Rune Seeker

Dungeon – The Crawling Pits: Complete

Time: 2:38:18

You have plumbed the pits of evolution gone awry and survived.

Time until Dungeon – The Crawling Pits instance closure: 59:99

Huh, no achievement for that.

“Hiral?” Yanily asked. “Your sisters are glaring at me, and I’m honestly a little intimidated. What happened?”

“Whoa, how do you know it’s my fault?” Hiral asked, though he quickly checked his combat notifications. While he didn’t get any experience for anything they fought in the D-Rank dungeon, the logs at least tracked what he’d killed. And… yup… that had been the Boss.

“The Worm That Wanders,” he said.

“That’s the Boss’s name!” Yanily said. “You really did kill it, didn’t you?”

“Apparently,” Hiral said flatly. “It popped up behind me and Seena. I thought it was just one of those swarm things you guys were fighting. So, I punched it.”

“It’s fine,” Seeyela interrupted. “What’s done is done. We have to find the interface now, though.”

“It’s here with us,” Seena said. “In the Mid-Boss room. Probably because of where Hiral kill-stole the Boss.”

“Kill-stole…?” Hiral asked.

“More lingo from the guide,” Yanily filled in. “Means you took a kill from somebody else – and the experience with it.”

“I didn’t even get experience!”

“Which makes it so much worse,” Seena said, with a faux-disappointed shake of her head.

“Whatever,” Hiral grumbled. “Are you guys close? We should get achievements and loot, then get on our way.”

“We’ll be back there in a few minutes,” Seeyela said. “Wait for us before you swipe the interface. I don’t want the lights to go out on us while we’re walking there.”

“Fair,” Hiral said, then cut off his party chat and offered his hand to Seena. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” she said, chuckling. “You saved me from getting wriggled on… or whatever those worms would’ve done.”

“Probably fried themselves on your mantle, now that I think about it.” Hiral pointed to her Mantle of the Phoenix, and how it waterfalled constant flame down her back.

“That would’ve smelled terrible, I’m sure,” she said, taking his hand and letting him help her up. “Let’s go wait for them by the interface.”

Seena didn’t let go of his hand after she spoke, and Hiral wasn’t going to point it out. Instead, they walked over to the crystal pedestal and waited for the others to arrive. It didn’t take long for the six to exit the tunnel across the way – or throw dirty looks in his direction.

“C’mon,” Milly said as soon as she was close, then swatted him in the arm. “That’s two!”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Hiral said.

“How?”

“I have pastries.”

“Those are mine!” Right jumped in, then took a step back when Milly turned a look in his direction. “Though I’m happy to share with our wonderful little sisters.”

“So generous,” Nat said flatly. “Even though we didn’t get to fight the Boss, Yanily told us about what the encounter should’ve been like. We’ll be fine when we come down and run this dungeon with our own party.”

“Still not sure how I feel about that,” Hiral said.

“Good thing it’s not your choice then,” Nat responded with one of her damn grins.

“I know,” Hiral finally relented. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

“Only if you promise the same when you go wherever it is you’re heading next. I don’t want to think you’re dead again.”

“Deal.”

“Great,” Seeyela said beside them and clapped her hands together. “Then let’s get our achievements and head home.” With that, she swiped her hand across the crystal interface.

Just as her hand passed over, all illumination vanished from within the dungeon. Not even a second later, light began rushing down the tunnels on both sides of the Mid-Boss room, quickly resolving into what looked like a million squirming worms.

The creatures didn’t come in a flood, but instead coated the floor, walls, and ceiling. In the blink of an eye, the wave of light reached the room, then spread up across the ceiling. While it almost looked like streams of shooting stars above, six rivers of worms coiled along the ground. Stopping just outside the party, each of the rivers spun a circle around a treasure chest, and then all motion ceased.

“It’s kind of pretty,” Seena said quietly beside him.

“Kind of is,” he agreed, though he wasn’t looking at the ceiling. When she noticed him staring at her, she gave him a surprisingly shy smile along with the reddening of her cheeks.

“How do we know which one is ours?” Milly asked, and Hiral let his eyes linger a few seconds longer before he turned his attention to the chests.

“Those two are probably yours,” Hiral said, pointing to a pair or chests. “Let’s see your status windows. They’ll match.”

“Oh yeah, they do,” Nat said. “Look, look, this one is mine!”

Milly immediately went to the other one, then looked at her sister. “On the count of three?”

“One, two… three!” they both said together, then threw open their chests like they were presents. “Ooooh,” they somehow managed to echo in unison, and each drew out what looked like a scepter from the boxes.

“It’s D-Rank,” Nat said, holding up her prize, with her eyes glazed over like she was reading a window. “And it… increases the chance of my debuffs landing. Slightly reduces the cost of them too. It’s perfect!”

“More dancing worms?” Yanily asked her.

“Dancing...?” Hiral couldn’t stop himself.

“We spent the last ten minutes watching Nat use her Charm tattoo on the worm swarms,” Seeyela explained. “It turned into a dance-off between… how many did you get in total?”

“Six swarms,” Nat said… proudly? “Hundreds of worms bent to my will. Dancing to my tune! Literally!”

“Was pretty entertaining,” Yanily said, then held his arms at his side and did a kind of shuffle. The worm dance?

“How about you, Milly?” Hiral asked, though he couldn’t quite take his eyes off the shuffling spearman. Something about it was admittedly mesmerizing.

“Also D-Rank,” Milly said. “Except mine increases the power of my barriers. Like Nat’s, it slightly lowers their cost.”

“Great items for your first dungeon run,” Seena congratulated them.

“What about you guys, what did you get?” Nat asked, though she cuddled the scepter in her arms like it was a new puppy.

“Good question,” Hiral said, spotting his chest. “Left, Right, you want to check the group chest? It’s probably those tokens…”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Right gave him a thumbs up, and the doubles wandered over to the central chest.

“You’re going to love this,” Yanily said, a smug smirk on his face.

“Wait, you would’ve gotten loot the first time you ran through this,” Hiral said. “You know what’s in here?”

“I think so. Like I said, you’re going to love this.”

“Seena, did he tell you?”

“No, he didn’t,” Seena glared at the spearman. “You got loot – more than the token – and didn’t tell me?”

“You didn’t ask,” Yanily said.

“I… didn’t, that’s true,” Seena admitted. “Still!”

“Don’t worry, the surprise will be worth it.”

“That somehow makes me nervous,” Seeyela said, eying her treasure chest.

“Stop stalling!” Right called over from where he and Left were opening the central chest.

While they did that, Hiral shrugged and went to the one banded in yellow, then flipped the lid. He wasn’t expecting much – given it was only a D-Rank dungeon – so he was moderately surprised when he used View on the item inside.

Solar Refinement Solution – Unranked

A solution that, when applied by a skilled craftsman to an item (or pair of matching items) of C-Rank or below, can increase the item’s rank by one stage (up to a maximum of B-Rank).

When applied to a B- or A-rank item (or pair of matching items), refines the crystal to unlock hidden potential, resulting in the addition of a minor effect.

Note: Only one Solar Refinement Solution can be used on a single item. Further applications will result in no additional effect.

Note (2): Minor effect added to B- or A-Rank items is based off the type of item.

“Well then,” he said quietly as he lifted the vial out of the chest and held it up to the light. The amber liquid sparkled with what had to be solar energy within it. “Did you each…?”

“We did,” Seena said, and Hiral turned to find her and her sister each holding a vial similar to his.

“One guess what I used it on,” Yanily said, leaning his spear forward.

“Hold on,” Seena said. “Sis, I’m guessing you’re going to use it on your Fangs?”

“You bet I am,” Seeyela said. “A pair of matching items? Sounds like it was practically made for my daggers. Sure, I could use it on the hand-crossbows to give them more versatility, but the Fangs of the Lady are my main weapons. Wouldn’t make sense not to use it on them. I don’t have to do anything special with this, right? It only mentions the craftsman part for upgrading.”

“Hiral, you’ve got a literal arsenal of weapons, so I’ll let you think about it for a minute,” Seena said. “But! Before either of you risk wasting the potion and it not working because we don’t use it correctly, let me be the test subject. All my items are good, but not central to my build. I won’t be out as much if it doesn’t work.”

“It works,” Yanily assured her.

“What did you get?” Hiral asked him.

“I’ll tell you after you do yours. More fun that way.”

“For who, exactly?” Hiral asked quietly.

“What are you all talking about?” Nat asked. “What did you get?”

“Ah, sorry,” Hiral said to his sister. “This vial will upgrade one of our items – or pair of items.” Then to Seena, “Are you sure?”

“Completely sure,” Seena said. “And, yah, I’ll test the pair-part by using it on my gauntlets.”

“Thanks, Seena,” Hiral said. Seeyela echoed his statement.

With that, the party leader plopped down on the ground and took off her bulky gauntlets.

“Here’s the old status window,” she said, and shared it with the party.

Gauntlets of the Brood Guards – A-Rank

Wearing both gauntlets grants: Ability (Passive) – For the Brood!

Ability (Passive) – For the Brood! increases all damage done by attacks and abilities by 15% when not holding any weapons in hand.

“Then, I guess I’ll just…” she said, carefully pouring about half of the vial over each glove. Almost like the vial knew it was being used on two items, exactly half seemed to pour out over each one to Hiral’s high Atn. And, despite the very fluid nature of the liquid, not a drop spilled from the items to the floor below. No, the gauntlet themselves absorbed every ounce of it, and they glowed brightly for a few seconds before fading again.

“Well, something happened,” Hiral said. “Anything changed?”

“Let’s all find out together,” Seena said, throwing up the items’ window for the party to see.

Reinforced Gauntlets of the Brood Guards – A-Rank

Wearing both gauntlets grants: Ability (Passive) – For the Brood! and Ability (Passive) For the Queen!

Ability (Passive) – For the Brood! increases all damage done by attacks and abilities by 15% when not holding any weapons in hand.

Ability (Passive) – For the Queen! When using an ability to protect the Party Leader, increase efficiency and power of that ability by 10%.

Note: Party Leader is designated through the Party Interface.

“Daaaamn,” Hiral said. “That’s minor? Since you’re the party leader, doesn’t that mean all your defensive abilities just got a ten percent boost? And that sheath ability you use, the one that covers you in flaming armor, is that considered a defensive ability?”

“It is! But, do you think it works like that?” Seena asked. “We don’t have to make one of you the party leader?”

“Doesn’t say we have to anywhere,” Hiral pointed out. “What do you two… think?”

Even as he asked the question, he realized neither Seeyela nor Yanily were listening. Seeyela was mid-pour with her vials, and Yanily was literally cheering her on.

“Go, go, Seeyela, you can do it,” the spearman said. “Rah rah.”

“He sounds like Odi now,” Hiral said, referencing the lizardman they’d spent three dungeons with.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Seena said, then looked at Hiral. “How about you? You’ve got a lot of items you could use that on. What are you thinking?”

“Great question,” Hiral said. “I could upgrade my Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre up to B-Rank, I think. Then it’d be a reinforced reinforced…?” He shook his head. “The other items would all be good choices too, and the Bestial Axes are pretty tempting since they’re already strong…”

“But that doesn’t sound like what you’re going for,” Seena said, recognizing the tone of Hiral’s voice.

“No, I think the choice is pretty obvious,” Hiral said, patting the RHCs on his thighs. “I was just saying to your sister how these were starting to fall behind. This might be the perfect thing to bring their usefulness back up.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

“Another great question,” Hiral said flatly, then followed Seeyela’s example and dropped down to a cross-legged pose. His RHCs came out in his hands, and he balanced one on each knee. Lifting the vial up, he gave the sparkly liquid one last look before he popped the top. “Let’s see what you can do.”

Just like he’d observed with Seena, it was almost as if the vial knew exactly how much it needed to pour out to fully infuse his paired weapons. Up close, the liquid was a bit thicker than he’d thought – almost more like a syrup – and his crystal weapons greedily drank it up. As soon as the last drop fell from the vial, Hiral watched the process with Cycling.

Solar energy got pulled from the environment around him – a startling amount in fact – and infused itself deeper into the crystal. Small bolts of energy spread within, like shooting stars, as the crystal reforged itself. And, thanks to his high Atn, it wasn’t his imagination when he realized those ‘lines’ of power moving within the RHCs were actually tiny, tiny runic equations.

That’s how the potion is giving the items a new ability – it’s rewriting the equations that define it. Runes really are the laws of the universe…

Hrm, actually… is it how the potions are doing it? Or how I’m seeing it?

Though the realization – and question – wasn’t anything new, it did make Hiral nod in respect as the potion finished its work. A few seconds of the solar energy within the weapons flaring, and then it was done. The RHCs didn’t look any different on the outside, but he eagerly rubbed his fingers together as he activated View.

Reinforced Runic Hand Cannons: Impact, Energy, Increase

RHCs project the power of the contained runes.

Range and Damage (if applicable) based on user’s combined Dex and Atn.

Impact: Projects focused, concussive force.

Energy: Projects intense, searing blasts.

Increase: Multiplies effects of other inserted runes.

Grants Ability (Passive) – Hair Trigger

Ability (Passive) – Hair Trigger reduces internal cooldown of weapons by 0.5 seconds.

Hiral’s eyebrow went up as he read that a second time. It’d been a long time since he’d used View on the weapons he’d gotten back in their first dungeon. It seemed the other runes he had inserted on the discs in the RHCs had their own information lines – though it wasn’t anything he didn’t know. More importantly, the RHCs each now had the same passive effect. It wasn’t a big one… but…

“Well?” Seena asked. “What did you get?”

“A passive called Hair Trigger. Reduces the RHC cooldown by half a second.”

“That’s it?” Seena frowned.

“It’s better than it sounds,” Hiral explained, some excitement building in his chest. “It won’t be as flashy as explosions…”

“Good.”

“… but the RHCs came with a one-second cooldown between shots at E-Rank. I’ve been shaving off zero-point-one seconds – ten percent – of that with each rank-up. At B-Rank, the cooldown was zero-point-seven seconds. With this new passive, it’s suddenly down to zero-point-two seconds. Honestly, that’s so fast there might as well not even be a cooldown.

“I can – theoretically – fire five shots for every one I was firing when I first got these.”

“So, it’s an upgrade you’re happy with?”

Hiral couldn’t stop the smile. “Thrilled with it.”