THE RUNIC ALCHEMIST

It was a monster. Though from afar, it was hard to tell it apart from a human. It had the same body structure, but instead of flesh, its bones were covered with hardened sand and black charcoal. A magical frost crystal embedded in its chest absorbed heat from the environment, keeping its body perpetually cool. This made it completely resistant to fire-based attacks and the desert’s heat, while ice attacks only strengthened its defenses.

It was the strangest zombie-like creature Damian had seen so far in this world. The first one he killed dropped its crystal, but it soon shattered under the intense heat. When he touched it, it still felt cool. Without the monster’s body, it didn’t function. The second one, he captured alive. He was curious—why did a dungeon filled with blistering heat have a monster capable of ice attacks of all things?

It wasn’t just ice attacks either. The creature had an ability that absorbed moisture from its opponents. Intrigued, Damian halted their progression and quickly restrained the monster in his green vines, bringing it above the Dreamlight. His real interest, however, stemmed from one crucial discovery—the mimicry spell worked on it.

Now, he just needed to test the effect. Dangerous? Possibly. But also rewarding, if he could extract something useful from it. And, of course, having no other viable options, he decided to test the spell on himself. That was how he had figured out all his potions before.

“This is insane! Using mimicry spell like this is borderline suicidal!” Amy said, a deep frown on her face.

“I can cancel it anytime, so it’s fine,” Damian replied.

“If you live long enough to cancel it!” Sam shot back.

Damian had no response to that. He was kind of right. In Eldoris, he had always canceled the spell at the slightest hint of pain, but that had only happened twice in all these years. And neither time was it anything serious.

“Do it on someone else first so you can cancel the spell if needed,” Reize suggested.

“I’d love to,” Damian said with a smirk. “But which one of you is willing to be my test subject?”

Immediately, everyone avoided making eye contact. He even saw a few of them shiver. Yep. That was the normal reaction.

“Is this how you made all your potions?” Alex asked, suddenly realizing the implications.

“Yes,” Damian answered simply.

Alex hesitated before responding, “If I become your test subject, what do I get in return?”

“Hopefully, relief from the constant heat.. but what do you want?” Damian countered. “I need this creature’s ability to absorb moisture and keep its body cold, if possible.”

“Is that really possible?” Grace asked, eyes wide with hope.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out here,” Damian said, exasperated.

“Trade with Faeurunia,” Alex said. “All your fancy potions.”

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“No,” Damian refused. “If anything goes wrong, your father will be a pain to deal with.”

“I’ll do it!” Elias volunteered.

“No, you won’t,” Damian refused him immediately.

“I can do it, I guess,” Sam offered hesitantly.

“Say your farewells,” Damian said with a completely straight face.

“You’re already proclaiming me dead?!” Sam cried.

Ignoring the laughter around him, Damian performed the runic spell while Sam braced himself. Despite the jokes, Damian wouldn’t have attempted this if he wasn’t confident it wouldn’t cause harm. The only times mimicry spells had hurt him before were when copying creatures with poisonous attributes. This one should either work or fail entirely—there shouldn’t be an in-between that would damage the body.

He wasn’t reckless enough to test it on himself in the middle of a dungeon. That’s exactly why he was willing to give it a try.

The moment the spell activated, Sam blinked in confusion. A few seconds of silence passed as everyone watched him carefully. Then, suddenly, Sam pulled off his shirt, revealing a small, coin-sized crystal embedded in his chest.

“I feel.. I can..” Sam hesitated, then his expression shifted to amazement. “I can use my mana to use this.. whatever this is..”

His voice carried a mix of confusion and excitement, and despite the uncertainty, he was smiling. He was handling it quite well.

Immediately, the others bombarded him with questions—how it felt, whether it hurt, what exactly he could do. Ignoring the chaos, Damian wrapped the still-living monster tightly in his green vines and stored it in a backup containment space. He needed it alive for further use.

Once that was settled, Damian replaced a registered slot in Arcane Synthesis to store the mimicry spell. It replicated the frost crystal’s chest properties from the Sandborn Sentinel—the name he assigned to the monster. Now, he had a large-scale version of the spell stored. The next step was to create the spell liquid and mix it with a mana-enhancing solution from his high-grade spatial storage. That part wasn’t even necessary, though.

Traditionally, Damian crafted potions by mixing the spell liquid with the mana-enhancing solution to dilute it, ensuring efficiency and conservation of materials. But with his effectively unlimited mana, resource management wasn’t an issue. He still needed to refine it to the right proportions, though. A crystal too large would be impractical. With his experience crafting potions, he knew exactly how much was needed to achieve the optimal effect.

He didn’t rush to distribute the potion just yet. First, he observed Sam for potential side effects. Fortunately, the spell’s duration ended, and Sam remained perfectly fine. In fact, he started complaining—insisting they try it again just to be sure. The cooling effect was that effective. After experiencing such relief, he didn’t want to go back to enduring the heat.

Still, Damian waited an entire day before drawing any conclusions. The effect wasn’t addictive, as Sam stopped complaining once they resumed fighting monsters. Confident in its safety, Damian filled a high-grade spatial storage with the newly synthesized potion.

For distribution, he didn’t bother with individual glass bottles. Instead, he used a single glass, pouring equal portions for everyone when needed—it was for personal use, anyway. Spatial storage wouldn’t keep it fresh forever, but it would last a month. And that was more than enough to help them survive the brutal heat of this dungeon.

And so, on that day, Damian created cooling potion.

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