The Runesmith

Chapter 356: Exploring The Other Dungeon.

“Just like they said, there are other undead monsters than skeletons in here.”

“Oooooo…”

There wasn’t much time for him to look over this pale creature as its demise was rather swift. Before the monster could even react it was turned into a walking fire. The thin skin that it was covered by quickly evaporated along with the rest of it.

“This feels like a walk in the park.”

Roland commented while moving closer to the defeated creature. Agni was already looking for the praise inside the corpse and he had to be fast before he decided to swallow it.

“Don’t you dare…”

“Awoo!?”

“You’ll get a stomach ache if you continue to eat those corrupted mana stones…”

Agni whimpered a bit while looking in the direction of the burned Ghoul. A black mana stone was left behind by this creature that was different from the undead skeletons. Instead of having a core, it was more in line with the other regular monsters that dropped mana stones. Undead like this ghoul were considered to be evil and their mana stones cursed. They became ingredients in making cursed weapons and concoctions just like he used regular mana stones for runic crafting.

The black stone was grabbed by him and placed into the storage place. Agni had eaten a previous one and thankfully not succ.u.mbed to the cursed energies inside. Normally the stone would be considered poison. Only thanks to the unique evolution of a divine beast was it possible for the wolf to not receive a backlash. The holy energies inside of his body were somehow able to counter the cursed ones inside the stones.

‘It’s fine with these tier 2 stones, but if he tried to eat a tier 3 mana stone. I wonder if I can do something with those stones…’

There was potentially a new line of research that these stones could help him with. While the regular stones allowed him to buff his main stats, these dark ones could do the reverse. Lowering the main stats of an enemy would come in handy. Making cursed wares would be problematic but this didn’t mean that he wouldn’t go through it. After seeing the undead monsters succ.u.mb to divine spells, he now knew the potential of debuffing.

“Stop sulking, what kind of divine beasts eats mana stones from undead creatures?”

“Woof!”

“Yeah, yeah… Anyway. I think we reached the end of the road, this tunnel doesn’t seem to lead anywhere…”

Roland had climbed up all the possible dungeon levels and reached the end. It confirmed that the group of platinum adventurers had done their job. When looking at the map he couldn’t find any open paths, nor were there any secret ones. This whole level only had a few ghouls running around and lacked the complexity of the corridors that the other levels consisted of.

‘Interesting… The dungeon is moving.’

Myrtle and her party arrived here a while ago. They had placed several sensors in the walls just like he instructed them to. Thanks to this he was now able to calculate the changes as he had saved the previous map. When he overlaid the one from a few weeks ago he could tell that some of the corridors had become enlarged. The number of undead monsters had also increased by one.

‘This room is starting to form into something but at this pace it will take many years until it reaches the top.’

Thanks to some of the mathematical skills and his rather high intelligence he could perform some simple calculations. When taking the expansion rate of the corridors and his current location. Even if the dungeon went straight up it would take more than forty years to reach the top. If he took into account that the dungeon spread out horizontally first, it would probably take even more.

‘I guess I don’t need to worry about this thing reaching one of the other brothers.’

Unless the dungeon went through some type of hastening process, it would not reach the top. What he was previously worried about would not take place for a while. If the dungeon appeared somewhere within Theodore’s lands then he would have the right to claim the whole dungeon for himself. Even more, if it was discovered that he had drilled a hole from the other dungeon to get inside this one. While Arthur would still have some rights here, it was better to not give their opponents any legal validity to pursue.

With that issue somewhat resolved he could now focus on exploration. When going around the upper levels there wasn’t that much to discover besides the change in the monster types. Ghouls like this one became more prevalent but they did not appear as their tier 3 counterparts just yet.

‘The air in the dungeon became a lot more stale and the smell of rotten flesh is everywhere.’

When the dungeon continued to evolve he expected to encounter zombies that could evolve into ghouls. It was as if the skeletal crypt was a whole new region and it kind of reminded him of some information he read before. Some dungeons that had a stricter level divide sometimes changed themes every ten levels or so.

‘If it’s working in this direction, then perhaps it’s going to be the same when I go up.He was banking on maintaining the advantage of divine spells, so encountering monsters that were resistant to it wouldn’t be great. Luckily, at the moment it was just a switch from skeletons to zombies so perhaps instead of them he would just encounter other undead creatures. As long as the main biome was kept all would be fine.

“Let’s see what I have…”

These were two weapons of note that he managed to unearth on the upper levels. The dungeon went for a skeletal theme where he discovered those. The spear tip looked like another skull with a long blade coming out of its open mouth. There were additional spikes around the black skull which contributed to the name. When it came to the dagger the hilt had some smaller skulls here and there to compliment the pitch-dark blade.

The black mithril these weapons were composed of made them a lot heavier than usual. They would not be usable by lower cla.s.ses and probably give others some trouble too. A spear and a dagger required some finesse and having them become heavy could hinder the execution of some skills. If he found something like a battle axe or halberd it would have been much better. With these two here he wasn’t sure if it wouldn’t be better to just melt it down and use the black mithril on new armor pieces.

‘If people don’t find the hidden chambers, I could potentially use it to gather black mithril and make some things where weight won’t be a problem…’

A stationary turret wouldn’t really be affected by the weight as it just needed to remain in place. The metal would make it a lot more resistant to spells and physical attacks. Making a heavy golem was also an option, there was no need for evading if the attacks caused no or limited damage.

‘The rest is just some gold and gems like with the other locations, it isn’t that great.’

While the rewards that he found would make most adventurers happy, he was long past the point of caring about money. What he wanted to find are things that complemented his armor and fighting style or something like Agni’s rare egg. Having a tamed beast of his caliber at his side was more precious than any of the other treasures he discovered during the years of dungeon diving.

‘I guess the good things can only be found fighting bosses…’

The thought did cross his mind. After defeating Emmerson and causing the other head knight to back away, Roland was feeling good about his newfound power. The first boss clear could potentially allow him to gain a special reward just like the time he fought the ruby golem.

From the information he had gathered, the first clear would usually allow a person to get rare rewards without the need for a unique boss sp.a.w.ning. What he defeated when he received Agni’s egg was a stronger boss that had a low probability of appearing. Thus if he discovered the boss chamber, the enemy inside shouldn’t be as troublesome but get him a special reward. The Platinum adventurers didn’t go down that far as the monsters had started to equal their levels.

‘Well, I’ll decide later, I should go back.’

After packing up he glanced at his map once more. While his a.s.sociates did place sensors around the levels he had to fill in some holes. Now all the levels going up were showing up and ready to give him all the information he needed. Only after securing these devices in place could one of his new money-making schemes come to fruition.

‘I could shove off some of the manufacturing onto the dwarven runesmiths, I bet the Chief will like the idea.’

There was a little pet project that involved the dungeon that he had been working on. Now that he had free access to the dwarven union resources it had become feasible. If it all worked out then they would create a secondary revenue stream and also make this whole place a lot safer to traverse.

“Would be nice if this place had some hidden staircases, going back will take me a few hours.”

While the levels became smaller and smaller as a person traveled up, the corridor placement made them harder to get through. However, he did have one ace in the hole. With the help of his map, it was possible to calculate the shortest route back to the stairs. It was one option but there were also better solutions that he already tested out in the original dungeon.

“Come Agni, we are going to be taking a shortcut.”

“Woof?”

Soon the two made their way to the corner of this unfinished chamber. Roland didn’t even need to go far to get to the shortcut that he just needed to create for himself. Each of the new levels had a different staircase placement but when it came to their location, all of them were on top of each other. It was like a cone that was getting smaller and smaller when traveling up and this fact could be used to go down rather fast.

“The ground is the thinnest here…”

After squatting down and placing his hand on the floor he was able to determine the thickness thanks to various magical sensors. Now it was just a matter of punching a big enough hole for him and Agni to fit through. Previously he would have gone with a forceful approach but with his current level and knowledge of spells, there were other options.

His gauntlets started glowing with the inscribed runes on them becoming visible to the naked eye. The effect wasn’t instantaneous but after a few seconds, a dark orange glow appeared at the spot he was holding his hand over. Slowly but surely the effect of the spell became visible as the hard rocks started to soften up.

Instead of forcing an opening by injecting a ma.s.sive amount of mana, Roland decided to use an enhanced earth spell. It started turning the ground into soft sand and the effect continued to spread downward. Within a few minutes, he could see the result as the softened earth started sliding down until only a large hole remained in its place.

“It worked… this is a lot better than drilling through but also takes a lot more mana.”

After standing up he could still see some of the soil dripping down as if it was water. This spell was a variation of a quicksand trap spell. The original would turn a designated area into quicksand but it couldn’t be focused in one spot as much. With his runic knowledge now reaching a higher point, manipulating such a spell to do his bidding was quite easy.

“Common, you should be able to fit through… Should I put you on a diet?”

“Awoo!”

Agni was the first one to go through the hole but for a moment his now bigger wolven body had become stuck. Only after receiving a few pushes from Roland was he able to squeeze down into the lower dungeon level. Following his descent, Roland also jumped down and the two headed over to the next location to repeat the same process. The trip back that would have normally taken them a good few hours was hastened to twenty minutes.

The way to the upper levels was now open for him and the feeling of sleepiness was not affecting him at all. His skills allowed him to almost not rest for an entire week and made it perfect for visiting this place while also maintaining his other work. His aim was to spend a few good days exploring here and then sleep it off when he returned. He had stopped looking at his body with the same logic of his old world.

Sleeping a few hours every couple of days was more than enough to keep him going. With his body going through all the tier 3 enhancements, his sleeping habits had become even worse. Even when he promised himself to take it easy, his responsibilities just grew. His proclivity for worrying about everything and everyone around him just wouldn’t let him sleep at night. The intrusive thoughts always won out and sleep continued to evade him.

‘Should I go back, or go down for more…’

Agni sniffed at the air where the stairs down were heading. The monsters at his old training area didn’t go over level one hundred sixty. When he went down a level they would be enhanced further and become more dangerous. His aim was to explore everything and to at least get within level two hundred in a short amount of time. For this, he would need to venture to an area where the monsters were around level hundred eighty which was around three levels below this one.

‘I should be fine as long as I just retrace the steps of that party.’

Perhaps if it was him from the past then he would have decided to leave it at this and return home. With how things stood the monsters below wouldn’t pose much of a threat. They were no match for Agni and his own divine spells. Going down lower would not be a problem and there was much to explore. With confidence, he took the first step forward and descended down the circular staircase to arrive at the next area.

“Well… look at that… Either my luck is really low or high…”

To his surprise, the first monster that he encountered was something familiar. The Lich looked similar to the one he encountered previously but there were some subtle differences. The most eye-catching one was the color of the flames which was pure red and not green as in the Purgatory Lich variant. It was also not alone, next to it stood two Skeletal Champions. One was armed with a broadsword and a kite shield while the other was holding a large glaive, a quite uncommon weapon.

‘It didn’t spot me yet… What should I do?’

He looked at Agni who was standing at attention. His canine companion remembered his blunder during the Lich’s attack so perhaps he wanted to regain some lost trust. Previously he had to be saved from the much stronger monster and even though this one was of a higher level, with the help of the holy energies their victory was likely.

‘Its level is slightly lower and it’s a different variant but it should have a similar array of spells…’

“Agni, I’ll make them focus their attention on me, do you think you can get behind the Lich?”

“Woof!”

Roland nodded while maintaining the sound-canceling spell. A runic version of it was inscribed into Agni’s armor which would allow him to quietly move into the battlefield. After the plan was made the duo got into gear. His large armor made a lot of noise as he ordered his flying cubes to start lighting up the place.

The two champions instantly focused on the noise and started charging forward. Their Lich friend on the other hand didn’t move from the spot but instead started casting some type of defensive spell. It didn’t take long to cast and a strange dark shield appeared around the two monstrous skeletons that were coming his way.

It was a mana shield combined with dark mana. This type of shield would decrease people"s stamina the moment it was touched and even cause a sickness debuff. However, this only happened if it was directly touched or destroyed at close range. With his armor and barrage of spells that the floating cubes produced, it was shredded to nothingness by the enhanced divine mana bolt spell.

Roland’s plan was working, the three were focusing on him and the Lich continued to cast various supportive spells at the Skeletal Champions that were suffering from divine poisoning. It even started using the same skill that the Purgatory Lich used to summon more skeletal minions. However, they lacked dark coloring and were more similar to regular infernal skeletons.

“Agni, use it now!”

“Awooo!”

Just as an elite skeleton was formed a beam of light exploded. A large flaming wolf appeared and doused the whole area in rays of sunlight. The monster that was more than ten levels above him could not withstand the torrent of energy. His mana veil was quickly destroyed and a hole appeared inside the skeletal chest. The skull followed soon after as a critical hit landed on the monster"s core that could not shift it away in the same fashion as the Purgatory Lich did.

The leader was dead and taking out the two remaining champions proved to not be a problem. All the work that he put into gaining this newfound strength had not been in vain and he could not wait to descend even further down. Gaining levels fast was quite an intoxicating feeling and he was just getting into it.