The Runic Alchemist

"What in the hell did you do…?" Old Man Shin asked once the mana extraction process ended, as Damian looked at the blue, glowing dust in his hand.

"I'm going to use your mana stones, is that okay?" Damian asked, spreading the dust on the ground to prepare a basic water blade spell.

"Uh… sure… as long as it helps," Shin replied, still processing what he was seeing.

One potential drawback—or advantage, depending on one's perspective—of this method was the reliance on mana stones tied to specific elemental properties. Using a blue mana stone to cast a fireball wasn't feasible. Technically, it was possible, but the efficiency would only reach 10-20% of what one could achieve with water spells. The mana dust he held now felt different from the one from his trial, that one must be from another extraction process or some kind of special mana stones.

The spell activated, and Damian successfully created water blades—numerous and of much higher quality. The mana amount value was fixed though, unlike his tinkering of spells based on needs that used his own mana instead of the mana stone's. He could still attach his mana thread for precise control, but if he needed his own mana to increase power this way, what was the point of mana dust? So fixed power..

"Give me an apparatus so I can store these. I need a lot of them," Not wasting mana with storage devices, Damian said to the old fox, who looked utterly baffled at the runes, which seemed nonsensical.

"Uh… okay… I'll send it over. You seem busy, so I'll leave you to it," The Old fox mage replied.

Damian nodded, but as Shin turned to walk away, Damian added, "Tell them to hold off for a bit. I can make something that'll give us an edge in the battle." Shin froze, his eyes filled with disbelief—and a glimmer of hope.

Ignoring him, Damian pulled out one of the empty containers he used for experiments and crushed a red mana stone this time. The process was painful, but the anticipation made it somewhat bearable—or perhaps his nerve shield had leveled up. Damian continued, painstakingly gathering fire-element mana dust while fending off the occasional monster that climbed over the spikes with spears. After 40 minutes, he'd collected seven containers of mana dust in four elements: two for fire, two for water, two for air, and one for light, which he stored in his spatial storage.

He stopped when he felt his nose starting to bleed. Up to that point, he'd endured as much as his high stats allowed. Opening his status, he confirmed his suspicion: he had achieved level 3 in nerve shield. His Elder Runebreaker job had also gained a level, reaching level 18. The physical strain had nearly reached his limit, though he could still manage more mentally. This would have to be enough—it wasn't as though his own life depended on this. He could save himself if it came to that, but if they lost this battle, the beastman village and its refugees wouldn't survive.

Sam and his companions had gathered their troops, suited up in armor and prepared to jump back in, even though they'd only recovered 25-35% of their mana.

"They're losing people. We have to switch out immediately… we've already sent our reserve units," one of the wounded captains told Damian, limping back from the battlefield, supported by less-injured comrades and volunteers from the infirmary.

Damian nodded and pulled out a three-liter beautifully made dirt jar of glowing yellow dust infused with light mana. He took a handful at a time and quickly crafted a massive runic circle for an advanced healing spell. Even with the earth as a medium reducing efficiency, it was potent enough to save the bad injuries from going worse and infectious. As the crowd watched, he activated the runic circle, the light mana stones he used being less numerous than air, water, or fire. Damian was happy with the results though as the advanced healing spell gathered a lot of mana and lasted enough with his mana thread control to precisely control how much and where he healed, getting the whole group of some 50 remaining members of the unit to somewhat okay shape.

It was satisfactory for Damian, but for the onlookers, it was nothing short of a miracle. Healers were rare, and even rarer were those who could heal entire groups; that this was done by a first-ranker would spread rumors far and wide. But Damian was only starting.

"Rest by the river camp. Kill any monsters that get through," he instructed, leaving the astonished captain and his men behind. Then, Damian led his unit away from the scorched land, the remnants of his spell marking the ground.

"That was…"

"Unbelievable! When the hell did you learn healing spells?"

"Did you level up too? And now you know runes?"

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The three beside him bombarded him with questions, but there was no time for explanations.

"Not now; we don't have time," Damian cut them off. "Kazak is holding them back, but they won't last long. We're losing people."

That snapped them into focus.

"Alright, listen carefully, all of you," Damian began. "I'll make three giant runic circles, drawing them on the ground with a stick. I don't have time to use the dust I used earlier, so you three will split into groups, following my runes and spreading the mana dust. We need to move as fast as possible, with no mistakes. Got it?"

The three exchanged glances and nodded. Sam asked, "We're not fighting?"

"Not yet. This should hold them off until we regroup, heal, and prepare for one final attack. Either we clear them all or enough to let our civilians escape safely into the forest. This is our only escape path.."

They understood, nodding with renewed confidence. The rest of the unit could hear Damian too, though he was mainly addressing his three vice-captains. His plan seemed to give everyone hope, especially knowing they wouldn't be joining the fight immediately.

Damian handed each group a jar of mana dust, then picked up a stick and began drawing the largest runic circles he'd ever created—three in total. Two were for air elements, and one was for fire. His unit spread the mana dust, and in just 15 minutes, they were ready. At first, Damian had to draw the runic circles himself for the spells to work under his authority, but with the Lord's respect, he realized he could now take control of any completed runic circle bearing anyone's mark that did not have a safety mechanism against tinkering. Only a high-ranking Runesmith, Elder Runebreaker or someone with considerable mastery over his spells could challenge him for control.

They set up everything and informed the ones fighting.

With a grin, Damian activated the first massive runic circle. It was a fire arrow spell he'd learned from countless battles with human mages. His version was modified though, producing hundreds of massive, human-sized arrows. The earth smoldered as the spell absorbed mana, and a moment later, the sky was filled with fiery arrows. Both his own unit and the front-line enemy soldiers looked up, momentarily stunned by the red sky. Then, without hesitation, Damian sent the arrows hurtling toward the Ashenvale side, incinerating everything in their path and killing hundreds, setting everything ablaze - trees and men.

Before the Ashenvale troops could react to this sudden disaster among their ranks, Damian activated the other two circles simultaneously, summoning two giant tornadoes that grew larger by the second, to the horror of all who watched.

He hoped the tornadoes would become powerful with natural air from the surrounding, and hell it worked.

"Fall back!" Damian shouted, and the captains fighting on the frontlines understood his intent. Even the Ashenvale soldiers tried fleeing in all directions to escape the impending chaos.

But their only path was backward. As the tornadoes raged under Damian's control, the Eldoris soldiers cut down anyone who approached the valley. With enough distance created, Damian unleashed the tornadoes into the Ashenvale ranks, where they wreaked havoc going all around in his control. The flames from the burning trees intensified the whirlwinds, turning the enemy's escape into a fiery nightmare for those too slow to flee.

It was a living hell, shaped with human hands.