The Runesmith

Chapter 186: Testing grind area.

You have defeated a Bladed Volcanic Xornotaurus

“I think I’m getting better at this.”

The neck of the large dinosaur exploded before him just like before. His grenade throwing abilities had clearly leveled up as he didn’t even need to aim that much. Just like before the enemy was the same type and used exactly the same tactics. Roland had already figured out the best way to tackle this monster and none of his golems had been damaged in the process either.

“Awoooo!”

“No, you can’t have the mana stone this time either...”

Agni curled up his tail while looking at the dead creature before him. His mouth was watering while looking at the beast with the biggest mana stone that he had ever seen.

“Don’t be a glutton, you already devoured so many on our way here, you’re going to pick up some strange skills...”

Roland gave out a sigh while cutting a hole in the dead monster. This time around he didn’t plan on taking out his runic chainsaw. The monster parts would fetch some coin but he would rather spend the time on the more important issue, the secret room.

‘Let me just check this chest out and be on my way... doesn’t seem to be a mimic, is my luck increasing?’

After checking for traps and hidden monsters the chest was opened up. Inside they found a set of twin daggers with a simple burning enchantment. They were made from deep steel which at this point was very common.

“More crap...”

This was somewhat disappointing as these daggers weren’t of good quality. For someone who could create better runic versions of the same magical effects, this was nothing. If he put it together with the items that he made, he felt like he was lowering the prestige of his own store.

‘Maybe I’ll make some kind of discount bin for items that don’t have much worth or don’t sell that well?’

While thinking about some shop improvements he tossed the daggers into the golem mule. This was already his second time here, now that he was more familiar with the road and the monsters lurking here, his speed increased.

‘If this continues, I won’t need to prepare any traps for that Xornotaurus anymore, but it is peculiar that the boss never changes...’

He could only shrug at this strange occurrence as instead of the boss changing, what changed were the creatures outside this chamber he was in. Without any time to contemplate this issue, he moved towards the second secret opening that led outside this room.

It took him back to the long maze filled with many corridors but no more monsters. Those only appeared when he came out of the area with the various minerals. Just like before, this could be left to Agni as he was itching to sink his fangs into some mana stones.

‘Doesn’t seem that anyone has been here, my secret is safe for now.’

Without waiting he hurried his mule golem up. Within it were his spider drones that he had all repaired. Thanks to the preexisting schematics it wasn’t that hard to remake these golems. Bernir and his wife were able to produce them if he asked them to. The runic program they run on could also be copied over without it taking that much time.

Thus he was able to recuperate the loss of the spider drone that he had lost the last time he was here. The one that he gave to Arthur Valerian was a newer design that he made separately so he was back to having six little helpers again. While for now all of them were busy drilling holes in the ground, he was standing before the entrance to the other secret part.

‘The tier 3 monster should not be able to see me...’

Roland needed to remind himself that the beings inside could not see him even though he could see them. With a pickaxe in his hand, he started striking the area that would lead him to his new grinding spot, that is if he learned to use it.

‘The layer isn’t that deep but it’s somewhat hidden behind rocks...’

It only took him about five minutes to create an opening big enough for one of his spider drones to fit through. Just like before, he could hear the strange combination of heavy armor and bones rattling about coming from the hole he made. There were no tier 3 monsters in the vicinity yet but this just gave him more time to think about his next action.

‘Theoretically, those monsters can’t enter through this gap even if I make it larger, but what of their weapons or magical attacks?’

Roland had read some books about such occurrences but there wasn’t much data to go off of. Finding a spot where two dungeons connected was quite rare and not much had been done in this field of study. The kitty professor didn’t know anything either, this was not his speciality as he found adventuring below his very existence.

‘The adventurer guild probably knows something about it but not like I can ask them for help, any idiot would figure out that I’m hiding something.’

Was it just such a rare occurrence that not many people had the chance to study it? Or was the adventurer guild hiding specific information instead? From what he knew, whenever something like this occurred the adventurer guild swooped in to take charge. This was also one of the biggest reasons that he decided to keep this secret for himself.

Roland peeked through the hole and he could see familiar shadows moving through the lit corridors. It was time to prepare for his investigation but first, he decided to gather some of the minerals that were here before venturing forward.

While he wanted to do nothing more than go through with his test, he needed to gather some materials first. If for some reason he found himself in danger and had to run, he would be wasting the opportunity for mining.

‘Some of the rare ores didn’t respawn fully yet... as expected.’

When looking for the rare material which was the red variant of mythril, he didn’t find any in the last spot that he found it. Ores like durium that weren’t as rare managed to grow back to some extent but it was clear that he could not just form this place with no end. The dungeon needed time to restore itself and rare ores took even more.

Thus together with his small group of drill spiders, he continued to scout for more ores. The ones that were easily accessed were prioritized as he still wanted to save some time. Even then, it took him about two days of hard work to get a load that he was satisfied with. After this, it was time to prepare for the worst.

First, he packed up the mule golem while also removing a satchel filled with various scrolls and runic bombs. While he didn’t expect the monsters to come at him through the hole, if they somehow did, he would need to stop them.

Roland had gained quite the expertise with these runic explosives that he created. Even if they were just on scrolls they could create devastating effects. Thinking back to that tier 3 ant queen type monster that he faced, he knew that tier 3 monsters could be hurt even by tier 2 runic explosives.

It was just a matter of jerry-rigging enough of them to create a big enough blast. This time around, he was not going to have his arm explode. Without a high leveled priest anywhere in the dungeon, he didn’t think he would be able to survive it.

With that in mind, he had to create an escape route for himself and Agni. The mule golem could be easily placed in the secret passage to wait. Luckily with his ever-increasing golemic knowledge, he didn’t have to endanger himself too much.

‘I finally got this thing working.’

The runic mines and bombs weren’t his only plan, everything hinged on the crystal ball that was placed on a large square display. There were many runic symbols everywhere on it and the orb fit nicely into a top compartment. Inside of it, there was a runic battery that helped power the construction.

“Time to test it, Agni keep watch, don’t want any monsters running the test run.”

The ruby wolf yawned a bit while not spotting any enemies in the vicinity. Agni had cleared out the area a long time ago and now after roaming for two days, he was bored.

Roland grabbed one of the better-looking spider golems. With a gentle finger poke, he attended it to the wavelength of the device he had created. This blocky creation was something akin to a remote control just much stronger. With the added batteries and his own mana, he would be able to move the golem remotely even from a great distance.

Then there was the crystal orb on the top. It had been a while since he had started his work on runic crystal balls. It was somewhat difficult but he did manage to connect it to the golem’s eye sensors. The image wouldn’t be that clear as the golems saw things somewhat differently than the humans that made them.

Finally, he placed his hand on the large remote box. It started glowing with the usual blue light as the runic symbols became active. After about half a minute he was finally able to see an image.

What he saw was a blob of red coloring and also various shades of blue and green. The image he got was something similar to heat vision or infrared. Regretfully they were down in a heat-filled dungeon which made things difficult to see. Thus he started circling through the options that he had.

The golem eyes were quite sophisticated devices. They had various possible settings which infrared vision was just one. The next one that he switched to produced a somewhat bluish creature that looked like some kind of ghostly dog.

Roland’s golem at this point in time was looking at Agni. The Ruby Wolf was a creature filled with a lot of mana so he shone quite brightly when filtered through the golem’s mana detectors.

While this type of vision would normally not be that great as it only outlined mana, in a dungeon it was different. The walls, the ceiling, everything in this place was filled with this blue energy.

Thanks to this he was given a world filled with blue with everything being outlined nicely. The air didn’t have enough mana to register as much, thus it didn’t block the view too much.

‘This doesn’t look too bad, but I think it can still be better...’

Roland continued to fiddle around with the image the crystal ball was giving him. With the possibility of combining some of the various visual options that the golem eye offered he was finally able to make it satisfactory. Now the spider drone was ready to venture through the hole and perform some tests against the tier 3 monsters inside.

“Okay Agni, come here we will wait by the entrance, if something happens we will run, don’t even think about attacking anything that comes through there, do you understand?”

“Awooo!”

Agni flopped out his tongue while running circles around Roland. He was smart enough to know the dangers but was just probably curious what his master was planning.

“Good let us begin, all the traps are set in place...”

Roland had previously blocked the opening with a larger boulder but it was now clear. The walls next to it were plastered with runic scrolls from all sides. If something tried to bust through those walls they would quickly explode. With so many scrolls there, even a tier 3 monster would be stopped in its tracks.

This wasn’t all as more of the smaller card-sized scrolls were scattered on the ground. They weren’t as explosive as the large ones but would probably at least stagger his foe. While it was blundering about Roland and Agni would have enough time to quickly run into the secret room behind them.

While monsters tended to chase their victims for a while there was a timer on it. After some time the monster would lose interest or forget about what it was doing. It was a game-like phenomenon that convinced him that he would be able to get away if the need arose.

With everything in order, Roland kneeled down before the box and started operating the golem through it. By inputting commands he was now able to make the spider drone move around. He was already used to this task so there was no need for any further tests and the golem quickly made its way towards the hole in the wall.

It crawled up and peeked right through it and to Roland’s surprise there was a juicy test subject right on schedule. In the middle of the corridor the hole led to, was the same monster type he saw here a month ago when he was here the last time, an Infernal Skeleton Champion.

‘Good, it’s not the Lich, this one shouldn’t have any ranged attacks besides fire breath...’

He commented while moving the golem through the hole a bit more. While clearing out the path he made sure that the drone would have enough space to move around. The path that the golem needed to take was only about one meter in length. From his tests, the other dungeon started right at the end of that one-meter-long path.

With that in mind, he positioned the golem right outside the range. He already knew that the monsters would attack the golems as one of them had already been trashed.

“Well then, here goes nothing...”

Just to be safe Roland turned around and opened the secret door that was right behind him. It was time to see how the monster would react to an attack. With another command given a latch to the side opened out and a small rod on a joint slid out.

It pointed at the monster’s head area while slowly charging up with mana. Soon a bright blue arrow of condensed energy flew forward the tier 3 Infernal Skeleton Champion. Roland’s face was glued to the crystal orb that was showing him the image and it was clear that the monster felt something.

The monster was looking somewhere to the side but as the projectile entered its dungeon it turned to face it. This didn’t mean that it was fast enough to protect itself, the golem’s aim was true, and the mana arrow connected with the monster’s head.

‘Direct hit... it suffered some damage.’

Roland’s golem could measure its enemy’s health points, the mana arrow that was a lower level tier 2 spell had managed to lower it slightly. When going through the numbers the damage was minuscule and not worth mentioning.

The monster’s head that was hit didn’t move much. Its face was covered by a Roman-styled helmet that didn’t protect the front too well. While the helmet rattled slightly the monster didn’t budge from its spot. The flames that burned from its eye sockets started burning brightly as it looked towards the area that the mana bolt came from but...

‘Its... not doing anything?’

At first, it looked like the monster would do something. It started to look at the spot the attack came from and there was a clear surge in mana inside of its body. Then after a moment, it subsided and the monster went back to looking to the other side.

This somewhat confirmed what Roland was suspecting but more tests were in order. Thus without waiting he moved to fire off more mana arrows towards the monster. This time around two in sequence.

Just as before the skeleton’s face was smacked with the mass of mana and its health decreased by a smidgen again. It turned to face the spot it was attacked from and waited. Then while looking at the spot where Roland’s golem was, another mana arrow flew its way.

Now there was some movement, this monster was holding a sword and a shield. The moment the mana arrow entered its range it moved to block the attack with its shield. The arrow was unable to put a dent on the shield the skeleton was holding either way.

‘It moved... slightly? It’s still not charging the wall, nor does it seem enraged.’

While the monster turned to face the hole in the wall and reacted to the second attack it soon returned to what it was previously doing. After these tests, Roland was almost positive that he was safe but to be sure he continued for some time longer. But as time passed it became clear that this would be a perfect spot to raise his levels.