The Runic Alchemist

"How are things going?" Kazak asked as Damian placed two injured soldiers in the temporary infirmary beyond the valley entrance.

He and his unit had a few hours to recover their strength; Royce and the others were holding the frontlines, though retreating with each step. It was a good idea to engage them far from the valley entrance, even if they had to give up the open land to fight in a forest.

"Not good. How much more time do we need? I don't think they can hold them off much longer," Damian replied.

"Should we join?" Kazak asked, glancing toward the distant forest where the battle raged.

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"Let's wait until Royce calls for us," Damian said, offering a water skin to an injured first-rank pugilist in his unit. He cast an advanced healing spell on the soldier's worst injuries to give him a fighting chance.

"You can heal, too?" Kazak asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but I'm at my mana limit. I can't do it for everyone. If only we had more time and parchments, I could make some healing scrolls," Damian replied, finishing the spell before stepping out of the infirmary with Kazak.

"How's the riverside?" Damian asked.

"They're sending in groups of monsters at regular intervals. It's manageable, but we need to stay alert constantly."

"How about I take over? I can sense them and can handle the monsters with my team while resting. Royce will call for more reinforcements soon, so send them there."

"I was thinking the same thing… But then you ran to the front lines with your weird spear..."

"The monsters they brought were the real problem. The second-rankers they can handle."

"You took down the monsters?" Kazak asked, surprised.

"Only the biggest threats. I left the Terror and Leader-ranked ones—they had the largest numbers. I just dealt with the King and Lord ranks."

"That's… impressive work. We'll still need two hours to get everyone to the other side of the village where you people camped before. I'll gather who I can and head toward Captain Royce. If we take out the remaining second-rankers, victory is within reach, and we may have a chance to clear all of them. I'm leaving you in charge here," Kazak said, preparing to leave.

Damian nodded and headed toward the river cave entrance, where they had set up a monster-capturing mechanism. It mostly worked, but some creatures, agile as they were, managed to slip past with a dive, and they had to handle those. But before he began, he called out to Kazak.

"Kazak."

"Yes, boy?"

"Tell them to give me all the mana stones."

Kazak paused, tempted to ask why, but ultimately nodded. Damian hadn't expected such unquestioning trust. Despite the beastmen's general distrust of humans, he was glad to see that they'd formed a kind of working relationship.

Damian gathered the remaining members of his unit and moved to the camp near the river. The area was mostly empty now, save for beastmen warriors and a few soldiers keeping an eye on the monsters, killing those that made it across. The river's speed was half the problem; it carried the monsters farther downstream before they could be eliminated. Archers and mages would have been ideal, but they had to work with what they had.

Damian relieved the soldiers, keeping only a few to handle the corpses. Even in the darkness, with just a few torches lit, he could sense the monsters, piercing them with spears crafted from wood he'd made with wood style. When there were no monsters, he had the soldiers whittle the wood into pointed spears.

After dealing with another wave of creatures, Damian left the soldiers to gather the corpses and sat on the grassy bank, a short distance from his unit. Sam, Einar, and Yovan and others were resting in their tents, washing in the river, or eating, though most were too exhausted to do much and simply lay on the grass near the fire.

Taking out his status tool, Damian activated it and, with a deep breath, selected the [Ascension Rank 1.2 (Temporary)]. He needed a boost to his mana pool and, more importantly, knowledge of how to use mana stones. That knowledge could give him a chance in their precarious situation, or at least a shot at survival. He knew the process would only take a few seconds. He could work on leveling up Arcane Synthesis when he had time for lab work, but right now, he needed something connected to runesmithing. With no parchment, mana stones were his best resource that he could tap into for more mana.

Damian's vision blacked out, and he felt a sudden weightlessness, sinking into darkness, then the familiar splash of water. This time, he wasn't afraid of drowning. He let the sensation flow naturally, and when he regained awareness, he found himself in the same dorm room as before. Nothing had changed, and though he knew it wasn't real, he felt a pang of disappointment seeing time being still here. Even though he knew for a fact that his world was no longer there.

The computer screen lit up with a sound, and Damian sat on the squeaky chair, his options displayed before him.

Class correction was still available for him, offering a range of classes, though Esper and Pugilist were grayed out and no longer viable. He resisted the temptation to consider the other options. He needed a Rune Shaper job right now. As he stretched out his hand to select the rune shaper icon, a thought made him pause. Wanting to approach this properly and not miss out on anything, he selected the mage option.

The available paths appeared:

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MAGE CLASS JOBS | DAMIAN SUNBLADE LV.50

Water mage

(Mini Damian surrounded by water balls)

Space-time mage

(Mini Damian animation of teleportation)

Elemental mage

(Mini Damian using four elements)

Scholar mage

(Mini Damian with glasses and book)

Rune mage

(Mini Damian writing glowing runes)

Battle mage

(Mini Damian with glowing runic weapons)

Spearmage of the Rune Storm

(Mini Damian calling lightning with spear)

Stone Seer

(Mini Damian talking to rocks)

Sigil Sentinel

(Mini Damian drawing runes on ground to create protective wards)

Geomancer of the Arcane Forge

(Mini Damian commanding golems coming from the ground)

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