The Runic Alchemist-Chapter 421: To Lockwood

With his work done, Damian was ready to leave for Ashenvale. Two days wouldn’t be enough to master spell crafting, but at least he could learn the theory and work on it on his own. He would have to offer something to Vidalia in exchange, though.

There was one item gathering dust in his spatial storage that could work as a gift. Damian nodded, deciding on the matter.

With Evrin and Maelor’s help, the final list for the dungeon party was completed last night, and everyone was notified by his squires to be ready to enter the dungeon once the academy started. Aside from the mountain of dungeon artifacts and materials he had received in exchange for a spot, Damian had also personally selected a few individuals without any fee. He had observed them at the academy—hardworking, talented students who deserved the opportunity and could be useful.

Among them was the commoner boy Damian had hired to work with, two runesmith students who could aid in repair if needed, and a fourth-year boy named Evante who spent most of his time playing the flute, singing, and flaunting himself in front of girls—yet had an exceptional mana signature. It wasn’t just the quantity of his mana that stood out, but something about its quality as well. Damian suspected he might be a hidden esper, but he had also seen the guy use proper runic circle spells near his face and hands, proving he wasn’t faking it. Damian chose to ignore him, though. He already had enough mysteries of his own.

Dreamlight was ready, now enhanced with new features, and so was the storage cube for it. He had plenty of potions made in Eldoris, along with runic scrolls and tools stored in his spatial storages. All in all, he was prepared to enter the dungeon at any time.

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Evrin, Einar, Maelor, and Sam joined him as he boarded the ship, preparing to take off toward Dawnstar. He could have opened the waygate directly from campus, but with it being the middle of the day, he didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble for the academy staff—or draw too much attention from the gathered students.

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Reize, Lumi, and Elias were also with him. He hadn’t planned on bringing his two assistants, but Lumi had begged him incessantly. Eventually, even Reize relented and agreed to take her on the "trip." Did they think this was some kind of picnic in the park?

And, of course, if Lumi came, that meant Elias had to come too.

The two had no idea where they were going—only that Damian and the others were headed somewhere on Dreamlight. None of the students knew about the incident from that night either. The Highswords hadn’t revealed anything, and even if some students had heard whispers, they kept the information to themselves.

Damian had also asked his friends not to use his real name around Elias, and they understood. There was no point in complicating things unnecessarily. Their relationship was fine as it was. He was never going back to his old house, so telling Elias they were related felt pointless. At least, that’s what Damian told himself. Maybe there were feelings influencing him that he wasn’t even aware of. He wasn’t a psychiatrist—he wouldn’t pretend to understand everything about his own mind, especially after it had once been used by another consciousness.

Elias was the only Sunblade who hadn’t abandoned him that day—though, technically, he hadn’t even been born yet. Maybe, in a way, this allowed Damian to believe that if he had stayed, Elias might have been the one part of his family that didn’t hate him. Revealing the truth would only bring answers Damian would rather not know.

The seven seats in the control room, facing the massive windshield, were all occupied.

After their meeting that night, Maelor had seemingly spoken with his followers and abandoned any ambitions of becoming a king or playing a political role in Dawnstar. Damian hadn’t spoken with him about it yet, but after witnessing the empire’s forces firsthand—and the fight between third-rankers, as well as Damian and Sam—he must have realized how futile his efforts were.

The dream city that Damian had revealed to him had, in some way, become Maelor’s dream too. And so for the first time, he was traveling without his two closest noble followers. He was alone on his way to meet his father.

Damian considered giving Reize her bracelet and letting her take control of the ship for a while, but he decided to do it when they were alone. That wasn’t something for others to see.

Powering Dreamlight’s flight mechanism, he started the ascent. The crowd of students below was larger than ever, now that nearly all of them had returned to the academy. He hadn’t told the Highswords where he was going. While they still had the Highsword student badge, Damian doubted they could track him hundreds of kilometers away from the island.

After flying for some kilometers from the ocean to above Ashenvale land it was time.

This time, he didn’t even need to land the ship to open the waygate. Since he was both powering the spell and choosing the target, he could launch the spell while seated in Dreamlight’s pilot chair without the help of any giant runic tools.

He still had to draw the spell, of course, and push it outward with mana threads before activating it to keep it separate from the ship. Glass blocked mana flow, and metal created resistance, so to prevent wasting mana while using his mana threads, he had installed an opening above the ship. From there, he could extend his mana threads and cast spells while in flight.

A shimmering blue waygate opened.

Damian had set the target to the same injured soldier in Lockwood. The baron and he had already discussed using the man as a point of contact, so he should be expecting it—and he wouldn’t be in a populated area.

The spell always placed the waygate roughly 20 meters from the target, though the exact location was never fixed. Somehow, it always managed to avoid solid structures and people. Maybe there were hidden components to the spell he had yet to uncover.

He would have to study it further.

All these massive, high-mana cost spells needed to be analyzed now that he was capable of truly performing them.