The Runic Alchemist

Maelor had opened one book—it was placed on a glowing green podium in the middle of the library room. It was raised high from the dark floor, with five circular steps leading up to the podium set in the center. Books were thrown around on each step. Clearly, finding the right book had taken them quite some time.

His ascension system was hidden for some reason—unlike Damian’s computer that was clear as day in his Astral Plain. Maybe the Demon Lord had done it after he became a fourth-ranker and gained some ability to make changes to his Astral Plain—that was possible. Damian didn’t wait for any explanation and quickly flew near Maelor after tossing a potion to Sam.

Lucian and Sam followed behind.

Damian had doubts about whether they could use someone else’s ascension system to ascend or not. But it seemed like Maelor was using the book without any problem. Damian peeked in. There were three jobs listed there—the title read ‘Enlightened Jobs’. All three options had a line stretching from the middle and looked a little greyed out compared to the title. It was written text, though, so there wasn’t much of a difference between black text and ones that were slightly greyed out.

“What is this?” Damian asked.

“I can see my job options, but I am already on my second job,” Maelor replied.

Damian looked at Lucian. She said, “I haven’t tried it yet.”

“Quick. Do it then,” Sam said, looking around the dark room as if he expected the Demon Lord to creep out of anywhere at any second now.

He wasn’t wrong—that slimy bastard could indeed slither out of these bookshelves. Lucian stepped in, and the pages of the book turned super fast on their own—showing a new page. This one had no title; it only showed two options:

–

Frostvein Revenant

Soulpiercer of the Silent Cold

–

Lucian raised her eyebrows, not understanding what she was seeing. Damian and Sam beside her, however, had their eyes wide with surprise. Damian’s lips formed a smile. Of course—she had gone through a war far above her league; it shouldn’t be a surprise that she completed whatever requirements were set for her to be qualified for transcendence. Sam had done it, and she had killed just as many.

“Those are my two jobs..” Lucian muttered.

“It’s for the third-ranker job. You have to select the second-ranker job you want to upgrade,” Damian said. “Do it fast though—we don’t have much time.”

Lucian’s face had the biggest change in expression Damian had ever seen—she was shocked beyond words. But quickly, she rearranged her thoughts and put a tick beside Frostvein Revenant. The pages turned furiously again and stopped on another page containing three options. Beside the three options was a small image of Lucian in a different vibe.

–

Wintershade Sovereign (Lucian on a frost-cracked obsidian throne, black-ice crown above her head, soul-wraiths kneeling in silence around her.)

Aurorafrost Exile (Lucian standing under shimmering auroras on a frozen cliff, ice-crystals floating near her outstretched hand, ruins behind.)

Frozen Vein Archknight (Lucian in silver-white armor veined with glowing frost, sword planted in icy ground, battlefield frozen mid-motion around her.)

–

Wow. Those were some options. Too bad she didn’t have much time to weigh the pros and cons of all three. They had to leave this place in any possible way—even if Lucian failed her trial, they should get out of the Astral Plain. It all depended on assumptions that they could enter her trial room with her.

This was the only possible way out for them—they hadn’t wasted a single second thinking whether they really could do it or not. Just a distant chance of it was enough to try it out.

Lucian quickly read all her options, and the quill held in her hand hovered over the three names, showing her hesitation. None of them asked her to hurry—they knew it was already a tense moment for her. She raised her eyebrows in confusion and looked to the side, meeting his eyes.

Damian, with faster reflexes, had read the options and observed the images much quicker than her. He too had no idea which one was better. There was no hint as to what the job would focus on. The last one seemed like it gave her an armor ability or something.

“First and third look good..” Damian replied to the unspoken question.

Lucian nodded, and after hovering her quill on the two options he pointed out, she finally ticked beside Frozen Vein Archknight.

—It was a good choice. That black-ice-and-crown thing was a bit too much. He would have chosen that one though. Well, to each their own.

Suddenly, they heard slithering, weird sounds from nearby—the magical book was still turning pages. Damian prepared a few spells and stood ready to face the Demon Lord if it came to that—but fortunately, a white door materialized out of nowhere in one of the dark, giant bookshelves, and they all rushed toward it.

Lucian did not enter it though. Instead, she extended her hands towards the three of them. Sam held her right hand, Maelor her left one—Damian simply grabbed Lucian from her waist. Even in such a tense situation, she did not miss the chance to give him an eye-roll. Even though she was always the one ready to start the action, she never missed a chance to become smug whenever he did anything like that to her.

Together, they walked into the white, radiant door—in an instant, the blinding light enveloped them from all around. And when finally they were able to see again, all they could see were hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of snow-covered land.

There was a forest in the distance too, mostly covered in snow. They were standing at a high place—it looked like a giant outer wall of some stone castle.

That was not all though—the white snow-covered field outside the stone wall they were standing on was populated by hundreds of thousands of weird-looking creatures. There were humans and types of humanoid species mixed in too. They were wearing armor and had weapons in hand.

An army.

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