The Runic Alchemist

“One of us going?” Maelor asked. “Why not all of us?”

“No, he is right,” Lucian said, looking at Sam. “Us going inside is exactly what Shadecaster wants. Maybe creating and keeping us in this white place is costing a lot of mana to Shadecaster or the Demon Lord.. And if all of us went in, the burden would lessen.”

Sam nodded, though his thoughts weren’t as detailed as hers. It was simple, really—a little corner of his mind still believed the two saviors of his were just illusions sent by Shadecaster. He wanted to step inside the dark cocoon, but not before them.

Lucian continued, “Sam’s low mana absorption rate due to his rank gives him more time compared to us. I have one steel mana cube, but it’s almost broken—only one or two uses left, and even then, with very little time. It might give us one more container’s worth of extra mana.”

“So.. how do we do this?” Maelor asked.

Lucian answered, “We both will go. Sam can wait here..” Then, looking at Sam, she added, “It’s up to you after that.”

Sam nodded. Her eyes had a little something in them that made him feel bad for doubting them. She knew what was going on in his mind. He had shared before the possibility of Shadecaster messing with his brain—about the time, the book lines. They would go, and then she was leaving the choice open for him—whether to go in and save them if they didn’t come back after a long time, or wait until he ran out of mana, paranoid.. which, to be fair, he had a pretty good reason to be.

Lucian gave Sam the mana cube. They checked their weapons—wielded the light laser hand cannons, another runic tool that created small barriers—and then, with a final goodbye and good luck, the two friends of his, both with less strength than him (a third-ranker now), walked into the darkness to fight Shadecaster—a person whom Sam should have killed by now.

But the guilt and feeling of wrongness were the very things that stopped Sam from accompanying them inside. If this was an illusion, this would be the very thing to break his resolve and force him to enter the dark cocoon.

They were gone.

Sam returned to his routine of torturing himself to stay awake and measure time—though still, many times in between, he zoned out. It had been too long since he had closed his eyes for good. His mind just could not keep up. Thankfully, checking the book after he woke up didn’t reveal months gone by—something good, at least.

However, after waking up with a fresh mind, Sam felt like something was different about the white place he was in. The dark cocoon was still there. Both his mana containers were filled to the top with the last of what he could squeeze out of that broken steel mana cube.

Wait.. filled to the top?

He had used some mana liquid just to keep from dipping below 10% in his mana pool. Then.. why was it full?

Sam, anticipating the worst, slowly put his hands inside both full liquid mana containers—he usually just looked, not touched. The second his fingertips touched the golden surface, all his fears came true. The gold color disappeared from the steel containers, leaving only dull grey metal behind. In both of them.

There was none left.

He was fooled once again. These damned illusions!

How long had it been this time? Sam grabbed the book and furiously turned the pages—there were no new lines after the few he had made when he fell asleep the first time.

God damn it! He was losing his mind. And now there was no mana for him to use either. Would he die here? Like this? Mana-less, in a fucked-up world of illusion? Alone?

Sam looked at the dark cocoon in the distance—no, his death would not be a meaningless one. Even the pigmen turned black were reverted back after the darkness in them was used up. Whatever condition his friends were in, he had to go save them.

Sam first, however, checked the mana containers thoroughly. If full containers could be an illusion, then empty ones could be too—but even after turning both upside down, there wasn’t a speck of mana in them. They truly were empty. If this was an illusion, it was really fucked-uply close to reality.

There was only one option left now. Before his eyes closed one last time, never to open again—he would see what that thing really was. He had spent hours looking at the ugly thing, and deep down, always knew he would have to enter it eventually.

Sam got up, held his sword firmly. Only a little lightning was left in his body now. The lightning was absorbed much slower than his mana. There was still enough left for him to activate his energy form for 10 to 30 seconds. He had to use it sparingly though.

“Let’s do this..”

Sam walked straight toward the dark thing—his resolve growing stronger with each step. When he was inches away from the dark cocoon, Sam sensed some weird anomaly behind him. It had to be the white place closing since no one was staying outside anymore. Before Sam could turn to confirm—two giant dark tentacles rose out of the cocoon and dragged him inside in a second. Sam tried to pull up his sword to cut them, but it was just too fast.

Before he could do anything, his vision was filled with nothing but darkness, and his body felt like it was being crushed down by a ton of water.

Sam was trying hard not to swallow or breathe in the disgusting darkness, but it was out of his control—he was about to use his energy form to get free, but before he could, Sam lost consciousness and stopped feeling anything at all. His mind blanked out, and a serene peace washed over him.

He was finally able to sleep peacefully. Oh, how wonderful it was..

***

[Inside the white expanse, right after Damian used the Waygate to reach Sam — Damian’s POV.]

The shimmering Waygate materialized in the white expanse, and Damian flew out of it. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the assault of white light, but Damian had sensed Sam long before he could see him.

He flew toward him without being able to look, but in a second, the mana signature too was lost. Even worse, he couldn’t sense Lucian or Maelor anywhere either. Damian’s eyes finally adjusted to the light, and he was finally able to see where it was that Sam had just disappeared—a giant dark, slimy goo was placed in the middle of a pure white place.

What was this? Some kind of skill? But only real places could be accessed through a Waygate.. No, that wasn’t true. If the target was a person—no matter if they were in a dungeon or some other place—Damian could reach them. There would be consequences like dungeon banning, but the Waygate would work at least once.

If this was anything like that—Damian instantly activated a Waygate spell, and as expected, it failed. He was also sensing a steady stream of mana threads connecting him to the white ground—his mana was being absorbed. What kind of creepy skill was this now?

He will figure out a way out of here later, first came the more important thing: saving his friends.

Damian ignored it all and flew straight toward the dark, slimy thing. It wasn’t big. Some two hundred meters long at best—and that was from its long side. The short side was barely 40–50 meters. Compared to the giant, darkness-filled body of the Demon Lord, this was merely a baby. He couldn’t bombard it though or use lasers to cut through—Sam was inside, and most likely Lucian and Maelor had to be inside too.

Damian still had a giant wave of golden liquid mana floating in a circle with his eight mana cubes—he had enough mana to use the Mana Armor and get through this thing effortlessly. He could generate more liquid mana just to be safe, but Damian was worried for his companions—how long had they been in there for?

It was risky to have them exposed to the darkness for a long time. Time he could not waste—this much mana should be enough.

Damian weaved multiple laser spells, Waygate spells, already had his Mana Armor spell active to cover himself from the invasive darkness, and just in case, he weaved a few elemental spells too. He was ready. Damian didn’t stop to think for a second and walked into the dark cocoon. Steadily making his way from one side to the other—trying to find the bodies of his friends.

He couldn’t sense them—he would have to check every inch of this dark, disgusting goo to find them, and be careful not to use the lasers or other spells in a way that would hurt them while making his way through the darkness.

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