The Runic Alchemist

"Credits my dear boy is like a currency that the kingdom owes you. For everyday you serve under the army they pay you in credits. A bigger contribution or greater rank could earn you more of these credits but even a small single valuable piece of information or a genius idea can earn you some hefty credits." The old man proudly explained.

"But what is the use of these credits..?" Sam asked impatiently Damian also wanted them to hurry along.

"Impatient much boy..? Ah you youngsters live life so fast.. There is no point in living if you can't savor the each moment dearly..." The old man said giving them that sage eyes look.

"Norm, don't bore the kids..." The second old man chimed in while drinking his booze.

"The kingdom has a list of items and services that you can exchange your credits for. Most aim to gain enough to qualify in the knight's position in 'Monarch's trial' but there are many other valuable exchanges too, of course there are gold and silver too, rare runic items and a service under the noble family of your choosing for enough credits..

noble families are always in need for a good soldier..." The old man revealed at last.

'Runic items..? A family of their choosing..? It's like the Eldorian royal family is saying here is my treasure chest, come take whatever you want.. It was enticing no doubt and if you had power these unique items and rights of challenges would what one would go for to make their lives better and have a glorious future.

But no matter how high one reached they were still under this or that family and had to do their bidding. The runic items on the other hand and even those old and rare ones.. could give me a lot of insight in the new runic characters and heavy more powerful and useful spells. Even if it was a useless ornament thing, I could learn the spell it had on it and the crafting of these runic magic circles.

However it all depended on what they had in this list and how much contribution was worth it to achieve these things. What I need the most right now is more information. These old man looks kind and good enough but a more reliable source of information is required before I jumped down in these war mess.'

Damian looked at Sam who had starry eyes by now listening to the old man and just slightly nodded at him. That was all the little miscreant needed for beaming like a fountain of joy and jumping around. Why he was so excited to participate in war was out of Damian's mind capacity to understand..

Thanking the old man duo Damian and Sam finished their dinner and rested in their room. Well Sam rested while Damian worked on his research and drew runic structures after runic structures trying to understand the truth behind it and uncover even a tiniest bits more of it's secrets.

The next day leaving everything Damian and Sam walked to the place called merchant's guild. It was also another organization that was connected in many nations aiming towards businessmen and like minded folks. Nothing a honest man would like to do with. Damian did not want to sell or buy anything.

Sam and him were just standing in one corner of the ground floor of the large guild building where people were running around talking and looking for things and other people. Finally a man approached them who had as fake a smile on his face as Sam's bald head. Damian knew they had found the guy they needed.

"What can I do for you two young gentlemen..? Are you perhaps interested in buying a runic sword that can cut water itself..?" He said in his best sell speech.

"No thanks. Information on what the credits exchange list holds.." Damian stated their needs.

"Ohh of course.. of course... that would be 5 gold.."

"I will give you 1 gold if you didn't annoy me any further that is.." Damian had dealt with enough scheming bastard in his life to recognize one on the spot.

"That is unacceptable young man... The information you seek is really important and a great secret you know.."

"Same offer.." Damian said with a deadpan face.

"Kids these days are so rude... No respect for elders.."

Damian took two steps away from the man, Sam following behind him amused by the whole situation. Finally the man relented and grabbed Damian's shoulder to stop him gently.

"Fine.. Fine.. Let's go to the tavern next door.. More privacy there.."

"Lead on.." Damian waved his hand in a gesture.

The tavern was also filled with people but they were less business like here. Mostly just chatting about casual things. Finding one empty table in the corner their 'friend' led them there and settled on the wooden chairs.

"2 golds and the list is yours.."

"One gold."

The man glared at Damian and Damian returned the favor with equal intensity, at last the man relented and cursed aloud opening his pouch to get the list out. However he did not hand it to Damian, instead he held it tight in his hands looking up at Damian and Sam in turn.

"1 gold only buys one look at the list, not the paper itself.."

"Fine." Damian didn't need the paper anyway.

Finally getting the list that was in a scroll form big enough to for two and half A4 papers put together in a horizontal side, Damian read it all and was genuinely surprised. He note down some of them which were more to his interests than the others on a separate piece of paper he had.

Damian ignored all money and non magical things and also all rank challenge things and noble family names and their credit requirement for joining their house and just focused on runic items and spell books and some rare items and materials it had.

In the end the list Damian made was something like the following:

1. Runic Blade of Eldoria (Sword) | 2000 credits

- Effect: Aura blade, enhances strength and agility, deals extra damage to dark creatures.

2. Runic Blade of Storms (Sword) | 2500 credits

- Effect: Calls down lightning strikes once a day.

3. Shadowbane Dagger | 1500 credits

- Effect: Deals double damage when attacking in the same spot.

4. Pyroclasm Bow | 1800 credits

- Effect: Arrows are imbued with fire, can explode on impact causing area damage.

5. Geomancer's Pickaxe | 2000 credits

- Effect: Can extract rare minerals and gems with ease, reacts in presence of old metals.

6. Sylvan Harvester (Hoe) | 1900 credits

- Effect: Increases yield from harvesting plants and herbs when using, grants the ability to speak with forest creatures(Only once in lifetime).

7. Forge Master's Hammer | 2500 credits

- Effect: Enhances the quality of crafted weapons and armor, can repair damaged runic gear if used by a Runesmith.

8. Astral Compass | 2300 credits

- Effect: Records a life energy and can find the related person no matter how far.

9. Grimoire of the Arcane | 2500 credits

- Effect: Contains advanced spells for manipulating five elements.

10. Runesmith's Eternal Heritage | 3000 credits

- Effect: A blueprint of a runic armor that can repel thousand attacks.

11. Book of Eternal Light | 2200 credits

- Effect: Holds spells of healing and protection, can banish undead and purify cursed objects.

12. Chronomancer's Codex | 2800 credits

- Effect: Lifetime experiment notes of Chronomo - The Eldoris mad spacetime mage.

13. Dragon Scale Armor | 5000 credits

- Effect: Extremely durable and lightweight, provides advanced protection against physical and magical attacks.

14. Eldoris Feather Cloak | 3500 credits

- Effect: Grants fire and cold resistance.

15. Eldoris Crystal | 2000 credits

- Effect: A rare magical crystal that amplifies the power of any wood type spell cast by its owner.

16. Mystic Elixir | 1800 credits

- Effect: Permanent increases in DEF and mana stats.

17. Sacrium Steel Ingot | 2500 credits

- Effect: A rare metal with incredible strength and magical properties, used to craft legendary weapons and armor.

Credit Award System | Kill Counts :

1. Unranked Enemies:

- 1-10 kills: 10 credits per kill

- 11-50 kills: 15 credits per kill

- 51+ kills: 20 credits per kill

2. First Rank Enemies:

- 1-5 kills: 30 credits per kill

- 6-10 kills: 40 credits per kill

- 11+ kills: 60 credits per kill

3. Second Rank Enemies:

- 1 kill: 150 credits

- Subsequent kills: 250 credits per kill

The sword of storm looks like its specifically made for Sam here, what can this be called again..? Fate..? Nah that was dumb. There were many interesting things here indeed. Many that Damian himself wanted or at least wanted to see it working for once.

Those notes of a spacetime mage could really create a brand new field of research for him or Grimoire of the Arcane could teach him advanced spells at last. Damian had never even seen someone use one till now, he wondered what it would be like. And that Sacrium steel ingot, Damian knew about the metal. It was the most powerful and rare metal on this world.

All legendary powerful swords were made out of it, unfortunately no one nowadays knew how to process the thing or melt it and shape it. It was said to be impossible to work with, however if somehow Damian could use it to draw a permanent runic structure, it would change everything. An indestructible metal on a really powerful ink or mana paths of runic circle...

It could possibly run forever without any maintenance with purely on environment's mana.

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