The Runic Alchemist

Damian opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings for monsters. Although the trial had lasted for two hours, the scene remained the same as he remembered an hour ago. Still, he felt relieved to detect no monsters in his mana sense, even far away in the river below the mountain.

However, he sensed one more thing—unlike the first, this feeling was unusual. His vision seemed much clearer, and his body felt energized, as if the exhaustion from the physical strain of the previous fight and the mental strain of mana deficiency had vanished like a fleeting dream. It felt like…

'Did I level up?'

He should be level 51 now, but this didn't feel like just a one-level improvement. Not wasting any time wondering, Damian immediately took out his mana tool and activated it.

---

Name :

Damian Sunblade Lv.67

Rank :

Lord

Affinity :

Water, Space-time

Mana :

2940/7230

STR :

109

DEF :

77

INT :

168

AGI :

75

DEX :

77

CHA :

19

LUC :

3

Jobs :

Elder Runebreaker (Lv.17), The Runic Chemist Lord (Lv.25)

Blessings :

Godless [40 Available Points]

Titles :

[Cold Blooded Killer], [Wild Hunter], [Chained], [Primordial Metal Shaper], [Titan Killer]

Skills :

[Beginner Tree Climbing Lv.7], [Echo of Clarity Lv.1], [Advanced Scholar Lv.1], [Advanced Swordsman Lv.1], [The Runic High Lord Lv.1], [Runic Inscription Lv.9], [Arcane Synthesis Lv.3], [Nerve Shield Lv.1], [Advanced Spearman Lv.1] [Rune Breaker Lv.1] [Mana Extract Lv.1]

Penalty :

(1). Use of (Veil of Containment) now costs five times the original mana, taking a piece of the user's guilty soul with it each time.

---

Okay… What is going on here? That much leveling experience can't come from just one dungeon dive, especially since he was supposed to level up more slowly than others. Did killing Threadripper earn him that much experience? And it rolled over, even after reaching his level cap..? This system sure did never let any effort go to waste.. That could be the only explanation. Killing a third-ranker was no joke. Not that he could replicate that scenario without tearing his soul now. Damian missed the invisible box spell so much.

What else? A nice mana boost… 40 stat points. He felt like his stats were already pretty impressive. Aside from third-rankers, no average second-ranker could match him in strength or intelligence. After some thought, Damian added 5 points each to Agility, Defense, and Dexterity. Then with a grin on his face, Damian tried doing something that he always wanted to do when he got more stat points, and added all the rest to his Luck, though immediately a warning flashed when he reached 10 in LUC,

[LUC will be locked after 10 points; lifetime limit reached for the user's current physical form.]

Huh…? He could only allocate 10? Well, that made sense. With 100 points in Luck, he would be a walking cheat or a trouble magnet. Thinking it over, it was good to be capped at 10. It was above average—he was sure of that. In the books he had read, people with growth skills early in their life typically had 6+ Luck, and the highest publicly recorded one was 9.

Damian saved his last 18 stat points for emergencies. However, it looked like he could level up quickly in this job too. Though his skill would need to be leveled up too, so it wasn't much of an advantage, he welcomed the extra stats though.

The Tree Climbing skill had leveled up somehow—probably because of all the jumping around and his use of vine spells. His "Being of Truth" skill had transformed into "Echo of Clarity," and he had advanced his base skills in Scholar, Swordsman, and Spearman. "Pain Resistant" had become "Nerve Shield," huh? The first job-specific skills didn't upgrade, must be something to do with his prestigious job.

Damian touched the two new skills from his second job:

[Elder Runebreaker:

Behold the wisdom of the masters of Runes.

(Rune Breaker :

When one knows the runes, he can make it and break it however he wishes. Enemy rune disruption based on INT.

)

(Mana Extract :

Mana is the fundamental element of life. Break the deposit and claim it, STR and INT based mana extracting endurance.

)]

Hmm… The first one is similar to his Lord's Respect. The Mana Extraction one, though—that was the reason he had chosen this job. He would have to try it immediately.

But before that, he checked this last thing:

[The Runic High Lord:

Runes are a prestigious heritage, you are a worthy user.

(Effect:

Expert Rune Authority, High Lord's Respect

)]

Okay, the change isn't much, but considering this was just a job change and not a rank-up trial, Damian could accept it. It likely meant a slight increase in his rune activation range, and whatever he had done with those blue Elders had become a bit stronger.

---

Name :

Damian Sunblade Lv.67

Rank :

Lord

Affinity :

Water, Space-time

Mana :

2940/7230

STR :

109

DEF :

82

INT :

168

AGI :

80

DEX :

82

CHA :

19

LUC :

10

Jobs :

Elder Runebreaker (Lv.17), The Runic Chemist Lord (Lv.25)

.

Blessings : Read exclusive adventures at мѵʟ

Godless [40 Available Points]

.

.

---

Damian got up and clenched his fists, throwing some lightning-fast punches to test his new strength and finding it satisfactory. Just as he thought about taking out some mana stones to use his new skill, he suddenly sensed something he couldn't quite pinpoint, but there was a significant change in mana.

Feeling puzzled, Damian walked to the camp where this phenomenon had occurred and found himself standing right outside his own tent. Then it dawned on him what had changed:

'Sam's mana levels and signature has changed a bit… No, not just him…'

Damian turned around and sensed that many people in his unit had experienced a shift in their mana levels and had slightly altered mana signatures now, including Einar and Yovan.

Damian had an idea of what had happened, but needed to confirm it, he entered his tent and found Sam on his bed, holding his sword and watching it intently.

"What did you do?" Damian asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Ahh! Don't scare me like that!" Sam screamed like a little girl; it was hilarious.

"Not my fault you're so cowardly…"

"Hey!"

"What happened?"

"Huh…? You can already tell, huh?" Sam said smugly. "Hehe… I got another job. I leveled up a lot after killing those bastards for an hour… thought it would help once we returned."

"You had an ascension stone?"

"The army gives two to every recruit with their badge," Sam said, as if it were the most common knowledge in the world and Damian was stupid for not knowing it.

Damian felt irritated looking at Sam's smug face but endured to know more.

"What did you get?"

"Guess.."

Damian turned around, and Sam immediately grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back.

"Sorry, sorry… Hahaha! I became a Lightning Defender."

"Esper job upgrade?"

"No. For some reason, must be the hellish training that demon woman put us through, the Pugilist class was available, and I got offered this job. It's supposed to give me better control of my lightning and enhance my physical attacks with lightning and aura…"

"That's pretty cool…" Damian said, impressed.

"Hehe, right? Right? Aren't I cool?"

"The job is cool; you clearly are not…"