The Runesmith

“They really went in there…”

“That they did…”

“We do have to go in there to assemble the door…”

“That we do…”

“Great…”

Bernir and Roland were standing in an empty mining area. The bubbling sounds from the middle lava pool filled the area while the two remained silent. There was a small problem with this situation, the adventurers were supposed to stay with them. It was possible for some unknown tier 3 monster to appear out of the blue. Roland who was actually at a higher level than these monsters still wouldn’t be able to outright contend with them in a one-on-one battle.

‘Maybe if I could develop that runic emulator it would be possible.’

Due to playing a lot of emulated games in his youth he kind of went with that naming scheme. Emulation in a gaming sense was imitating a console's hardware and software to allow a person to play games on a computer. In his case, he wanted to imitate divine spells with his runes to help him kill undead creatures. Even at tier 2 level, he would be able to kill a tier 3 Skeleton Champion with relative ease.

“The monsters can’t cross to this side and the passage is wide enough for us to remain in it for now, but someone will have to go check if everyone is in order on the other side…”

He gave out a sigh as he knew that Bernir was unfit to get into the tier 3 dungeon. If a tier 3 monster appeared Roland was the only one with the reflexes to flee in time. While he wasn’t that bothered by the slow warrior types of skeletons there were some that he was wary of. There was a possibility of an assassin type to appear and those could hide their presence even from his magical devices. It would be possible for such a monster to sneak up on him, it could even be on the ceiling now.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it… those adventurers might get back by then so we shouldn’t panic, let’s just start and see.”

“Aye, Boss but first… what are we going to do about that?”

Bernir whipped the sweat from his brow while pointing at the bubbling lava pool. There from within a lone tier 2 salamander emerged. It was not something that could threaten Roland’s life but on the other hand, his assistant was different. Even though his level was around a hundred he did not have a battle class. What came with this was a lack in certain stats and no combat skills. One bite from this monster would probably be enough to kill him, that is if it could get closer.

“We? Is that thing on your side just for show?”

Roland answered while looking at the runic gun that he had made for Bernir. This model didn’t come with a cable like the last large weapon his assistant used to combat the swarm of skeletons. Instead in the middle, there was a replaceable magazine part. It didn’t have any bullets inside of it, just a rechargeable runic battery instead.

The design in itself looked like a sawed-off shotgun that was quite angular. There was no need for a long barrel as there weren't any bullets traveling through it. Instead, it looked like a pipe with a runic structure at the end. The mana bolt would come out at the end while being powered by the battery within it.

Thanks to this design this weapon would last a lot longer than the traditional magical products with set charges. Bernir wouldn’t need Roland to constantly recharge his weapon as he could just replace the battery on the fly. It added a lot of weight to the device and would be unfit for any kind of bladed or conventional weapon, but for a magical staff that needed to shoot out spells, it was enough. The added weight didn’t mean much to a blacksmith that had a lot of strength either, which made it the perfect tool for protection.

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

Bernir took out the weapon and after turning a dial at the side that acted like a gun's safety, it was ready to go. The monster wasn’t that close to the two which gave him ample time to aim his weapon. The trigger on this weapon on the outside was a copy of the designs he saw in his old world. The simplicity of it all was enough to keep it even though it just shifted some metal around to generate a small pulse of mana instead of setting off a bullet’s casing.

It completed the runic structure for a moment and activated the armament that produced a charged mana bolt. This lump of blue light flew toward the monster that was just now noticing the humans near a wall. On shot, one kill, the blue mana connected with the low-level fifty monster and took it out within an instant.

“Haha, got it! Did you see that!”

“Yeah, nice shot, how is the laser sight?”

“It’s great!”

Bernir held up his weapon while cheering. The magical weapon he was using also came equipped with a laser sight replica that would point out the target with precision. This was somewhat of a game changer for people that lacked battle classes but it had its limitations. For instance, magical shields could be able to counter the gun’s output. Then there were monsters that were quick on their toes and also humans with superhuman abilities.

Nevertheless, it gave people with no battle experience something that could kill tier 2 monsters which couldn’t be ignored. Perhaps with high enough numbers of these runic guns, they could be used in larger-scale warfare. But perhaps it would be better to just create a golem capable of defending itself against such weaponry while also having an arsenal of its own.

‘Quantity or quality…, it’s easier to make one runic gun than one spider golem. Training people with common classes with them would also increase the potential of this weapon… but with those monsters existing in this world, this might not even matter.’

Roland went towards the spatial bag and started removing the parts for the door while thinking about this world's wars. More than likely a battalion with runic guns of this type would probably be eradicated by one tier 3 person. A simple tier 3 warrior would decimate it after getting in range. They could defend against most of the hits with a good enough magical shield or perhaps even dodge them with their heightened reflexes.

‘But what if I could put tier 3 runes on it? Could I even make a small gun like that? and the mana cost would be astronomical…’

The current models needed to be equipped with large batteries to work. It was the design's weakest point and required a lot of resources. The weapons also tended to overheat if used for too long just like the turrets. As it stood now, they were probably at most effective against mindless monsters but would lose their effectiveness against people that had some strategic thinking.

“Maybe I should become an adventurer, with one of these even the monsters on this level stand no chance.”

“Hah, stop smiling and help me, go measure the wall and see if we have to adjust it.”

“Ups, coming boss.”

Finally, the two craftsmen got to work. After taking out the base of the door they started comparing it to the hole they dug out. As Roland expected it was still too small to fit the metal foundation. The height would be at three meters with the width at two meters, then they also needed to account for the thickness of the walls that were slightly above a meter. After all of it was in place, he hoped that it wouldn’t break on itself after the Dungeon tried to repair itself.

Luckily for them, this wasn’t such a difficult task. It only consisted of placing the outer parts on the dug-up sections and seeing if they fit. They could even drill outside of the limits as the walls would push back into them with time. It was actually faster to do it this way and a lot easier to fit all the parts in when there was more wiggle room.

First came the bottom part to which the two side walls were connected and magically welded to. The welding job was similar to the modern counterpart but instead of using a welder, Roland used his own finger to focus the magical heat. Most of it was done on the outer edges as the door was measured from the inside part and if the dwarves saw the welds performed by him, it could rouse their suspicion.

They needed to make sure that this iron door they were leaving here didn’t look out of place. It didn’t need to last forever but before Arthur gained some real power the act needed to stick. As long as people thought that this dungeon was only part of the original one and that it was where the Lich came from, they would be safe. If people found out that it was a separate dungeon or that if it was actually another entrance to the super dungeon, all sorts of things could happen.

‘Are those five really not coming back? Could something have happened to them?’

An hour had already passed since the five vanished into the dungeon. The moment they vanished through the corner there was a sound of battle but after that, dead silence. The voices of the group slowly vanished as they probably went further into the dungeon. At this moment, the base of their creation was finished and Roland along with Bernir wanted to start assembling the hinges. To fit in a massive door like this he decided to go with three on each side but this would require them to at least get onto the frame of this door and perhaps into the dungeon.

“Hm…”

“What is it, Boss?”

Having to watch over their own backs and putting this thing in place was annoying. Working in these conditions and with the adventurers gone was quite a hassle. While he didn’t believe they were dead, it could be a while until they returned to this safe spot. Thus it was time to see what was on the other side of the dungeon. Previously he had thrown a few rocks to see if a monster would have reacted but now he was actually wondering if he could just go inside himself.

“Are you going in, Boss? Are you sure, maybe we should wait for them to get back.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to go far.”

Just like before he first threw in a small rock to see if something reacted. For the second attempt, he produced a radiant ball of mana. Some monsters reacted to movement, others to energy like the Lich. If there was something hiding there it should have made its presence known.

‘Hm… nothing…’

Only after the first few tests, he decided to make a plunge. From his satchel, he pulled out a few tennis-ball-sized orbs. After rolling them down into the wide corridor did he decide to take a step in.

“B-be careful boss.”

Bernir that was standing by the unfinished entrance started pointing with his gun at the passage leading out of this corridor. Roland focused his senses at several locations thanks to his multiple mind trait but luckily for him, there didn’t seem to be a problem. The orbs that he rolled were runic explosives that he could set off at any time and now they were slowly filling out the room. If a monster suddenly appeared he would be able to set them off with his more recent skill.

‘I should probably do the same to the ceiling…’

It was a strange feeling to be inside a tier 3 dungeon. When passing through the threshold he was trying to use his magic sensing skills to feel for a change but he couldn’t really tell the difference. He would need to ask the other mage for confirmation but as it stood now, other people would probably not be able to tell that a new dungeon was behind this door.

“It seems to be fine, I’m not picking up any monsters in range either.”

His radar spread in all directions and now he could actually use it after passing through the opening he made. Almost instantly he also decided to bury one of his monitoring devices into the wall to help him in the future. With one of them being on this side, he would actually be able to see the dots of the tier 3 monsters lurking inside.

He was not willing to go more than a few steps in though. It wouldn’t be strange for a monster to appear from within the corridor leading into this chamber. There was a fork there leading in two directions and the adventurers only went into the right one through which the Lich and most of the monsters appeared from. This didn't mean that he never saw them come out of the left one.

For the time being, this place was safe and both of them went back to work. The hinges were large and sturdy and were attached by quite large bolts. The door wouldn’t be easily broken down even by a tier 3 monster when it was finished and the tier 2 ones on this side would certainly not be able to budge it. Things were looking great up to when they didn’t, after another thirty minutes of work a dot appeared on the screen and it was coming from the left side corridor.

Roland was in the middle of screwing in the large bolt on the last hinge when he saw this monster appear. Instantly he retreated to the other side of the dungeon. Now with the huge hole that they created, it looked a lot scarier when the skeleton with a large build appeared before them.

Infernal Skeleton Berserker L153

“Woah, It’s big… should we run?”

“No, we are safe on this side…”

Bernir looked quite pale when he witnessed the monster peeking out of the corner. It actually entered the wider corridor that they were assembling the door on the other end but as Roland expected, it couldn’t see through it. This was actually a good opportunity for a test, around ten centimeters of the frame was sticking out into the higher-ranked dungeon. The monster should be able to see it but just as theorized, it didn’t react to an inanimate object even when it didn’t belong to the dungeon it lived in.

‘How much am I behind… It's not much above level hundred fifty.’

This monster was not a mage, it did not seem to care about the magical bombs close to its feet or the ones on the walls. It was clear that only a monster that was magically inclined could detect the traps even though they were at a base of tier 2. This made Roland think, while he did not have his mana cannon here, he was quite high in levels, even above this monster. It would probably not be possible to kill the monster in one shot but with it just standing there like always, he felt somewhat confident in a more traditional approach working as well.

“Bernir… could you move away for a moment.”

“Boss? Why are you placing the power crystal on your chest…”

He knew what the answer was and thus he started to move away toward the secret passage they came from. It was clear that Roland was going to shoot his most powerful beam out. Bernir was not as convinced as Roland about the whole situation as he had not been here training for months and had gotten used to seeing tier 3 monsters be training dummies.

“WOAH!”

Bernir’s runic gun almost fell to the ground as he felt the mining area rumble a bit. The flash of light that happened before it was Roland’s chest beam flying towards the Infernal Skeleton Berserker and connecting with its ugly face. The monster was just standing there and even though its enemy was standing in the middle of a large metallic frame it couldn’t see him.

However one blast was not enough, half the monster’s face crumbled down to the ground as the mana burned through the bones. The monster became enraged and charged toward the location where the attack came from. Roland did step back a bit but the trust he had in this location was already ingrained in his mind. The Infernal Skeleton ended up at the end of the corridor but stopped right before the door, it stared at the person that dealt it the attack and promptly turned around.

This was what Roland was waiting for and when the monster made some space another large quantity of mana flew forward and this time collided with the monster’s chest cavity. Now, this hit was different, the skeletal being grasped its chest as if it was missing something. It was not dead yet but the core inside of it had been damaged. Only after the third shot to the spot that Roland identified as the monster core, did the skeleton fall.

Infernal Skeleton Berserker has been slain.

‘Almost another level… getting to tier 3 might not be that difficult…and I didn’t even need to use any of the charges.’

He smiled under his helmet while moving into the corridor where the monster had been defeated. It took a few hits but also proved that if he managed to pinpoint the undead monster’s core a critical hit was a possibility. With this thought in mind, he decided to grab the loot and place it in the large spatial bag before the adventurers returned. Considering that there were five dots representing people on his map, he would need to be fast.