Rune Seeker

After the sounds of the roaring storm had calmed down outside the dungeon lobby, the party waited an extra twenty minutes just to be sure. Then, with his Runic Blunderbuss in hand, Hiral led the way up the tunnel. There was a pair of sharp curves right at the top of the incline that prevented him from seeing outside, but his body could almost feel the natural sunlight calling to him.

It took a concentrated effort not to simply sprint up and out of the tunnel to bask in the day, but just because the sun was out didn’t mean the danger wasn’t. There were still likely ants up there somewhere, and the Growers had mentioned giant birds that hunted the area. Those winged monsters—the Rocs—were the true alpha-hunters of the zone. They’d be High-D-Rank, most likely, so not too much of a threat.

Getting caught up in their claws and dropped from a thousand feet wouldn’t be good for anybody’s health, though.

So, Hiral was taking it one step at a time, his hearing piqued for any sounds coming ahead of them. He had his finger on the trigger of his blunderbuss, and anything that even looked at him funny was going to get an explosive blast of Impact in the face.

With three Runes of Increase to modify the Runes of Impact and Expansion, the blunderbuss packed significantly more punch than his RHCs. On the other hand, it also had more than twice the cooldown—at one-point-eight seconds—and since he only had one, the rate of fire was basically a quarter of his paired weapons. It was a trade-off that gave him much higher first-shot damage, which was exactly what he wanted if a house-sized bird came swooping his way.

Getting to the first of the two ninety-degree corners in the tunnel, Hiral braced the weapon against his shoulder, then rounded both in quick succession…

Only to immediately regret the decision when bright light completely blinded his dark-sensitized eyes.

He slammed his eyelids shut, but it was far too late for that to make a difference. Globes of bright afterimages hung behind his lids like small suns.

“Watch your eyes,” he said in warning to the others, pushing the pain in his eyes aside to focus on his other senses.

Warm air kissed his skin, a gentle breeze completely unlike the gale-force storm that had just passed over. Soft sounds echoed from the forest around the tunnel entrance, birds—the small kind, probably—insects, and other quick-moving animals dashing through the underbrush.

How many small creatures come out in the brief period between the rains?

Even with all the movement, all the life, Hiral didn’t sense anything that felt like a threat.

“Ah, that’s bright,” Seena said from behind him.

“You’re telling me,” Hiral responded, letting his guard down slightly as he reached up with one hand to wipe his tear-filled eyes.

“Was it always like this?” Yanily asked. “I can’t… even…”

“No idea what you’re all talking about,” Seeyela said, and Hiral felt her move past him by the way the air displaced around him.

“You’re wearing your helmet, aren’t you?” he asked her. “Does it protect your eyes?”

“At C-Rank, yeah,” Seeyela said. “Helps me see better in the dark too. Everything has a bit of a red tint to it, but it’s not too bad. Somehow makes living things easier to spot. Ooooh, rabbits.”

“Can you catch one?” Yanily asked immediately. “Or, point my spear in the right direction and I’ll zap it. I would literally kill for rabbit stew.”

“And who is going to cook it?” Seena asked.

“Definitely not Right,” Seeyela said immediately. “He uses too much salt.”

“Now you sound like Nivian,” Right replied.

“Because now I know how correct he was,” Seeyela replied. “Ah, rabbit is gone. Can’t you all see yet?”

“It’s been night for how long?” Seena asked. “Give us a couple minutes.”

“Fine. I’m going to go look around.”

“Be careful, and stay in touch through the party chat,” Seena said.

“You got it, boss,” Seeyela said. Off to Hiral’s side, there was a bamf, followed by a sense of compression and a rush of air.

“You know, I can’t see anything, but the sunlight sure feels good,” Yanily said, his steps sounding wobbly as he moved just outside the entrance of the tunnel. “Kind of miss the lightning, but I can still taste it lingering in the air. This would be great for Cycling.”

“Go ahead,” Seena said. “We’ve got a few minutes until our eyes adjust.”

“Yeah, I’ll just…” He trailed off, tapping the wall beside the tunnel entrance before he put his back to it and slid down to the ground.

For his part, Hiral put his forearm in front of his eyes and took a few steps away from the tunnel, then turned so he wasn’t facing the sun. Even with those precautions in place, tears still streamed down his cheeks as he forced his eyes open to adapt.

“Pull your hood up,” Li’l Ur said from over beside Seena. “There’s magic in my Second-Skin to deal with petty annoyances like the sun.”

“The sun is a petty annoyance?” Yanily asked quietly.

“Oh?” Hiral said, sucking his blunderbuss into his Ring of Amin Thett, then reaching around his neck and pulling his coat’s hood up over his head. No sooner had he done that than the piercing daggers of light stabbing his eyes eased, and he blinked until he could see again. “So much better. Thanks, Li’l Ur.”

“As my apprentice, you should’ve figured that out on your own,” the lich said.

“Yeah, I should’ve,” Hiral agreed. “Wait, are you going to be okay in the sun, Ur? Isn’t it bad for undead or something?”

“My connection with my mistress and her patron seems to offer some protection,” Li’l Ur said. “Never would I have thought I’d be grateful to one of those flaming buffoooooo… uuuutiful, wonderful birds,” the lich quickly corrected after a glance at Seena.

“You’re not the only one surprised by the… let’s call it a team-up,” Seena said. “I can still feel the phoenix’s disbelief you’re on our side. Not to mention her readiness to turn you into a tiny, floating bonfire if you cross us.”

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“I would never, mistress,” Li’l Ur said, clearly offended by the statement.

“I know, buddy. I’ve been telling her the same thing,” Seena said, patting the lich on the head. “Hey, I can see!”

“Huh? Oh, me too,” Yanily said. “And it is gooooood to see a blue sky again.”

“Storm is about a mile away from us,” Seeyela said over the party chat. “I can see the storm wall from where I am.”

“Find anything else?” Seena asked into the party chat.

“A surprising amount of wildlife,” Seeyela said. “If Yan really wants rabbit, we can probably arrange something. We can’t get too lazy, though. Pretty sure that speck I see in the sky over there is a Roc. Need better attunement than mine to be sure, though.”

“You think it’ll bother us?” Hiral asked.

“We’re a better meal for something that big than the rabbits are,” Seena said. “We’ve lost more people to those birds than anything else in this zone.”

“Noted,” Hiral said. “Left, keep an eye on the sky. I’ll take the ground.”

“Got it,” Left said.

“Anything else, Sis?” Seena asked.

“No, but if I can see that Roc, it’ll see us if we get on our mounts and try to make it to the islands,” Seeyela said.

“Can you see them yet?” Hiral asked. Then he looked at the hill the dungeon was buried under. A quick series of Rejection bursts got him to the top, and he spotted the wide EnSath River.

“Maybe? It’s probably just my imagination since they’re so far away,” Seeyela said as Hiral followed the river in the direction opposite the gray storm wall.

The islands had to be almost a hundred miles away, and nine miles up, which would mean they’d be just about… there!

“That’s them,” Hiral said, barely able to make them out at the distance.

“Wow, you can actually see that?” Seeyela said.

“Just,” Hiral said, reflexively shielding his eyes with his forearm to try and get a better look. It made zero difference, thanks to the magic of the hood. “Directly below the sun, so not too difficult to find. And I think I see your islands trailing behind. Yeah, that has to be them.”

With the islands in sight, Hiral turned his attention to a quick scan of the sky. Even though he’d told Left that was his responsibility, catching a glimpse of one of the Rocs would…

“Damn,” he whispered.

House-sized wasn’t even close to how big the creature was. The thing he saw effortlessly gliding through the sky had to have almost a two-hundred-foot wingspan. Was it actually bigger than the manifestation of Seena’s patron, the phoenix?

“Something that big will come hunting us?” Hiral said.

“How big is it?” Seena asked.

“Two hundred feet, wingtip to wingtip,” Hiral said.

“Oh, that’s a big one,” Yanily said. “Must be old. They’re usually half that? Little smaller.”

“The females are bigger,” Seeyela said. “I think their eggs hatch around the same time our islands usually pass, so we deal with the chicks as we pass through the area.”

“Which means she’s probably out hunting to feed her babies,” Seena said. “We’re definitely not using our Reflections while she’s around.”

“The Horns, then?” Seeyela asked, Bamf’ing to appear right beside Hiral. “Nice view,” she said quietly to him, and he couldn’t disagree.

The woods, which had been dark except for the glowing vines, now practically shone with a green brilliance as the sun reflected off the lingering water from the rain. The EnSath River ahead of them roared between rugged, stone cliffs, the rushing water capped in white swells twenty feet tall. Even at C-Rank, falling into that would not be pleasant. Those same stone walls on either side of the river looked to be a low point nearby, climbing to taller peaks in either direction, with a full-blown mountain range in the direction Fallen Reach would be coming from.

“Yeah, with the Rocs out, we stick to our original plan,” Seena said. “We’ve just got to wait for the storm to clear enough to get there.”

“And for the islands to catch up,” Seeyela said. “Then again, maybe we can risk flying it if we don’t have to worry about the Rocs.”

“Do the Rocs bother your islands?” Hiral asked. “We watched them sometimes, but I never actually measured how high up they were. Or considered them coming up to attack us. Can they reach the lower islands?”

“Reach?” Seena said. “Yes. But they don’t. Something about the islands keep them away. Some people think it’s the noise, others think it has to do with the magic that keeps it up.”

“Maybe there is some kind of anti-bird rune for you to discover,” Yanily said.

“Seems a little too hyper-focused, but who knows?” Hiral said, staring at the bird. “Are Rocs rare?”

“Kind of,” Seena said. “We only ever see a few when we pass through here, and we focus most of our time on the ants.”

“Speaking of the ants,” Seeyela said, “should we just wait at one of the hunting camps for people to arrive? There should be people jumping down ahead of the island to start farming experience for as long as possible.”

“You know, we might as well,” Seena said. “Once the storm is clear, we should be able to make good time to the Horns since we’re C-Rank.”

“We’ve got the Crystal Skates too,” Hiral suggested. “Even if we can’t fly, they go fast.”

“Yeah, let’s wait at one of the hunter camps, see who comes down,” Seena said. “Can’t hurt to hear about what’s going on up there before we return.”

“There’s… also the chance we see something other than Growers come down,” Hiral said, finding the words surprisingly difficult to say.

“It’s another reason I’d like to get to one of the hunter camps,” Seena said. “If Islanders are still doing that, this is the first real zone they’ll have a chance to interfere since we came down. The Needles and the Sea of White aren’t hunting zones.”

“Do you think we can handle them?” Yanily asked.

“Anybody C-Rank, absolutely,” Seeyela said. “We have advanced classes and dungeon gear. They can’t compete with that.”

“Unless they’re B-Rank,” Hiral said. “And there were B-Rankers in the group that took you.”

“Rank disparity is a very real threat,” Seena said, “but… I’m leaning towards agreeing with Seeyela. We may only be level one in C-Rank, but we have the C-Rank evolution. That puts us on the same footing as any other Cs, no matter what their level is. With our gear and achievements, I’d wager all my money on us every time. I’d even give us a chance against Bs who aren’t anything special.

“I’m not saying we should rush in and start fights with the first Shapers we see,” Seena clarified as she climbed up the hill to join Hiral and Seeyela from the other side, “but I’m also not going to sit back and do nothing if we see them pulling the same shit they did with Seeyela.”

“Me neither,” Hiral said. “Uh, and just in case it isn’t clear, if it comes to a fight, I’m on your side. No matter what.”

“I know,” Seena said. “Never doubted it.”

“My apprentice would never betray our mistress,” Li’l Ur added.

“You’re our mistress now?” Hiral asked Seena.

“News to me,” she said. “I mean, if you want to bow and bring me snacks, I won’t complain.”

“Don’t think we’re there yet,” Hiral said flatly.

“Was worth a try,” Seena said. “Besides, I’ve already got Li’l Ur for foot massages.”

“He does foot massages?” Yanily asked over the party chat. “I could really use one.”

“Get your own lich,” Seena said, grabbing Li’l Ur out of the air and cuddling him close. For a reformed, legendary evil, his little Lizardman skull smiled widely at the attention.

“Which way is the closest hunter camp?” Hiral asked, shaking his head as the lich practically purred.

“We’re at the center of the ant territory,” Seeyela reminded him. “Our groups don’t—can’t—come this far in. We’ve got to head out to the boundary area.”

“Back towards the Asylum?” Hiral asked.

“No, the camps are on the other side of the anthill, so they can get to the jump points without crossing ant-land,” Seena said, letting go of Li’l Ur, who floated beside her shoulder to play with her hair.

“Which means we need to fight our way to the other side,” Yanily said. “I’m pretty close to level two…”

“You’re not the only one,” Seena said, her tomes floating out beside her. “Let’s just make sure we leave enough for the others.”

“Uh… I hope you’re listening to your own advice there,” Hiral pointed out. “You basically caused the Antpocalypse all on your own in the dungeon.”

Seena opened her mouth to object, but no words came out, and she put her tomes away. “Fine,” she finally said, pouting as she stomped back down the hill.