Rune Seeker

Cold rain washed over Hiral in a heartbeat as he rocketed out of the building and through the night sky. Fire and light flashed far below, Seena’s From the Ashes+ having a field day with the almost endless undead. In just seconds he was already halfway to where he spotted the party dashing down the street, their Crystal Skates moving them at impressive speeds, but it was the wight trailing them on the rooftops that got his attention.

Armed with a large bow made from some kind of bone, the undead was managing to keep up with the party as they raced for the dungeon interface. A lucky shot could grind the whole race to a halt—or worse—so Hiral jetted a burst of Rejection out to the side and angled himself towards the undead. That high up, his skates didn’t do much, so he mentally pulled them back up to the sides of his legs, then angled his body to cut through the night like a knife.

Up came the bow as the wight skidded to a stop, and blue, glyphed circles formed in the air in front of the arrow as it took aim.

Some kind of buff?

A thread of solar energy tethered Hiral’s gravity to the undead, and he fell towards the monster at speeds that stole the breath from his lungs.

Back went the arrow as the wight drew, a third magical, glyphed circle appearing in front of the arrow, the whole array glowing fiercely.

Hurtling at the wight without it even noticing him, Hiral twisted slightly in the air to lead feet-first, then pushed solar energy into both his Runes of Absorption and Rejection just a heartbeat before he hit.

The blue circles in front of the bow distorted and then bled into Hiral’s left hand, while the Rejection exploded out of his right hand and his feet. The wight didn’t even have a chance to react, the field Hiral used to end his descent blasting out with the same force as one of Seena’s explosions. Undead pieces went in a dozen different directions, and Hiral’s body creaked against the strain of his sudden deceleration, bending him forward over his own knees, his feet skimming across the stone roof.

More Rejection poured out of his hand to slow him, and he finally came to a stop at the edge of the roof.

“Phew,” he said, looking below at the street, and then a block ahead where the party was.

After the mad flight, he was only about five blocks away from the dungeon interface, though by the looks of things, there were still undead on the street ahead of the party. What were they going to…?

Near the front of the racing group, Seena spread her arms out to the side, her Mantle of the Phoenix flaring. Fire spread over her outstretched arms, then down across the rest of her, folding in on itself and transforming her body into a flaming bird with a fifteen-foot wingspan.

The miniature phoenix burst ahead of the group, flaming feathers trailing in its wake, then scorched its way through the undead in a hundred-foot line. The flames vanished at the end of the smoldering trail to reveal Seena, while the party rushed through the opening she’d created. An opening that wouldn’t remain for long.

Still, Hiral turned a quick look behind him at the massive swarm of undead around the base of the tall building. Explosions continued to erupt on all sides—and occasionally inside the building—but the frenzying mob’s attention was still firmly on where the party had been. The distraction was still working.

Hiral leapt off the roof, slowing himself with a quick pulse of Rejection while he activated his Crystal Skates. Landing a few inches above the ground thanks to the magic footwear, he shot down the street, using jets from his rune to increase his speed, and hit the opening in the line of the undead at the same time they started to close in.

More Rejection blasted the undead back in a wash, and then Hiral spotted another wight on a roof ahead and to his right. Blue circles were starting to form in front of its bow as it aimed at somebody in the group ahead of him, and Hiral remembered the buff he’d stolen. A quick thought brought the notification window up.

You have been buffed by Piercing Shot.

Your next ranged attack will ignore target’s defense, and inflict additional damage based on Atn. Chance to pierce target and strike additional targets in a line based on Dex.

Like the buff was custom-made for Hiral, he quick-drew the RHC from his right thigh and took aim, the three magic circles already in front of the barrel. A squeeze of the trigger, and it was like each of the circles pulled the blast forward before pushing it away, exponentially increasing the velocity and power of the shot.

A hole the size of watermelon simply appeared in the wight’s shoulder as it drew its bow, cleanly removing one arm and erasing the other—along with the front half of its head. The bone weapon, and pieces of the undead, clattered to the ground as Hiral zipped past, and he looked in awe at his RHC. The magic circles were already gone, expended after just a single shot, and he’d only be able to get the buff back randomly through his Chord of the Primal Echo, but…

Damn!

“Hiral, hurry your ass up,” Seena said into the party chat, four fireballs soaring past him to crash into undead somewhere behind.

“I am hurrying,” he said as he leaned forward and poured energy into the skates, buildings whizzing by on both sides.

“Let’s get the portal open,” Wule said. “The colors are already lit up on the interface.”

“Good idea,” Seena said. “Nivian?”

“On it, boss,” Nivian said, and a notification appeared in front of Hiral’s eyes.

Dungeon – The Palace of Opulent Rewards has been corrupted by outside forces.

Dungeon – The Palace of Opulent Rewards has become: Wild Dungeon – The Lost Palace of Creeping Death

Note: Wild Dungeons are rare instances containing powerful Lost equipment and unique quests.

Note (2): Wild Dungeon – The Lost Palace of Creeping Death can only be attempted once before the corruption completely claims it.

Note (3): Wild Dungeon – The Lost Palace of Creeping Death will count towards unlocking the Asylum if it is completed successfully.

Enter Dungeon?

Yes / No

“I feel like that’s just a tease,” Yanily said.

“Can we have the first one back?” Wule asked flatly.

“Probably not,” Seena said. “Nivian, open the door. Hiral’s got company hot on his heels.”

“I do?” Hiral asked, looking back, only to spot four mammoth Shambling Graveyards doing anything but shambling. More like sprintinggraveyards! “Oh, wow.”

“Uh, that’s not normal,” Nivian said, and Hiral turned away from the giants gaining on him to the party. No blue portal stood beside the interface.

Instead, the wide gate had opened, leading inside the courtyard beyond the tall wall.

Is the portal further in?

“What do we do?” Wule asked, his voice hitching as he likely looked back at the undead bearing down on them.

“Go in!” Seena shouted at the same time Hiral caught up, and the whole party dashed through the open gate.

No sooner had they gotten past than the massive doors swung closed behind them, cutting off their view of the charging giants.

“Think that’ll stop them?” Nivian asked, the whole party skidding to a stop so they didn’t rush headlong into some kind of ambush.

“Wall is tall, and the doors looked thick,” Wule said.

“You think the Lizardmen built it to withstand A-Rank undead giants?” Seeyela asked, and the healer could only blanch.

But… nothing slammed into the door or tore it off its hinges. In fact, it was eerily quiet. The peace wouldn’t last forever, though, and Hiral quickly undid and reactivated Foundational Split, his doubles peeling off to stand at his sides.

“Sorry for the wait, guys,” Hiral said.

“No problem,” Left said. “It was good practice for us using the Primal Chord.”

“What he means is most of the vampires got blasted out the windows by your liftoff, and those that didn’t went chasing after,” Right said. “We only had to deal with a handful.”

“And that handful was good practice,” Left reiterated.

“That aside, where are we?” Right asked.

“Inside the castle,” Seena said.

“Palace of Creeping Death,” Yanily corrected.

“Which is the corrupted version of the Palace of Opulent Rewards,” Wule said. “One guess which one we’d prefer to be in.”

“So this is the dungeon?” Left asked, looking around the courtyard at the same time Hiral did.

Well, maybe courtyard wasn’t exactly accurate; it looked more like its own town, though the buildings were thicker than the ones outside. Sturdier. The street leading between them was significantly narrower than the one outside, and it twisted into a corner only a block deeper in.

The same glowing roots ran along the stone walls and road, but they seemed even dimmer in here than they had outside. Rain continued to fall, lightning flashing somewhere distant to light up the sky, and the air rested heavy on Hiral’s lips as he took a breath. His eyes went from shadow to shadow, half-waiting for another horde of undead to rush them while they had their backs to the wall—but none came.

“We didn’t go through a portal,” Seena said. “And there’s no timer, but we definitely used the dungeon interface and got the prompt.”

“There’s a notification window for it,” Hiral said. “Just another quirk of the Lost dungeons?”

“I don’t know if the fates are cruel or generous for you to be here,” a voice rasped out of the shadows of a nearby building, and something stepped out. Thin like only the undead could be, it held up hands in pleading as weapons turned on it and fire appeared above Seena’s hand.

And yet… something about that voice sounded familiar.

“It’s no surprise you don’t recognize me,” the undead said, stepping into the light with its head bowed as if in shame. “I don’t… look quite the same as I did when last we met. My clothes…” It waved its hands down to indicate the rags hanging from desiccated skin over bone. Then it just shook its head again.

“Odi?” Hiral asked, the voice finally clicking in his head. “Is that you?”

“Ah, it’s the boots, isn’t it?” undead-Odi asked, looking down at the footwear still in surprisingly good shape. “Even after all the centuries, it’s important to take care of your feet.”

“Is that really you, Odi?” Seena asked, fireballs still poised to light up the undead like a bonfire if it so much as twitched funny.

“Centuries?” Wule whispered.

“I’m afraid so,” Odi said. “I wish it wasn’t… but there is no release for us cursed.”

“Cursed? But wasn’t the Urn supposed to fix all this?” Hiral asked, pointing… around… with his RHCs.

“The Urn? Fix all this?” Odi asked, the blue flames in his eye sockets widening like he was surprised. “It was the Urn that caused all this.”