The Runic Alchemist

A glistening, golden droplet of water cascades through a lush green tree. The droplet travels from leaf to leaf, branch to branch, reflecting the golden rays of the sun. Eventually, it lands on the head of a young, unaware sleeping boy, awakening him with its refreshing, cool touch. 

The sun was at the zenith; the tittering crickets and chirping birds brought a vibrant breathing life to the scenery. The young boy blinked twice, his azure blue eyes trying to make sense of his surroundings. 

"Hm?! Since when did we get a big tree in our dorm room?" 

A young childish voice reverberated in the empty field, yet no answer came back. 

The young boy tried to get up, but the jolt of pain originating from the back of his head made him wince in agony. With pain also came some unknown memories that were not his. 

Damian Sunblade was the boy's name. The fifth child of the noble house Sunblade. The boy had lived mostly a carefree life of solitude, where no one other than his maid even talked to him. But a strong memory of a certain day was etched into the small boy's mind when he had to attend a dinner with his estranged family. Where his father proclaimed that he was to leave for the House Goldilocks, where the rest of his education would commence. The young boy could not understand why he had to leave his home and started acting stubbornly in protest, though he paid a heavy price for his stubbornness this time. He fell from the top of the tree where he had somehow climbed up to show his stark disagreement with the unreasonable situation. 

"What the hell...!? Don't tell me...." 

"Young master... Are you okay?" 

Before the boy could fully process his strange new situation, a beautiful voice reached him from a distance, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps and breathless urgency. 

"Young mas... Ahhh! What happened? Young master, your head... So much blood..." 

The young boy attempted to touch the back of his head, but his hand was bruised and throbbed painfully with every movement, so he gave up. A maid came rushing toward him, shouting several names in a panic. Frantically, she reached for a strange flask filled with a yellow liquid, but before she could bring it to him, the boy had already lost consciousness. 

**** 

With a sudden jolt, Ben awoke in his bed. The room was steeped in darkness, but a sliver of moonlight streaming through the open window provided just enough glow to help his eyes adjust to the shadows. It looked like an ordinary room at first glance, yet everything about it felt strangely out of place, as though he had stepped into the setting of a fantasy movie. 

There were candles waiting to be lit, clothes made from rough, cheap-looking fabrics, but the strangest and most eye-catching sight was the empty suit of armor standing in the corner of the room. The soldier's metallic plating gleamed faintly in the moonlight, giving it an eerie presence as if it were guarding the room in silence. 

"Definitely not my dorm room!" Ben exclaimed. 

Ben, who was now known as Damian, stared at the slightly visible night sky from his new room. He could not deny it; somehow he was now in the body of a 5-year-old boy. The memories were proof, but even without them after seeing that maid he had to believe it. Only fantasy worlds would have maids with fluffy ears and bushy tails. 

'The last thing I remember was cramming for my post-grad finals... Did I.. Die?' 

'Sigh' 

"...Maybe I shouldn't have pulled so many all-nighters!" 

Damian used to be a student at a prestigious university, pursuing the degree of masters in Chemistry. But now he was just a 5-year-old kid in some noble lord's house. 

Being an orphan, he tried his best all his life to make a good career for himself, to become independent, which was the one and only goal in his life; that was probably why death was not that big of a shock to him. No one would mourn for him anyway, maybe some fellow roommates whom he called friends. And the orphanage personnel if they learned of his fate. 

Another reason for his lack of feelings towards losing Earth permanently was the memories of the young Damian Sunblade. This world had something that broke all the norms or scientific laws of his previous world—Magic! 

According to the memories, he was the fifth son of a noble house, yet something was wrong with either his birth, or something else that made everyone avoid him like some bug not worth their attention. And for some reason, a neighboring wealthy Baron family offered him their only daughter's hand in marriage, so Damian was supposed to live with his new family from now on. 

'Like hell I would marry some brat! I am 22 years old for goodness sake!' 

'But it doesn't matter right now; I will find some way to get away from all this noble nonsense. Not like I have any future here except serving others.' 

Being independent was his goal, and being in a different world did not change anything. More importantly, Damian was fascinated by the strange phenomenon that was the existence of magic. How in the world would this co-exist with the laws of physics? 

"Where was it again? Uhm.. yes.." 

Damian grabbed the square metal piece that was on his side table and stared at the unique symbols etched onto it. 

This was what this world's people called a status tool. Damian touched it with both his hands, thinking about his identity, and said aloud, 

"Activate!" 

A hologram of a transparent blue screen was visible on top of the square metal tool showing the status of the young Damian Sunblade. 

========= 

Name: Damian Sunblade Lv.1 

Rank: Mundane 

Affinity: Water, Space-time 

STR: 5 

DEF: 5 

INT: 45 

AGI: 5 

DEX: 5 

CHA: 19 

LUC: 3 

Blessings: Godless 

Skills: [Beginner Tree Climbing Lv.2] 

========= 

"Hm.. it's different.." Damian mumbled. 

In his memories, which were not his per se, he clearly remembered that the boy had just 2 INT. And not just that, he also had Sun God's blessing with affinity to fire and air instead of water and space-time. 

'My intelligence got a boost, which would be the result of my consciousness taking over, but why did my blessings change as well?' 

"I was kind of an atheist, but shouldn't these things be in the lineage section and not depend on how a person thinks..? Ah, whatever!" 

Most of the injuries were healed, but he still couldn't get up or move on his own without feeling a world of pain. 

The night ended and the day came; various maids helped him with eating and daily needs in shifts. No one talked to him or answered when he asked something; he had yet to see that pretty maid with pointed ears and bushy tail too. Did she get fired because of him? 

After a week, when he could finally move on his own, his luggage was packed, and he was ready for a send-off. 

He couldn't understand why his family was in such a hurry to get rid of him, but he didn't care anyway. No one was talking to him, so asking questions was meaningless. 

On his last day, he was washed and dressed in premium-quality goods, ready to ride the carriage. For some reason, his whole family came to see him off, yet not a single word was said. 

His father, a lean and handsome noble man always busy with his affairs, stood with his two wives and their four children—two boys and two girls. Each of them wore a solemn, cold expression. Damian's gaze swept over them all one by one, lingering for a moment on the beautiful, mature woman. She was his mother, yet even her eyes held that same icy, piercing stare. 

Damian didn't really know what mothers did, and how it felt to be someone's son.. But this was definitely not a normal treatment one should be receiving, that much he knew for sure. 

He turned around and climbed into the carriage parked outside the palace gates. A small urge to go back surfaced in his heart, but it was most likely young Damian's unwillingness to leave his home—not like he knew anyone here at all. 

The carriage moved, bathed in the morning sunlight, leaving behind the marquis's estate and bringing forth a new mystical world of incomprehensible magic and infinite possibilities for the future. Damian was both excited and fearful of the great unknown, but one thing was for sure—he would most certainly break out of his bindings and explore this new wonderful world he was thrown into and carve his own path in it.