party, who worked together for a common benefit, the formula had become quite famous.

Especially after Damian invented the new video-capturing runic devices. They wanted the dungeon resources, so Sam advertised the dungeon diving and created some beneficial rules to support the profession of adventurer. Like giving more dungeon reward benefits to an organized group or a fixed party, which resulted in people creating guilds. For the guilds, they also had strict rules binding them to Sanctuary or staying neutral.

Capturing the video footage and selling it to the broadcast channel had been the most profitable business. These guilds also realized many other ways to earn by training their own runesmiths, mages, and using the dungeon resources directly themselves to create unique products.

The biggest visible change was when Damian started using dungeon cores as mediums. Integrating that into various existing runic devices, they managed to upgrade a lot of things all at once.