The Runesmith

The Bladed Volcanic Xornotaurus lay down on the ground, its large body missing a head that had rolled over to the side. The battle was over and Roland could hear the system giving him a message.

…

Roland dropped down onto his posterior and started panting. He soon collapsed onto his back while having a hard time breathing. His eyes started to close but before he could pass out he felt something slippery touch his face.

It was Agni that had limped over from the side, his tamed beast had been knocked away and suffered some injuries after being clawed. He was bleeding and his side had a large gash.

“Good boy…”

Agni received a weak pat on the head before Roland raised himself into a sitting position. The injured wolf’s legs started giving out but Roland was quick in catching his injured beast.

With shaky hands, Roland reached into his satchel. During the hectic fight, he didn’t even have time to drink one of these potions, now they were needed to save Agni.

He quickly brought out one of the healing potions and started pouring it over Agni’s large wound. It started sizzling and slowly closing. Thanks to their connection he could see Agni’s status screen, after checking it he could see the bleeding status slowly being grayed out before disappearing.

Roland gave out a sigh of relief, his tamed beast would make it out alive while also gaining a couple of levels. He was next in line to drink some recovery potions, mana, health, and stamina potions quickly made it into his mouth as he recovered.

He was preoccupied with his party members but he could hear the system mention that he had gained multiple levels from gaining so much experience.

Robert was holding onto his broken shoulder while also collapsing onto his back. He could tell that his older brother was quite tired. Lucille at this time was face down on the ground as well, she had probably passed out from using up all of her mana during that last spell.

The experience in this world was somewhat shared and depending on who did the most damage they would receive most of it. Even though the two contributed less than him, they would also be receiving quite a lot. Robert would most likely be handsomely rewarded due to him landing the finishing blow.

The title gave a flat boost to damage, he had also gained some levels after this fight. This one dead monster gave him the equivalent of fighting hundreds of those ruby salamanders. If he had to choose, he would rather fight hundreds of those smaller monsters one by one than face this thing alone again.

“Ugh…wish these potions worked faster… where is a priest when you need one.”

Priests and clerics like the woman that they brought along had various buffing magics. They would allow the party members to recover their mana and stamina at a quicker pace. It would have been nice if that healer they had taken along had fallen down here with them, but luckily he didn’t lose any limbs.

His right hand was in a world of hurt. He received a full hit from that monster that destroyed both his sword and rod. The pieces were still scattered around this large open cavern.

‘This thing needs a rework…’

Roland looked at his right hand on it was the melted attachment that he placed on his wrist. It had somewhat fused with his gauntlet at this point and rendered it nothing more than junk.

With this he had lost both of his hand protectors and would be unable to discharge spells through them. His armor was also barely holding together, the only lucky thing about this was that his helmet had stayed on his head for the entire battle. Thus Robert could not see his face even after all of this had happened.

‘I need to give them the healing potions.’

Finally, Roland moved his tired and beat-up body in motion. Robert had a whole broken shoulder after holding steady and protecting Lucille as a proper knight. He had to give it to his older brother, he had some balls.

He prioritized the woman’s life over his own even though he could have easily just abandoned her. Roland wasn’t sure how deep of a relationship these two had but he hoped that the girl would appreciate the gesture when she woke up.

“Are you awake?”

“B-barely…”

Robert gave Roland a weak smile while looking pale.

“Your shoulder… I’ll have to…”

“I know… get it over with…”

Robert knew that the broken bone needed to be aligned before the healing potion was drunk. Roland was not a cleric but he knew first aid and would be able to push the bone into the right place.

“Argh….”

Robert gave out a grunt while pushing the fingers from his good arm into the rocky ground. After the bones were somewhat set in place, Roland poured the red healing potion on the injury. Then the rest was given for drinking.

These potions were high quality and would be even able to heal the broken bones within a few hours of being drunk. For faster healing, something like an elixir would be required or a powerful cleric spell.

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine but Lady Lucille.”

“You should think about your own health before worrying about others…”

Roland stood up and moved towards the passed-out frost mage. She had a magnificent face planted on the ground while making a T pose. This was one of those times when he missed having a smartphone to document it for future generations.

Before Robert could shout at him from the distance he flipped the girl over. She was given a mana potion, healing potion, and a stamina potion. Lucille had the least amount of wounds besides a few scratches here and there. Robert had successfully managed to protect her life at his own expense.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters around for now, there was even a chest that popped up in the middle of this chamber. It was similar to the one at the boss room on the 10th level with the biggest difference being that it was made of silver.

“My Lady…”

Even before his arm could heal Robert had dragged his body over to the passed-out Lucille. The group of three and the wolf were now sitting all together and resting. Finally, after a few minutes Lucille awoke, the first thing she saw was Robert’s concerned face that was quite close to her own.

“Sir Robert?”

She quickly raised her head out of panic which made her forehead collide with Robert’s nose. The two started holding their faces while Roland stared at the comedic duo, a small chuckle even escaped from his mouth that he quickly hid away by moving his helmet-covered face to the side.

“What happened… Where is the monster? Is Sir Wayland alive?”

“I’m fine, thanks for your concern, Lady Lucille.”

“Sir Wayland! You are well!”

“Relax, breathe in, Sir Robert, can you explain to the lady and calm her down?”

Roland stood up after resting for a bit and let the knight talk to his lady. While he explained how the monster was defeated, Roland would go over to the treasure chest.

It was quite the well-built chest that was somewhat a carbon copy of the bronze one he saw in the Ruby Golem boss chamber. It didn’t seem to have any locks or traps on it but Roland was not willing to risk it. He would rather not get shot by some strange spells or arrows when he opened it.

He grabbed the bladed part of his broken arming sword that he finally found. With it, he slowly moved the chest lid open. Just like with the bronze chest there was nothing out of the ordinary. When looking inside he could see some items.

‘Deep silver huh?’

Just like deep steel, there were other alloys similar to it. Even though this one was called deep-silver it didn’t mean that it was less sturdy than steel. The silver counterpart was quite similar in that regard but it had some other properties like having added damaging effects against undead creatures.

Roland did not think the added price was worth the expenditure so he continued using deep steel. Both of these metals had the same resistance to runic erosion so it didn’t matter that much to him.

‘This will come in handy…’

Roland held the weapon out, it was a long two-handed weapon more in line with a halberd than an actual axe. He did not have his axe-related skills leveled up that much but this was better than not having a weapon at all. The added strength would also boost his attacking power for when they entered the corridor filled with those monsters.

Besides the weapon, there were three deep-silver bars along with some silver coins. These dungeon coins could be used along with the minted kingdom coins as everything was still being counted by this world’s system as the same.

Roland felt like this reward was not that great. The monster trashed his armor and destroyed his deep steel weapons. It also put a big dent in his runic shield that he lent to his half-brother, all in all, this would probably barely cover the repair costs.

There was also the problem of not being able to take the monster along with them for parts. This T-rex look-alike would probably go for some gold coins, its tail could probably be fashioned into a two-handed sword.

He lacked a large enough spatial bag to fit it in, he would regretfully have to leave the monster there but there was still one item that he could take, the mana stone.

It was quite large but also deep inside the monster’s insides. This creature was over level hundred and halfway towards tier 3. It was a miracle that they were able to defeat it already.

“We should be safe for the time being…”

“Sir Wayland, what about those monsters behind that large gate? Won’t they enter this room?”

“I don’t think so…”

“How so?”

Asked the blue-haired lady that was in the process of getting her hair in place.

“I have a theory about this hidden dungeon…”

Roland started to explain about finding this place odd. The moment that door was opened the boss appeared but when they entered from the other side nothing happened. This didn’t make sense unless they entered the boss chamber from the wrong side.

The correct path to this boss chamber was probably at another location. The path they took was a secret backdoor.

The creatures behind those gates were just the usual mobs that were protecting the boss chamber. The room was more than likely created in a way that only when the door was opened and then closed did the boss monster spawn in.

“Fascinating… but doesn’t that mean…”

“Yes, if we follow that path we should be able to come out at the intended entrance, which should probably take us to the main dungeon.”

Robert gave out a sigh while Lady Lucille clapped her hands together. She quickly moved her hand to the side to where her pouch was or at least where it should be.

“Huh?”

“Is something wrong Lady Lucille?”

“My items… I think my spatial pouch was destroyed during the monster attack…”

Lucille added while remembering something hitting her side. When a spatial item was damaged from the outside whatever was inside of it became lost in the void. The bag itself would become nothing more than scrap leather.

“We can’t contact Lord Percival now, they might think we are dead!”

“That’s regrettable, we won’t be able to give them our location even when we leave this place…”

This was a setback that Roland could live with. If Robert or Lucille actually reported that he pulled two nobles into a boss fight, he might get the gallows for it. At that time revealing his true heritage would be the only way to save his hide.

The two didn’t seem like they would reveal this secret if he asked them about it. His older brother had surprisingly mellowed down but that could have been the effect of the woman next to him. He might have been holding back, unwilling to show his old violent tendencies.

“I’m not sure if we can stay here for too long.”

“Why is that Sir Wayland?”

Asked Lucille and Roland started to explain to her how these boss chambers worked.

“So Sir Wayland is saying that if we stay here for too long that monster could appear again?”

“Yes, we should not be in any danger for now, but I would not stay here for more than a day… then there is that door.We might have to charge in through it and lock ourselves in with those monsters, if we retreat into this chamber its boss might appear again."

Roland didn’t think he would be able to battle the monster with his broken armor. He might be able to set up a few traps but the only real resource he had was the deep silver he just found, a few metal ores from that hidden chamber, and the boss monsters' remains to scribe some scrolls.

“Is that so…”

Lucille looked at the dead monster that was in the process of being sniffed by a now recovered Agni. It was clear to Roland that his pooch was interested in the sizable mana stone that was still inside that dinosaur.

“Never thought I’d see one of these.”

“You recognize this monster?”

“Yes, I’ve consulted some books to see what kind of creatures inhabit volcanic dungeons like this. I never thought to see a variant of the Volcanic Xornotaurus!”

Lucille’s eyes sparkled a bit, the girl seemingly liked to read about beasts as well. Normally the only version of this monster did not possess a bladed tail. It was also not able to heat itself up as much but still possessed the iconic flame breath.

This type of monster could even evolve into a land dragon if it managed to reach tier 3. It would be still a lesser form of a dragon but still a monster that would require a whole party of tier 3 adventurers to defeat it.

“You should try to regain as much strength as you can, we will have to leave soon.”

Roland said while standing up, he needed to pick up the scrap metal that was once his weapons and armor. Without his gauntlets, he could still somewhat use his feet to produce some magical effects but he would need to change his fighting style. There was also the monster's remains, just like with the salamander he might be able to make some backup scrolls to blast those monsters in the corridors.

Before he could walk away, he felt someone touch his side.

“Sir. Wayland… I’ll be sure to ask my father to give you a hefty reward when we return!”

Lucille shouted while Robert was quick to give some praise.

“Yes, the Arden estate will also provide a bonus for your services. If it wasn’t for you, we all would have perished long ago! Would you perhaps be interested in moving, I'm sure my father will be glad to hire such a promising craftsman and adventurer!”

“Hefty reward?... moving?”

He thought about how he would need to explain to a Viscount why he endangered the life of his daughter. Then even the worst thing of having Robert somehow bring his pops into this predicament.

“Those won’t be needed…”

“But Sir Wayland, we have to give you some kind of reward…”

“A reward… if you want to give me a reward then how about…”

“Yes? Anything you want!”

Lucille’s big eyes started to shine brightly as she waited for Roland to speak.

“How about we keep this little accident between us…”

“Huh?”

Both Robert and Lucille were surprised by the request but soon Roland went further into the explanation.

“I fear that instead of being rewarded I might be punished for putting a young lady’s life in jeopardy…”

“Ah…”

Lucille dropped her head and started thinking, Robert as well nodded, finding that what Roland was proposing made sense.

“Yes… The Lady’s father might not react kindly..."

“Father is more reasonable than that… I think...”

Lucille was a bit taken aback by Roland’s reaction but after thinking for a moment she nodded as well. Soon they all reach a consensus, for Roland’s sake they would keep this boss battle secret.

The party of four decided to rest a day in this boss chamber while keeping watch. Then they would attempt to break through the gate where the monster's arm appeared.

If Roland’s hunch was right, the path forward would get increasingly easier the further they went but time would only tell. His armor needed repairing, the shield could be somewhat hammered back into shape.

Robert still had his sword and Lucille’s magical rod was in working order as well. With the two-handed axe all of them had some kind of weapon. If he was able to create some more scrolls from the monster's remains, he felt that he would be able to clear out the strongest enemies waiting for them inside. After that, their weapons and skills would need to suffice.

‘First I need to fix the shield…’

Roland nodded as he got to work, it was time to move forward and escape this trap.