Rune Seeker

Hiral eyed the arch as the party moved along the path, eyes open for more giant snakes hiding under the surface of the water. As before, faintly glowing runes ran the length of the stonework, though instead of being embedded in the side of the mountain, this one rested in something that couldn’t be more than a mound of dirt, barely taller than the arch.

“Is there really a dungeon in there?” Wule asked.

“Path leading down,” Nivian said, the first one to reach the archway. “Looks like forty feet or so. Careful, though—it’s steep.”

“Let us go in first to make sure it’s secure,” Seena suggested.

“No. If we get jumped by one of those snakes while you’re down there and Lonil isn’t in fighting shape, it wouldn’t be good,” Seeyela countered.

“I’m fine,” Lonil said, one arm over each of Fitch’s and Vix’s shoulders, blood still seeping out of his wounds.

“Yeah, totally fine,” Cal deadpanned. “Could you please stop bleeding, though? I just got that closed up.”

“Whine, whine, whine,” Lonil responded, then grimaced. “Okay, maybe I’ve had better days.”

“Nivian, Wule, and Yanily, take the lead,” Seena said. “Then Seeyela’s party. Hiral and I will bring up the rear.”

At the comment, Hiral turned his attention from the arch and back to the swampy surroundings. Only the two snakes had attacked them, but the croaking of lizards still echoed from within the darkness, and they likely weren’t the only threats. As if on cue, a noise from one of the small islands in the swamp drew his attention, and he peered through the darkness while drawing his RHCs.

Damnit, they don’t have a charge. Probably fine to summon Left and Right if I need to now.

“You see something?” Seena asked, eyes squinting as she peered in the same direction he did.

“Maybe… Yeah, there it is,” he said, pointing with one of his weapons. “It looks like some kind of… pig? Hairy, though. Big tusks from its mouth, and of course it has curved spikes all over it.”

“Sounds like a swamp boar,” Seena said.

“Thought you said you haven’t been here before?” Hiral asked.

“Not here, specifically, but there’s another swamp half a rotation from here that has boars like what you’re describing. They…” She trailed off and looked at the dungeon entrance. “They’re kind of like the Quillbacks, in that we usually find them inside the dungeons.”

“Should we hurry?” Hiral asked, but there didn’t seem to be any in urgency in Seena’s posture.

“Nah. They’re surprisingly friendly,” she said. “Not so cuddly with the spikes and all that, but they don’t mind us in their space. Kind of tasty too.”

“You hunt them?” Hiral asked.

“Not the ones we find in the dungeon, but there are always a few outside of it. We hunt those and bring the meat back up with us.”

“I guess that makes sense. I mean, there would have to be something around for the snakes to hunt, or else why would they be here?”

Seena shrugged, then looked again at the arch as the last of Seeyela’s party vanished within. “C’mon, our turn,” she said, and Hiral followed her inside.

Like Nivian had said, there was a steep incline immediately beyond the arch, but something about it bugged Hiral enough that he stopped at the lip.

Something’s wrong with this. What is it?

Glowing plants lined the walls down, providing more than enough ambient light to see by, and he couldn’t hear any fighting even though Nivian and the others had already reached the bottom. So, what was bugging him?

Hiral crouched down and put his fingers to the earthy ramp, and his eyes widened.

It’s dry. That’s it. There’s no rain running down the slope to flood the chamber inside, and the earth isn’t wet even though it’s in the middle of a swamp.

A splash somewhere behind Hiral reminded him that might not be the best place to get lost in thought, and he quickly stood, then passed through the arch, a slight shiver running across his skin. Despite the angle of the slope, the walking was surprisingly easy-going, with good traction for his boots, and he exited the tunnel only a few seconds after Seena had, to find her—and the rest of the party—staring at the herd of boars.

“Well,” he said, “you’re sure they’re friendly?”

“They barely notice we’re here,” she said as one of the big animals—its head was easily at waist height—lumbered past Hiral and up the tunnel.

“Yeah, but it’s tough to miss them,” he said, doing a rough count. “There’s, what, a hundred of them here? Where are we going to find space?”

“At the other dungeon, there’s usually room by the interface… Yeah, look over there. They’re avoiding that corner.” Vix and Fitch were already carrying Lonil in that direction.

“The Quillbacks built their nest on the interface, though,” Hiral said, walking beside Seena.

“Nah, they don’t. Usually. I think that was because of the Shapers.” Seena joined the group as they circled around Vix and Fitch, who were lowering Lonil to the ground. Wule and Cal immediately moved in and began working their healing abilities.

“This is going to take most of our solar energy to heal,” Wule told Seena. “It’ll take a while to absorb enough energy to safely go into the dungeon.”

“It’s fine. Lonil’s life is far more important than getting into the dungeon,” Seena said.

“Yeah, but I need to…” Yanily started, though he cut off at a look from Seena. “Right, evolution to D-Rank can totally wait. Not going to see me rushing you at all. Not a bit.”

Hiral relaxed a little at the Grower jibes. If they could joke like that, it meant Lonil wasn’t in any real danger anymore. Cal and Wule would take care of him and get him back into fighting shape, then they’d make their way into the second dungeon.

“Think I can bring Left and Right out?” Hiral quietly asked Seena.

“Yes. We might as well start getting a camp set up as well. Looks like we’re going to be here a bit.”

“Fine by me; I’d like to take a look at the runes on the arch anyway,” Hiral said. He activated Foundational Split, Left and Right peeling off him. “Welcome back,” he said to his doubles, and recharged the RHCs on his thighs before he forgot.

“Sure,” Seena said. “But I don’t want you going out there alone. Those snakes could be anywhere, even if we didn’t run into another one.”

Hiral turned his attention to what had to be the dungeon interface. “This is The Mire, right? How much you want to bet we’ll have to deal with more of those snakes inside the dungeon?”

Seena groaned at the same time Nivian joined them.

“We’ll need a plan before we go up against any more of them,” the tank said. “If it’d been anybody other than Lonil getting caught like that, we’d be traveling with one less person. Even with the bonus I get from this amulet”—he held up his hand to show the amulet he’d gotten from Splitfang Keep—“I don’t think I could survive that.”

“Then I guess we need to make sure you don’t get caught,” Seena said. “You’re right, though. We’ll come up with something. We’ve got time while Wule helps Cal, and then recharges.”

“In the meantime, how about we get some more answers from Dr. Benza?” Hiral asked, and pointed at the dungeon interface.

Seena looked over at Seeyela and her party, obviously wondering if they should all be present for it, but finally nodded instead. “We can always get it to repeat anything they miss,” she said, then walked with Hiral over to the interface.

Hiral waved his hand above the crystal. The yellow and green rings formed under their feet, and the image of Dr. Benza sprang to life.

“Welcome, challengers, to The Mire Dungeon. Please choose an option,” the image said, and a blue notification window sprang up beside him.

Tutorial

Enter Dungeon

Help

“Dr. Benza, Tutorial, please,” Hiral said.

The image of the doctor shimmered briefly. “Accessing PIMs. Access complete,” Dr. Benza said, his voice flat. “One dungeon clear detected. Introductory-two Tutorial loaded. Please complete further dungeons to access more advanced Tutorials.

“Welcome, challengers, to The Mire Dungeon,” Dr. Benza continued, his voice more normal. “As this is your second dungeon attempt, I will enlighten you to the somewhat more advanced dungeon mechanics.

“As you may have realized from clearing”—the image flickered—“Splitfang Keep”—another flicker—“you will gain powerful equipment and achievements to increase your power. These incremental gains will allow you to clear more difficult dungeons, which will in turn further increase your power. I’m sure you have many questions about this whole process.” He looked off to the side, then whispered, “Which I’m not allowed to tell you all about until more advanced Tutorials. Sorry.” He winked.

“Oh, nothing, just talking to myself. Feel free to edit this all later. What do you mean there isn’t a large budget for editing? First you tell me the memory crystals have limited space to download information, and now this? What is this? A B-Rank movie?”

“What’s a movie?” Hiral whispered to Seena, and she shrugged, apparently just as confused about what Dr. Benza was saying as he was.

“Fine! I’ll get back on topic,” Dr. Benza said, his attention turning back to the party as everybody other than Lonil, Wule, and Cal came over to join. Even the two healers, however, got Lonil better positioned so they could all listen in while the healing abilities did their work. “For now, we will talk about the origins of the gear you’re being provided upon successful completion of the dungeons, how you can reset the dungeons to allow entries beyond three, and how you can obtain further loot from cleared dungeons.”

“I was hoping to find out more about our PIMs,” Hiral said, “but I guess this is a start.”

“We can go in more than three times?” Yanily asked, his eyes practically lighting up.

“And more loot?” Vix asked. “Sounds good to me.”

“Before I talk about the origins of the loot,” Dr. Benza said, his usually smiling face turning grave, “there is something you need to know. We are at war, and we’re losing. No, maybe that’s not even accurate. We’ve lost. Our people are being slaughtered, and our civilization is falling. It’s only a matter of time, and there’s nothing we can do.

“Nothing but this—entrusting our future to you.

“So, we’ve taken our greatest tools, weapons, and equipment away from the front line and put them in our Vault for safekeeping. As you clear each dungeon for the first time, a temporary link will be created between the dungeon instance and the Vault, and your PIM will be scanned. Based on the results of the scan—namely your race, class, rank and level—appropriate equipment will be selected and placed in a chest for you.

“This equipment is what the system, PIMP—or Personal Interface Magic Prime—will determine to be the best fit to help you grow. And your growth is paramount. It is everything. Without growth, the war will never end, the Enemy will win, and our people—all of them—will die.

“I don’t know how long it’s been between when we created these semi-interactive recordings and when you’re watching them, but it may have even been a few years. In that time, I can only hope you’ve been training hard and that the war is turning in our favor. But, from the looks I’m getting”—Dr. Benza looked around the room at things Hiral couldn’t see—“I have digressed. More information on the PIM, the war, and the Enemy will be in later Tutorials.”

“Should anybody tell him that maybe we lost the war?” Vix asked.

“For now,” Dr. Benza went on as if Vix hadn’t spoken, “we shall continue on the topic of gear. As you may have noticed, the equipment and achievements you received after clearing your first dungeon possess powerful boons, but there are limits to how they can interface with your PIM. For example, you can only wear one ring per hand, or only one necklace. It is unlikely the PIMP will grant you equipment you cannot use, but you may discover such limits if you attempt to trade equipment. Keep these limits in mind as you grow as an individual and as a party, and as you delve deeper into more and more difficult dungeons.

“As you clear these dungeons of increased difficulty, you will also receive challenge-appropriate gear. Our analysts have determined this experiential cycle of challenge and growth will propel you faster to higher ranks and levels than any other alternatives. However, should you hit a roadblock in growth and need to return to a previously cleared dungeon to farm for experience… No, don’t look at me like that. I like that term. Farm. It sounds wholesome. Seriously, which do you prefer? Farm the dungeon? Or commit wholesale slaughter of the dungeon inhabitants?

“Exactly. Farm. Yes, like they’re vegetables.

“Ahem. As I was saying. Should you need to return to farm the dungeon, you will have that option upon reaching the Asylum. Using the Asylum Interface, you can reset dungeons in the associated area to allow re-entry. This will permit you to clear it an additional three times, as well as receive loot for the first clear.

“No new dungeon-specific achievements will be granted, however, though you could potentially gain random achievements depending on your actions. We tried to build this function into the dungeon interfaces, like the one you’re using now, but I am afraid the power and memory requirements were just too large. Only the Asylum Interface had the necessary power.” Dr. Benza’s image shimmered.

“That brings us to the end of this Tutorial. Should you require further information, please complete more dungeons and proceed to the next interface. Note, the Help section of this interface has only been uploaded with information pertaining to details found within this Tutorial.

“Thank you for choosing…” Dr. Benza looked off to the side again and shrugged. “What? I thought it would be funny. Fine. You can edit that out too!” He stamped his foot, then walked off to the side, vanishing from the platform, only for his image to shimmer back into its standing position a second later.

“Isn’t that the same thing he said last time? Even stomped his foot the same,” Nivian said.

“He talked about a war, an Enemy they couldn’t beat, and how important it is we get stronger, and his stomping foot is what caught your attention?” Balyo asked.

“Yeah. I mean… we can talk about that other stuff too,” Nivian said.