The Runesmith

“Wait here.”

“Are you going to be okay? Even if you are at tier 3, two monsters at once might be troublesome.”

“I’m going to be fine, it’s just two berserkers, they are the easiest to handle. They will blindly charge at anyone that gets in range. If you follow after me they might target you instead of me, it will complicate things.”

“If you say so… we’ll be cheering for you!”

“Agni you too, just wait here and protect them.”

“Woof!”

Lobelia gave Roland a big thumbs-up while smiling brightly. Behind her was Armand who repeated the gesture, Mary on the other hand continued to stare at the surroundings without saying much. She seemed to be constantly on the lookout for potential monsters, traps, and occurrences. It was clear that she was a true professional that didn’t let her emotions wander during a mission. Agni on the other hand seemed a bit disappointed but when he was ordered to protect the whole group his eyes perked up.

From the look of things, he judged the three people correctly. His two friends here were concerned with his life while the Ninja Maid was not. If something happened to him he could probably count on her prioritizing her own life. This was fine as their relationship was only blossoming. Perhaps after more time had passed, a better partnership bond could be created.

‘Two berserkers, I said that it wouldn’t be a problem but I’m not entirely sure myself…’

Even though Roland spoke confidently he still had some butterflies in his belly. In theory, the skeletal fiends that weren’t over level hundred sixty should pose no threats to him. They were weaker than Emmerson that he faced and also lacked tactical thinking. Their main skill was going berserk which enhanced physical stats.

They were usually endurance, strength, vitality, and agility. Yet there were debuffs that came with the power increase as their intelligence dropped by a significant amount. The stronger their power became, the dumber they got, and turned into rage monsters that could only react.

‘Will he end up like them when he advances?’

While moving forward away from his current party he glanced in Armand’s direction. His newest class was of the Berserker family and could become a problem in the future. It was possible to master this skill at the higher levels but it usually had a downside. Roland knew of it as he had engaged with Armand in single combat. If he wasn’t capable of defeating the enemy after his buffs ran out, then he would be at a massive disadvantage.

‘But would it be smart to switch now, he is probably used to fighting with timed buffs and should know how to manage his resources. Would he even listen to me if I told him to take something less volatile?...’

Roland had to accept the fact that even if he told Armand to go with a specific class, his muscle-brained friend would probably go for another one on purpose. Perhaps if he went with a reverse psychology approach or asked Elodia to do it for him it could be possible. Yet there were merits to choosing such an iffy class.

The increase in physical stats was tremendous, it put them on the level or even above prestige classes. This meant that if Armand managed to progress enough in his stat-boosting skills and learned to control everything, his strength wouldn’t be something to scoff at.

‘There should be ways to alleviate the mind debuffs, I should be able to make something…’

There were mind-cleansing spells out in the world. Now that he could tap into the field of the magic of the priest and cleric classes, he could do something about it. This was even on of the tactics used by high leveled adventurers when a berserker was inside their group. A priest could calm their rage down if it got out of hand or install some buffs to let them focus better. With Roland’s skill set, he could probably create an automatic piece of armor that would cast the spell whenever Armand’s mind was affected. If he implemented this, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting a rough fisting from behind.

‘That would cover the idiot then what about Lobelia…’

When analyzing Lobelia’s status screen he could see through the item she was using. It displayed her Thief class as the Scout class instead and also hid all of her other classes from view. There were special conditions to meet when getting the thief class. Usually, people looked down on others that went with this route so this was expected. The adventurer guild wouldn’t look down on them but this didn’t mean that other adventurers wouldn’t.

Lobelia was focused on ranged combat but not fully. The Bow Rogue class would help her with getting dagger-related skills. It was quite the expansive class that gave a person a lot of options and also opened up paths to various assassination professions. One of them was the Silent Arrow class which as the name stated, allowed people to remove sound when using ranged weapons involving arrows.

‘She is a bit less problematic but I might have to enhance her status-altering enchantment, if I can decipher it so will others.’

She would just require regular archer-related equipment such as arrows. Her class was similar to Roland’s and relied on outside sources. With the correct ammunition like elemental arrows for the right occasion she could potentially deal with almost any hurdle.

‘Instead of making hundreds of various types of arrows, why don’t I focus on designing multi-purpose ones just like with my armor? That’ll probably save a lot of time and resources.’

Roland had been able to change the elemental attribute of his spells since forever now. While Lobelia didn’t have any rune-related skills to alter the runic operating system, it was the same for him when he started out. Thus he already knew how to design the arrow shaft and tip for her. The only problem would be the materials as he couldn’t just use regular wood.

When it came to Mary, on the other hand, he could see equipping her with some powerful stealth weapons. She was probably going with the assassination route, giving her something to cancel out sounds in a wider area would probably enhance her potential. Some spells that produced shadows or generated sounds in other areas would probably allow her to infiltrate areas better. Yet before she received her tier 3 class he wasn’t sure what to go with. Throwing knives seemed to be something that she used normally and creating ones similar to the elemental arrows was a possibility too.

‘Now let’s focus on these two, at least those guys did their job with rigging this place up.’

On the small display screen inside of his helmet, he could see the entire dungeon area. All the corridors and rooms that had monsters crawling in them, were all showing up. They were represented by red dots while any person of the races by green dots. Thanks to this he could calmly approach his next target.

‘Both at the same level, they seem to be moving on a pattern.’

There was an additional feature in his map as his armor was capable of storing data. The same was for the sensors but their storage capacity was limited and would reset after a while. They were somewhat similar to cameras at a store that needed their tapes replaced. All these monsters were on rigid paths that never changed. There was one constant pattern that in this case would repeat every one and a half hours.

‘The closer one should start moving towards this corridor in a minute while the other will remain there. That's good, I can take care of him without immediately getting attacked by the other one.’

It was time to test out a few things from his arsenal. With a little help from his multiple minds, he activated the storage space that was integrated into his back. A ripple in space could be faintly seen as a cube-shaped object emerged from within. It was followed by three identical ones and before dropping down to the ground they started glowing.

All four activated almost instantly after being deployed and showed off the various glowing runes they were inscribed with. Normally Roland needed to use his mage hand spell to hold items up but these four cubes didn’t need it. Instead, they equaled themselves with the help of the levitation spell they were equipped with. Two of them floated over to where his shoulders were and remained slightly above them. The other pair made their way to the sides and remained at around waist level.

‘Connection seems fine, mana transfer is at over 90%.’

He nodded while looking at his display. These floating cubes with rods attached to them had their own batteries but they had other ways of keeping themselves afloat. As long as they came back and hovered around Roland’s body he could share his mana with them. The further away they got the harder this process became and more mana was lost. However, they had enough energy to last through a few battles and this would be the time to test them.

“Time to go, Bit three and four, attack the designated target, and keep your distance.”

While he didn’t have to use a voiced command he wanted to test the feature. It was possible to later integrate the floating devices into his workshop or into the city. For this, he would need them to be able to receive commands from other people that couldn’t access the runic components as he could. Other golems that were in the world already had those features and he needed to keep up with all the other craftsmen.

Just as he commanded, the two cubes started floating forward. They were integrated into his map system in a way that allowed him to pinpoint the target. After going around the corner they quickly floated out of the range of the first skeletal berserker and continued on their way to the true target.

“Hey, your opponent is me, so try to focus…”

This didn’t mean that the monster wouldn’t go after them. The moment the two floating units were before it, the monster started charging. Luckily this dungeon had quite a large ceiling and this skeleton was in possession of no ranged weaponry. This didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be able to jump high enough to swipe at it with the help of its massive claw-like hands.

Before it did though its opponent appeared in the form of a large armored man. Roland took aim with his hand stretched out and immediately activated one of the tier 2 divine attacking spells. A bolt of sparkling flames escaped from his palm and connected with the monster that was distracted by the flying cubes. The moment the divine energy touched the undead monster's bones a quick reaction took place.

The Berserker gave out a strange low-pitched howling sound as if it was in pain. Its whole body started going up in flames as the effect of this spell took over. It wasn’t just a simple bolt of magical energy. The divine pattern came from Solaria, the goddess of the sun. Roland discovered that this type of wavelength worked together with fire spells which burned quite well. This combination allowed for a long-lasting damage over time effect to take place which would persist for a while.

‘Its health points are going down rapidly and the bits are managing to hold their own against the other one…’

This was not a true fight but more of a test for the spells that he inscribed for the other three people that came with him. He made sure to mimic the output of the scribed spells, if he overloaded them with his skills then the test wouldn’t really matter. The monster continued to burn but one hit didn’t kill it.

‘As expected, one won’t be enough but…’

While the monster was still alive and moving forward, its steps had become sluggish. It didn’t seem like something a tier 3 creature should be limited to. The weakness to divine spells that undead creatures possessed was truly massive. They didn’t just suffer a lot of damage but also received a debuff.

As long as the burning effect lasted, the monster would continue to suffer this massive weakness. This was a drastic decrease in stats that brought the monster down to the level of tier 2 class holders. It was thanks to this effect that this place made the perfect grinding ground. If he had been capable of producing this effect in the past, he might have actually been able to explore this dungeon before reaching tier 3.

“Two should do it…”

With another hit, the monster’s legs began to crumble. Even though it continued crawling his way the persistent burning effect managed to finish it off. The scrolls that he created packed a punch and were so large for a reason. Even though they only contained tier 2 spells, they were all empowered divine spells that contained his own mana. If they connected with the target once then it was over for the monsters.

Now it was time for the second monster that had just launched itself in his direction. Even though the flying bits were capable of producing beams of mana, the monster was more interested in the divine energies. It was a strange occurrence, even though undead were susceptible to divine energies they were drawn to them. They would target any person that cast these types of spells. Of course, he knew this and was prepared to blast this charging maniac as well.

‘This one is wearing some better armor but it shouldn’t be a problem.’

This large skeletal monster had a rude awakening as something collided with his rear end. It instantly stopped in its tracks as it could feel the bones that it was made of start to crack. The attract came from behind and it belonged to one of the flying cubes. While they were not capable of producing the same divine spell as the one he previously used, they still could provide some fire support.

The other two cubes that were hovering around his shoulders were activated as well. They flew forward while zooming around the air at strange angles. These devices came equipped with a few possible flight paths that were meant to confuse their targets. It did the trick as the monster found itself unable to keep up or to decide on the one he should target.

Roland decided to hang out in the background while moving in closer. What was happening in front was quite the show. The monster was constantly getting hit by yellow beams of light. They were like tiny long thin laser beams and with each hit, the creature grew slower. The same debuffing effect was activated to slow down the monster’s agility. With it not having any way of reaching the floating cubes nor any intelligence to grab a rock to throw at them, the monster was soon defeated.

“This would probably not work against a Lich or a Champion with a shield… but that’s why I chose this room.”

Roland looked at the crumbling monster that was barely moving. It was still alive and that was what he was aiming for. After getting closer he felt strange, the enemy was defeated but it felt too easy. These things were capable of murdering him without any trouble just a few months ago but now, they wouldn’t even be able to scratch his heavy armor.

‘Hanging around this level won’t do me any good… I need to explore the lower levels if I want to actually level up.’

He reached out toward the monster's chest to grab something. The moment he grasped it and pulled the monster gave out its last howl. After a quick scan with his analyzing skill, he nodded and put the round object into his spatial space.

‘I wonder if I can get one from a Lich…’

At first, he wasn’t happy that he needed his mana to activate his storage but now he thought differently. Even if his armor was stolen by someone, it would have been impossible for them to access his items. No one would even suspect that there was such an option integrated into a heavy suit of armor like his. They would just look for any pouches on the sides that contained some items he didn’t care much about.

‘I should call those three over, I’ll guard them for now but I can’t babysit them forever.’

There were many things that he wanted to discover in this dungeon. The Platinum Adventurers had given a report but he couldn’t fully trust them. Without exploring everything himself and affixing more sensors could he truly get this place under his control.