The Runic Alchemist
Chapter 63: Highswords

Damian sighed and looked at the distant swirling water as the mage boy used a healing spell on his hand, the healing was minimum though. Damian couldn't even copy the spell because it was his writing hand that he had used the runic spell from.

"Thank you kid, without you, we might really have been in a bind here." The cool lady said.

"What happened though..? The monster was split in two.. Looked like an air blade but he did not chant or use sword..." The mage boy inquired while repeating the healing spell again and again.

Damian removed his eyes from the blue water and looked at the people surrounding him. He was sitting on the end of wooden steps leading up to the upper deck where the captain's capstan was. Even the spearman and the pugilist had come hearing the commotion. Many other people were there but after a while seeing the repeated healing spell and hearing what happened, most of them left.

Only the pathreplaceers remained.

"You are stupid! You know that..?" And of course his overdramatic assistant was there too, Damian didn't even notice him coming.

"You don't even know what happened.." Damian said tiredly.

"Only stupid people get hurt in the middle of an ocean doing literally nothing..."

"It was kind of our fault boy.. He actually saved us.." The lady leader said.

"Being a hero..? See..? Stupid again..."

"Can't argue with that.." Damian smiled in self pity.

"If you used your sword blade why is your hand injured..?" The mage boy just could not let it go.

"It's a runic spell.. Drawn on palm of my hand.." Damian explained.

"You drew a runic spell on your freaking hand !?" The mage boy yelled.

"What in the..? Is that even possible..?" The spearman joined in.

"Only a Runesmith or an Enchanter would be able to do it but they don't really fight so it would be useless.." The cool lady explained.

"Stupid again! See..?" Sam added.

"You shut up! And you people, it's kind of personal thing.. If you don't mind.." Damian pulled back his half healed hand and stood up.

"Uhmm.. Of course.." The leader lady nodded at Damian and glared at her teammates.

Finally out of everyone's eyes Damian walked back to his cabin with Sam, the brat scolding him for literally no reason all the way back. Damian had kind of grown used to his consistent nonsense.

This was day 5 for them on the three masted ship. Another 10 days to reach Eldoris. Damian had thought at length how he would go about in this new country. Being a little potion-maker was cool for making some side income but he could not do it as his main job. There were many things he wanted to do and spending all his time making potions and replaceing materials was not very effective use of his time.

A mage academy could help.. but he wasn't a normal mage. Damian did not like remembering long chanting and comical hand movements at all and he also didn't want to explain people what was what.

Well he could just spend some time in Eldoris before deciding what to do. Damian mostly did not care, but his assistant was now also his responsibility so giving him a chance to make himself stroger was also something Damian would have to think about.

Day after day, two boys suffered each other's presence in the small room. Damian mostly read or researched and experimented when necessary, Sam on the other hand was confused looking at him most of the time and the rest he spent on the deck of the ship looking at the waves and monsters. Damian tried explaining him what electricity was but soon he realized he had to start from the very beginning.

He gave him some simple reading and writing lessons but it wasn't much effective, the brat had the attention span of a mosquito.

The journey was far more tiring than Damian had imagined. When the weather changed and it rained and stormed for days Damian was very close to blast the damned clouds apart but he had to settle with just cursing and being thrown from one corner of the room to other with each horrible giant wave.

Many monsters also came in their way but the pathreplaceers were a good team and after that one day they stayed extra vigilant and did their job perfectly.

Damian once in a while when he got bored or just wanted fresh air would go on the deck and spend time talking with the cool lady or some other travelers and try to learn things that he didn't know and couldn't understand about their culture and lifestyle subtly of course. All of them showed hesitation to talk with him first, he understood though why would anyone bother entertaining a kid..?

But after a while they would change their attitude seeing how he did not act like a kid at all and he was well educated and well mannered. Specially the women would invite him over whenever he came out on deck to have a conversation, even he couldn't understand why but he was happy for it.

Damian liked talking to the cool lady Spellsword, her name was Andria and she had been on this gig for more than 2 years now. Everyone else, she met on the job and formed a small team which protected traveling ships from monsters for a fixed price. Before that she was a private trainer for various noble and rich kids.

She was ex-highsword academy student, she failed in her second year though and was forced to leave.

The Highswords were the only organization in this world which adhered to no kingdom. The members of Highswords were mixture of best swordsmen in the realm. Even nobility of many kingdoms and royalty were also part of the organization.

Once you were evaluated by Highswords officially, that piece of document specially the rank they gave you according to your skill and job was like a brand certificate for the whole realm. Anyone who could rank under 10000 were all excellent warriors. They had their own academy too. But to get a Highsword ranking it wasn't required to be a student there.

Every year they released new ranking according to the various trials they held in the year and also the famous feats would boost ones ranking up without even doing anything. If a lower rank managed to defeat the higher rank when there were witnesses to the fight and it was somewhat fair and one on one. The lower ranked one would immediately replace the higher ranking person indiscriminately.

Only living people had the rankings, no one, no matter how great once dead would leave the ranking.

According the rumors, right now on the rank 1 was the head of the Highswords organization who was supposed to be alive for last 3 centuries, known as Asael – The Land breaker. So when Highswords demanded something, all kingdoms had to listen.

But Highswords never participated in the worldly problems of petty nobles, their one and only goal was to eradicate all demons and intervene if the casualty was too much in useless wars. And one they were most known for was facing and managing high level monsters and saving people from natural calamities which was kind of their day to day job.

They had kind of heroic image in every kid or man's eyes. The only reason Empire was not doing a full force assault with their runic mass destruction weapons and was fighting small scale battles was the presence of Highswords.

They barely had 2000 official members from the date they formed, which was not even mentioned in any history. The oldest recorded history was one of the Highsword member's own diary. However only true monsters had the qualifications to become a Highsword and take their oaths. It was said that not all great warriors were Highswords but all Highswords were greatest of warriors.

All five royal family had at least one or two members who were Highswords. To be accepted as Highsword one had to win the 'Monarch's Trial' and achieve a feat worthy of being invited from Highswords to become one of them. Of course they also took in many top students of their own academy as squires and assistants and spent years grooming them and passing their position to them as inheritance.