Rune Seeker

Hiral pulled up the minimized notifications as he walked.

Level 12 Troblin Warrior defeated. Class experience gained.

No class found. Experience held in escrow until class enabled.

There were twenty-three of those, ranging in level from 10 to 12, plus the one for the level 13 Troblin Shaman, but it looked like Hiral wouldn’t benefit from any of the experience until he got his class. Just another thing he was held back from…

He shook his head before he let himself fall down the usual pit of self-pity, then forced his face back to normal.

“Those Troblins were all level ten plus, but why did they seem so… weak?” Hiral asked, the group moving quickly but keeping an eye out for more Troblin ambushes.

“We call anything we fight down here on the surface monsters,” Seena said from beside him. “Monster levels don’t seem to be equivalent to PIM and class levels. Don’t know why. Anyway, since the level doesn’t necessarily describe how tough a fight will be, we also use something we call CR, or Challenge Rating.”

“Okay, and what CR would the Troblins have?” Hiral asked.

“Individually, around three or four. We usually add about half a CR per extra Troblin beyond one. So, that group we fought would’ve been around a CR of fifteen or sixteen. I might even put it up to seventeen because of the Shaman. I think that’s why we got slightly above-average experience for each one.”

“If the group of us ran into an individual Troblin, we wouldn’t get any experience for killing it. They are just too weak for us to learn anything. Oh, and we figure the experience points we get—strange, aren’t they?—are actually just the way the PIM measures what we learn from the encounter, along with the solar energy we absorb.”

“Solar energy?” Hiral asked.

“Didn’t you feel it with each Troblin we killed? Like a small burst of energy rushing into you? Ah, maybe you didn’t notice it in the heat of the moment. But, our PIMs absorb some of the energy of the monsters we defeat on the surface, which speeds up our growth.”

“Wow, no wonder you don’t want to share much about the dungeons with Islanders,” Hiral said.

If Shapers knew they could speed up leveling by coming down and killing monsters, they’d be all over it. What took decades of training could be accomplished in years or less. Nobody in Fallen Reach had achieved A-Rank in forever—would fighting on the surface let them get through that bottleneck?

If he brought this knowledge back to the Island, he would…

No, he couldn’t do that. Not just because of what he’d agreed to, but because if he could finally get a class from the dungeon interface and come down to the surface again to fight, he could pass all the Shapers up in Fallen Reach without them ever knowing how.

Heh, how would they feel if suddenly I was the first A-Rank in forever?

“Yes, so don’t forget our agreement,” Seena said, oblivious to Hiral’s internal dialogue.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Hiral said. “The secret is safe with me.”

“Good.”

“Can I ask a couple of other questions, though?”

Seena took a quick look at her surroundings and then at the others in the party. “Sure. We’ll be at the dungeon in a couple of minutes, so you have until then.”

“How high do CRs get?” Hiral asked.

“We do them by Rank. So those Troblins were E-Rank, CR seventeen. I’ve never seen anything above CR twenty-five for normal monsters, and we couldn’t handle that kind of thing without a full party on the top of their game. D-Rank is quite a bit stronger than E, though, so that E-Rank CR twenty-five is about the same as a D-Rank CR five or so.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Hiral said. “You mentioned normal monsters? Is there some other kind?”

“We’ve run into what are labelled as Elite monsters as well. Their CR is always way higher than their actual level, but we don’t actually know they are Elite until we get the experience notification.” Seena shrugged. “Still, when something seems particularly tough, we usually assume it’s an Elite.”

“Are there more Elites in the dungeons?” Hiral asked.

“Uh…” Seena started, and looked away from Hiral. “You know, it’ll be easier to show you than explain. And since we’re just about there, let’s end the questions for now.” She pointed at something on the opposite side of Hiral.

Hiral followed where she pointed to the base of a cliff, expecting to find a large cave, or maybe a small crack they would have to squeeze through. Instead, a carved archway sat nestled in the stone, easily twelve feet tall and seven feet wide. Some kind of symbols were carved into the stone arch from the base all the way to the top, but Hiral couldn’t read them. Then again… something about them was familiar. Where had he seen…?

“Normally, dungeons are safe areas. Things like Troblins can’t enter, for some reason,” Seena said, apparently for Hiral’s benefit, but then she looked at the rest of the group. “But that other track we saw back on the path, I don’t know if it applies to that. Be ready for anything when we go in there.”

“Follow me,” Nivian said, lifting his shield in front of him. He headed through the archway, Wule close behind, then Yanily and Vix, and finally Seena.

Hiral took one last look at the archway. Something about those symbols—like runes or something—seemed familiar. And the ones on the left looked like mirrored versions of the ones on the right. Were they actually the same, or did it mean something that they were reversed?

This is exactly the kind of thing Gauto would love. And who am I kidding? I wish I could figure it out… Maybe if I can come back to the surface.

“Hiral, you coming?” Seena called from inside.

Hiral pushed his curiosity aside and followed them in. As soon as he passed through the archway, a sensation like dipping underwater passed across his skin, but faded almost as fast.

What was that?

A short hallway, then around a corner, and he’d caught up to where he found them standing.

Standing and staring at the floor littered with dozens of quill-covered corpses, all of them broken and bloody.

“Are those… Quillbacks?” Hiral asked, eying the animals. Each of them would probably stand up to past his knees, and that wasn’t even including the forearm-length quills protruding from their backs. They didn’t have much in the way of mouths, just short and stubby maws with flat teeth, small ears, and large eyes. Not hunters themselves, from the looks of things.

“They are,” Seena said while all five of the Growers eyed the blood-soaked room.

“I thought you didn’t kill them to harvest the quills,” Hiral said, taking a step closer to a group of corpses off to his right.

From a quick look, all the best quills had been ruined by whatever had killed the animals. There may be a few salvageable ones if the party gave him the time to search, but it wouldn’t be a quick process.

“We don’t,” Seena confirmed. “Killing them ruins the quills. There’s a trick to getting them… and this wasn’t it.”

“Your sister’s party didn’t do this,” Nivian said, as if Seena needed to hear it, “and they aren’t here. Only Quillbacks. What do you want to do?”

“Could they have gone deeper into the dungeon?” Hiral asked, looking past the sea of dead animals, only to find a solid wall. “Er, is there even a deeper?”

“We think so,” Seena said, half-distracted, “but we’ve never been able to get in. Only these outer rooms where we’ve found Quillbacks and other animals. Our ancestors said there was something more, but as to where it is or how to access it, we don’t know.”

“Ah, that’s why you didn’t want to talk about Elites,” Hiral said, his eyes raking across the room for anything that looked like it could be a dungeon interface.

Besides the animal bodies, there also seemed to be what could only be described as nests—piles of sticks, leaves, and other debris that had to have come from outside the dungeon. Was this really a dungeon? He hadn’t gotten a notification or anything when he’d passed the arch, other than that strange sensation across his skin.

What, did I expect it would be like the training room up on Fallen Reach? Yes, I guess I did, somehow.

“Three minutes,” Seena said to the group, snapping Hiral out of his own head. “Look around, see if you can figure out what did this, or if there is any sign of my sister’s party. After that, we’re heading for the jump point. If they aren’t here, that’s where they’re going, and I’d like to catch up.”

The other Growers nodded or voiced a quick affirmative, then spread out to search the room.

“What can I do to help?” Hiral asked. “What am I looking for?”

Seena took a deep breath, then pointed to the far side of the room. “We think the dungeon interface is a pedestal on the far side of the room, but we’ve never gotten it to work. That’s what you’re here for. Go take a look, but don’t get your hopes up.”

Hiral’s gaze snapped to where she pointed, but he reined in his enthusiasm and looked back at her. At the disappointment and worry over not finding her sister there. “Are you sure? I can help…”

“The others know what they’re looking for, and I’m going to search too. It’s fine. Do what you came here to do; we’re leaving in a few minutes.”

“Right, thanks.” He quickly picked his way through the carnage.

The room itself was only two hundred feet across or so, and almost perfectly round from the looks of things. Not natural. Maybe it actually is the dungeon.

Getting to the other side, he found what had to be the pedestal Seena was referring to. It wasn’t much to look at, half-buried by one of the nests, but it was waist height and… yes… it had one of the control crystals embedded in the top. This better not turn on a shower over my head.

Hiral waved his hand over the crystal and waited for something to happen, or for a notification to appear. Nothing. Another wave of his hand. Still nothing.

Is it out of solar energy? No, that can’t be right. The crystals embedded in the city don’t need any external power from us to activate.Maybe the nest is getting in the way…

With that in mind, he tossed aside the branches and leaves, clearing a space around the pedestal. There was another slightly raised area, only a few inches above the ground and about two feet wide, but this one didn’t have an embedded crystal in it. Just a natural part of the cavern? But it’s too perfectly round too. Now branch-free, Hiral waved his hand across the crystal yet again.

Still nothing.

Fallen’s balls. What’s wrong with this?

“I told you,” Seena said before coming up to stand beside him. “We’ve had generations of people trying to figure it out, but nothing. This might not even be the interface or whatever either.”

Hiral pointed at the crystal. “I think it really is. I don’t know if you have these, but Fallen Reach has them all over. We use crystals like this to control all kinds of things in the city.”

“Do you know how they work?” Seena asked, a brief hunger in her eyes.

He shrugged. “No. Kind of like you and your ancestors talking about tracks and dungeons, these crystals have been there as long as we’ve been in Fallen Reach, and they just sort of… work.”

“How do you use them?”

“Just wave your hand over them like this,” Hiral said, passing his hand above the crystal again. He jumped to the side as light sprang out of the slightly raised patch of floor to his left. “What in the…?” he started at the same time Seena cursed and moved, but then he recognized the way the light formed into a humanoid shape.

It was just like the red and blue opponents up in the Time Trial, except this one was much more detailed. Where the Time Trial only used two colors, this image had every color, and even mixed several of them.

Within seconds, the nearly perfect image of an older man stood in front of them, his hands calmly clasped in front of him.

“Welcome, challengers, to the Splitfang Keep Dungeon. Please choose an option,” the image said, and a blue notification window sprang up beside him.

Tutorial

Enter Dungeon

Help

“What… what did you do?” Seena asked Hiral while he stared at the lifelike image of the man.

“I…” Hiral started.

“What’s this?” Nivian asked as he came over to join them, the others quickly following behind.

“No idea,” Seena said. “But it looks like Hiral here managed to get the dungeon interface working.”

“Are you kidding?” Wule said. “It only works for Islanders?”

But Hiral was already shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so. I tried a couple of times, and it didn’t work until Seena came over and stood beside me.” He glanced down to find faint circles of light around their feet. Blue for Hiral and green for Seena. Didn’t she say her status window was green? And, on the pedestal beside the crystal, glowing blue and green dots. Looks like there are two more dots too, though they aren’t lit up.

“Do we have time for this?” Nivian asked. “We’ve got to catch up with Seeyela’s party.”

“If we got it turned on, maybe my sister’s party did too?” Seena offered.

“It might be able to tell us itself, actually,” Hiral said before selecting Help. The blue window vanished, and the image of the man shimmered slightly and was replaced by another version of him with his arms crossed.

“Is it recording yet?” the image asked. “Oh? Oh, it is? Well, why didn’t you say something?” He straightened his face and dropped his hands back down to clasp in front of himself again. “Please ask your questions.”

“Who are you?” Vix asked before Hiral could speak up.

The image smiled. “I am Dr. Gulabi Benza, Director of Dungeon Construction.”

“Are you real?” Vix quickly followed up.

“Of course not. I’m a hologram,” the image of Dr. Benza snapped, then looked off to the side. “What? Why should I be patient? That was a stupid question. Sure, sure, whatever. Edit it out later.”

Hiral quickly held up a hand to forestall any further questions from Vix, then spoke up himself. “Can you show us the top clear times for Splitfang Keep?”

The image of Dr. Benza shimmered quickly, then he gestured to his side, where a notification window appeared.

Splitfang Keep – Dungeon

E-Rank

Top Clear Times

XXX : --:--

YYY : --:--

ZZZ : --:--

Close Window

“Looks like nobody has cleared the dungeon yet,” Hiral said, rubbing his chin. This dungeon is E-Rank, like they’d said. So, even if they’ve never gotten in before—assuming they’re telling the truth—then their ancestors must’ve. How else would they know the Rank? But… no clear times. Do they reset after a certain amount of time, or has nobody ever cleared it?

“Nobody has cleared it?” Seena asked, echoing Hiral’s thoughts. “Does that mean my sister’s party…?” She trailed off, her voice cracking at the implication.

“Not necessarily,” Hiral said, swiping the notification window closed. Dr. Benza shimmered again and took up his hands-in-front pose. “Has anybody entered Splitfang Keep?” Hiral asked.

Another image shimmer. “No. The dungeon is available for a party to enter and is not on cooldown,” Dr. Benza said, before shimmering back to his starting pose.

“What does on cooldown mean?”

“Please refer to the Tutorial for questions on dungeon mechanics,” Dr. Benza replied, his face looking somewhat… impatient.

“My guess would be they aren’t here,” Hiral said. “But let me test one more thing quickly.”

Before the others could object, Hiral took several steps back until the blue circle around his feet faded. The blue dot on the pedestal and Dr. Benza flickered out at the same time.

“What happened? Where did it go?” Seena asked.

“Nivian, stand where I was, and wave your hand over the crystal there,” Hiral instructed, and after a nod from Seena—she really was the party leader—Nivian did as told.

Nothing happened.

Hiral tested the next possibility. “Seena, can you try the crystal too?”

Still nothing.

“Kind of what I expected,” Hiral said before walking up to stand beside Nivian and Seena. “One more time, Seena, please.”

This time, when Seena waved her hand over the crystal, the image of Dr. Benza sprang to life again.

“Welcome, challengers, to the Splitfang Keep Dungeon. Please choose an option,” the image said, and a blue notification window sprang up beside him.

Tutorial

Enter Dungeon

Help

Hiral pointed down at the ground so the others saw the colored circles on the floor, then to the matching dots on the pedestal. “For whatever reason, it looks like it takes representatives from both our peoples to activate it, though I have no idea why. And, based on the dots there, I wonder if there are two more races…”

“Why would the pedestal need Growers and Makers together?” Yanily asked.

“No idea. Probably an answer in that Tutorial there, but…” Hiral trailed off.

“But we don’t have time. We need to go,” Seena filled in. “Hiral, I’d love to find out more about this, just as much as you, but we simply don’t have time if Seeyela and the others aren’t here. We’ll come back next rotation, and you can come with us.

“Let’s head to the jump point,” she said to the others, though her eyes lingered on the strange image right in front of her. Another quick grimace and she turned away, then took two steps toward the exit. “You coming?” she asked Hiral.

Instead of answering Seena, he spoke to the image. “Help.” He waited until the status window vanished and the image shifted. “I’ve got a class reward I’d like to claim from an achievement—how can I do this?”

The image predictably shimmered. “Class rewards can only be claimed from the dungeon interface found within a dungeon after clearing it. Rewards cannot be issued by access interfaces, such as this one. Please enter and complete the dungeon to claim your reward, along with the usual dungeon loot.”

“Loot?” Hiral asked before he could stop himself.

“Please refer to the Tutorial for questions on dungeon mechanics,” Dr. Benza replied, his face again looking impatient.

“Hiral, now or never,” Seena called back.

Hiral didn’t turn around to face her, his eyes glued to the strange image. Could he clear an E-Rank dungeon by himself? He could go in and try while Seena went looking for her sister. He probably wouldn’t be able to get back up to the city until it came around next rotation, even if he made it through. Would it be an obstacle course like the Time Trial?

Who was he kidding? Even if he made it through, nobody survived on the surface once the rains came. It would be suicide to go in… but at least maybe he’d finally get his class.

And what good is a class, idiot, if I’m dead?

“Coming,” Hiral called, forcefully tearing his eyes from the image. “Thank you for staying close so I could ask my questions,” he said quietly to her, and noticed the others were already over by the exit.

“You had about three more seconds before I left anyway,” Seena said. “We’ll be back. Now that we know how to access an interface… well, it’s time to find out what’s actually in those dungeons.”

“Loot, apparently,” Hiral said as he and Seena exited the cave. “Whatever loot means.”