The Runic Alchemist

Finally alone and in control of his own choices, Damian looked for a good inn to wash himself and get the much needed sleep.

He walked through the busy streets of the pretty little town, it was small in Damian's modern eyes but the town this size in this period of time was considered pretty average and a major point for exchange of goods and services.

Deciding on one fancy looking inn called 'The Traveler's Paradise' Damian entered it and booked a room for a day since they were really unwilling to do hours. People made various faces at him after seeing his small height and dirty appearance but since he had gold the staff acted as humble as lambs.

At last washing himself with some weird soap and clear water Damian got comfortable in the warm water filled wooden thing that could barely count as bathtub. The damned receptionist had charged extra 3 silver for this.

Faerunia was not his top choices to go but it was the most convenient now and Damian barely had any options if he wanted any semblance of peace of mind. Good thing about Faerunia was that it had a major harbor city where ships from all around the five kingdoms and even the empire in the south end gathered and did business with each other.

Damian had enough gold to live comfortably for 6 months or a year if he was careful, but finding a job was necessary if he wanted to have some savings just in case.

Coming out of the bath, after cleaning his body and healing his soul with the warm water, Damian was provided a clothing made of hemp and rope. It was all the staff had when he asked for change of clothes.

Wearing the uncomfortable thing and finally feeling like a human being after cleaning himself, Damian went shopping and bought some average looking clothes for himself that were neither too pricy or too uncomfortable to be in.

Looking around the streets he found a shop that was selling paper, parchments and most importantly magical ink. Despite it being overly pricey Damian bought five ink bottles that had 250ml of standard mana ink for 3 golds. The quality after checking in his room later, Damian concluded that it was similar to his pure extraction of mana ink in his trial but just 20-30% less powerful.

Which was a pretty big gap since the blood used in the bottles was from a pretty famous monster that was renowned for it's magical purity, not something even compared to what he was given in the unranked trial. The lessening of effect must be from bad extraction and long period of storage.

Buying a scabbard for his short sword, a temporary spear and a leather armor that was tailored for petite short woman – which was the only armor his size in the whole shop, Damian got back to his room in 'The Traveler's Paradise' and prepared to sleep as long as his tired body demanded from his equally tired mind.

However there was one thing he really wanted to do but never did because of people always being around him.

Damian connected his mind to his spatial storage and retrieved the status tool. The flat squared metal piece had runes that were similar to the book Damian had but these were way more complicated and incomprehensible. Even when he thought about his status while holding the tool, there were no runic circles or any absorption of his mana.

"This must be some kind of high level enchantment..."

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Name: Damian Sunblade Lv.32

Rank: Lord

Affinity: Water, Space-time

Mana: 567/4235

STR: 74

DEF: 42

INT: 133

AGI: 40

DEX: 42

CHA: 19

LUC: 3

Job: The Runic Chemist Lord Lv.2

Blessings: Godless [0 Available Points]

Title: [Killer] [Wild Hunter]

Skills: [Beginner Tree Climbing Lv.2] [Being of Truth Lv.3] [Expert Scholar Lv.2] [Expert Swordsman Lv.4] [The Runic Lord Lv.3] [Runic Inscription Lv.2] [Arcane Synthesis Lv.1] [Pain Resistance Lv.4]

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He got titles. Damian knew and expected the [Killer], almost all fighters of this world had it. Some even required it to be there before hiring them. The effect, One's aura becoming colder. And it became colder and colder if you kill too many of your species.

The [Wild Hunter] was unexpected though, many tried to get this title by killing monsters and beasts in the wild but rarely anyone got it, some even killed each of all kinds of monsters of beast and yet did not receive it. The conditions were unclear. The effect was a small enhancement in basic senses.

"I got [Pain Resistance] ? Isn't this the one people go through torture to acquire ? and it even leveled up to 4? It's a miracle I'm still alive..."

Waking up at mid afternoon, Damian freshened up and settled on one of the table in the inn's tavern and ordered something called 'Origin Soup'. What was the original in the soup was a mystery neither Damian nor the serving girl could solve. It tasted good enough, Damian had better though.

Spending an hour in his room after lunch to draw all the necessary magic circles filled with various runes on all the papers and parchments that he bought, Damian was finally ready to travel again. God knew his heart and mind both hated even the thought of traveling one more day but he had to continue. It was necessary step for his survival.

And so he got up and headed towards the carriages and wagon's area where they were all lined up neatly.

Damian had already talked with the big bellied mustached guy who had two wagons full riding towards Ravensong and a carriage for the man himself and just as he arrived at the spot the wagons were being filled with various boxes and sacs of foods and all kinds of monster skins and clothes.

A small crowd of people were standing near the second wagon in the line which was exempt from all these loading and kept emptied for the passengers.

Damian walked close to them but kept a distance and waited there in silence observing the passengers and the mercenaries and also the burly guys carrying the boxes.

Some of them gave him a weird look once in a while, noticing his short sword in scabbard or the leather armor meant for girls or maybe it was just his height, Damian did not waste time figuring out why he was such an odd one out, since there might be 100 reasons.

Damian also noticed the peculiar companions for this journey north which involved rough and tough looking mercenaries with swords and spears and pieces of steel armor here and there, Some random civilians looking tired and annoyed waiting for the loading to finish and mean looking workers of the big bellied merchant who were sweating while working in this scorching heat.

At least that was one relief to Damian in his peculiar situation that he was leaving this heat and going north where temperature was relatively lower than Dawnstar.

With one last shouting order of the big bellied merchant the loading at last ended and their journey to Ravensong began. Damian had no reason to be on high alert and expect enemies all the time since the monster attracting effect of the treacherous maid was long gone and there were mercenaries to protect them but he still had to calm his nerves and not act on his muscle memory.

In the wagon Damian was sitting next to a middle aged woman who was travelling with her teenage daughter, in opposite to his were duo of father and son that were constantly bickering – the issue seems to be the father not having enough booze for the journey and his son berating him for spending too much. There were other 5 passengers all keeping silent and trying to relax and ignore the noisy duo.

4 men and one woman which seemed a wife of one of the men. That's all the people the passenger wagon had which was moving in the middle.

Half the mercenaries were in front carriage with the merchant and other half with the fully loaded wagon behind us. Some of the workers were riding on top of the wagon while others were driving it, their work seems never ending.

Giving one last look at the distant red tree above the town walls, Damian thought about all his time spent with Lucian and her tutors. It was rarely a fond memory but it was a bit nicer time than the rest of the things that happened to him. Marcus Goldilock was not as oppressive as he thought but he wasn't actually 'nice' also.

His fate was to become a sword protecting Lucian and take the arrows meant for her, maybe the Damian of before might have found a nicer home and grown into something that could support Lucian even if he was limited in his abilities. And the couple would have lived happily ever after but that was not the reality anymore.

Damian had carved his own path in the face of his fate.

The future might be full of struggle or obstacles and uncertainties but Damian was happy to venture forth. What was the life where you already knew everything you would do or become ? Where was the romance in that ?

All the great things waited behind the valley of unknown, one just had to pass it with his head held high.

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