Rune Seeker

Seena patted Li’l Ur’s head while the others just tried to take in everything they’d learned about the lich’s history. It had been a strange story. Knowing Li’l Ur now – having travelled with him – it was hard to imagine the horrors he claimed to have committed. That he would’ve kept committing if they hadn’t stopped him.

And what had driven him to doing all of that – the loss of a friend.

Could the Fallen really have a similar story? Could their crimes have started with good intentions?

“I know the name of the A-Rank dungeon,” Left said over the party chat, though his voice was quiet. He’d probably heard everything Li’l Ur had said.

Hiral looked over at Seena and the lich, and the party leader gave him a bare nod.

“What is it?” Hiral asked.

“A Fallen Hope,” Left said. “Clearly it’s connected to Vorinal and the others, so I went to check what the name of the S-Rank dungeon is too.”

“And?”

“The Final Sunrise,” Left said.

“That’s not ominous at all,” Seeyela said.

“It is an S-Rank dungeon,” Hiral reminded her, then told Nivian and Wule the dungeon names, since they didn’t have access to the party chat.

“Any idea what’s in them?” Wule asked.

Hiral shrugged. “We wouldn’t know unless we went in. From the names? At least the first one has something to do with the Fallen. Might tell us more about how they went from the people we met in the dungeon, to the people who tried to take over the world.”

“You sure you don’t want to at least take a peek?” Seeyela asked her sister.

“I’m sure,” Seena said. “It’s tempting, really, but let’s stick to our priorities.”

“Fiiiiiiine,” Seeyela droned with a roll of her eyes. “When did you become the responsible one?”

“When I met somebody who takes enough risks for the whole party combined,” the party leader said.

“Who’s thaaaa…?” Hiral started, only to find Seena – and everybody else around the cookpot – looking directly at him. “It’s not that bad.”

“It really is,” Right said, not even defending him. “It’s like your allergic to playing it safe.”

“Also,” Left said over the party chat, thankfully saving Hiral – at least temporarily – from further bullying. “We couldn’t go into the A- or S-Rank dungeons even if we wanted to. They both have requirements like the Rise of Fallen Reach dungeon did.”

“Advanced classes?” Seena asked. “We have those. Unless we each need a second one?”

“At least one advanced class, yes,” Left said. “As well as being A-Rank, which we aren’t yet.”

“Hrm,” Hiral said, thinking about it and looking over to both Romin and Gran. Like the vampire felt his gaze, her hood turned, red-and-blue eyes meeting his own.

“What?” she asked over the party chat.

“Nothing urgent,” Hiral said. “Just checking on you.”

“I’m fine, boy.” With that, the healer turned back to her knitting, though her hands hadn’t stopped – or even slowed – for an instant.

“We’re going to need to get them advanced classes,” Seena said quietly to just the group around them. “Both our parties, if we want to go into these dungeons with them.”

“We will,” Nivian agreed. “Nobody – other than me and Wule – has one in our group.”

“Neither Romin nor Gran in ours,” Seena said, slowly spooning some stew into her mouth as she thought.

“If we’re going to be farming for experience…” Seeyela said.

“They’d have to get the advanced class before they hit A-Rank. Means either here or in the raid zone.”

“Might be harder without a Seed of the Lost,” Hiral said. “We really don’t know how much those contributed to our advanced classes.”

“I don’t think we can afford to try and slow down for them,” Seena grumbled, clearly a little torn between the options.

“We can’t,” Hiral agreed. “This whole thing is bigger than them. Or us. Just my opinion here, but if they can get an advanced class and run the dungeons with us – great. We aren’t even sure we’ll need to run them. That said, if for some reason we need to go through them…”

Hiral looked over at Nivian and Wule. “We’ve got a tank and healer with their own advanced classes.”

“You’re saying,” Seena said, nodding as she spoke. “If, for some reason, we have to go into these A- and S-Rank dungeons, we can split the parties to bring Nivian and Wule back into ours to go through?”

“Get the team back together,” Seeyela said. “It’s an option.”

“I’d feel bad about the others having to sit out,” Seena said, then nodded again. “But, Hiral’s right. If we need to go in, we have a way to do it. Assuming you two would be okay joining up with us again?”

“Who’d the party leader be?” Wule asked, face completely serious.

“Obviously…” Seena and Nivian both started at the same time.

“Me,” Seena said.

“Seena,” Nivian said.

The two party leaders looked at each other, then everybody sort of chuckled.

“Then we’ve got a plan,” Seena said, turning her head to Hiral. “And, that’s why you’re the raid leader.”

“Thanks,” Hiral said. “Still, the others have got some time to get their own advanced classes. Something tells me this raid zone will be a good chance for a lot of people to grow. Once we know how many people are allowed in. And who’s coming.”

“Who do you think the Makers will send?” Seena asked him.

“Ilrolik for sure,” Hiral said. “She’s a powerful B-Rank Shaper, and one of the strongest supporters for working with the Growers. I’m sure she’ll have her own party by now. Hopefully Loan, too. I wouldn’t mind seeing him.”

“Or him seeing you?” Seena said.

“Or that,” Hiral said. “He spent a lot of his time and energy training me all those years. I want him to know it was worth it.”

“You think your sisters will come?” Seena asked, and Hiral opened his mouth to answer before the words reached his brain.

His sisters? His first thought was no way, it’s too dangerous. Then… then he remembered who he was talking about, and the fact the raid zone needed people of all Ranks. They’d been working hard when he’d left.

“They just might,” Hiral said with a sigh. “I hope they’ll be okay. We don’t know what we’re getting into.”

“They’ll have you to protect them again,” Seena said. The arm looped through his squeezed for comfort, and he pressed it between his elbow and chest.

“The two of them made a lot of progress in the dungeon we ran them through,” Seeyela said. “If they come down, I’m sure they’ll do fine. Should be D-Rank, right?”

“Should be,” Hiral said. “And, I know. You’re right. They’ll be fine, but it doesn’t stop me from worrying.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Wule said. “You all ran a dungeon with Hiral’s sisters?”

“Kind of?” Seena said. “Hiral kill-stole most of it.”

“I did not,” Hiral said.

“A Mid-Bossand a Boss,” Seena reminded him.

“Oh, this I have to hear about,” Wule said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He kept his bowl up close to his mouth so his spoon didn’t even have far to go between each bite.

“Anything else more important we need to talk about first?” Seena asked, and when nobody had anything, she jumped into the details of the Crawling Pits. Compared to some of the more serious topics they’d had on hand recently, recounting the tale of the dungeon made for several good laughs.

But, soon enough, it was time to rest. Rest, and then farm.

Which is exactly what the party did. With Healthy Living in place, the two parties returned to Tomorrow

’s Vigil, powering through the Sentinels as quickly as they could. Not bothering with the trapped hallway – of the Mid-Boss on the other end, they instead went straight for the Scorpinator. The Scorbalests on the way to it provided decent experience, and a bit of a warm up, but the Mid-Boss itself was the real show.

There, with more than two-and-a-half hours until the dungeon spit them out, Wallop charged the large construct, and the party went to work. First, the tail got destroyed – though it wasn’t quite as easy as they’d hoped – and then they moved on to controlling the Mid-Boss while focusing on killing its adds.

Domains got rotated in and used on cooldown, with Yanily’s and Seena’s proving to have the highest kill-rate for adds. After those, Hiral threw up his Domain of the Sun+ and Left’s Banner of Courage to reduce the cooldown on the two abilities, as well as add some buffs to keep them moving. He didn’t use Double Trouble+ – because he didn’t want to also double his domain’s cooldown – but it was still plenty powerful. Resonance of Heroes and Seeyela’s summons came after that, though the artillery spiders lasted a good deal longer than most domains.

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Even with all that, and the plan going in, the fight didn’t go quite as smoothly as they’d hoped. More than two hours of non-stop fighting was a lot, even for their B-Rank bodies. Gran, Wallop, and Romin all more than proved their worth as the damage dealers lagged under the strain of the constant fighting.

Right and Left had to even be dismissed from time to time, allowing Hiral to recharge their solar energy, since they couldn’t do it on their own. Through it all, though, they’d found more efficiencies and ways to use their abilities.

The Rune of Exchange was – as Yanily liked to put it – very OP. And the more Hiral practiced with it, the easier and faster it got to use. It got people in and out of position or danger in a flash, and thanks to Hiral’s sensory domain, he didn’t even really need to be looking to use it. The only downside was the cost, but even that he was improving on. Braiding in his other runes to everything he was doing improved the solar costs, and this kind of practice was exactly what he needed.

Left even gave his Equilibrium tattoo a bit of a workout, as they learned he could use it to redistribute the entire party’s solar energy – or health – evenly among the group. If one person got really low, a quick application of the tattoo – no matter the range, at least inside the Mid-Boss area – would instantly bring everybody to the same level. They used the function more than once.

All in all, it was a beneficial experience, despite leaving them to drag their exhausted bodies over to their sleeping bags as soon as they were finished. Not that Seena gave them long to rest. Three hours, that was it, before they headed back in.

Like that – dungeon, rest, dungeon, rest, dungeon… – they farmed the Mid-Boss area fifteen times within the period they had before they had to get to the raid zone. Even Yanily was tired of it when they were finished.

It’d been good, though. Hiral had reached level seventeen, while Yanily, Seena, and Seeyela, had reached sixteen. Romin wasn’t far behind at fifteen, with Gran sitting at fourteen. The two newcomers had caught up quite well, especially since they benefitted from Momentum and Allied Killing Spree. Nivian’s party still trailed a bit behind, mostly at levels twelve, with Finotol being the highest at thirteen.

It was interesting to see how the lower levels gained more base experience per kill, without taking the experience boosts into account.

On the unfortunate side of things, however, nobody had been offered an advanced class. That left Seena with only three levels to get her second one, while Romin and Gran had a bit more time.

Time they would probably be spending in the raid zone.

After a quick stop back at the Hanging Gardens to check in with the Bonders, Hiral and the rest of the party, along with Nivian’s group, headed to the raid zone entrance. For the moment, it was only the two parties, with Burs promising to bring more Bonders along soon. He had almost two-hundred people ready and willing – half of them already at the raid zone – but they moved in small groups to avoid attracting any unwanted, Enemy attention.

It was a good plan, and Hiral couldn’t fault the man for playing it safe. The Bonder tactical leader had even sent another low-B-Rank group along to keep people safe. A group that’d also be joining the raiding party and lending some additional muscle.

That put them at four B-Rank groups already, not even counting who was coming from Fallen Reach. Or the C-Rank and below groups. What was also interesting was that almost half the total people Burs had lined up were support staff, so to speak. These weren’t people who would be actively fighting, but who would be assisting from the sidelines.

Things like cooks and builders, administrators to organize people and supplies. There were even a few people Burs introduced as miners, in case they found any ores the group could use. Even more impressively, Burs had twice that number of people waiting ‘on call’ to come if needed. It all depended on how many people the raid zone would let in.

Yes, there was definitely a risk moving them through the rain, but the Bonder higher-ups had decided it was worth it for the potential gains from the raid zone. They’d seen how strong Hiral and his party were, and they wanted that. It probably also didn’t hurt that word of how quickly they’d cleared the Ascender’s Tower dungeons had reached the Hanging Garden ahead of them.

Those time records plus the rumors of what they’d done at the wall during the chimeric invasion had made them the talk of the town. So, when they arrived at the secluded area hidden from the rain near where they believed they’d be able to enter the raid zone, it was to a surprisingly warm welcome.

The ground had been cleared of debris, with the beginnings of a camp site being set up on one side. There was easily enough space for hundreds of people without it getting too crowded, and Seena and Nivian’s parties were led to a spot near the raid interface.

Similar to a dungeon interface, the small pedestal stood next to a conspicuously blank wall. Nearly twenty feet wide, and twice that tall, the perfectly smooth stone reminded everybody far too much of the wall they’d found in Tomorrow’s Vigil to be anything but a secret door.

“You’ve arrived in good time,” Renilo – the leader of the other B-Rank Bonder party – said. “Just over eleven hours until the zone should open.”

“And one hour until we’ll hopefully start seeing people from Fallen Reach arriving,” Hiral said. “Any idea where they’ll show up?”

“Yes, actually,” Renilo said, then pointed towards a split in the stone on one side of the clearing. “We didn’t notice it initially, but there’s a path there leading to a large room with six pits in it. From the descriptions we were given, that’s probably where the Discs of Passage – that’s the right name, isn’t it? – will arrive.”

“That’s the right name,” Hiral said, looking at the path. “Was that there when we were here before? I don’t remember it.”

“Me neither,” Seena said.

“Left? Right?” Hiral asked.

“If it was here,” Left said slowly. “I didn’t notice it. And we looked for an entrance to this raid zone.”

“PIMP shenanigans,” Right said like that answered everything. Which, it probably did.

“Where are you planning on putting the people who come on the Discs?” Seena asked Renilo.

“With… everybody else?” the Bonder said slowly, like it was a trick question. “Is that okay?”

“It’s perfect,” Seena said. “We need to all get along, and separating people now

wouldn’t help.”

“Has there been any trouble with the Enemy yet?” Hiral asked as he looked to the way the overlapping stones shielded the area from rain. Not that stone wouldn’t stop a motivated squid. “This many people in one place…”

“We moved people here in small groups over the last hundred hours,” Renilo said. “We paused at twenty-five, then fifty, and now we’re close to a hundred. No obvious reaction from the Enemy, though we’ve still got scouts keeping an eye out.”

“They’re staying out of the rain as well?” Seeyela said.

“Of course,” Renilo said.

“I wonder why this place can hide us all from the Enemy when an Asylum can only house eighteen?” Hiral mused aloud.

“Because this place was – maybe – built by the Custodian of Tomorrow?” Seeyela offered.

“I guess that has to be it?” Hiral said. “Or, maybe there’s something else special about this place. A reason Tomorrow chose it.”

“I may have an answer to that,” Renilo spoke up. “We’ve noticed the rock naturally shielding us from the rain is also naturally absorbing small amounts of solar energy. Basically, the little bit we shed naturally through our bodies or any abilities we used is getting sucked into the stone. No idea how or why – and it doesn’t seem to be hurting anybody – but it’s happening.”

“If the Enemy can’t feel us through the rain,” Hiral mused. “And they can’t sense our solar energy because the stone here is sucking it up, I guess that could hide us.” Interesting.

“We might find out more in about eleven hours,” Seena said. “We should probably talk about what we’re going to do when the timer finishes counting down.”

“What do you mean?” Romin asked. “We’re going in, aren’t we?”

“Oh, you bet we are,” Seena said. “But…”

“We need one more party,” Nivian said. “And we need to decide how the raid parties will work with each other. Who will go first. Will there be an overall raid leader?”

“If Ilrolik and Grandmother come down…” Hiral trailed off, but Seena was shaking her head.

“Back up on Fallen Reach, sure, I’d listen to what they have to say,” Seena said. “Down here on the surface, where they’ve barely spent any time? And in a raid zone to boot? No, we,” she pointed at the two groups around her, “have far more experience with the PIMP and dungeons. We have our raid leader, and if I’m allowed to have an opinion, I think we should be careful about whose orders we take.”

“You think we should operate on our own,” Nivian said. A few seconds of thought, and he nodded like he agreed.

“To a certain extent,” Seena said. “We all work together towards whatever the overall goal is, but we maintain some autonomy.”

“You think they’ll let us?” Seeyela asked, but her mouth quirked in the corner.

“Let them try and stop us,” Seena said.

“Are you all really that strong?” Renilo asked. “I’ve heard rumors, but…”

“Yup,” Yanily said. “You’ll get to see for yourself soon enough.”

“Anyway, that’s my opinion,” Seena said, then turned to Hiral. “But, we decided you’d be our raid leader. Final decision is yours.”

“And I’ll make it after we find out what we need to do in this raid zone,” Hiral said. “Though, on a general level, I agree with what you’re saying. I think we can do the most good going where we think we’re needed.

“Speaking of which, I think where we’re needed most – right now – is our tents. We pushed hard in that dungeon, then coming over here. We’ve got some time to get a good rest before the raid zone opens up.”

“And the benefits of Healthy Living,” Yanily said, rubbing his hands together.

“There’s that too,” Hiral said. “I can’t imagine there being ‘no fighting’ on the other side of that secret door…”

“Not secret,” Yanily mumbled.

“Which means we have a chance at hitting A-Rank soon,” Hiral continued like the spearman hadn’t spoken. “We’ve also got a few more advanced classes to figure out, then Vorinal to deal with at the end – if that was really him on the other side.”

“Who else would it be?” Seeyela asked.

“Excellent question,” Hiral said. “I can’t think of much worse than the Fallen, so that’s what we’ll plan for. Even though we managed to beat him last time, it was barely. I don’t want it to be that close again.”

“It won’t just be the four of you this time,” Nivian reminded him. “You’ll have three full groups.”

“And he’ll likely have Infested with him as well,” Hiral countered. “So – this is important, though it may sound selfish – if any of you,” he looked at everybody other than Seeyela and Yanily, “feel even an inkling of something that might get you your advanced class, speak up.

“Yanily needed the sky. Seeyela needed the Black Gate. They could both feel what they required for the evolution. If we can go and find whatever you each need, we will.”

“You sure?” Seena asked.

“Assuming it doesn’t risk us or the raid in a significant way, definitely.”

“You sure we’re worth all that trouble, boy?” Gran asked him.

“I know you are,” Hiral said.

“And you’ll offer it to Nivian’s party, and the other group that joins us?”

“Absolutely,” Hiral said.

“Hiral has been good about making the right choice when it comes to others,” Seena said, her sideways glare only slightly scathing.

Hiral coughed. “The strength granted by the advanced classes is worth the effort. I’m really hoping there are some clues to more of them inside here.”

“If I’m being honest,” Seena said. “I think I’m close. Not as close as Yan or Seeyela were, but getting there.”

“Any idea what you need?”

“None!” Seena laughed.

“That’s fair,” Hiral said. “That’s enough about that, though.”

“I do have one more question,” Wule said, one of his hands in the air. “If it’s one of the Maker-slash-Grower groups that joins us, are those Makers going to be okay with you being the raid leader?”

It was Nivian who answered first. “If they aren’t, they can find another raid group.”

“Even if it’s Grandmother?” Wule asked his twin.

Nivian only winced slightly. “Even if it’s Grandmother,” he finally said.

“Back to the Makers, though,” Wule persisted, looking at Hiral. “Will they listen to you?”

“We’ll find a group that will,” Hiral said. “Some of the old prejudice is still around, but I met a few people when we were back who I think wouldn’t be so against taking instructions from me.”

“And if they aren’t okay with it,” Right said. “You can just challenge them to a duel to remind them how strong you are now.”

“I’d rather it didn’t come to that,” Hiral said. Then he scowled. “Unless it’s the people who bullied my sisters.”

“I started making a list of likely suspects,” Left said.

“Maybe just a few duels before we get going,” Hiral said. “As a… warm up.”

“Now, now,” Seena said, patting Hiral’s arm. “We need these people in fighting shape for the raid.”

“Gran and Wule could heal them… a bit,” Hiral offered, then sighed in defeat. “No, you’re right. I’ll keep that little fantasy to myself for now.”

“Along with the whi…” Right started, only for Hiral’s hand to slap over his mouth.

Suspicious looks came at him from all sides.

“Never mind him,” Hiral said, not removing his hand. “Like I was saying before, let’s all go get some rest. Renilo, would you mind coming to let us know if any of the Makers or Growers start showing up on Discs? Or, when Burs arrives with his people?”

“Of course,” Renilo said. “We’ve got people on the watch for both.”

“Great,” Hiral said. “Everybody else, get some sleep. In just over eleven hours, we’re starting the raid zone.”