[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
The Runesmith — a LitRPG progression fantasy. It was getting late, the street lights flickered around while someone coughed in the distance. The wind howled while people were trying to get to their homes. Little drops of water started appearing on the glass windows, followed by gentle tapping. A certain man was sitting in a lit room, holding what looked to be a soldering iron. His hair was slightly unkempt and you could see a reflection of some kind of schematic coming of the glasses he was wearing.

## Main Character
Name: He | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Roland, Baron, I'm

## World & Power System
level-based progression; class system; skills (e.g. Common,  Main ,  Secondary ,  Highest , Temporary, High,  Temporary )

## Writing Style
third-person limited narration, past tense. Dialogue-heavy (35% dialogue). Balanced pacing.

[User]
Write Chapter 261 – Helpless Adventurers
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
“Where the hell did these bastards come from? Why are there so many of them?”

Armand shouted while punting one of the blazing skeletal monsters away. To his dismay even though his opponent's body shattered from the powerful kick it just collided with a wall made of bones. This barrier of walking skeletons slowly closed in on them in this confined space.

“Just shut up and keep them away from the middle!”

Lobelia shouted while she and Jasmine continued firing arrows toward the monster’s weak points. This was not as easy as with the Flaming Skeleton variants that roamed the upper levels. The lesser versions of these skeletons were quickly dispatched by just shattering their flaming heads. These blazing ones on the other hand were more varied.

The weak point was still indicated by the flames but these spread out from their rib cages and spread throughout their whole body. With Lobelia’s keen eyesight she could see where these flames were focusing from. This was the weak spot that needed to be struck to defeat them. If the weak point wasn’t hit then the monsters could still move even if their bodies were shattered.

This was happening to the ones Korgak the half-orc was contending with. The large green man was just swinging a large two-handed battle axe around. Some of the monsters that were cleaved in half continued with their assault by crawling on the ground. He had to continuously crush their heads and chests with his feet to finally defeat them.

“We can’t just stay here, we need to push through, can you do it?”

Even though some of the skeletons could be tossed down into the chasm it was also somewhere they would end up if this continued. Lobelia could only think of one possibility and that was to use Armands and Wedamir’s strength to push the blazing skeletons aside while making a run for it.

Both of them had skills that could temporarily enhance their power and speed. In theory, it could work as their enemies were still only lower tier 2 monsters that were made up of bones. They weren’t all that heavy so pushing them aside through a combined effort wasn’t that outlandish.

“Need me to make some space?”

Armand looked at Wedamir who just nodded and pushed the tower shield he was holding towards the monsters. The tactic was easy, the dwarf would go first, and then Armand would burst through the middle right after. His martial artists-like skills required a bit of a charge-up but they were quite powerful. While he was gathering the required energy resource that his class specialized in, the dwarf was slowly pushing the monsters away with the help of his defensive skill.

Wedamir’s body gave off a faint blue glow as his skill was activated. His steps became slower but each time he took it the ground started to crack. The monsters that tried pushing toward him found themselves unable to, it was as if he had become a moving wall that they couldn’t get through.

The skill that Wedamir was using was called ‘Moving Fortress’ and allowed the tank from the party to increase their weight while also producing an area of impenetrable force around them. The increase in mass and density allowed the user to shrug off a lot of attacks and also go against larger beasts without getting knocked away. In this case, it was enough to push the mass of skeletons away while also managing to make them fall into the chasm.

Yet it had a downside of using up a lot of the skill user’s stamina in the process. The longer Wedamir kept it up the more out of breath he became. But his aim was not to push these monsters away but to force more of them into one concentrated area. Then it would be up to Armand who had a more penetrative skill at his disposal.

Soon it was time, Armand’s whole body began to expand and his skin became dark crimson. More veins than usual appeared as he had to initiate one of the berserker skills that he had grown slowly accustomed to. A red aura of swirling energy surrounded him and condensed around his shoulder area which would be used to focus most of the power too.

“Korgak, get ready, we are going to make a run for it!”

Korgak that had to contend with the backline alone, was already bleeding. Only thanks to his vitality and stamina was he able to last this long while going against a swarm of skeletons with almost no help from the others. After the signal was given he was quick to deliver a ferocious side cleave to the charging skeletons before turning around and running.

At the same time, he could see Armand taking off towards the condensed group of skeletons that were forced together by their dwarven ally. Armand’s enlarged body was giving of steam along with a strange reddish aura. This aura had formed into a face of a tiger that formed around the shoulder area that would be the initial point of impact.

Armand bolted forward while leaving the imprints of his feet on the hard rocky floor. Wedamir on cue stepped to the side to not get hit as he knew that his human friend would not be able to change his trajectory after activating this skill of his. A roar that sounded like a tiger flew by him and collided with the wall of skeletons.

It was working, the monsters were too feeble to block the ferocious tackle. It seemed that the group would be getting out of this alive. If they managed to get through the boney roadblock it was smooth sailing from there. Yet this wouldn’t be happening, about half way through the charge Armand noticed something, there was a spike in mana that even people without a proper mana sense skill could feel.

“What the!?”

He shouted as he collided with a wall made of bones. This barrier wasn’t that simple, it was composed of not only bones but some kind of green swirling flames. When Armand connected with it he could feel as if he collided with something made from magical metal. Instead of getting through, he could feel his own body breaking.

With all his might he tried giving it all but his momentum was stopped and instead of getting through he got injured himself. The rebound from this collision tossed him back into the arms of his dwarven companion that wasn’t far behind.

“Oh no, Armand!”

Lobelia screamed out as she could see her brother’s right shoulder and whole arm getting limp. Blood sprouted from it and was followed by a small fountain from his mouth. Their escape attempt had failed but the wall of flaming bones wasn’t the only surprise. Normally they expected the blazing skeletons to attack them immediately when they now had the chance.

“Wait… why did they stop?”

Instead of going right after them, the monsters halted their attack. Soon the group released why, the reason for them to halt, and for the wall of bones appeared before them. The monster that was probably responsible for the disappearances of the adventurers was there and it was not something that they were expecting.

“Is… is that a Lich?”

Jasmine stuttered as she was the first one to spot the monster that was floating above the whole scene. After the blocking spell was cast it made itself known to the adventurer party and it was clearly stopping its minions from attacking them.

“Why would a tier 3 monster be in this dungeon? Did the guild lie to us?”

Lobelia looked toward the floating necromancer that was just there staring at them. Even though she couldn’t identify the creature through an identification skill it was an obvious tier 3 monster. It was possible for a skeletal mage-type monster to exist but this one was certainly not acting like one.

Those variants were not able to control other skeletons, the ones that could were Liches and they only existed from tier 3 and onwards. The strategy was always to get rid of the Lich that was controlling the swarm of minions. They could multiply their ranks without an end and were considered more dangerous than most tier 3 monsters of the same level.

“Fuck, this doesn’t look good…”

Armand gritted his teeth while slowly getting of the ground. While the enemies stopped moving a different spectacle was taking place. Their master radiated a strange green flame that seeped into the destroyed minions. Soon the cracks that formed in their white bodies started mending themselves and the small army was quickly restored. All the ground that they managed to take back had been taken away.

“Should we try going the other way?”

Asked Jasmine while looking towards Korgak that was looking to the others for aid.

“I don’t think that thing will let us escape you saw that wall of bones… we might be royally fucked here…”

Lobelia commented while glaring at the monster. Both sides were blocked and running away was probably not an option. She expected the monster to put up another barrier if they went the other way. The small amount of space they had to move was the main problem here. The chasm was wide and also very deep, it was certain death if they fell down there.

However, Lobelia remembered something from the past. There was a person that managed to get back alive from a fall here and she knew him. Perhaps it was worth taking the plunge instead of contending with all of these monsters. Both options were really bad, either die from falling down or be devoured by undead creatures.

“If Wayland did it then perhaps…”

She looked towards the darkness that was below. All of her instincts were telling her that it was a bad idea. Perhaps it was better to toss themselves against these monsters, even with the tier 3 monster there one person might still make it out alive.

To her surprise when she was glancing down another option presented itself to her. Her eyesight was one of the best here and without it, Lobelia wouldn’t be able to see it. Yet there it was, a light at the end of the tunnel. The monster they were against was also acting strange as it stopped in its tracks and was actually looking down into the chasm instead.

“Everyone, you’ll have to trust me on this one… we need to jump down and do it right now!”

…

“Hm…”

“Awoo?”

Roland along with Agni stepped into the underground chamber. He had come here for the usual grinding session while his spider drones mined for more minerals. After being here multiple times he had an idea of the respawn times of some of the rarer metals. The red mythril ore for instance took over a month to appear again.

This was not the problem though, as he was going through the dungeon this time around there was a decrease in monster numbers. This did not affect the sword dinosaur boss and the lesser monsters in the tunnels. However, it was affecting this place as there was not even a single salamander or a slug creature to be seen anywhere.

‘The radar isn’t picking up anything either…’

This entire area had been equipped with his map-enhancing equipment. The sensors were dug deep into the walls and even people with enhanced mana senses wouldn’t be able to tell that they were there. Roland was concerned that if this place was discovered people could also find his runic equipment.

It wouldn’t be strange if they came to him to ask why there were runic contraptions in a secret mining area. If they dug in deeper and brought some specialists the runes would be attributed to him as there always existed a pattern. This pattern could be easily recognized by higher-level rune mages or runesmiths.

Thanks to these creations of his he could extend the range of his map. There he could see a clear lack of any monster in the vicinity. This was strange as there was always at least one salamander to greet them in the main chamber and then several other monsters in the tunnel leading to the chasm. Now on the other hand there was none here and only one in the tunnel.

‘Why is that monster at the edge of the tunnel… did it go for the camouflage I made?’

That was the original entrance to the mining area that he discovered during the expedition with his brother. To prevent people from getting here from the outside he had concealed it. There, it would mostly just look like a regular rocky wall but in reality, it was fake. Now a monster was standing in the spot it was not.

Roland gave out a sigh while ordering the golems to start mining. The number of the spider golems had also increased to ten and some of them were also working on the wall leading to the other dungeon. While they got things ready here he needed to see what that monster was up to there. If he had destroyed his camouflage then it just increased the workload.

“Let’s go Agni.”

“Woof!”

To Agni, it wasn’t a problem as he never really had much to do after getting here. The monster respawned after a day and fell to his fangs quite easily. Now that the usual salamander was gone he was itching for some action.

The two went towards the corridor and Roland kept an eye on his map for any potential problems. Even before getting in he felt that something was off, the mine looked the same as always but for some reason, he wasn’t feeling it. His hunch was a bullseye as when he got to the end of the tunnel the monster was not the type he expected it to be.

“Why is that thing here…”

Blazing Skeleton Warrior L53 [ Reanimated ]

There it was, a skeletal warrior with a flaming upper body and head. It was not something that should be able to spawn here and there was also another problem. Thanks to his high analyzing skill he could pierce through the truth, this monster was not an actual dungeon monster.

The reanimated part in the name implied that this monster was raised from a corpse. This body probably belonged to one of the monsters in the dungeon. A summon skeleton spell was part of the necromancer repertoire. It could create a skeleton even from a monster's body, it did not require the skeleton inside to be from a humanoid, the magic would bend it into the required shape. This one’s weapon was also made from bone which implied even further that it had been created here.

“AWooo!”

Agni was quick on the uptake and more than this monster could ever hope to defeat. It took a moment for the skeleton to have its skull chopped into pieces and its rib cage smashed. The coast was clear but what could have made this creature and why was his hole cover gone?

He took a step towards it, and the opening that he tried to hide from the outside was clearly revealed. The map-enhancing devices didn’t show any more monsters but this didn’t mean that he could just relax. It was possible for the person who conjured this skeleton to be here. Perhaps some kind of necromancer was trying to make his mining spot his new lair?

‘Did they come from outside and left the skeleton here to guard it? But a reanimated skeleton can’t survive too long without the caster being near it… wait what if…’

Roland quickly looked in the direction of the mining chamber. There his spider drones were already working on the opening to his grind spot. In it, there was a Lich monster that would in theory be able to create these types of tier 2 skeletons from the monster scattered here. Was it able to cast its spell from within its dungeon or was it able to make it out here?

Before he could examine the issue any further he noticed that some smaller rocks and dust were falling. The source of the debris was from within the chasm and when he looked up there was quite an interesting thing falling.

“Huh?”

With a quick step back he watched the upper body part of a blazing skeleton falling down. It barely missed the opening he was in and continued to fall down along with more rocks. There was something happening up there as some more skeletal remains continued to tumble down into the abyss.

Thus the only thing left to do was to activate all the magical spells that could clear away the foggy surroundings and enhance his view. For a better vantage point, he even decided to create a temporary platform with the help of earth magic that he could stand on while looking.

“... What is happening up there… are those adventurers?”

While he couldn’t totally make out who it was, there was a fight up there and the skeletons that were falling down had to belong to whoever left this one here…

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 262 – Leap of faith
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
Before him, a strange scene that he wasn’t expecting was playing out. Normally Roland wouldn’t be able to see anything when looking up. The only reason now was a strange clearing up of the fog that mostly barred anyone from peeking through. Together with the latest enhancements to his eyesight-boosting spells, there was a tiny bit that he noticed.

There were people getting pushed against the edge of the chasm. He could not really tell who they were with his eyes but his mapping device was different. Previously he had done some experiments with some of his weapons. He wanted to see if he could include them in his map display to know whenever a person with this weapon was near.

There were two of his better runic creations up there, one he made for Armand and the other for Lobelia. The main reason was at first a joke, he wanted to just avoid the musclebound idiot whenever in the dungeons or outside. Yet now he was sure that it was him and his sister that were close to falling down.

‘These skeletons aren’t that strong… could that thing be up there with them?’

Roland wasn’t sure if the Lich that he saw within the other dungeon was the true perpetrator just yet. It was still possible that some kind of necromancer was behind it all. There was a possibility that this person discovered his secret mining area and decided to take it over.

Perhaps Armand and the adventurers up to had been unlucky and ran into him as he was going out from the chasm. To his knowledge tier 3 magical classes were able to produce a levitation spell. While it was nowhere near a flight spell it was enough to move the caster up and down in places and would be perfect to enter the mine from this side.

‘Either way, If I don’t help them they will die…’

A Lich or a powerful Necromancer didn’t change much, they both had to be strong enough to push back Armand and Lobelia along with three other people back. It looked like they were going to fall which indicated that they were surrounded by those blazing skeletons. Quite a bit of them had fallen down here and there were probably more.

However this was troublesome, the area where he was was more than a kilometer away from them. The bumpy terrain also didn’t leave space for maneuvering, if they didn’t fall directly towards his location they would just go down and probably die somewhere below.

‘Will they even jump down or get pushed?’

He wasn’t sure about anything but he used his large mana pool to try to enhance his detection devices even further. To get a better signal he took out a small disk from a spatial satchel and threw it up towards the direction of the fight. As the disk rose in height it started giving off a brownish glow. When close to the end of its flight this glow caused it to stick to the wall like a magnet.

This runic implement was a signal amplification device, with it he could get a better grasp of the situation that was happening up there. With its help, he could clearly see a group of five adventurers that were all above level one hundred. It was a party made up of gold ranks and they were surrounded by reanimated skeletons.

Yet the more interesting circle was slightly behind the large group of blazing skeletons. With this Roland had his answer, the one responsible for all of this wasn’t a Necromancer, it was a high-level monster instead. The color of the dot and its size indicated that a tier 3 monster was standing a bit away from the swarm of its minions that were pushing into Armand’s group.

‘Could it really be that strange Lich? How did it get out? Is this all my fault?’

There were a myriad of questions going through his head but they mostly went towards one point, how was this thing able to get out of the dungeon? Roland was almost positive that it probably had something to do with his involvement with the other dungeon. It would be too much of a coincidence if it wasn’t due to his excessive grinding habits.

This was an unprecedented situation that he had no knowledge of ever happening before. Only one situation was somewhat similar but it didn’t really involve two different dungeons interacting with each other.

A dungeon break was the closest thing he could come up with. It was a situation in which monsters could go outside and no one had a proper explanation for why this happened to this day. This Lich had been able to escape to this dungeon so it wouldn’t be strange if it could go outside of it as well.

‘What will happen to Albrook if that thing gets out?’

Roland tried recalling the level of the Lich, it was close to level hundred sixty but now it had become free of the dungeon. Monsters just like humans could raise their levels by killing other beings in this world. It was clear by the many skeletons that it was summoning that it had been clearing out the creatures from this dungeon.

There was one difference between necromancers that were still alive and Liches. The summoned creatures would weigh hard on the caster's soul. This limited the necromancer’s creature pool but it wasn’t the same for the Lich. That monster didn’t have a soul or was never a person, to begin with. Its minion count was mostly unlimited, until it was alive it could just produce more and more monsters.

Various scenes went through his head in just a fraction of a second before he decided to act. Even though the monster was out there he could not do anything about it now. The people up there probably needed his help and the only way for that to happen is if they noticed him or fell down.

First, with the help of his earth runes, he started to produce a sturdy platform on which he would be able to support more than just himself. The shape of it was also quite unique as it began to take the shape of a large bowl.

This would only work if he managed to get Armand and Lobelia safely towards the tunnel. The foundation was created, with somewhere for them to fall towards but he also needed to make the party aware of his presence.

For this he had two options, make himself visible through bright light or through loud sounds. The latter would be harder as to the nature of the walls here. They were from a strange rock that liked to absorb sound, even if he produced a loud bang the sound would probably not find its way into Lobelia’s ears.

The first option of making it bright was the next best thing. Probably the Lich had done something to the fog that was usually blocking the view. Thanks to his mana sense he could feel that some kind of spell had been cast, perhaps during the Lich’s ascend up he had somehow removed it.

This spell wouldn’t last forever as he could already see some dark mist coming back from the sides. Thus he threw a few more disks up towards a few locations. These were not as intricate as the previous one that magnified the signal instead, they just produced a bright blinking light.

To top it all off he fiddled with his runic programming to produce a bright spell which he shot up over his head, if this light show didn’t produce the effect then he wasn’t sure what would. There was also a code inserted into the light. This word had its own morse code analog that he set up with a hidden message. People like Lobelia or any tracker should be able to figure out what the blinking meant.

“They really jumped down…”

In all honesty, Roland wasn’t sure that even if Lobelia saw him down there she would just jump. Some adventurers would see a more favorable outcome to just toss themselves against the Lich and hope that at least some of them got away. Yet there they were, trusting in the light show that he was producing.

To not be a disappointment to the people that put their faith in him he went to the second phase of his plan. It would have been nice if he had any gravity runes that he could use. They would be perfect to cushion their descent but he would need to go with the next best thing, wind, and water.

While he was producing the light show he had already used his feet to produce a simple water creation spell. The shape of the bowl was to hold it in place and the wind spell he was about to shoot up would dampen the fall enough for them not to die before hitting the water. The biggest issue here was the limited space and then the hasty process of this entire construct.

“Ahhhhh….”

“I’m going to haunt you forever if I dieeeeeee!”

“Uooohhhh…”

Roland could finally hear some voices as the party of five descended from above. most of them were shouting but one voice that probably belonged to Armand was constantly yelling at someone. Soon they would be hit by a giant twister made up of green energy due to the mana that produced it. This torrent of winds would try to push them up while soon after suddenly pulling them towards the basin of water.

This was not an easy feat to achieve even for an experienced mage. Roland really had to strain his multiple pseudo brains that his Parallel Thinking trait gave him. When straining all three that he had access to at the moment he was somewhat able to guide the falling people down into the pool of water he created.

‘Shit it won’t hold…’

Yet after the initial splash, the hastily produced platform couldn’t hold and the group of five went through it. Roland had somewhat expected this to happen and so he shifted to plan B which he had also prepared. This one was a lot less refined as it involved just two sturdy magical ropes that he wrapped around his arms.

These ropes were made from special materials that would allow the infusion of mana. After injecting mana into them the caster could make them move like extensions of their body. It took a few tries to get the hang of it but Roland had already gone through the training. At the moment of impact and destruction of his pool, he executed his rescue plan.

Both of the magical ropes shot out to entangle the closest people there. Instantly after the entanglement, he could feel a large amount of force pulling him down. He had to quickly activate all of his strength buffing spells as well as some that would make his footing stable. Along with these he also felt a ruby tail wrapping itself around his waist as Agni attempted to aid him in this rescue endeavor.

“Shit… we are alive! Haha, I’m alive!”

“Will you shut up already, we aren’t safe yet!”

The first one to call out was Armand and he was quickly shot down by Lobelia. On one side he entangled Armand, Lobelia, and some dwarf that he had never seen before. On the other side, there was a large Half-Orc that he was familiar with together with another woman adventurer that he somewhat recalled seeing at the guild once or twice.

“... Stop moving around so much…”

Roland called out to the people dangling on the ropes. It was already a miracle that his half-assed plan had worked, he actually expected some of them to tumble down. Luckily the increase in strength thanks to his leveling spree allowed him to be able to support even five people with part of their gear intact. Some of their weapons had been tossed into the dark abyss below but that wasn’t that important.

“Wayland, is that you? What the hell are you doing here?”

“We'll talk later, I’ll pull you up now…”

Instead of chatting, he started pulling everyone into the tunnel opening. Armand was quick to quiet down as he finally realized what kind of situation he was in. Slowly the first person that was Lobelia managed to grab the ledge and pull herself up. Then it was Armand and the other woman that he recognized from the guild. Soon all of them were safe and hugging the ground under them.

“Let’s never do that again…”

Lobelia gave out a sigh while panting, beads of sweat dripping from her forehead. The decision she made was luckily the right one. During the scuffled up top, she had noticed the blinking lights and the hidden message behind them. It was just one word, jump. Normally she wouldn’t have taken this gamble but the image of Wayland popped into her head which pushed her into going with her instincts and jumping.

“Aye.”

Wedamir slowly dusted himself off while glancing down towards the rest of the chasm. Even before the jump, he was forced to let go of his tower shield which a large number of monsters was clinging to. Now he was only left with his halberd while Korgak on the other hand was missing his axe.

“Korgak glad.”

The half-orc nodded towards Roland that was standing there and also sweating. The whole rescue mission was over but now he had some explaining to do. He was sure that the group would ask about the reason for him being here. While perhaps Armand and Lobelia would keep their mouths shut, the other three were different. Before they could work this out, however, they needed to make sure that they were truly safe.

“Are you just going to be quiet or will you explain yourself, Wayland? What are you doing here?”

The one prying wasn’t actually Armand, instead, Lobelia quickly jumped off the ground and started shouting at him. She was clearly shaken by the near-death experience so he decided not to get into a shouting match and first to calm things down.

“I… this is a secret area that I discovered.”

“A secret area?”

There was no use lying about it now. For them to get out of here he needed to guide them through the secret passages anyway. It was better to just come clean but he still just could keep the other dungeon secret for the time being. Even if it was revealed his connection to the Lich could probably not be proven.

Nothing like this had happened before so he was not actually sure if this wouldn’t have happened eventually even if he didn’t come here. At least that was what he was trying to tell himself. If this was all his fault then he was probably responsible for the deaths the Lich had caused. While he wasn’t directly responsible for the Lich coming here, probably some fault was on his side.

“Yes you’ll see it soon but could you explain one thing to me, what happened up there? What’s with all those skeletons?”

Roland also wanted some answers, what was the Lich doing up there? There was still time to get out of the dungeon and seal it. After evacuating all the lower ranked adventurers they could procure platinum rank adventurers. Together with gold and silver ranks, they would probably be able to kill the lich that could only create lower-level tier 2 monsters. Their numbers could be dwindled by their gold and silver ranks while the platinum went for the kill.

“The skeletons? Sure…”

Lobelia started explaining everything while the group of five started moving away from the tunnel entrance. Roland on the other hand peeked his head out towards the runic items that were left behind in the walls. With the signal enhancer there he was still able to see the group of skeletons roaming the area before the chasm.

“What is it doing…? Fuck… we need to move!”

“Huh? What’s wrong? You were the one that wanted me to explain eve…”

“That’s not important, that thing, I mean the Lich… it jumped down, it will be here soon…”

“Huh? It jumped down?”

“Yes, Liches have levitation spells, it will be able to get in here, now go!”

The whole party glanced at each other before quickly bolting towards the unlit tunnel. They were unwilling to fight a tier 3 monster even if it was six against one. The only realistic way out of this was to escape…

Thank you for reading!

Don't forget to follow, favorite, rate.

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[User]
Write Chapter 263 – The chase begins.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
“Hey wait up… Hey! Is that thing really following us? and if it is, where are you taking us, what is this place?”

“I’ll explain later, you’ll have to trust me.”

“Trust you?”

Lobelia wanted to roll her eyes as she sprinted after the man dressed in full-body armor. To the side, she could see a ruby dire wolf running behind him and behind her were the other four party members she came with. All of them were in a daze after almost dying from the fall into the chasm. For a moment they thought they were safe but Wayland who they discovered here wasn’t of the same mind.

“Hey, are you sure that we can trust him?”

Jasmine appeared next to Lobelia and quickly used a hidden skill for forwarding information. It was called project sound, thanks to it the user could project sounds to any desired location. It was mostly used by thieves or scout classes to sneak around and confuse sentries.

However, it could also be used differently, by targeting someone's ear and turning down the sound volume a person could communicate from a distance. Attacking it by shattering someone's eardrums was also possible but only with a high enough skill level. Usually, there was not enough sound output for that, and pinpointing the right spot to his wasn’t easy either.

“My sister trusts him, so I’ll trust him too, do you think he would have saved us if he meant us harm?”

The archer nodded but Lobelia wasn’t sure if that was enough to drop the suspicion. In reality, she already had a theory of what had happened there and it was only confirmed after they arrived at a clearing. What they saw there was truly astonishing, all of them opened up their eyes to take in the view.

“What is this? Precious gems and metals? Hah, I knew you were hiding something!”

Armand shouted out while looking at the spider golems that were moving. The group was filled with adventurers so they somewhat knew that this place was akin to a goldmine. Dungeons always restored their mineral pockets with time. To them, it wasn’t that strange that Wayland had decided to keep this place to himself to keep the riches. If they were capable of doing the same they would probably do the same.

“By Felmjir’s beard, is that crimson mythril? And that’s… but this is…”

The only dwarf from the party stopped in his tracks while forgetting that they were being chased. To him, that was brought up around miners and blacksmiths, something like this was a true treasure trove. While he did not specialize in it as a dwarf he knew the true worth of a place like this.

“... Brother Dunan was right, ye wur hiding something!”

“Brother?”

Roland gave out an order to the spider golems to stop mining the moment he ran into the range of his skill. As he was planning he implemented a relay system into his bots that would forward the order to all of them automatically. Thanks to this he didn’t have to go through all ten of the golems one by one.

Some of the golems retreated towards the hidden exit while four others moved in the direction of the tunnel they ran out. Thanks to the signal enhancer he left in the chasm he could somewhat measure where the Lich was. At its current speed, it wouldn’t take it long to arrive here so he needed to have his golems block it from approaching them.

While his plan was in motion he could see all of the adventurers being astonished by this mining area. Probably all of them with perhaps the half-orc excluded knew about its worth. This area was already exposed so it would probably be impossible to keep it a secret, this was even less likely after he heard the dwarven adventurer shout at him.

“Aye, he told me about ye, greedy bastard, what do ye think ye wur doin' 'ere?”

“This is not the time for arguing, we need to leave but if you want to stay here and contend with that lich by yourself, then be my guest.”

Wedamir wasn’t amused and Roland had a suspicion as to why. First of all, he did mention one of the union leaders by name. Dwarven adventurers treated their craftsmen a lot differently than their human counterparts. To them, the creation of weapons and armor that kept them safe was something to be praised.

The dwarves in this world also had a delusion that for some reason all mining areas should belong to them. They would buy out each and everyone that they could get their hands on. The union in particular had contracts in place that would force nobles to prioritize them over others if they so desired. Thus from Wedamir’s standpoint, Roland’s attempt at hiding this mining area could have been akin to denying the dwarves their birthright.

This was certainly problematic, the dwarf would probably go running to the union bastards that disliked him. They on the other hand would see this as a chance of getting back at him. They would probably try to spin it as withholding information from the guild or the nobles that the mine really belonged to by law. Luckily they didn’t really have proof of him being here for long so he could always deny that he was mining the place for many months.

“Wedamir is thick headed but I don’t think even he wants to contend with a tier 3 Lich but isn’t this a dead end? I don’t see any exit, Wayland?”

“Give me a moment.”

Without giving an explanation he quickly ran up to the wall with the hidden runic symbols. While the way they operated wasn’t difficult, the way they were hidden was peculiar. Without his debugging skill guiding him through the process, it would take a higher-tier runesmith to even notice that there was a locking mechanism there.

“There really was an exit…”

Lobelia cheered out as she saw a bunch of runes lighting up when Roland touched the space above the door. Following the activation a large door that was big enough to fit his large mule golem appeared. With it now being open he ordered it to walk right back in through it. Luckily he had not even begun unpacking so it wasn’t hard to just retreat.

“So that’s how you’ve been able to do it…”

Not everyone here connected the dots when it came to this place. Lobelia on the other hand had realized that this had been discovered during the time the nobles visited this dungeon. This did bring up some questions though, was this actually discovered later by Roland or did he have some kind of deal with the nobles?

During that time no reports were made by them and the safe zone was supposed to have been destroyed when they were evacuating. This was not the time to ask about such things, they were still being chased by the monstrous Lich. Roland confirmed this fact as he had been constantly monitoring the pathway leading to the chasm.

“It’s here… move now!”

He pointed to the opening while taking out a few more items from his satchel. Even though he had gone down here without expecting any problems there was still a contingency plan for if anything went wrong. First of all, four of the ten drones that he had moved inside of the tunnel.

These four specific ones had the best equipment suited for this job. It was a new model that integrated the new turret technology that he had been experimenting with. They had a technical name that Roland gave to each new iteration but in short, he called them, Sentry Golems.

Their bodies were slightly larger and their mechanical limbs were also bulkier. On top, they had a large turret that could move in a wide area. It was not omnidirectional due to the bulkier form but while aiming down limited spaces like that tunnel it was the perfect monster killer.

The robotic golems dug their spider-like limbs into the hard rocks as they waited. Two were down on the ground while the other duo was above them on the ceiling. Thanks to Roland’s map they could see the enemy getting into range and when the Lich ducked out of the corner they would activate.

To supplement their escape Roland had also laid out a few traps. While they were running away he had been attaching explosives to the walls, almost all of the ones that he had were now stuck to them and would detonate the moment someone passed by them. At least that was the plan but his map was telling him otherwise.

The view was quite limited but he could see the dot that represented the Lich start to move through the pathway. The mines that were placed there and that were supposed to react to his presence didn’t activate for some reason. Perhaps the Lich had some kind of skill to detect or disable the runic bombs that he placed there?

They were still only simple runic devices that would activate when someone moved in range or stepped on them. If the monster was able to evade his traps he would need to place more elaborate ones instead. His new improved bombs could be thrown from a distance just like the signal magnifying device before.

The disk shape allowed for a better throw and the flat surface could easily stick to rocks. One of these bombs made its way towards the entrance to this mining area. As it connected with the wall it started to glow, this glow caused more rocks to appear around it for camouflage purposes. It was in short a self-hiding bomb, the earth magic runes that were there could imitate almost any terrain.

While he was preparing the second line of defense and the adventurers were going through the exit his golems finally picked up the enemy. Their golemic eyes could see the skeleton surrounded by some kind of flame barrier. Through them Roland could tell that this was indeed a Lich from that dungeon. It was also probably the one that jumped into his cannon beam.

A barrage of blue energy blasts shot out from the sentry golems. They were all enhanced mana arrows that used a similar spiral motion to drill themselves through armored opponents. Before they collided with the Lich they started to decrease in size. With the decreased magical output they were then unable to contend with the magical barrier the monster surrounded itself.

‘What is that? a mana canceling barrier? No… it should have something like that.’

Instead of canceling mana, it was doing something else. The monster was a tier 3 being and someone that had high control of magic. It was probably exerting its control over the mana being shot towards it and weakening it in the process. It was a similar effect but not as strong and had more weaknesses than outright canceling the mana particles.

The golems that he created would be great against non-magically inclined opponents. When two spell casters contended with each other most of the time the one with more mana or control over it came out victorious. The toughest part was getting through their shields that protected them from harm. Even Roland would be able to an extend disperse enemy mana with his own abilities and also had some runic contingencies in place for such an ocassion.

“It’s here, get in!”

“Shit are you sure about this? Can’t we just make our stand here, there are six of us and that thing is alone!”

“It won’t be alone for long, now get in.”

Armand was the last one in line of getting in. While they had the number advantage it wouldn’t be for long. Roland wasn’t sure how the blazing skeletons were getting down from that cliff but he was picking it up on the radar, they were making their way down here. Even if they could take out this monster together if the swarm of tier 2 skeletons arrived they would be done for.

There were too many variables and he could see that his magic attacks weren’t as effective. Roland didn’t have much experience against other spell casters. Usually, the spells overpowered his opponents as they weren’t very experienced with them either. He had never faced off against a mage on his own level and this Lich outranked him by a tier and also level.

The better way would be to make a tactical retreat for now and bring some tier 3 backup later. No adventurer guild would let such a strange monster roam the dungeon. They just needed to evacuate to the higher levels and wait for help. The monster would probably remain to roam this level, for the time being, at least that was what he was hoping for.

This monster was quite impatient, after the barrage coming from the golems, it charged forward as if it was maddened by something. The turrets continued to fire but they could not pierce through that magical barrier. Soon the monster was upon them and without even bothering to properly attack the mechanical beings they just began to melt.

The monster’s dark flames filled the entire area quickly corroding through the golem’s system and disabling them in the process. This monster didn’t stop and continued to speed up as if he was after something. That something was just around the corner and already shoving Armand into the tunnel that everyone was escaping into.

Right as the angry glowing skeleton was charging through the entrance Roland detonated the charges there. The explosion rocked the entire area and caused the rock from the ceiling to fall down. This measure was supposed to at least stall this angry-looking monster but this Lich had other plans.

“What the…”

Roland backed away as he saw a massive surge of green energy wash all over the place. It was as if some fluorescent water was being churned out from within this monster. Instead of water, it was just really thick magical energy that was used to stop the mine entrance from caving in. The blasts that he detonated didn’t even manage to halt the monster's approach and now it was time for his trump card.

A beam of condensed energy traveled from a gem inside of his chest almost instantly. This was the weapon that served him well during his gold rank exam and his current stats had been enhanced further. Yet to his dismay when the beam collided with that green barrier it just couldn’t go through. This creature was well equipped in defending itself against magical attacks and with everything that he threw at it, the monster swatted it back.

“Shit…”

Roland quickly ducked into the secret passage as it was closing. His last line of defense were the mining golems that tossed themselves on the monster. They had a self-detonating option and while some started shooting mana bolts the others attempted to grapple the monster’s skeletal limbs.

After getting a good grip they would overload their runic battery and produce a large explosion. At least that was what they were supposed to do but instead, they found themselves being pushed back by more green energy that took on a more flame-like consistency.

Luckily even though all of his creations were shoved to the side, they still bought him enough time. The monster’s empty eye sockets burst forth with angry flames as it charged at him. This was the last he saw of it as the wall slammed shut before the being could make it inside.

There he started backing away while frantically opening up the mule golem. Inside he found the improved mana cannon. Realistically speaking this was the only thing that could save him now, if the monster made it inside he would need to shoot it.

However, as he was trying to connect the cables to his own armor he noticed something. The monster had stopped in its tracks and the thumping on the wall began to decrease. This whole area was surrounded by thick rock that was somewhat resistant to magic. Even Rolland needed many hours of drilling to get anywhere within this dungeon.

This wasn’t all, he felt that the moment the Lich started attacking this wall some kind of safety spell was initiated. It seemed that he wouldn’t need to use this cannon, the monster couldn’t get towards this side, or at least, not before they were long gone. Thus after quickly getting up from the ground, he turned to the party of five.

“We need to go.”

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[User]
Write Chapter 264 – Time to evacuate.
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: level-up occurs, dungeon content

[Assistant]
It has been many days since it stepped foot in this strange location. The beings around it were weak but it still wanted to spend some time examining them. It was a stroke of luck but it found a hidden passage containing strange worm-like creatures. Their nesting ground was transformed into its lair and the bodies that continuously respawned were turned into flaming skeletal minions.

Yet what interested it more were the other beings that rarely came to this place. In contrast to the worms and other dungeon monsters the Lich encountered they varied vastly. Some were large and some were small. Their skeletal structure was different and some of the organs were also rarer than the others which made the monster divide them into groups.

A strange thing happened not soon after it left. Before it wasn’t aware of it but after killing some of the dungeon creatures it had become stronger. There was no prompt or system relaying the information but the Lich certainly knew that it had leveled up. Slowly as its forces grew it was getting stronger, the feeling of making progress was intoxicating, so much that it even forgot about leaving this place for a moment.

Its strengthening drive was interrupted on this faithful day. The strange bags of flesh began to appear less and less until a group of slightly stronger ones came close to its lair. Previously it didn’t even need to come out itself as its large number of minions was enough. Yet this small group proved itself somewhat stronger but not strong enough to escape.

Then a peculiar thing happened, it could feel it. The minion that it left behind in the area it first appeared had been defeated. The link to its minions became weaker but after it died the last thing it saw flashed before its eyes. It was some strange wolf-like creature that it had never seen before and behind it stood a strange armored being.

At first, it only thought it was just a new variant for it to study but it turned out to be much more. This armored being began giving out a unique mana signature that the Lich grew accustomed to, it was the same one as the beam of mana that collided with it. Could this be the source of it all? Could that armored thing be the one that gave it freedom?

It was momentarily stunned as it just continued to focus its mana sense down into the chasm. A light show ensued soon after and the five creatures its minions were contending with did something strange, they jumped down. Did they give up on their lives, it didn’t seem so as they had managed to survive.

This was a chance for the Lich, it needed to find who that person was. It descended down the hole it had previously come out of with the help of the lesser levitation spell. Slowly but surely it arrived at the tunnel and there it could feel the mana pattern it had grown accustomed to.

A strange feeling went through its empty head, the answers that it was looking for could be around the corner. There was a problem, the armored being that was using the strange mana pattern was moving away. Was it aware of its presence and decided to flee?

The Lich grew angry, how could the thing that awoke it deny it? Why would it be unwilling to give it the answers it desired? It wanted to know what this world was and no one would stand in its way of discovering the truth. Without hesitating anymore it stepped forward, quickly it would capture the one that set it free to examine it thoroughly.

Its approach was met by the blue arachnids from before. Their form was slightly different but the spells they produced were similar to the ones it knew. With how much it had studied the mana pattern it was quite easy to disperse the particles before they collided with its own shield made of corrupt energy.

The Lich wanted to stop and examine these spider golems but there was a bigger prize before him. Why should he settle for these empty shells if their creator wasn’t far away from them? It continued to charge while absorbing all the magical explosions that didn’t cause a single point of health to drop.

Finally, it arrived at the mining area to only be confronted by a large energy blast. This one was more similar to the beam that continuously invaded its previous home. It troubled it a bit more but as with all the previous attacks, it was unable to get through its magical defenses. To the Lich’s dismay, a problem arose as the answers it was looking for disappeared behind a secret wall that it was unaware of.

How could it have known that there was another way out of this place? Did the being with the unique mana pattern plan all of this? Was it watching from outside just to mock it? The Lich exploded in anger and charged at the closed passage. Before getting to it, the passage was closed.

This reminded it of the past when it was unable to leave through the hidden opening. Even when it continued to slam its fists and spells on this wall, the damage wasn’t enough to get it through. Some kind of defensive mechanism had been triggered to imbue the rocks with the dungeon’s mana. It was getting through it but the time it would require would be tremendous.

The unique mana pattern and the being that had it vanished from its mana sense. It could not peer through this wall but it couldn’t just give up. What if the armored thing inside was just waiting for it to leave? It needed to continue and get through it but this was not enough. The Lich now knew that there was a possibility of hidden entrances and exits. It was possible for his target to flee while it was spending all of its time here.

For the time being it needed to leave this place but the armored being could appear again. Luckily one of its skills that it had learned after leveling up had just gone off cooldown. Without waiting for another second it pointed out with its staff at an empty area in this mine. There strange green occult symbols started appearing followed by a skeletal shape.

This skill drained a lot of mana reserves but it was something worthwhile. After a minute a skeletal monster appeared without needing a body like the lesser ones. This one was much taller than the rest and its bones were black as obsidian. The horns and animalistic mouth with sharp teeth clearly distinguished it from the others. This superior undead would guard this place while it tended to other things.

With this out of the way the Lich quickly made its way back up the chasm. It had burned through a lot of mana by summoning the superior undead monster but still managed to get back to the original lair.

As it stepped down onto the ledge it was greeted by the mostly mindless minions. The skeletal soldiers spread apart as their master walked toward the hidden lair opening. With a wave of its bone staff, it canceled the illusory spell that no one was able to detect.

This opening had been smaller at the beginning, normally only a large worm could get through. Now on the other hand it was spacious enough for several skeletal warriors to squeeze in without a problem. The Lich’s eyes glowed green once more as it started into the huge open space. There as if waiting for his call a swarm of red glowing eyes followed suit.

…

“How long have you been hiding this place? Hey, does the city Lord know about this… wait, was it his Idea?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions, now isn’t really the time…”

“Well, sorry for asking so many questions, I’ve just almost died to a tier 3 Lich with a small battalion of skeleton warriors, then I find you sneaking around here…”

“Aye, Ah bet he hud something to do wi' it!”

“Wedamir, I know that you dislike Wayland but I don’t think that he would be wandering around here if he knew that there was a Lich roaming around.”

Lobelia replied to the angry dwarf that was following behind her. Some time had passed since they escaped into these tunnels. At the moment they were in a large empty chamber that looked like a place fit for a boss. Roland that was guiding them here didn’t say much and only continued to say that they needed to get out first.

He was trying to wrap his head around the thing he had done. The Lich out there was running loose and was clearly not acting like a monster from a dungeon. It was more in line with the free monsters that roamed outside of dungeons. Roland didn’t have enough time to use his analyzing skill but he wouldn't be surprised if the Lich’s level was higher than before.

While the other continued to ask him questions about this place his mind was elsewhere. Somehow he had to come to terms with his blunder and that he was probably responsible for releasing that monster. Perhaps he couldn’t be totally sure if he was the only reason but all hints pointed his way. If it was true and all of it was his fault then the lives of the people that died to the Lich would be on his conscience.

‘Was I being too greedy?’

“Hey, Wayland, what's wrong with you?”

“Huh?”

Finally, he turned back toward the five other people that were with him. Lobelia was the one that shouted at him and was about to open the boss's chamber door and go outside. All of them were looking at him with varied expressions. Armand as always looked ticked off and the dwarf continuously was on his case.

‘I guess this isn’t the time for self-pity.’

After giving out a sigh he had to rethink this whole scenario. He could not change the past and needed to live with the actions that he took. While people had died due to the Lich, it was still possible to save others. The monster was stuck before the secret entrance and perhaps this was enough time to evacuate.

Roland had been spending some time in this Dungeon and even more down in these secret tunnels. It was easy for him to right the entire place with his detection devices. When the monster finally broke down the wall he would know. Its area of operations also connected to the lava lake that he had outfitted with the same map enhancers.

“Ah sorry, I spaced out for a moment. We need to leave and inform the other adventurers about the Lich.”

“I agree, only a team of platinum adventurers can handle it, we need to evacuate as soon as we can.”

Jasmine the archer adventurer that was with them nodded at Roland. Lobelia and Armand as well as Korgak were people that he already knew, the only person that needed convincing was the dwarf. Luckily he just gave out a grunt before trekking behind the group that was moving towards the exit.

“Don’t think this is th' end o' this, ye will have to explan yersel' tae th' guild later.”

Roland had thought of the possibility of bribing everyone here to downplay his involvement but the dwarf was the most problematic. It probably wouldn’t be possible to change his mind even if he dangled coin or even superior magical equipment in front of him. Wedamir apparently had ties to the union and those guys hated him. This would really be a troublesome situation that he might not be able to weasel out of.

“So what, he was mining a bit in the dungeon? Give it a rest and move on.”

At least Lobelia was on his side as she delivered a small nudge with her foot to Wedamir’s behind. The way towards the lava lake area was already cleared up as he had not even been here for a day. Within a few hours, the monsters would not respawn so they could quickly get through the winding corridors to the space under the lake.

“So that’s how you did it…”

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time before the lava floods the lake again.”

Soon the party of now six adventurers and a ruby wolf popped their heads out the exit. There they saw the middle of the lava lake that had just subsided to the sides. They had enough time to get out and found themselves on the side closer to the exit.

“Okay shit, what do we do now?”

“I’m the fastest here, I’ll go ahead and inform the guild, we might have to lock down the dungeon.”

“Lock down the dungeon?”

Armand asked Lobelia that was about to sprint towards the exit. To them, this all looked like a unique rare monster spawn that was on the level of a floor boss. It was unknown to them if this Lich could leave the lower level but there were cases where it happened. Only Roland was somewhat aware of the whole picture. Yet even he didn’t know how this Lich operated, if it came from another dungeon it might also be stuck in this one, there was no real way of him knowing until the monster took a step outside of it.

“If it’s a tier 3 monster that can roam this place freely then it will kill everyone, there are also non-combatants here.”

“Damn, th' miners!”

Wedamir was the one to shout out now as he remembered that the union had placed some mining camps here. The hidden area that Roland found was not the only reusable mining spot in this dungeon. All the other ones that had been found were being used by the union or people affiliated with them. This sent Wedamir into somewhat of a panic as one encampment was on the other side of the lake that was closing itself.

“Hey, what are you doing? Get back here, hey Armand give me a hand.”

Lobelia along with Armand had to pull the dwarf away as he was about to attempt a run through the molten lake that was going to close itself. The next cycle of opening would be in fifteen minutes which Roland already knew. While he had no love for the union and would actually love to see their mines being destroyed the people working there didn’t deserve this.

“The lava will open up again in fifteen minutes but I’m not sure that going over there is such a good idea.”

“He is right, that path around the chasm will bring those skeletons there, what if that Lich is with them?”

“Ah dun care, ah will hulp mah brothers!”

While the others were fighting he decided to do something about this problem that probably arose due to him. Even though the Lich could be anywhere he felt that in this wide open area he would have enough time to retreat. The monster wasn’t actually that fast as most of its physical attributes weren’t that high. It was a being that was poised in mana and not running.

There was no use running around and trying to inform the adventurers about the danger. Most of them would probably not believe it unless they saw the monster before them. Instead, he decided to go with a different method that would alert everyone to it at once. This method would make a big ruckus but that would just prove its validity to people.

The large mule golem was still there and within it was all of Roland’s equipment. He had already developed a sound system within his workshop and could create runes that worked like speakers. It wouldn’t be hard to produce a sound system here with the help of his rune duplication skill that would instantly place what he wanted on a piece of metal.

Not all of his spider golems were destroyed during his escape. These two and a stationary device that he would place here would have to be enough. While everything was happening the other adventurers did seem confused.

“Wayland, what are you doing, there is no time for this…”

“I know, but before we go we have to inform the adventurers about the danger, I will stay here you all should evacuate.”

The others looked at Roland who continued to fiddle around with magical equipment. He pulled out metal parts that somehow connected to each other and even the golems that they saw before started to be modified. What he was doing was a mystery to them as they thought that the best thing to do was to get out of here. The other adventures that roamed this dungeon had to take care of themselves, this was their life and they had to be ready for everything.

“How will you do that? Come on, let’s go!”

Lobelia shouted but instead of Roland replaying he took out another strange-looking device that he moved towards his mouth.

“Testing… one two three…”

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[User]
Write Chapter 265 – Evacuating the miners.
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
“This is a message from the adventurers guild, please evacuate the dungeon, a high-level tier 3 Lich has been spotted in the lava region, if you see it do not engage and move to the higher levels in an orderly fashion… I repeat a tier 3 Lich has been …”

“Huh, what is that?”

“Is that some kind of golem?”

A group of five adventurers spotted a blue spider creature quickly moving around the area. It was quite a bit away from them but the loud message that was running on repeat could be easily heard by them. This quintet of adventurers had just arrived in the lower region and was now unsure of what to do. If they believed in the words that were being played, then the best way of surviving was to go to the higher levels or even inside.

“Hey, did that thing say that it's unknown if the monster can go to the upper levels?”

“Is something like that even possible?”

“I think there was something like this a few years back, a high-level orc monster appeared in a low-level dungeon and went on a killing spree… maybe we should go?”

The party looked at each other, they were not in any danger of starving anytime soon. There was no reason for them to put themselves in any danger. There was a possibility of this being some kind of ruse. Perhaps a rare monster did appear and whoever sent out this golem was trying to keep people away while they killed it.

However, this was a far-fetched theory as quite a few adventurers knew to who these spider drones belonged. Wayland the runesmith was close to being a household name in the city and this mechanical contraption even had his logo on it. If this was some kind of scheme to get people out of the dungeon then it was very sloppy. A punishment from the guild would be in order for attempting to evacuate people under false pretenses.

“Should we just wait for now? It could be some kind of prank?”

“It could be a costly prank… but hey, someone is coming!”

The tracker from the group pointed toward a woman that was running their way. She was quite fast and also someone they recognized. Gold rank adventurers were on the rarer side and ones that had cute faces were even rarer. It was Lobelia that was charging forward and right before passing the party of five she shouted out.

“What are you idiots doing, didn’t you hear the announcement? Get out of here now and when you see other adventurers tell them to leave the dungeon!”

She zoomed past the stupefied group that instantly started backing away. It was one thing to listen to a disembodied voice and another if a gold rank adventurer said the same thing. A tier 3 Lich was loose in this dungeon and everyone knew what that could mean. An unlimited army of undead skeletons could be swarming this way soon. Thus all of them quickly turned back to the boss room they came from and booked it after the half-elven girl.

…

“... please evacuate the dungeon … “

“Are you finished, Wayland?”

“Yeah, but you could have left with Lobelia already.”

“Hah, I’d get an earful from Elodia if she found out that I left you here all to yourself.”

“I see… thanks.”

Roland wasn’t sure how to react to the smiling Armand that had remained with him. To alleviate some of the damage he did by releasing the Lich into the dungeon he remained by the lava pool. There he quickly jerry-rigged a speaker system that would send out an evacuation notice on a loop. It was quite loud so it drew in the close-by monsters that his self-proclaimed brother-in-law dispatched for him.

Only the two men and Agni were left here. Lobelia had taken it upon herself to run towards the guild to inform it. The guild master was the only tier 3 class holder that they could count on to defeat the Lich. If they were lucky then perhaps there was a platinum party passing by to lend a hand but that was probably unlikely to happen. Those types of people spent their time around areas that were more beneficial to them and this lower-level dungeon was not one of them.

“No problem, you can repay me later, I do need a new pair of boots and I’ve heard those too can be enchanted.”

“I guess if they are made from the right materials that would be a possibility… but we should talk about that after we get out of here, alive.”

“So are you done?”

“Yes but…”

Roland looked at his small monitor that was blinking inside of his helmet. There he was able to see a somewhat large force of people approaching the other side of the lava lake. Wedamir had gone back through it to reach one of the dwarven mine encampments. One of his golems had also gone to that spot to inform anyone that was in that section about the problems they were facing.

Jasmine and Korgak went towards another area entirely. Everyone was trying to do their best in helping to evacuate the unsuspecting men and women that were here. It seemed that at least some adventurers were willing to risk their lives for others. None of them actually tried to escape to the top without having a proper reason. In reality, he could do the same but due to the fact that this was somewhat his fault, he felt that he needed to stay here.

“You should probably go where Korgak and that girl went, they might need your help.”

“What about you?”

Armand answered while seeming a bit confused. There wasn’t really much left to do here and the skeletons might soon arrive. There was also a possibility of the Lich appearing on either side of the lava lake. Roland’s plan was to remain here and help with the evacuation effort. He was on the stronger side with his level probably being the highest down in these dungeons.

“I’m going to stay here, I can at least stop some of those reanimated skeletons from killing people.”

“That’s surprising, I didn't think that you were the heroic type.”

Armand laughed while shrugging but it didn’t seem that he was about to leave. Roland wasn’t sure why Elodia’s adopted brother was willing to help him but he wouldn’t refuse it. The help from a higher level tier 2 berserker was always appreciated.

“Heroic type…”

Roland wanted to laugh as he was anything but a hero. First off this all happened due to his fear of the abyssal cult. The only reason that he was remaining here was to soothe his bad conscience. It wouldn’t be hard to just run and leave everything in the hands of the adventurers guild.

It wouldn’t be hard to deny that he was involved with the Lich and there was also no solid proof of how long he was using the secret mining area. If he just ran to the city lord that he found it a few days ago before the Lich appeared he could be in the clear. Perhaps he could even spin it in his favor. He could play it off that discovering the mine could have triggered the Lich as a defensive mechanism that no one could have predicted.

“You probably couldn’t be more wrong with that one…”

“Huh, what did you say?”

Roland mumbled to himself while Armand was trying to look to the other side of the lake. People were quickly gathering on the other side. There were actually many dwarves there as it seemed that Wedamir was successful in informing their side. It was probably better that the dwarf went there as he wouldn’t be surprised if the union members ignored his golems thinking that it was some kind of bad prank.

“Nothing, you should get ready, they are coming and there are a lot of them…”

His brutish brother-in-law nodded while following Roland’s gaze. Dots on his scanner started to appear and soon enough the strange cluttering of bones could be heard. A swarm of blazing skeletons appeared from the chasm area.

“Damn, where did all of those bastards come from, there weren’t that many of them before.”

Armand shouted as he was taken aback by the sheer number of the tier 2 skeletal warriors. Some of them were carrying spears while others had swords or shields made of bones. Some of them actually had metallic weapons that were probably stolen from the adventures they had killed.

‘There is a lot more than I expected…’

His mapping device was of no use to him now as there were just too many red dots to see anything. The first line of defense was already being initiated as the monsters started blowing up. Inside of his mule golem, he had a vast array of explosives that he used to set up mines. These skeletons were not very intelligent and just continued to run towards their doom.

A reanimated being had limited intelligence. They could carry out simple tasks like going in directions their master pointed out or attacking. The master would need to direct them directly to be able to evade such obvious traps. This Lich probably gave them a vague order that they would carry out, something in the line of killing all people they saw. Thus they would just follow it without paying any mind to their own life.

“Haha, that’s quite the show, look at them explode.”

“Be careful, they'll break through soon…”

“Huh?”

While his bombs were taking out a large chunk from this skeletal army the assault continued. The bones piled up and soon acted as a bridge to get to the other side. If there were more skeletons than bombs then they would surely get here and if the Lich appeared from behind then he would be able to reassemble the fallen monsters. This was the danger that his creature brought with itself, a relentless army of reusable pawns that knew no fear and never tired.

This didn’t mean that they would get here. They were coming here in a predictable pattern without using the terrain to their advantage. The lake of lava was spreading to allow passage to the miners on the other side. At least until it closed again Roland would attempt to stop the swarm of angry skeletons. The mines were slowly running out so instead, it was time to use some of his own ranged magic.

Holy magic would have been the best to contend with these creatures that were resistant to the second-best element, fire. In his possession, he had access to all the four main elements from which probably the one that produced the most physical attacking power was the best.

In this instance that would be earth and it was also favored by the topography here.

The large hammer he created started glowing in a brownish hue. Through it, he could activate a stronger spell than the usual spikes that he used. The runic tremor spell was triggered, the large spike at the end of his hammer shot out a beam of light that after colliding with the ground produced a large magical circle.

This circle appeared just for a moment before the spell effect was triggered. The ground under the skeletons opened up to reveal blistering hot magma. The monsters tumbled right in and even though they were resistant to flames their bones could not take prolonged exposure to lava.

This dungeon was like Roland’s backyard and this was true for this area especially. He had examined everything that he could for a potential tunneling attempt. It wasn’t hard to find the weak spots that were close to lava. Only thanks to this knowledge could he actually move the rocks away as in an instance where the ground was excessively hard, even his spells would be unsuccessful.

Yet not the whole region could be exposed to more puddles with magma. Some of the monsters sprinted through after the shaking stopped and continued with their maddened charge. This he answered with a swarm of magical arrows that his hammer was able to produce as well. After locking on with his runic system the skeletons were pelted by the mass of blue lights. Thanks to the lock-on system he could choose to go for the weak spots that had a certain mana pattern to them.

“Hey leave some for me!”

Armand smacked his fists together which made the gauntlets that Roland made glow. The runic patterns became visible as several buffing spells washed over his body. Instead of straight-up attack spells, Armand preferred enhancing his body and through these gauntlets, he would be able to.

Even he began to see action as some of the skeletal fiends managed to get through the barrage of spells. With just a few smacks they exploded into chunks of bone or flew into the exposed lava puddles that Armand tossed them into. While the battle raged the people on the other side started reaching this side of the lake. They could see what was happening and without looking made their way towards the exit to the upper levels.

“Hah, not even one thank you?”

Roland looked towards Armand who had smacked away two skeletal soldiers. He was purposely taking the fight to another location. Slowly they were guiding the monsters away from the lake while the miners and lower-level adventurers escaped. It wasn’t hard as these mindless drones had only eyes for the closest living beings to them. After a few smacks, they were tossing themselves at him and Armand without any regard for their life.

“You can charge them for your services after we get out…”

“Hey, that’s a good idea! The guild should reward us handsomely for this overtime.”

In a sense, Armand was still on a mission. This wasn’t really in the contract but could be used as an excuse to get more money out of the guild. It seemed that everything was going well, while the swarm of skeletons continued to funnel out Roland purposely created more lava pits to force them through paths he wanted them to take. Their number was concerning but they were managing to hold out while the others evacuated.

“W-what’s that?”

“Skeletons, they are coming! Run!”

To his dismay, another small army appeared. They came from the other side and reached the lake before it started to close. The miners and workers were still carrying a lot of their equipment which made them slower. Without the ability to bring animals down into this dungeon or large carts they were left carrying everything in large spatial bags. Those could fit a lot of items inside themselves but still didn’t fully cancel out the weight.

As it stood the skeletal beings would meet up with the fleeing dwarves closer to this end of the lake. This would all occur before the lake could fully close to bury the pursuing army and probably some lives would be lost. There was a way of helping them but he was hoping to use this trap on another pursuer.

‘It might have not even gone through the tunnels and be back at the chasm…’

His backup plan was not meant to stop these creatures but if he didn’t do something then lives would be lost. Thus when the skeletal battalion reached the middle of the lake he relayed the information through the signal enhancers to the secret entrance. There a large number of runic bombs had been placed beforehand and would be used to burry those monsters in lava.

A huge explosion erupted as the skeletal creatures reached the middle of the lake. It produced a large pillar of magical energy that brought earth and lava with it. The secret area under the lava lake was connected to another basin of this fiery liquid. By triggering a massive explosion the connection was made and it was bursting with molten rock.

The ground gave up under the monsters that were tossed aside due to the initial explosion. Following it, some of them were splashed with molten rocks that halted their advance. When combined with the lava lake closing up from the other side the maneuver was successful. Given this time the fleeing dwarves would make it to safety while the undead creatures would be buried under lava.

It did seem like this was over, even though the assault continued from this side Roland was already preparing to retreat. Some guards from the dwarven camp even started to help, Wedamir was among them and after spotting Roland in the distance he seemed troubled.

Yet this was far from over as even after everyone had gone through the lake that had closed a strange occurrence was sighted. The middle of the lake started rising up as if a large round object was trying to pierce through the heavy magma. Roland instantly knew what was happening and was quick to retreat. The only hope of stalling this further was inside of his mule golem…

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[User]
Write Chapter 266 – Blasting away again.
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
“We made it laddies!”

Everyone cheered as they watched the lava swallow up the swarm of skeletons. This group of people had come from the mining camp in the mine. Everyone had somewhat expected this line of work to be dangerous but they never envisioned themselves fleeing from a small army of skeletons. Luckily a massive eruption of some sort that exploded in the middle of the lake saved them all and now their pursuers were gone.

They naturally questioned the strange explosion but they couldn’t really stop. While the enemies from the rear were gone another large group of them was coming from another side. This area had also become flooded with magma which was proving to be a stopgap for the monsters.

There they also noticed two humans that were keeping the monsters at bay, one was swinging a large hammer around to produce various spells and the other just crushed the skeletal heads with his fists. Wedamir, who reported the monster attack had gone over to offer some help and it seemed that everything was going well. However, just when everything was going well a strange phenomenon started.

“Shit, get these people out of here, make them toss all of their equipment away and run if you want to live.”

“Ye can’t expect us tae juist…”

“Just do it!”

Roland grabbed Wedamir by the collar while shouting. There was no time left as the Lich was here, and while the others couldn’t see it yet, it was there. The multiple explosives were supposed to stop it or at least keep it from progressing as the underground would flood with lava. His plan was to set off the explosion while the Lich was inside the secret chamber below the lake but he had to detonate it prematurely to save the miners.

Now the creature was slowly lifting itself up from the underground. This was presented to everyone through a strange red sphere rising out from the ground. Roland knew that inside of it was the Lich and the circular shape was just the mana shield it was producing. It was coupled with the levitating spell to make it look like some kind of large bubble.

There was no time to lose, Roland only had one weapon capable of contending with a tier 3 monster of this caliber. This was the large cannon that produced the mana-drill spells he used for farming experience. At this moment it was inside of his mule golem that he quickly sprinted towards.

‘Common, open up…’

He already sent the order to his golem to turn around and open the large latch but this model wasn’t really built for speed. In his hurry, he had to actually tear it open to get to the equipment he needed. There was no time to actually attach this cannon to a stable base or to the battery unit that used the mining area Elokin’s crystals.

Luckily he had updated this cannon to be used with other attachments. It was still an experimental model that could go together with this slightly upgraded runic suit of armor. The cannon already came with thick cables that would carry the required energy. What he needed to do was connect them to his armor.

There wasn’t really much to it, there weren’t any latches, just a flat surface at the end of the cable that would stick to his metallic armor through magic. It was quite similar to magnetism which didn’t suck up that much mp. Thanks to this solution the cables almost guided themselves towards the entry point that he included on this improved armor.

Small blue sparks flew as he attached the last one to his neck. The other ones were tightly connected to his back and chest without getting in the way of him holding it up on his shoulder. The small turret that he had on the other shoulder that previously continued to shoot at the skeletons had to be turned off. The mana it required needed to be moved towards the large cannon.

“What are ye…”

“I told you to go, that thing is here already, if you want to save your people you should run.”

Wedamir that was somewhat away, continued to ask questions while batting some skeletons away. Finally, as he noticed the lava bubble rising up warning signals started going off in his head.

“A' body, listen the th' human, yer lives are more important than th' equipment yer carrying.”

“Ye can’t be serious! If anyone listen to him, everything that ye lose wull come out o` yer salary.”

The dwarven adventurer wasn’t the man in charge, this title belonged to a foreman that was overseeing the entire mining operation. He was an old dwarf that clearly saw that the company that he was working for was above the simple miners. Probably the punishment for him would be severe if all of this equipment was lost here. It seemed that for him the miners were more replaceable than the pickaxes that they were carrying.

It was understandable that the foreman didn’t want to get in trouble but he was underestimating the threat here. Without seeing the Lich that could devastate them with a few spells he would probably be unwilling to give out an order to abandon everything. To Roland’s surprise, Wedamir was the one to step up.

“Whit do ye want, ye'r not part o' th' miners guild.”

Without giving an explanation Wedamir’s fist made its way towards the supervisor's jaw. The man did not have a proper battle class so a punch from a high-level tier 2 warrior wasn’t something he could take. It was an instant knockout that made the hired guards and other dwarven adventurers that were here stunned.

“Someone grab this idiot, ah will explain everything to th' union chief after.”

Roland had no idea who this dwarf was that was hanging around Armand and Lobelia. He had mentioned one of the union member's names and called them his uncle. Perhaps this was not an honorary title and instead, Wedamir was actually related to one of them. This would make sense if he felt comfortable in knocking out a foreman of a mining expedition.

If that wasn’t the case, then perhaps he could see the bigger picture here and he just prioritized the lives of others over monetary gains. Roland didn’t really have the time to worry about the union’s dealings as his current situation was also dire. At least now that the miners were dropping their heavy tools and bags they had a better chance of escaping.

As if right on cue the smoldering hot bubble of lava rose high enough to reveal the monster inside. The green flames that accompanied this lich became visible to everyone. Roland had remained vigilant even while the dwarves were having their little argument. The cannon that he was holding over his shoulder was already ramping up.

???????? Lich L 171

His analyzing skill couldn’t fully identify the monster, the question marks represented the type of the monster before him. Liches were already tier 3 monsters and were an evolution of a mage skeleton. This one was in possession of some kind of special class that he could not identify. The only thing that gave him some information was the creature's level.

‘Its level is lower than that of the abomination at the village but its defenses against mana are vastly superior to that monster’s.’

The biggest problem wasn’t the monster's level but how it was able to shrug off every magical attack that he produced. In theory, his chest cannon should be able to at least deal a good amount of damage if it connected but the mana was being affected by something. At first he believed that it was just some type of skill or spell but the longer he thought about it the stranger it became.

Normally a battle between mages was decided by their mana. The person with more always had the advantage both in defense and offense. While it was possible to interfere with other people's mana it wasn’t something easily achieved. Mana disrupting existed but it usually occurred with one party having a vastly higher stat pool along with amount of mana.

The Lich here was strong but Roland also had a prestige class that boosted his stat multiplier. In his opinion, the monster shouldn’t be able to disperse his magical energies this easily. There was one way of this being probably though, if the mage grew accustomed to an enemy's mana pattern they would be able to affect it to a greater degree.

‘I can only hope that this works…’

There wasn’t much time here as his cannon was already glowing blue with energy. His aim was to catch the monster off guard, now that it rose out of the magma lake it was time. The Lich didn’t show much respect for his magic, it didn’t seem to see it as much of a threat. To some degree, it even looked as if it wanted to get hit by it.

This of course brought back the memory of seeing it jump into the mana beam on one of his grinding expeditions. At that time the monster was hit but didn’t die then afterward it had never shown its face again as if it was hiding. If this Lich was intelligent then perhaps it decided to hide away to understand the mana beam that hurt it. It wouldn’t be strange if it cracked his mana pattern during the farming spree and was now able to affect his spells.

Something like this was usually not an easy endeavor. An experienced mage would need to spend weeks or months analyzing such a pattern actually to be able to affect the spells during battle. Even then a person's mind was a fickle thing, during a direct confrontation it would be practically impossible to affect another set of mana patterns without fumbling the technique.

His opponent wasn’t quite human though, perhaps it operated on a different set of rules and could perform this deed as easily as people breathed. This little theory of his could be tested out now as if the monster could just bounce this magical cannon ray away, then running was the only option left. With how the monster was already coming closer that would become quite difficult even for Roland.

For this to work, he would need to change his mana pattern. Something like this was easier said than done, a magic user could not just change his natural mana signature that easily. Luckily Roland was not a mage, he was a Runesmith. Runes were able to change everything within a spell if the crafter knew the components.

After so many years of testing, Roland had become quite the expert. Recently he had started tapping into holy runes and was also attempting to change the mana wavelengths. This research brought in a few new discoveries through which he was now able to scramble his own mana fingerprint.

Everything was ready and he injected all that he had into the weapon that he was holding over his shoulder. The runic machine that looked like a tank cannon started releasing sparks of mana. His whole silvery armor was doing the same, arcs of blue light flew everywhere as he dumped copious amounts of his mp into this attack.

While he did not have time to connect this weapon to any batteries he could still use them. A handful of fresh Elokin’s crystals made their way into his palm and were used to boost the power of this cannon to its maximum. These crystals liked to heat up when used, his first golemic creation had blown up due to this fact. Yet now even when the crystals were starting to glow red in his gauntlet he continued to use them.

Finally, the Lich was out and its gaze was instantly drawn to the sparkling runesmith. The empty eye sockets exploded with green energy as it started approaching. The monster was like a moth being drawn to a flame. It was probably sure that the energy blast could not damage it as all the previous ones had failed before it. A staff made of bones floated before it as the counter-attack was already being prepared.

Roland was not sure why the Lich was acting this way. For some reason it was attracted to his mana and wasn’t acting as the Lich variants he read in books. Those undead monsters would usually avoid any direct confrontation and use their minions instead. If the caster died then all of the undead around it would instantly stop working. If this monster acted as it was supposed to it would have created a lair where it surrounded itself with its skeletal minions.

This one on the other hand was truly broken or crazy. Even after the beam of drilling blue mana flew forward it continued to float towards it. It was as if it wanted something from it, was it actually trying to absorb this blast of energy? This thought made Roland sweat, if his enemy had absorbing properties then after the beam was taken in he would be open to a counterattack.

Luckily this wasn’t the case, after inserting a mana pattern disruptor into the runic system, the shot actually connected. A light show of sapphire energy against emerald green set the entire underground dungeon ablaze. This intensive clash of magical energies made a lot of heads turn and everyone could see it, the Lich’s shield was breaking apart.

It was quite a strange sight to behold even for them. The Lich that was surrounding itself with green flames flew directly into the path of the spinning beam of mana. It was as if it was not even seeing it as an obstacle that it needed to worry about. To the simple miners on the other hand the high concentration of mana made their beards tingle. They knew in their very being that if they were anywhere near that blasting zone they would be turned to ash.

For a moment it actually looked like the being made of bones would break through. The beam collided with the shield of green flames but the monster continued to fly forward. Only after moving several meters did it stop. It finally realized that something was wrong but at that point, it was too late.

Roland’s sweaty face could not be seen nor could his shouting be heard as he gave it all. The spinning drill finally penetrated through the shield and collided with the monster inside. It was practically cleaved in two as it impacted the monster’s chest area where presumably the core should be. This amount of damage could not be ignored even by this creature and it lost control of its mana shield and levitation spell, it was falling down into the lava below.

“Hah, he got it!”

Armand shouted out while holding his fist high up. Everyone that was fleeing halted in their tracks as they saw the light show coming to an end. It looked like the Lich was going to fall into the lava and even it without the protection of its shield would suffer a devastating blow if it was directly submerged under lava.

‘Did that do it?’

While the monster was falling down his armor was on fire. Various skills like rune overload and empower rune were used to boost the spell past its limits. The smoke that was produced from his machinery was due to the runes burning through the metal. Even though his equipment had been damaged if the monster fell into the lake of lava now it would have all been worth it.

‘I didn’t get its core which is a shame but that doesn't matter, please just fall in.’

His reserves were drained so he didn’t have anything left for a follow-up attack. If only the monster fell into the lake then this all could be over. Yet it wouldn’t be so, suddenly something burst forth from the middle of the lake. It was a skeletal monster just like the rest but it was much bigger and of coal black coloring.

Before the Lich fell into the pool the monster produced a set of wings that propelled it towards its master. Within a few moments, the skeletal mage was being carried to the other side of this lake to safety. Everyone looked in horror as the one responsible for this predicament had not been killed. Instead, it would be safe on the other side to recover and return to haunting this dungeon again.

Roland was stunned and shocked just like the others. The arrival of this creature was something that he didn’t factor into. After a quick scan with his analyzing skill, he was even more perturbed. This creature was one of the Lich’s minions and it was also a tier 3 being.

Obsidian Skeleton Gargoyle [ Summoned ] L 150

‘Shit, could there be more of those around…’

This was no time to take a rest, while he had gone through most of his mana they still needed to evacuate. The skeletal soldiers continued to arrive and they were not alone. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the appearance of another one, another large skeletal monster made from black bones.

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[User]
Write Chapter 267 – Obsidian soldiers.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Summoning existed in this world, it was a separate field from elemental magic that was considered extremely strong in the right hands. Like any other school of magic, there were variations in the techniques used. One subsection utilized ritualistic ceremonies with offerings to the being it wanted to procure. Other ones were dedicated by simple class skills, contracts, and occult sacrifices.

One thing united all of those types of summoning practices: the creature that appeared always required something for their services. It could be something simple as the magic caster’s mana or something darker like a part of their soul. This was one of the reasons why demonic magicians were so feared as they could offer up other people as sacrifices to gain a fast boost to their power.

Demons weren’t very particular about who they were getting their part of the deal from. If a demon summoner rounded up a village of people and performed the desired ritual the monster would oblige. A contract between the summoned creature and the summoner would be formed. After the contractor just needed their mana to jolt their contracted being over to this world.

A lot of things depended on the type of contract. The summoned creature could constantly siphon mana from its user while it was on this side or just take a bulk cut at the beginning. The first type could potentially put the contracted being into an almost permanent summoning. The caster just needed to have enough mana regeneration to offset the amount being used. It was somewhat similar to the buffing runes that Roland used in his armor which took a fixed amount of mana.

Thus he asked himself this question, what was the type of summoning that the Lich was using? Did it offer up the flesh of the monsters and people it killed to get it here or was it just offering it mana? Did the black-boned skeletons have a time limit or did the Lich need to spend his own magic to prolong the stay here?

‘There are always rare summoning skills that don’t cost anything and are on a timer…’

That one was the worst-case scenario. A person could just use a timed skill to summon monsters with almost no penalties. Most of the time such skills had a limit on the creatures that were summoned. The high-tier undead summon had flown away with its master but it wasn’t the only one there. Just as those two vanished into the horizon another one appeared before them.

“Hey Wayland, stop spacing out, think we might need some of that magic over here…”

Roland had to turn his head towards Armand that was shouting. While the injured Lich made his escape another problem arose. The army of lower level tier 2 skeletons continued to attack but they were getting dispatched by the adventurers and guards that made it safely from the other side. Normally this would be a great chance to set up a barrier while the miners fled.

To everyone's surprise, not one but two strange-looking undead appeared before them. The one in the front was a lot larger than the rest. Just like the obsidian gargoyle that escaped with the Lich the two had charred black bones.

Obsidian Skeleton Beast Soldier [ Summoned ] L 150

Obsidian Skeleton High-Mage [ Summoned ] L 150

He could see their names and levels, it seemed that their levels were all uniform. This was probably the limit of the skill their master was using. The Beast Soldier’s body was around four meters tall. It had long limbs and claw-like hands with a skeletal structure similar to that of a gorilla. The head looked similar to that of a stag with sharper teeth than usual.

The other one wasn’t much bigger than the other regular blazing skeletons. Its face was similar to the other one as the antlers were poking out of the pitch black robe it was wearing. In its right hand, it was holding a staff that radiated green flames just like the ones its master flung around.

It was clear that the larger one was the close-quarters combatant while the mage would be delivering support spells from the back. With the addition of so many foot soldiers, it would be quite a hard nut to crack. Without giving anyone any time to prepare a strange wail escaped from the larger skeleton.

“Shit…”

His ears were on fire as he was hit with the sound attack. It was a wide-range disabling attack that caught all the adventurers off guard. Even Armand and Wedamir that were high-level tier 2 warriors, could not resist it. They went down to their knees while clutching their ears. Luckily for them, they had a member in their party that had prepared for this type of occasion.

Roland’s armor initiated an automated defense spell that canceled out the sound from reaching his ears. He needed to work fast as the Skeleton Beast Soldier continued to howl while his ally pointed his staff made of bones up. The skull at the end of it started to give up a green glow through its empty eye sockets. This concluded with a large sphere of green fire forming above the spot it was pointing at.

This forced Roland to quickly abandon the smoking cannon that he used to injure the Lich. Instead, he grabbed his own elongated kite shield. It had the length of a regular tower shield but was narrower at the bottom. With it in his hand, he jumped towards his allies that were holding their heads together. Even when trying they were not able to shake off the stunning effect.

When he arrived before them there was not much time. The only reason he was able to activate the shield's defensive spells was due to it being a runic item. The skeletal mage was still forced to chant out the spell that looked like a giant ball of green flames. Without help from others, mages like these could not utilize grand spells to their full potential. Yet during times of war, there was no greater weapon than a battalion of mages flinging powerful destructive spells.

Finally, the ball of green flames was flung forward by the monster. It collided with multiple layers of shields that Roland set up in a hurry. The first one shattered almost instantly and the second one took only half a second to burst as well. Only when the spell arrived at the last one did it stop in its tracks before exploding.

Even when his spells managed to block most of the damage he could feel his health dropping. Armand and Wedamir that were behind him tumbled away but were mostly fine but this was not the end. The skeletal mage raised his staff up again and was already preparing to cast another spell. His ally on the other hand was luckily out of breath and the stunning effect of his shout wore off.

“We need to retreat!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

“Aye…”

The three men were of the same mind. There was no way of them winning this and the miners had been evacuating for a while. After dropping their tools earlier they had made some space between the main skeletal forces. Only a few adventurers had stayed behind as they thought that handling the lower tier 2 skeleton soldiers wouldn’t be that hard. No one expected two tier 3 monsters to quickly appear out of the blue.

‘The monster is clearly a tier 3 but the spell it used was somewhat on the weaker side…’

Roland came to this conclusion after standing up. Normally he shouldn’t be able to take something like that with this little prep. He expected the last magical spell to burst before activating his armor's defensive mechanism to ride the shockwave. Instead, his shield was able to last through it by just burning copious amounts of mana instead.

This was probably a limit of the High-Mage class that this monster had. The spells weren’t quite at the tier 3 level. Perhaps the initial level of hundred fifty and his own raised stats put him somewhat around these two creatures' level. Yet he was just one man and didn’t think he could handle both of them alone, not even if Agni or the adventurers helped out it wouldn't change much. Escaping was still the most sensible conclusion and for that, he at least needed to shake these two off.

“Hey, keep them back from me for a second.”

“Huh?”

Wedamir was startled as Roland threw the shield at him. Even though the two obsidian undead were the main problem there was still a swarm of the blazing skeletons to tackle. After a quick glance towards Armand that nodded to the dwarf, the two put themselves between the charging monsters while Roland looked up.

This area was vast but they were still underground. The ceiling above them was filled with stalactites formed from hard rock. Normally no one would be stupid enough to attempt blowing up the ceiling but all of them were in a life and death situation. There was a nice row of pointy rocks right above the black skeletal mage.

The other larger monster was keeping a close watch on the caster. It seemed as if these two were ordered to stick together. The large one would perhaps stun and bat away any people trying to get close to the mage while it used the wide-area spells to kill everyone around them.

Thus while Armand and his new dwarven friend were distracting the skeletons that got through the puddles he grabbed the rest of his throwable discs. These were quickly flung up into the air. With the help of his throwing skill and their self-sticking properties, they made their way up to the ceiling.

To top it all off he also grabbed his hammer staff with both hands. His aim was to deliver as much force and have the whole place cave in on the monsters. The mage could see what he was doing and so did the larger skeleton. It didn’t seem that these two were intelligent enough to see through the tactic as they remained at their spot. The ball of flame continued to expand but it would not be thrown again.

Right before the mage could point the spell towards the group of adventurers a huge explosion rocked the entire place. As the bombs exploded a burst of mana escaped from Roland’s own weapon. It was a chaotic orb of energy that after colliding with the ceiling continued to drill itself in further while sending off smaller shockwaves. These caused quite a mess and produced a smokescreen.

“Retreat!”

Shouted Roland as the spell connected with the desired spot.

“Woah!”

Armand shouted back while glancing up towards the destruction. No one really needed to hear the retreat order as they booked it for the hills. The whole upper area of the dungeon quickly came crashing down. This was coupled with lava, ash, and debris that made their way toward the skeletal forces and their two commanding officers.

Roland was running as well but his gaze was pointed in another direction. There he locked eyes with the mule golem that started moving in the opposite direction of the fleeing people. It pained him to do this but he wanted to have a secondary plan that would guarantee their escape. For this reason, he needed to sacrifice one of his creations.

The only thing that he rushed in for was the cannon that he discarded after the blast. This thing could still be used so after grabbing it he started running. Agni was right next to his master, when one of the weaker skeletons approached he was quickly dispatched by an angry dire wolf. The bones that these monsters were made of could not handle even one bite.

“Hey, move it if you don’t want to die.”

To Roland’s surprise, Armand did not abandon him. Instead, he remained close by and just waited, perhaps the man was not as bad as he previously thought. While he had a drinking problem and was focused on carnal pleasures he did keep him company during this crisis. Soon the two were both running while the obsidian skeletons were covered in rubble.

Yet while the white skeletal minions started getting crushed under all the falling rock the two troublesome ones weren’t. The mage produced a shield of green flames that was similar to its masters. It didn’t have quite the same output but was enough to protect it from the falling rocks. The soldier type with the head of a stag didn’t even move, the rocks that collided with its thick bones just bounced back as if it was just a minor inconvenience.

The whole area became flooded with dust and rock. From within this cloud of ash, the larger black skeleton burst forth. Its jump was tremendous as it almost fully avoided the blasting zone with just two strides. After giving out another loud howl it started picking up speed and running after the escaping adventurers.

Leaving the mage to its own devices was something that Roland calculated into his secondary plan which was slowly moving towards the monster. This was the mule golem’s last hoorah, its whole outer shell was producing glowing runes that were digging into the bulky chassis. This magical phenomenon pulled the monster in as it charged at the golem with the intention of killing it.

The last Obsidian Skeleton Beast Soldier jumped up while stretching out its long limbs over its head. Its intent was to slam those large fists of it on the slow-moving golem before chasing after the others. This was of course a trap, the moment those hands collided with the mule’s glowing shell another explosion rocked the entire area.

This one was on the same level as the one in the middle of the lake but much brighter. The black figure of the monster was fully swallowed up by the bright light. The adventurers that felt the surge of mana taking over could not help but look back. There they could see an armored man sprinting towards them who was not looking back at the explosion he produced.

Over his shoulder, he was carrying a huge cannon but it didn’t seem to be weighing him down at all. Without saying anything Roland caught up to Armand that instantly followed suit. Everyone was in full evacuation mode and quickly they caught up to the miners that weren’t boosted as much as the combat class holders.

‘This should give us some time…’

Roland started slowing down as his group reached the miners. Other people started crowding in from the sides. It was clear that the message had gone through and everyone was on board with the evacuation effort. Some adventurers had even formed a defensive line to block any potential monsters. Others were moving forward to battle the creatures on the upper levels which were also a potential risk.

You have gained 1000 experience points.

The system message rang in his head indicating that he had defeated a weak monster. Normally he wouldn’t be interested in it as similar ones had ringed in his head but each one had given him ten experience points. Reanimated skeleton soldiers gave considerably fewer points for killing them.

Perhaps this thousand came from one of the black summoned creatures that would also give a diminished amount of experience. It seemed that something had put in place a barrier for grinding. It would not allow people to farm summoned creatures that could be easily replaced by mana or resources.

While the explosion proved that the summoned monsters could be killed by his creations it didn’t fix the problem. The Lich could probably create more of those soldiers and they could even work with each other. Even though their tactics were crude they would still make things harder for anyone facing them. With a lack of a proper platinum rank party, this dungeon was a lost cause, and perhaps the swarm of skeletal soldiers that they faced was only the tip of the iceberg.

Where the Lich took off was a mystery to everyone but with the flight capabilities of that gargoyle, it could have made its way to ledges people would not be able to reach. It would not be that simple to find the injured monster and he was not in a state to hunt something like it down alone. His only option was to return home and prepare for the worst but as he was evaluating his choices he heard a characteristic rattling of bones coming from the area they just fled from.

Thank you for reading!

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