(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Strapping his greaves onto his trusty leather boots, Kaius breathed a sigh of relief and comfort.

Spending so long without his equipment had left him feeling vulnerable and naked. Now, draped in shining scale, with his sword back on his hip, he felt whole once more.

Though, it was still a little strange to feel the dense layered fabric that covered him from neck to his mid thigh under his cuirass. His new gambeson had proven to be a much welcome addition. Made from innately magical cloth, it would help to significantly blunt any impacts to his chest—one of the major weaknesses of his flexible scale armour.

Tugging at its hem, he pulled up its description once more.

Ithrian Standard Issue Gamberson:

Rare - Tier I

Our wealth is seen in our armies, and the equipment they field. Where they tread, light and prosperity follows.

Made from layered and quilted canvas that has been woven from force attuned cotton, this gamberson is designed to sit under an outer layer of armour and blunt impacts. A variety of simple inscriptions ensure the comfort of its wearer.

Depths-wrought Artefact.

Padded Under-armour

Durability I, Impact Negation II, Temperature Control I, Self Cleaning I, Self Repair I

The fact it was also self cleaning, and would aid in regulating his temperature was an unneeded, but much welcome addition. While he was more than used to the sticky layer of viscera that came with all good battles, it didn’t mean he enjoyed needing to hose himself off after every fight.

Turning his attention back to his collection of spatial rings, Kaius dipped his awareness into the one holding the stash of tonics.

Most of them were unknown to him, but after searching them by scent while he had gotten changed, he’d managed to ferret out the distinctive reek of various restoratives. Not many, just a bare few for each resource, but enough to give them a sizable edge.

He’d already downed a healing one to top himself off, and passed a mana potion over to Ianmus for him to do the same.

He took a moment to shuffle a few of each tonic into three other rings—where they would be far easier to pick out than from a legion of similar looking bottles. Even if most spatial artifacts gave an awareness of what lay inside, it helped little when the contents were already unfamiliar.

Whistling sharply, Kaius grabbed his team’s attention.

He pulled off two rings—one mostly filled with reagents, the other plain valuables—and flicked the glistening bands towards Ianmus and Kenva.

Catching the rings, Ianmus gave him a simple nod, while Kenva looked at him in surprise.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I did little to assist with opening the vault—returning my family’s gifts was more than enough.”

Kaius nodded. “I put some tonics inside it—a ring will make them far easier to use in battle. If we end up going our separate ways after we fully escape, you can always return it.”

“Though, I will ask that you at least come with us to Deadacre. No doubt, a significant chunk of these valuables are stolen goods—probably from this very region. I’d like to return them, if we can. I’ll not give up the rings, or the platinum, but anything else I have no strong attachment to. We can do a proper accounting and split our earnings after—I’m not going to stiff someone who’s helping us escape out of their earned cut.”

Kenva paused, before she slowly nodded and slipped the ring on her finger. “An uncommon show of trust, and a rare display of honour, I will not forget this.”

Kaius gave her a nod, before he took in his team in full.

Their newest, and perhaps temporary, member stood draped in heavy leathers—her vitals covered by fine metal plates that did little to hamper her mobility. Her clan’s bow was in her hands, and two short blades were at her hips—one almost ceremonially ornate, while the other had the militaristic austerity of plain steel. Mana flowed through her—a bright trail that connected to the quiver on her back, quickly repopulating with needle-point bodkin arrows.

Ianmus stood not far from her, cloaked in his cream coloured robes, staff in hand, with his still-charged eon stone drifting over his shoulder. Between his pale garb, alabaster skin, and platinum hair he looked every bit the high-minded mage untouched by mortal concerns. He even had a new wand at his hip—the one Kaius had passed to him—sealing the look even further.

The new wand was a nice addition. Ianmus had said he could use it to create decently sized force barriers—a fantastic find, considering that more physical defenses were usually far outside of the wheelhouse of his Solar affinity.

Finally, Porkchop stood waiting by the door—rearing and ready to go as he needled the ground restlessly with his claws. His brother had retracted his shield from baring the door, the telekinetic slab hovering close to his spine.

Watching them, Kaius saw his burning need to move echoed in the shifting of their feet, and their restless glances to the door. They’d all spent far too much time here in the dark, and as much as plundering their captors’ wealth had been a much needed release of frustration it could only quell them so much.

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They were ready. The first stage of their escape was finished, and now they only needed to burn a path to freedom.

He clenched his fist, feeling his gauntlet creak underneath the pressure as he stared at the cold stone beneath his feet. Retribution would come, but they had to escape first.

“We’ve all suffered,” Kaius started, drawing his companions eyes. “We all know that. We’re all angry and vengeful, we know that too.”

He looked up, seeing the fire in their eyes. “There will be blood tonight, but we must control ourselves—I know I didn’t set the best example when I battered that guard’s head in, and for that I apologise, but we can’t afford to lose sight of what’s at stake. Freedom.”

His team nodded. Kaius rose to his feet, moving to the door.

“From here we move fast, we hit hard, and we do not stop until we either find a Depths portal, or we make it back to Deadacre. There will be no more skulking, no more careful infiltration, we will run and kill anything that tries to get in our way.” he said, grunting as he shoved aside the table they had butted up against the door.

“Porkchop and I will take the lead, clearing the path forward. Kenva,” he turned back to the ranger. “I need you to keep Ianmus safe first, and deal with priority threats second. Can you do that?”

“Of course—I’m no pampered sniper.”

Kaius gave her a nod. “Once we’re in the courtyard, we break straight for the north-west. Keep an eye out for a delve; if we’re lucky enough to find one it will make losing any pursuers far easier. Let’s go.” He swung the door open, running out into the hall at full tilt, his team close on his heels.

As much as he had espoused their need for focus on their goals, he itched for someone to try to stop them. The time for scurrying around like a rat was over, now he wanted blood.

….

They took the stairs two at a time, every step thundering on stone with the clanking of their armour as they flew up to the next level of the compound. Sound was no longer a concern. At this point confrontation was inevitable, though Kaius expected that the second floor would be just as dead as the first.

The rumbling cries of bloodshed and war overhead had only intensified during their detour to regear—no doubt the only remnants still underground were those too cowardly to join a pitched battle. Not exactly the sort to interfere with a full delving team of the geared and powerful.

Porkchop was in the lead, his armour making him sound closer to a charging stone elemental than a creature of flesh and blood. He was the perfect vanguard for their advance. With his weight and skills that buffed his momentum, he was an unstoppable axehead that would split any barriers in their way.

As they ran, Kaius plotted their route through the second floor. There was one main one that he had memorised that would take them directly to the final staircase. He expected it was a little circuitous, since his guards had acted surreptitious everytime they had taken him upstairs instead of directly to the interrogation room. Unfortunately, without ever having access to anything approaching a floor plan of the compound, he only knew of the passages he had directly seen.

“Once we reach the top, just keep going straight—we have eight turns to make, but I can tell you which ones.” Kaius called out to his brother ahead, who merely grunted and kept up with his breakneck ascent.

Their path to the courtyard wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Kaius couldn’t get that small flash of mana he’d seen when they had broken into the vault out of his head. For all he knew, it had been an alarm, and there might be a defensive force blocking their exit by the time they arrived.

Thankfully, he had a pretty good idea of how to deal with that eventuality.

“Ianmus!” he called behind him.

“Yeah?!” the mage called back, panting slightly from the exertion of having to keep pace with more physical classers. Even with a movement focused general skill, it was a hard task for a man whose stats were largely mental.

“How much could you overcharge one of your Solar Rays without suffering from mana burn?”

Ianmus paused for a moment. “With my recent levels, and my eon stone? Enough!”

Kaius grinned to himself. Perfect.

“And how long could you hold that ready, while still being able to run and pay attention to your surroundings?”

Groaning in response to the question, Ianmus muttered something unintelligible under his breath. “With my Glass Mind, probably fifteen minutes, why?” he replied a moment later.

“There’s a chance we might have triggered an alarm. If we did, there’s a good chance that they will send a sizable force to investigate—the dangers of getting pincered in the courtyard will be far too high for them to ignore, and that’s without the value of the rings. Dealing with a crowd in tight corridors like this will slow us down far too much.” Kaius explained, skidding to a stop on a small landing as he spun to ascend the next set of stairs.

Whoever had built this place had buried it deep.

“You want me to burn our way through?” Ianmus replied, huffing slightly.

“Yeah!”

In the tight confines of the compound’s corridors, Ianmus’s beams would be devastatingly effective thanks to their incredible range and penetrative power. Any formation of comparatively low level guards might just be wiped out entirely.

Speed was of the essence, and they couldn’t get bogged down in the hall. Fighting that many guards head on would burn far too many resources, and he doubted they would be able to avoid a defensive line if they set up around the stairs.

“I’ll use invisible-light then, the extra damage will be worth it, especially since my HyperchargedSpell is technically more efficient on a per-mana basis now.”

Feeling the warmth of solar mana start to surge behind him, Kaius looked back to see Ianmus’s brow furrowed in concentration—another one of his strange sigilistic discs emerging atop his staff from the murk of the raw gaseous mana the mage was releasing from his pool.

In his focus, he slowed slightly—but was still more than fast enough to suit Kaius’s needs.

Kenva stepped in close to Ianmus, her bow held undrawn in hand with an arrow nocked.

She gave Kaius a nod.

“I’ll keep the lanky one breathing.”

Acknowledging her with a nod of his own, Kaius returned to his ascent. As another shudder rocked the compound, he rested a comforting grip on the hilt of his blade. Whatever was going on up there had to be truly cataclysmic in proportions.