The Runic Alchemist

"He can do all the styles in the world," Einar said, sitting down next to Damian. She poked Toph's soft, glowing belly, drawing his attention and playing with him.

"Don't try to make sense of it—we gave up long ago," Sam added, sitting down as well, his gaze still fixed on the crowd.

"How can you learn that so fast? You're so…" Evrin trailed off, hesitating to finish her sentence about his age.

"Annoying?" Sam offered.

"A piece of shit?" Einar chimed in.

"Wheee!" Toph joined in smugly. That guy was getting too cocky recently.

"No!" The princess exclaimed, annoyed at her guards but taking her seat regardless. "You're younger than us, aren't you?"

"Nope," Damian lied without hesitation.

Evrin squinted at him suspiciously, but Damian ignored her, opening his spellbook to focus on his runic circle studies. The dirrt plate levitation spell from that silver-haired girl intrigued him—but unfortunately it was just air pushing downward, not gravity or space-time manipulated levitation. Evrin's back flames reminded him of his own artificially summoned aura coating, but it lacked heat compared to hers. He had to see what gave the fire a color black.. And then there was the light-element laser—that was so damn cool. Damian could just imagine what a giant version of that thing could do.

People glanced at them from a distance, but thankfully, no one approached. Damian looked up to see some of the Northern noble kids with Lucian performing and getting decent enough scores.

"They won't hand out VIP section rooms until the end of the week," Einar remarked.

"But they'll expect me to be there today," Evrin replied. "I can take you with me—one person should be fine. Sam, on the other hand, stood out a lot. Be prepared to be surrounded by people in the challenger section."

"It's fine. I'll stay with him," Sam said, pointing at Damian without even asking for his opinion. Damian shot him a look of mock disgust, which Sam ignored with practiced ease.

A couple of hours would be enough to recover their mana levels to 70% or higher. Sam and Einar hadn't used much, but the princess had drained herself significantly with her spell and the ring enchantments. Her mana pool was the smallest among them, though Elves were known for their excellent mana control-they did not get any boost in their mana pool. It compared to many old noble lineages or was maybe slightly better. They did have a certain type of mana though, and it felt like he was standing in the forest when the whole royal Eldorian family was nearby.

Still Damian activated another spatial storage tool that was placed on his upper arm, under the shoulder. Taking out 12 vials of colorful potions. He had two of those extra large capacity spatial storage on both his upper arms, full of all kinds of potions. One had the normal ones that he gave Eldoris and another had the secret ones that he never gave to anyone till now.

Damian gave four to each of them - they just looked at him confused. So he explained,

"The blue one is Lifesprout Elixir Potion—it accelerates natural healing and restores stamina. The violet one is a Mana Pulse Potion—it briefly boosts mana and concentration."

"Mana replenishment potions? This is new," Evrin said, examining the violet vial with reverence.

"I'm fine; I don't need them," Sam replied. Einar also nodded in agreement.

"Just keep them. If you don't use them, return them later," Damian said.

Sam immediately clutched his vials as if Damian might snatch them back. "Why return them? I could sell them and feel like a rich guy for a day!"

Einar stashed hers away too. "He doesn't remember what being poor feels like anymore. The rich one has abandoned us."

"You two earn more than 90% of Eldoris people," Damian retorted.

"Still not even 5% of what you make in a month," Evrin countered. "Even I don't have access to that much wealth."

Damian ignored the poor people and got busy in his runes. Evrin instantly used up the Lifesprout Elixir Potion, and then one Mana Pulse Potion. Her mana instantly rose 20% - the total reaching half point of her full mana pool. Even her mana recovery rate rose by 10% with focused mind and full stamina.

Two hours passed quickly. Damian barely managed to decipher parts of a runic circle before it was time to leave for the next test. He only glanced at the remaining contestants once in a while, jotting down in his spell-book whenever he saw something useful.

There was nothing prepared for the second test, as all the challengers gathered around the staff. A third-ranker knight stepped forward and addressed them loudly:

"The second test has one rule: remain standing. Do whatever you can, use whatever you have, but stay on your feet. You'll earn 50 points for lasting till the end. To score higher, walk toward me. Anyone who touches my armor gets 100. Effort will determine the rest. Numbers 1 to 500, step up."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Remain standing? What kind of test is this?"

"Why would standing or walking be hard?" murmured the crowd.

The first five batches slowly took their positions behind a line marked by a second-rank staff member. The third-ranker knight stood 50 meters ahead, arms crossed, face neutral.

"What is this?" Sam asked, confused.

"Probably an aura pressure test," Einar, the academy expert, suggested.

"A second-ranker aura won't do much to us," Sam said smugly, clenching his fist. "Easy 100."

"He's a third-ranker," Damian corrected dryly.

Suddenly not just the three around him but the whole crowd got deathly silent, staring at him and then back to the third ranker, who's face now held a small ominous smile.

"No one can endure a third-ranker's aura, let alone a master spellsword at that! How are we supposed to do this?" Evrin muttered. Read exclusive content at empire

"Coat your entire body in mana—that works," Damian said quietly this time, yet some around them heard him and looked at him as if he was crazy.

"That's nonsense. Not even mages can do that," someone whispered behind them.

Damian turned to see the silver-haired noble girl.

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