The Runic Alchemist

It wasn't fast by any means, but it was far more efficient for hauling supplies than carrying them by hand. Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire

Damian loaded it with all the extra mana containers. The hoverboard required a constant supply of mana, but it wasn't much and he was accustomed to managing multiple mana threads in his daily life, so maintaining it was barely noticeable to him.

It must have looked really weird to the third-rankers following them though.

They were all moving forward together—fifty of them—but not in any particular order. Damian could barely sense a monster greater than Lord rank in this area, so there was no point in staying on high alert. Many among them had regularly visited the first five levels and were well aware of the challenges they presented.

Everyone was in their own little groups—Alex and his friends, Kamisen and his friends, Karl with all his pugilist guys. Many nobles followed behind Lucian, Maelor, Evrin and Einar. The rest followed behind Damian and his main group.

Damian used heating spells to melt the snow, clearing a path that most of them followed. He also headed straight toward monsters after sensing them, making his group the most efficient in battle. By now, they had the highest monster kill count.

The creatures they encountered were all suited to the cold environment. There were large, rat-like monsters that traveled in aggressive packs despite their small size. Then came the Whitefang wolves and blue goblins that hurled icicles at them—though those goblins were so loud that everyone could spot them from kilometers away in the otherwise empty forestry areas.

There was no dungeon boss on this level, as they only appeared every five levels. However, the key point was heavily guarded by a dense population of monsters. The group gladly slaughtered them all, collecting valuable materials and mana stones before moving forward. For the first-rankers, even this amount of experience was enough to gain a level, especially if they were in the 50s or 60s.

Once the monsters were dealt with, everyone gathered their rewards while Damian waited beside the keypoint with his friends. For the high-level fighters, this was barely worth half a level's worth of experience; for him even less than that. Still, it was a good opportunity to practice aura control and spearmanship.

His battle with the emperor using the flaming spear had significantly improved his spearmanship. Perhaps fighting higher-level opponents granted more proficiency? Who knew? Either way, his swordsmanship was now at level 3, while his spearmanship had reached level 5.

He couldn't afford to level both during this dungeon expedition. He could, but that would be a waste of time. Right now, he needed to focus on a single weapon specialty, and he chose his spear. The sword was nice and all, but at the end of the day, he wasn't a spellsword. He was more of a mage than a melee fighter.@@novelbin@@

In real combat, he only used swords with their runic spells. The spear, on the other hand, allowed him to create distance from his opponent and launch his spells effectively. If necessary, he could fight in close quarters as well, but as a half-mage, he needed to refine his combat style accordingly. He still carried plenty of runic swords and spears, and if the situation demanded, he would use whatever was most efficient. But for now, in this dungeon, he decided to push his spearmanship to its peak.

Swordsmanship could wait—he could train that anytime with Sam, Einar, and Lucian, who were his equals or even superior in skill. Spearmanship, however, was more effective against monsters. He already knew the techniques; he just needed practice to consolidate them perfectly.

"The others are some distance from us in that direction…" Mindseer said, leaning against the steel cube she had finally placed on the snow.

Damian simply nodded. She was regularly updating him on Highswords locations, though he could sense them from over 30 kilometers away. He didn't bother telling her that.

"The first time was much more peaceful.. Now it feels like we're still taking some kind of exam for them," Sam sighed.

Many in the group nodded in agreement, while Mindseer smiled awkwardly.

"Isn't there some way we can just leave them behind?" Grace asked, grinning mischievously.

"They're just worried about your safety.." Mindseer said in a small voice.

"But this is our dungeon run.." Sam argued. "If I have to go all out in the higher levels, I don't want them creepily staring at me."

Damian smirked. "They can all hear you."

That shut them up like well-behaved children. Whatever the Highswords were, only a fool wouldn't take fifteen third-rankers seriously.

Still, they were ruining the experience. If there was a way to leave them behind and not see them again until level 25, Damian would've taken it in a heartbeat. Technically, this was their dungeon, and he was only here as a guest. He couldn't exactly order them to leave. The Land Breaker deal was already sealed with a mana contract.

Once everyone gathered at the keypoint, they advanced past the sixth level and entered the seventh. Damian had landed the Dreamlight near the end of the sixth level, so it had only taken them six to seven hours to reach the key point.

Again, he felt a strange shift—the cold environment disappeared, replaced by the scorching heat of a high midday sun.

'More heat? What was with that single snow level? A momentary break from the heat? Was the dungeon trying to be considerate?

Weird-ass place.'

They continued on foot. The experience gain was decent, but in a few hours, they would need to take a break and set up camp for the night. At least the day-night cycle was consistent across all levels, so after five to six more hours of daylight, nightfall would come.

After about three hours of walking and fighting, they stumbled upon a lake. Damian decided to set up camp there for the night.

Water was something he could conjure anytime, but natural lake water had a refreshing taste that was missing from the mana-generated kind.