The Runic Alchemist

It was their first night in the dungeon, and they had already reached level 7. For now, the auto mana recharge barrier pillars Damian had made would protect them from all the monsters, but on higher levels, the barriers wouldn't hold unless he powered them up constantly with his own mana.

Only four pillars were necessary, as they were based on Eldoris's ancient barrier relic, but Damian set up eight in a circle—one set to maintain the barrier while the other rested and gathered mana—ensuring an uninterrupted defense throughout the night.

He also built a temporary large wooden structure like his workshop for everyone to sleep in, along with a few simple sheds to use as privies if needed. He had enough enchanted cold-air tools to cool the inside of the wooden building, ensuring they could rest comfortably.

They cooked together—everyone helped somewhat—but the task was mostly handled by commoner students who knew how to cook, along with some girls and boys who were interested in it. The others just assisted. They had quite the talent, as the food turned out delicious.

It was a soup made from mixed vegetables and a few pieces of monster meat. The meat was surprisingly good. They had enough supplies in their spatial storage to last a year, but still, it was nice to try fresh, local dungeon meat.

Some had already gone inside to rest, while Damian and a few others remained outside under the clear sky. The heat had subsided just a little at night, making it bearable to sit by the lake.

The Smolderwing Moths were trying their best to get inside the barrier dome, but it was too strong for them. The Hellbark Sentinels—trees that launched flaming fruits—had quieted down after some failed attempts. Now, they just stood near the barrier, acting like normal trees. They still had their flaming fruits, though, so they weren't fooling anyone.

"They look quite cute, don't they?" Kishi said.

The Lucian and Einar's fangirl, the feline beastmen was also with them. Apparently, she was a top third-year student, and even Elias and Lumi respected her quite a bit. She had asked for a spot in the dungeon expedition directly from Damian and had even shown readiness to challenge any fifth-year student he was bringing with him to prove her worth. That alone was enough to earn her a place, though if it weren't for Einar showing her favoritism, Damian wouldn't have accepted any freebies.

"They're moths…" Elias replied with a deadpan expression.

"Bugs," Lumi added in the same tone.

Guess they weren't that close. Whatever was going on with the younger stidents wasn't his business anyway.

There was another fourth-year student in Damian's fifty-person team—the same Eldoris noble kid he had dueled before. His family had offered a generous gift, and since Evrin had no objections, she even went out of her way to inform him that apparently, the duel had straightened the guy out quite a bit—Damian didn't hold any grudges either.

The guy was minding his bussiness so far. At the end of the day, they were all barely teenagers.

Lucian spoke up. There were about 12 to 15 people sitting near him.

"You estimated two months before.. How does that work?" she asked, looking at Damian.

He replied, "Each level plain seems to be around 35 to 40 kilometers. If we go straight from one end to another, it shouldn't take more than a full day or a day and a half. Assuming some higher levels prove difficult, and accounting for other delays, we should at least reach level 35 or near 40 at our best pace. If anyone thinks that's too much, they're free to leave at any level from the keypoints. But I'm planning to go past level 40. Most likely, a maximum of two months."

Everyone's attention snapped to him the moment he mentioned level 35 to 40.

Some looked at him as if he were their true role model—Elias, Sam, Karl, and all his close friends among them.

The others stared at him as if he had lost his mind. That included Alex, Kamisen, Kishi, Mindseer and many of the noble students.

"You know the highest anyone has reached is level 17, right? I believe you, of all people, could easily surpass that, but doubling it? That sounds difficult. This is a hundred-person dungeon, not twenty-five," Kamisen pointed out.

"Maybe," Damian said with a shrug. "But I'm not leaving before I reach level 100 myself."

"That's what everyone here wants…" Alex muttered, not looking at him.

It was true. Aside from those who simply wanted to level their skills, the best thing most people hoped to gain from this dungeon expedition was to get as close as possible to becoming second-rankers and earn some dungeon relics and rare materials in the process. For a person to reach Level 100 was a substantial goal.

It was said that only second-rankers were true adults—everyone else was barely a beginner. Gaining three jobs wasn't easy; many took their entire twenties to accomplish it and yet that was the saying of this world.

They soon went to sleep after Damian assigned the night watch. He didn't need sleep, but he still went into Dreamlight. He had taken it out of his storage cube since his personal room was inside. He and Reize slept in there, while everyone else stayed in the wooden structure.

Each watch shift included at least one person he trusted the most—his close friends among them. Still, he wasn't planning to sleep tonight. Who knew if the Sunkeeper's section would get some nefarious ideas and try something under cover of darkness?

It was unlikely with people from the Worldscribe and Voidshaper sections present, but that Silverspell old man was a lunatic—he could do anything. At least in the beginning, Damian needed to stay alert. They would probably leave him alone after he was done with The Land Breaker's waygate spell on level 25.

Whether that guy returned or not, Damian would give the waygate's runic steel cube to the Highswords—they could use it however they wanted. Of course, he would lower the minimum soul record requirement to just one so they couldn't use it for anyone other than Land Breaker.

After that, it was their internal problem.

If anyone still persisted in coming after him, well.. there were no witnesses in this dungeon.

And the main reason he came here was for experience.@@novelbin@@

So it would just be easy work.

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