The Runesmith

Chapter 667: Epic Treasure?

“Where are they?”

“Leader, please calm down. There is no one here…”

“Are you sure? Mage, can you feel anything?”

A group of adventurers, twenty in total, stood together. All of them looked tired and distraught, as if they had been running at full speed for hours without stopping.

“No, I don’t feel anything…”

“Don’t let your guard down. There could still be traps nearby.”

The group leader stormed forward, his eyes bloodshot as he looked around the area. Before them stood the Draconic ruin they had journeyed to.

“We invested far too much time and money for someone else to steal the treasure from us!”

“Augar, calm down. The door has not opened yet. We are just in time.”

One of the other party members tried to calm the spear wielding adventurer and pointed toward the entrance. At that moment, they heard a faint click in the distance. A mechanism was activating, and the door that had been closed for years began to open.

“Whoever it was probably did not know the exact time the ruin would open, so we still have the advantage. The fact that they have not shown themselves also means they are afraid to confront us directly, but…”

“But what?”

Augar turned to the second mage in the twenty-man party.

“They might be waiting nearby, ready to go in once we enter. Perhaps we should leave a few of our own behind to secure the entrance?”

Augar’s jaw tightened as he stared at the slowly opening gate. Ancient stone ground against itself, releasing something like a groan. Dust drifted down from above, making it clear that no one had opened this gate before they arrived. There were no signs of whoever had delayed their journey, and that was a problem.

“…You four, stay here.”

“Us?”

The man pointed to a group that included the mage named Volyn, the one who had detected most of the traps along the way. It was not just the bees or the collapsed bridge, but also many buried devices that had slowed them down, costing them more than half a day in total.

“Will the four of us be enough?”

An armored warrior in shining plate stepped forward, positioning himself in front of the mage. Beside him stood a dagger-wielding rogue and an elven archer who did not look too pleased with the decision.

“You might be right… You four as well, stay behind. Twelve of us will be enough to clear this dungeon.”

Some looked as though they wanted to complain, but none spoke. They were all hired hands, there for a price. If they could complete their task by remaining outside in a relatively safe area, then so be it. They had no claim to the treasure inside the ruin. It would belong to the group leader or whoever had hired him.

Thus, after making their decision, the group began to move. Eight remained outside, taking up defensive positions around the entrance. Some set traps, while others sat down to rest. The armored warrior took position near the entrance, while the elven archer climbed to higher ground, stepping lightly across a fallen pillar to gain a better vantage point. Volyn briefly closed his eyes, extending his senses outward, fully focused on his task.

Meanwhile, Augar and the remaining twelve advanced. The gate opened with a resounding boom, revealing a dark corridor that descended deep beneath the ruins. A stale wind rushed outward, carrying a strange smell, but the adventurers did not hesitate and quickly made their way inside until the sound of their footsteps faded.

The one responsible for their troubles was not there, nor was he in a position to interfere with their progress, as he was dealing with a problem of his own.

*****

“Stop squirming, Agni, or you might fall.”

“Woof!”

Roland found himself in a situation similar to the one he had faced when he first entered these hidden ruins. The ground beneath him gave way, forcing him to use a levitation spell to keep himself and Agni from falling. This time, however, the situation seemed more dangerous, as there was no sign of a bottom, and he was unwilling to check.

To make matters worse, he did not have both hands free to support the oversized wolf. Agni rested awkwardly against his right arm and shoulder, barely held in place. In his left hand, he clutched something that had remained from the mass of black that had controlled the bones and the lich. It looked surprisingly like an egg, one that Agni came out of, but much bigger.

‘Is this a monster egg? Could it belong to a dragon?’

This was his main question now. He had expected to get something after the fight was over, but he had not imagined it would be anything like this. It complicated everything. If this really was a dragon egg, it was far more troublesome than useful. Taking apart dragon remains for materials or selling them was straightforward, but this felt like holding a nuclear bomb in his hands. If people lost their minds over a single dragon heart, they would go completely insane if a real dragon appeared.

“Should I even take this? What would I even do with a dragon?”

Roland was not a tamer, nor did he intend to raise a dragon only to harvest it later. These creatures were highly intelligent and capable of learning human language. He also could not be sure what was inside the egg. It might contain a true dragon, but it could just as easily be something lesser or something entirely different. There was no way to know until it hatched.

“Woof!?”

“I know, stop squirming. We are almost back up.”

Before he could think any further, he needed to deal with his immediate situation. The temple where he had fought had completely collapsed after his victory, leaving nothing but an empty void in its place. He could not see the ground below, and his scanners detected nothing beneath him.

He carefully made his way to the ledge and finally lifted Agni off his shoulder, setting him down. The golems that had accompanied him had fallen along with the draconic temple, and he had been unable to retrieve them while focusing on saving Agni and securing the egg. His mana reserves were low, so he had not risked trying to levitate all the golems. They were replaceable while the egg and Agni were not.

“I can always go down and retrieve them, but this place must be incredibly deep.”

Roland looked down and tried to reestablish a connection with his golems, but failed. That meant they had fallen far beyond his range, likely more than a kilometer deep, into a vast chasm that might lead nowhere.

Once he accepted the loss of most of his equipment, the remaining floating golems cast light over the area. With visibility restored, he could finally examine the egg in his hands.

It bore a strange pattern. Dark veins twisted through streaks of gold and silver. Its surface was not smooth, instead covered in a faint texture that felt almost like scales. It was solid, and he tapped it lightly to test its strength.

‘This might be harder than steel. I wonder if it is possible to inscribe runes on an eggshell?’

Roland narrowed his eyes as his visor flickered to life again, scanning the object repeatedly. To his surprise, aside from its unusual pattern and its size above that of a watermelon, it seemed entirely ordinary. He had expected a dense concentration of mana or some form of radiation, but his instruments detected nothing that suggested a powerful creature slept inside.

“Will this even be able to hatch?”

He wasn’t sure what to think about the reward he had received. It reminded him of the surprise that Agni had been, which made him question whether keeping it was a good idea. The obvious problem was how to hide the creature, or whether it could even be trained. Dragons were not easily tamed, so there was always a chance it could turn its fire breath on him.

“Agni, come here for a second.”

“Woof?”

“Hold still for a moment. If this has a living being inside, I cannot store it. Turn back into your ruby form first.”

Roland was not sure how the egg would react to Agni’s flames. If there was a dragon hatchling inside, the divine fire his wolf produced could kill it. Once Agni shifted, his red ruby form took over. He was no longer blue, as the effect of the gem he ate had worn off.

“There, it’s secure. Be sure to keep it safe and leave the monsters to me.”

“Worf?”

Agni was confused about the egg strapped to his back. The wolf kept turning his head, trying to look at it, but could not. It was secured in a way that would not interfere with the harness he would soon have to use to carry Agni over the chasm.

“Stop squirming and let’s go back.”

Agni tilted his crystalline body awkwardly, trying to peek at the strange burden fastened to him. The egg remained firmly in place, secured with reinforced straps Roland had assembled from his remaining gear.

“I said stop it.”

Roland muttered, adjusting the bindings one last time.

“If you drop that, you are not getting any mana crystals for a whole month.”

“WOOF!”

The wolf clearly understood and snapped his head forward at once. With that settled, Roland began retracing his steps. As before, he used the glider to cross the chasm after a short break in which both he and Agni recovered their mana.

Even though the temple that had held the egg had collapsed, parts of the hidden ruins remained, along with the monsters roaming through them. He had no idea whether the collapsed area would restore itself and offer another opportunity for a similar egg, but he was not counting on it. Extremely rare items did not simply reappear like common dungeon loot, and it would likely take years before he could face that creature again.

Retracing his path was easy enough. The traps and puzzles he had encountered were still deactivated, as he had only been in the area for about half a day. The monsters, however, were still there. Some had reappeared, while others had wandered in from neighboring corridors.

It was much easier to return this time, even without Agni’s help, though plenty of enemies still roamed the area. While he could have fought them, reaching the initial chamber mattered more, so he moved carefully. He waited for patrols to pass or used concealment spells to slip by unnoticed. Thanks to this cautious approach, retracing his steps took only two hours instead of the half day it had taken to reach the hidden temple.

“I think we have some friends above us, Agni.”

As soon as he returned to the initial chamber, he noticed the group waiting above. His overhead monitoring system kept him informed, and even the mage who had previously detected some of his constructs remained unaware of it.

‘So they arrived not long ago. What should I do now…’

He had come here to enter the ruin and claim its treasure, and in that regard, he had succeeded. Still, there was something more he could pursue. The more obvious ruin had opened, and it likely held another valuable item.

‘Not really worth the risk this time.’

His golems had disappeared into the underground chasm, leaving him with limited options against multiple opponents. If he still had them, he could have used them as expendable forces to distract the adventurers and overwhelm them. However, that would likely require killing several of them, and he was not convinced the potential reward justified it.

“Awoo!”

“Getting impatient? Just sit down. We’ll be stuck here for a few more hours, Agni.”

He could try to leave the way he came, but that would expose him to the group of eight adventurers above. Instead, he decided to construct a new teleportation gate, turning this hidden underground ruin into a travel hub within the third ring.

‘They will probably clear the dungeon around the time I finish the gate.’

With that in mind, he got to work preparing the chamber. He could not simply place the gate in a corner and leave it unprotected. Undead creatures could easily wander in and destroy it. First, he needed to seal the entrance and set up a runic array to conceal the chamber from the dungeon itself. Only then could he ensure the gate’s safety. Once everything was planned out, he activated his spatial runes and began the process of retrieving parts for the gate.

The egg strapped to Agni’s back was carefully placed on a pile of blankets Roland retrieved from his storage. Agni settled beside it, his large nose sniffing at it with curiosity, which made Roland uneasy.

“Don’t even think about eating that. If you do, you won’t get any mana crystals for the rest of your life.”

Agni immediately pulled back, letting out a low, offended whine as he turned his head away from the egg.

“Good.”

Roland exhaled slowly and returned to his work. The chamber began to change. While he lacked any golems suited for battle, he still had some that could assist with cleaning. Soon, multiple humanoid constructs appeared, holding shovels, brooms, and various other tools. He could have used more powerful magic to reshape the space, but he was concerned about the adventurers directly above him. If they became aware of his existence, it would complicate things.

The golems got to work at once, pushing broken stools and rubble scattered throughout the ruins to the sides. The scraping of stone against stone echoed faintly through the chamber as Roland’s lesser constructs moved about. Dust rose in slow clouds, illuminated by the dim glow of his floating golems.

Every now and then, a loose fragment would tumble and be immediately collected by one of the golems carrying something that resembled a vacuum cleaner. While such a device was not yet common as a household appliance, it was one of the prototypes that had made it through testing.

Minutes turned into hours, and the place began to look presentable. A door made of deepsteel was installed to block the only exit. Most monsters attacked only when they saw living creatures or magical devices such as golems. A simple door would be enough to block their line of sight, and for now, it seemed that this room was not within the patrol route of any of the lesser dragon undead.

The gate was assembled in the corner. All the required parts had already been stored within one of his spatial runes, and he only needed to fuse them together with magic. An outer shell of metal was formed around it to prevent cave-ins or damage from the outside.

“There, this should be enough for now.”

What stood before him was a rectangular construct resembling a shipping container with a door on one side. Inside was the teleportation gate, connected to several runic batteries with enough charge to allow a few back and forth trips. He planned to return later with a proper charging station, along with various monitoring devices, much like in his first secret hideouts on the third ring.

“Agni… we can go now.”

Agni had fallen completely asleep. The egg he had been holding now rested against his belly as he curled around it, like a mother hen protecting its hatchling.

“Wake up, Agni. We need to…”

As he stepped closer, Roland noticed something unusual. A strange flow of mana was coming from Agni. The energy moved at a very slow rate, subtle enough that he would not have noticed it from a distance.

“What is this egg doing?”

Roland leaned down to grab the egg. The moment he touched it, the flow of mana was disturbed, and everything returned to normal, but he had already recorded it through his visor. It seemed that the egg was slowly absorbing Agni’s mana while the wolf was resting. The amount was meager, below his natural regeneration rate, and not something that would normally be noticed.

“It did say in the books that dragon eggs absorb mana from their surroundings, and that it can influence their attributes and forms. Could that be what is happening here?”

Although he had not studied dragons and their eggs in depth, he knew that those left in extremely hot climates would usually hatch into crimson fire dragons, while those in cold regions would become blue ice dragons. However, the mana in this place was necrotic, which raised the possibility that this egg could produce something far more sinister.

“I wonder…”

He tried to feed the egg some of his own mana, gathering a concentrated amount at his fingertip before gently touching the shell. To his surprise, there was no reaction. It was as if the egg rejected the energy or simply could not absorb it.

“Is it the wrong amount or an incorrect wavelength or… Does it just prefer monster mana over human mana?”

He glanced at the egg, then over at Agni, who had finally woken from his nap. The wolf had no idea why his master was staring at him, but for some reason, he took a step back, as if he sensed he might soon be part of a very strange plan.