The Runic Artist

Kiri and Nate stood before the Dungeon. She couldn’t believe he’d found one. She’d hoped, but she hadn’t dared believe it could be done. Especially not in such a short timeframe. She supposed that she’d likely underestimated how powerful his mythic-eye Skill was when coupled with the spatial detection Skill. Whatever it had been, whether the combination of those Skills or blind luck, she now had her chance. A chance that had involved some convincing, though considering what Nate had given her, he must have suspected.

She was never willing to settle simply for stepping inside a Dungeon to get the Achievement. No, she wanted to do as he had done. She wanted to solo a Dungeon. Her desire wasn’t some childish need to match his achievement. She was proud of him for managing what he did. Alone and uninformed, he’d survived a Dungeon while figuring everything out from scratch. It was impressive. But now, she was behind him. A long way behind. The speed he had levelled at outside of the Dungeon was proof of that. He’d come out of the Dungeon level eighteen, and even with all their training, hunting and the battle against Torian, he’d only gained enough for four levels since then.

If she got a Legendary Class like he’d had, or even an Epic Class, she’d struggle to catch up to him. She’d been considering the problem before he had even mentioned that he’d gotten them spots in the Etrua Adventurers Guild Royal University Entry Tournament. He was right, that was a mouthful, she thought with a smile. Now that they had a deadline, she couldn’t afford to take her time levelling to catch up to him. She needed to take risks. This risk. Soloing a Dungeon. She would’ve been lying if she said she wasn’t afraid. She was scared to death. Dungeons weren’t meant to be soloed. Fighting one versus many was all well and good; if you truly out-levelled the Dungeon. To do it on par, or worse, under-levelled, was generally considered tantamount to suicide. But Nate had survived. Survived and effectively power-levelled himself. If she wanted to be competitive in the tournament, if she wanted to keep up with her best friend, she needed to do this.

A voice in the back of her mind whispered she was doing it mostly for herself, to become a hero of the realm, like she’d always wanted. It was right. That was one of her reasons, but far from the only one. She really did want to keep up with Nate. That was why, when he’d come to her with the good news that he had found this Dungeon, she had told him her plan. Told him what she wanted to do. He’d asked her if she was sure, outlined the risks, offered to enter with her and help her. She’d put that offer to bed. He was just trying to be helpful but it would halve the mana she’d absorb. The distance between them would remain the same and she’d be lucky to exit the Dungeon higher than level twelve. A far cry from the cap of forty imposed by the Adventurers Guild on their Tournament. No, she had to do this, and she had to do it alone. That was when he’d handed her his ring.

She had been shocked, but she’d quickly realised she shouldn’t be. He was oddly insightful. She should’ve expected he might be aware of her desires. In the spatial storage were a number of runes and mana gems to recharge them. He’d given her some mana gathering runes as well so she could recharge the mana gems. Then there was a Barrier rune he had prepared for her, an Earthen Projectile rune that shot spikes of earth at whatever she aimed it at. A Fire rune that was just meant for starting fires, in case she needed to cook inside the Dungeon. They had no idea how long she would be inside after all. Of course there was her Shadowskin rune, a name he’d finally come around to. Finally, a simple Light rune in case she needed it to see in the dark in some cave or the like. All in all it was a good set. She’d hoped for the Acid Projectile Wand but after some testing Nate had told her that it wouldn’t do much more than spit a few globs until it had been mostly recharged with mana.

To that she added some bedding, a few changes of clothes, a barrel of water that they’d purchased in town, a heap of food and finally, reluctantly, she’d included her bow and arrows. Just in case. Now she was here, standing before the Dungeon entrance, leathers on and daggers tucked into her belt. It was finally time.

Why was she feeling so apprehensive? She was so close to getting everything she ever wanted. Starting the long walk on the path to being a hero. Her best friend there with her all the way. She glanced to the side at Nate as he looked on at the shimmer in the air indicating the entrance. He was apprehensive too, and maybe that was because this time, he wasn’t going to be there with her. Still, they both needed to be able to walk alone. He’d proven he could. It was her turn.

“We ready?” She asked, breaking the tension.

“As ready as I'll ever be. Be careful in there Kiri. Don’t take any stupid risks, okay?” Nate replied, glancing at her.

“Don’t worry about me. I got this,” she replied with a confident smirk. She didn’t feel confident, but she’d play it up for him.

“Give ‘em hell!” yelled Frick as he floated around the small underground chamber.

She turned, giving Nate a hug and whispered ‘thank you’ in his ear. Then, before he could react, she stepped through the shimmer.

You have entered a Dungeon!

The Assessment Period will begin now. You have five minutes to choose to leave the Dungeon before the entrance will be sealed.

The notification had flowed in front of her eyes without being selected. The first thing she noticed was how hot the sun was. She stood upon what looked like grassy plains, the yellow stalks reaching almost to her ribs. A warm breeze blew over the grasslands, causing the stalks to ripple like disturbed water. It was beautiful. Beautiful, and potentially deadly. Nate had told her the name of the Dungeon, The Plains of Goivuts, but that meant nothing to her. They had no idea of the enemies she would have to face, and for now she was exposed, her leather armour making her stand out in the golden grass. She needed to huddle down. With that in mind she crouched in the grass, vanishing into it as she waited for the timer to elapse. It felt like it took an hour but finally the notification pinged the corner of her vision and she quickly opened it.

Enter a Dungeon before being level 1 in any Class.

Your achievement has been recorded.

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

She’d done it. She was stuck here now, or at least until she completed one of the Challenges. The thought made her snort. As if she’d settle for just one. The Dungeon was sealed and no help was coming. She was on her own. It was exactly as she had wanted. With that in mind she deactivated the Mana Exclusion rune. Instantly her skin began to itch. She’d heard that babies got their Class Cores in the womb but that typically access was locked until they were around twelve years old. Earlier unlocks were rare. But that meant she had no memories of being in a place where the mana concentration was high enough compared with her body to elicit a reaction. It was beyond annoying; it was maddening, and she just hoped it would fade into the background.

She looked around trying to decide which way to go. Waiting out here in the long grass where she’d be visible from a kilometre or more off was akin to waiting to get hunted like prey, and she had every intention of being the predator. Every direction looked the same and since it didn’t matter she picked one and started crawling over the dirt, popping her head up every few minutes as she did her best to follow a straight line.

She didn’t know how long she had been crawling. At least an hour she guessed, which was both tiring and frustrating as she felt like she was moving at the pace of a Clelli. The little bastards occasionally tried to infest her mothers garden. They never lasted long because, well, they couldn’t get away from anything to save their lives. Quite literally. Now she felt like a Clelli, crawling through the dirt. Popping her head up to check her surroundings, she saw the first sign of something that might not be more grass. Brown specks on the horizon. At least now, she had a target. She just had to get close enough to see what they were, without being detected.

She gauged which way the wind was blowing, then picked her path forward slowly. She had grown up in and around the forest and one of the many lessons her Father had instilled in her was remain downwind. It was hard to detect your own smell unless you hadn’t bathed in a day or two, but animals, and some Classes, had much better detection abilities when it came to smell. So make sure yours was blowing away from your target and not towards them.

It felt like another hour had passed by the time she finally got close enough to the brown specks to see what they were. A herd of Bolelope. The large herbivores were grazing on the long grass, their feeding area compacted by the hooves on their four muscly legs. She had heard stampedes of the big buggers could be quite dangerous. She’d also heard their meat tasted positively divine and had once heard her mother describe the delicacy that was their three tails. Apparently the cord inside,when melted into soups, caused an explosion of flavour.

None of that mattered though as there was no way in the Hells she was going to try and brave their horns to take one down. She’d be lucky if all she got was gored. Her daggers probably couldn’t even penetrate deep enough to cut something worth cutting. Maybe if she could’ve gotten to their bulky necks? But that meant either climbing on their backs, or worse, putting herself near their hooves. Nope, she was stuck with jerky. Besides, the smell had killed her appetite. Maybe the animals were delicious, but the stench around their feeding area was starting to make her eyes water as she hid downwind from them.

Preparing to crawl away and put some distance between herself and the stink, she heard something besides the grass swaying in the breeze. She was still around a hundred metres away from the beasts, maybe a little less. Popping her head up so she could look through the grass stalks she surveyed the grasslands, searching for the source of the unexpected noise. It didn’t take long to find them.

Even at this distance, she could tell what they were. The ten goblins rode in on a pack of Hyelashes, whistling and yelling in their harsh language. The beasts they rode were the smaller, plainsbound cousins of the Razorlash. Like their larger cousins, they each had two tails that trailed behind them, whipcord thin and tipped with a spike that glinted like metal in the sun of this Dungeon. It was the mark of all of the ‘lash’ breeds. These ones had yellow scales, like the grasslands they inhabited. The goblins looked like they’d managed to tie some kind of harness around the necks of the beasts and rode them into battle, short spears held in their green hands.

The Bolelope finally noticed the threat and the bull of the herd bellowed as it turned, trying to protect the cows and the smaller members of the herd. Kiri hadn’t gotten close enough to see if there were any calves, but given the herd looked to be about a hundred or so strong it was likely. As she expected, the goblins, like good pack hunters, immediately started trying to separate one of the smaller bolelope from the rest of the herd. She could hear their hoots and hollers as they yelled at each other in their guttural language. They took turns swooping in and out on their hyelash mounts, flicking their spears out.

The herd was in full motion now, starting to charge in her direction. She had ten seconds at best to react. As she watched, the goblin hunting vanished from view behind the herd as the Bolelope got closer to her position. She thanked whoever was watching that the herd wasn’t directly aimed at her. The outside of the herd would still hit her position though as they charged away from the goblins, but the middle of the herd would pass through an area ten metres to her right, she guessed.

Thinking quickly she pulled out the Shadowskin rune Nate had made her. The rune had been fully charged thanks to channelling mana into it and she used that to power the rune, as her own reserve was, frankly, pathetic and would run out too quickly. Besides, she needed her reserve for her Shadow Aligned Dual Daggers, if it actually came to a fight. She was praying it wouldn’t. With shadows coating her skin till only her eyes were visible, the world became muted. Even the itch from the mana on her skin faded. She waited until the last second, until the herd was almost on top of her, before jumping out of the grass. Her shadowy appearance had the desired effect, scaring the bolelope coming towards her into veering back into the herd and forcing them further away from her. The stampede of bolelope had been so dense that she couldn’t even see the goblin hunting party on the other side of them.

Backing away slowly she crouched back down in the grass, keeping the Shadowskin active, just in case the goblins had noticed anything. The herd's stampede didn’t take long to move past her, even with it being over a hundred strong. As the dust cleared, she heard the goblins before she spotted them. They were hollering as they moved around a young cow, darting in and out with their spears as they wore it down. A few minutes later and it had collapsed in the grass, dying as it bled from a final wound to the head that had been struck by the largest goblin the hunting party. Kiri watched as five of the goblins dismounted, tying ropes around the dead bolelope before tethering the ropes to their mounts.

Climbing back onto their Hyelash, the hunting party slowly started to leave the field, dragging their kill behind them. The largest goblin lingered a moment and Kiri felt her heart freeze in fear as she saw his mount sniffing at the air. A kick to its ribs and a moment later the leader of the hunting party was trailing the rest of the goblins. Kiri breathed out a sigh of relief as she watched them fade into the distance. She was relieved for a number of reasons.

Firstly, she hadn’t been caught. That was a big one. Secondly, she knew what her enemies were now, and better than that, she had a golden grass paved road on which to follow them back to their camp. Finally, she was glad it was goblins. She could finally get some revenge on the little bastards for all of Frick’s comments. Checking herself, she sat down to wait. She’d follow them before dark, assuming it got dark in here, but it was best to let them get a headstart. Tonight, she’d follow through with Frick’s favourite warcry. Here comes ‘goblin death’. The thought made her smirk beneath her shadow skin.