The Runesmith

“No, stay away…”

An old man was trembling while a strange humanoid creature that seemed to be missing a head was approaching him. This creature’s head was a mass of squiggly tentacles with one being much larger with a sharp claw-like appendage at the tip.

“The hell are you doing just sitting there?”

The monster swung its thick rope-like tendril toward the old man that just froze in place. Luckily for the man, the attack was bounced back by a large sword that belonged to an adventurer. This man was not alone as a dwarf was right to the side and ready to pierce the monster’s head with a halberd while it was distracted.

“These shits are annoying, why are there so many of them?”

There was a third member of this small party, a large woman that was using a big axe to cleave another one of these creatures in half. These monsters had just appeared all over the place, even in the restaurant these three were staying. This event sparked widespread panic as everyone was running for their lives.

“This must be related to the cult… they look similar to that thing we saw in the village.”

Orson, who delivered another attack on the downed monster, shouted. While the humanoid creatures with tentacles for heads weren’t an exact copy of the Abyssal Abomination they had seen in the village, the structure of their floppy appendages was somewhat similar. The group of adventurers also knew about the head parasites and were able to make an informed conclusion.

“Is this whit happens whin ye git infected by they bugs?”

Darlak looked at the defeated monster and how its head started dissolving into a dark goop. This was quite similar to what happened to the monster Loreena defeated which supported his claim.

“Where did Senna and Wayland run off to and why does this shit keep happening whenever we are around him?”

Orson clicked his tongue while remembering the fiasco in the mines where he almost lost his life. Their life after that encounter wasn’t nearly as deadly until they had a run-in with Roland once more. Now after the third fiasco took place the two-handed swordsman was starting to believe that his old acquaintance was cursed.

“How ‘bout you stop whining like a little girl and kill some monsters instead?”

Grisalde shouted from the side while deflecting a bladed tentacle from another monster. All three of them had gone outside the restaurant as some patrons had turned into these strange Abyssal creatures. To not be stuck in a confined space with beings that flailed their strange appendages at high speeds they decided to jump outside through the window. Now they were fighting for their lives along with some soldiers and other closeby adventurers.

“They went tae that clocktower, tis nae far should we go thare or wait for em ‘ere?”

Dalrak used his shield to back into one of the flailing monsters. Thanks to his smaller height and large tower shield it was difficult for the monsters to get through his defenses. With the monster down on the ground, it was easy to jab his spear into its body but soon he realized that poking anything other than the head would not cause much damage.

“Let’s move, it's better than sitting here and waiting for the monsters to surround us…”

Orson replied while helping Darlak get rid of the Abyssal Spine Eater. While they had left the restaurant to not be boxed in, the outside space wasn’t that much better. There were a few options and one of them was to rendezvous with their other party members to bolster their forces.

“Have you two made up your mind? I don’t care, we can just stay here, these bastards aren’t that hard to kill.”

Their barbarian friend didn’t seem that impressed with the quality of the opponents she was facing. They were all below level one hundred and didn’t pose that much of a threat. Yet soon enough she would realize that the individual strength of these creatures was not what they should worry about.

“Wait, what are those things doing?”

While looking towards the clock tower where Senna and Roland disappeared the group of three noticed a peculiar scene unfolding. Even though soldiers and adventurers were trying to protect the non-combatants it was impossible. Some of them were being devoured by these Abyssal Spine Eaters.

What Orson had noticed was a larger group of about ten feasting on the flesh of others. Their tentacles slid into the dead bodies which soon after started drying up as if their vitality was leaving them. The thick tendrils that were performing this absorption technique started getting bigger and wider as if the monsters gained more strength. This was followed by a visible increase in the size of those Abyssal Spine Eaters.

“Those things… Are they evolving?”

Evolution was something that happened to monsters when they reached a certain level threshold. It was a slow process that was akin to leveling classes but without the troublesome need of buying a class up a crystal or passing a trial. There were certain laws that governed them but for some reason, these creatures were breaking the logic of this world by reaching smaller evolutions.

The gruesome act continued to unfold before the group of adventurers. It was as if these monsters realized that they would not be able to win against people of the races gathered here. Instead, they all flocked to one location where the pile of corpses was increasing.

Their monstrous heads were covered with strange appendages sunk into all that meat. More and more of the strange beings appeared and practically tossed themselves into this ball of gore. They were devouring not only the dead people but each other as well, forming something more dastardly and similar to what the three adventurers remembered from their visit to the village.

“Shit… we must leave…”

“Aye…”

Dalrak and Orson were in agreement, the creature that was forming there was not something they would be able to handle. It was similar to the abomination that now haunted their nightmares. Even if it was only a lesser evolved variant it wasn’t something they could easily combat in this open street where it could absorb more people to heal itself.

“Wait, what’s that under the thing… a magic circle?”

Before they decided to jump back they noticed that there was a glowing circle with strange glowing runes under the monster. While they were not magically inclined they had seen some lesser mages perform similar feats. When aiming for a wide-area attack a mage could construct a circle from far away and it would appear on the ground before the spell took shape.

“Hey, it took you long enough, are you two done with your honeymoon?”

“Shut your trap, you drunk bastard!”

Orson smiled as he noticed a certain halfling hanging from the side of a nearby building. It was clear to him to whom the magical circle belonged. With the absence of any chants, it was obvious who the mage performing this spell was.

The magic circle that was blue in color started shifting to orange and then quickly became red. The temperature surged around the area as a pillar of condensed flames appeared from within. The flames burst upwards while quickly changing into the shape of a twister.

The creature that was not formed gave out a wail of pain that sent shivers down everyone's spine. Its tentacles started flailing around in every direction causing widespread damage but the spell continued to burn. Orson along with Dalrak had to cover their faces as the storm of fire expanded in scope while producing tremendous wind.

…

Roland stood there with his sword back in his scabbard. It was replaced by the spell staff that allowed him to perform some spells faster. Senna along with him had returned to the restaurant to search for their friends only to encounter more of those strange monsters. They didn’t pose much of a problem for them but were certainly too much for the confused guards and commoners to handle.

After taking out a few they arrived where Orson and the others were. While the group of three seemed to be fine there was a large problem. The Abyssal Spine Eaters were fusing with each other and mutating. He was able to use his identification skill to analyze the creature's name.

The thing had not fully formed when he arrived at his destination. Roland had seen the tier 3 version in action but even a lesser variant was probably deadly. The mass of tentacles wasn’t forming as hastily as the one back at the village and it would not be able to finish the transformation.

Thus he decided to apply one of his runic spells. The spell he was using was called ‘Firestorm’ it was created by combining fire and wind runes together. By feeding it more air the flames would be riled up and forced to circulate around the targeted area to increase the temperature.

If it was possible then he would choose to use a divine spell to which these monsters were susceptible too. Yet without any current knowledge, he went with the closest thing to it, fire. There was a reason why people in this world decided to burn evil beings as besides the holy element it was good at cleansing abyssal creatures like this one.

Normally this high tier 2 spell would require a mage that specialized in two elements before being created. Roland on the other hand could go around all the requirements with his runes. The only drawback was the increase in mana usage and drop in power compared to the original version. Yet these he was already circumventing by having various skills that raised his MP and increased the damage of runic spells cast by him.

“GUOHHh….”

The monster was burning up before his eyes. It had sealed its fate by deciding to mutate right then and there. At this stage of its evolution, it could not move or evade the powerful spell that continuously burned that dark flesh. Its weak point that was somewhere on the inside of that disgusting body was not as hard to pinpoint as with the tier 3 version of this monster. Thus soon enough the flailing tendrils halted in mid-air and dropped to the ground.

“Damn, is it dead?”

“Yeah, it's dead.”

“Are you sure? Won’t it regenerate like the one in the village?”

“No, I’m sure it's dead.”

Roland looked towards Orson that was inching towards the Lesser Abyssal Abomination. After being burned to a crisp its body started dissolving into a dark liquid that was similar to a slime’s. It seemed that the creature was similar but was able to keep a more fleshy form than its common slime counterpart.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Aye.”

Before continuing further he glanced at the three adventurers. They didn’t seem injured in any way just out of breath after the sudden battle. All the monsters in this area had swarmed towards one location which made it easy to destroy them with one well-placed spell but this battle was not over.

“These things…”

“Hey Wayland what are you doing, we need to get out of here, how about we go to the guild? I’m sure those monsters won’t be able to get in there easily!”

Senna shouted out towards him while he approached one of the defeated monsters. This one’s head was now just a puddle of black goop but the host's clothes and body were still somewhat there. When going through the city he had noticed something, a lot of these monsters were wearing gear that was sold at the adventurer guild. It was clear to him that it was all due to the village that the Abyssal Cult had taken over. These poor bastards had probably gone through escort missions and been infected by the larvae.

“I don’t think that the guild is safe, the whole merchant district is probably infected…”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it, you’ve seen that village. They had probably been there for many months, maybe even for years, how many people did they infect? This whole city might be done for, we need to leave.”

Senna was shocked as her idea to go towards the adventurer guild was shot down. If Roland was right then those monsters had already burst forth inside of the guild and a massive battle was taking place there. The merchants that traveled through that place always took a large gathering of soldiers and travelers with them.

“Shit, where should we go then? To the church?”

Orson asked while looking around nervously. Even though they had managed to defeat the monsters here they could hear people screaming in the distance. Fires were burning and other battles were taking place. The city guards had their hands full and if they weren’t fast the monsters would start mutating.

“I’m not sure if the church will let anyone in we should probably leave the city by ourselves”

Senna said and Roland just nodded in agreement. That radiant shield was still around the church; it was clear that they were more concerned about their own safety. The protective barrier would probably keep the priests and church safe but deactivating it to let people inside was not something the church was willing to do. Their priority was to keep their assets safe and not the people of the city.

“That’s fine with me, let's just go!”

“Wait you idiot, do you even know where to go?”

Orson placed his sword over his shoulder and was about to step in a random direction before Senna stopped him.

“What is it now, you just said that we should leave?”

“Go where? Do you know where the gate is? Do you think the soldiers will just let us out? What if we run into more of those monsters?”

“You’re annoying, if we run into them we can just kill them!”

Orson smacked his chest as if he had it all figured out while Senna’s eyes twitched. While Roland was keeping out of their argument it was worrying. His mapping device was showing monsters everywhere, some of the dots were larger and confirmed that some of them had started evolving.

The problem was the lack of information, there was an unconfirmed number of these creatures here and it could get worse. What if more of those tier 3 tentacle things start spawning while the golden order was outside the city at the village. When he visited the church earlier he could not see anyone above tier 2. His main worry was that all the strong combatants had left to secure the relic leaving them with a lesser force.

‘Will the city lord come out or will he concentrate his forces on the noble district…’

He didn’t even need to ponder this question as he already knew the answer. There was no possibility of a noble ordering his forces to help the commoners. All the important figures lived in the rich district that probably was being attacked as well. Only when they had secured it would the noble troops start clearing out the lower districts and the church would also probably only bunker up and wait.

“Does anyone of you know the layout of the city?”

“No, it's the first time we are here.”

Roland posed the question to everyone but he was left with shrugs and head shakes after Senna replied. The city was large and there were probably ways of getting around it while minimizing the risks of being attacked.

‘Shit, there is probably a way of reaching everything through the underground. A city like this must have a thieves guild and underground tunnels to the key locations.’

Senna was a trickster so he assumed that she might have been informed about Reeka's thieves guild. Without a proper guide, they would be forced to go through the monster-infested streets instead.

“Get off her ye fucker”

“Huh?”

During his deliberations, he heard a familiar voice that belonged to a woman that he had met in the morning. It was coming from behind the corner and was followed by a death groan of a monster.

‘Wait that voice, wasn’t that?’