The Runesmith

‘So this is it? Reminds me of my first dungeon, but it’s even larger.’

Roland looked out into the distance where he saw a somewhat gloomy scenery. They had followed a wide set of stairs down and arrived below ground where the air felt cooler and the atmosphere thicker. The entrance led them to a vast expanse filled with gloomy trees, fog, and gloomy swamplands. The swamp area seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions with twisted trees and murky water making it difficult to discern any clear path. The low visibility and eerie silence added an unsettling vibe to the surroundings.

Professor Ulfine took the lead and confidently guided the group towards the entrance of this large dungeon. While it was hard to see an ending to these swamps, they were still underground and surrounded by rocky walls. This place was quite large but it was not endless. However, the low visibility could cause people to lose direction and end up wandering for many days.

‘Those blue lights in the distance, those must be the will-o'-wisps.’

While the students were taking in the sights and shivering from the drop in temperature he took his time to look around. This place was apparently filled with low-level spectral monsters like the will-o'-wisp. The Spiritualist Professor that he was looking for resided in this place and he needed to find them before the advancement classes were over.

The monsters here were rather trivial and there was no reason to even fear specters. There was a good reason why a mage academy was built near this particular dungeon. While people with regular battle classes would find it hard to damage these beings without special weapons, this wasn’t the case for mages. These specters were quite susceptible to spells and other attacks backed by mana.

‘Hm… I wonder if the weakness to mana has anything to do with the mana phantom and why I can see it with my skill? Maybe the mana can disrupt it in some way?’

Roland pondered mana theory and the students descended into the dungeon. The excitement and chatter that had accompanied them on the surface began to dwindle. Soon the oppressive atmosphere of the swamp seemed to weigh on their shoulders and the occasional croaking of unseen creatures added to the tension.

“Did you hear that? What was that?”

Lucienne asked one of her friends while the strange monster sounds echoed from a distance. Atasuna’s ears curled up slightly as the two girls looked around in fear.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it here…”

“What are you two scared about, there is nothing to be scared about!”

Replied Marlein in a braver tone but her two roommates quickly noticed that something wasn’t right.

“Say that after you stop shaking like a little baby.”

“I’m just cold!”

“Sure you are!”

The talk between the three girls stopped him from thinking about mana and instead focused on the problem at hand. After leaving the inn they stayed in they met up with some adventurers from the city. They came along with them and would act as a second layer of protection for the kids here.

There should be no way of anything going wrong but he still needed to watch out for potential danger. Any of these people could have been hired by their enemies or others could already be waiting for them inside of this dungeon. This place was quite large, almost the size of the underground portion of the Albrook dungeon. With all the fog, water, and strange sounds it was quite difficult to maneuver through here, for anyone without a mapping device that is.

‘They are all kind of… weak’

His eyes scanned for potential threats but everyone that was with them would not pose much of a threat. This dungeon might have looked intimidating to new adventurers and the students, but it was filled with tier 1 monsters. They would not pose a threat to tier 2 class holders and the tier 3 people like Roland weren’t even expected to do anything. Their role was to keep everything civil and scare away potential threats from outside, like possible assassins or kidnappers.

They had children of some rich merchants and lesser nobility here, and they were also mages who were quite rare. In this world where classes mattered the most, they were an important human resource. During times of war, they were moving siege weapons that could produce devastating spells and tip the scales in the country's favor. This was enough to make some of them a target for slavery and many countries salivated over the prospect of having a battalion of slave mages.

While a single powerful mage could produce devastating magical power, their true worth lay in combination spells. Just like with runic creations, it was possible to enhance and enlarge existing magic. It was simply named war magic or siege magic and could only function when multiple mages worked together. These spells were slow but allowed even lesser mages to produce spells that were comparable to spells of higher tiers.

The kingdom put a lot of importance on these mages learning these spells. Even his sister was already trained in the theory and had been probably practicing the chants with the others. Today’s Advancement Classes weren’t only about gaining levels but also to give the youngsters moving targets to practice on.

“Everyone get ready, after the adventurers lure in the monsters you will perform the Lesser Mana Burst spell, remember to concentrate on the markers.”

After they had gathered at the entrance to the first dungeon floor, Professor Ernas gave a little speech to the students. They were to perform the simplest siege spell together. There wasn’t really a limit to the number of casters, so all of them would do it together. They would all channel their magic towards a conduit, which was, in a sense, the most important part of the spell.

“Well then, who should we choose as the conduit… any volunteers?”

Professor Ernas asked the forty or so students but no one dared to reply. All of them knew that this was quite a taxing role and fumbling at this role would potentially make them into a laughing stock.

“No one? Then how about one of you three? You were being quite chatty during the trip here.”

“Ah…”

Roland raised his eyebrow and started wondering if this choice had something to do with his sister. For some reason, Ernas decided to point in the direction of the trio of Lucienne, Atasuna, and Marlein. It could have been a coincidence as the three were somewhat louder than the other kids in their groups, something that could have caught the ire of this professor.

“Quickly make a decision, if not then…”

“I’ll do it, Professor!”

“Good, step forward. What’s your name?”

“It’s L-Lucienne, Professor.”

Lucienne was the one to step forward as her two friends seemed rather frightened of the responsibility. Roland was actually interested in how his sister would fare in this role. Considering her mana control skill, it shouldn’t be all too difficult. What she just needed to do was concentrate and let the spell flow through her. Not something too difficult if she didn’t crumble under the pressure.

“Good, Miss Lucienne, please assume the position of the conduit in the formation, I hope you are aware of where that is?”

“Ah, Y-yes!”

“Everyone else, take up your spots! If you take too long, your merit points will be deducted!”

“Yes, Professor!”

She was quite nervous but Roland couldn’t help but smile under his helmet when seeing his sister fumble around. The other students weren’t any less nervous about performing under pressure. Some of them even tripped and fell to the ground when trying to get in position.

“Watch your footing, we are in a swamp so the soil will be covered in mud.”

Professor Ulfine chimed in while using some spells to help the fallen students up to their feet. The others started laughing at the boy who fell as their face got covered in mud. The atmosphere was rather cheerful among the people here, something that Roland hoped would continue until everyone managed to get to level twenty-five.

‘Nothing seems out of place, maybe this will turn into a normal lesson in the end…’

He kept his eyes open along with his multiple minds. Some of his spider drones had already begun spreading out into the dungeon while using stealth. This dungeon had a B rating, which meant that some tier 3 monsters existed in the lower levels. It complicated things as Platinum rank adventurers resided in this city and could pose potential threats to him. While he wasn’t afraid of Platinum adventurers, his enemies had resources to make it difficult.

While looking around the area he spotted the main monster of this level, a horned toad. These monsters were a lot larger than regular toads and had a layer of armor on their upper body. They had two horns on top of their heads which they used as their main form of attack. Usually, these creatures would wait in the shallow waters and then attempt to launch themselves at the adventurers. Their legs were powerful and allowed them to jump quite far.

‘Their initial attack is strong but after you dodge it once, then they are easy to counter.’

All of the dirty work of luring the monster toads was done by hired adventurers. They would allow the monsters to launch themselves in their direction and let them chase them around. These toads were not poisonous so after a few headbutting attempts it was safe to pick them up. Once transported to another location, they would lie dormant and only attack if someone got into range again.

‘The perfect area of effect farm huh? They are slow and won’t move out of the designated spot after being moved around.’

Roland could tell that some thought went into setting up this advancement class and made him wonder what type of creature they picked for the harder version of this class. It piqued his interest as on the lower floors a lot of poison could be found as well as undead zombies, and other unsavory creatures.

“Let us begin then, focus the spell on the marker.”

Eventually, a large number of toads made their way to the designated spot, which was a large tree. Around this tree, he could see a red cloth that had been tied previously by one of the hired helpers. This cloth was there to help the conduit caster focus on something while channeling the spell. His gaze fell back to his sister who was in the middle of the siege spell formation, acting as the focal point of the spell.

Lucienne took a deep breath and her hands trembled slightly as she concentrated. The air around her crackled with magical energy as the students around her channeled their mana toward her who was the conduit. Above her head, a swirling blue mist started to appear which began surging towards her body with which she needed to control it.

“Remember, precision is key, and don’t forget to vocalize the spell and synchronize your breathing with each other.”

“Source of all magic, heed our call…”

‘There they go… just like me in the old days huh?’

He could hear the kids chanting the spell in unison, it was as if they were a choir in a church. As the students continued chanting, Lucienne's focus intensified. The swirling mist above her head gathered and condensed into a radiant blue ball of energy. The students who were now synchronized in their chanting let their mana be guided towards the conduit whose job was to aim the spell towards the designated target.

“Awaken, the power within, let it flow through our veins…”

Roland was watching the display from the side and flinching a bit at the wording. Even after all this time, he could still not get used to the way the chanting worked in this world. The words just sounded over-dramatized and corny. However, there was power within those words and the power that was being produced was no joke.

‘With this amount of mana, they would probably be able to defeat a tier 2 monster… if they could hit it though.’

The air crackled with energy and the blue ball above Lucienne's head grew brighter. Even the adventurers hired to lure the toads watched with curiosity as they only had limited exposure to mages. Roland observed the formation with interest as it was a novel event even for him. With the help of his skills, he started to identify some similarities to rune-casting and how he enhanced some of his self-created spells.

‘I guess runes are just an emulation of spell casting, but emulation doesn’t mean that it’s inferior.’

He started recalling old console games from his youth which he played with the help of emulation. These emulators ran with the help of his computer and had to be more powerful than the initial console. While this seemed like a big drawback it also brought some bonuses, such as running the games with better shaders or unlocking frame limiters. Something a bit similar to how he could produce more powerful spells with runic magic but needed to spend a lot more mana on them.

“Now, release!”

The time to end the spell had come and Lucienne thrust her hands forward. Everything seemed fine and he was seeing quite the light show while using his Eyes of Mana skill. It allowed him to see the many tiny connections that looked like multiple threads connecting all the students with Lucienne in the middle. A complex web of energy was created before him and it was almost time to let the mana burst forth.

“Huh?”

However, a problem arose during the last major part of the spell. It was when the connection from the other mages was ending and the spell would be in Lucienne’s hands by itself. There was a few seconds for her to toss it at the target. If she didn’t there was a chance of the mana going berserk and exploding. It was not something that happened often, not even amid battle without some interference from outside that is.

Roland who had activated his special eye skill saw something, a phantom of mana shooting into the ball of raging mana. He instantly knew that this was foul play and that he needed to act now. Without saying a thing, he charged forward, his armor under his robe lighting up with various runic symbols.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“There is no time, that spell is going to go berserk.”

Professor Ulfine reached out with her hand towards Roland who charged towards the students. Her question was answered quickly as she now felt that something was wrong with the siege spell. The mana orb above Lucienne’s head started shifting around and crackling with magical energies that were ready to explode.

The other students, adventurers, and even Professor Ernas finally noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere. Murmurs of concern spread through the group as they watched Lucienne struggle to control the surging mana. The other students were also close by and panic started to set in. They knew that if this spell were to go berserk, they would be unable to get out of this in one piece.

“How could this be?”

Ernas panicked but was a bit slow on the uptake. It seemed that the deterioration had been quickened and performing a shielding spell would be too slow.

“The deterioration process is too fast, Thunderclaw…”

Ulfine noticed it too and quickly tried to order her tamed beast to put its body at risk to protect the students. However, she also noticed that there was no need for this as someone else had already arrived at the scene. Roland had moved before the others had even begun to notice that something was off and stood right in the middle of the formation of the students.

The explosion rocked the swamp dungeon and caused a shockwave that sent ripples through the murky water and twisted trees. The force of the explosion knocked by the adventurers close by along with some of the knights that were attempting to charge in to save the young mages. All of them were late but as the dust settled and magical energies faded away, all the students involved in the spell were still standing.

Amid the group the new Assistant Professor stood, his magical energies created multiple small shield bubbles to protect each and every student, including the conduit that was Lucienne. While everyone gave out a unanimous sigh of relief, Roland’s eyes were darting around. He knew that this was no accident and that someone had intended to murder his sister, with the other students as collateral damage…