26. Runeheld Ruins

I had been Mage yesterday, but I had also been Warrior, and Lord, and Acolyte, and Archer. I remembered them all of them with the same amount of clarity. As Warrior, I had struggled. It had taken me a while to get a group for Runeheld Ruins together, as I hadn’t been able to find a healer right away. When the group was ready to go, one of the DPS dropped because they said they wouldn’t have time to finish it.

They had been suspicious of my claims that they would face a challenge quest with me, but like Mage I had issued them unique quests that backed up my word. We had gotten through the first two bosses easily enough, but two of the DPS had died on the third boss. It had taken a while to find replacements who were willing to go on, and ultimately the group fell apart before we reached the fourth boss of the especially large dungeon.

[Warrior] had lost in the experience race to [Mage] for the simple fact that the dungeon was lower leveled. At least the entrance was. The second part of the dungeon, which I could now access thanks to yesterday’s efforts in attuning myself to a teleportation circle further inside, was level 25-30, and I was looking forward to catching Warrior up to Mage and Lord.

Fortunately the group filled quickly today, and I wasn’t forced to spend hours looking for more. None of the others had done this dungeon before, but only one person needed to be attuned to activate the runic teleportation circle at the beginning of the dungeon.

Once we were through to the room just after the third boss, we doubled back to kill it. Because why not? There was no trash between us and it, it dropped loot, and it gave us a chance to work as a team.

It also proved to the others that something was definitely up. The boss was tanked on a platform, but he kept knocking everyone but the tank back in a random direction, and you had to find the right rune to teleport back onto the platform to continue killing him. In the regular instance this was relatively simple, but in the new challenge a random rune would light up for ten seconds, and you had to stand on it before it went dim. This complicated things and led to a lot of running around as anyone who got knocked off had to reach the runes, which were spread out evenly over a large area, quickly so that they could help on the platform.

We managed to bring the annoying construct down, and I got a new weapon. I was rather pleased, although I was also having second thoughts about shifting Warrior into being a Duelist at level 30. Once I did that, the [Runic Mace of Strength] wouldn’t be such a great weapon, as my coefficients would change significantly and I’d get more attack power from Dexterity than strength. Not to mention that I would do way more damage with swords thanks to the class’s skills.

I’d discovered that I liked tanking, which was very unexpected. I thought that there was no way anyone would ever talk me into playing such a role when I’d first had it explained to me.

I’d had a few other drops yesterday, and had visited the auction network besides, so I pulled up my stat screen to review while the others were discussing what else to expect if this boss was so difficult.

Name

Haji

Level

28

Guild

None

Strength

67

Health

22117/22117

Dexterity

56

Energy

1141/1303

Vitality

61

Anger

345

Endurance

47

Experience

378/16800

Intelligence

26

Age

15

Wisdom

20

Race

Human (blood of the travelers)

Charisma

67

Class

Warrior

Armor

63

Job

Earl

Attack Power

200

Titles

Dungeon Master I

Critical Damage

2.20

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Serpentbane

Weapon Damage Rating

C

Veteran of The Battle for North Shire

“I know it’s a challenge quest and everything, but doesn’t this seem a little too hard?” Nereus, our archer, asked.

“It’s nothing compared to high level content,” Eldrin answered. “Endgamers would probably run this sort of stuff in their sleep.”

“Look, guys, if you’re going to bail, do it now,” I told them. “I get that you’re worried the challenge might be too much for you, so no hard feelings. I just need to get to the last boss to complete my quest, and you’re welcome to join me or abandon it as you please.”

The others exchanged looks. Eldrin, the soldier who was acting as melee DPS, was all for continuing, as was Mariselle the priestess. It was Nerus the Archer who was having second thoughts, and Thalrim the pyromancer was having trouble making any commitments.

Fortunately, we managed to convince everyone to continue, and we swiftly made our way through the trash to the next boss fight. The constructs we faced were similar to the ones in the entrance, just faster, stronger, and tougher. I wasn’t too worried about gaining experience, because I knew that evolving the dungeon would give me a significant boost, so we skipped a few pulls where we could.

The fourth boss of the dungeon was a team of archaeologists who were furious with us for destroying their research material. I had to tank five guards by myself while the others dealt with a trio of mages. Fortunately Eldrin could off-tank for me, and Thalrin was wise enough to befuddle the scientists, who mostly relied on magic for their damage. Once the mages were dead, we picked off the guards one by one, and that was the end of that.

They turned into black mist, alleviating my worry that they might be normal natives. No, they were dungeon spawn. Even if they weren’t completely evil, they would respawn with the evolved dungeon. I was certain of it.

“There were two extra guards and an extra mage in that encounter,” Nereus pointed out. “From what the videos show, at least.”

“It was pretty easy, in my opinion,” I said.

“Yeah, if this is the worst that the dungeon can throw at us--”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I said, interrupting Eldrin.

He grinned at me. “I didn’t realize you were superstitious.”

“The dungeon is actually listening to us and watching us right now,” I pointed out. “Seriously, don’t challenge it. Right now it’s not too worried about us because I declared my intent. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t spike the difficulty on us to make a point.”

“Dungeons don’t do that,” Eldrin argued.

“This one might,” Mariselle pointed out. “I think Hagi knows more than we do about what’s going on, and we should listen to him. Both of the bosses we faced were very different from what they are supposed to be.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Now let’s get ready. The last boss is probably the hardest. Or it might be gone entirely and I just have to talk to someone, I don’t know. It’s different every time.”

We stepped into the room of the final boss – there were several others in different wings of the dungeon but I was pretty certain this one guarded the Core – and the door shut behind us.

The room was large and circular. In the middle was a pile of sand, and when we approached the sand was sucked into the air, taking the form of a face.

“Who are you who intrudes upon this ancient site?” the sand-face demanded.

“I’m called Hagi. An adventurer. I’ve come to bring change.”

“Change is not welcome here. Begone, Hagi. You are not welcome.”

The sand-face broke up and began swirling around the room. It was enough to sting, and every five seconds I suffered an annoying little -1 health notification. That was not the threat that we faced, however. From the hole where the sand had been came a new platform, rising up from deep beneath the earth. Sitting on it was a stone man, carved with as much detail as any statue, and absolutely covered with runes.

At first it did not move, then it looked up at me and made a screeching sound. It stood, it’s runes lighting up brightly, and the sand combined to form a glass sword in its hand, the heat of its fusion turning it white hot.

I met its blade on my mace and shield. Despite being made of stone it was quick, and skilled with a sword. The others launched their offensives as I drew its attention. Eldrin to the side, thrusting his spear as his abilities activated. Thalrin and Nereus behind, their flames and arrows burning through the statues health pool. Mariselle kept my health up, even as a second sword appeared in the statues other hand and I was forced to take a few scratches which dealt three thousand damage per hit.

It was a long fight. It was a tank and spank, but it was also challenging. The skill and ridiculous damage of the boss meant that I had to focus on avoidance while keeping threat. The sand in the room, meanwhile, would sometimes congeal on a random member of our party, crushing them for a moment and hampering their dps.

It thrust, and I blocked with my shield. With its other sword it thrust under the shield and got me in the leg, dealing a critical nine thousand damage. Mariselle’s heal came in, bringing me back up partway, but she hadn’t been expecting a critical. I was down to half health, and so was the statue, but as a boss the statue had more than a hundred times my health, so we had a lot to get through. I stepped back to create space. The statue thrust again. I caught it on my shield, leaned into it and spun, smashing my mace against it’s arm and coming off to the side.

I tried to swing again, but it outmaneuvered me and slashed me again for three thousand. I [Shield Bashed] to force it to step back; it was immune to the stun but the ability had a slight knockback which forced it to give me a bit of space. The stone man responded by trusting at me with both swords, forcing me to block one while avoiding the other.

The dance continued, and I lost myself in it. I stopped paying attention to the health bars, both my own and the enemy’s. Everything was just avoiding those glass swords, and occasionally getting a [Furious Strike] in on the enemy. I was so focused that when the statue suddenly cracked in two, then crumbled apart, I was left off balanced.

“That looked intense,” Eldrin commented.

“It was intense,” Mariselle confirmed. “And I was just healing it. If Hagi wasn’t such a badass I’m sure we would have wiped.”

“What’s this boss supposed to be again?” Nereus, our archer, asked.

“A much easier version of that statue,” Eldrin answered. “And its swords were regular stone instead of molten glass. Which was awesome to watch, by the way. Great job tanking that, Hagi, I wouldn’t have managed nearly so well.”

“Thanks,” I said.

We checked the loot, which was a bow which went to Nereus. While we had skipped a number of optional bosses, the stone man was widely considered the final boss as a circle of return formed after it was killed. I was hoping that this would also translate into this room housing the Dungeon Core. Looking around, I didn’t see anything until Edrin pointed at the magic circle that formed and said “Aren’t those supposed to be blue?”

The violet circle reminded me of Mikal Mines, when killing the final boss had created a transfer circle to a room that housed the Core. But I didn’t have Corinth to blunder into it blindly this time, and I was trying to be more circumspect about that sort of thing --

Nereus pushed me as I got close to inspect it, and I stumbled inside it.

Teleportation to The Maker’s Resting Place in 9 seconds

“What the hell?” I challenged, and the Archer just shrugged.

“Just wanted to see the look on your face,” he responded.

The transportation magic kicked in, and I was transported into a large white room. The others were not with me. The space looked like Mikal’s room to me, except that the chair where the tentacled man had sat was empty. The core was in place, however, and without any further challenge I simply walked over to it and touched it.

You have reached the dungeon core of Runeheld Ruins!

Levels 20-30

Options

Evolve Dungeon

(8 Evolutions Available)

32 options, (focus to expand)

Evolve Dungeon to Raid

Cost: 1 standard Dungeon Core.

Note: New encounters will be chosen from evolutions at random

dungeon will close and all parties within will be returned to the nearest safety zone.

Note: Formation of Raid will take 49 days (7 days RT)

Destroy Dungeon

(Note: this action cannot be reversed!)

Reward for successful clear will be increased.

Dungeon will close and all parties within will be returned to nearest safety zone.

Reclaim Dungeon

Rewards: Dungeon Core (Unrestricted*)

Other rewards for successful clear will be revoked.

Dungeon will close and all parties within will be

returned to nearest safety zone.

I stopped myself, staring at the innocuous option in the middle of the otherwise familiar options. I was so surprised to see it that at first I didn’t understand what I had read. Despite being a low level instance, Runeheld Ruins was able to evolve into a Raid? I had not been expecting that.

I considered my options. There were already plenty of Raids in the world. Too many, in my opinion, and adding another one to their list was a bad idea in general. They spawned the worst of the worldbosses, and took the most effort to keep from breaking out and overrunning the countryside. Or, they used to. Today, with Travelers, things were a bit different. It was hard to say whether having a raid spawn would be a benefit or not. The Travelers would probably be happy. The Natives, not so much.

If this dungeon was inside of Yuikon, I wouldn’t even consider it. I’d probably even destroy the core so that nobody else could evolve it later, although that was stupid since only a Native like me could do so. But this dungeon was on Kordockian soil. And Yuikon and Kordock don’t get along.

This dungeon was important to the Travelers leveling in this area. To the endgamers, it would be just one more raid to check off the list. With a bit of trepidation, considering that I wouldn’t be able to change my mind until I reached endgame levels myself, I took a Dungeon Daughter Core from my inventory and selected the option to evolve the Dungeon into a Raid.

The core in my hand burst into shards of crystal before merging with the core that had been hovering in the air before me.

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