The Runic Alchemist

All pigmen under Heather’s leadership chose to go with them into the dungeon. They had families who had already entered the dungeon with their King. There was no future for them here— the mana on Earth had a very different feel compared to their home planet. And none of their children could survive here.

Damian told all pigmen and his companions to gather outside once they had all prepared. Everyone was already ready to depart from Earth. Then he went to the island where he had left Sulthar and the other three. He was glad to find the three near the island; they had not wandered off.

“Take this—it will contain your mana for a while,” Damian said.

He gave four massive, condensed square steel cubes, each about 10 meters big. They had the spell that Damian had learned all those years ago in Faerunia. The same spell the Faerunian princess always had behind her back. The effect Damian had learned after becoming a second ranker was that it sucked out one’s mana from their body, keeping only enough in a person’s body to remain bearable for mundane humans.

Damian had altered it slightly to give more freedom to the legendary-ranked individuals—it was still just within range for the pigmen to be able to endure their mana presence.

“Why does our mana need to be contained?” the red demon asked.

“We have large numbers of the natives from your world with us,” Damian replied, opening a waygate back to his base in London.

Damian looked back. All three legendary beings looked at Sulthar, who eyed Damian and then activated the cube. The other three followed behind. Damian had also added a protective barrier to block the cursed energy from the lava guy affecting others. He stepped inside the waygate, and they followed behind.

Together, outside the big wooden building in the large open space, thirty-plus thousand people had gathered, ready to enter the Dungeon of Highsword. Damian had checked the waygate before, and it still worked—he had instructed everyone beforehand not to harm the monster he used as the anchor. All those who had gone before them—Einar, Evrin, and the pigmen with Alex and Grace—none of their IDs opened a waygate.

Damian assumed it had to be because they successfully exited the dungeon—they didn’t want to make any speculations. Why Evrin and Einar did not come back was a mystery, but they had been prepared to enter the dungeon regardless of the outcome ever since the day Einar and Evrin had done it. It would have still been nice to know that this method truly worked.

Damian stood with Elias and Lumi, the group of humans all around them carrying the energy spheres of other Highswords and Asher. The legendary-ranked creatures stood together at a bit of a distance. Then the whole crowd of pigmen stood behind Heather. The Land-breaker stared at Sulthar and the others. Sulthar too was wary of the existence that was potentially life-threatening for all of them. Damian had not given back Land-breaker his access to mana yet—he didn’t want any problems right now. Once they were through, he would have plenty of time.

Finally, Damian created an enormous waygate in front of everyone. His mana cubes kept generating mana, so there was no issue about the lack of it.

Earth’s and dungeon waygates were weird in nature, so he wanted to enter together with all his human companions at least. He didn’t want to get separated again and waste time finding others. With their heads held high, all present—human, pigmen, and the monsters—stepped forward together and entered the waygate.

Damian’s vision blurred for a moment, and in the next second, the intense light assaulted his enhanced senses. And they were in a desert. Damian quickly located the monster before doing anything and used vines to hold the guy—it was more to save him than for the danger it presented.

They quickly moved forward; the pigmen were supposed to come after them—they had to make way. All around, only sand was present—at least they managed to enter the dungeon. Damian had been prepared to grab his friends and fly straight toward the exit if the red wave that pushed them out of the dungeon came again for them, but fortunately, nothing came. It was eerily quiet.

The combined mana of so many second rankers together had scared off any monsters nearby. The waygate alone was something no creature would want to be near. Damian could see the large sword buried in the desert. Actually, his eyesight had been enhanced so much he could see the very end of the dungeon floor. His mana sense could feel all presences on the 25th floor. There was no one other than monsters present here.

Damian quickly powered his mana cubes, letting them generate liquid mana—he couldn’t keep the waygate sustained for minutes purely on his own mana. It took a full ten minutes before all the pigmen were through the waygate. There were people clutching their stomachs and heads everywhere. They waited till everyone calmed down.

Damian then opened a normal wormhole to connect directly to the endpoint of the floor. He one-shot the emperor-ranked boss monster to clear the path and get the key point—it would only be accessible to people present in his team when he entered the dungeon. The 100 that were.

First, he only took a few pigmen with him—and let Kamisen cross the key point of the dungeon with those few pigmen to a lower floor. That worked, Kamisen confirmed after coming back. Then they tried leaving the dungeon with Kamisen holding the two pigmen by the shoulders but.. it didn’t work.

The exit of the dungeon was different from proceeding to the next floor. One could take anything from one floor of the dungeon to another after making contact, but exiting the dungeon placed restrictions. Other than a few resources of the dungeon and monsters, nothing could be taken outside. It was eerily similar to video games—some things were things players could interact with, and some were just for the scene.