Rune Seeker

The explosion didn’t come with a boom, but with a sizzle. Emerging from The Fourth Crusade’s neck – about a third of the way down – a blossoming sun formed. Only about fifteen feet in diameter, the eruption consumed everything around it. Scales. Flesh. Bone. Sound. Force. Nothing escaped the devouring blaze.

A thunk sounded as the surprised visage on the dragon’s skull hit the ground, signalling the end of the fight, and the cauterized neck fell a second later. The massive body settled, The Pack still clinging to its back and wings, holding on in case the Hidden Boss had another trick waiting for them.

It didn’t.

Dynamic Quest: Complete

The Plateau of Three Valleys has become the Plateau of Four Valleys

Long thought to be the home of three territorial species, the true master of the peaks has emerged, enraged at the demise of those who kept the riffraff away from its hoard.

Hidden Boss unlocked due to speed of clearing waves.

Hidden Boss Defeated: 1/1

The Fourth Crusade has fallen.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

A thread of solar energy returned the Greatsword of Amin Thett to Hiral’s hand as he readied himself for another Hidden Boss. Instead, a new notification window popped up.

Dungeon – The Plateau of Four Valleys: Complete

New Record

Time: 0:04:36

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Wave to the Crowd

Before your might, four powerful forces that would’ve threatened a peaceful land have fallen. Though, the question remains – what could’ve brought them all here?

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Time until Dungeon – The Plateau of Four Valleys instance closure: 59:99

Hiral’s eyes lingered on that last question – ignoring the rest of the achievement for the moment. The dungeons didn’t usually have flavor-text unless there was a reason for it. And – he turned his head to look off the side of the plateau – that same mountain with the crescent peak couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Hey Romin,” he said as everybody gathered in front of the corpse of The Fourth Crusade. “What’s up with that mountain? It’s been in the background of all three dungeons.”

“We don’t know,” Romin said. “Others have noticed its presence as a common theme, but we haven’t been able to figure out why. A few groups have tried to use the hour after clearing the dungeons to learn more. Searching the farm from the first dungeon. Swimming from the ship to the shore in the second. Even sending flying companions from here,” he pointed at the distant mountain as he said it. “Something blocks them from getting too far.”

“It’s like the lizard city from The Mire dungeon,” Seena said. “A landmark in the distance.”

“But a landmark for what?” Hiral mused aloud. “Any idea where all of this actually is?”

“None,” Romin said. “Sorry.”

“No need to be,” Hiral responded. “Left, have you seen anything like this on globe in the Asylums?”

“I didn’t look for this,” Left said. “There are a number of coastal areas that could fit the geography of the previous dungeon, but beyond that…”

“Fair. Maybe at the next working Asylum we find, you can take a look?”

“Of course,” the double said.

“You think it’s important?” Seena asked Hiral.

Hiral shrugged. “You said the B-Rank dungeon is underground?” he asked Romin.

“Yes,” Romin said. “We aren’t sure if the mountain is near that one as well.”

“Call it a curiosity, then,” Hiral told Seena. “It stands out.”

“There’s also a dragon’s hoard we could go looking for,” Yanily said. “Sounds like a good reason to figure out where this is.”

“Probably a dragon still guarding it too, Yan,” Seeyela pointed out. “One that’s a lot stronger than what we just fought.”

“Oh, I sure hope so,” Yanily said. “We trounced that thing. Wasn’t as much of a fight as I was expecting.”

“We didn’t even use Eloquently Enraged+ or Delicate Balance past ten percent,” Seena said with an agreeing nod. “Still, doesn’t mean we should take the real thing lightly.”

“You really want to go looking for it?” Romin asked, looking from the party leader to the dragon corpse dissolving into streamers of solar smoke.

Seena crossed her arms and looked to the clear sky before she answered. “I’d love to, if I’m being honest. Not for the same reason as these experience and adrenaline junkies,” she looked at Hiral and Yanily to make sure everybody knew exactly who she was talking about. “But, more for… the adventure of it.

“We’ve got stuff we’ve got to do first…”

“Stuff,” Hiral echoed flatly, like stopping a world-spanning invasion of flying, invisible squids was the next item on a shopping list.

“Yes, stuff,” Seena said with a smile in his direction. “And we will do that stuff. When it’s all done, though? When we can see the blue sky from the surface…”

“And not have to worry about tentacles doing inappropriate things to us,” Seeyela said.

“Can I finish a sentence here?” Seena threw up her hands.

“Was kind of waiting for you to,” Yanily said.

The poor party leader rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Maybe you need to whip these youngin’s into shape,” Gran suggested.

“And here we go,” Right said, clapping his hands together once before elbowing Hiral in the side.

“I will strangle you,” Hiral hissed.

“Don’t think I breathe,” Right said back happily.

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“Really?” Hiral asked, caught off-guard by that.

“Uhhhh…” Romin intoned, his hand held up. Wallop – next to the Bonder – huffed loudly and stomped its foot. The vibration made the ground tremble under the party, and everybody turned to look at the companion.

As soon as it had all eyes on it, the still-huge Rune-o waddled over to Seena, then gently nudged her as if telling her to continue.

“Well, aren’t you the gentleman?” Seena gave the Rune-o a gentle pat on the head. Then, if it was possible through the heavy plating on his head, Wallop seemed to blush. “Where was I before I was interrupted? Got it. If we get to the point where we can come down to the surface and not have to worry about being groped…”

“By anybody other than Hiral,” Yanily said quietly.

“… and we can see the sky,” Seena just kept going like the spearman hadn’t said anything. “That’ll mean we’ve won. That we have freedom like we’ve never known before. With our Reflections, we can go almost anywhere. And there’s a lot of anywhere to explore.

“Why not come here and see if the dragon is still around? It’s not like we have to fight it or anything, but I think the idea of the adventure of it all would be exciting. Just to travel without some crisis waiting for us at the end.”

Hiral listened to Seena and let his mind wander along with her imagination. Part of him definitely wanted to give the real dragon a go – but that was the adrenaline-junkie part Seena had mentioned. The other – bigger – part of him thought back to the quiet evenings they’d spent on the edge of Fallen Reach, looking out at the stars. That’d been a dungeon, sure, but the time together was the important part. To do that on a bigger scale, with his friends at his side and a whole world to explore? It was exciting.

And, if something thought it’d make them an easy meal, boy would it be in for a surprise.

A shake of his head to dismiss the flight of fancy, and Hiral turned to look at Romin and Wallop. They two shared a look, before both turning to Seena.

“Would we… be able to come too?” Romin asked. “We’ve barely left the Hanging Garden…”

“Of course you can come,” Seena said like it wasn’t even a question. “You’re part of the party now. You can stay with us – go with us – as long as you want.”

Hiral couldn’t stop the smile – that was almost the same thing Seena had told him what felt like a lifetime ago. Just like they’d accepted him, she was making sure Romin knew he was welcome as well.

“We might need to get Wallop some wings,” Yanily said, completely ruining the moment. Though, as Hiral pictured the Rune-o gliding majestically on feathered wings through the sky, he couldn’t stop the chuckle.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one, either, with the rest of the party similarly breaking out in laughter. Gran was downright cackling and slapping at her knee.

Getting control of herself first, it was Seeyela who spoke up. “There’s the dungeon interface. Let’s wrap this up?”

“Yeah,” Seena agreed as Li’l Ur gently wiped a tear of laughter from her eye.

“Are we going to run this again after we do loot and achievements?” Yanily asked. “Experience wasn’t amazing, but it was quick.”

“Our domains are going to be on cooldown,” Seena said, though she was clearly considering it. “Then again, couldn’t hurt to see how we do if we do this fairly.”

“Don’t want to rely on the automatic bug-bird-imp-zapper?” Yanily asked.

“More just curious how we stack up when we’re not relying on what were basically perfect counters for this dungeon,” Seena said.

“Now who’s the competitive one?” Hiral asked her.

“Never said I wasn’t competitive,” Seena said right away. “Sis, you got the interface?”

“You bet,” Seeyela said, swiping her hand over the interface crystal. As soon as she did, the dungeon around them predictably darkened, while light flowed across the sky above. This wasn’t like the last dungeon – where the stars streaked across the sky. No, this night sky had what looked like waves of colored light in greens, reds, and oranges rippling from horizon to horizon.

Standing on the plateau of a tall mountain as they were on, the sky was huge, and it almost felt like the colored waves were wrapping around the entire world. As they stared, nobody spoke, everybody too lost in the beauty to break the spell.

Bulky fingers intertwined with Hiral’s, and Seena nestled up beside him, her other hand slipping around his arm to pull him closer. He didn’t object, letting the sense of peace just… linger. But, as a dungeon, it didn’t last forever. It didn’t even last long, and all-too-soon the light in the sky faded. Still, silence reigned for several more seconds before somebody finally spoke.

“Do you think that was real?” Yanily asked. “Can we see that if we come here?”

“I hope so,” Seena said. “I really hope so.”

Hiral looked down at the woman beside him. “Only one way to find out.”

She nodded. “After we do some stuff.”

“Stuff,” he agreed.

“First though,” Yanily said, more of the usual excitement back in his voice. “Loot!”

Hiral smiled at Seena one more time – even spontaneously leaning in and giving her a kiss on the forehead – before he turned his attention to the rest of the party and the new chests. And, purposely ignored the eyeroll from Seeyela.

“Looks like more Solar Refinement Solutions,” he said, spotting five of the familiar loot boxes.

“Let’s get to it, then do achievements real quick,” Seena said, untangling herself from him. “Kind of surprised we even got achievements, but I’m not going to complain.”

“This dungeon is only one Rank lower than us,” Hiral said while he crouched down and popped open the chest. Just like he’d expected, there was another vial of glowing liquid waiting for him. “Seeyela, this one is for you, so you’re going to lose your buff for a moment.”

“No problem,” Seeyela said, her vial… in the hands of Little Shadow’s Cloak…? Like little appendages of blood, the liquid cloak threw back the vial like it was shooting it. The thing even went so far to run the back of a hand across like it was wiping its mouth.

Hiral couldn’t do more than stare blankly at the cloak for a few seconds before an elbow to his ribs snapped him back to reality.

“You didn’t even see it playing with Favella,” Seena said. “I swear the thing is alive sometimes. It even steals cookies when it thinks nobody is looking.”

“Are you sure that’s not you?” Hiral asked her.

“Ehhh, nothing wrong with shared hobbies,” Seena said. “Now, vial. Yan and Seeyela are done.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry,” Hiral quickly said, pulling the Sho-Val of the Valley out of the Arsenal of Amin Thett. Then, without waiting for View to activate, he popped the cork and spread the liquid along the entire length of the two-bladed spear. Like the vial contained far more than it looked like it should, there was exactly the perfect amount of the substance to run from the tip of one blade all the way to the tip of the other.

As soon as the last drop vanished from the vial, then Hiral let View activate.

(Lost) Sho-Val of the Valley – A-Rank

Effects: When using any two pieces (or more) of the Sho-Val together, grants user access to Ability (Passive) – Wind Steps, Ability (Passive) – Crescent Wind, and Ability (Passive) Lost In The Wind

Ability (Passive) – Wind Steps: Boosts user’s movement speed by 30% and reduces chance to be hit by ranged attacks by 10%.

Ability (Passive) – Crescent Wind: Strikes and swings from the bladed ends of the Sho-Val produce cutting winds.

Note: Range is based on user’s Atn, while damage is based on user’s Dex.

Ability (Passive) – Lost In The Wind: The wind conceals and protects, offering a 10% miss chance to any attacks targeting you, and a -10% chance to critically hit you if the attacks lands.

Another passive, just like he’d expected, and a defensive one at that. An outright chance to make attacks miss? That sounded pretty good on paper, even if it was only ten percent. Then, even if they did hit, a reduced chance to critically hit?

That’s a thing? I guess, it makes sense, since we can get bonuses to crit, why can’t we get bonuses to prevent crits? Good to know…

“Solid bonus,” Hiral said before anybody could ask, and shared the window briefly. Seeyela was – of course – the most interested in it. A thumbs-up signalled she was pretty happy with the idea of getting hit less. Agreeing with the sentiment, Hiral pulled the Sho-Val back into the Arsenal, then activated Emperor’s Decree.

Solar smoke peeled off him to merge into the shape of a woman standing in front of Seeyela, though this new addition looked to be entirely made of clouds. The cloud-woman looked at Seeyela for a second, then nodded like she was familiar before stepping forward. The solar smoke spread out again as quickly as it’d merged in the first place, then washed across Seeyela, only to get absorbed into her.

“Did she remember me?” Seeyela asked Hiral.

“I don’t even know who she is,” Hiral said. “Or what exactly these spectres are. Uh, I mean, they can’t possibly be bad, right?” he quickly added at seeing the scowl on Seeyela’s face.

“Considering we saw what the Unnamed tried to do to Seena…” Seeyela trailed off, but Hiral held his hands up defensively.

“Definitely nothing like that,” he said. “It’s adding a temporary node to your PIM, that’s all, to give you the abilities.”

“You’re sure?” she pushed.

“Absolutely,” Hiral said. “I looked at my own to make sure, because I had the same concern after the Unnamed. If you’re worried about it, though, we can cancel Emperor’s Decree.”

“Nah,” Seeyela said, suddenly relaxed again. “The passives are too good. And, she didn’t seem like a bad gal.”

“At least yours isn’t a giant rat,” Yanily said, referring back to the original owner of the Bestial Axes.

“More like at least the giant rat isn’t a giant spider,” Seeyela teased, and Yanily visibly shivered at the thought.

“Everybody done with their vials?” Seena asked, and the party around her nodded. “Good. When we’re taking a break before the B-Rank dungeon, we’ll take a minute to go over what we all got from the upgrades. For now, though… Sis?”

Seeyela nodded like she expected the direction, then swiped her hand above the interface crystal. “Achievements.”