The Runic Alchemist

Damian, along with Lifewarden and Worldscribe, saw the Dreamlight zoom through a waygate created by Damian. In a second, they were gone.

The pigmen had underestimated the enemy's speed. Let alone fifteen, the black pigmen had arrived within 100 km of their city in just 8 years. It wasn't without sacrifices, though, as they had used their fastest troops and had only sent a few units. They had been fighting the war for 2 years now—Worldscribe and Lifewarden informed him.

Mindseer was with them, so they had prepared as well as they could. Still, there were millions of black pigmen from all over the world against just one simple city. Thankfully, the black pigmen didn't have much of a strategy and just charged ahead like mindless monsters most of the time.

"Which way is it?" Damian asked, after the others were gone.

Lifewarden pointed to the side. "That way.. Some 50 km and the entrance starts. Are we going now?"

"We should get all the power we can get.." Worldscribe said, then added, "I informed all of them to stay free around this year, maybe some listened."

Damian just nodded. His two sacrium mana cubes were still making liquid mana at full power. He rose up into the air, his flying spell also carrying Prince with him, followed by Worldscribe and Lifewarden, and looked around the mountainous region. Soon, he found a tree and collected its ID. Now that he had a way back, Damian opened a waygate to Runefather first.

All three of them crossed it and met up with the guy; he too was living in a forest area, building a small house. He accepted instantly.

Next, Damian opened a waygate to Silverspell. He was somewhere in the barren red land where Damian had found Lucian before. Damian met eyes with the guy living in a cave—there was guilt in them and tiredness. Guess 100 years in solitude were quite a lot for reflecting on one's decisions in life.

"You coming?" Damian simply asked.

Silverspell looked at his companions, then at the vast empty land before the red mountain, and breathed in, nodding with a determined face. At last, they went to Sesha.. that one had not been in contact for more than 50 years. It was a miracle the waygate spell worked and she was not inside a dungeon.

The group arrived at another completely different place—the ruins of some stone structures. It wasn't as massive as the stone shrine, but it was quite a bit, with the roof fallen off and some pillars broken. That wasn't the highlight of the place, though. There was a large pitch-black abyssal door in the middle of the structure—a dungeon—much more powerful than any he had seen on this world, almost equal in energy to the Highsword Dungeon.

The fallen ruins had a border all around them: high wooden fences and giant boulders. Sesha must have done it to keep the monsters and beasts out. On one side of the structure, where the roof was intact, she had made a small wooden house. The same as the others, hers was much more used in comparison.

She was sitting on a fallen stone, fire burning in front of her. Her back towards them, she didn't look back. Just continued her lunch..

The others walked forward to meet her. They knew after losing the closest person in her life, she was the one most laden with grief. They all had lost people.. and knew how it felt. Damian and Prince, however, were more interested in the murals drawn on the half-standing walls.

It was another monument.. this one, however, was dedicated completely to the warrior that had killed the Sun God. Literally calling him their new god and such. Bits and pieces of the same story that were inscribed in the hollow giant shrine—but with much more flair and grandeur. The art was also quite improved. Looked more recent than anything else Damian had seen from these murals.

'It's the same thing..' Prince's screen flashed.

Damian just nodded in agreement.

"No, I am busy. Go away," Damian heard from behind him and Prince. It was Sesha—she had refused to come along.

Damian walked near the Highswords surrounding her and looked at the estranged lady. She, among all of them, was actually the weakest. Her ability was quite powerful, no doubt, but if the enemy knew about it and had a protection against her poison gas, she was just another third ranker with simple aura attacks and sword skills. All five of them were equals in mana quantity now. With slight differences because of their class, they were in a similar range now, though.

"Already reached your level cap, huh?" Damian asked. "What else do you hope to gain from the dungeon?"

Everyone shot Damian a glance before all eyes returned to Sesha. She herself, however, was staring at Damian with her angry, big, beautiful eyes. Anger not at Damian, but at the situation she was in. Damian could somewhat imagine why she was here—most likely searching for the warrior hero's lore all around the world, the methods he had used to gain strength, or the weapons.

"It's nothing to do with you, boy. Leave me alone.." Sesha said through gritted teeth.

"You can't ascend.." Damian said matter-of-factly. "None of you can ascend."

Everyone stared at him with shocked faces.

"How do you know that? What is it that you know that we don't?" Lifewarden asked, his face dead serious.

Damian looked at all their faces and revealed, "Can't you see? This pigmen warrior was given power by his Sun God.. And even after years and years of conquest, he could not go beyond what this Sun God decided for him. In the end, however, he broke through.. Somehow he succeeded and became equal to the god—or at least became strong enough to restrain him. The warrior is long gone, but the Sun God is still here.. I am going to ask exactly how it was that the warrior achieved it. If you are also interested in knowing the answer, follow me."