The Runesmith

“Can’t believe that we are already on the first floor… that saved us several hours of walking.”

Armand was looking at the path leading towards the exit. While they didn’t get here faster than Lobelia they weren’t that far behind. With the shortcuts, Roland had always minimized the trip into the larger dungeon area even when lugging the mule golem with him.

“You’ll have to show me how to open those tunnels when this all blows over, what are you going to do now?”

“I need to get back to my workshop, Elodia and the kids should be there, we need to prepare for the worst possible scenario.”

“Worst possible scenario? What do you mean, isn’t it over? We just need to wait for a team of platinum ranks to arrive and take back the dungeon. Haha, this will be quite of a payoff, I bet they will need a lot of gold ranks to handle these weak skeletons!”

Armand smiled while nodding to himself. To him, this looked like a chance to earn it big, with the Lich loose in the dungeon it was an opportunity. They would certainly be tasked by the guild with taking out the creature but as a gold rank, he didn’t need to worry about facing any dangerous monsters. That would be all up to the platinum ranks that were all tier 3 class holders.

“There won’t be time for a platinum party to show up.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“Didn’t you notice it? Those skeletons were easily able to get through the boss chamber, have you ever seen monsters from a lower level going through one of these.”

“Now that you mention it…”

Roland could see the cogs turning in Armand’s brain and him finally realizing that there was a bigger problem at hand.

“Wait… but doesn’t that mean!”

“Yes, this will probably turn into a dungeon break.”

“Hold on, a dungeon break, here off all places!?”

Armand and every other adventurer knew what a dungeon break was but it was not something that just happened. It was hard to even see one of those happening during a person's whole adventurer career and now one was upon them. This was even less likely when new dungeons like this were involved which was a hard pill to swallow.

“We need to get to the city and warn the others… fuck, I need to get home to the kids! Wait what about the rest, aren’t some of them at your place?”

Armand started panicking the moment the scenario changed. The swarm of skeletons that was in the dungeon could emerge from within and turn their sights on the city. Depending on how many of them there were and also the tier 3 variants, it could potentially be a bloodbath.

The biggest problem was the lack of tier 3 and above class holders that lived here. Roland knew of the existence of one tier 3 class holder in the whole city. This was the guild master who was of an unknown level and could potentially be able to defeat the Lich in a fair battle.

Then there was also an unconfirmed one, the guild master of the thieves guild. However, that person was a big mystery and no one truly knew the extent of their power or their real gender. Thieve classes were masters of disguise so it was almost impossible to tell when a tier 3 class holder wanted to hide.

A person like that couldn’t really be trusted with anything and it wouldn’t be strange if they just bunkered up in the underground for everything to blow over. Perhaps if the monsters made it far into the city and affected their bottom line, then there was a possibility that they would act.

These were the only permanent members in the city with sometimes platinum-rank adventurers passing by. Normally, the city lord would at least have one powerful knight that was at this level. Arthur Valerian didn’t gain enough favor with anyone of that prestige to swear their allegiance to him yet.

As it stood now, Roland was probably the strongest member of that faction that he wasn’t really a true member of. He was just working together to make money but after this blunder, he would really need those connections to not get thrown in prison.

“As I said, I’ll take care of Elodia, she’s probably still at the shop and as long as those higher-tier skeletons don’t leave the dungeon it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.”

“... Alright, I’ll leave her to you and I hope you are right, Leave getting in touch with the guild to me!”

“Thank you.”

Armand and Roland nodded at each other before parting ways. Normally Roland would use the secret tunnel toward his dungeon but for the time being, he needed more information. When going up the stairs word had already reached the guards and people were evacuating. Just as he had expected a large part of the adventurers just remained outside to wait and examine the situation.

There differed vastly in ranks and ranged from newbies that weren’t even level ten to people close to level hundred. The latter were quite rare so if the early level tier 2 monsters actually burst through the entrance it wouldn’t be strange if some of them died. This wouldn’t do, he needed to inform the guards about the potential dungeon break. Armand would inform the guild of this new finding while he needed to get everyone's attention.

‘Uh… I never liked public presentations.’

Roland thought back to his past life and the weird period of life that was high school. Even to this day he never understood why they forced the students to perform annoying presentations to each other. The vast majority of the time no one was listening and if you made a blunder then everyone made fun of you for it. Now that he was an adult the uneasiness didn’t really go away as he didn’t really have that much experience with them.

“Can I have everyone’s attention?”

His voice was magnified by a quick rune alteration in his helmet. The adventurers outside were taken by surprise, no one expected a loud booming voice to suddenly spring forth from the armored man. Some had already taken a peek at him as his getup was quite characteristic and now he had their attention.

“The situation in the dungeon is direr than the guild had expected, it is believed that a dungeon break is going to take place.”

“What did you say? A dungeon break, are you crazy? There must be something wrong with your information, who told you this.”

“Please calm down and let me explain…”

“You expect us to be calm? Who the hell are you anyway?”

“Isn’t that the runesmith? Why would he be speaking for the guild? He should go back to the workshop.”

“Yeah, go back to making swords and leave the adventuring to the pros! Who would believe this nonsense.”

The people that were listening from afar didn’t give him the chance to explain. The moment he claimed that there was a dungeon break waiting to happen they didn’t believe him. This was a hard pill to swallow for people who only heard distant rumors of breaks transpiring in the distant past. They all were more inclined to think that he was lying to vacate the premises or to do something unsavory when they panicked.

“Hey, will you idiots calm down, Mr. Wayland is not a liar!”

“That’s right, what if he is telling the truth, let him speak and just shut up!”

To his surprise, a group of four young adventurers stepped forward. Two girls and two young men with familiar faces. It was the same group that he saved from a trap and also his first real customers after he opened his shop. With them staring down at the others, he was finally able to speak.

“Thank you, as I was saying. A tier 3 Lich has appeared in the dungeon, it is able to create tier 2 ranked skeleton soldiers that range from level fifty to sixty. I and others have seen them being able to run through the boss's chamber which should not be possible. There is a high possibility that they will be able to get outside and we don’t know the extent of their numbers and other tier 3 skeletons have been sighted with them.”

“A tier 3 Lich? Why would something like that be down there…”

“They got past the boss chamber? But that’s not supposed to happen…?”

For now, Roland was finished with his speech. Even though he was responsible for releasing the Lich into the dungeon he could not be responsible for the people here if they ignored this information. Some of them would probably believe him and return to the city to seek shelter while others would remain to see it for themselves. Others might even see this as a chance to gain some money, the tier 2 bones left over by the skeletal soldiers could be sold as crafting materials.

“Are you speaking the truth?”

“I am, I’m not sure how fast the skeletons will reach this level or if they will but it would be wise to be cautious.”

One of the guards that were stationed at the entrance walked up to him while the adventurers were discussing. The man’s face went quickly pale as he was required to stay here and guard the entrance. If monsters actually started pouring out he and the few sentries that were placed here would be required to act. If they didn’t then they could be sent to prison for desertion.

“Don’t worry, the guild should have been informed and so should Lord Arthur. I don’t think he would blame you if you retreated in these circumstances.”

Roland took a glance at the soldier before him. His level wasn’t high at all, it wasn’t over fifty which would put him below a skeletal monster. Besides these two guards here there was a small camp setup around here. There were perhaps twenty soldiers here with the captain being the only person over tier 1.

With the current lack of resources, Arthur was just unable to place more forces outside the city. This was mostly due to the fact that there wasn’t really anything worth protecting here. What happened inside of the dungeon was outside their grasp and every adventurer still needed to go to the guild to sell the resources they gathered.

The only thing between the dungeon and the city were peddlers that sold some necessities, like potions and travel food for people that forgot to bring them from the city. These were created from large wagons that returned to the safety of the city if it got too late. Thus the evacuation effort could go smoothly if only everyone believed in the information that he gave. Thanks to the small party of young adventurers it seemed that at least some people were backing off.

“That is all, decide for yourselves if you want to stay here but be warned, these creatures should not be handled by anyone below the silver rank.”

Roland was through with his quick speech. When looking at the group of four he just nodded as a sign of gratitude. The one that went by the name Rudy smiled back as if being glad that he could be of some use. Now it was time for him to return home and so he quickly activated his stat boosters and took off. It was quite a surprise to see the speed he was capable of and only made the whole thing seem more serious.

“What level is that guy… if even he is afraid of those monsters then perhaps we should really go back to the city…”

Not long after the armored man was gone a large chunk of adventurers started backing off. More and more of the people remaining in the dungeon came pouring out which only fueled their worries. It was clear that this was too much for a single Lich sighting, there must have been more to it, a dungeon break wasn’t that outlandish anymore.

…

“Mary, is this true?”

“My lord, I see that you spoke to the guild master already.”

“Yes, he said something about a Lich being sighted in the dungeon, he didn’t really explain himself and said that the guild would handle it but can they? He really requested quite the sum.”

Arthur Valerian had a big frown on his face. The whole conversation went by too quickly, it seemed that the guild master from the adventurers guild didn’t like him too much. There wasn’t much info besides a Lich appearing out of nowhere. In reality, this would fall into the guild's jurisdiction but as the city lord had to sponsor at least part of the job.

If the dungeon remained closed off and adventurers were unable to farm for materials the city would lose a lot of taxable income. In reality, Arthur’s position was in far more danger than that of the guild master. Even if the dungeon was destroyed Aurdhan could just leave and find work elsewhere while the city he was running slowly died.

The only way to speed up the process would be to place a large bounty on the Lich’s head. This reward was of course provided by the guild but to get things rolling faster a noble normally added some wealth to attract powerful tier 3 adventures. Those experts would not just leave their cozy homes and travel all the way to the middle of nowhere for nothing.

“My apologies my lord but I have not been able to find anything substantial.”

Mary the maid bowed in shame as she was unable to deliver the required information to her lord. She had been tasked with running the intelligence gathering agency and there were even plans of expanding but with how little budget she had things were hard. As the news dropped in the city she was informed by one of her guild contacts but it wasn’t anything new.

“It’s not your fault, if you had some proper attendants under you, then this would have never happened but that doesn’t matter now, if a Lich has appeared then it must be dealt with haste.”

“I agree my Lord, if it festers for too long it will affect our bottom line but hiring tier 3 adventures won’t be that easy.”

“I know but I must… hm?”

“My lord?”

Arthur raised his hand as he heard a beeping sound. It was coming from inside of his desk drawer that he quickly opened up. Mary was curious why the lord was raising his hand to quiet her down but soon she realized that he was holding a small crystal ball. It was the one Wayland the runesmith had offered the lord not that long ago after setting up the turrets around the city.

It came together with a flat piece of metal with an incline section to place the orb inside. At first, both of them thought it was some kind of toy version of the usual magic ball but in actuality, it had an ingenious function. Instead of seeing the person on the other side, only a short text message would be sent through it.

The buttons that were on the plate had pre-programmed texts that Arthur could send towards Wayland if he ever needed him. It was mainly a device to inform him about a meeting, with a function that toggled through the times of the day. In the end, something like ‘Meeting, tomorrow, afternoon’ Would be sent without the need of sending a letter and letting anyone know of this ever happening.

Now on the other hand the device was beeping and flashing without him activating it. There was a small pocket for mana fluid for such an occasion but a secondary battery needed to be attached for the message to get through. Just as he was instructed Arthur brought out what was supposed to be a runic battery and placed it on the designated spot on the plate. After a little clicking sound, the orb began glowing brighter and text started to quickly appear.

“...”

“What is it, my lord?”

“This is…”

Mary was surprised by Arthur’s behavior and wanted to peek over his shoulder. It took a few seconds for him to rapidly raise himself from his seat, his hand slamming hard on the desk where he placed the magical orb on.

“This can be, how can there be a dungeon break in this city? Am I really this unlucky?”

“Dungeon break?”

Mary was even more stunned, was there really a dungeon break happening as they spoke? If it was then it would certainly bring everyone's attention to this area but for all the wrong reasons…