The Runic Alchemist

"What were the complications?" Damian asked, calming down a little as he closed his notes. She finally moved away from being so close to him and sat on the chair next to him.

"They just never figured out how to use it for any other tree or plant. Only solid wood was the outcome."

"You guys never tried roots?" Damian suggested.

"Roots?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah, some of them are edible and part of the tree's trunk, so maybe you could grow them if you found the right combination of spells."

"Hmm... maybe."

"Why are you here?" Damian asked, sensing the conversation had come to an end.

"This is my residence," she replied, her eyes sharp.

"Then why were you waiting outside the door?" That question made her jerk her head slightly. Realizing how he knew this, she settled back into her previous posture.

"So, you can sense me all the time?" she asked, more curious than displeased.

"Yes, and you take very long baths." That got a reaction out of her as she squinted her eyes at him but she let it slide, deciding to get to the point.

"Do you want to see how the waygate tool works?" she asked, growing serious.

"You'd let me?" Damian was surprised by the sudden privilege given to him.

"I need to understand how it works myself. Maybe you can help."

"It's a nice reward. Maybe I shouldn't accept it, but then again, I did help you all quite a bit," Damian replied, shamelessly trying to bully her into giving him what he had technically retrieved. As expected, she glared at him with a deadpan expression.

"It's still mine. You just get to see it."

She took the waygate tool from her spatial storage and placed it on the table. The blue, glowing orb was the same as he had seen before, radiating ethereal light and overflowing with mana. She slowly chanted something, a black runic circle forming near her hand as she gestured with them.

Without hesitation, Damian recognized and ignored the familiar aspects of the spell, focusing only on the unknown ones, hurriedly jotting them down in his notes. The rest he could just remember and recreate.

She noticed his scribbling but dismissed it, assuming he was just copying her words. As she stood at the side of the table, Damian shielded his notes from her view. Suddenly, a transparent blue window appeared in front of her, much like a status screen, filled with information:

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Item: The Soulbound Gateway

Tier: Grand Artifact

Origin: Forgotten Dungeon of Uldara

Item Type: Runic Tool (Spatial)

Description:

I told Nyren not to go there, but when did he ever listen? His expeditions to the ***** Lands had us all on edge. Then, it happened—what we all feared.

Lightbringer killed all hope, trapping even souls in his twisted architecture. But fear not, Brother, I will find you, no matter where you are. They can take everything from us, but you will always have me.

The bond between souls is a thread of light, stretching across the vastness of time.

Attributes:

Mana Capacity: 200000/200000 (Rechargeable)

Durability: 92%

Activation Time: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 24 hours (after each use)

Waygate Limit: 2 Souls

Runic Alignment: Tier II

Special Effects:

Spatial Rift: Opens a temporary waygate at the user's location to a selected soul destination.

Anchor Lock: Locks the exit point of the waygate, ensuring stable transport even in unstable spatial zones.

Mana Drain: Drains 5000 mana from the user/users per activation.

Energy Flux: Has a 5% chance of failure in high-magic zones, resulting in transport to a random location.

Restrictions:

User Level Required: 100 (Can link 4 users at Lv.25)

Item Bound: Once attuned, it cannot be used by another unless reset through the previous user's demise.

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"Interesting..." Damian couldn't help but mutter aloud.

The spell itself was unique, something rare even for him to witness. But the information it revealed... This was indeed a fascinating item—a Grand-tier runic artifact. Most would live their entire lives without seeing one, even if they were second-rankers. Its soul-registering ability and rechargeable mana capacity placed it far beyond anything one could buy, even with thousands of gold coins.

Yet, that wasn't the most intriguing part. It was the description.

Who was this Nyren? And why was the name of the land omitted? Could it be the Dreaded Lands? Or was it known as something else at the time this artifact was made? Lightbringer killed all hope... and trapped souls in his twisted architecture...

Damian didn't claim to be a historian, but he had read countless books in his spare time, and never had he encountered the name Lightbringer. Was this some ancient tyrant? Or perhaps these events were from another world? And what was Uldara? He had never heard that name before either.

"I thought you'd find it interesting," Vidalia's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Damian had to ask, "You guys know the history better than anyone. Do any of these names sound familiar—Nyren, Lightbringer, Uldara?"

She stared at him for a moment before breaking eye contact, her gaze drifting to the window.

"No... they're not known figures. But... there might be a coincidence. There was once a hero called 'The Brightest Light,' a third-ranker warrior, from all the evidence we have. There's no accurate record of when he lived, though."

"Hero?" Damian echoed.

"Not like the ones in children's tales. He was appointed as a hero by the three gods themselves, chosen to be their warrior against evil."

And who decided what evil was? Damian thought, though he kept it to himself. These were probably the three most prominent gods—the Sun God, the Sea God, and the Goddess of Nature. The Sea God, though, seemed unlikely, as he rarely meddled in land affairs. It could've been the God of Commerce too, those were the ones who influenced this world the most as described in history books.

It was hard to tell what was true and what was not though.

"But he was a just and noble warrior. This can't be him," she continued.

"How do you know? Maybe he just got tired of being nice.." Damian smirked, giving her the same amusing look he often gave Sam when trying to scare him, making it look like he was going to do something sinister.