The Runic Alchemist

"GATHER AROUND ME, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE..."

The four drunk men, the tavern owner from behind the bar and the father of the glowing child who was bleeding from his mouth; being closest to the captain\'s aura. Six in total looked at Damian all confused and scared.

The father was the first one who ran with his life on the line towards Damian – maybe he knew what was going to happen, also that was the only choice for him since the knights were standing near entrance and trying their best to stop the child.

Lighting bolts were going wild everywhere and the light was getting more and more intense, finishing his runic circle on air Damian immediately activated it without waiting for anyone which proved crucial because just as he activated it, the whole tavern got enveloped in pure blinding white light.

Unable to see anything Damian and other four people, the father, Barman and two villagers trapped inside the sealed invisible box were hit by a wave of energy that threw them along with their box out of the tavern blasting through the wooden wall with an ear splitting explosion sound.

The invisible box had shattered in pieces with seconds into contact with the explosion but it provided enough force to push them out of the tavern and decidedly save their lives. Damian just like everyone else around him had blacked out after landing outside.

When Damian finally came to his senses he found himself in one of the old rooms in an inn just like the one he rented, getting out of the bed he was glad to find out he was still dressed. Damian wasn\'t injured as much as he thought he would be, someone had wrapped linen clothes over his injuries, other people were also lined up besides him from the tavern.

The father, two villagers who had made it in time and the barman. The freaking son was also there, looking perfectly fine without even a single scratch on him.

Damian wondered what happened to the knights and their captain as he walked out of the room and found people going around in a hurry, seeing Damian one of the serving woman exclaimed and held him to support him even though he kept saying no and made him sit on one of the empty table. Damian asked her all the details and found out about the thing that he was most afraid of,

"Yes, the muscular man with a huge scar across his forehead was the only other person who survived. Horrible thing what happened I say, poor man has his whole hand burned charcoal black till his chest, It\'s a miracle he\'s still alive at all. Anna, my friend who works in the Bakery, it\'s exactly opposite the tavern saw the tavern explode in the night and is scared like a moose ever since.

Albert, Shirleen\'s husband who was drinking there last night said the place was haunted and they all ran like hell after drunkard Samson\'s head came off his body, real bad business I say. Why didn\'t ya\' run kid? Oh, here comes the old man Manison with Golfrey he\'s the inn\'s owner. You better thank him for taking you guys in."

Being grilled by two old villagers Damian tried his best to play a dumb kid who knew nothing, to tell them what they wanted to hear Damian made up the story of the knights searching for evil spirit that they somehow fought and defeated in the tavern, but paid heavy price for it. The people who remained including him were captured by the spirit and were rescued by the valiant knight.

They bought it all with hook, line and sinker.

Damian had enough of this crazy place, even though the people kept telling him to rest he washed himself, changed to fresh linen bandages and clothes that he had bought from Emberlock. Paying the inn owner, who was ecstatic to receive few silvers for his troubles, Damian got out of the place and looked around.

The burnt tavern was in the distance, just an empty space with blackened surroundings now with piles of ashes everywhere. Damian shivered thinking about what might have happen if he had failed somehow and was caught up in that explosion.

The villagers and travelers on the way were keep trying to talk to Damian but he did not listen to any of them and just got out of there in the fastest way possible, even though his body felt like as if someone used it to play golf with bowling ball, he pushed through.

Damian walked to the blacksmith\'s shop, next to which was a man standing with few horses that travelers often bought if something happened to their own. Damian bought one with overpriced value, since he wanted to just get away before the monstrous knight captain would wake up, he did not care negotiating and paid the man the coin.

Buying some food that would last at least a month or longer from general store and storing them in his spatial tool, Damian with his ride got on the dirt road that was going towards Faerunia without any second thought.

The way forward was mostly clear fields with patches of trees in between. The dirt road was connected through many villages from both sides of the kingdom, there was no clear border as to where Dawnstar ended and Faerunia started.

Asking for the way to the nearest town from village to village and while sometimes spending nights beneath the clear sky, Damian was travelling continuously for two days now. Only after coming this far did his little heart even began to calm down a little.

Damian knew that the world was filled with all kinds of monsters that he could barely even stand against but facing one was totally another thing.

He always assumed that no matter how strong an enemy was at least there would be a chance to run away from him or her. But losing all control over his body and being completely on the mercy of these monsters felt really worse than losing. Maybe it was stupid to even think about going against such monsters, but that was all fear talking.

Damian knew that the best way to overcome this primal fear was to become a monster himself. Only then could he do as he wished among these monsters.

After getting lost 3 times and fighting random monsters here and there while sleeping beneath starry sky and shivering in cold air, Damian finally reached the town closest to border in Faerunia – \'Grimstone\'. The town was brighter than it\'s name and was average sized just like Emberlock. Damian was really tired from constant riding and eating dry foods.

The spatial storage unlike the webnovel\'s he used to read did not keep the food fresh or locked in time. Despite being called a space-time spell, the storage just acted as any other storage space.

The first thing Damian did after hour wailing in line and getting in through the gates was selling his old horse – it was not meant to be a riding horse, it was more like wagon pulling horse. Damian had to stop every few hours to give it some rest and ride it as slowly as possible to keep it in the best shape.

Getting half what he paid for it from one big bellied merchant Damian sighed and took the money, giving the reliable beast one last pet Damian left in search of an inn and immediately found one.

Finally eating some warm food and taking a bath in a tub filled with lukewarm water Damian put on his most comfy clothes and just fell on the soft bed. Sleeping for half a day straight. When he finally did wake up, the night had arrived and he was hungry once again.

Washing his face and being refreshed, Damian arrived at the restaurant which was a bit further in the street from the inn and ordered a premium meal.

He knew he was wasting money but for just this one day he wanted to relax and enjoy, this was the first time in weeks when he was neither being chased by monsters nor threatened by the lord\'s authority or being killed by plain greedy lords and their buffoon knights.

The food was decent enough but nothing that would compete against the modern world food and it\'s seasoning. Everywhere he went the food was mostly area specific, including seasonings and techniques for cooking them so everything tasted equally unique and weird in it\'s own way. Except steak that you could enjoy anywhere.