The Runic Alchemist

Damian flew above, using his mana liquid container to examine the entire sword in detail. The metal was scorching hot in this heat, so he didn't touch it, but from its appearance and color alone, it seemed different from adamantite. It was something else entirely.

Reusing metal already imbued with runic spells was not ideal. No matter how thoroughly one melted it, residual mana nodes from previous use would always remain, preventing it from achieving its original, perfect rank. Still, if even repurposed, this metal was stronger than steel—it was truly powerful stuff.

For a moment, Damian considered using the mana liquid to power the entire sword, but he quickly curbed his enthusiasm. Wasting such a vast amount of mana liquid and leaving himself vulnerable among so many powerful third-rankers was not an ideal thing to do. If he were alone with friends, he might have tested it—perhaps even get free spells people of this world used.

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The leather on the handle looked worn from constant exposure to sunlight, but there were marks suggesting that a giant hand had once gripped it. Sunkeeper and Worldscribe flew up beside him, joining him at the top of the sword. After silently observing it with him for a few seconds, Worldscribe finally spoke.

"Runefather is here. We need to get started. Are you ready, or do you need rest?"

Sunkeeper added from the side, "Let's give the boy a few hours.. We can start anytime."@@novelbin@@

Damian turned around and looked at the two women, who appeared to be in their late forties but were likely centuries old, and said, "No need. The faster this ends, the faster I can get rid of my stalkers."

"They were for your protection," Worldscribe replied, clearly unamused that he had left Runefather and the others behind.

Sunkeeper didn't miss her chance. "Oh? Are you implying my people are a threat to him?"

"There are many monsters in the dungeon," Worldscribe said simply, glaring at her. It was clear she wasn't just talking about one kind of monster.

Damian ignored the bickering duo and flew back down. The second-rankers had already begun breaking the sword from the lower part, though it was a slow and arduous process. Only pure aura clad tools managed to chip the metal, and even then, over ten of them working in unison barely made progress. That was far too slow.

The third-rankers could do better, he figured, but the task had been given to the second-rankers because there wasn't much else for them to do. As much metal as they could salvage for the unbreakable containment box, they should.

Damian had no idea what fourth-rankers were truly capable of. Hopefully, their creation would never be tested against his might. Land Breaker should just be somewhere he couldn't return from. The dungeon was filled with traps and monsters capable of warping space and flinging people far away—it wouldn't be unheard of. Could the guy even survive in space?

Second-rankers could recover mana from the environment using parts of their bodies. Third-rankers could do it through every pore in their skin—their mana recovery rate was insane, and he had witnessed that firsthand. So fourth-rankers should, at the very least, have bodies modified enough to survive in the vacuum of space. Could his Waygate work in outer space, though? Well, nothing ususally got through it—not even mana signatures—so technically, it should. Hopefully, it would. Bringing the Land Breaker back alone would eliminate half the problems plaguing the continent.

When Damian told Alex and the others the truth about their dungeon dive, their reactions were unsurprising—absolute shock. Except for Alex. From his reaction, it was clear that Faeurunia was already informed about the Highswords' situation, and his family trusted him enough to involve him in the secret. Damian, however, left Maelor and the others to handle all the questions that followed, while he and Reize got to work.

Over thirty runic smithies were activated, with more than twenty runesmiths working at once to forge a massive metal cage capable of trapping even the most powerful among them. As expected, the Highswords used colossal aura attacks to chip away large chunks of the sword's metal. Alongside Runefather, Damian and Reize worked tirelessly in the smithies to bring Runefather's design to life.

It was a simple yet effective structure—a 30x30-meter metal box, constructed from 2x2-meter squares, each embedded with a high-grade barrier spell. A single spell was easy to break, but hundreds of interconnected chunks forming overlapping barriers would be a nearly impossible prison to escape, even for third-rankers.

Damian could see potential ways around it, but he had no better ideas for a cage. The invisible box would have been perfect for trapping someone, but he couldn't use it. Others could, and maybe he could get authorization to manipulate the spell slightly, but he didn't want to risk it. If using it in any way counted as breaking the ban, his soul would be torn apart for nothing. Land Breaker wasn't worth that much trouble to him.

Halfway through forging their assigned boxes, the people around them took a break, leaving him and Reize alone. They were forging the boxes for now—the spell imbuing was much easier done near Dreamlight in a single synchronized effort using liquid mana.

Damian was clad in his full battle-ready aura special armor—just in case. Being surrounded by so many third-rankers who could kill a person with a single punch was far from relaxing.

That was when he noticed Reize stealing glances at him as she worked. The moment he looked at her, she quickly averted her gaze and continued her task. This repeated for several awkward minutes until she finally stopped working and approached him.

Her expression was.. concerning, to say the least.

He had never seen her look so serious and tense. She was always smiling, always full of energy. He hadn't failed to notice how much quieter she had become since they entered the dungeon. How to put it.. she wasn't as lively as before.

At first, he had assumed the heat and constant monster battles were wearing her down. But now, he realized there was something else at work here.