The Runesmith

What could they be up to? Why didn’t they try to retake their old territory? Were they planning something? Did the one that freed it run away and what was that great beyond that was outside? The Lich was constantly asking itself these questions while sitting on a throne made of bones that it created.

It had been a week since it had interacted with the strange creatures. Their uniqueness was not that they covered their bodies with a layer of flesh and blood but in how they acted. It was as if they were all singular beings working independently of each other which for this Lich was a strange occurrence. In its experience there always existed something controlling the various creatures around here, this would be it with the skeletons and the unfamiliar voice coming from the dungeon.

The monster looked at one of its minions, this one was quite similar in appearance to itself. The magical energies coming from it were weaker and the bones were black like coals but in essence, they were magic users. This thing could not function without getting orders, it was similar to the Lich before it was freed from the voice.

Could it be the voice to its minions like the dungeon was to it? That was the conclusion it came to and for some reason, it had an interesting thought. What would happen if it introduced that mana pattern that freed it to one of its minions? Would they start thinking for themselves just as it did and perhaps create an interesting result?

Its hand beckoned the skeletal mage over which instantly carried out the order. The Lich’s boney fingers started glowing in a green color but something was off. Tried it did but it just couldn’t copy the mana pattern that the armored creature produced. There was a mistake here, even with all the magical knowledge it had it could not fully reproduce it.

The Lich was confident in altering this mana pattern but could not reproduce it for some reason. It was as if something was missing, could that armored creature be unique in some way? The others that were examined by it weren’t like this, even the monsters felt the same but something about the armored one was different.It concluded that it needed to study that armored thing in order to get to the bottom of this.

For this very reason it decided to prepare, the last time the being had managed to alter its mana to the point it couldn’t defend itself. The Lich wasn’t sure what had happened but this meant that it needed to be cautious, even of the one that perhaps had all the answers. Its lair had already been discovered and it was waiting there.

There was only one problem, the one that it was after wasn’t quite alone. There was a larger lair with many others that it wasn’t sure it could that easily conquer. There were strong ones there that its minions discovered from afar, these people could not get in the way of its pursuit of truth.

Thus it decided to hatch a plan, the one it was after stayed in one location and there he remained. The others were further away but these individuals seemed to help each other from time to time. The Lich couldn’t pinpoint the deciding factor but there was a possibility that some would rush to help the target it was after.

It had stayed here for an entire week just for that reason. It had been quickly turning this whole dungeon upside down even to the point of hunting each and every unique monster it could find. The army had grown in quantity, quality but also variation. With its new replenished forces, it was feeling comfortable enough to leave, it was time to make its mark out in the great beyond.

The Lich’s lower jaw started rattling as it stood up from the throne of bones. The staff made of bones went through a change and was now garnished with various magical stones. Its level had grown, its weapon was stronger and its forces could not be stopped. Now was the time to see what was out there, the world without a ceiling was exciting and it wanted to examine it all.

…

‘That’s about it, I sure hope this wasn’t in vain’

Roland whipped some sweat from his brow after finishing up his preparation. For almost the entire week he did not sleep and tirelessly prepared for the coming of the monsters. This did not happen and now he was second-guessing his assessment. The implementation of his defensive strategy took a lot of time and material and would set him back by a month or two.

‘Well, better safe than sorry at least this has been a learning experience and these traps might sell for a bit if I can simplify the creation process.’

At the moment he was on the other side of the entrance to the tunnel leading to the inside of the dungeon. Now that he was in an agreement with Arthur he wouldn’t really need to worry about this coming to bite him in the future. Just as he had planned previously the adventurers would use it as a means of getting into the dungeon to flank the monsters guarding the entrance.

‘Well, not like I’ll let them into my workshop anyway.’

While he was obligated to guide the adventurers to the tunnel he wasn’t planning on letting them go through the workshop. Instead, he would temporarily create a second opening by magical means. The walls have been reinforced to take a heavy load from the outside but this didn’t mean that a person couldn’t get in if they knew that the tunnel existed.

A moderate amount of explosives would do the trick and so would earth magic or even a strong enough miner with a pickaxe. There wasn’t really anything preventing people to tunnel their way into his secret passage. He would of course be instantly informed if anyone breached it and the entrance had a reinforced door with some traps around it.

‘I really hope those platinum adventurers aren’t the nosy types.’

Roland was as paranoid as ever, his mind wandered towards getting exposed to the thieves guild. If those shady types knew about it they could try using it for themselves to either get into the dungeon or into his workshop. If this information landed in the lap of the wrong person he could be in potential danger. It was a potential entry point into his home which would probably require more traps after the platinum adventurers were done with their mission.

“Speaking of those adventurers, they should be arriving in a few days. Arthur must have offered them quite the reward that he shouldn’t be able to afford.”

It wasn’t known to him what the city lord offered to the high-level adventurers but they did make their way here in a speedy fashion. Normally it would probably take longer than a week for them to take a mission. Tier 3 adventurers had the leisure of choosing their work and most of the time this meant a thinning of the purse for the one offering the job.

Thus to get a whole team of four or five of them here would require a substantial bonus on top of the rights to the monster materials. There was nothing that Arthur would probably be gaining from this, the only thing that he could look forward to was the mining area and the hidden dungeon that the monster came from.

‘I guess we will go with my plan, should I start designing the dungeon door? Bernir could probably help me out with it.’

After all of this was over a lot of work would need to be done. The entrance to the secret area needed to be large enough for people and materials to get through. There were two options he was thinking about, one of them involved a lot of metal while the other stones. The first one would be costlier but it would be the safer one.

‘It might be better to work on it in the mining area than to make the parts here…’

The design needed to match the dungeon so that people didn’t see the ruse. The height would be around three meters while the width at least two. This however was not the main problem, that was the thickness. The whole gate needed to go through the entirety of the wall to block it from closing. He had been confident when talking to Arthur but he wasn’t sure if the wall wouldn’t start growing around the metallic parts.

‘If that happens someone might need to periodically remove the excess rocks from the entrance but bringing in more people in on the lie only complicates things…’

He could already see himself being ordered to go there and chisel on the walls while people weren’t looking. Luckily this was a mining area that would be mined and filled with workers. They also needed to think about a good way to get them there, going through the route he took wasn’t that great and required battling the dino boss each week.

The tunnel that led outside was also unfit for miners to go through but perhaps his mule golem could help out with that. It was already used to the path and was the perfect transportation vehicle for materials. The only other way was through the top but that spot would generate a swarm of worms if too many people ventured through it at once. Then creating a full flight of stairs that went into the chasm would be quite the costly endeavor.

“Hm?”

While thinking ahead to his future dealings with Arthur and the new mining team, he noticed something. His suit of armor picked up a change in the movements of the skeletal creatures that were defending the dungeon. For the whole week, they had remained in the same exact location and only moved when sensing a living person or other creature outside.

The city lord and the adventurers guild ordered everyone to stay clear of the dungeon entrance but that didn’t keep some people from endangering themselves. This however allowed Roland to measure the senses of the undead monsters. Their range of senses was at around six hundred meters and unless someone stepped into that range they wouldn’t react.

That is unless some kind of attack was started, then the monsters would crazily charge in the direction the attack came from. Roland wasn’t sure who it was but someone had shot out an arrow toward one of the monsters which pinpointed the trajectory almost instantly. Luckily even though the black skeleton gave chase, at exactly a kilometer away from the dungeon it stopped in its tracks and returned. This information he fed to Arthur as it would help them form a good counter strategy to lure the monsters out when the Platinum rank adventurers arrived.

“Did another idiot come or maybe a wild animal?”

These monsters also reacted to animals of specific dimensions. They would not go after rabbits or birds but if something like a deer or a wolf appeared they would give chase. Thus Roland went through his limited map area but could not spot any movement. All the wild animals that were in the area had already been killed or chased away. The stench of blood and decomposing bodies kept them from moving closer. Perhaps a carnivorous monster had wandered into their range but if it did then they were behaving strangely.

“They aren’t chasing anything, they are moving too slow… it’s as if…shit, It really was too good to be true.”

The strange movements could only mean one thing if there weren’t any enemies outside of the dungeon. It had to mean that the undead creatures were given a new order, they were on the move and this could be it. What he was seeing was the skeletons spreading to the sides and gathering at the exit as if forming a column. Then there were the ones that were in the dungeon, they were moving to the upper levels and they weren’t alone, a new wave of skeletons was coming.

“I need to contact Arthur.”

Quickly he ran to his communication crystal to send a message to the city lord. It was still unclear what was happening but an increase in the numbers of the undead could mean another dungeon break. This time around, there were actual tier 3 ones mixed into the groups which complicated things by a degree. All he could see were dots moving on the screen but that gave him somewhat enough information to paste some things together.

“...Wayland, is there a problem?”

“Yes, we have a situation, the monsters are moving and they are moving in large numbers.”

“Do you mean that they are going to attack the city again?”

“I don’t know, their number has increased and they are moving to the upper levels, there is at least a new tier 3 one among them.”

“A tier 3? Could it be the Lich?”

“It’s another one, it should be one of the obsidian ones.”

Roland already mentioned to Arthur everything that he knew about the Lich and the city lord also consulted with some specialists in the field. The skill that the monster was using was not yet clear but some kind of limit had to exist. Either there was a limited number of these black skeletons it could produce or a timer. It had been around a week since the dungeon was sealed off which gave him some time to replenish his forces. This couldn’t be helped as without a proper tier 3 unit to take care of them it was too dangerous.

“Wayland that’s enough, you should start evacuating to the city, it's too dangerous for you to remain there.”

“I’ll have to refuse that order, don’t worry about me, I can handle myself.”

“For some reason, I thought you’d say that, stay safe then, and don’t do anything foolhardy.”

“I won’t.”

Roland could spot a small mocking smile on Arthur’s face which implied that he didn’t trust that statement.

“But what of the platinum adventurers, have they arrived yet?”

“About that… I think it will take them at least a day to get here, maybe even longer…that’s why you should…”

“I’ll be fine, if it gets too dangerous I’ll retreat to the city.”

Arthur finally stopped prodding and the conversation soon ended. Both men need to prepare for the oncoming incident. Arthur had the city to worry about while Roland had his workshop that he spent many years building up. He was certain that if the Lich crawled out of the dungeon he would make his way here. Even if he took Arthur up on the offer and hid in the city, the monster would come. Its interest in his mana was too strong and thus his workshop would be ransacked. He at least wanted to make a stand and all the weekly preparations were just for that reason.

“Luckily Bernir went to the city yesterday so I don’t need to worry about him.”

At the moment he and Agni were the only people that remained. While Bernir was helpful during the first wave of skeletons he wasn’t sure that he would do much if the tier 3 ones or the Lich came along. It could be the reverse and Roland feared that he would expose his back to the enemy if he needed to watch out for his assistant's life.

“AWwwo!?”

“I see that you know that something is wrong?”

“Woof!”

Roland’s hand moved to Agni’s head for a quick pet. The connection that he had with his tamed beast was strong and when the master was becoming alert so would Agni. He knew that there was some trouble coming and by the way Roland was acting it was clearly serious.

“Good boy, if we get through this I’ll let you eat some better mana stones.”

“!?”

Agni started wiggling his rump behind as he heard that he would receive some treats. Instantly he bolted towards Roland’s lookout gate where he and Bernir previously used to shoot at the skeletal monsters. There the wolf stood with his ears pointed in the direction of the woods, listening to anything that could be a potential enemy.

“What are they up to…”

Roland smiled at the way that Agni was acting but then brought his attention to his map. There he saw more and more dots appear on the screen. The monsters were acting strange, their movement was less erratic and more organized, it was as if this time around they were being led by someone…

“That thing is coming, I guess preparing for it won’t go to waste.”