The Runic Alchemist

The dirt-yellow and gold spell gave them some kind of effect too, but Damian could not figure out what it was. It only made them more agile? But that could just be his biased observation—trying to forcefully see something different. They did use up their mana though. This one did not make them unconscious and used less mana.

Then the remaining two spells had gradients of gold-black and another gold–dirt yellow. The black one was hard to say what it really did, but the second dirt-yellow one was the one that made Damian blink twice. Whichever animal used it—a stone layer appeared on parts of their bodies. Stone paw, stone back, and even a stone tail. It was just a layer though—the real flesh did not become stone. The stone was the ordinary one and not this special altar material.

If it was the altar stone material, Damian would have kissed the altar for providing him such a resource-heavy spell.

Now, it was time to check the real use of the altar. Damian put one animal after another on top of the stone altar and activated the whole altar. He had to wait hours in between to have enough liquid mana, but at last, he was done with all five animals.

The results were.. Not as he had expected.

The ritual went okay, but afterward, the subjects started screeching loudly—must be in pain—as their body shape and size changed. The fox became big like a direwolf, breaking the wooden cage. The simple monkeys became muscular gorillas, and the boar somehow gained a stone carapace and thick rhino-like legs.

Still, they couldn't do much. They were physically stronger and could even use one or two spells of the five, but the mana in their bodies had not changed much—just a slight increase.

Damian kept all five of them to observe for a while. After three days of feeding them and taking care of them while taking note of all the changes they were going through—on the evening of the third day, all three of them lost the enhancements. Unfortunately, only three managed to survive while the other two could not keep up, and after closing their eyes to sleep, they never opened them again.

The conclusion Damian came up with was that the ritual was extremely dangerous. Not all warriors of whatever this tribe was could do this. Only a few—the best and the most powerful of them.

The note too said it was a sacrifice, and pain was inevitable. One had to endure it with a clear purpose in mind if he or she wanted to survive.

The three animals that survived seemed to be fine.. No drastic changes. They were back to normal. If animals could survive, he should also be able to do so.

Without doing it, the trial of killing the emperor-rank monsters wouldn't start. Damian was conflicted though. Could he make his own version of the altar with less dangerous spells? But the trial might not recognize it as legit.

Damian had perfectly copied all the runic structures and array formations he could sense and see inside and outside the altar. He was definitely going to try this once he was out of this trial, though it most likely fell into those forbidden spells—so he shouldn't go showing it to everyone.

Damian threw the thought of creating another altar away and, with a decisive face, got up the altar, lying on his back. He had released the animals. This was the night of the fourth day—he wanted to just be done with it. Hopefully, the success of the infusion of spells into the body depended on the amount of mana one could spare. If it failed, he wouldn't die—just fail the trial.

Damian started powering the altar with a full stone capsule of liquid mana and continued the supply.

For a second, Damian's mind blacked out as a crippling, hot sensation was felt all over his body, as if someone was hitting thousands of nails into his flesh. He roared—roared with agony that was taking over his mind, making him lose the feeling over his own body. But Damian felt like if this feeling was lost, he too would be lost, and with a determined mind, he kept focus, kept all his limbs active and in control. After a couple of minutes, it was finally over.

Damian kept his consciousness for the whole process, and when it was over.. There were no changes in his appearance except—Damian removed his clothes and saw the same runic patterns as the stone altar had, all around tattooed on his body. On his chest to back, his arms and even legs—it was all around, even on his face he noticed after creating a solid water structure.

They felt like.. Weapons. Runic weapons in which he could pour mana to activate. But.. Should he?

He noticed the timer now had 0/7 next to it, which conveniently was the exact number of the emperor-rank monsters on this island.

After contemplating for a moment, Damian tried using the one on his face. Swallowing hard, Damian directed his internal mana toward his face to activate it. Unlike runic tools, this did not need any control of mana threads—it was simple to use, too simple even. It was both exciting and terrifying. He was curious about this new way of using magic but at the same time was worried about messing up his trial and not getting a chance to become a Third Ranker.

But this was the job he had selected.. What was the point if he didn't even see how it worked?

Damian saw the gold and black runic circle form near his face, centered around his eyes, as the mana requirement was fulfilled.

In the next second, the pitch-black night before his eyes transformed into clear vision almost like a day—it was not quite a daylight-bright, but Damian could see everything perfectly clear in the night. And not just that, his eyes felt like.. Yes, it was possible. He could focus on things afar, and those things he focused on seemed to get closer.

He could zoom with his eyes! What the hell kind of spell was this?

Were the civilizations that used this altar really barbaric.. Or super geniuses? Guess he should never judge people just from their style.