Rune Seeker

Knowing he had a few extra windows to go through compared to the others, Hiral quickly opened the first one up and began reading.

Achievement: I Can Do This All Day (2)

Reward: Class Modification: Selective Skill Modification (2)

Note: Due to receiving this achievement in a lower-rank dungeon, reward option is limited. Previously selected ability will be upgraded.

Ability – Piercing Shot becomes Ability – Piercing Shot+

Ability – Piercing Shot+: Your next 2 ranged attacks will ignore the target's defense, and inflict additional damage based on Atn. Chance to pierce target and strike additional targets in a line based on Dex.

1 runic circle can be further empowered with the Edict of a single rune known by the user.

Note: Additional runic circles can be empowered at higher ranks.

Hiral was simultaneously disappointed, elated, and confused by the notification. First off, he hadn’t gotten the chance to turn another one of his Primal Chord buffs into a normal ability – which meant no Hundred Handed for him today. That was… too bad. However, a straight upgrade to Piercing Shot wasn’t anything he could complain about.

It was a simple improvement, two uses instead of one per activation, at first glance. That was, until he got to that final sentence, and his eyes lingered on a single word.

Edict.

In his head, he’d been referring to the runes’ power – their control – over ‘the laws of the universe’ as Dr. Benza had put it, as a concept. It was what they represented. Or so he’d thought. But, according to the PIMP, it was more than that. It really was a law. An Edict. They didn’t just represent, they were.

He’d begun to tap into that deeper aspect of them with B-Rank, and from the way the note read, it would only get easier.

Just what am I going to be able to do with these runes when I get to S-Rank?

Hiral shook the flight of fancy from his mind – S-Rank was a long way off – and glanced up to see the others already waiting for him. He’d have plenty of time to test out his new and improved Piercing Shot+ later, so he moved on to the next achievement.

Achievement: And They All Fall Down

Class Reward: Ability (Active) – Intimidate becomes Class Modification – Intimidating Aura+

Class Modification – Intimidating Aura+: Your mere presence constantly radiates how dangerous you are with both a mental and physical pressure. Successfully Intimidated opponents will flee, suffer penalties when fighting you, or simply be crushed by your will.

Note: Intimidating Aura+ has been forged within the Edict of Gravity, eliciting physical weight on those within a radius based on rank. Current radius = 625 feet.

Note (2): Increased mastery of additional Edicts can add their power to Intimidating Aura+.

Note (3): Intimidating Aura+ can be suppressed, partially released, or fully released at will by user.

What is it with all these rewards I need to read twice to understand…

After the second go through it, though, it made a lot more sense. It was basically what he’d done when he’d empowered Intimidate with his runes, except now it was a constant thing. Well, he could suppress it so he wasn’t terrifying random passers-by – and he’d need to make sure it didn’t affect the party – but having it always active could be pretty potent. Then again, it didn’t exactly spell out what the penalties were, so he’d have to test it out. Oh darn.

That second note in there too, now that was interesting. Adding more of these Edicts to his aura, would that be like how Eloquently Enraged+ had improved his abilities, or maybe it would be like how the gravity aspect weighed down his opponents. Orcrushed them beneath my will.

He had to physically resist the urge to chuckle maniacally at that statement. Maybe Seena would let him test that out – just real quick – at the entry hall for the Endless Tunnels.

Another flight of fancy he had to push aside to move on to the next window.

Achievement: Speed Run

Reward: Class Modification: Momentum

Class Modification: Momentum: Receive stacking increased experience for defeating enemies without taking a break from combat.

Note: Every 15 seconds of continuous combat results in a 1% bonus to experience.

Note (2): Bonus experience caps at 50%, and applies to ALL experience gained since the beginning of Momentum’s activation.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Note (3): Taking a break of 15 seconds or longer between fights results in Momentum resetting.

Bonus experience, huh? Nice, simple, and always welcome. To get to the full bonus we’d need to fight non-stop – to chain enemies – for over twelve minutes though, which seems like a lot. We’ll have to just see what it’s like in practice. Oh, and this is for the Speed Run achievement, so everybody will have gotten it.

… if we ever find a B-Rank dungeon that has an entry hall like the Endless Tunnels, Seena is going to power us through the levels single-handedly.

Closing that window, he moved on to the next one, and it was pretty straightforward.

Achievement: On to the next challenge (3)!

Zone Reward: The Asylum is unlocked for you, as is the path leading to it.

Asylum—You’ve earned a rest, enjoy it, but remember—more challenges await.

It wasn’t like they’d needed to unlock the Asylum for this zone, but it couldn’t hurt for the future.And Drahn needed it regardless to get back to the undead city. That just left one more achievement.

Achievement: Take Pride in Your Work

Class Reward: Ability (Active) – Mold Crystal becomes Ability (Active) – Mold Crystal+

Ability (Active) – Mold Crystal+ – Shape and form crystal as needed for crafting while utilizing runes to empower your work.

Note: Efficiency and power of applied runes based on rank and solar energy output rate.

The same thing I did manually with Blight’s Mercy, I guess? Hopefully having an actual ability for it will make it a bit easier to control.

Closing the window, no additional rewards popped up, and Hiral looked to the group. “Sorry about that,” he said.

“How many?” Seena asked plainly. “How many achievements?”

“Including the zone clear one?” Hiral asked, and Seena nodded. “Five. I’ll share them all with you later. Yan and your sister look like they’re going to use me for stabbing practice if we don’t get to that next dungeon right away.”

Seena crossed her arms like she was thinking about something, then seemed to come to a conclusion, and nodded. “Okay. I’d been considering taking some time here to rest and get something to eat, but we got through this one pretty quick. Everybody good to head straight to the Endless Tunnels?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Yanily said, lifting his spear back up to give it a quick spin.

“We’ve only been in the dungeon less than fifteen minutes,” Left said. “Unless something drastic has changed outside, the light rain – and lack of Enemies – should make getting to the other dungeon relatively safe.”

“One more dungeon, then,” Seena said. “Break after that. No, scratch that plan. We’ll move to the Asylum and break there. Just in case the Enemy decides to return. We might as well take as much advantage of them being gone as possible.

“That also means no dallying in the Endless Tunnels, as much as I enjoyed watching those ants blow up.”

“Uh…” Hiral raised a hand. “There was one thing I was hoping to test in that entry hall. Won’t take more than a minute, probably.”

“The Third Movement we still haven’t seen?” Seeyela asked, and Hiral had to stop to think about that.

She was right, despite the two dungeons they’d run already, the new effect hadn’t gone off once. Was it a really low chance, or just a symptom of the type of dungeon runs they’d done?

“Not that,” Hiral said. “Though, hopefully you’ll get to see it in the dungeon. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll just explain it.”

“Really don’t know if anything can live up to the hype at this point,” Yanily said.

“You could be right,” Hiral agreed. “But I got an ability upgrade as an achievement reward, and I want to see just how well it works. Really, it’ll be fast.”

“Fine. A couple minutes won’t change things either way,” Seena said. “And we already got the Speed Run achievement.”

“Great!” Yanily said. “So… can we please get going? All this talking…”

Seena rolled her eyes, then looked at Hiral. “Take us out.”

A quick hand swipe over the interface crystal, and Hiral said, “Exit Dungeon.”

The blue portal spiraled open in front of him, and Yanily practically ran through. The others weren’t far behind, so Hiral quickly cancelled Foundational Split and followed. By the time he got out the other side, Yanily sat atop Thunderclaws, who waited near the large opening to the outside. Beyond them, only light rain continued to fall.

It really was a good time to get going.

“There’s still a chance the Enemy…” Seena started.

“We know,” Yanily said, Thunderclaws prancing around impatiently.

Seena shook her head at the spearman’s antics, but turned to Hiral. “Drake going to fit in here?”

A quick look at the dimensions of the room, then some rough math, and Hiral shrugged. “We could leap out of the opening there, and I can summon Drake mid-fall. Should be enough time for him to…” he trailed off and couldn’t resist chuckling at the look on Drahn’s face. The man’s mouth hung open, and he was pale enough Hiral almost thought to check him for some life-threatening bleed. Finding a small kernel of mercy, he continued, “I’m kidding. Plenty of room. Big guy can duck a little.”

“Good,” Seena said, though she kept an eye on the hunter. “Let’s go.” With her words, she summoned Vili out of her Interspatial Ring, while Seeyela was already on Bliss’s back.

“No big entrances,” Hiral said to his ring as bone-white smoke billowed out. Drake – to his credit – came out quietly. And ducking. His long neck and huge head extended across the stone floor towards the large ‘window’ leading outside, even though he didn’t really need to go that far. Still, it was the thought that counted. “Up we go,” he said to Drahn from where he waited on Drake’s claw.

With only a single deep breath for nerves, the other man came over to join Hiral, and the pair of them climbed onto Drake’s back. From there, Hiral activated Foundational Split, though he only brought Left out. The extra set of eyes watching out for squids could never hurt.

A pat on the bone in front of the saddle, and Drake belly crawled over to the opening, then bodily threw himself – and his passengers – out. The overhang that kept the rain out of the room prevented the Dracolich from leaping up, but there was a significant drop-off right there, so he had plenty of time to spread his wings before they hit the ground. And, just like that, they were off to the next dungeon.