Damian was surprised by this many options, he wasn't expecting to be qualified for becoming an Esper. Only few individuals were given this chance, however what ability you end up with was totally random, so people mostly stayed away from it. There was also Spellsword which was what his new family most likely wanted him to be, and then there was Mage and The Rune Shaper.
First he chose Mage and tried seeing what kind of job he was offered. There were many Beginner options water mage, space-time mage which was his affinity related jobs then there was rune mage which was a type of mage who fought with runic tools, there were also basic options such as elemental mage, scholar mage, etc. The space-time mage was actually pretty rare, since space-time was a weird element to have an affinity towards. Rune mage was also considered good. They were pretty decent jobs but nothing that would really be called prestigious. So Damian went back to the class choice screen.
He would be wasting all his intelligence and time spent on runic research if he chose Spellsword, plus he was not looking forward for more sword training so he ignored it. The deciding factor however was that he just loved his research and even if he became spellsword, he would never stop studying runes so it's better to choose something that aligns with his interest.
And so Damian opened The Rune Shaper options. There were all kinds of crafting class options from Beginner Runesmith, Enchanter, Researcher and even an Expert Scholar which was a second rank job. It was indeed a huge feat if it was offered in his first rank up job. However after going through whole list with pictures of him in all kinds of funny costumes, his eyes stopped at one particular option. It was depicted as him with a spear in one hand and flask in another while having a mage robe on. Beneath it was written, The Rune Chemist lord.
It had both things that he specialized in, Chemistry and runes. However,
"Why the spear?"
Spear was a common weapon for mundane humans, nobles rarely use it. If he chose this, would he need to master the spear as well? The sword training alone had given him nightmares and now he was supposed to start over? And what's with this job? Damian had never read about a job that had lord in it, even less chemist.
"If the pictures are any reference, then it's kind of a jack of all trades and master of none kind of job. Maybe I will get skills related to both Chemistry and Runes."
To be honest he really wanted to get that space-time mage, his life after running away would be set in gold if he managed to become one. But the Rune Chemist Lord seems like the most unique and prestigious one out of all the options he was offered. If it is really a prestigious job then just base stats alone would be in a whole other realm than the rest of the Light-Walkers.
"The thing I need the most right now is strength, and space-time mage no matter how cool, is still a back-row fighter. I need to be self-sufficient to survive on my own."
Taking one long breath Damian selected [The Rune Chemist Lord]. Even if this one did not offer him what he needed then there were still two more jobs he had to go through before another Rank up, he could change his specialty to another class with that at least. In the worst case scenario he would just waste a little more time and would be forced to stay with his new family a bit longer than planned.
The computer turned off and the door of his dorm room opened up, however only bright white light was coming from it, and nothing was visible. Damian walked in to the light with his feet straight and heart racing.
This one however was not a place he knew, he did understand where he was though. It was a lab with all kinds of liquids, solutions and substances. Including monster blood and a big study table full of paper, parchments and quills.
The windows in this room however showed totally different view, it was not space filled with Stars but a green plain field with hundreds and hundreds of dog-like creatures. With fire in their eyes and around legs, and of course a burning tail.
"What kind of hell is this?"
There was only one door that was facing the green field and a screen was fixed above the door frame. A lot of words were written there, with a big red neon zero on top of everything.
[Remaining time: 29 Days 23 Hours 54 minutes]
[0-10: F | 10-25: E | 25-100: D | 100-200: C | 200-500: B | 500-700: A | 700-1000: S | 1000+: SS]
"If S is perfect and F is failure then I guess at least C rank is needed for clearing this trial. The big red zero is most likely my monster count."
A month was surprisingly long though, normally first rank up trial were only up to a week long. It all happened in a person's mind so in reality the whole trial took just a few seconds. Yet 200 monsters and even those with such hellish appearances? Do they really want to kill kids?
Damian looked all over the lab with its more than hundred different substances and solutions. At last he sat down on the chair in front of the giant table.
"As I expected, the things I had prepared are left behind in the real world. With the amount of monster blood I have in the lab, I could just draw tens of magic circles together to create a perfect trap, however the question is how will I survive running through the monster-filled ground with my tiny legs?"
Another way was to just snipe them from his door with high pressured water runes but that will require a lot of waiting and tons of materials. Plus it will take a huge amount of time to do it one by one. It is safer though, it depends on how frequently he could enter and exit this lab.
However the best way was to create something that would either blow up a large hordes at once or find an edge over their agility. Hell-hounds were an unranked monsters, only found in fire-related dungeons, their biggest weakness was cold and water. Water was out of the question since it was more of a lifestyle rune than an attack rune and even with all the monster blood present here, he wouldn't be able to generate enough to drown 50 of them. He could on the other hand make air runes, but it won't be as effective as real cold.
There was still the question of how to survive long enough to set up a trap?
However all that was going to come after, there was something that Damian was dying to try and so he stood up rolled his sleeves and walked towards his lab to do experiment, that he thought about doing days and nights while his long stay at Baron's place.
A method to further purify the mana concentration of the monster blood.
To separate a mana ink from monster blood, Diluting the monster blood sample using a suitable solvent (e.g., water or an organic solvent). This step may help remove impurities and reduce the viscosity of the mixture. Performing filtration to separate any solid particles or debris from the mixture.
Then Selecting a solvent that is compatible with the monster blood such as acetone or ethanol. Mixing the diluted monster blood with the solvent and agitating the mixture to allow for the transfer of the magical ink into the solvent phase.
After each extraction step, allowing the mixture to settle, and then carefully decanting or separating the solvent phase (containing the magical ink) from the rest of the mixture. Transferring the collected solvent phase into a clean container.
Damian could do a further purification of the magical solution but that would consume more time than he currently had. Just doing this much took him half a day. But it paid off.
This new ink for runes would work five times better than the blood according to his estimation.
At first when he drew the fire rune without any editing it would generate a set amount of fire Continuously for a minute. Now the same rune drawn with this new magical ink would be the same in all aspects, except it would burn for four to five minutes.
With the help of this more potent and condensed magical ink, Damian could draw bigger runes and increase the intensity even further. At first glace it may look like he used a lot of magical blood to just make few liters of this ink, wasting a lot of extra amount however the increased quality would more than make up for it in the long run.
Now with this Damian just had to come up with a plan to hunt some fiery pups.