The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 933: A Decade of Work 3

If this experiment gives Damian the answers he is looking for, then he could assert control over this divine mana even as a fourth ranker. He didn’t want to invent weapons to kill the gods, just to find a way to stop their influence on people’s status, even for a few moments.

“I did not say this before, but let me remind you that none of you are actually required to do this,” Damian said, glancing at the three people around him. “I am required to be there, and I am also willing to do this, so I will do it. But you all don’t have to.”

“Hah! There is no way I will miss the experiment we worked for half a decade to prepare.” Orren Halvik said without a second’s delay.

“I will not miss this either, no matter what.” Nomai (Steelweaver) added without even taking his eyes off the large dungeon footage projection screen.

“It’s our persona theory, I don’t think we are required to share that with the board either,” Landbreaker added.

Damian nodded in recognition of their determination to see this through till the end.

The experiment, in simple words, was opening a dungeon core through brute force. It was highly dangerous and could result in the most unexpected of scenarios.

Using the 20% extremely-thin mana threads, Damian had created several spells that could use a fraction of the core’s true potential.

The researchers working on dungeon cores already used this principal but their methods largely relied on luck, and they were just blindly drowning the core in mana in the chase of a one in a million chance phenomenon in which it would somehow connect with the mana inside. It wasted tons of good dungeon cores and took decades of effort. In Damian’s case, he could actually sense the nanometer-thin mana strings and do this actively.

Dungeon cores were already known for being able to store memories or a spell. Damian had made use of this feature and connected his receiver channels and the runic recording devices a few years ago. This experiment went further in this principle.

Using the blueprints of Eldoris dungeon sealing spell, Steelweaver’s divine mana hiding spell, and a couple of other prime spells, such as Asher’s sealing spell, Eldoris triangle beam spell, and Heiryul’s Godkiller spell—Damian managed to create a spell that would bring the things inside the dungeon core outside instead of just storing things and retrieving those same memories and spells back.

Of course, as with everything, this too was just in theory. The prime spell was ready and stable, but Damian never activated it. The mana required was a ridiculous amount, and the chances of it working greatly depended on the quality and the size of the dungeon core.

Since the exploration project started, they had observed the dungeons and studied the cores in depth. Only a new dungeon had the most active core. This was a relatively recent discovery, and Damian had taken great advantage of it. His success rate of using the cores, which was already much better than others, vastly increased when they found new dungeons and recived its cores.

New meant newly formed. His mana sense could stretch over a thousand kilometers now when it came to sensing dungeon fluctuations. Once Damian sensed a unique pattern of dungeon fluctuation and flew there to find that a dungeon was forming in mid-air. He saw the birth of a new dungeon firsthand.

The cores he retrieved from this new dungeon in two days were highly reactive compared to others. The quality of cores was gradually decreasing with each passing hour. It went from 50%-50% divine and normal mana to 60%-40%, then seventy, eithty and was stabilized at 90%-10%. After two days, it was the same as all other dungeons.

The inside of the dungeon was also quite noticeably different. It rewarded better relics and gave higher relative experience points.

So ever since then, Damian worked tirelessly to make a dungeon-sensing runic tool and install it all over the world. The second a new dungeon formed, he would get the signal on his reciever and they would go crazy clearing the newborn dungeon to get maximum data and dungeon core out of it.

For the experiment to have the greatest chances of success, he had to do this under first three hours of the new dungeon creation. In under three hours, Damian needed to clear the dungeon, get the core, capture the last boss, and set up all the necessary equipment and conditions on the last floor of the new dungeon.

The fluctuation of mana started appearing 12 hours before the dungeon actually formed. The signal had already arrived; they were just going through the recordings of similar signal-related dungeons and discussing the final parameters. Everything was ready; it had been ready for the last five months.

New dungeons do not appear every day. Every 4 to six months, one comes, and that was the earliest. Sometimes, a whole year would pass, and not a single new dungeon would appear. A year before, Damian was not ready, but now he was.

They could not miss this opportunity.

Damian glanced at his receiver window, where messages from Sam, Vidalia, and others were piled up. Tomorrow morning is the event in the academy. Orian was exempted from the ranking, but he had achieved a perfect score in all tests. Sam had asked him to make an appearance and give a speech at the academy as well.

It had been a little over a year since he returned home. Vidalia and the kids were the ones who often came to visit him here and stayed on the ship for a few days.

’They will understand this time.. The Experiment is too important to miss.’

“Well, let’s go over everything once again and hold a meeting afterwards,” Damian said and resumed watching the dungeon footage.

The new dungeon readings were similar to the ones they were watching footage of. The experiment did not require the civilization resemblance much, but if they can pinpoint the type of dungeon and monsters inside, he could make more adjustments in the prime runic spell to use the boss monster more efficiently to tie in with the dungeon core expansion.