The Runic Alchemist

The second day, Damian had to attend a full schedule of classes—five in total, running from morning to mid-afternoon. The day began with breakfast and a morning assembly. Two classes took place in the morning, followed by an hour-long lunch break, then two more classes in the afternoon. These were the required courses, but the academy offered additional classes into the evening, including second batches and selective courses. After study hours, various communities were also active, each working toward their goal, whatever it might be. They had assigned a place depending on their member count - some communities were large like the noble society, and some were like a party tackling a dungeon for the fastest record so they didn't even need a separate room.

In the morning, Damian attended Beast Studies. He felt like he had wasted an hour listening to the oddly dressed professor drone on about why powerful mounts were advantageous in large-scale battles. It wasn't interesting to Damian—maybe to those aiming to lead armies—but he had expected the class to be about studying magical beasts. It wasn't.

Next was Spellcrafting, where Professor Thalrisa covered foundational theories of magic, mana control, and elemental knowledge. Another hour wasted, in Damian's opinion. She wasn't bad, but she dragged the basics a bit too much as if they were all 10 year olds. However, it gave him an opportunity to tell Grace and the others that he had completed the runic array and planned to test it that afternoon.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Unfortunately, all three—Einar, Grace, and Evrin—had commitments. They had to attend the first meeting of their community, The High Society of Noble Lineage. Einar had joined as Evrin's bodyguard, which was easy since she was a noble. For Grace and Evrin, attending was part of their social duties. Sam, the "dumbass," had joined a dueling community and couldn't come either.

That left Damian to go alone, which suited him fine. He wasn't planning to take the usual route anyway—he had his own way of reaching the back of the island. The much faster one.

After lunch came History of Magic. This was surprisingly engaging, and Damian didn't even notice when the hour ended as they talked about the effects of magic in early politics. The final class of the day, Basic Rune and Runesmithing Techniques, was the one he had looked forward to the most.

Reize was already there and enthusiastically called him over as soon as he entered. Most of the class consisted of Knowledge Keeper students, many of whom Damian knew. They greeted him warmly, either smiling, nodding, or calling out his name as he passed. At least this made the rest of the students have a normal view of him and maybe they would also start to socialize a bit with him. Damian didn't care much about his social image, but staying awkwardly in one class for a whole year felt exhausting. He didn't have enough energy to keep up appearances, like the nobles with their hierarchy. If they all could think of him as their own and not act weirdly around him, that was all he could ask for.

The Runefather, one of the academy's four third-rankers, looked more like a seasoned knight than a scholar. Towering over six feet with a muscular build and tough, calloused hands, he exuded the air of an everyday warrior. Despite his youthful appearance, which gave an illusion that he was likely just under fifty - he was much older, so old that there was no mention of Runefather's origin in their history.

However, it wasn't the Runefather who led the class. Instead, his two apprentices handled the lesson. The Runefather only stayed for five minutes, asking a few questions before leaving—a fitting approach for a craftsman of his caliber. Damian wasn't interested in theory; he wanted to see the Runefather in action and witness his creations firsthand, he wanted to see all the things he had made and was planning to make.

At the end of the class, students were assigned personal labs. These were reserved for the top 25 Knowledge Keeper students specializing in runesmithing—and Damian. He had requested one, and after showing a few of his runic items, the academy agreed unconditionally that he qualified as a capable runesmith.

Actually it was one of the apprentice knights that Damian had shown his runic item to. It was just a simple palm sized piece of mixed steel, engraved with his circular runic circle on the short side. When infused with mana, important here was anyone's mana, not just his like the runic scrolls required. The spell imbuement into the metal had this one advantage that Damain didn't even need to learn scribe skill for others to use his runic items. The section for the source of mana being the one who uses it, did not change when he placed the spell made of mana thread inside the metal. He still had a massive control over it though, no one could use it without his authority, and with Lord's respect and Elder runebreaker jop that tiny percentage of chances of someone doing so, he could actually fight against.

It was a simple lighter. The mana required was almost miniscule that any mage could recover it in minutes. Then there was a goblet of steel with a small water runic circle in the bottom, same mana charge, and anyone could have a nice, full, glass of water. They were actually some of the small everyday conveniences that he had made for himself, and not the real projects of the countless spells he had accumulated over the years that he really wanted to get into. For those spells to be used, he wanted a safe place. Which, now he finally had one.

Damian knew the knight had taken his trinkets and showed it to this Runefather, as an excuse to further examine it. Which could be the reason why Reize was complaininng about him gushing about him. More than the simple applications, it was his ability to make coin sized working runic circles that was invaluable for the traditional runesmiths.