The Runic Alchemist

"We can use it, right...? It just needs four mages," Tristan said, standing up and moving closer to Vidalia to get a better look at the waygate tool that had made their lives so difficult recently.

"We don't even know how it works. Does anyone have the Analyze skill?" Lysandrea asked, scanning the group. No one responded.

"Just a second," Vidalia muttered while chanting a spell, her hands moving in intricate, unknown gestures. Once she finished, a window appeared in front of her, glowing the same semi-transparent blue as the common status screen. It displayed:

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Item: The Soulbound Gateway

Tier: Grand Artifact

Origin: Forgotten Dungeon of Uldara

Item Type: Runic Tool (Spatial)

Description:

I told Nyren not to go there, but when did he ever listen? His expeditions to the ***** Lands had us all on edge. Then, it happened—what we all feared.

Lightbringer killed all hope, trapping even souls in his twisted architecture. But fear not, Brother, I will find you, no matter where you are. They can take everything from us, but you will always have me.

The bond between souls is a thread of light, stretching across the vastness of time.

Attributes:

Mana Capacity: 4800/200000 (Rechargeable)

Durability: 92%

Activation Time: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 24 hours (after each use)

Waygate Limit: 2 Souls

Runic Alignment: Tier II

Special Effects:

Spatial Rift: Opens a temporary waygate at the user's location to a selected soul destination.

Anchor Lock: Locks the exit point of the waygate, ensuring stable transport even in unstable spatial zones.

Mana Drain: Drains 5000 mana from the user/users per activation.

Energy Flux: Has a 5% chance of failure in high-magic zones, resulting in transport to a random location.

Restrictions:

User Level Required: 100 (Can link 4 users at Lv.25)

Item Bound: Once attuned, it cannot be used by another unless reset through the previous user's demise.

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"They just used it... Even if we figure out how it works, it won't be usable for a day," Tristan sighed, sitting back down. All of them were battered—injuries covering their bodies, weapons bloody, and armor dented and scorched.

Vidalia kept reading the details of the strange tool before finally storing it in her spatial storage, along with a mediocre spatial storage tool.

"Let's go. It's better to keep moving," Vidalia said, slowly standing at the entrance of the small cave.

Grunting and cursing, one by one, they all got up and followed her. The pugilist was left in charge of carrying the boy, whose weight was practically nonexistent. It was hard to believe such a kid could be such a menace on the battlefield, but the things he had done today were nothing short of extraordinary.

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Damian reluctantly opened his eyes and saw white snow. It took him a moment to realize he was being carried on someone's shoulder. His head was still throbbing, and he could feel injuries he didn't even remember getting. His whole body ached, but he had regained some control. Looks like his healing factor had also improved—it was always better than others for some reasons.

The pugilist noticed Damian stirring and stopped. The rest of the group paused too, watching as Damian coughed and slid down onto the cold, solid snow. Lysandrea handed him a water skin, and Damian drank greedily. Odd, he thought. They could make water anytime, yet she still carried a skin around. Definitely an odd one...

"You doing okay?" Tristan asked, bending down to sit beside him.

"Does anyone have food?" Damian asked. He had plenty in his spatial storage, but it was damaged, and he wasn't sure if it could be repaired. His runic spell collection book was in there, along with Threadripper's corpse... The guy must have had important things on him, and Damian was eager to check it out later.

If he lost all that, he'd seriously consider dumping all his stat points into LUC next time. Who needs strength when you can be the luckiest bastard alive?

Vidalia handed him some dry fruits and smoked jerky and stood nearby, as if waiting for him to start eating. She was the strangest of them all—sometimes a crude soldier, sometimes a commander, sometimes a mage. And every now and then, she even joked with him, catching him completely off guard.

After satisfying his hunger just enough to stay in control of his bodily needs, Damian stopped eating and looked around. Lysandrea and Tristan were the closest to him.

"How long was I out? How far have we gone?" he asked.

"Some hours, maybe more," Lysandrea answered. "We've been walking since you collapsed."

"Can you cast the spell?" Tristan asked, his eyes filled with hope, pride, and something else Damian couldn't quite place. Nope he was wrong, This guy was definitely the one winning lifetime achievement award in weirdness for this group.

"Just a second.." Damian chanted in random language while drawing the advance healing spell runic circle and making his head feel just a bit better with all the injuries caused by his abusive focus and mana usage. With pain subsiding just a little starting from his head Damian regained enough clarity to think properly.

Damian looked up at Vidalia, understanding the task, she supplied him with a large amount of continuous mana. Damian then began drawing the wormhole spell, chanting the same random words as he did every time he did this spell in front of them. Soon a shimmering purple portal opened before them. And they all walked through it.

One by one, he kept creating and activating wormholes, moving them closer and closer to the entrance of the Wraith's Passage. When they finally arrived, the camp was still there—empty now. The people had likely crossed the dreaded lands by now and were setting up another camp at the entrance of dreaded lands.

If the scouts from Ashenvale had planned an attack, they should have done it by now—or maybe they were just waiting for the waygate to reopen near them. Either way, it didn't matter. The army could defend itself from a few measly scouts. Not that the scouts would be stupid enough to attack without backup.