The Runesmith

It has been many days since it stepped foot in this strange location. The beings around it were weak but it still wanted to spend some time examining them. It was a stroke of luck but it found a hidden passage containing strange worm-like creatures. Their nesting ground was transformed into its lair and the bodies that continuously respawned were turned into flaming skeletal minions.

Yet what interested it more were the other beings that rarely came to this place. In contrast to the worms and other dungeon monsters the Lich encountered they varied vastly. Some were large and some were small. Their skeletal structure was different and some of the organs were also rarer than the others which made the monster divide them into groups.

A strange thing happened not soon after it left. Before it wasn’t aware of it but after killing some of the dungeon creatures it had become stronger. There was no prompt or system relaying the information but the Lich certainly knew that it had leveled up. Slowly as its forces grew it was getting stronger, the feeling of making progress was intoxicating, so much that it even forgot about leaving this place for a moment.

Its strengthening drive was interrupted on this faithful day. The strange bags of flesh began to appear less and less until a group of slightly stronger ones came close to its lair. Previously it didn’t even need to come out itself as its large number of minions was enough. Yet this small group proved itself somewhat stronger but not strong enough to escape.

Then a peculiar thing happened, it could feel it. The minion that it left behind in the area it first appeared had been defeated. The link to its minions became weaker but after it died the last thing it saw flashed before its eyes. It was some strange wolf-like creature that it had never seen before and behind it stood a strange armored being.

At first, it only thought it was just a new variant for it to study but it turned out to be much more. This armored being began giving out a unique mana signature that the Lich grew accustomed to, it was the same one as the beam of mana that collided with it. Could this be the source of it all? Could that armored thing be the one that gave it freedom?

It was momentarily stunned as it just continued to focus its mana sense down into the chasm. A light show ensued soon after and the five creatures its minions were contending with did something strange, they jumped down. Did they give up on their lives, it didn’t seem so as they had managed to survive.

This was a chance for the Lich, it needed to find who that person was. It descended down the hole it had previously come out of with the help of the lesser levitation spell. Slowly but surely it arrived at the tunnel and there it could feel the mana pattern it had grown accustomed to.

A strange feeling went through its empty head, the answers that it was looking for could be around the corner. There was a problem, the armored being that was using the strange mana pattern was moving away. Was it aware of its presence and decided to flee?

The Lich grew angry, how could the thing that awoke it deny it? Why would it be unwilling to give it the answers it desired? It wanted to know what this world was and no one would stand in its way of discovering the truth. Without hesitating anymore it stepped forward, quickly it would capture the one that set it free to examine it thoroughly.

Its approach was met by the blue arachnids from before. Their form was slightly different but the spells they produced were similar to the ones it knew. With how much it had studied the mana pattern it was quite easy to disperse the particles before they collided with its own shield made of corrupt energy.

The Lich wanted to stop and examine these spider golems but there was a bigger prize before him. Why should he settle for these empty shells if their creator wasn’t far away from them? It continued to charge while absorbing all the magical explosions that didn’t cause a single point of health to drop.

Finally, it arrived at the mining area to only be confronted by a large energy blast. This one was more similar to the beam that continuously invaded its previous home. It troubled it a bit more but as with all the previous attacks, it was unable to get through its magical defenses. To the Lich’s dismay, a problem arose as the answers it was looking for disappeared behind a secret wall that it was unaware of.

How could it have known that there was another way out of this place? Did the being with the unique mana pattern plan all of this? Was it watching from outside just to mock it? The Lich exploded in anger and charged at the closed passage. Before getting to it, the passage was closed.

This reminded it of the past when it was unable to leave through the hidden opening. Even when it continued to slam its fists and spells on this wall, the damage wasn’t enough to get it through. Some kind of defensive mechanism had been triggered to imbue the rocks with the dungeon’s mana. It was getting through it but the time it would require would be tremendous.

The unique mana pattern and the being that had it vanished from its mana sense. It could not peer through this wall but it couldn’t just give up. What if the armored thing inside was just waiting for it to leave? It needed to continue and get through it but this was not enough. The Lich now knew that there was a possibility of hidden entrances and exits. It was possible for his target to flee while it was spending all of its time here.

For the time being it needed to leave this place but the armored being could appear again. Luckily one of its skills that it had learned after leveling up had just gone off cooldown. Without waiting for another second it pointed out with its staff at an empty area in this mine. There strange green occult symbols started appearing followed by a skeletal shape.

This skill drained a lot of mana reserves but it was something worthwhile. After a minute a skeletal monster appeared without needing a body like the lesser ones. This one was much taller than the rest and its bones were black as obsidian. The horns and animalistic mouth with sharp teeth clearly distinguished it from the others. This superior undead would guard this place while it tended to other things.

With this out of the way the Lich quickly made its way back up the chasm. It had burned through a lot of mana by summoning the superior undead monster but still managed to get back to the original lair.

As it stepped down onto the ledge it was greeted by the mostly mindless minions. The skeletal soldiers spread apart as their master walked toward the hidden lair opening. With a wave of its bone staff, it canceled the illusory spell that no one was able to detect.

This opening had been smaller at the beginning, normally only a large worm could get through. Now on the other hand it was spacious enough for several skeletal warriors to squeeze in without a problem. The Lich’s eyes glowed green once more as it started into the huge open space. There as if waiting for his call a swarm of red glowing eyes followed suit.

…

“How long have you been hiding this place? Hey, does the city Lord know about this… wait, was it his Idea?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions, now isn’t really the time…”

“Well, sorry for asking so many questions, I’ve just almost died to a tier 3 Lich with a small battalion of skeleton warriors, then I find you sneaking around here…”

“Aye, Ah bet he hud something to do wi' it!”

“Wedamir, I know that you dislike Wayland but I don’t think that he would be wandering around here if he knew that there was a Lich roaming around.”

Lobelia replied to the angry dwarf that was following behind her. Some time had passed since they escaped into these tunnels. At the moment they were in a large empty chamber that looked like a place fit for a boss. Roland that was guiding them here didn’t say much and only continued to say that they needed to get out first.

He was trying to wrap his head around the thing he had done. The Lich out there was running loose and was clearly not acting like a monster from a dungeon. It was more in line with the free monsters that roamed outside of dungeons. Roland didn’t have enough time to use his analyzing skill but he wouldn't be surprised if the Lich’s level was higher than before.

While the other continued to ask him questions about this place his mind was elsewhere. Somehow he had to come to terms with his blunder and that he was probably responsible for releasing that monster. Perhaps he couldn’t be totally sure if he was the only reason but all hints pointed his way. If it was true and all of it was his fault then the lives of the people that died to the Lich would be on his conscience.

‘Was I being too greedy?’

“Hey, Wayland, what's wrong with you?”

“Huh?”

Finally, he turned back toward the five other people that were with him. Lobelia was the one that shouted at him and was about to open the boss's chamber door and go outside. All of them were looking at him with varied expressions. Armand as always looked ticked off and the dwarf continuously was on his case.

‘I guess this isn’t the time for self-pity.’

After giving out a sigh he had to rethink this whole scenario. He could not change the past and needed to live with the actions that he took. While people had died due to the Lich, it was still possible to save others. The monster was stuck before the secret entrance and perhaps this was enough time to evacuate.

Roland had been spending some time in this Dungeon and even more down in these secret tunnels. It was easy for him to right the entire place with his detection devices. When the monster finally broke down the wall he would know. Its area of operations also connected to the lava lake that he had outfitted with the same map enhancers.

“Ah sorry, I spaced out for a moment. We need to leave and inform the other adventurers about the Lich.”

“I agree, only a team of platinum adventurers can handle it, we need to evacuate as soon as we can.”

Jasmine the archer adventurer that was with them nodded at Roland. Lobelia and Armand as well as Korgak were people that he already knew, the only person that needed convincing was the dwarf. Luckily he just gave out a grunt before trekking behind the group that was moving towards the exit.

“Don’t think this is th' end o' this, ye will have to explan yersel' tae th' guild later.”

Roland had thought of the possibility of bribing everyone here to downplay his involvement but the dwarf was the most problematic. It probably wouldn’t be possible to change his mind even if he dangled coin or even superior magical equipment in front of him. Wedamir apparently had ties to the union and those guys hated him. This would really be a troublesome situation that he might not be able to weasel out of.

“So what, he was mining a bit in the dungeon? Give it a rest and move on.”

At least Lobelia was on his side as she delivered a small nudge with her foot to Wedamir’s behind. The way towards the lava lake area was already cleared up as he had not even been here for a day. Within a few hours, the monsters would not respawn so they could quickly get through the winding corridors to the space under the lake.

“So that’s how you did it…”

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time before the lava floods the lake again.”

Soon the party of now six adventurers and a ruby wolf popped their heads out the exit. There they saw the middle of the lava lake that had just subsided to the sides. They had enough time to get out and found themselves on the side closer to the exit.

“Okay shit, what do we do now?”

“I’m the fastest here, I’ll go ahead and inform the guild, we might have to lock down the dungeon.”

“Lock down the dungeon?”

Armand asked Lobelia that was about to sprint towards the exit. To them, this all looked like a unique rare monster spawn that was on the level of a floor boss. It was unknown to them if this Lich could leave the lower level but there were cases where it happened. Only Roland was somewhat aware of the whole picture. Yet even he didn’t know how this Lich operated, if it came from another dungeon it might also be stuck in this one, there was no real way of him knowing until the monster took a step outside of it.

“If it’s a tier 3 monster that can roam this place freely then it will kill everyone, there are also non-combatants here.”

“Damn, th' miners!”

Wedamir was the one to shout out now as he remembered that the union had placed some mining camps here. The hidden area that Roland found was not the only reusable mining spot in this dungeon. All the other ones that had been found were being used by the union or people affiliated with them. This sent Wedamir into somewhat of a panic as one encampment was on the other side of the lake that was closing itself.

“Hey, what are you doing? Get back here, hey Armand give me a hand.”

Lobelia along with Armand had to pull the dwarf away as he was about to attempt a run through the molten lake that was going to close itself. The next cycle of opening would be in fifteen minutes which Roland already knew. While he had no love for the union and would actually love to see their mines being destroyed the people working there didn’t deserve this.

“The lava will open up again in fifteen minutes but I’m not sure that going over there is such a good idea.”

“He is right, that path around the chasm will bring those skeletons there, what if that Lich is with them?”

“Ah dun care, ah will hulp mah brothers!”

While the others were fighting he decided to do something about this problem that probably arose due to him. Even though the Lich could be anywhere he felt that in this wide open area he would have enough time to retreat. The monster wasn’t actually that fast as most of its physical attributes weren’t that high. It was a being that was poised in mana and not running.

There was no use running around and trying to inform the adventurers about the danger. Most of them would probably not believe it unless they saw the monster before them. Instead, he decided to go with a different method that would alert everyone to it at once. This method would make a big ruckus but that would just prove its validity to people.

The large mule golem was still there and within it was all of Roland’s equipment. He had already developed a sound system within his workshop and could create runes that worked like speakers. It wouldn’t be hard to produce a sound system here with the help of his rune duplication skill that would instantly place what he wanted on a piece of metal.

Not all of his spider golems were destroyed during his escape. These two and a stationary device that he would place here would have to be enough. While everything was happening the other adventurers did seem confused.

“Wayland, what are you doing, there is no time for this…”

“I know, but before we go we have to inform the adventurers about the danger, I will stay here you all should evacuate.”

The others looked at Roland who continued to fiddle around with magical equipment. He pulled out metal parts that somehow connected to each other and even the golems that they saw before started to be modified. What he was doing was a mystery to them as they thought that the best thing to do was to get out of here. The other adventures that roamed this dungeon had to take care of themselves, this was their life and they had to be ready for everything.

“How will you do that? Come on, let’s go!”

Lobelia shouted but instead of Roland replaying he took out another strange-looking device that he moved towards his mouth.

“Testing… one two three…”