The Runesmith

“Hah, so you killed one of them yourself? What tricks did you use?”

“Aubron, it’s not nice to ask.”

“Well sorry for trying to confirm this guy's strength, what if he was sent by that noble to take care of us after the job is done?”

“Haha, you sure have a vivid imagination as always.”

Roland was eyed by the sun elf after the party of five finally returned to the entrance. The bones that the monster was composed of weren’t that easily removed. Some tiny fractured bits remained even after he got most of them into the spatial bag. The tier 3 archer couldn’t be easily fooled as he realized a battle had occurred. Myrtle on the other hand probably noticed the concentration of mana so there was no use hiding the fact.

“As you might remember, the monsters can’t see outside the entrance, it’s not difficult to defeat them with enough firepower and magic offers a lot of it.”

His level and classes were still hidden away thanks to the necklace he was given. However, he wasn’t sure if the high level mage here couldn’t use some sort of means of peeking through the veil. Even with his high level, he didn’t pose much of a threat to these people and even if he was able to take out one person with his magical attacks, the other four would quickly get to him.

“A’m worn out.”

“Aye.”

The two dwarven warriors ignored the conversation while looking at the metallic frame that was created in the hours they were gone. Now that Roland had some time to look at the group he could see signs of combat. Some scratches and small dents appeared on the new-looking armor. While they weren’t carrying any monster remains he was sure that they had probably stuck all the monster bones into their satchels.

“Isn’t this great though? If this Runesmith can protect himself, then we don’t need to be here?”

Braum commented while looking at the sun elf that was still somewhat suspicious of the whole situation. In theory there shouldn’t be a way of Roland being able to produce enough power to defeat a tier 3 monster, even with magic it would be quite a difficult feat.

“That is true, we only came back because Myrtle was complaining, we could have easily gone further.”

“Haha, we were hired to help them, we can’t have the Master Runesmith just perish under our noses.”

“See, I told you we should have stayed for longer, I bet there were some chests hidden in the next room.”

“Haha, perhaps but we don’t need to rush, let us use this safe room and slowly map out the new dungeon.”

“If you really have to.”

The woman laughed while slowly walking out of the other dungeon into the mine. For the time being this was a safe zone but this didn’t mean that monsters didn’t appear. Probably in the future people would start guarding it due to all the precious minerals and metals in the mine. Roland wasn’t sure what would happen to this mine after they officially opened up the dungeon.

‘Hm? She was a mana scribe so she probably can draw up maps…’

Roland waited for the group to go to their tents before going back to work. One thing caught his attention and that was the large parchment the woman was scribbling on. She was a mage with high intelligence so she probably remembered the topography of the dungeon. It was only natural for her to create a map for further investigation. With it they would be able to comb through every nook and cranny before advancing to the next level or into a boss chamber.

“Want to take a peek?”

“Uh…”

Myrtle, who was drawing up the map, noticed that he was secretly glancing over in her direction. He wasn’t sure how she did that as he was wearing a helmet that didn’t allow anyone to see his eyes. Roland was quite interested in what the inside of the new dungeon looked like, so he couldn’t help himself from staring. Luckily all of them were in the same boat here and the cryomancer didn’t seem to mind.

“If you don’t mind.”

Normally he would have just shaken his head at the preposition but his curiosity got the better of him. There wasn’t that much work left on the metallic door so it wouldn’t hurt if they took a break too. As he was the driving force of this operation he could also decide on when they took a rest and attaching the door wouldn’t take that much time anymore.

“Hm…”

“Something wrong?”

“That chamber is a little bit bigger…”

“Oh, is it now? Care to explain how you know this?”

The map was well made and he was already a pro at making ones himself. It took only a few glances for him to tell that something was off with the dimensions. It wasn’t Myrtle's fault nor was it really that important as the shape of the room was the same. However, thanks to his mapping device that did the calculations for him he could see that she was off by a little bit when drawing this map spot.

“Actually, I…”

Roland stopped himself for a moment but then realized that this was a good chance. The woman could probably put the map to paper but this didn’t mean that they could go further than that. The mapping orbs that he usually stuck to walls were easy to produce and survived the Lich’s assault. With the help of this party of adventurers, he could actually map out the new area and also keep check of the monsters inside. He was actually hoping to bring it up before they entered but then they vanished inside the new dungeon, now was a good time to show his hand.

“I think you could use this during your exploration, give me a second.”

Without waiting for a reply he moved toward the large backpack that Bernir left on the side. In one of the side pockets, he deposited a hastily created holographic device, similar to the one he made for Arthur during the siege. Its square shape and lack of any significant parts was very characteristic of his minimalistic designs.

“Oh, that’s the first tunnel and here we have the first chamber where we encountered the skeletal mage…”

Myrtle looked at the image that was produced by Roland’s runic map. Most of it showed the mining area but it also went into the other dungeon. The right side path was the one that the five adventurers took while from the left one the monster Roland defeated came from.

“Oh, what are those green dots?”

“Those represent us, I can change the color but for now anything that is green is a human, red a monster and blue a non-human animal.”

“This is quite interesting Master Runesmith, but can we see more of the dungeon? I remember that first room here, it was really a dead end.”

Myrtle pointed to the first room that appeared when a person went with the right path. His mapping devices weren’t picking up any paths that went out from it so the party probably continued north to the next one. That was also the area where his Lich friend came from.

“It might be, but this map isn’t perfect, some hidden areas won’t show up as they are blocked by magical means, I’d have to place a sensor next to it to enhance the signal, and then it could reveal any hidden areas.”

“A sensor?”

She asked just as Roland had planned. His reason to show the woman this map was not to show off his invention but it was to make her help him map the dungeon. These people were going at their own pace and later could even give Arthur a fake map if they wanted to hide something. However if he could get them to place his sensors all over the place, then it wouldn’t be possible to hide anything. Even if they destroyed the sensors after arriving at a spot they wanted to hide. As long as he recorded everything with his runic armor, he could then redraw his map later.

“This little thing? Interesting…”

The magician looked over the round object, from the outside it didn’t look like much and it also lacked a lot of runic inscriptions that were usually seen on the surface. He wanted to minimize the damage to the traces that sticking the sensors into hard rock could produce. The gold-sized sensor was now in Myrtle’s hand and it seemed that she was intrigued.

“So, what do I do with this?”

“Just place them into a wall, at least thirty centimeters deep.”

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Oh, look at this, I think we can use it. No, we should definitely use it!”

The sun elf finally peeked his head in and the decision would probably depend on his word. From the outside, it looked like the woman was the leader of this group but it was more of a joint venture. The three warriors didn’t talk too much or raise any ideas of their own but Aubron did cut in a lot. It was clear that his word carried a lot of weight in this team and probably only if he agreed to it would they take these with them.

“Are you sure this is safe? It won’t blow up or anything, right?”

“No, they don’t carry enough magical energy to cause us any harm.”

“Hm…”

Aubron narrowed his eyes while looking at the sensor Roland gave to Myrtle. It wasn’t wrong for him to be careful, this was a dog-eat-dog world. People that reached tier 3 were mostly part of two categories. Either they were extremely talented or they were careful with their decisions. An element of luck always existed but knowing when to call it quits was a large part of survival. Then there was also the third group, which reached this level with the influence of others.

“If you say it’s safe and can help us then it’s fine but…”

Finally, the man made a decision and tossed the sensor back into Roland’s hand. He approached him while exuding a killing intent that was almost palpable. It was a very reminiscent feeling that he always got whenever facing strong enemies.

“I’ll be holding you responsible if anything goes wrong, Runesmith. So you better watch it.”

The message was sent but Roland wasn’t really planning anything nefarious. There was no way that he could actually stand up to five tier 3 class holders in a dungeon like this. Then there was Bernir who would probably be used as a hostage if he tried anything funny. In the end, a satchel of sensors made its way into Myrtle’s hand, when their exploration of the dungeon continued he would have a detailed map ready.

Time continued to pass as Roland and Bernir worked on the door. The construction was embedded into the hard bedrock of the dungeon with several bolts sticking out to the sides and out of sight. Even if a large monster rammed into this thick slab of metal, it wouldn't budge. Unless someone drilled up the support bolts on all the sides, it would probably be easier to bend the metal on the construction.

“Hey boss, it seemed to have stopped just like you assumed.”

“Good, it’s finished then.”

He opened the large door and then closed it back again a few times to see if everything was in order. The biggest issue with the dungeon closing itself onto the metal was nonexistent. Previously he had done a few tests on the other dungeon when drilling through it. Through this research, he concluded that all dungeon walls had some type of maximal thickness. If he made the metallic parts even a millimeter wider than that limit, the dungeon would not push itself over it.

‘It’s like a restraint in the game as if the walls had some kind of invisible wall collider that couldn’t be broken.’

“Well then, there is just one last test we need to go through, I hope that you could assist me with it?”

“I guess this was part of the deal, who wants to do it?”

“Can’t you do it Aubron? You always say that you’re the fastest from us.”

“Aye”

“Aye, let ‘em, do it.”

“You’re just lazy isn’t it?”

Aubron looked at the bottles in the hands of the dwarves while spitting on the ground. The last test consisted of getting one of the monsters on the other side involved. It came to the sun elf to lure it over to the door before it could be used as a proper safe spot barrier. Thus as a red dot was spotted on the map, Aubron moved into the dungeon to lure the skeletal monster over.

“Hey ugly, what are you staring at?”

To make it more realistic he fired off his arrow and hit the monster on the shoulder. It was another berserker that this area was crawling with and the injury worked. The monster was enraged and charged after the sun elf who bolted towards the newly made door. It didn’t take him much to push the closed doors apart and duck into the mine. The important part came now as they needed to see what the monster would do.

“It stopped, Boss.”

“Yeah and it’s not hitting the door frame either, It should be fine.”

It was a success, the monster couldn’t follow the escaping Aubron that then finished it off with another arrow to the heart area. It seemed that the moment the elf went through the door the monster lost sight of him and started to instantly slow down. When it came up to the end of the corridor it just started turning away as if the agro it built up had been reset.

“Haha, another job well done, Boss.”

“It seems so but let us wait a few more days before making a conclusion, it needs to last for a while for this to work.”

“Aye.”

Bernir and Roland nodded while looking at the door they created. The dungeon walls covered all the spots where they were drilling and moving the rocks. It looked like any other dungeon door that existed and seemed to not be budging at all. This part of the job was done but this didn’t mean it was over.

“Well then, take care.”

“We will Master Runesmith.”

The group of adventurers wasn’t going to stop, they only started exploring the new dungeon. This time around they also agreed to place Roland’s sensors around the area for an easier time. With them delving into the dungeon there wasn’t much left for Bernir and Roland to do besides examining the door which looked to be standing the trial of time.

Hours turned to days and soon the whole floor had been explored by the platinum party. With the help of the mapping device, it was very easy to go around. Each spot had been checked and the monster variants had been checked throughout. To Roland’s surprise, there was not a single Lich-type monster on the level, just a High-Mage similar to the one that the Lich had summoned.

After going through the area no boss chamber was discovered. A room with a chest was there and it even took the party of five some trouble to get the tier 3 magical item that was in it. This was not the end of this dungeon, a staircase existed and it actually went in two directions. Monsters from this level couldn’t follow people onto the stairs and it led to two similar-looking zones.

Everyone took into consideration that they were quite deep underground. The dungeon could have multiple levels leading up and down that were waiting to be discovered. It was really the gold mine that Arthur was looking for and would probably prove as a good training ground for new tier 3 adventurers.

However, even the first level was large enough to take a party of five experienced adventurers almost a week to explore. Considering that there were other levels and a potential boss chamber somewhere, it would take a lot longer to examine. This time Roland wanted to use it, the door was finished but probably many more trips back and forth needed to be made. He could use an excuse to travel with this group of five to this dungeon, not for monetary reasons but to level up.

‘It’s time to go but this door needs to be monitored and I can use this excuse to defeat the monsters, I’ve even managed to gain another level.’

Roland couldn’t really join the five on the expedition and didn’t really want to. Lone tier 3 monsters still wandered towards the entrance and these he could take care of even with only his armor. Perhaps it would take longer but sooner or later he would hit that threshold and reach his goal.