The Runic Alchemist

They flew straight to the keypoint, quickly dealt with the monster in their way, and proceeded to the next level. Damian was more than relieved to see that the keypoint teleported everyone along with their belongings. The Dreamlight was also transported with him, and despite its tank being full of mana liquid, there was no trouble at all.

The technology used by the dungeon was far beyond his understanding.

Damian could sense the third-rankers watching them from a distance. The others might not have noticed, but his senses screamed every time they stared at his group. Having fifteen third-rankers tracking their every movement was, needless to say, overwhelming. He couldn’t help but wonder what they thought about him simply flying past the levels.

In case they find Land Breaker trapped among dangerous monsters, the three section leaders and Damian had agreed to use the Waygate spell once they were at least twenty-five levels deep. Runefather and a few skilled second ranker runesmiths, along with Damian, were going to construct a secure location for the Waygate to open. They had informed him that Level 25 contained a rare metal with powerful properties perfect for runic imbuement, which they planned to use to build a runic cage of sorts.

It was the same metal Runefather mixed with iron to create the special alloy used in the standard Highsword knights’ armor.

The others were unaware of the true purpose behind this dungeon dive, and the Highswords intended to keep it that way. That was why they were left to progress on their own. However, this was the High Table’s decision, and there were still ways for the three sections to interfere or make the journey more difficult. That was precisely why all three groups were trailing behind them, wary of each other.

The first five levels were cleared in less than an hour. The dungeon’s high temperature was quite noticeable, but Damian had already prepared for it by crafting enchanted tools that produced cold air. It wasn’t his original creation—Reize had introduced it to him. Apparently, such tools were quite popular in the Empire, which was mostly a desert region. They had other means to combat the heat as well. Still, the temperature felt stubborn, refusing to fully dissipate even when one stood directly in front of these cooling devices.

However, the moment they crossed the fifth level, Damian furrowed his brow.

The temperature suddenly plummeted into single digits. The once lush green forest was gone, replaced by a landscape covered in snow. Leafless, dried-up trees towered around them, and a slow but steady snowfall blurred their visibility.

None of them had ever crossed Level 5 before, so this came as a surprise. The Highswords, as expected, never revealed their secrets, and previous participants—those who had made it this far—had only shared their knowledge with their own countrymen and houses. As a result, no public information about this stage of the dungeon existed.

Fortunately, Damian had an extensive collection of spells to generate heat, so the cold wasn’t a significant issue. Compared to the blistering heat they had just endured, the chill actually felt like a relief—though he had a suspicion this was only the beginning.

The dungeon was called The Radiant Sovereign Thicket. Damian recalled the information it had displayed—it was supposedly the grave of an ancient Sun God, and the ultimate reward was his Fire Heart. Facing extreme heat was expected. But the sudden snowfall? That was unexpected.

The use of rotor blades might be difficult in these conditions, and snow could accumulate on the ship, but aside from that, there were no major issues that couldn’t be solved. Just to see what kind of monsters lurked here, Damian landed and decided to proceed on foot. Experience more on My Virtual Library Empire

Each level of the dungeon was roughly the same size—around 35 to 40 kilometers. He wasn’t entirely sure, but it was likely a perfect square as well.

The dungeon in Beast Valley also had square-shaped levels, though they were much smaller. That was expected—it was, after all, a low-level dungeon.

If this truly was another world, it was a strange one. What kind of planet had stacked, square-shaped lands?

A more likely explanation was that some unknown power restricted access beyond the designated square, making the area outside it unreachable for dungeon challengers. Rather than levels being physically stacked on top of each other, it was more plausible that the dungeon simply selected portions of land from different regions, limiting access to only those specific areas. It was just a conjecture, though—there was no proof.

It could possibly interfere with his waygate spell as well.

Damian considered opening a Waygate back to Vidalia or to the Baron, just as an experiment—to see if it would work at all and to determine what kind of time difference there was between the two locations. But the real question was: Who would go through?

He wasn’t willing to risk losing months—let alone years—over such a reckless test. He had already experienced that once before. There was also the danger that Vidalia or the Baron, not seeing him or his friends return, might enter the waygate themselves and end up lost in this land for years or worse.

It was better not to mess with such things.

With the help of his assistants, Damian emptied the mana tank, distributing the mana containers among the students. He then stored the Dreamlight inside the giant steel cube. He had designed a fitting compartment under the ship’s belly where it could be stored and easily retrieved for convenience.

The problem was, there were too many mana containers. The Dreamlight’s generators had produced an excessive amount of mana liquid. But Damian had a solution for that as well.

He brought out a simple, sleek, steel hoverboard-like structure—essentially a thick plate of steel, reinforced and joined together. It was inspired by one of Reize’s earlier designs.

At its core, a small tree grew, around which the steel plates were fixed. The tree itself was tiny, only capable of lifting 30–50 kg at full power using a gravity-reversal spell. The plates had weight runes for stability, allowing it to hover smoothly, and wind runes on the sides to propel it forward.