The Runic Alchemist

Damian couldn't even get close to the people building the wall to watch because the commander was still inside the tent. But he could see them in the distance. The creation of the first layer was going smoothly. The Ashenvale scouts watching this must have been confused as hell.

"When is your turn?" Damian asked Makayla, who was also watching the wall form in front of them.

"Midnight."

It was good to have someone with whom he could have a normal conversation in this place. A break from constantly trying to figure out what the next person was scheming was really much appreciated.

"I'm going back to the camp. Are you allowed to... uhm?" she asked, slightly turning her fur-clad, armored body that still somehow managed to highlight her curves.

"No, I'm not."

She nodded and turned around, but then, for some reason, she turned back and gently placed a hand on his head, mussing his hair a little.

"My brother is rarely wrong in matters of judging people's character. I'll pray to the mother Astraea for you, kid. Be safe if you can."

Damian was stunned for a second. From her wild, tough demeanor, it was hard to tell what she was feeling, so it caught him completely off guard. She was indeed Valoris's sister.

"Uh... Thank you. You too. Most likely, an attack from Ashenvale will follow with this much activity..."

She nodded and walked away.

Having had enough of the cold and the weird screeching noises, Damian walked back into the tent. The commander was still in her seat, overseeing Lord Tristan and a few other mages whose shift was later. They were discussing how long it would take and what security measures they should implement.

Lord Ashford was outside, commanding the soldiers building the wall, providing information about their shifts, and instructing them on what to do and what to be most careful of.

"At most, two days if we go really fast and assuming we face some challenges along the way," guessed one of the middle-aged mages with a staff that had a blue mana crystal in his hand.

"Maybe we should start from both ends to double our speed," added another mage, a pretty good suggestion.

"That would be much more dangerous, but it's our best chance to finish on time," agreed the middle-aged man, nodding at Lord Tristan.

Damian took his old position, lounging in the background, half-listening, half-lost in his own thoughts. He tuned out, acting like he didn't exist.

---

The commander had returned to her quarters after setting everything up and was now resting in her chambers. Damian was in his own small room, and fortunately, no one was inside keeping an eye on him. There was no window here, so maybe they weren't that worried about him running away anymore. They had also taken his runic spatial storage bracers.

He had asked for them to be returned, and the unreasonable elf just laughed in his face, asking questions about his scrolls and drawings, trying to dig around for more of his secrets. He simply blocked the link, and that was the end of it.

Sitting on his bed, Damian resumed practicing his new mana efficiency technique. He still couldn't control it as he wanted, but compared to before, he had made a lot of progress. He wasn't using as much elemental mana. The basic spells were easy to grasp, but as the complexity of the runic circle increased, so did the difficulty.

He was already creating runic circles to the best of his ability; focus and visual memory of the spell were two ingredients he couldn't do without. That was why instead of reading from a book, watching someone perform the spell benefited him much more in the learning process.

Of course, for a normal mage, it was twice as hard as it was for Damian, with no idea what they were doing wrong or what area they should focus on.

A job testing old spells from ancient books would suit him perfectly if he ever decided to make an honest living. Not that his chances of achieving that were very good.

Completing yet another black runic circle with minimal elemental mana, Damian activated it. He had realized that for him the water and space-time elements were easier to work with in this practice than the rest; he had more precise control over them. At last the affinities were showing some effect—he had started to believe they were just decorations on his status tool.

For a mage to mature enough to see the effects of his affinities, he needed to be at very advanced stages of his mana control skills, Damian had read that once. At this point, the talented mages and those just repeating words without much thought separated into proper groups. The mage class was considered easy to start but very difficult to progress in after a while.

Not to mention, most mages focused on one field all their lives because no one could master so many spells with perfection, each requiring separate high levels of control in different elements.

Instantly, an invisible box of his size formed a meter away from him. Using his mana thread, Damian adjusted the value of a section in the complex runic structure that was responsible for the width of the box. He brought the two long sides of the box as close as possible, making it a single slab instead of a box.

Damian had tried everything to find an attribute related to the thickness of the invisible box's walls, but unfortunately, it was fixed. There was no way to make it any thicker or lighter unless Damian could make the width of the box consist of just two walls—the front and back—with nothing in between.

But, of course, it was not easy. The air inside, as the size decreased, showed more and more resistance until he simply could not press it any more, even with extra mana. There had to be some way to use this spell as a barrier-like shield.

No question it would break with a powerful attack, but it would be much better than a normal shield or steel armor on his body without any runes or enchantments of course.