The Runic Alchemist

Instead of using his two wormholes to escape the valley, Damian used them to go further up, reaching a flat area with a cave they had stayed in previously while scaling the mountain. They climbed using the vines he had left before and their hands. The wind was strong here, and Damian had to keep his light orb spell active the whole way up, but it was the safest place in the valley with the beast still roaming below, hunting Ashenvale soldiers.

The situation was quickly becoming their worst nightmare for the Ashenvale soldiers as they tried their best to hide but the beast blasted them anyways, no matter where they hid.

Damian might have said the soldiers deserved it, but he knew the biggest blame lay with the lord—or whoever thought taming these beasts was a good strategy. He would have liked to get his hands on that blood tool, but it seemed that anyone worth having it was no longer alive. Perhaps that was for the best. Damian still had a bag full of those green stones that made one invisible, and he was determined not to hand them over to anyone.

"Is it still hunting…?" Mira asked, coming to sit on the cliff's edge beside Damian and Kazak. The others were too tired or injured and needed rest, even after Royce did some healing.

"It's just a glowing outline and belly from up here, but yes, it looks like it is," Kazak replied as she settled beside Damian.

"I can't believe we survived the battle that was almost impossible and even faced an Emperor-ranked beast all in a single day," she said, her face looking older than her years.

"I would have loved to say it was a combined effort, but this guy here did almost 40% of the work single-handedly… I wonder what you'll become in the future," Kazak added, looking at Damian.

"I won't be fighting in wars, that's for sure," Damian said, eyes scanning the darkness, tracking the beast's movements below.

The two pugilists laughed.

"That remains to be seen, boy," Kazak laughed even harder.

"I can't believe a ten-year-old child is stronger than me," Mira sighed.

"Strength always comes at a cost. Only the gods know what trials he's endured to get this far… I fear that fate for any child, more than I crave power," Kazak said, almost like a sage. Damian didn't know how old he was, but Kazak certainly loved giving advice like a grandfather. Mira just looked at Damian silently; his head was down, but at this close distance, he could sense even the slightest movement or change in their mana with his mana sense, which had grown sharper with his use of World Shaper hands.

Then Damian noticed a sudden shift below. He couldn't detect all the Ashenvale soldiers with his mana sense, but the ones he could sense had vanished. As if triumphant, the elephant roared at the skies and unleashed a massive beam of energy from a huge runic circle, aimed at the heavens-it was the same one as before. Damian had a clear view of the runic circle and copied it without missing a single detail, even noting the proportions of fire, light, and chaos elements that filled it.

"Did it finish?" Kazak asked, peering down.

"It seems so," Damian agreed.

"What now?" Mira asked.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Damian muttered as he activated his mimicry spell; his mana pool had recovered to 35% by now. Chapter Discover:

On the journey here, Damian had captured an owl and gained night vision from its eyes with his mimicry spell. He'd had plenty of time to think about his spells during their hour-and-a-half wait here, and he realized a big flaw in his mimicry spells. For them to activate, didn't the animals he copied have to be alive? He hadn't tried with a dead one, but he was also a bit wary of sharing a dead animal's vision. It needed more testing, though Damian decided against using it in critical situations until he could fully trust it.

After what seemed like venting or celebrating—it was hard to tell which—the elephant quieted and held its energy within. It looked around, seeming confused about what to do next. Then, it slowly moved toward the area beneath their vantage point, where they had previously observed it attacking the Ashenvale soldiers from. Unsurprisingly, it released another energy beam at the cliff, lower than where they were, but powerful enough to shake the entire mountain.

After finishing its attack, Damian could have sworn he saw the beast look up at them. He prepared his wormhole spell, just in case it aimed another blast their way, but there were no other attacks, it was still looking up though.

"Is it waiting for us?" Mira asked as the others joined them at the cliff, watching the enormous, glowing beast below.

"I vote for scaling the mountain and getting out of here as fast as possible," Damian said, openly admitting he was terrified. That thing was horrifying.

"What will it do once we're gone?" Kazak asked.

"I don't think we have the luxury to find out, my friend…" Royce said quietly. "We have to get away from here. If it follows, we'll face it with all we have. That's our only choice."

"Alright, let's head up," Kazak finally agreed, after a long look at the beast. They were easy targets if they stayed, and most likely their scent wasn't strong enough for it to detect them up here—but one shift in the wind could give them away.

Damian used his wormholes again as they continued climbing, stopping at each cliff to watch the beast. At first, it just lingered below, looking up, but as they climbed higher, it finally moved. Damian felt a twinge of fear, wondering if it was smart enough to use the tunnel to wait for them at the other side. But his fear faded when he saw the beast heading in a different direction than the river tunnel.

"Where is it going?" Royce asked, puzzled.

With his mimicry spell still active, Damian followed the beast's path and its gaze and sensed another mana presence in the valley, one even fouler than the rest of them, he had almost forgotten about it.

"The dungeon…" he murmured, as everyone's eyes widened in alarm—especially Kazak, who looked visibly shaken. The dungeon was high up, but the beast could certainly reach it with its lasers.