The Runic Alchemist

Maybe saying something like that to a powerful third-ranker wasn't the smartest move, but Damian felt he'd earned enough points with her to speak his mind instead of walking on eggshells all the time. As expected, she only glanced at him once before dismissing his words, not taking him seriously.

"There's more space on the fourth floor. I had it cleared, and the mana charge is full," she said, standing up.

"Let's go then. What are we waiting for?" Damian packed away his notes into his spatial storage and followed her to the door.

As they moved through the hallways and up the stairs, everyone bowed deeply to Vidalia, showing their respect. Some even bowed to Damian smiling, that was creepy, being hated was one thing, there were thousands of reasons to hate him but when someone respects you for things you didn't even know that they had heard somewhere, it just felt weird.

The moment they stepped onto the recently modified fourth floor, a vast hall with no rooms, Damian frowned seeing the unexpected sight there.

"What are you doing here?" Damian asked Tristan, who greeted him with the kind of grin one might expect from a long-lost uncle.

"Tristan is a renowned scholar and mage. He specializes in runic relics and tools," Vidalia explained, justifying his presence for the upcoming experiments.

"Maximus, my boy! How long has it been? You should go out more! I never see you outside at all.." Tristan said, placing a jovial hand on Damian's shoulder.

"No thanks, I'm fine here," Damian replied instantly.

"First, we'll cover the basic precautions before activating the artifact, then prepare for the actual test. We only get one shot every two days, so we can't afford to waste it," Vidalia said, taking charge of the situation.

Damian and Tristan both nodded in agreement. All mages were scholars, after all, thanks to their high intelligence. Very few lacked an interest in researching or experimenting with new spells, or crafting theories about mana reactions. Many of the older scholars had once been warriors or knights themselves, and anyone who lived long enough would inevitably seek ways to improve their craft.

The three of them spent time going over every possible detail: the amount of mana to input, the will required to activate the tool, and—most crucially—the soul that needed to be registered as the destination. They concluded that the tool couldn't just teleport a user to anyone in the world.

It had to be someone intimately or long time known to the user; otherwise, Ashenvale would have long since used it to get to Vidalia, or even the Queen of Eldoris.

Once the preparations were complete, Vidalia, Damian, and Tristan took their place and it started. Normally, four second-ranker or high leveled first rankers mages would be required for this, but a third-ranker like Vidalia could compensate for all the power needed for just activation.

Tristan positioned himself far from Vidalia, at the opposite end of the large hall, to act as the soul target for the portal. Damian remained near Vidalia, pretending to take notes but ready to sketch the intricate black and gold runic circle he'd seen when the waygate tool was activated on the battlefield.

When Vidalia activated the tool, Damian immediately felt space around him distort. His stomach churned, this mana just felt wrong.. it made him sick, but he endured it, hastily sketching the runic circle with precision. He checked and rechecked his work, thankful for the slow activation process that gave him plenty of time to draw it carefully.

Once he finished stealing, Damian turned his attention to the portal. A blue shimmering energy swirled inside, obscuring the view beyond. This looked different from a standard wormhole, which typically had purple borders and pitch-black interiors. The waygate, however, glowed blue, as if it wasn't just opening a passage but transforming them into energy before transporting them.

It was just a theory, and one Damian wasn't eager to test—though he knew he would soon enough.

Vidalia successfully opened the portal and looked at Damian, who sighed before stepping toward it. Taking a deep breath, he walked in. He knew there was a 5% chance of error, and luck wasn't something he liked to gamble with. As he entered, it felt like his body was being heated to over 100 degrees, melting into the portal's blue energy before being spat out on the other side.

His feet touched solid ground next to Tristan, and he stumbled forward.

'Ugh, that felt nauseating..'

He had experienced something similar when they used a waygate from the mountain top to the Ashenvale camp, but the adrenaline of escaping Moondancer had distracted him from the discomfort at the time. Not to mention their were injured all over. Now, it was all too clear.

"It works as we thought," Tristan remarked.

Damian nodded, motioning eagerly with a smile for Tristan to join in the "joyful ride" he'd just experienced. Tristan, oblivious to Damian's ulterior amusement, gave him a cheerful smile and strutted into the portal.

Seconds later, a distant shout echoed through the hall. "Goddamn it! That felt horrible! That little bastard…"

Damian grinned, satisfied. Afterward, they tested the portal with various objects—organic, non-organic, all with the same result: the portal accepted everything. Lastly, they left it running to see how long it could remain active before shutting down. It lasted for couple of hours before all the mana stored inside was used up. That was pretty good, unless the distant made a difference somehow.

Damian doubted it though, it pierced the reality going past all possible physics rules, distance shouldn't matter to this thing.

Damian was in his room trying to sleep however random ideas popped up in his mind about runes and spell modification and made him go on tangents with his own thoughts, taking longer and longer to sleep. This was why he preferred to get so tired doing research that he would have no time for random thoughts.

He had turned in early today, that damned portal had left him feeling sick and nauseating all day.

As Damian thought about the waygate tool, a sudden realization struck him. He sat up straight in his bed, his eyes wide with surprise.

"If this works... I can go home."