The Runesmith

“Ugh…Damn, my head is killing me, I should have not gone with that girl…”

“Did you do it again? Didn’t I tell you to stay away from those flowery district girls, there are nothing but trouble.“

“Don’t be like that, I couldn’t refuse to get those drinks when she asked so nicely… speaking of which…”

“Don’t tell me… you want to borrow more money.”

“Just a tiny bit.”

“We just got our wages a few days ago, how are you already broke?”

“Well, you know how it is…”

“No, I really don’t!”

Two guards at the entrance of the Albrook city dungeon started arguing over some petty issues. It was early in the morning and their work day had only begun. One of the two was quite chatty and continued retelling his escapades from last night. The men were tasked to guard this dungeon entrance but nothing ever happened that warranted their attention.

Their only real task was to look at everyone's adventurer card before letting them pass inside. While sometimes some young men tried to sneak in without one it wouldn’t really affect them. If someone died to the monsters on the inside then it was their fault they were only there to minimize the damage if they spotted something.

Just like any other day this one was turning out to be a snooze fest. Both of them didn’t even look at the cards correctly while continuing to chat. Suddenly however they heard someone shouting from within the entrance.

“Make way!”

It was an elven woman that was running quite fast. The two guards had a knack for spotting beauties and this gold rank elf was quickly becoming one of the fan favorites. The first thing that they spotted was that she was quite sweaty, it dawned on them that she had to have been running for a while. What could have caused a gold rank adventurer to be like this? Even in the lower levels, there weren’t that many monsters that reached over level one hundred, something had to be wrong.

“Hey, watch it!”

A few of the Steel rank adventurers quickly ducked to the side while some almost tumbled down the stairs as the golden-haired woman ran past them. She did not say anything as she just zig-zagged between people that were trying to clock in for their morning grind. Everyone was left annoyed and some even said a few chosen words at the runaway woman.

The two guards wanted to ask what was wrong but it wasn’t really in their job description. Probably someone had died down in the dungeon and a rescue party needed to be formed. Something like this happened on a weekly basis, there were large numbers of Bronze and Steel rank adventurers never returning.

People sometimes forgot that the monsters inside could easily overwhelm them if they didn’t pay attention. The upper levels weren’t as vast as the lower ones but it was also easy to get lost. After maps were made the death toll decreased but some newbies continued to die without seeing worth in spending money on pricey help items.

“What’s up with her?”

“Beats me, you know those gold ranks, they really want to reach that next rank.”

“That’s true.”

The guards laughed as in most cases the in-between ranks were the most dangerous. Many adventurers would put themselves in danger while trying to gain those higher-tier rewards. A lot of Steel and Gold ranks had fallen due to pushing themselves too hard and too soon.

Yet after the young woman vanished into the horizon a peculiar thing happened. Around thirty minutes later another adventurer arrived, one of the silver grade variety. Just as the half-elven woman before the man was quick to run up the stairs to dash into the distance. Soon after more and more adventurers came pouring out which indicated that something was afoot.

“What’s happening?”

“Hey! Why are you running, what happened?”

Finally, after several people had gone through the entrance one of the guards grabbed a man by the shoulder. The person recoiled in fright as if there was something wrong that spooked the guard. What could have happened to garner this type of reaction, was some kind of strong monster loose in the dungeon? If it was, it shouldn't be able to get to these higher levels and the safe zone that was at the entrance.

“A… a Lich has appeared! Now leave me be.”

The man wrestled out of the grip and quickly took off with all the other adventurers that started to flood out from the inside. Some of them were screaming, telling the tales of strange skeletal monsters appearing in the lower regions. But the scariest bit wasn’t that they were undead, no it was that they could enter the upper levels of the dungeon.

“A Lich? Hey, aren't those things considered really dangerous?”

“Yeah, don’t you need a high-level priest to kill one of them? Didn’t they need a battalion of knights to kill the one that appeared on the mainland?”

“I think so…but that one was a free Lich and it took over a whole village, this one is in a dungeon so it shouldn’t be that bad… right?”

The two guards looked at each other with fear in their eyes. Why was everyone running away, could the Lich get out here and get to them? That should not be possible, monsters from a dungeon should not be able to escape. There was only one instance where that could occur and it was not something anyone had an answer for yet, a dungeon break…

…

“Huh, so you're telling me that it was a tier 3 Lich all along?”

“Yes, you need to contact platinum adventurers or get that Valerian asshole to penny up some knights! Time is running out, Armand and Wayland are still in there.”

“Hey calm down, you can’t just go insulting the nobles if they catch you doing it they’ll flog you in public.”

“I don’t care, we have to do something how about we get those guys from the golden order, aren’t they around here somewhere fighting with that cult? Aren’t Liches something they swore to eradicate?”

A rather angry-looking Lobelia was shouting at a grumpy-looking bald man. To the side stood a beautiful-looking elf lady that had just closed the door behind Lobelia that had rushed in during the morning meeting. It was clear that there was a problem but the two guild members here didn’t truly believe that it was as dire as the half-elf painted it to be.

“Lassie, you can’t expect me to call the Solarian church for unconfirmed news.”

“But I’m confirming it now!”

Lobelia stomped her foot down on the ground while almost kicking the large desk behind which the guild master was sitting. While he didn’t want to jump to conclusions he could not just ignore the claim that a tier 3 Lich was loose in the dungeon. Apparently, the person that delivered the news already caused some havoc and would cause monetary losses if the claim was faulty.

“Solana.”

“I’ll contact the other guilds, guild master.”

Aurdhan nodded at the quick reply from his assistant. While the claim needed to be authenticated by more people it could not just be ignored. If what Lobelia was telling was true then the dungeon would need to come to a stop. The guild master was not quite that perturbed about the safety of the adventurers though, the bigger loss would be the amount of money the guild would lose.

The dungeons around the kingdom were bonafide gold mines. They could be used to farm various materials and even experience. It was a free training facility for the kingdom's citizens that they didn’t need to pay for with their own taxes. A Lich subjugation could set them back by weeks or even months if there was nothing done.

He had sent the group there himself but never expected a Lich to be a problem. If this wasn’t taken care of instantly then perhaps it would set him back by more than a few months. What if this was some kind of recurring thing, he could not expect tier 2 adventurers to hang out in a hazardous dungeon like this nor would the tier 3 wait to kill a Lich that could appear at random intervals.

“Hey are you listening, we need to get Armand out of there!”

“I heard ya already, stop screaming in my ear and get out!”

“Hey, you can’t just…”

“Yes, I can. I'm the guild master, go cool down your head before I throw you out the window.”

The guild master slammed his large palm down onto the desk which caused the whole room to shake. Lobelia narrowed her eyes at the man that was more than twice her size. At first, she was going to say a few chosen words but the intimidation factor was there.

Instead, she just scoffed at the bald man before rushing out of his office, her destination would be the dungeon yet again where Armand had stayed behind. She had been against Wayland staying and even more, after her brother decided to stay as a bodyguard. Now two of the people that were close to her could be in danger and she saw that relying on the guild might have been a bad decision.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Solana nodded as she looked at the angry-looking guild master. She knew that it was better to have the man cool down before asking for anything. After leaving she headed out towards the communication device that their guild had. It was the usual crystal ball that could be used by their sole mage that was on their payroll. This person spent most of their time at a hidden-away magic shop which could prolong the call for help further.

As the elven lady left the guild master rose from his seat to go towards the window. There he had a good view of the training area that was becoming loud. It seemed that Lobelia had gone there and was already informing everyone about the strange happening in the dungeon.

“A tier 3 Lich huh?”

While listening to the commotion the large man looked to the nearby wall where a large axe was pinned to. This weapon seemed to bring back some old memories that the man wanted to be left forgotten. However, with a crisis at hand, his palm started reaching for this relic of the past.

“Let's not get hasty… there is still time, how about I let the young ones take care of it…”

After stopping himself he moved towards his own personal communication crystal ball. This one was a bit different and didn’t require a separate mage to dial the number he required.

“I should probably give that noble brat a heads up first, he is responsible for this city, it will be interesting how he handles it.”

The leader of the city needed to be informed about this predicament. Arthur Valerian had a big stake in the dungeon that was almost the lifeblood of this city. He didn’t expect much from the young upstart but it might have been interesting to see what the young man did. Luckily as a noble Arthur also had a crystal ball in his possession which would make the whole process a lot faster.

…

“How many of these fuckers are there?”

“More than we kin handle at th' moment.”

“Hey Wayland, you wouldn’t have any more of those exploding things on you, would you?”

“No.”

Roland answered while looking around at the landscape filled with white skeletal warriors. The group had retreated all the way to the lower level’s entrance. The only reason he remained was that he felt bad for releasing the Lich into the dungeon. Now that there was no one else that he could rescue it was time for him to evacuate.

For some reason, Wedamir had decided to remain here. Perhaps he was feeling more cooperative after seeing Roland help the miners or maybe it was due to the magic shield he was lent. Dwarves liked their magical trinkets and saw people that could make them commendable.

“Hey wait a minute, I thought you had a plan can’t you blow them up like the other ones?”

“My mana isn’t infinite…”

Roland frowned at Armand who was asking for a bit too much here. In the first place, he didn’t ask for any of them to be here. In actuality, he felt that he would be better off alone. The two warriors did help some but they were a liability during the escape. His original plan was just to remain and stall long enough for everyone to get away. Then after it was done he could escape into one of the many secret tunnels that the skeletons couldn’t go into.

‘I guess I’ll have to take these two with me, Armand is one thing but I can’t really trust that dwarf…’

“Fine, after I give the signal just start running and don’t look back, they are coming.”

What he saw was hundreds of skeletal warriors that continued to pile in from afar. The number was truly staggering, where the Lich hid this many minions was the true mystery. Even when some fell another two replaced them instantly. Perhaps after getting injured by his cannon he became maddened. It wasn’t strange for a Lich to surround itself with skeletons when its life was threatened.

The only strange occurrence was this fast expansion of soldiers. The monster shouldn’t possess this much mana. Even though the skeletons didn’t require constant upkeep the reanimation spell it used should burn through a lot of magic points. Either the monster had a really deep pool of mana that even dwarfed his own or it was using something to restore its mana.

This mystery would need to wait though as in the distance a black figure emerged with green flames coming from its eyes. The skeletal high-mage had returned but it was now alone. This meant that the bestial type that was with it had been the one destroyed during the explosion.

It was not the time to fight again though, what he needed to do was to get out of this dungeon. The worst-case scenario had not yet become reality and perhaps everything could be eventually resolved. Just like before when facing a large force of monsters he used his hammer staff to produce the usual homing spell. As the orb of blue light reached a high enough altitude it burst into many smaller homing mana arrows that collided with the skeletal beings.

This was the sign and all three of them began to retreat into the open boss room. Before leaving this place Roland had to at least confirm one thing. Most of the closest undead monsters had been struck by his previous attack. One that was closest to them remained undamaged and it continued chasing after them all the way towards the boss room.

Roland’s heart sank as he saw the monster going into the boss room. This was not something that should be possible within a dungeon. Boss rooms like this were somewhat secret grounds and the normal monsters should not be able to get into them. Not even rare spawns or unique ones should be able to get through it.

This partially confirmed one of his biggest fears, the Lich had become a free monster and could actually freely leave this place. With no natural enemies on the inside, it could continuously pump out skeletal monsters. Soon the lower levels would be overrun and then the undead army could charge out toward the city.

If that would actually happen remained to be seen. The vast amount of skeletons here was scary but they were still mindless drones. The Lich had been injured so theoretically it would try to protect itself and bunker up. Instead of spreading itself thin it should normally recall its forces and set up a lair that would give the adventurers time to create a counter strikeforce.

Just as he had expected, the lone skeleton and a few others that made it through the last barrage continued inside of the boss room and continued to chase them past it. The way towards the upper levels was now clear as the other fleeing people would have probably dealt with the low-level creatures. After confirming that the undead could also leave the boss chamber a quick magic spell to the head was all it took to disable them.

“Hey… can you hear that?”

Armand called out while glancing at the entrance to the boss chamber. Roland glanced at his map which showed him a huge number of circles pushing into the empty room. The chase was on and with a quick stomp, he produced a temporary barrier of rocks. It wouldn’t hold the monsters for long but it would give them time to run.

“We need to go, follow me!”