The Runesmith

Summoning existed in this world, it was a separate field from elemental magic that was considered extremely strong in the right hands. Like any other school of magic, there were variations in the techniques used. One subsection utilized ritualistic ceremonies with offerings to the being it wanted to procure. Other ones were dedicated by simple class skills, contracts, and occult sacrifices.

One thing united all of those types of summoning practices: the creature that appeared always required something for their services. It could be something simple as the magic caster’s mana or something darker like a part of their soul. This was one of the reasons why demonic magicians were so feared as they could offer up other people as sacrifices to gain a fast boost to their power.

Demons weren’t very particular about who they were getting their part of the deal from. If a demon summoner rounded up a village of people and performed the desired ritual the monster would oblige. A contract between the summoned creature and the summoner would be formed. After the contractor just needed their mana to jolt their contracted being over to this world.

A lot of things depended on the type of contract. The summoned creature could constantly siphon mana from its user while it was on this side or just take a bulk cut at the beginning. The first type could potentially put the contracted being into an almost permanent summoning. The caster just needed to have enough mana regeneration to offset the amount being used. It was somewhat similar to the buffing runes that Roland used in his armor which took a fixed amount of mana.

Thus he asked himself this question, what was the type of summoning that the Lich was using? Did it offer up the flesh of the monsters and people it killed to get it here or was it just offering it mana? Did the black-boned skeletons have a time limit or did the Lich need to spend his own magic to prolong the stay here?

‘There are always rare summoning skills that don’t cost anything and are on a timer…’

That one was the worst-case scenario. A person could just use a timed skill to summon monsters with almost no penalties. Most of the time such skills had a limit on the creatures that were summoned. The high-tier undead summon had flown away with its master but it wasn’t the only one there. Just as those two vanished into the horizon another one appeared before them.

“Hey Wayland, stop spacing out, think we might need some of that magic over here…”

Roland had to turn his head towards Armand that was shouting. While the injured Lich made his escape another problem arose. The army of lower level tier 2 skeletons continued to attack but they were getting dispatched by the adventurers and guards that made it safely from the other side. Normally this would be a great chance to set up a barrier while the miners fled.

To everyone's surprise, not one but two strange-looking undead appeared before them. The one in the front was a lot larger than the rest. Just like the obsidian gargoyle that escaped with the Lich the two had charred black bones.

He could see their names and levels, it seemed that their levels were all uniform. This was probably the limit of the skill their master was using. The Beast Soldier’s body was around four meters tall. It had long limbs and claw-like hands with a skeletal structure similar to that of a gorilla. The head looked similar to that of a stag with sharper teeth than usual.

The other one wasn’t much bigger than the other regular blazing skeletons. Its face was similar to the other one as the antlers were poking out of the pitch black robe it was wearing. In its right hand, it was holding a staff that radiated green flames just like the ones its master flung around.

It was clear that the larger one was the close-quarters combatant while the mage would be delivering support spells from the back. With the addition of so many foot soldiers, it would be quite a hard nut to crack. Without giving anyone any time to prepare a strange wail escaped from the larger skeleton.

“Shit…”

His ears were on fire as he was hit with the sound attack. It was a wide-range disabling attack that caught all the adventurers off guard. Even Armand and Wedamir that were high-level tier 2 warriors, could not resist it. They went down to their knees while clutching their ears. Luckily for them, they had a member in their party that had prepared for this type of occasion.

Roland’s armor initiated an automated defense spell that canceled out the sound from reaching his ears. He needed to work fast as the Skeleton Beast Soldier continued to howl while his ally pointed his staff made of bones up. The skull at the end of it started to give up a green glow through its empty eye sockets. This concluded with a large sphere of green fire forming above the spot it was pointing at.

This forced Roland to quickly abandon the smoking cannon that he used to injure the Lich. Instead, he grabbed his own elongated kite shield. It had the length of a regular tower shield but was narrower at the bottom. With it in his hand, he jumped towards his allies that were holding their heads together. Even when trying they were not able to shake off the stunning effect.

When he arrived before them there was not much time. The only reason he was able to activate the shield's defensive spells was due to it being a runic item. The skeletal mage was still forced to chant out the spell that looked like a giant ball of green flames. Without help from others, mages like these could not utilize grand spells to their full potential. Yet during times of war, there was no greater weapon than a battalion of mages flinging powerful destructive spells.

Finally, the ball of green flames was flung forward by the monster. It collided with multiple layers of shields that Roland set up in a hurry. The first one shattered almost instantly and the second one took only half a second to burst as well. Only when the spell arrived at the last one did it stop in its tracks before exploding.

Even when his spells managed to block most of the damage he could feel his health dropping. Armand and Wedamir that were behind him tumbled away but were mostly fine but this was not the end. The skeletal mage raised his staff up again and was already preparing to cast another spell. His ally on the other hand was luckily out of breath and the stunning effect of his shout wore off.

“We need to retreat!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

“Aye…”

The three men were of the same mind. There was no way of them winning this and the miners had been evacuating for a while. After dropping their tools earlier they had made some space between the main skeletal forces. Only a few adventurers had stayed behind as they thought that handling the lower tier 2 skeleton soldiers wouldn’t be that hard. No one expected two tier 3 monsters to quickly appear out of the blue.

‘The monster is clearly a tier 3 but the spell it used was somewhat on the weaker side…’

Roland came to this conclusion after standing up. Normally he shouldn’t be able to take something like that with this little prep. He expected the last magical spell to burst before activating his armor's defensive mechanism to ride the shockwave. Instead, his shield was able to last through it by just burning copious amounts of mana instead.

This was probably a limit of the High-Mage class that this monster had. The spells weren’t quite at the tier 3 level. Perhaps the initial level of hundred fifty and his own raised stats put him somewhat around these two creatures' level. Yet he was just one man and didn’t think he could handle both of them alone, not even if Agni or the adventurers helped out it wouldn't change much. Escaping was still the most sensible conclusion and for that, he at least needed to shake these two off.

“Hey, keep them back from me for a second.”

“Huh?”

Wedamir was startled as Roland threw the shield at him. Even though the two obsidian undead were the main problem there was still a swarm of the blazing skeletons to tackle. After a quick glance towards Armand that nodded to the dwarf, the two put themselves between the charging monsters while Roland looked up.

This area was vast but they were still underground. The ceiling above them was filled with stalactites formed from hard rock. Normally no one would be stupid enough to attempt blowing up the ceiling but all of them were in a life and death situation. There was a nice row of pointy rocks right above the black skeletal mage.

The other larger monster was keeping a close watch on the caster. It seemed as if these two were ordered to stick together. The large one would perhaps stun and bat away any people trying to get close to the mage while it used the wide-area spells to kill everyone around them.

Thus while Armand and his new dwarven friend were distracting the skeletons that got through the puddles he grabbed the rest of his throwable discs. These were quickly flung up into the air. With the help of his throwing skill and their self-sticking properties, they made their way up to the ceiling.

To top it all off he also grabbed his hammer staff with both hands. His aim was to deliver as much force and have the whole place cave in on the monsters. The mage could see what he was doing and so did the larger skeleton. It didn’t seem that these two were intelligent enough to see through the tactic as they remained at their spot. The ball of flame continued to expand but it would not be thrown again.

Right before the mage could point the spell towards the group of adventurers a huge explosion rocked the entire place. As the bombs exploded a burst of mana escaped from Roland’s own weapon. It was a chaotic orb of energy that after colliding with the ceiling continued to drill itself in further while sending off smaller shockwaves. These caused quite a mess and produced a smokescreen.

“Retreat!”

Shouted Roland as the spell connected with the desired spot.

“Woah!”

Armand shouted back while glancing up towards the destruction. No one really needed to hear the retreat order as they booked it for the hills. The whole upper area of the dungeon quickly came crashing down. This was coupled with lava, ash, and debris that made their way toward the skeletal forces and their two commanding officers.

Roland was running as well but his gaze was pointed in another direction. There he locked eyes with the mule golem that started moving in the opposite direction of the fleeing people. It pained him to do this but he wanted to have a secondary plan that would guarantee their escape. For this reason, he needed to sacrifice one of his creations.

The only thing that he rushed in for was the cannon that he discarded after the blast. This thing could still be used so after grabbing it he started running. Agni was right next to his master, when one of the weaker skeletons approached he was quickly dispatched by an angry dire wolf. The bones that these monsters were made of could not handle even one bite.

“Hey, move it if you don’t want to die.”

To Roland’s surprise, Armand did not abandon him. Instead, he remained close by and just waited, perhaps the man was not as bad as he previously thought. While he had a drinking problem and was focused on carnal pleasures he did keep him company during this crisis. Soon the two were both running while the obsidian skeletons were covered in rubble.

Yet while the white skeletal minions started getting crushed under all the falling rock the two troublesome ones weren’t. The mage produced a shield of green flames that was similar to its masters. It didn’t have quite the same output but was enough to protect it from the falling rocks. The soldier type with the head of a stag didn’t even move, the rocks that collided with its thick bones just bounced back as if it was just a minor inconvenience.

The whole area became flooded with dust and rock. From within this cloud of ash, the larger black skeleton burst forth. Its jump was tremendous as it almost fully avoided the blasting zone with just two strides. After giving out another loud howl it started picking up speed and running after the escaping adventurers.

Leaving the mage to its own devices was something that Roland calculated into his secondary plan which was slowly moving towards the monster. This was the mule golem’s last hoorah, its whole outer shell was producing glowing runes that were digging into the bulky chassis. This magical phenomenon pulled the monster in as it charged at the golem with the intention of killing it.

The last Obsidian Skeleton Beast Soldier jumped up while stretching out its long limbs over its head. Its intent was to slam those large fists of it on the slow-moving golem before chasing after the others. This was of course a trap, the moment those hands collided with the mule’s glowing shell another explosion rocked the entire area.

This one was on the same level as the one in the middle of the lake but much brighter. The black figure of the monster was fully swallowed up by the bright light. The adventurers that felt the surge of mana taking over could not help but look back. There they could see an armored man sprinting towards them who was not looking back at the explosion he produced.

Over his shoulder, he was carrying a huge cannon but it didn’t seem to be weighing him down at all. Without saying anything Roland caught up to Armand that instantly followed suit. Everyone was in full evacuation mode and quickly they caught up to the miners that weren’t boosted as much as the combat class holders.

‘This should give us some time…’

Roland started slowing down as his group reached the miners. Other people started crowding in from the sides. It was clear that the message had gone through and everyone was on board with the evacuation effort. Some adventurers had even formed a defensive line to block any potential monsters. Others were moving forward to battle the creatures on the upper levels which were also a potential risk.

The system message rang in his head indicating that he had defeated a weak monster. Normally he wouldn’t be interested in it as similar ones had ringed in his head but each one had given him ten experience points. Reanimated skeleton soldiers gave considerably fewer points for killing them.

Perhaps this thousand came from one of the black summoned creatures that would also give a diminished amount of experience. It seemed that something had put in place a barrier for grinding. It would not allow people to farm summoned creatures that could be easily replaced by mana or resources.

While the explosion proved that the summoned monsters could be killed by his creations it didn’t fix the problem. The Lich could probably create more of those soldiers and they could even work with each other. Even though their tactics were crude they would still make things harder for anyone facing them. With a lack of a proper platinum rank party, this dungeon was a lost cause, and perhaps the swarm of skeletal soldiers that they faced was only the tip of the iceberg.

Where the Lich took off was a mystery to everyone but with the flight capabilities of that gargoyle, it could have made its way to ledges people would not be able to reach. It would not be that simple to find the injured monster and he was not in a state to hunt something like it down alone. His only option was to return home and prepare for the worst but as he was evaluating his choices he heard a characteristic rattling of bones coming from the area they just fled from.