The Runesmith

‘Goddammit, what is this situation…’

“Sir Robert, please don’t let go!”

“Lady Lucille! Please remain calm!”

“Grrrrr….”

Roland was pushed down from the ledge and fallen along with his brother and the blue-haired frost mage. He managed to lodge his thick iron staff into the side of this chasm while also grabbing Robert’s foot with one hand.

Robert was now dangling upside down while also grasping Lady Lucille’s hand. There was also a fourth person here, Agni. Roland’s tamed beast jumped right after his master into the large pit below. He somehow managed to grasp one of Roland’s ankles with his muzzle and was now also dangling around.

“Stop squirming around all of you or we will fall…”

He shouted at the two below him as the piece of metal that he shoved into the side of this rock was already twitching from the weight. There was no way that anyone from above will come to save them so it was up to him to do something about it.

‘Is there somewhere...wait, what is that?’

While examining the situation he noticed something in the distance. There wasn’t much light here so he quickly activated his helmet’s night sight spell. Thanks to it he could see a somewhat larger opening in the wall. It might have been a natural cave or one made by the volcanic worm creatures. The important part was that it would allow them to stand.

“There is a cave there… but it’s about fifty meters away from us…”

“Fifty meters? We will never make it!”

Robert replied while sweating. There was no way of him being able to do anything here, he could only see Lucille’s scared face and behind her the dark unknown abyss.

“Okay… hold on, I’ll make a platform…”

Roland on the other hand had ways of getting all four of them out of this predicament. He had no knowledge of spells that could make people float so he went with a different option.

His free foot was raised up and he was just close enough to the wall to touch it. He risked losing his grip while doing this but there was no other way. The two people below him shook around and the woman started screaming but after an orange flash of light, she started to quiet down.

By pressing his foot against the wall Roland activated one of his attacking spells, the one that could produce spikes made from hard rocks. On the fly, he altered the runic code slightly to make these spikes wider and girthier.

One, two, three, four and five smaller platforms sprung up in a matter of seconds. He aimed them directly under the group of people hanging. He wasn’t sure how many he needed to support all of their weight but he would figure it out the hard way. His magical rod started bending down and the rocks it was slammed into finally gave out.

“Ahhh… noooo…!”

Lucille screamed as she felt gravity taking over once again. Robert on the other hand quickly yanked the woman upwards while trying to shield her from any harm. The fall wasn’t steep now though as both of them landed on the platform that Roland created with his earth spell.

Roland inserted his staff into the rocks once more while also pulling Agni up and placing him over his shoulder. The two slid down some more and also safely landed on this pile of rocks that he magically created.

“It’s holding…”

He let out a sigh of relief as the ground under them was able to sustain their weight.

“Agni.”

Roland called out to his Ruby Wolf that was now somehow clinging to his shoulder. Agni even without being given the order knew what he was supposed to do. The small gem that was on his forehead quickly lit up to show everyone the way.

What was revealed to both of them was Lucille who was clinging like a chimp to Robert’s chest. It looked like the young girl had closed her eyes and even now was trembling from fright. Robert on the other hand had also plunged his sword into the wall for some added support as he mimicked Roland.

“Wait a moment, I will create more platforms… we must get to that cave there.”

Roland pointed into the distance and now thanks to Agni’s light even Robert could see the opening. The walls were also covered with many smaller exit holes that were probably made by those monsters. It seemed that there were no more Volcanic Worms out here anymore, which would allow them to safely reach that cave.

“Please do.”

Surprisingly Robert just nodded while moving himself out of the way. He clung to the wall with the woman in his arms. It seemed that he knew that he needed to rely on Roland’s magic and Lucille didn’t look like someone that could help them as she was still panicking.

It was up to Roland to get them out of this predicament. This time around it wasn’t his foot but his hand. His armor didn’t need to have specific spells placed on them anymore. Now after figuring out the runic programming language he was able to customize his armor even more.

The main runic structures were all in the chest area while his hands and legs were used to discharge the spells. He could activate any of them from any extremity, he just needed to activate the correct executable in his premade program.

Thus after placing his palm on the wall more platforms started to appear. There was some space between them as they were just made for them to walk to the other side.

“Let’s go…”

Robert nodded while Roland moved first. The knight carried the shaky mage girl in his arms while Roland created more platforms for them on the way towards the cave opening. In about ten minutes of slow walking they finally made it and ducked inside of this unlit cave.

“Woof!”

Agni flopped his tongue out while also jumping down. He sniffed the air around and informed Roland that he could not detect any danger.

“This cave… It doesn’t look like it was made by those monsters…”

Roland quickly examined the walls in here, they didn’t look to have been dug by the monsters. The ceiling here reached up to about five meters and the width was about three. It was quite the spacious cavern and all of them could fit in it nicely.

“Are you two…”

Roland turned around as he didn’t get a reply.

“Please give her some time.”

Robert replied while giving Roland a stern look. Lucille looked quite shaken up from this fall that almost killed her. It was a natural response to something like this, he had almost forgotten. This woman was a sheltered noble lady, this was probably the first time her life was at risk.

“Mmm.”

He nodded while Robert carried her further into the cave.

“Agni stay with them.”

After leaving the light source with them Roland moved to where the cavern started. He looked down and even with his night vision on he could not see an ending in sight. When he looked up he could also not see anything past a certain point.

‘How far did we fall…’

He had panicked a bit after getting shoved into the pit. Due to this his perception of time had been skewed, if he knew that he could calculate how far they went down.

“Can anyone hear me?”

Roland moved his hands to his mouth and shouted out, his voice echoed through this chasm but he did not get a reply.

“Hello?”

He shouted a few more times but he did not get a reply back. Silvio with his enhanced senses might have been able to hear them but he, on the other hand, could not.

While pointing up with one of his fingers a bolt of light energy appeared. He shot it up into the sky and could see the place lighting up. His spell traveled up and up before finally dimming and it coming undone.

He did the light signals a couple of times before stopping but even when waiting he could not see anyone replying. If the party couldn’t hear or see the flashes of light up there they might have fallen in too deep.

“How are you?”

Roland returned into the cave and he could see Lucille leaning up against the wall.

“Ahh… Sir Wayland, I’m fine now.”

Robert was right next to her along with Agni.

“I’m not sure if they could hear me… I don’t see any way up or down either…”

There were a couple of options here. They could try climbing up by Roland creating small platforms for them to stand on. His mana wouldn’t last long though, he would probably have more luck going up himself and leaving those two behind here.

The other option was to just wait, maybe someone would see the light signals or hear them shouting for help. They didn’t know if the others even made it out alive, everyone could have very well fallen down into this deep chasm.

Then there was the third option, going deeper into the cave. It might connect to a secret unmapped path through which they could get out. For this decision to be made they needed more information but contacting the others would be paramount.

“Any injuries?”

“No Sir Wayland, I’m fine.”

“And you?”

Roland turned to Robert who looked as grumpy as ever.

“I’m fine. Adventurer, do you know where we are?”

“No, this is a portion of the dungeon that has not been mapped before. There is no way for me to know where this cave leads either… if we could contact my party members maybe we could get some help...”

Robert nodded while Roland grabbed his heavy staff. He looked to it and to the walls, there was a certain code similar to morse code in this world. Maybe if he tapped the walls here the sound would travel far enough for Silvio to notice it? He believed that that man would probably know the code and maybe even be able to hear it with his enhanced senses.

“Contact them?”

Before he could go forward with his plan, Lucille called out to him.

“Yes, we need to see if they are alive… they might be able to organize a rescue party if they know our location.”

“Ah! Give me a moment Sir Wayland.”

Lucille looked like she remembered something. The woman still had her spatial satchel strapped to the side and she moved her hand into it. After a moment she pulled out a crystal ball.

“Is that?”

“Yes, it is!”

Lucille nodded and Roland nodded back, Robert on the other hand narrowed his eyes at the ball not knowing what the thing was.

“Ah excuse me, Sir Robert, this is a Transmission Stone. Lady Charlene has a similar one, I should be able to talk to her with it! Give me a moment to set it up.”

The young frost mage got to work. Agni helped out by lighting the way. The girl needed to draw a magic circle around this magical device to activate it. Roland paid attention to the drawing and was sure to glance at the item that she was holding. Regretfully it was not a runic item of any sort, it seemed to use the enchanting language instead and this was probably why it also required an outside magic circle for it to function.

With not much else to do, he decided to glance at his brother's status screen. With his level eclipsing his and his analyzing skill gaining some levels he was even able to see his full stats. The only thing he could not see were the skills that he managed to learn through the years.

Strength, vitality, and endurance were his main three stats. Robert’s strength was even above Roland's even though he out-leveled his brother by over 20 levels. This was mostly due to Roland’s 50 levels of both Mage and Runic Mana Scribe. Both those classes mostly added to his willpower and intelligence stat while ignoring his physical stats.

Even though his Strength was 4 points below Roberts, he was still stronger. This was all thanks to his Lord class. Robert’s tier 2 multiplier was only 1.5 while Roland's was 2.

With the multiplier, Roberts' strength would come out to 112,5 points. Roland on the other hand with his 71 points in strength would have 142 points in it. The class that he received was truly prestigious and gave him a big advantage over tier 2 classes. Robert would need another 20 strength to equal things out.

Raw stats weren’t everything though. Physical classes also possessed skills that could boost their attacks and multiply them even further. Just like Armand was able to temporarily give himself a boost, a sword knight with a proper sword would not be an easy target to defeat.

‘Hm??’

Lucille on the other hand would remain a mystery. He could not examine her stats at all as he could only see question marks everywhere. It was clear that the girl was wearing some kind of item that was blocking his identifying attempts.

“There it’s done…”

Another ten minutes passed and even when listening in, there was nothing but howling winds coming from outside. They were still at the entrance of the cave, wandering deeper into it was not yet an option.

“Lady Lucille… will this really work?”

“It should… I hope Lady Charlene is okay…”

Roland went quiet for now, he knew some basics about this crystal ball. He was worried a bit that it wouldn’t be able to reach outside the dungeon. For some reason, all types of communication devices would not connect to any people outside of the dungeon. Thus this Lady Charlene would probably be the only person able to receive this message.

“Lady Charlene… can you hear me?”

The small crystal sphere began glowing in blue light and the magic circle around it activated nicely. After a minute of trying there was no reply but Lucille wasn’t yet worried.

“This could take a while…she will need to create a similar magic circle… but she should be notified about our existence!”

She replied while keeping her eyes on the crystal ball. Roland only nodded and moved a bit towards the insides of the cave without moving too far away from the magical circle.

With his night vision, he could see further than what the dim light from Agni’s forehead was showing them. He could see that this cave went on for quite a bit as the tunnel continued before turning a corner.

Roland pulled out his own magical mapping device and gave it a go. With it, he could see that there were some red dots further inside. The dots representing monsters weren’t moving in any particular direction which told him that they weren’t aware of their existence just yet.

“...dy...Luc...ill…”

“I’m here! can you hear me!”

Suddenly he heard the blue-haired lady’s ecstatic voice. After returning to the communication device he could see the earth mage appearing on the small crystal orb.

“By the gods, you are alive, I was sure that you fell to your death.”

There was some static at first but soon the audio became clearer and it was not possible to converse with Lady Charlene. Though the blond girl was quickly pushed to the side by the commander Lord Percival.

“Lady Lucille, where are you? How did you survive? Can you tell us where you are?”

The young man looked a bit frantic for some reason as he asked all the questions that Lucille tried to answer. She gave him a quick recount of the situation about how Roland managed to catch them and that they were in some cave.

“The adventurer? I’ll be sure to reward him when he comes back.”

“Lady Lucille, could you ask if they heard or saw my magic?”

“Ah, of course, Sir Wayland.”

Lucille explained Roland’s attempts at contacting them by making a lot of noise but Percival denied hearing anything. There was also another problem, the knight commander explained that they had to move from the path as it had partially collapsed afterward. It was a miracle that all of the knights and adventurers were still alive.

Roland could only blame his bad luck that he was tossed down while everyone else somehow remained on top. It seemed that they would not be able to climb back up, at least not until a rescue party was formed that could climb down.

“Please be assured Lady Lucille, I will do everything in my power to get you home safely!”

The conversation continued for a while before the communication device needed to be shut off. This type of item needed to cool down after each usage.

“What should we do now…”

Lucille asked while looking at Robert and then to Roland that was deep in thought.

“Don’t worry Lady Lucille, I will protect you with my life!”

Robert took this chance to reassure the lady once more. She just smiled and nodded. Roland on the other hand looked at his bags of holding.

“Let me ask you… do you have any food in your travel bags?”

“Food?... the porters were tasked to carry it…”

The girl replied. Robert as well shook his head, none of them were adventurers so they let the servants worry about the food.

“I thought so, think we will have to see what this cave has to offer...”

Roland looked into the dark depths of this cave knowing well that monsters were waiting inside...