The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 932: A Decade of Work 2

The current theory they were working on had finally brought them to a point that may actually be called a significant step forward.

It was Steelweaver’s idea, actually. Based on the dwarven ancient knowledge, dungeons primarily used blood magic to identify and reward an individual. That’s where the prime spell idea had originally come from. Using not just mana rich blood of a pathfinder but also the fundamental element that kept the blood fresh and mana conductive for a long time. And if certain conditions were met, even forever fresh and usable.

Their dungeon exploration experience and data gathered from so many different types of dungeon atmospheres also gave significant proof of it. Steelweaver couldn’t call it blood magic directly, so together, they formed a Conscious Growing Spell theory. It assumed the dungeon as a monster in itself that used the mana-rich blood of the challengers and the environment’s mana to keep itself alive.

Each dungeon was different but also very similar in some aspects, like different personalities but the same species. So if they assumed the species was like a golem or some semi-mechanical species, and consider the dungeon core as the core of the beast itself. That makes each challenger who clears a dungeon an owner of these beasts, or at least the owner of some kind of copy or pieces of the beast.

So how do these beasts reflect memories of civilizations? And even more important, why?

Steelweaver and others concluded that the divine or some natural phenomena probably create a dungeon monster after every significant event in the world’s history. So either these dungeons are their own histories or the history of the other worlds.

But Damian knew dungeons were made by Overseeers (Fifth rankers)

when they ascend from fourth rank to fifth. And from the Highsword dungeon details, it was clear that dungeons used the memories and life stories of the fifth ranker. The gods of their world should know the truth as well.

’I wonder where the dungeons depicting their life stories are?’

But the truth did not completely reject this theory. The system was behind these dungeons, but it could be anything in truth. The reason Damian steered the group to follow this theory naturally was the chance of experiments that it would let him conduct before the eyes of the gods.

The group was pursuing the truth about the dungeons, but Damian was pursuing his own goal of finding a method that could shield a pathfinder from the influence of the gods. For this reason, he had even decided to ascend three years back, which was required for him to get the Blood Harvestor skill. A core requirement for creating prime spells.

The years of dungeon diving and painstaking research were not wasted. Damian used the experience as an excuse to create prime spell runic machines, and as far as he could see, the gods didn’t seem like they suspected anything wrong with it. In truth, he had learned how to gain the skill in the ascension and how to use that skill afterwards, both from the God of Steel Golem himself.

The lessons and techniques he learned from the man greatly influenced his Arcanometal Transmutor job. It had upgraded to Arcanometal Transmuter Prime of Cognition when he ascended. This time, unlike other ascensions, he was not given a choice of jobs. Guess it was really too soon for him to become a fourth ranker; his life experiences were just enough for one job.

Damian was more than happy with the result though. The variations might not be too much, but he had improved on his already gained runic knowledge. As a runesmith, he had reached the peak of his previous job. The transmuter aspect could have used more training and experimentation.

[Note: The details of the ascension will be revealed in-depth later; this is not the end of it.]

Their gamble had paid off. Steelweaver’s guess was somewhat right.

He was already an insanely abnormal transcendent with a near fourth-ranker level mana sense. As a fourth ranker himself, that sense had multiplied again; Damian could sense the very faint, almost impossible to sense mana strings leaking out of the dungeon core itself.

Learning to build prime spells took a lot of time after that, and then creating spells took some time as well. Spells that could somehow use these strings to reveal something. The level of ridiculously thin mana threads leaking out of the dungeon core was impossible to use with supreme-grade runic tools.

Damian had to actually find a connection with existing spells that could be manipulated with the core as the main subject. Once again, he had to study the dungeon sealing spells and other prime spells details he had. Then Damian experimented with creating his own modified versions of the prime spells, did them enough to master the needed aspects.

All in all, it took more than three years to finally prepare for the experiment that would both prove the Conscious Growing Spell theory and give him some insight into divine mana.

The mana leaking from the cores was 90% divine mana mixed with normal mana. That was the hint Damian picked up after researching thousands of dungeon civilizations and their histories for years.

What is the greatest fall of these god-like beings in these civilizations? It was simple, actually. In most civilizations, someone, somehow, managed to challenge a god. Good people did not always just win. There was a logical trick behind it. Why could heroes like Pigman Heiryul face a Fifth ranker despite being a fourth ranker?

In all these heroic stories, there was always this unique instrument involved that gave them the needed edge. Either that was a specially made weapon, a godly technique, some forbidden runic device, or a spell. The connection between all of that, after years of observation Damain figured out was divine mana.

The only thing that worked against the Gods was their own fragments of divinity. Each god in these civilizations reaches a point of overconfidence that no one other than a fellow god can ever be a threat to them, and they become the worst kind of tyrants. There were some good ones as well, but mostly they were fools.

And each time, the civilization somehow finds a way to amplify the divine fragments available or find a way to steal the divine mana from the gods. This was the only method.