THE RUNIC ALCHEMIST

Damian wanted to make the two Sacrium golems, but before doing that, he thought it best to finish his other tasks so he could dedicate more time to his final two creations with a relaxed mind.

The first thing he needed to make was the miniature artificial mana generator core. The theory had already been tested, and Damian had even succeeded in making it once, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

He had managed to miniaturize the entire mana generator into a small 10×10-inch square cube, with all four sides covered in circular runic inscriptions. The cube was divided into many small compartments, each serving a different function.

First, it had four mini wind runes positioned horizontally in the middle of one side of the cube. These runes continuously pulled air from one side and expelled it from the other, ensuring a fresh supply of natural mana-filled air.

Next to this section was an enchanted steel plate embedded with micro-holes, designed to attract and separate mana-filled air from other elements. The following compartment contained an area affected by a gravity spell runic circle, which compressed the mana gas, forcing the molecules together and transforming them into liquid form.

The next zone, where the liquid mana traveled, had two runic circles on either side with spatial storage plates—one containing ammonia and the other potassium, the base ingredients of liquid mana. These substances mixed with the liquid mana, charging it with a negative charge. To prevent excess material from being released, the runic circles of the spatial storage plates had mana usage restrictions, activating only for the necessary duration before deactivating automatically.

The final compartment contained a runic circle that drew in Damian’s aura—an adaptation of Alex’s family spell. Damian had modified it to function subconsciously, ensuring that the compartment was always filled with his aura. Thanks to three decades of aura control practice, Damian could extend three aura threads, each as thick as a wrist. It was said that projecting one’s aura outside the body was an incredibly difficult skill to master; even some second-rankers at their level cap struggled with it. For mages and spellswords, even third-rankers could barely manage it without weapons or tools.

After undergoing this lengthy process, the golden liquid mana would finally emerge from the other side of the cube. However, it didn’t simply pour out—Damian had incorporated a custom wind runic spell that created a continuous air current around the cube, causing the gathered mana liquid to circulate endlessly around it. This ensured that the cube’s user could easily harness the mana for spellcasting.

That was how it worked.

Damian first made a prototype using steel, shaping it effortlessly with the Invisible Box and Golem spells instead of forging it manually. That was how they had crafted all the intricate parts of Dreamlight, and now Damian could use the technique to mold any metal into any desired shape. It was far superior to traditional forging for shaping metal—provided one had good control over imagination. However, it did consume significantly more mana when inscribing runes compared to working with heated metal, which meant that high-quality or rare metals were still best processed by melting and shaping them manually.

The artificial mana generator cube was much smaller than the real generator, compact enough to be carried by hand. The best part was that, since no liquid mana ever remained inside, Damian could store it in his spatial storage at any time. However, it had limitations—it only produced a small amount of liquid mana. In his experiments, the highest output he achieved was 20,000 mana points’ worth of liquid mana per second. The solution was simple—use multiple cubes. Since Damian could control three aura threads at once, he could easily operate three cubes simultaneously, generating 60,000 mana per second. That was enough to open a Waygate in just four seconds—more than sufficient for any battle.

For others, the cube would only work if held in their hands, as they lacked aura threads. Damian personally performed the enchantments, even though he technically shouldn’t have with his overuse of soul fragments. But since he wanted to fully trust his artificial mana core in battle, he insisted on crafting it entirely by himself without any external help.

The steel artificial mana generator cube was completed perfectly within half an hour and successfully generated liquid mana. Damian nodded in satisfaction and set it aside before beginning his main task—crafting three cubes from Sacrium metal. The first one was just a test run.

This was a far more challenging task. It consumed over two and a half of his five full mana tanks, but eventually, Damian succeeded in forging three Sacrium mana generator cubes for himself. Shaping the metal using the Golem spell had been the most mana-intensive part—the metal was stubborn about changing its form. There had to be a proper method for it too, but he was brute forcing it with golem spells and using his overpowered skill.

In total, Damian had expended over 10 billion mana points worth of mana just to create these three cubes. And he still had to make two golems. At this rate, he would need to convert all his raw materials into liquid mana. Fortunately, acquiring more materials wasn’t an issue, so he wasn’t too concerned. Besides, the golems he was about to create wouldn’t require many runic inscriptions, which should help lower the mana cost.

With the three artificial mana core cubes complete, Damian stepped away from his work area to get some fresh air.

Lucian, who had been keeping her distance while he was deeply engrossed in his work, noticed him conjuring a wooden bench and sitting at the edge of the stone platform. She took that as her cue to approach and sat beside him.

Damian still held the last Sacrium artificial mana core cube in his hand, inspecting it. Noticing her gaze land on it, he smiled and handed it to her. She examined the strange, glossy white metal, running her bony fingers over the small palm-sized runic circles etched onto its four sides.

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