The Runesmith

Chapter 725 – Breezing Through.

“So... there were someone inside... Ye mean that’s the secret to them movements?” 

“But how in the blazes? Controllin’ it from inside would be naught but tedious work. There’s a reason the craftsmen of old abandoned such a method long ago!”

“Aye, and yet somehow it works. Made by a human, of all cursed things...”

A group of dwarven craftsmen huddled together as they watched what appeared to be a recording of Roland’s recent golem battle. They were mostly focused on the man who had been revealed inside the golem, but they had previously analyzed the strange, shaped flying objects that could fire powerful mana projectiles.

“The controller’s interestin’, aye, but how in the deep halls do those flyin’ things move like that with so much power? That should not be possible!” 

One of the dwarves rewound the recording, focusing on the floating dodecahedrons.

“Are they packed full o’ mana crystals and mostly hollow inside? But they move as if they’ve got far more weight to ’em...” 

Another dwarf chimed in while stroking his long, braided beard, his deep brow furrowed in concentration.

“If them floatin’ pieces don’t have cores of their own, then the main core inside the armor must be processin’ every last calculation by itself. The mana transference alone oughta burn through standard conduits in minutes!” 

The dwarven craftsmen could hardly believe what they were seeing. To them, this golem simply should not have been able to work. Its fluid movements and additional armaments made no sense. A machine this lightweight would normally require a much larger runic engine and significantly greater fuel reserves.

Yet even during the recent, prolonged battle, it had continued moving for an astonishingly long time. There had to be some kind of trick behind it, or perhaps some new technology that made it possible. Whatever the answer was, they could hardly believe it.

“Could a human really make somethin’ our ancestors couldn’t? Somethin’ they eventually threw aside as useless?”

“It ain’t a matter o’ breathin’ life back into dead ideas.”

A more grizzled elder dwarf growled softly. His long gray beard was pinned back with brass rings as he stared intently at the flickering magical projection.

“This is somethin’ entirely new. Uncharted territory! We figure out how it works, ye hear me!”

The dwarven craftsmen were practically drooling as they watched the inside of the golem being revealed. However, many of them were also dejected, since they could barely make anything out on the blurry magical orb. They could recognize some of the runic structures on the larger floating objects, but they could not tell what was inside the golem at all.

“Not that it matters. Our work’s still superior!”

Another dwarf spoke up while standing in front of a giant, round object covered by a cloth. It was their own golem, the machine that had slaughtered its competition.

“Now quit gawkin’, ye bunch o’ tunnel rats! Get back to work and stop droolin’ over some human’s contraption!”

As soon as this dwarf appeared, the others lowered their gazes and quickly returned to work. However, once they had left, the dwarf in charge turned his attention back to the magical orb. His lip curled downward into a frown as his hands clenched tightly around his hammer.

*****

“Did we miss much? Is Lucienne doing fine, brother?”

Robert almost shouted, and Roland needed to lower the audio intensity as it was starting to hurt his ears.

“Calm down. I’m bringing it up now.”

For some reason, his brother preferred to remain inside the golem, as if he had grown quite comfortable in the pilot harness. The screen inside it was quite large too, so he could see their sister continue the treasure hunt.

Thirty minutes had passed since they last checked in, and some changes had taken place. Just as Roland expected, the shaky alliances between some of the schools were starting to break apart. After they began losing team members to Lucienne’s group’s hit-and-run tactics, they started blaming one another for their losses, causing their alliances to fracture and infighting to break out.

Without a unified strategy, the remaining alliance members proved to be easy targets for Lucienne’s team. They continued to hide within the large web of underground tunnels, which were perfect for what they were doing.

Of all of them, Leron seemed to be flourishing the most. He continued to attack the teams from behind, almost perfectly timing his attacks with those of his team. It was still rough around the edges, and a few times he had almost been discovered, but even now, they had not lost a single member and continued to slowly harvest more points.

“Look at her go! She completely turned into a leader and decision-maker!”

When it came to their sister, she was changing before their eyes. Her clairvoyance class allowed her to become the perfect tactician for the underground maze, letting her foresee danger long before it could manifest.

“Her abilities are actually quite fitting for this scenery. The narrow tunnels force everyone closer together and make it easier to use clairvoyance.”

These tunnels were packed closely together in many places, allowing his sister to sense the presence of others through the walls. Her skill was similar to his own mapping device, which presented everyone as dots, but perhaps it was even better, as she could also tell whether they were above or below her.

Her spatial awareness, coupled with the mana-saving equipment he had made, allowed her team to move through the subterranean maze like ghosts. She had also become good at using her mana sense to send signals. 

They had a code for a few things. It was Morse code, translated into mana pulses that Roland had taught them. Depending on the intensity of the pulse, they formed letters and eventually full sentences. Their high intelligence made it a valid method of communication and was one of the reasons they had been able to continue taking out their opponents.

“They should be able to qualify at this rate…”

He said.

“Only qualify? I bet they’ll be number one again!”

Robert said, thinking Roland was underestimating the group. Regrettably, he couldn’t see the point count just yet, but at this point, there was no reason to hide their skills, so getting the top spot would be advantageous.

While in the previous round there had been no reason to stand out, here, taking the top spot would bring a few advantages into the next round. The treasure hunt grounds in the last area would be much larger than this one, and the hunt would continue for up to three days.

That event was different. The groups were required to actually camp, sleep, and defend themselves from potential night attacks. Such a place would test more than just their skills. It would also test their resilience, planning, and mentality. It wasn’t easy for someone this young to sleep in an unknown environment, and other groups would try to exploit that vulnerability.

“This one is still going to take a while, but remember, we still have two more matches today.”

His golem fights were going well, and after qualifying through these rounds, the best-of-eight tournament would begin. To his surprise, they had not been confronted by any of the more prominent schools, and it was not necessarily strange.

‘Did they play around with the brackets?’

That was his best guess. It was not unusual to separate the best schools from each other, as it was better to showcase them toward the end of the event, when anticipation reached its peak. Keeping the top contenders apart ensured maximum drama for the final stages while also giving the organizers time to adjust to unexpected wildcards like Roland.

That was where the problem lay from his perspective. If this was planned, then it had probably been decided before the event began, not after it had already started. His school was not one of the favorites or top contenders, so if someone had tampered with the placements, they would have had to do it after seeing his golem in action.

There were not many people with the authority to do something like that. The archmages were certainly capable of it, but perhaps he was overthinking things. After seeing the knight golem in action, they might have recognized its true potential and decided to allow it into the top eight without forcing it to fight the absolute strongest schools along the way.

‘Well, there is no use worrying about that. What I should focus on now are the competitions and...’

He moved over to the golem, which was now standing in the storage area. It was not damaged much, but a lot had happened during the fights. Robert had been forced to move and jump around constantly, and some of the joints had been strained. There was no serious damage, per se, but signs of wear and tear were beginning to show.

However, as Roland tended to the repairs, fixed the runes, adjusted the joints, and considered the possibility of adding other armaments, one thing continued to bother him.

“That should be about it. We have an hour, Robert. I’ll see you at the arena.”

His brother was busy watching Lucienne’s competition, so Roland headed outside instead. They were inside the subspace, a pocket dimension belonging to the old sanctuary of an archmage. Around them stood the same protective statues that surrounded the area outside. Roland approached one of them and began to analyze it.

He placed his hand against the stone and began scanning it again, something he had done with several others before. Ever since his sister had mentioned feeling as though something was watching her, he could not shake the feeling that there had been something to it.

Yet even after examining multiple statues, he had found no inconsistencies or signs that someone had attempted to take control of them through an outside force.

‘It’s possible that she was simply tired, or perhaps someone was hiding behind that statue at the time...’

As he looked around, he moved closer while making sure to mask his presence. What he was doing was quite dangerous, but within this subspace, the watchful presence of the archmage was not as intense. Inside the sanctuary proper, the archmage’s presence was much stronger, and there were more protective golems. Here, things were a little more lax.

His hand moved, pressing a small hole into the stone. Then, with a quick sleight of hand, he slipped one of his sensors inside. He immediately used earth magic to seal the hole, hiding the device before anyone could notice what he had done.

Once that was finished, he moved on, casually walking through the streets while observing the people around him. He recorded their mana signatures, expanding his database on the fly.

His options were limited, but he would do whatever he could to keep his sister safe, even if that meant getting on the bad side of the elven archmage who ruled this place.

It looked like he was taking a stroll through the discolored pocket dimension. He made sure not to follow any obvious patterns and even avoided certain areas, as he had already planned out a route beforehand.

What he was hiding were not mapping devices like the ones used in the third ring of the super dungeon, but something far more sensitive. He had prepared a way to hijack the communications between the statues, which would activate whenever something happened, along with some dummy runes that could be quickly altered if necessary.

It was a dangerous game he was playing, where the punishment for being discovered could be catastrophic. The explanation that he was worried about his sister or students would probably not go over well, so he needed to be extremely careful. Yet this was also a strategic move. 

He had been analyzing everything within the sanctuary and the subspace thoroughly over the past few days, making note of where he could place any kind of sensors without being spotted. It would take some time to position them without drawing attention, but he would still do it.

Soon, an hour passed, and another battle for Robert began. At that point, Roland did start to think something was fishy. Their opponent was nothing out of the ordinary, and he had also analyzed the others from the other brackets. Every major powerhouse had been intentionally funneled into matches that were easier to win. That meant the elite academies were preserving their strongest competitors, allowing them to fight weaker opponents and take less damage until the final round.

Roland watched from the vantage point of the preparation bay as the white knight stepped back into the arena. He was up against a middle-quality golem frame, a model that looked similar to the previous ones but was still noticeably different.

It was a heavy construct, quadrupedal, with thick armor and a build focused entirely on defense. The upper section had four arms, each holding a shield to cover a different direction at once. In the middle, there was not really a torso, but rather a firing block equipped with magical cannons.

The tactic this golem employed was simple. Defend with its shields while bombarding the enemy with powerful attack spells. At the moment, it was spewing fire in every direction while Robert danced around it.

While this might have been a problem before, now that Robert could use his shoulder-mounted drone armaments, it would be a breeze. They moved at awkward angles, showering the armored golem with powerful attacks while forcing it to either block them or attempt to shoot down the dodecahedrons from above.

However, that was easier said than done. The golem was clearly not designed to fire upward very much, and there was a limit to the angle of its magical cannons.

The quadrupedal golem pivoted on its stocky limbs, attempting to keep its massive front shields aligned with Robert's movements. A barrage of fireballs erupted from its central firing block, filling the air with oppressive heat and dense smoke.

But Robert did not charge directly into the flames. He easily dodged after predicting the attack path, while the floating armaments above orbited the enemy like a swarm of annoying insects.

The four shields provided near-complete cover from the front and sides, but the top remained exposed. Robert commanded the floating dodecahedrons to rise above the heavy construct.

The enemy operator realized the danger too late. Just as the central cannon was about to fire, the dodecahedrons unleashed a concentrated barrage of attacks, blasting into the firing block and severely damaging it.

“Now!”

Robert yelled through the communication channel while Roland simply watched the spectacle unfolding before him. His sword thrust forward at an astonishing speed, once again momentarily surpassing what his machine’s specifications should have allowed through the use of skills.

The glowing sword tip plunged into a gap between the shields as the opposing golem attempted to protect its upper body. It was a clear defect in the programming it was using, one that could easily be exploited, just as Roland had anticipated.

With that, the battle was practically over. The damage had reached the golem’s internal systems. Its shield limbs began to malfunction, while the cannons started firing in random directions. After a few more attacks, several explosions tore through its frame, and the shield limbs began popping off and flying in various directions.

This time, there were no complaints from the opposing box, and Roland did not expect there to be any in the future. Only one more match remained before they could qualify for the next final round.

After an hour of waiting, their opponent finally revealed itself. It was another frame modeled after some kind of mythical animal. Not a centaur, not a scorpion, but a manticore this time.

It looked as though the monster itself had been forged entirely from metal and magical materials. On the outside, it appeared formidable, boasting reinforced mythril plating along its flanks, a tail tipped with a heavy mana stinger, and flexible metalic limbs that allowed it to mimic the predatory agility of an actual beast. That was also its main weakness. It was trying to mimic an actual beast.

While the end result looked ferocious, the golem’s program was nothing more than a lesser imitation of a living monster. The manticore possessed specific abilities and instincts that did not translate perfectly into a body made of metal and articulated joints. Then there was the predictability. It behaved like an actual monster, following the same familiar patterns that Roland had already studied beforehand.

The match commenced, and the manticore golem lunged forward. Its metallic claws tore through the polished arena floor as it leaped. Its scorpion tail whipped overhead in a deadly arc toward the White Knight, seeking to pierce its armor in a single strike.

To an ordinary spectator, the construct appeared blindingly fast, an apex construct forged from gleaming mythril plating that seemed nearly impossible to defeat. To Roland and Robert, however, it was merely executing a rigid, preprogrammed sequence.

Predicting the movements of a monster was relatively easy, and Robert had a full second of warning before any attack could land. To make matters worse for their opponent, the manticore also had to constantly watch out for aerial bombardments.

The tail came again, but Robert pivoted on his heel, stepping just inside the arc of the striking appendage. The heavy stinger slammed into the stone floor, sending sparks flying violently across the arena.

Before the manticore could retract its primary weapon, Robert raised his sword and brought it down. The enchanted blade severed the tail at its primary joint. Sparks showered across the arena as the severed stinger clattered uselessly onto the stone.

‘This won’t take long... Lucienne should be finishing up her treasure hunt soon. After that, only the finals should be left.’

Roland thought to himself as he listened to the crowds cheer for his golem. Things were going smoothly now, just a few more days and this would finally be over, and he would be free of the Institute forever…