The Runesmith

Town of Albrook it was called, it was a mostly unexplored settlement away from large cities on Dragnis island. The people that lived here were a peaceful bunch that liked to live their lives slowly. Most of them were farmers, hunters, and fishermen that earned their living through their craft. It didn’t seem like the monotone life that they spent here would be changing anytime soon.

This changed on one faithful day, the ground shook on a certain stormy night. Everyone woke up thinking that some kind of monster had finally attacked. People had heard the rumors of dragons living on this island in the innermost parts. Maybe one of them had decided to pay them a visit?

The truth was slightly different, it did involve monsters but the citizens weren’t in any danger. After the storm cleared up and the sun shone on the mountains they could finally see it. A large volcano had sprung out from the ground, smoke was coming out of it, clearly active and dangerous.

Only a small number of guards and hunters lived here. A scouting party was quickly formed and in a few days, they brought the news of the new discovery. The new volcano had an entrance, it wasn’t a natural cave, no it was quite different.

It had an uncharacteristic gate design with embedded patterns. It looked man-made but the people living there clearly knew such a thing was impossible. There was nothing there just a day ago, this was clearly an entrance to a dungeon.

The people in this country or even the whole world weren’t sure about how dungeons came to be. There were various types of them around, some even had their own ecosystems. Others looked like ancient ruins with catacombs spreading below the earth. This one was similar to the latter but also different in many ways.

With this news, their life got turned upside down. Their peaceful little town would soon be overrun with adventurers. The old farmers despaired but some of the more crafty ones knew that this was their chance. The person who took the initiative now could become rich. The adventurers brought a lot of problems with them but they also brought lots of gold coins.

Half a year later the people that took it upon themselves to invest were now taking in the profits. The inns and pubs were filled to the brim with new people, new shops were popping up to accommodate the new demand. The new unrated dungeon brought all of this in and this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Everyone knew that only after the dungeon was giving a rating its true potential would be discovered. Things like this took some time as even powerful adventurers weren’t willing to venture into it blindly. It was believed that this dungeon was an extension of the main Dragnis dungeon that was a supervolcano in the middle of this island.

The biggest concern with it was the connection. It could be connected anywhere, to another smaller dungeon far away from here or even directly into the dragon’s lair. This was highly unlikely but it was possible to meet monsters above tier 3 in random places if this dungeon connected to the main one.

Mapping out a dungeon could take even years depending on how large it was. Some of the beginner-friendly levels were already mapped out by the more experienced adventurers. The adventurer guild even made money by selling some of the maps. Not all decided on a purchase like that which could prove fatal in the long run.

A certain person in an uncoordinated armor was walking towards this Albrook Dungeon. He was holding onto a map and slowly reading it while finishing up an apple that he bought on his way here.

‘It looks like this dungeon is a Labyrinth type, those are tricky ones’

This was Roland wearing his brigandine armor along with his helmet to cover his face. He had his arming sword strapped to his side and a shield that he bought strapped to his back. He looked like a regular warrior, with his height over 185 cm he could easily pass for one.

He had made a decision of training up his close-quarters fighting skills. The sword related skills that he had were the most advanced from the combat ones he had. A decision was made by him to focus on it. The shield would also be used for protection and not only that as he had tweaked it a bit with his runecrafting skill.

Roland didn’t abandon his spell casting just yet. He had two smaller wands strapped to his side as another means of attack. He wanted to increase his all-around fighting capability. He could go about it in a couple of ways.

First, he could focus on crafting better runic equipment. With various defensive and buffing runes, he would be well protected. His biggest weakness at the moment was a close-range exchange. It was very easy for him to even kill tier 2 monsters with his common grade spells. That is if they allowed themselves to be hit.

He had won most of his old fights by ranged surprise attacks. There weren’t really any moments where he had to face a monster on his level in a true one on one battle. Either he hid and used his spells from a safe distance or he had other people distracting the monsters for him to land a critical blow from afar.

‘I need to develop some kind of fighting style…’

While walking towards the dungeon he looked up while thinking. His close-range tactic came down to evading any attacks and then using a fire arrow spell with his wands. There was no fancy footwork involved, any blocking or parrying. It was just pure magical power that was possible through his runic weapons and his high mana pool.

‘If I meet a monster that either dodges or resists one of these spells from close range, I might die.’

As he was thinking about some fighting combinations he finally reached his destination. The volcano was giving off puffs of black smoke here and there. The temperature increased slightly the closer he got to this volcano but it was bearable. He had also attached a special chilling rune to his own armor. If things got too hot, he could lessen the burden on his body by activating it. This rune worked similar to a buffing rune and lowered his mana pool by a set number while being active.

Roland moved forward, other adventurers were also here. Some were waiting for their teammates outside the entrance, some were going in, others were moving out. He could even see scratches and wounds on some of the rough-looking men. They were clearly in a fight not so long ago and now he would soon be in one as well.

This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he had already been in a dungeon before. There was a slight difference, not from the adventurer’s side though.

‘Quite innovative…’

What he saw was a large wagon on the side. The peculiar thing about this wagon was that it looked more like a food stand. This cart was fully made out of wood and it had a tarp hoisted out from the side. There was also a window to which you could move over and peek in.

“Get your healing potions and mana potions here, we also have pure water for your parched throat!”

There was a young girl with a twin bun hairstyle shouting out. She looked rather young, about the age of twelve or close to it. She was clearly there to bring attention to this cart, in it was an older man selling some wares. Some of the injured adventurers were even buying up those healing potions. Roland wasn’t interested but he took some time to examine the prices that were out on a large wooden board on the side.

‘Those prices are at least 25% above the regular market value…’

It looked like this store was ripping people off but it did offer a new type of service. If you took into account that it was right outside the dungeon area the 25% rise in price could be stomached.

‘I hope they know what they are doing though…’

Roland walked on while looking at some of the adventurers here. They were focusing on that cart with the healing and mana potions. Their faces had a certain attribute to them which didn’t bode anything good for the future. He wouldn’t get involved in something like this though, he needed to look out for himself instead.

He placed himself in front of the large dungeon opening. It really did look like a giant gate, it was at least five meters tall. It didn’t have a door on it but there were columns to the side that continued upwards and connected in a half circular pattern to each other. Right at the area where they came together was a sculpture of a skull, its eyes flaming with a magic flame.

Roland almost instantly activated his debugging skill to scan this gate but he came out empty. There weren’t any runes on it of any kind. He could see some strange writings which could be regular enchantments instead. There were other ways than runes to make objects magical in nature and spell enchantments were one of them.

Before people could start staring he moved forward into the corridor. After passing this gate he was greeted by a slight draft. There were stairs leading down into the dark dungeon, torches were on the side and the whole place was quite well lit. He continued forward without stopping while also scanning the walls for any runes.

The walk down continued and the further he got the more wind he could feel blowing onto his helmet. When he finally got down the stairs he found himself in a large area. The walls looked like they were made from large stone bricks and there were torches here and there.

‘Which one to take…’

There were other people here with him, walking into some of the corridors. This area was like a large hub with tunnels. It was the beginning section of this dungeon labyrinth and was considered a safe zone. The monsters that were in those corridors wouldn’t be able to come in here as some unseen force was keeping them back.

The experts weren’t sure why this was the case. The monster bodies could be carried out of the dungeon and processed. The mana stones that they had didn’t just vanish when they got out of the dungeon’s domain either. But somehow there was a limit on how far these monsters could venture out.

Roland read that some people did some tests with weaker monsters. They captured one goblin and tried bringing him outside. There was a strange discovery made then, it was as if some kind of invisible barrier was keeping the monster inside. Even when the researchers tried pushing the monster past the dungeon area it wouldn’t budge. It even got squished to death after they used too much force.

They could only come to the conclusion that there was some higher tier magic involved. They theorized that the dungeon could be in a different spatial space. To the monster, there was nothing past the dungeon entrance. The world outside might be on a different frequency or even in a different dimension.

The adventurers inside could somehow move freely between these spaces but the monsters could only do it after they died. The dungeon would also reabsorb any corpses of the monsters that died inside if they weren’t taken. The same would happen to any dead adventurer. This was also why no one ever found old bodies in these lairs.

‘Where should I go…’

Roland looked at the map that he bought. This floor of the dungeon’s labyrinth was already mapped out and he even drew a line towards the next floor. This didn’t mean that everything had been looted already. This dungeon type brought one large bonus with itself compared to the open forest one he previously was in.

Periodically a chest with loot would appear. Where they came from no one knew, it was as if the dungeon itself was trying to entice the adventurers to do more exploring. The higher the danger level of the monsters the better loot you would find. Bosses would also drop certain items and respawn at a set time just like in games.

‘Well, I’m here to train for now. I’ll just pick a path with the least traps around.’

The biggest reason for getting this map was to know where the traps were. If a person wasn’t careful in this type of dungeon they would meet their demise quite fast. Labyrinth and ruin type of dungeons that looked man-made always had traps in them.

Without a scout or a thief in your party, it was very dangerous. Roland did have a life signal detection device but he didn’t have anything for those traps. With the map in his hand, he would be able to evade his untimely demise. He finally looked to one of the corridors which he then picked as the one to use.

The passage was quite huge, it had a similar flaming skull above the entrance. The inside was another corridor with some torches on the side that gave the minimal amount of light for people to see.

Roland was a bit surprised about the insides of this dungeon. If he didn’t know any better he wouldn’t think that it was located inside a volcano. From the information that he gathered, apparently the further down a person went the more the heat increased. There was even a mining section after you made it past this labyrinth.

He continued further and finally, the first monster of this dungeon appeared. It was a common type of being that looked like a deflated basketball. Its body was semi-transparent and inside of it was a round object that was of red coloring.

Roland pulled out his arming sword and shield while looking at the small creature. Slimes like this existed in vast quantities around here and in other dungeons. They were one of the weakest monsters around but even then you had to be careful. They multiplied quite fast and could overrun a newbie adventurer party if they weren’t careful.

He didn’t hide his presence as he approached his first monster. It was quite slow in its approach. The transparent ball-like body stretched out slightly towards his direction as the creature moved. It looked a bit like a small worm but a rounder one.

Roland knew that he could one-shot this thing with the simplest attacking spell that he had. This wasn’t the purpose of his training though. He wanted to level up his reflexes, dodging, blocking and even swordsmanship leveled up faster during real fights. It was unknown why but during actual combat the skills gained some kind of boost, increasing them like this was many times faster than regular training.

When the fire slime got in range it started compressing itself. It showed off its iconic attack of spitting some kind of heated liquid towards him. The pressure propelled this spit forward and made it look like some kind of ball of fire. He simply dodged it to the side, the creature was really slow and the attack was easy to read.

The moment this heated liquid collided with the wall to his side, it also started to sizzle. If he got hit in the face with something like that it would probably melt right through his skin. Even a simple monster like this could prove deadly if it got someone by surprise.

After dodging to the side the slime remained unmoving. This was the right time to strike, he gathered some magical energies on his sword while charging forward. The monster was far too slow on the uptake and could only wait for its demise.

He sliced with his mana imbued sword right through the monster. The slime died instantly after one hit. The slimy body that it had quickly dissipated into liquid and the slime core in the middle dropped down to the floor with a little clanking sound.

Normally to defeat this type of monster a person would need to destroy its core. Regular physical attacks were ineffective against the gelatinous body of the slime. There was a way around this problem and it was quite simple. A person just needed to use a spell or a mana infused weapon just like Roland did.

There was one reason that he used mana instead of going for the core. This slime core was something that he could sell, if he destroyed it he wouldn’t get much for it. This item had similar properties to mana stones but it could also be used for various other things. Some slimes even had metallic cores that could be turned into weapons with high magic affinity.

‘Well, that’s one down… now for the rest…’

Roland glanced into the distance. There he saw many other fire slimes ‘rolling’ his way. He wouldn’t be getting much experience from them but they were perfect for exercising before he went down to the more difficult levels. It was finally time to become a full-fledged adventurer.