The Runic Alchemist

Well, the dungeon had 100 levels. The pigmen had more than enough land to do as they pleased. They wouldn’t be able to cross the dungeon floors on their own though. The dungeon did not register them as challengers—it wouldn’t count if they killed boss monsters; the key point would not be revealed to them.

Damian used the dungeon to get all the others near the key point and told them what their options were. Sulthar and his group were eager to go meet their sun god. Damian explained to them how they needed one of them to go with them in order to reach that high up in levels. Damian told them to stay here for a while—he would be back, and then they could go as deep as they wanted. Until then, they could choose to live in this desert.

Sulthar hardened his face upon seeing the giant sword in the middle of the desert floor—that had to be a familiar sight for him. They had no choice but to agree and stay there.

Damian was not eager to face more monsters; he would take his time before coming back. The pigmen, led by Heather and the rest, chose the snow-covered floor 21 to stay in—staying with four legendary creatures was out of the question. However, when Damian and the others brought the first batch of pigmen there, quickly flying through the in-between levels with Dreamlight—there were already people present. No, pigmen present here. The king and the other transcendent pigmen. They were some distance away from the entrance, near the almost-buried giant stone shrine.

Damian landed the Dreamlight there. There were wooden houses built, and the pigmen had made a new city of their own. It was a fairly large one and had made quite a bit of progress. Even the top step of the giant shrine with the bell was dug out of the snow by them. The king’s house was right there. All of them were there—the king, all the women and children, along with a few of those unconscious pigmen they had brought with them. That was a good sign. No human was present though.

Damian and the others quickly inquired about them and finally had some answers they were desperately seeking. They had not met with Einar or Evrin, but Grace, Alex, and the others had safely exited the dungeon. They too had tried to leave the dungeon, but it didn’t work for them. The biggest question Damian had was—how long had it been? He feared it would have been centuries, but seeing the pigmen alive, who had left a month before them, there was hope.

When Vidalia and he had been to Earth for 4 hours, it had been a six-month time difference in their world. But that was when the waygate to Earth had lost connection midway through because his soul and body were different, remembering Sister Hedley. It had thrown them into an unknown time, and then the return journey was through the dungeon relic.

This was at least less than that.

“Around 9 years,” Heather answered. “We have been here for 9 years and some 7 months. Occasionally some humans come to visit.”

Ten years. Hearing that, they could not wait to get out of the dungeon—yet still Damian and everyone made several trips to transfer all thirty-plus thousand pigmen to their new home. Damian had a spatial storage full of food, which he gave to the pigmen king. This one dungeon floor had been wiped clean of monsters. They had made some farms, but that possibly could not be enough for so many pigmen.

The pigmen king mentioned Evrin and others bringing them spatial storages full of food once in a while. They also hunted a lot of monsters whenever any human came and transferred them all to this floor.

This could not be the permanent solution for them. But Damian told them they would deal with it later. They were eager to go back.

Finally, the last of the 100-member team, consisting of 51 Highswords and 49 students, had exited the dungeon. Many had died from that hundred, which meant now this was a permanent dungeon slot for them—no matter when they entered this Highsword Dungeon again, they would always have this same dungeon plain.

When they finally exited the dungeon—the scene was not something Damian was expecting. They were in ruins. The proud obsidian Bastion was broken beyond recognition. Seeing such a large building in such pitiful shape was just sad. Damian did not sense any Highswords on the island at all. There were, however, other people—some that made him raise an eyebrow.

The city of Edgeheaven, though a bit different now, was still there. The population had lessened a lot. The streets were not as busy anymore, the people not as friendly. More than that, soldiers in blue and grey uniforms were everywhere.

Damian sensed three Transcendents present on the island—two of whom were unknown. One Damian knew very well.

Hellstorm.

What were Faerunian people doing here? Where was Voidshaper and the other Highswords?

When they came out of the black abyssal dungeon entrance, over a hundred soldiers saw them. They were guarding the dungeon.

Mindseer and Land-breaker were visibly saddened, but they were veterans and quickly gathered themselves, realizing the three Transcendents had locked onto them and were quickly coming their way. Before anyone reached them, Damian opened a waygate near the lake in Ashenvale where they had once camped for the night. He gestured for everyone to throw all the Highswords in the energy sphere—they followed without question.

They could have easily left, but Damian wanted to know what was going on. Going to Vidalia and the others might be quicker, but this would do too. He did not want to keep his presence hidden, whatever the situation of this world currently was.

In a minute, Hellstorm descended from the sky—along with another Transcendent woman. The last one was coming toward them from the direction of the city, with a large number of Faerunian soldiers.

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