The Runesmith

‘There they go.’

A large group of people pushed towards the dungeon entrance as if there had never been a tier 3 monster there. Roland was looking at the people pushing each other out of the way in an almost frantic frenzy. Arthur and Aurdhan ran out of excuses to make the people wait. There was also the problem of many adventurers running out of money along with people in the city. No one could afford to let the dungeon sit there without adventurers in it. The whole city depended on the materials coming from it.

‘At least they won’t allow everyone to enter into the lower levels, for now, this will keep the city afloat and give us more time. But it won’t take long for people to find out…’

His gaze was drawn to a dwarf that he remembered. It was Wedamir the party member that he encountered along with Armand during the Lich crisis. He was the one that probably spilled the beans about the hidden mining area. Together with him, he could see many other dwarves, one, in particular, was the Enchantsmith belonging to the union. If he was there, then they were probably attempting to find the hidden entrance. Considering that Roland found the entrance as a Runesmith, bringing an Enchantsmith along wasn’t a bad idea.

‘I’m not sure about Enchantsmith… he shouldn’t be able to get through he runes but the class isn’t that much different, if he can actually see the traces of the runes will be enough for them to figure it out.’

While the dwarf there would probably not be able to open up the runic passages, he might be able to pinpoint where they were. Afterward, it would be as simple as bringing a proper runesmith over to do the work for them. It wouldn’t be strange for them to have already called for backup from their union headquarters branch. One such existed in the main city on this large volcanic island.

‘They might even have other means of getting in there that I’m not aware of… I can’t rule out that possibility.’

Roland turned away from the swarm of people entering the dungeon as he had just come out of it a few hours ago. The day that he had to give up the mine was something he had come to terms with. His plan was to turn it over to the authorities after reaching tier 3 but he wasn’t that far off now. There was still some time left for his grind, before the announcement was made official he had some more time.

‘Things are going to get bothersome from now on but I need to continue, it will become a lot harder after other tier 3 adventurers come to the city.’

At the time the most danger found in the dungeon were the tier 3 skeletons. However, without being able to pass through the opening he created, killing them was rather easy. This would change after people capable of slaying them started arriving in the city. The monsters inside the dungeon were easy to predict, this wasn’t the same for actual people who could stab him in the back.

When they formed a group of tier 3 adventurers the danger became very real. At the time being, he was a big fish in a small pond but soon things might change. Before this city was overrun by these powerful individuals he needed to become one of them, it was something required for his own survival. It wasn’t strange for people to vanish from dungeons, it was quite common. He had first-hand experience with this as he had left the fencer to be absorbed by the dungeon all those years ago. It was the perfect spot to clear out old grudges.

Name :

Roland Arden L 169

Classes:

T2 Runesmith Lord L 50 [ Secondary ]

T2 Runic Engineer L 44 [Primary ]

T1 Mage L25 [ Tertiary ]

T1 Runic Mana Scribe L 25 [ X ]

T1 Runic Blacksmith L 25 [ X ]

‘Just six more levels, I really hope that last skill is worth it…’

One of the reasons he was waiting to max out his tier 2 Runic Engineer class was to get the last skill. At the moment he had actually gotten some handy class-specific skills, some were better than others, the region skill, for instance, was quite handy and did point him toward one specific battle path. If he could control multiple machines from a range, he might as well create some minions to aid him in battle.

‘Even the salvage skill isn’t that bad, it even works on rusted and mangled items, just need to level it up to not lose so many materials. If I could get down to the lower levels it would be faster but…’

At this point in time, Roland had a more complete map of the dungeon. There weren’t that many levels to discover when going up. Just like he had theorized there was no connection to the outside world. There were only four floors leading up from the one he started from and the top one was a lot smaller than the rest.

“So this confirms it then?”

“Yes, the dungeon is probably expanding upwards and perhaps with some time will create a pathway but how long that will take is anyone's guess.”

“This is good…”

Roland nodded as he found himself back in Arthur’s office. They were discussing the situation in the dungeon and he was delivering the maps he created to confirm the adventurer’s claim. Thanks to them placing his sensors all over the place he was now able to monitor everything that was happening in there, as long as he was in range. This he hoped to alleviate with time and more sensors.

“That is true, it’s deep underground and is competing with the Albrook dungeon for space but this also means that there is a new possibility to this dungeon equation.”

“Another possibility than it being connected to the super dungeon?”

“Yes.”

Both Roland and Arthur had gone through literature concerning dungeons. Usually, a new baby dungeon just like the Albrook one would connect to the outside before being discovered. It came equipped with pre-built floors and everything but sometimes they could also expand further.

In this case, it seemed that this dungeon was expanding upwards. More floors were being built and if it continued to go up it could have a similar structure to the Albrook one. What they could have encountered was an incomplete dungeon that was still in the process of growing. The harder monsters were closer to its core and end while the weaker ones would spread to the upper floors.

“In both cases, this isn’t bad news, at least it will take some time until it can expand upwards or it might never actually do it, we need to focus on exploring the lower floors but regretfully our friends need to return.”

“Yes, their weapons weren’t looking that great after two weeks, those monsters at the lower floors aren’t a joke.”

After the party of five reached a dead end on the upper floors they quickly began going down. The monster levels started to increase and more of them began to appear. They could only partially explore the floor below the initial one as the monsters there were close to level hundred seventy. Further down the enemies started traveling in small groups and could probably reach close to level one hundred eighty.

“Yes but, with those levels, we won’t have trouble in attracting aspiring young veterans of the trade!”

“I guess if you look at it that way…”

“That will be all unless you wish to discuss something else?”

“No, I already handed Mary the package, I’m sure your people can handle it.”

“There shouldn’t be a problem with the first ten floors, it might take some more time on the lower one. But be sure to have enough ‘products’ to carry out your little scheme by then. If it works it could earn us quite the sum.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem.”

“I’ll hold you to your word but don’t forget, I need to make the announcement soon, the city is practically broke even with those skeletal bones.”

Arthur gave out a sigh while glancing at some booklets that probably contained the city finances. Roland wasn’t an expert at managing a city but there were probably various costs involved. A developing city needed a lot of funds and it wouldn’t be strange if Arthur had borrowed some money from outside sources. Getting those things sorted out in time would be paramount.

‘Or he spent it all on bribing merchants to get them all on board.’

While new merchants would probably be arriving after hearing the news, it wouldn’t be that easy for them to establish themselves in this city. Many other smaller companies had already cemented their place here and had figured out their trading routes. Before any more could get here to make business, the ones residing here would be ahead.

“Have a good day, Master Wayland.”

“Mhm.”

After leaving Arthur’s office he was sent off by Mary. He noticed some bags under the young woman’s eyes as well as under her bosses. Both of them were working tirelessly through these weeks. He wasn’t doing better either as he spent over two weeks down in the dungeon with tiny amounts of sleep just killing monsters.

‘Will I be able to do it at this pace?’

Time was running out and his leveling drive was stagnating. This had all to do with the twenty-five levels that he needed to go over. The monsters he was fighting were between levels hundred fifty and hundred sixty. With the ever-increasing demand for more experience points monsters that were more than ten levels below weren’t cutting it.

There wasn’t an option to change it up though. Building golems of the tier 2 variety wasn’t that great for leveling either luckily this also gave him another option. At this point in time, there was no way around it, he needed to suck it up and forgo his basic human needs. If he wanted to achieve his goal before this place was jam-packed with scary platinum adventurers and their unsavory thieves guild counterparts, he needed to turn it up a notch.

‘I guess going with no sleep for a few days won’t kill me…’

With that thought in mind, he made a detour to the Church of Solaria. They were in possession of various divine elixirs that could aid him in his current endeavor. His body was strong and he was young so in theory, it would be possible to push himself without retaining any bad side effects in the future. Probably the only thing that would suffer in this case, was his social life as he wouldn’t be able to visit nor talk to Elodia much during this period.

‘I’ll just have to explain it to her, I guess it’s better to come clean, she will worry either way.’

He had already decided to be more truthful to his partner and not like he was doing anything nefarious, just putting his body at some health risks that he could downplay a little bit to make her worry less. Later on, the decision he made came out to be the right one, as many stamina-boosting delicacies were offered to him to keep him going.

Thus his leveling drive was started. Sleeping was now only an option that was taken when it was necessary. With people still searching for the runic passages he had some time to lure the tier 3 skeletons towards the exit and kill them just like before. More golems were used to lure in the monsters faster and more efficiently.

When the time came to wait for the monsters to respawn, he continued to grind for experience. Inscribing runes on metal pieces only to quickly destroy them and do the process again gave him some side resources for leveling. He engrossed himself in his work, when he was not down in the dungeon he continued with the golem restoration project. With his current stats and resources, it wasn’t hard to reproduce them back even doing this chaotic period.

The time of the announcement finally came and the dwarves were finally able to uncover the secret of the hidden chambers. With the knowledge of a potential B-rank dungeon and the hidden passages that were present, people were in a rush to find out if it was true. Rumors started spreading and people started sending out scouting parties to confirm the information which gave Roland the bit of time that he needed.

Luckily for him, people were quite skeptical in this world. Even when the city lord made the announcement about the discovery most people didn’t believe it. His brothers would think of it as some kind of trick and would be wary of it. Everyone needed to confirm this claim through their own means before investing. However, some that decided to risk it, would be the ones that were able to profit the most as first adapters always had a leg up.

When going back and forth from the dungeon he could see the increase in people. The discovery of the first hidden chambers didn’t take that long after the dwarves activated some of their specialists. Although they used their pickaxes to make the pathways they were probably working on other ways of getting in there.

This was a sign that he should hurry, the more time passed the better they would become at accessing the hidden pathways. For the time being the guild master had ordered to withhold the information about the passage from anyone below the platinum adventurer level. The excuse was that the monsters were far too deadly for anyone below tier 3 to engage.

‘It won’t take long now but I’m almost there, just a little more and it’s all going to be over…’

His head was on fire but after drinking a potion he bought for far too much, the migraine subsided. It had been a week since he had a good night's rest, his eyes were bloodshot but he still continued to push forward. He could already see the light at the end of the tunnel and he could barely contain himself from smiling as the promised next tier was already around the corner.

…

“My Lord.”

“What is it?”

“The black ravens have sent a report.”

“Bring it over.”

“As you wish, My Lord.”

A nicely dressed old man walked into a room that was dimly illuminated by the light of a fireplace. His gaze landed on a man sitting by a lone lamp that didn’t do a good job of showing the content of the papers he was going through. From his hand, a gray envelope appeared donning a black seal with a depiction of a black bird on it.

The man behind the desk looked at the envelope. Before picking it up he stretched his hand out, a matching ring with an identical bird on it was on his middle finger. The moment this accessory came close to the seal both the ring and it began to flash. Within a matter of seconds, the wax melted away to reveal the contents of this message.

“Hm… is this from the Fauland region?... ah right, it was that bastard’s territory, almost forgot about it…is this true, a B rank dungeon?”

“The ravens have confirmed it, so the information must be correct.”

“Hm… this complicates things but not like that idiot will be able to profit from it… send one of the hunting dogs to check it out, we can’t be too careful at a time like this, after dear brother Ivan’s demise the path forward had become clear… I bet my dear brothers will send out their dogs as well.”

“As you wish my lord.”

“But this is still only the bastard that we are talking about, don’t overdo it, our resources are limited, send one of the puppies, they should be more than enough to handle it.

“Yes, my Lord.”

“Good now go, report to me after it’s done.”

The old man quickly left the room while the envelope was disposed of in the fireplace. On the other side, he was greeted by the sound of clunky metal as the two knights saluted him. Soon the man vanished into the corridor illuminated by various torches to carry out the order he was given by his lord. The mission was simple and didn’t seem like a problem but it was still up to him to pick the right people for the job.

“That young captain’s group should be a good fit…”

With a name on his mind and the details of the mission already laid out, he continued towards his next destination. More and more soldiers in full plate armor appeared before him which signaled that he was closer to his goal. Finally, after a good ten minutes of walking, he arrived at a door with a shiny new plaque on it. It contained the name of a man and his title which the butler was quick to call out after a knock.

“Knight Commander Emmerson, I would like to have a word with you…”