The Runesmith

The party was in a large open cavern. After defeating the Myrmeke Soldier they got quickly swarmed by multiple monster ants. There were all the three variations of the Myrmeke monster ant that they already came across. The most dangerous were the soldiers that appeared, luckily the party had someone with enough firepower to keep them busy.

Multiple large balls of water splashed onto the approaching ant monsters. Following them were similar spheres, they radiated a slightly different kind of elemental energy. A ball of frost flew towards one of those large Myrmeke Soldier’s. The ant reacted by dodging to the side but part of its large abdomen got hit. Instantly the ant's body started freezing, the frost traveled upwards and caused the large monster to stop in its tracks.

These monsters were insects and were also cold-blooded. They couldn’t regulate their internal heat and relied on the environment. Some species developed specialized organs to combat this but this monster ant certainly didn't. The moment its temperature dropped below a certain point it would start acting sluggish and finally, it would start to hibernate.

Roland’s party members watched as their mage used some kind of flimsy booklet. Each time a frost and water-related spell flew a page would disintegrate into nothingness. After the initial frost appeared Roland activated a wind elemental spell scroll which caused the area in front of him to become even colder. He had successfully simulated a sort of blizzard spell which was causing the monsters to become sluggish.

“Now, while they can’t move, attack!”

They noticed that the active ants had become quite slow after the area was covered in frost and ice. They were also feeling cold but the adrenaline and their clothes kept them awake enough for them to continue with the fight.

Orson and Dalrak engaged the monster in close quarters melee. They found it surprisingly easy to finish off the lethargic ants, even Helci moved in with her dagger. Her weapon was continuously stabbed into one of the monster ant’s head causing it to promptly bleed out and die.

Roland concentrated on the most powerful monsters from the group which were the two Soldier variants. The other spell that he used in combination with the ice ball spell was the whirlwind spell. It kicked up a storm and together with the already chilly air caused the monsters to halt in their tracks.

For the finishing touches, he used gale arrows as well as rock arrows and focused them on the Myrmeke Soldier’s joints. Their exoskeleton was quite hard to crack even in their weakened state. When the monsters were damaged enough, the two warriors from the party could finish them off with their physical attacks.

The battle continued and Roland started going through his spell scrolls, his Rune Mastery skill started leveling up at a rapid pace. The monsters they were fighting were also tier 2 which caused everyone to level up quickly, Helci had already gained five whole levels since coming to this mine and this battle was still ongoing.

The battle didn’t end quickly. The ant monsters kept coming and coming. It was as if there wasn’t anyone besides this party left for the Myrmekes to hunt. All of their focus was pulled here but when they entered the freezing cavern only death awaited them on the inside.

While the party was continuing with their death bout, something else was happening outside the mine they were trapped in. Two people were seen arguing with one a lot angrier than the other.

“You gave us a false report, admit it!”

A man with a beard was holding a chubby man by the neck with one hand while shaking him about.

“Nonsense, how could I have known that it was a Myrmeke infestation?”

The man being held up was the supervisor of this mine. The person holding him up was Wells, the man responsible for this expedition. His party was lucky enough to not have any tunnels collapse on them. They had ventured inside just like Roland did, after a couple of fights with the ant monsters they also came across a soldier variant which they dispatched. After that point they had retreated, the probability of them dying multiplied and they weren’t willing to test their luck.

“We need to report this to the guild, this isn’t a mission suited for steel grade adventurers!”

He looked to the teams that had made it out. Three from the four teams had returned but one of them was missing two members while the fourth didn’t come back at all. This was Roland’s party that was still the only one remaining trapped inside.

“We need reinforcements from silver and gold ranks, maybe even a platinum. We have no idea if a Queen is with them, those are tier 3 monsters. We have no chance against that and they become agitated if too many of her hatchlings die.”

Wells’ finally moved his hand away from the man’s thick throat. The old man landed on his posterior before getting pulled away by some of his own bodyguards. Those couldn’t really do anything as the person in front of them was a gold rank adventurer.

“Wells, those low ranks haven’t come back and it's already been several hours, we have to presume that they are dead.”

The party leader looked to the woman that came over, this was a silver ranked adventurer that was his teammate. He gave a nod, the tunnels needed to be collapsed further as they couldn’t let the ant monster infestation spread outside.

“Fine, do it. We will wait for reinforcements before finishing this mission, the guild shouldn’t fine us anything for this.”

The woman nodded and went away, after a while an explosion was heard. Wells just looked with a frown on his face as this was supposed to have been an easy mission. With maybe a few deaths from the more inexperienced adventurers.

The explosions that just occurred were deliberate. The miners placed explosives further inside the mine shafts and blew them up. Everyone knew that the ants were able to burrow through hard rocks but they still needed time to do it. After the reinforcements arrived they could clear out the rubble and try again, this time with reinforcements.

While this was happening the team of five that was presumed dead was sitting down and resting. They had vanquished a large surge of monster ants, now tired and depleted they were resting and eating. The area around them was covered in frost but thanks to some coal and magic they had managed to make a fire. Morale was low but everyone was still alive, to the side, multiple dead cadavers of large ants were scattered everywhere.

‘I’ve gone through more than half of my scrolls. Most of the spells I have left are the fire ones...’

Roland thought while biting into some bread and jerky that he had pulled out from his storage bag. Everyone besides Helci that lacked a spatial bag had brought over some provisions with them. The half-gnome didn’t go hungry, food and water were shared with everyone.

“W-will they leave us in here to die?”

The girl asked while slightly shivering. She was covered with scratches and dead ant blood, like everyone here she was tired and stressed. The others looked at her with a solemn expression on their faces.

“Aye lassie, very likely.”

The girl just like the rest of the party had trouble understanding this dwarf but they got the gist of it. They were on their own here. Roland already looked at the map and knew where the closest exit was but his thoughts were interrupted by another tremor. This one was a bit larger than the rest as the whole cavern shook for a moment.

“That came from...”

Roland looked at the map again, those sounds were coming from the direction of where the exit should be. Before he could voice his concerns the sun elf spoke up.

“Cave in the tunnels, standard procedure, seal of the nest, wait for specialized adventurers.”

“Shitty fuckers, they couldn’t have!”

Orson added while scrunching his forehead and kicking a dead ant body.

“We can’t know for sure before we check the exit first…”

Roland said while scratching the back of his neck, his eyes glued to the map as he looked for other exits. He quickly marked spots that couldn’t be reached anymore. He also placed an X mark on the tunnels from where most of the ants were coming out this gave him the idea where the original breach should be.

“I think the ant’s nest should be around this spot.”

He made sure to draw a big red circle around it. It would be better to avoid these parts of the cavern. The soldier ants could only be brought down by his spells scrolls but if anything stronger showed up they would be in deep trouble.

“Hope all these explosions won’t flood the tunnels.”

Helci murmured to herself while trying to eat. This halted Roland's thinking process as he recalled that this mine was close to a large river. He recalled that the mining company sealed off the original entrance to the grotto that this mine was named after.

“Helci, you are a genius!”

“I am?”

The girl was surprised at Roland's outburst. Everyone was being quiet while they rested and recovered their stamina.

“Yes, listen up.”

The other three male members moved their heads towards the young mage. They had already accepted that he wasn’t your regular magic caster. If he wasn’t here they would have probably been killed by that giant soldier ant. They had even managed to get rid of multiple ones thanks to all of his spell-slinging capabilities.

“Remember how this mine is close by the river?”

Everyone nodded. Unsure where he was going with it.

“The mine originally had its entrance through the grotto but they sealed it off as it kept flooding the tunnels inside.”

He continued, the elf was the first one to realize what Roland had in mind, the other three were lagging a bit behind.

“How does that help us?”

Orson asked, his strengths laid in fighting and not really in making plans.

“Och richt ah git it noo” ( Oh right, I get it now. )

Dalrak slapped his thigh as he finally realized what Roland meant. Helci and Orson strained their brain power but none of them could figure it out by themselves. They looked at Roland to enlighten them.

“We just need to go to where the old tunnels were and blow them up. Those tunnels were just sealed off to keep the water out so the walls shouldn’t be too thick.”

“Aye, they likely plastered it up a wee bit”

Dalrak agreed with the youth. The old tunnels were probably just patched up, the water didn’t even reach that far so they didn’t even need to fully fill it up. There was also another thing, ant monsters were known to stay clear of the water. The probability of them tunneling there was also lower.

“That’s fine and all, but they are still sealed off, are we going to use these mining tools to get through?”

“The monsters might fin' us thru the vibrations in the soil.”

Dalrak nodded bringing up that issue. If they started hitting the walls the vibrations and loud noises could alert the monsters to their presence. Even though the tunnels were probably sealed lightly they still would need a lot of time to get through them.

“We won’t need to use them, leave that to me. We will blow the wall up.”

Roland smirked a bit while thinking of a certain scroll that he made. It wasn’t really good as an attacking spell but could be used as a bomb or explosive.

“You sure came prepared…”

Helci looked at the youth feeling somewhat glad that he was here while also being dejected that she was so useless. If she ever got out of this place she would probably take a safer approach to this adventure lifestyle and prepare more beforehand.

“Heh, thought all mages were only good at talking big, this shrimp isn’t half bad.”

Orson nodded while giving Roland a smack on the shoulder that sent the youth stumbling forward. He had been more or less accepted as the temporary team leader. The others didn’t really mind that he was the youngest from them as ability overwrote age.

“I’ve recovered some mana, we should go. If what Selanar said was true, there won’t be a rescue party appearing any time soon.”

The travel time here was about two days from Edelgard. If they blew up the entrance area just now and considered the time of gathering adventurers. No help would be arriving sooner than three days but a more realistic time frame was probably a week.

Everyone here was already tired and Roland’s spell scrolls were reaching depletion. If another large swarm of ant monsters appeared they would be in danger of getting wiped out. Heading towards the water was the best option as it cut off the ants chemical trails that they used to communicate with each other.

They planned out their route and finally departed. Everyone was on edge as they had spent quite a bit of time in these dark corridors. The only light came from Roland’s spell which sometimes flickered on and off.

Everything was silent, they weren’t coming across any other ants after having dealt with the large onslaught before. They didn’t know if they just annihilated most of them and there wouldn’t be any more coming or if they were still getting chased. They increased their pace going faster and faster as they tried to reach the sealed off tunnels as fast as possible.

They finally arrived, the area was another juncture with a wider open space. Abandoned minecarts and mining equipment was left everywhere and even some ant tracks could be seen. Still, there were no monsters to be seen, they had somehow arrived here safely.

“Good, it should be around here…”

Roland looked to the elf and the dwarf. They would probably be better fitted to find the spot where the tunnels were sealed off. The two nodded and it didn’t take the duo long to find the unnaturally looking wall.Dalrak gave the rock a hit with his polearm and nodded.

“Aye, tis ‘ere”

Orson looked at Helci who also nodded, the two stood on guard while Roland prepared the explosives. The item that he pulled out didn’t look anything like explosives though, it was a larger-looking scroll with a lot of runic symbols on them.

“Don’t worry, it packs a punch.”

Roland moved over to the wall and looked at it, not really sure where to place this scroll. He asked Dalrak for some help. They took a thick nail from the ground and attached the scroll to the wall by hammering it in tightly.

“We should bring some of those mine carts over, when I activate it’ll blow within five seconds…”

The others could hide behind something, but he had to activate the scroll and then bolt to safety. The party set up some minecarts closer to the explosion area so that Roland could activate it and then run.

“Okay… here goes nothing…”

“If this works… I’m not going to leave the whorehouse for at least a week…”

Orson mumbled while going behind the mine cart, his words bringing a frown on Helci’s face.

“How bout ye give the dwarven girls a try? ”

Dalrak laughed while thinking about the outside and the fresh air. Selanar just ignored the others as always and just continued to look at the surroundings with his bow out. His arrows were mostly depleted but he still had a couple of shots left.

Roland placed his hand on the larger scroll and activated it. He pumped some more of his mana into it and then bolted for the minecarts. The spell scroll lit up and the others could see the runic symbols glowing blue. The color then shifted to red before the whole parchment shone in a bright red light. Just as Roland vaulted over a cart it exploded, luckily he got pulled down by his robe by Orson the moment the explosion occurred.

The loud boom could be heard everywhere even by the people outside. The party remained behind their hastily set up barrier and waited for the dust to settle before going out. To their dismay, the wall didn’t fully go down and the path was still blocked.

“Is that water?”

Helci commented while Dalrak grabbed one of the pickaxes from the ground and quickly ran up to the blasted wall. He smacked it with the ax a couple of times and moved his head over.

“Ah can cop a breeze, we are almost thro'.”

Roland pulled out another one of those scrolls and everyone was excited. Judging by this spell scroll’s previous display of power it should be able to blast through this already loose wall. They set it up again and quickly got back into position, the thought of safety on their minds.

They all watched as Roland moved back to the scroll and activated it again. They smiled a bit as they saw the kid hastily run back behind cover while his spell scroll activated. This time around he managed to get behind the carts in time before the explosion occurred. Another loud thump made the whole mine shake.

“Aye, we did it!”

“Good work!”

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

“Mmh.”

Everyone rejoiced as the opening now looked large enough for them to fit through. Some water started pouring in but it was at most up to their waist they should be able to get through this. Before they could get up another tremor made the whole mine quake. They all looked behind them and spotted a strange occurrence.

The ground started rising upwards and a huge ant head emerged from underneath. A monster that was several times bigger than a Myrmeke Soldier started crawling out from the hard rocky ground. It was still an ant but its abdomen was a lot longer than what you’d see on a normal ant. The monster-filled out quite a bit of the cavern and its head even hit the ceiling. It gave out a screeching scream the moment it spotted Roland’s party that was still behind the mine carts.

“Fucking hell…”

“Quickly, run!”

They all bolted for the exit, there was no way that they were going to defeat that thing here. Roland brought out his binder with the rest of his spells and started pelting the monster with fire arrows. To no surprise the fire spells didn’t even leave a dent, he couldn’t even burn off its antennae as he did with the soldier variant before.

“It's a Tier 3 monster…”

He fired off a smoke arrow that caused some confusion before quickly turning around. He headed towards the created exit, the huge monster close in pursuit. He dived in while everyone else was already a bit further, his team members frantically pulled him inside. Everyone started running without looking back, the monster dived right in after them by slamming its giant head inside the tight corridor.

It started gnashing with its huge mandibles at the adventurers while slowly forcing its large body inside. The whole corridor shook while they backed off with haste, the water inside slowed them down while the beast continued with its chase.

“Fuck, it's coming!”

Roland dove his hand into his spatial bag and pulled out something. It didn’t look like a scroll; it seemed to be a hairless pelt with a lot of runes drawn on it. The monster was moving towards them faster than they were escaping, he decided to use his last lifeline even though he knew the consequences.

“What are you doing?”

Helci shouted while looking back. She saw her mage team member hold a large pelt with one hand while placing his other in the middle. The moment he did the center part started lighting up. She could see mana traveling in six directions from the middle part and traveling in symmetrical directions upwards. It connected with some other runes and then it traveled through even more glistering pathways.

A bright flash of red light was created and a massive amount of fire arrows shot out from the other end of the large piece of monster skin. Roland had scribed multiple fire arrow spells onto a monster pelt that was used as the main resource for scrolls.

The multiple fire arrows combined mid-air and connected with the monster queen’s large opened mouth. The huge ant received a mouth full of fire energy and quickly backed off while giving off an incomprehensible wail of pain.

Roland flew backward into the arms of his dwarven party member. The hand that he used to power his spell was all mangled and charred. All of his fingers were broken and the burn marks reached past his forearm. His vision was hazy and he passed out soon afterward, the shouts of his party members weren’t reaching his ears as everything faded to black.