Rune Seeker

“Good thing I didn’t add Unsealing in there,” Hiral muttered as a dome of energy expanded from within the mountain and devoured everything in its path. Stone, air, and the Rocs that’d fallen broken to the rocky crags all disappeared within the glowing light. Then, just like that, it was gone.

Along with the mountain and everything around it in a perfect circle. The earth where the peak had stood lay carved deep, and though notifications blinked in the corner of Hiral’s eyes, he couldn’t take his eyes off the devastation.

“… the hell, Hiral?” Seena said into the party chat.

“Did you just destroy a mountain?” Yanily asked.

“It was just a D-Rank mountain,” Hiral said lamely.

“Just a D-Rank mountain he says…” Yanily monotoned. “Like that makes it less crazy.”

“What about the Mid-Bosses?” Seena asked, and Hiral could practically hear her rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Mine died the same time as the Boss,” Left said.

“Ditto here,” Right said.

“Stupid annoying not to have notifications,” Seena said. “Wait, I take that back. Apparently, I have a dungeon-clear notification. Any idea where the dungeon interface is?”

“Pretty good idea,” Hiral said, looking down at the bottom of the half-sphere dug into the solid stone.

“It’s where the mountain was, isn’t it?” Seena asked.

“Yeah, I can see it from here,” he said from where he stood on a plane of pink butterflies.

“Without Drake to carry Drahn, it’ll take us a while to get there,” Seena said.

“No worries, I’ll send him over to pick Drahn up,” Hiral said, already summoning the Dracolich.

Drake arrived with his customary roar to announce his presence – which immediately turned to a surprised yelp as he realized he was in the middle of the sky. Still, after only dropping a dozen or so feet, Drake snapped his wings out, then did a quick swoop around to circle back and hover in front of Hiral. Despite not having eyes – beyond the balls of glowing flame within his skull – or actual eyebrows, it was pretty clear the Dracolich was glaring at Hiral.

“How was I supposed to warn you first?” Hiral asked the mount flatly.

Drake huffed in response, but that was the end of the pouting. Thankfully.

“Sorry, buddy,” Hiral said anyway. “Listen, could you go pick up Drahn? He’s waaaaay over there.”

Drake’s head followed where Hiral was pointing, then nodded. With a single, powerful beat of his wings, he was gone.

“Drake’s on the way,” Hiral said. “I’ll meet you guys down at the interface.”

“Sounds good,” Seena said on a channel just between the two of them. “And, nice job. You should’ve seen Drahn’s face. I don’t think he’ll be complaining again. He… uh… might still be speechless.”

“Just until Drake gets there,” Hiral said. “Then the screaming will start again.”

“Fair point. Might be best for us to go on ahead…”

“You’re mean.”

“He’s loud.”

“Try sitting in front of him the whole time!”

“Sorry about that,” Seena said.

“It’s fine. How was the cheese, anyway?”

“I didn’t even get to open the basket before you finished the dungeon!”

“Oh, right. Well, we can eat before we head back out.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Oh, looks like Yan and Sis have the same idea to go on ahead. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“See you soon,” Hiral said, cutting the party chat and the Path of Butterflies at the same time. Gravity immediately took hold of Hiral again, and he dropped out of the sky.

Not that he and gravity didn’t have a special relationship, and a stream of solar energy into his rune cut his personal gravity in half. That combined with a surgical application of Rejection had him safely down on the ground beside the dungeon interface a few seconds later. There, with some time before the others arrived, he cancelled Eloquently Enraged+ to get the after-effects over with. His brain immediately seemed to slow down, and the world around him grew dull.

Never get used to that.

Still, with only the twenty-five-percent penalty compared to the old fifty percent, it really wasn’t too bad. Actually, he felt good enough he went into his notifications expecting to find the dungeon clear window Seena had mentioned.

While, yes, that window was present, so too were several others.

More achievements?That’s a surprise. What have we got…?

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – I Can Do This All Day (2).

You have cleared an entire dungeon while scoring nothing but critical hits, and landed the killing blows on the Boss and both Mid-Bosses.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

“Huh, that again,” Hiral mumbled while looking at the notification. “The two in brackets is new, but does this mean I get another buff? Definitely taking Hundred Handed this time.”

Already dreaming about how he’d use the spectral hands in his normal combat, Hiral closed the achievement window and went to the next.

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – And They All Fall Down.

You have defeated both Mid-Bosses and the Boss within fifteen seconds of each other.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Hah! I wondered if I’d get something for that. Go team-me. Next.

Closing that window, the next one that popped up wasn’t a surprise at all.

Dungeon – The Fields of Prey: Complete

Time: 00:04:03

You’ve turned the tables and proven who the true apex predator is.

Time until Dungeon – The Fields of Prey instance closure: 58:39

Four minutes? Bet I could’ve done it faster if we didn’t spend so much time chatting at the beginning. Ah well. That’s the end of the notifications.

Except, it wasn’t, and as soon as Hiral closed the window, a new one popped up.

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Speed Run.

You have cleared an entire dungeon including both Mid-Bosses and the Boss in under five minutes.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Hey, that’s not bad! No complaints about bonus achievements. Guess I should…

Hiral’s thoughts cut off as he closed that window and yet another notification window popped up. Though, upon reflection, it was entirely expected as well.

Congratulations. Achievement Unlocked – On to the Next Challenge (3)!

You have cleared all three dungeons in this zone. Congratulations!

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Ah, of course. That’s our third dungeon for this zone, so we get access to a new Asylum.

When he closed that window, he half-expected another one to pop up, but none did. Still, considering it was just a D-Rank dungeon, any achievements was a good thing, so he sat down against the dungeon interface to wait for the others, cancelling and reactivating Foundational Split in the meantime. Sure, he lost the solar energy he’d given to Left and Right, but he had the time to Cycle it back up.

It didn’t take long for most of the others to arrive, and Seena was already speaking as she hopped off Vili. “Did you get a Speed Run achievement?”

“Yup,” Hiral said. “Uh… along with a couple others.”

“Stop hogging all the achievements!” Yanily said, turning on Seena. “Let’s come back in here so I can solo it. I’ll even do it faster than four minutes.”

“How?” Seeyela asked, folding her arms. “Did you learn how to split into three while I wasn’t looking?”

“Chain Lightning+,” Yanily said. “It… would… almost reach far enough? Maybe I’d need a few…”

“Plenty of time for other achievements, in other dungeons,” Seena interrupted. “And we don’t even know what Hiral got. Have you gone through the interface yet?”

“Was waiting for you guys,” Hiral said. “I’ll do it when Drahn catches up.”

“I think I hear him now,” Seeyela cocked her head to the side. And, sure enough, the screaming was getting louder.

“He really needs to get over that,” Seena grumbled.

Thankfully, the man’s antics cut off shortly before he arrived on the ground, and he gracefully dismounted from the back of the Dracolich. Graceful if the wobbling knees could be ignored. The man did not like flying.

“We’re all here. Hiral, why don’t you do the honors?” Seena gestured to the dungeon interface.

“With pleasure,” Hiral said, standing up to swipe his hand across the interface.

To the great surprise of nobody present, the entire dungeon went dark at the motion. Then, despite being deep in a crater of his own creation, Hiral spotted light on the horizon. Different colors of light, which quickly resolved into large birds of prey streaking across the sky like shooting stars. More and more of the birds came out, lighting up the dungeon sky, until hundreds of them soared above.

“It’s beautiful,” Seeyela whispered as the party watched the light show.

A moment later, six birds of differing colors streaked down from above. Wings tucked at their sides, they plummeted like they were going to attack, but none of the group bothered to move. Small eruptions of splashing light – almost like the birds were a liquid – burst as they hit the ground to reveal the small, expected treasure chests.

“Same size as the vials we got in the last dungeon,” Seena said.

“No objections to more of those little upgrades,” Yanily said. “I’ve got just the thing in mind.”

“Your cloak is already S-Rank,” Seena said, pointing at the storm cloud draped down the spearman’s back. “So, your bracers?”

“Exactly!” Yanily said, tapping his wrists.

“Okay, let’s do loot first, then we’ll see what this Speed Run achievement is all about.”

“Why… why is nobody talking about the mountain?” Drahn asked as everybody moved towards their treasure chests.

“What mountain?” Yanily said without even turning.

“The one that was right where we’re standing.”

“What about it?” Seeyela asked.

“Are none of your surprised about what happened here?”

Seena, Seeyela, and Yanily all paused mid-motion to opening their chests, as if considering the question. Then they simultaneously – like it was planned – shrugged and shook their heads.

“You get used to it, traveling with Hiral,” Seeyela said.

“Speaking of which,” Seena said, the upgrade vial out of the chest and in her hand. “Are you going to be traveling with us?”

Hiral, likewise, had snagged the vial out of the chest – glowing just as much as the last one – and stood considering what he should use it on. Those thoughts took a break while he waited for Drahn’s response. The whole show had been for exactly that purpose, after all.

“While I still have my…” Drahn coughed into his hand and looked at Hiral. “Have my concerns about how you will all perform against opponents of the same rank as yourselves, I can’t argue with the results of his… display. And, more importantly, we have to remember the whole reason we began this discussion – to recover Nivian and Wule.

“We can’t let our preconceptions lead us astray from that goal.”

Yanily opened his mouth to comment, but immediately cut off at Seena’s raised hand.

“Glad you’re seeing it that way,” the party leader said. “But I want to make one thing very, very clear if we’re going to continue traveling together. Hiral is a valued member of this party. It doesn’t matter if we’re Growers and he isn’t; you’re going to treat him with the same respect you treat the rest of us. If you don’t, you’re welcome to use the Token of Recall at any point.

“However,” she continued, voice softening. “I asked you because we’ve all always had a lot of respect for you. We’d like you to be part of this. Can you do that?”

Drahn looked a bit taken aback at Seena’s change in tone – or maybe it was the directness of her comments – and he let out a long sigh. “I… don’t have a lot of love for Islanders,” he admitted. “But, I’ll try to look past my history for this mission.”

“Don’t limit it to getting Wule and Nivian back,” Yanily said. “Times are changing. Working together to run dungeons is just the way things are going to be, unless you’re planning to get left behind. Which doesn’t sound like the Drahn I know.”

“I… that’s actually good advice,” Drahn said. “When did Yanily start making sense?”

“He always did,” Hiral said. “If you listen close enough.”

“Good to have you with us, officially.” Seena stepped forward and offered her hand to Drahn. The man looked at the bulky gauntlet – this time not on fire – and reached out to shake it.

“Good to be here,” he replied.

“Great,” Seena said, spinning on her heel. “Finish up with your vials so we can do achievements!”

“Did you already…?” Hiral asked.

Seena tapped the feathered chest of her armor and nodded. “Slowpoke.”

“I’ve got too many choices,” Hiral complained quietly, then turned his attention to actually figuring out the best use of the upgrade potion. Since they’d gotten two vials from two D-Rank dungeons in a row, it was likely they could get more in the future – assuming they kept running dungeons lower than themselves. Still, there was no plan to do that any time soon.

What would be the best option?

Most of his weapons were already A-Rank, though any upgrade to them would be beneficial. Except, there wasn’t one he really relied on more than the others. His mind went back to the Bestial Axes again – they were very potent – but there was another option.

His Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre was only C-Rank, and would likely suffer from rank disparity if he tried to use it on another B-Ranker. He’d considered it when he’d gotten the first vial, only to choose his trustworthy RHCs instead. Now, though, with a second potion? If he wanted to keep using the weapon going forward, he’d need to find some way to upgrade it.

And the necrotic effect has proven useful on more than one occasion to interfere with healing abilities. Yeah, this is the right choice.

Having made his decision, Hiral immediately sat down and pulled the sabre out of his Ring of Amin Thett, then looked at it until View displayed its information.

Reinforced Blightsteel Sabre – C-Rank

Once a rank-and-file weapon of little significance, this sabre has been reforged into a formidable tool of death and dismemberment.

Effects: Weapon inflicts additional necrotic damage.

Note: Necrotic damage slows natural and magic healing without applying a debuff.

Note (2): Effects of necrotic damage naturally fade over time, or can be overwhelmed with excessive healing.

Note (3): Necrotic damage has no effect on constructs, but does increased damage to the living.

Note (4): Amount of necrotic damage inflicted can be increased by feeding solar energy to the weapon. Amount of increased damage is relative to the amount of solar energy used.

The description of the vial mentioned a craftsman being needed for the rank upgrade, but since he’d been the one who made the weapon in his hands, he should qualify. Right? Only one way to find out.

Readying his Mold Crystal ability, Hiral also reached out with his Rune of Connection to the weapon. Threads of solar energy so thin they were barely visible streamed from him to various points on the blade and hilt, and he immediately felt a closer tie to his creation.

He also spotted a number of flaws to his previous work. It’d been good enough to get the weapon to C-Rank, but his newfound connection highlighted glaring errors he’d made along the way. Places where the crystal was uneven or disrupting the flow of solar energy. Thanks to his increased experience utilizing Cycling+, he’d be able to fix those at the same time he applied the vial.

So, he set to work.