The Runesmith

“Lord Arthur, the monsters are retreating…”

“They are retreating?”

“Yes, Lord Arthur.”

“Why would monsters retreat from battle? Isn’t that rather odd?”

“Yes Lord Arthur, usually undead creatures like skeletons don’t have the wit or danger assessment abilities for battle tactics.”

“That’s what I thought, it must have been the Lich controlling them.”

“That is a possibility but Liches are said to be able to create high-level undead that have higher intelligence and are capable of ordering the lesser ones.”

“Didn’t the scouts spot a strange-looking skeleton among the others?”

“Yes, Lord Arthur, that one could have been capable of ordering them to return but it could also be possible that the Lich is somewhere close.”

“That’s troublesome…”

Arthur Valerian was sitting in the main guard tower where Mary was answering his questions. He had not participated in the battle but the tide of blazing white skeletons had actually made it to the gates. The foes were quite troublesome as conventional ranged weaponry didn’t work too well, arrows that weren’t magical wouldn’t have any flesh to stick to and poking holes in the bones was not very effective.

It would require quite the archer to connect with the monster’s magical core from within the city walls. However, Arthur’s forces had one ace in their sleeve, to combat the evil cultists they had been developing holy weapons. They had been mostly manufactured by the city Runesmith and were quite potent when going against these monsters.

The whole siege didn’t take that long, first, it started with many of the adventurers and dungeon guards fleeing back to the city. It started out small with a handful of skeletons but soon turned into a small battalion of around two hundred skeletal monsters trying to get it.

There was no rhyme or reason for this charge and they b-lined it for the front gate which was a hard point to besiege. The magical turrets that were installed played a big role in the defense as they were able to successfully bring down a large chunk of the skeletal monster charge.

Yet after the monsters attempted to climb the walls the defensive turrets started to have trouble with the angle of their targets. The soldiers had to poke the monsters away with their long spears while also barricading the front gate that was being pushed into. The monsters looked light but they had a surprising amount of power and didn’t tire.

This small city didn’t really have that many soldiers. The weapons that were assembled by the runesmith amounted to a little over a hundred. This left the three hundred remaining soldiers and guards with lesser weapons but enough to stem the tide. Soon the adventurers joined the battle and together with the guards were able to push back the maddened monsters.

The divine swords, shields, and spears were rather well-designed to go against these monsters. With a good poke of a spear tip and activation of the smite spells it only took one hit from a tier 2 class holder to defeat one of these skeletons. However these weapons had one large downside, they held up to ten charges of this spell before they needed to be refilled by the priests.

Luckily for the city, the priests were more than willing to combat the undead monsters. They had sent over their priests to recharge the weapons. They truthfully expected a bit more resistance from the monsters that soon retreated back towards the dungeon. This was at the same time as a strange black skeletal monster was spotted which was probably the one in control.

“So how you feeling after your first ‘battle’ little Lord, although I don’t think we can consider those lesser undead much of an army.”

“How dare you…”

“It’s fine Mary.”

The conversation that the two were having was broken by a large man appearing in the guard tower. The room they were in belonged to the guard captain but was now occupied by Arthur, his knights, and aides. Mary didn’t appreciate the nonchalant tone the guild master had but she could not really go against a tier 3 person. Her side lacked someone at this level which would make things problematic.

“Guild Master, glad that you came, I must thank you for your corporations, the adventurers were quite useful, please sit down I would like to hear your opinion about their strange behavior.”

“Aye, I see that you noticed.”

“Indeed, do you think that it could have just been a scouting party?”

“That’s unlikely, probably the Lich pulled its troops back out of fright, those undead tend to be very cowardly, it’s more likely that it will retreat to its lair and surround itself with more undead, perhaps after bolstering its forces it will make another attempt.”

“Hm…”

It seemed that Aurdhan the guild master didn’t believe in the undead uprising. It was more probable that it would start playing the waiting game. This would give them enough time to get a platinum adventurer party over for help. With them around and some help from gold ranks the dungeon could be taken back.

“But…”

“But?”

Aurdhan rubbed his chin before dropping his body on a nearby chair without really asking for permission. His expression changed to a more serious one as well as his tone which was not something Mary appreciated.

“There is a possibility of it being unique, the chances are low but it could be planning something, it’s already using higher-tier undead as proxies, this could become troublesome.”

“Then what would you advise us to do, Guild master?”

“You have two choices little lord, either we wait for the adventurers to arrive or you assemble a force now. I would advise against the second one, you just don’t have the manpower.”

Mary narrowed her eyes at the way that the guild master was referring to Arthur but couldn’t really find anything wrong with the tactic. Perhaps a large enough force could deal with the monster but a lot of lives would be lost in the process.

The city guards were not used to fighting in small spaces like in the dungeon or used to the hot lava as much as the adventurers were. It was probably crawling with the creatures along with a monster that could create more of them without an end. While it would be best to take it out before the skeletal army was restored the lack of troops was apparent.

“I see, thank you for your insight.”

“One more piece of advice before I go, you might want to visit our little runesmith, he might be of some help to you.”

The guild master gave Arthur a little wink before raising his large body off from the seat. He was not really given permission to leave but Arthur didn’t really mind. He knew that respect had to be earned and this was a chance. If he performed well then he might gain some of it from the guild leader.

“How dare he act this way in front of the lord? Give me an order and I will…”

“That’s enough Mary, we need that man to protect the city, the black skeletons are considered to be tier 3 right?”

“That is correct…”

The cat girl’s head lowered slightly as she knew that at the moment only the guild master would be able to protect the lord. She felt somewhat inadequate with her level which had been stagnating lately. She had focused on furthering her spy network and creating an information guild. Through it, she knew that there was potentially another person on the guild master’s level but that one would probably not move without a hefty bounty.

“But why did he mention Wayland, could he know something about the Lich?”

Arthur stood up from his own chair and walked over to the window while posing the question to Mary. The two knights were outside the door while he and the maid were the only ones left now. Through this guard tower, he could see into the distance where the forest was and in it the runesmith. Judging by the fact that the skeletons came from the dungeon it was probably that they gave his associate a visit.

“We don’t have much information yet, people had seen Mr. Wayland at the dungeon before the skeletons broke out, he had apparently given a warning to everyone before vanishing.”

“So he left before it started, he must have contacted me at around that time… did he stay at his house while knowing of the outbreak? What was he thinking…”

“Mr. Wayland’s home is very well guarded, there are magical devices he called runic turrets surrounding his home, I’m sure that he believed that he would be fine. There is more to it though, something about a hidden mine.”

“A hidden mine? Are the dwarves involved with it too?”

“I regretfully don’t have enough information, my people are seeking out the source of the rumors and I believe that we will have more information soon. He had been seen in the dungeon when the break happened and did help some dwarven miners escape.”

“Is the union involved with this in some way…?”

Arthur murmured to himself while trying to paste some things together. Could there be more to this than just a random monster spawn? Did his associate or the dwarves dig it up somewhere, were they working together without him knowing? There could be many possibilities but he wanted to at least exclude that possibility due to the history between Wayland and the Dwarven Union.

“Very well, keep me informed and also contact Mr. Wayland, I think the runic devices he installed need some maintenance. We can use the crystal ball to call him over, could you fetch it?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Mary smiled while knowing that repairing the turrets was a great way of forcing the runesmith to come over. There was something wrong with this situation and it seemed that Wayland was involved with it. Her presumption was somewhat confirmed by the guild master that for some reason mentioned the man in question. It was clear that he knew something about this whole predicament, and his involvement with rescuing some miners was already known.

…‘What are those skeletons trying to do…’

Roland had some time to evaluate the situation after the monster had retreated. With the monitoring devices, he left by the secret entrance he could somewhat observe the situation. Judging by the dots there two tier 3 skeletons were guarding the entrance to the dungeon now. Around them was a large group of blazing skeletons as well, it was clear that they wanted to safeguard their only exit out of the dungeon.

‘Are they just protecting their lair? Could the Lich think that the entire dungeon is its for the taking? or are they preparing something…’

He had to reconsider his approach after this incident. The monitoring devices down in the dungeon didn’t reach far enough to make a connection to the lower dungeon. It was as if he was not paranoid enough and should have rigged the entire place up before this mess started. With his current map, he could see a few floors down and not through the entire dungeon.

This was enough to get an idea of the situation though and would probably need to reach the city. If someone decided to charge in at this moment without at least two tier 3 class holders around they would have a bad time against those two obsidian undead. The rest was spread out a lot more around the dungeon but he couldn’t really tell as the regular monsters would continue to spawn.

‘They are fighting with the regular monsters but the tier 2 skeletons won’t have problems with the tier ones ‘

Back at his place Bernir and Agni were still watching over everything. It didn’t seem that another charge would be starting anytime soon. Thanks to the monitoring system he would at least be able to tell if a larger force appears from the lower levels. It would be better if he could gain that information from the lowest level as that would give him ample time to prepare.

‘Going in alone to widen the network is probably too risky, not with those tier 3 monsters around…’

He wasn’t sure what he should do, the monsters here would be a constant danger to his home. There was one advantage that he had against them and it was this secret entrance of his. It led to the first floor and could potentially be used for a surprise attack. The only problem was that he would need to give this secret away to the city lord and guild master.

There was potential in this secret route if they got some tier 3 class holders involved. Half of a platinum-rank party could sneak in through this way and attack the monsters from the back. It could help to lessen the bloodshed and give the people an entrance that they could control. The downside would be of course that they would need to go through his workshop.

‘Well… I kind of created this mess myself…’

Roland gave out a sigh, while he didn’t want to do it, revealing this secret could at least save some lives. This however depended on what the powers in the background decided on. The guild master from the adventurer guild was a shady character that also worked together with the thieves guild. Revealing a secret entrance to his home to him was a hazard, then there was Arthur Valerian that could just throw him into prison for creating a private entrance to a dungeon that belonged to his household.

‘I guess, I’ll hold onto this for the time being, let’s see what they will decide first, it should be about that time.’

After knocking his head against the wall Roland moved back towards his workshop. In his hand, he had a crystal ball that started to glow. It was the opposite one to Arthur’s and just as he expected the city lord wanted to have a word with him.

‘I should inform him about the tier 3’s ‘

This runic texting orb was just the tool that he needed to forward his findings. At least Arthur would pull back some of his scouts that would soon be ordered to gather information. The monsters might have been ordered to protect a certain zone so they might remain at the entrance even if they saw a person there.

‘Let's see… Danger, two tier 3 monsters are at the entrance of the dungeon…’

It was a bit strange to send out a direct message through magical means in this world. Perhaps if he got past this event he could spread this technology through the entire kingdom. The military would probably be interested in instant transmissions of information between bases without the need to use much magic. For now they still mostly used mages or support tools for crystal balls.

While it was the superior way of talking between two individuals it was slower. There of course existed magical incantations that could generate letters to faraway places; they usually required specialized classes, rituals, or materials. With his technology, they would need to build a few relay stations to forward the signal. It would cost a bit but the almost instant exchange of information and orders could revolutionize the war machine.

‘He wants me to come over?’

After sending his message he saw an almost instant reply. It was the usual pre-programmed text that he had read through multiple times but this time around it carried a lot more weight. He knew that instead of a friendly business meeting he would have some explaining to do.

“Hey boss, is something troubling you?”

“Ah… I need to go to the city, the city lord wants to talk to me.”

“That pretty boy? Don’t worry, I’ll keep this place safe while you’re gone!”

“Woof!”

“Aye Agni, you’re helping too.”

Roland made his way outside of his workshop to give Bernir the news. While he didn’t want to leave the two here with those tier 3 monsters running around, he needed to answer Arthur’s call. Asking a noble to move to his location instead would be considered quite rude and could get him in a heap of trouble.

“Thank you but…”

“Yeah I know, if it gets too troublesome I’ll just use the escape tunnel, don’t worry, I like this workshop but I still like my life more.”

Bernir started laughing while hosting his weapon over his shoulder. After some repairs, the turrets were back in order and the heavy gun he was carrying around too. Roland didn’t believe that the monsters would move for the time being so it was time to give the young lord a visit and perhaps come clean about his involvement in this mess.