The Runesmith

“GUAGHHH!”

“Quiet down. This won’t take long…”

A monster let out a roar as it struggled against the chains of mana binding it. Towering and fearsome, it resembled a lion with bat-like wings and a scorpion’s tail. Despite its strength, it was helpless against the iron-clad human methodically carving into its back. Once the task was done, the man retrieved a small vial and removed something embedded near the creature’s spine.

“These samples should be enough.”

He placed the item into another containment vial, ignoring the monster as it began to die before his eyes. Surrounding it were numerous smaller creatures, ghoulish in appearance. Their bodies emitted dark smoke and pus, which seeped into the corridors and clung to the stagnant air. Roland shook his head at the familiar sight of this phenomenon, known as miasma.

“There’s nowhere for it to go. If I don’t purify the area, new monsters could form, even without a dungeon involved.”

In this world, monsters could emerge in many ways, and miasma was one of the more insidious causes. It was a dark, poisonous fog that flourished in mana-rich environments. If left unchecked, it would give rise to abominations. Although mana levels had dropped in the tunnels after the dungeon break, enough remained to pose a threat. This made Roland’s task even more difficult. If he didn’t deal with the monster remains now, his golems could be attacked later.

“Stuck with the busy work again… I really don’t have time for this.”

There were three ways to handle the issue. The first was to gather and dispose of all monster remains before they could decompose and release miasma. The second was to purify the area using divine magic. While effective in the short term, this method merely delayed the problem if the bodies remained and eventually broke down. The final solution was to incinerate everything, reducing the remains to nothing and preventing any chance of miasma forming.

“I’ll just collect the better materials. The rest is inconsequential.”

For now, he chose to combine the first and third methods. He would salvage what was valuable and burn the rest to ash. However, just as he prepared to begin the incineration, a system prompt appeared before him.

“Getting closer, but…”

He paused, eyes narrowing at the notification. His level had increased again. With this, he was just five levels away from reaching level fifty in Runesmith Overlord, the midpoint of his main class. This milestone unlocked the option to take on the ascension trial. Still, he had no intention of changing classes. Runesmith Overlord granted a powerful stat multiplier, one that suited his build well.

Despite the class’s raw power, the skills he had been gaining recently felt underwhelming. When he first chose it, he received Overlord’s Might, one of his most potent abilities, along with Rapid Machine Reassembly from his previous class, a skill that perfectly complemented his constructs. But over time, the abilities had shifted. They felt more suited for a noble lord like Arthur than for him. The most recent example made that painfully clear.

Talking had never been his strength, and the idea of delivering speeches, especially ones that lasted several minutes or hours, was not appealing. While the buffs provided by the skill could be useful, it did not feel natural to him. He was not a leader in that sense or a motivational figure. He was a craftsman, a strategist, someone who preferred working alone or within a small, trusted group. Now that he was nearing the midpoint of his class, he could only hope the next few skills would be more useful than the recent disappointments.

‘It is not all bad. It has a wide range and can affect even an army of thousands. Still, I have to give a speech first.’

Public speaking had never come easily to him, and he had no interest in spending time learning how to speak well when Arthur could do it far better. During the Overlord trial, he had realized that he could not handle everything by himself. One of the essential skills for a lord was the ability to rely on resources and vassals effectively.

‘Still, the problem remains. How will I even level up? It feels impossible lately.’

Although his progress had once been rapid, it had slowed to a frustrating crawl. The recent battle with the giant turtle monster and the waves of lesser creatures had given him some experience, but the system had become increasingly stingy. Tier two monsters were now far too weak to provide any meaningful gains. Even defeating a level one hundred fifty enemy only earned him a single experience point.

Tier three monsters were not much better. Unless he stayed within a very specific level range, the experience he gained would continue to drop instead of rise. This was one of the main reasons he had come here: to search for the entrance to the super dungeon, a place rumored to hold tier four monsters.

If he could locate an area with high enough difficulty, he could finally resume his advancement. He might even be able to construct something similar to the cannon he had used against the Lich, only this time in a more controlled environment. He would make sure nothing gained sentience and spiraled out of control like before.

It was time to clean up. After collecting a few useful monster parts, he incinerated the entire area. The spell unleashed a blazing inferno within the tunnel, burning through everything in its path with holy fire. Nothing remained. Even the stale air had been wiped from existence, and all traces of the monsters had been reduced to ash.

“Time to move on. I don’t have much time.”

Back on his bike, he tossed a sensor toward the wall. It stuck in place, held firm by Rastix’s alchemical glue. He was beginning to run low on signal amplifiers and mapping devices. Once they were gone, he wouldn’t be able to contact Sebastian in Albrook, even if he tried. His golems were laying down cables behind him, but they moved at a fraction of his speed. Still, he refused to give up.

After analyzing the layout of the long tunnels, he had become convinced there was a pattern. Finding the source was only a matter of time. The monsters were growing stronger, and that meant he was getting closer. He had come too far to turn back now. 

Arthur aimed to achieve a Tier 3 breakthrough before the Grand Assembly. He also had a personal goal, which was to reach level fifty with his current class. Despite lacking an optimized grinding setup, he was confident in his ability to train through conventional means. He could already defeat monsters far above his level, and that gave him the assurance he needed. All that remained was to find the source, then establish a teleportation gate to serve as a gateway to his new training grounds.

He continued his journey for another two days, venturing deeper into the winding maze of ancient stone and corrupted magic. Monsters still blocked his path, but their numbers began to decrease even as their strength increased. Despite the growing danger, he was certain he was heading in the right direction. The tunnel walls confirmed it.

Like the fortified stone around Albrook, these walls had undergone a kind of mana hardening. Over time, the process had made the rock even more resilient—almost as tough as mithril in some places, perhaps even tougher. Even dwarven miners would have struggled to drill through the area he had now reached, which ended at what appeared to be a dead end.

“…This isn’t right.”

He dismounted from his rune bike and checked his map. According to his calculations, this was supposed to be the entrance. The tunnel system followed a specific pattern, expanding outward toward major settlements. By accounting for the cities above ground and comparing them with his current position, which was directly beneath the massive supervolcano at the island’s center.  The heat was so intense that he had to surround himself with a mana veil reinforced by frost magic. Without it, he would’ve been cooked alive.

“Is this really a dead end?”

The stone in front of him was not ordinary. It looked like solid bedrock, but Roland knew better. While he could not see anything unusual, he felt a presence, something hidden just beyond perception. He had only one skill that could help him reveal the magic at work here, so he activated one of his oldest abilities: the debugging skill.

‘There really is something here. But why runes?’

The skill was meant to identify flaws in runic structures, but it also had a secondary effect that allowed him to detect and perceive them. These runes had been concealed with extreme care. His usual detection methods and mana sense had completely missed them. What had started as a hunch was now proven true. A hidden locking mechanism was embedded in the stone. Now that he could see the runes, he had a chance to unlock it. The process would not be simple.

‘These runes are incredibly complex. Who could have made this?’

It was still a mystery he had not solved. The dungeon near Albrook also contained hidden rooms and chambers sealed behind runic locks, but he had never understood how they were placed there. Was there a dungeon architect working from the shadows, or were the dungeon cores intelligent enough to eventually learn how to inscribe runes on their own? He had no answer. What mattered now was getting through the wall in front of him. Time was running short. The heat in the area was starting to affect his rune bike, and he needed to move quickly.

Roland placed one hand against the wall, letting his gauntlet’s fingers touch one of the hidden traces. Once there, a spiderweb of mana threads erupted forth and connected with the runic components inside. Now even without his ddebbuging skill active the magical symbols started to light up as he tried to find the opening mechanism.

‘This one his highly encrypted, this will take a while…’

Working with macro rune components came easily to him, and modifying them was second nature. However, to gain access in this case, he would need to bypass the internal operating system and convince it that he was its rightful master. Every runesmith and rune mage could encrypt their runes to prevent unauthorized access. It worked like a password that unlocked the path forward, but he did not have that password.

This left him with two choices. He could either decode the entire structure by hand or force his way through the locks and hope the system did not collapse. Fortunately, in this world, most people did not implement strong defensive measures in their runic systems. That was likely due to class restrictions. The majority of practitioners were either runesmiths or rune mages. Runesmiths focused on creating and modifying runes on a large, structural scale. Rune mages specialized in interacting with existing runes in more precise and localized ways.

But he was different. He possessed the abilities of both classes. He could manipulate the entire system and reshape it at will. Still, the task was far from simple. He was up against what appeared to be a dungeon, something that likely had no class restrictions either. Decoding it would be a challenge.

Seconds passed, turning into minutes, and the entire wall in front of him began to light up like a Christmas tree. The section he touched glowed with bright blue mana, while the rest of the structure remained red. Gradually, the runes began to shift to blue as he started to gain control of the system.

It took a solid fifteen minutes, and by the time it was done, eighty percent of his mana had been depleted. But eventually, the final rune turned blue. The moment it did, a deep tremor passed through the surrounding tunnel. The stone wall in front of Roland pulsed like a heartbeat. A loud grinding sound followed as the runic seal began to dissolve.

A crack formed down the center of the wall, glowing with sapphire light. The air shimmered as a gust of wind blew dust outward. Roland stepped back. It was not because of fear, but because of caution. This was no ordinary dungeon entrance. It appeared to be the starting point of a dungeon break. A horde of monsters could be waiting on the other side, and he had already made preparations in case that was true. Behind him, runes glowed along the walls and ceiling, all set to explode as he escaped through the winding tunnels to safety.

“…Empty?”

Instead of a wave of creatures, something entirely unexpected greeted him. A soft breeze passed through the opening, carrying the scent of fresh air. Ahead stretched a path of lush green grass, reaching into the distance. It was nothing like what he had expected to find inside a volcanic dungeon.

The wind was cool at first, but as it moved past him, it quickly became heated. His rune bike trembled under the sudden rise in temperature, and its mana shield began to flicker. He could sense that the dungeon had its own biosphere. Faint sounds echoed from within, possibly made by animals or monsters. This was the entrance he had been searching for, yet he hesitated. He was not sure if stepping inside was the right decision.

“I came this far, no use backing off now.”

He was confident in his skills and had spent a good amount of time researching the super dungeon. He believed he could assess the danger level of the monsters inside with just a few careful observations. However, there was always the risk of stumbling into an unexplored section filled with tier four monstrosities beyond his ability to handle.

Time was also a factor. Only four and a half days remained before their planned departure for the duke’s castle. Fortunately, he carried the resources necessary to construct another small-scale teleportation gate, which he intended to use for his return. Because of the intense heat in the tunnels and the density of the surrounding stone, setting up the gate outside the dungeon would be extremely difficult. That left the interior as the most viable option. Judging by the cool and refreshing air flowing from within, it seemed like the perfect location.

It took him a few seconds, but soon the rune bike began to roll forward on its own, crossing the threshold of the dungeon ahead of him. Roland followed slowly on foot. The bike moved across the grass, leaving a faint trail that he used to guide his steps. As soon as his body passed through the entrance, he felt the shift in both mana and temperature.

“It’s well insulated.”

Crossing into the dungeon felt like stepping into a separate world. None of the outside heat made it through. At first, he considered leaving the entrance open as an escape route. However, after reviewing the runic code embedded in the locking mechanism, he changed his mind. There was a detection program hidden within the structure, something that required a handshake with an external source. If the door remained open too long, it would trigger a response, and he had a strong feeling it would not be a friendly one.

As Roland stepped through the dungeon entrance and into the grass-covered passage, a sudden gust of cool, dry air greeted him. This time, it was different. The breeze carried the scent of high altitudes and untamed wilderness. For a brief moment, bright light washed over his face, strong enough to make an ordinary man squint.

This was nothing like the volcanic underground dungeon he had expected. Instead, he stood atop a large mountain overlooking a vast valley. His bike came to a stop at the edge of a ledge, and he moved forward to stand beside it. The space before him stretched out endlessly, a breathtaking expanse of untouched beauty, as if it had never been touched by human hands.

Suddenly, a shriek pierced the air. Roland looked up to see dozens of monsters that were wyverns. Sleek, powerful, and majestic, their wings shimmered with metallic hues as they soared through the sky. The wyverns circled high above the valley like a living storm, their sharp cries echoing off the mountain walls. This was a far cry from the cramped, dark tunnels he’d battled through so far.

“This place… will I have to explore it all?”

He pulled his bike back and hid it inside the mountain tunnel where he had first entered, keeping it out of sight from the monsters. The area stretched far in all directions, and high above him, wyverns circled through the sky. Each one was a tier three creature, well above level two hundred thirty. These monsters were exactly what he needed to raise his level. At last, he had found a place suitable for training. But before he could begin, he had to find a secure location to set up his teleportation gate. Once that was done, he could finally focus on training. Time was running out, and he needed to hurry. 

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