The Runesmith

Chapter 665: Boney Ruin.

“Leader… the bees! They are everywhere!”

“Stay close, use the repellent!”

A tall man shouted at a group of twenty adventurers as a swarm of large bees attacked them. They had just managed to cross the Drake Plains after battling a large group of monsters that had nearly cost several of them their lives. They made it through and even used a masking fragrance to keep more drakes from attacking. But the moment they entered this area, the swarm descended on them.

“Argh, no, not the bees!”

“Stick together!”

He shouted again as he pulled one of the adventurers back toward the protective magical bubble their two mages had conjured. Thousands of the insectoids filled the air. Each sting carried deadly venom, enough to kill even a tier three class holder if their levels were not high enough.

“Administer the antivenom quickly!”

“Y-yes.”

One of the adventurers had been stung several times, and the wounds had already turned purple. Luckily, their group had prepared for this possibility. Another adventurer uncorked a vial and poured some of the liquid onto the wounded manʼs neck before forcing the rest down his throat. Within seconds, the dark purple veins spreading beneath his skin began to fade.

“Hold still.”

“I-I’m trying, but it’s so itchy…”

The man trembled as he received treatment. Two others nearby were given the same aid. To make matters worse, the barrier surrounding them had begun to darken as countless insects slammed against it and crawled across its surface.

“Is the spell ready?”

“Almost.”

One of the mages chanted something incomprehensible. A moment later, the counterattack began. The barrier remained in place but turned red, and an inferno erupted outward in every direction. The dungeon bees and their honeycombs were instantly engulfed in flames.

“Quick, we need to get out of here. Run while the bees are burning!”

The party leader shouted as he hoisted one of the injured men onto his shoulder. The group broke into a run while that section of forest burned behind them. Smoke and repellent confused their attackers, though a few stubborn bees still pursued them.

“How did this happen?”

He shouted while they ran. The mage named Volyn, who was being carried by another party member, answered between breaths.

“As we entered, some kind of trap triggered. It released a magical wave that roused the sleeping bees. I told you that it would be dangerous!”

The old mage seemed mad at the leader who ignored his warning, but the man didn’t care as anger continued to build.

“Another trap? Whoever is responsible for this will pay!”

The large man growled as they continued forward. They were already behind schedule, but it hardly mattered. They still expected to reach the site at least half a day before the ruin opened. Whoever had set this trap was likely trying to reach the ruin first. If the party caught up with them, their death would not be simple.

****

“GAH!”

“OGHA!”

“Which one do you think will win?”

“Woof?”

“Are you sure? Its bones are starting to give out.”

“Woof!”

Roland chuckled as Agni barked at him in an annoyed tone. In front of them, two undead lesser dragons struck at each other with slow, clumsy, yet powerful blows. Each time their heavy limbs connected, another bone cracked or shattered.

Their skeletal wings hung uselessly at their sides while their tails lashed through the dust. Rotten membranes still clung to parts of their bones, and dull violet flames burned inside their empty eye sockets. There was, however, a small difference. The one Roland controlled had a faint bluish tint to it and, for the moment, it was starting to lose.

“The spell needs more work. Even though it lets me control them, their reaction time is slightly slower.”

One of the monsters was being controlled through his staff. To do this he had to keep the dungeon’s connection to the creature severed, as it constantly tried to wrestle back control. The blockade created a small amount of delay and sometimes confusion when a trace of the dungeon’s influence slipped through. Still, the longer he maintained the spell, the more refined it became.

“That’s enough, Agni. Burn them both.”

“Awooo!”

Agni did not hesitate. The azure flames around his body intensified and the temperature in the chamber rose instantly. His jaws opened and a torrent of divine fire burst forward. The two undead drakes did not even have time to react.

*FWOOSH*

The skeletal creatures were engulfed in blue fire. Flames crawled through their rib cages and along their spines like living things. Divine energy spread through the necrotic mana that animated them, and the reaction was immediate.

As they burned, Roland released the spell that held one of the lesser dragons in his grasp. The moment he did, the monster turned its bony head in confusion. A moment later, the violet lights in its sockets flickered out, and its body collapsed into the flames.

“This world system is incredibly stingy when it comes to leveling.”

Roland grumbled as experience finally flowed to him for both of the Corrupted Undead Amphipteres. If the creature under his control died while the spell remained active, it would not count as his kill. He had to cancel the control just before it died. That made using these monsters as minions rather inefficient for leveling. Even so, they were useful as disposable pawns and made excellent sacrifices when triggering traps.

“Did this dungeon dump all of its trap resources into this part of the dungeon? This is starting to get ridiculous.”

He had planned to get through this place as quickly as possible, but even after more than an hour, it felt like he had made little progress. Two main reasons were responsible. One was the vast number of trapped corridors and chambers. The other was the puzzles and mechanisms that had to be solved before things like ceilings collapsed and crushed him.

Roland stood in front of another stone chamber that refused to let him through. The massive door embedded within it had no visible hinges, handle, or lock. Instead, a wide circular plate sat in the center, engraved with a complex arrangement of draconic symbols.

“Another one…”

“Woof.”

Agni sat behind him, flames around his fur flickering lazily as he recovered mana. The wolf looked cheerful, his tongue hanging out as he panted. It was clear he was enjoying the fights with the monsters, or at least the part where he roasted them with ease while his levels continued to rise.

“Just give me a moment. This one slides in circles.”

The contraption reminded Roland of old video games he had played long ago. The solution was simple for someone like him. Hidden symbols were carved into the walls of the chamber, mirroring the ones etched onto the sliding plates. He only needed to align them correctly using the clues scattered around the room. Once the plates slid into the proper positions, the entire mechanism began to move.

“There we go.”

The circular plate sank inward with a deep grinding rumble. For a moment, nothing happened. Dust trickled from the ceiling and the runes across the arch dimmed as if the mechanism had failed. Then the entire doorway split apart, revealing the path forward.

“This… is this truly the ruin?”

Roland stared ahead in disbelief. It looked like the end of the maze, yet what lay beyond was an entirely new section that seemed far too large. A gigantic chasm stretched out before him, its bottom and ceiling lost in darkness. A single long bridge made of bone and what looked like tendons swayed gently in the wind, extending into the distance with no visible end.

“Will this bridge collapse when I’m halfway across, or will monsters drop from above and push us down? Maybe the wind will be the problem…”

There was always a pattern to things like this. Roland was certain that if he followed the dungeon’s intended path, it would reward him with more traps and delays. It was better to do something the dungeon did not expect, such as gliding across the chasm with the glider he had not used in quite some time.

“I wonder if there’s something good down there. Could it connect to the fourth ring, perhaps?”

In the Albrook dungeon, he had discovered a hidden mining area deep inside a chasm, so exploring below or above might actually be worth the effort.

“I don’t think this place connects to the original part of the ruin… It better not skimp on the reward.”

When he came here, he had initially planned to take the reward from the regular ruin before the other adventurers arrived. If this had been the explored part of the dungeon, he would have reached the boss chamber by now and claimed the reward. Instead, the place continued to expand far beyond what he had expected. Because of that, he was almost certain he would miss the regular timed reward, at least unless he went through the normal entrance after leaving this place.

Roland stepped closer to the edge and peered into the abyss. The darkness below was not an ordinary shadow. It looked dense, like fog made of mana. His visor adjusted automatically and sent thin scanning beams downward, but they could not pierce through it. With time running out, he activated his spatial rune, pulled out his glider, and stepped onto it without hesitation.

“Awoo…”

“Don’t worry, Agni. You won’t fall. Just stop squirming around.”

Agni whimpered. He was not allowed to ride on top. Instead, his armor harness attached him beneath the glider. Cables made from a mithril alloy held him securely in place while his legs dangled below. Roland had long expected that he might need to carry his wolf this way, since Agni was far too large to hold in his arms for the entire trip.

“Well then, let’s see what’s on the other side, Agni.”

“Awooo!”

The howl vanished into the abyss as Roland took flight. His glider moved alongside the bridge where visibility was poor. His spider golems had been stored back in his spatial space and replaced with four flying drones that scanned in every direction.

Just as he expected, something was hidden above them. Small caves lined the upper rock, each filled with bat-like creatures that carried faint draconic traits. At the moment, they were sleeping. His drones moved closer while remaining concealed.

‘There seems to be a trigger on that part of the bridge. If I had walked across it, these creatures would have attacked.’

Because he had anticipated something like this, he avoided the first obvious trap. Flying also reduced the wind pressure that struck from both sides. Below him hung a thick cloud of poison. The wind constantly pushed it upward toward the bridge, making the crossing extremely dangerous. Anyone walking across would have faced both the monsters above and the poisonous fumes below.

Even with the glider, the trip to the other side took nearly twenty minutes. When he finally arrived, it was clear that he was nearing the end. The bridge connected to a massive structure shaped like the ribcage of an enormous dragon. It reminded him of the dragon head that served as the entrance to the ruin. Perhaps this was another part of the same colossal creature.

‘A temple within a dragon ribcage, right where the heart would be. This really does look like the end of the road.’

The chasm ended here, and walls rose on all sides. The temple had a single entrance. It looked as if it had been carved directly from the surrounding stone, which made him wonder how the dragon bones had come to rest here. They seemed to blend into the rock itself, as if the dragon’s remains had been teleported into the stone and the temple carved around them to hide whatever lay within.

‘Could the reward be a dragon heart? That would be something truly precious… perhaps too precious.’

Dragons were creatures that naturally reached the tier four threshold with time, and some could go even beyond it, like the dragon that lived in this S-rank dungeon. Their body parts were valuable materials used to craft weapons, armor, and even elixirs that granted longevity. One of the key ingredients for such elixirs was a dragon’s heart.

It had many other uses as well. It could be used to summon powerful beasts, increase magical capacity, or unlock rare class options such as the legendary Dragon Slayer class.

If such a treasure truly lay within this place and he claimed it, problems would surely follow. It was not something a person below tier four could defend, and he knew it well. If word spread, he would become a target. Not only the Thieves Guild, but likely other tier four class holders within the kingdom would come for it, hoping to increase their own power. However, if he managed to keep it secret, it would be a potent treasure that could serve him in many ways.

“My sensors are being blocked... Get ready, Agni. This might be it.”

Instead of howling with enthusiasm, Agni only whined, still dangling from the glider like a stranded whale. Only after Roland landed before the gates and released the metallic rope did the sunlight wolf begin jumping around again.

Before entering, Roland activated his debugging skill and took a moment to study the murals that covered the walls. Just like the ones before the temple, they seemed to depict fragments of history. One showed another sealing formation, but this one focused on the chest of a defeated dragon, the very ribcage he now stood within.

Roland ran his fingers along the weathered stone. The metallic gauntlet clicked softly against the carved grooves while his visor projected a faint grid across the mural, highlighting traces of mana that still lingered within the ancient etchings.

“Woof!”

“I know, don’t worry. It’s just the dungeon welcoming us.”

As he moved closer, the temple reacted to his presence. The massive shut doors began to open. They were around twenty meters tall, as if made for a giant rather than a human like him. The sound of grinding gears echoed through the structure, similar to the mechanisms he had seen before. When the chamber doors finally parted, a strange milk white fog pushed outward.

“Grrrr.”

“I can feel it too, Agni. This one won’t be that easy.”

The spider golems he had retrieved moved out again, now in greater numbers. He could tell from the density of mana flowing from inside that the creature waiting within could be a serious problem. There was no reason to conserve power anymore. Every golem that could aid him in the coming fight was summoned.

‘I need to get that golem technology. These won’t be much more than distractions…’

While he had sixteen spider golems deployed along with dozens of rocky humanoid golems, he doubted they would be much help against whatever lurked inside. That did not mean he had to face it alone.

‘Good thing I had some time to practice.’

Once the entrance was fully open, his scanners could finally peer into the great chamber within, and it was truly enormous, far larger than the exterior of the temple suggested. After the scans finished and everything in his arsenal that might help was prepared, he cautiously stepped inside.

Agni padded silently beside him. The milk white fog clung to the floor, swirling around their feet like living smoke. The chamber stretched far beyond what the eye could see, its ceiling almost disappearing into shadow. Rib-like arches extended overhead like the skeleton of some titanic beast. The air itself pulsed with power, and soon the identity of the enemy waiting for them became clear.

‘This looks familiar…’

The moment he took in the scene, it reminded him of another battlefield, one deep within Albrook’s secondary dungeon. Just like there, a large force of monsters stood before him. They were humanoid, draconic beings holding crude weapons made from what looked like lesser dragon bones.

Behind them stood a robed figure that resembled a draconic lich. Instead of purple, the light within its eye sockets burned deep green, and vast amounts of necrotic mana swirled around it. The number of enemies was tremendous, and to make matters worse, the draconic lich sat atop a massive pile of bones.

‘So even if I defeat the minions, he’ll probably keep bringing in more. Not that I can’t do the same.’

The large gate behind him began to close and green torches ignited across the chamber. Their light revealed a vast assortment of undead creatures and something else deeper in the hall. A black pulsating object embedded in a wall of bone, directly behind the lich.

He could not tell if it was the artifact grade dragon heart or perhaps a legendary one. But once this place was cleared, he intended to find out.