The Runesmith

“Please take a seat, Lord Arthur Valerian.”

The voice echoed through the chamber. Though it spoke with perfect clarity, something about it felt slightly unnatural.

“I was told Sir Roland would be unavailable, but is this construct actually safe?”

A woman responded as she stepped forward. Her orange cat ears twitched in discomfort, unsettled by the mechanical tone.

“He did assure us it would be fine. I’m sure everything is under control, Mary.”

Three figures were present in the memory chamber, though only two were humanoid. The first was Lord Arthur Valerian of Albrook. The second was Mary, his maid and personal bodyguard. The third appeared to be a man in a butler’s uniform, but his blank synthetic face revealed the truth. He was not human. His name was Sebastian, and he was a golem.

“Master Roland is still engaged in his investigation.”

Sebastian said while standing before the same chair Arthur had used before to take his first trial attempt. 

“Due to unexpected complications, he has been unable to return. However, I am fully capable of fulfilling his role.”

“Unexpected complications? Is he fine?”

Sebastian’s glassy eyes flickered for a moment, processing the question.

“Master Roland remains operational and unharmed.” 

The golem answered with mechanical calm, though Mary’s eyes narrowed at the phrasing.

“Operational…”

She wasn’t sure how to refer to this being. It looked like a man and spoke like one, but Sebastian was clearly nothing more than a runic construct, not a living being. Still, he behaved in a way that went far beyond what ordinary golems were capable of. It was as if he could reason, as if he truly understood everything they said.

“Was that the wrong word? Please forgive me. My empathy and speech modules are still in the beta testing phase. If you would like, I can adjust my voice. Would you prefer something warmer?”

“Uh… no, I think that’s fine…”

Mary shook her head, unsure what the golem meant. As far as she was concerned, it followed orders, and that was all that mattered. Arthur, however, seemed curious. Before she could say anything else, he asked a question.

“Oh, you can change your voice? Can you sound like Mary?”

“…Certainly.” 

Sebastian replied without hesitation. A soft shimmer flickered across his throat as the rune embedded near his vocal area pulsed once. Then, in a voice eerily similar to Mary’s, almost perfectly matching her tone, cadence, and even the subtle rhythm of her breathing, he spoke.

“Is this more to your liking?”

Mary’s eyes widened. She stared at Sebastian as if he were a spy pretending to be her. He had managed to imitate a skill typically used only by highly trained infiltrators. The only thing more unsettling would have been if he could also take on her appearance. Arthur, however, let out a tired laugh at the voice change.

“That’s marvelous. I wonder if Roland could prepare some golems that look like you, Mary. Or maybe one that looks like me.”

At first, Mary wanted to shake her head and dismiss the idea. But then she paused. It might not be such a bad idea after all.

“Having a convincing body double might actually help us avoid future assassins. We should bring it up with Sir Roland the next time we see him. I wonder how realistic these golems could become.”

Arthur had only been joking, but his retainer was already considering the suggestion as a valuable addition to their forces. The idea was genuinely intriguing. Sebastian was capable of performing simple tasks and responding to orders. While the technology was not advanced enough yet, there was potential. 

In the future, a body double might be able to carry out certain duties without anyone noticing the difference. Other nobles used magical methods to disguise other individuals, altering their appearance, but no one had yet succeeded in creating a golem that could convincingly pass as a real person.

“Let’s add this to our ever-growing list of tasks. For now, I need to face the trial again.”

“Certainly, Lord Arthur Valerian. Please sit down on the chair.”

Sebastian responded while still mimicking Mary’s voice, which made Arthur chuckle again.

“Just call me Arthur, and you can stop pretending to be Mary. The real one looks like she might be getting irritated.”

“I’m fine, Lord Arthur.”

Mary replied as if it did not bother her, but deep down, she found it unsettling. Something about the machine using her voice so precisely made her uneasy. Arthur settled into the chair once more, its surface warming slightly under his weight.

The runes beneath him flared to life as Sebastian activated them. Just like before, the chair reclined into a horizontal position, and the helmet was placed onto his head. While the memory capture would not be necessary if Arthur succeeded in the trial, it would become invaluable if he failed, especially with the next attempt scheduled for the day of their departure.

“I am ready.” 

Arthur said quietly, and Sebastian, now speaking in his default voice, responded.

“Initializing memory capture module. Please begin the ascension trial when you are ready.”

Around the room, runes began to glow as the systems activated. Screens flickered to life, filling the space with faint light. The helmet on Arthur’s head emitted a soft buzzing sound as everything was prepared for recording. Arthur gave a slight nod, tightened his grip on the ascension crystal, and closed his eyes. In an instant, he was pulled back into the ascension space. In an instant, he was no longer in the room. The world melted away, replaced by the dreamscape of the trial.

Sebastian turned to the monitor panels in front of him. Runes lit up across the console, forming overlapping circles of light that hovered in the air. Although the trial lasted only a few seconds in the real world, time inside could stretch into months or even years. The longer Arthur remained within the trial, the more promising the outcome. However, if he failed, every critical memory had to be recorded and analyzed to develop an improved strategy for his next attempt. 

One second passed, then another. After about five seconds, the panels began to flicker to life. The trial appeared to be over. Arthur’s fingers twitched slightly.

******

*SPLAT!*

A strange-looking creature’s head exploded, and violet puss splashed across the stone walls as the runic barrel of Roland’s bike-mounted cannon hissed with heat. The monster had barely leapt from the shadows before being torn apart midair by a burst of mana.

*SCREECH!*

Two more lunged from behind a cluster of rubble, their forms twisted and malformed. Their limbs were sharp like razors, and their eyes glowed with that familiar, corrupt energy. Roland didn’t flinch. With a flick of his wrist, his fingers danced across the console embedded between the bike’s handlebars. The cannons swiveled into position, guided by the targeting system built into his armor.

He watched as the system locked onto the approaching threats. On the panel, each enemy was first outlined by a glowing circle. Once the lock was confirmed, an “X” appeared over each one. A moment later, the bike’s cannons roared to life again.

The twin barrels on either side of the bike let out rhythmic pulses of blinding violet light, each shot laced with not only mana but other elemental attributes. The tunnel erupted into chaos as beams tore through flesh and bone, slicing cleanly through the charging monsters with almost surgical precision.

But they just kept coming. From the darkness behind the first wave, a small horde emerged: clawed beasts with distorted torsos, fused limbs, and glassy black eyes that reflected nothing but hunger. Some crawled on all fours like spiders, others slithered along the ceiling, sticking to the stone like insects. Their howls filled the tunnel like an orchestra of madness.

“That’s a lot of them… Might be a good time to test that.”

The deformed monstrosities rushed toward him in a near-straight line. The cannons were cutting down a large number of them, but more were closing in from the sides. Even so, Roland did not falter. He stayed on his rune bike and increased his speed, charging straight at them.

He tapped through the panel again, and something began to shift. A pointed structure emerged from the sides of the tires. At first, they appeared to be nothing more than a few rods with sharpened ends. Then the runes etched into them began to glow. Light gathered around each one, intensifying until they resembled swords made of pure purple energy.

With a sudden burst of resonating energy, the rods extending from the tires snapped into full form, four gleaming blades of condensed mana. They spun around with the wheels, turning them into a pair of glowing saws. The edges shimmered with heat and magical power, distorting the air around them.

The monsters did not hesitate. Their malformed limbs clawed and scraped against the stone floor as they hurled themselves toward Roland without fear, shrieking and howling, their eyes blazing with unnatural fury. That is, until they slammed into the rune bike barreling straight at them.

*SHRRRRREEEEEKKK!*

The first wave of abominations was shredded instantly. The energy blades carved through them with savage precision, slicing bone and sinew apart as if they were nothing. One creature tried to leap at him, but the front cannons fired before it could get close, tearing through its body and splitting it into two smoldering halves. The remains fell to either side, only to be caught by the spinning blades of light and reduced to even smaller fragments.

More creatures dropped from above and crashed into his mana shields. Some tried to cling on, but slid off and fell directly into the spinning blades. Others were gunned down by the front or rear cannons before they could get close. Despite their overwhelming numbers, they could do nothing to stop him. Roland tore through them like a heated knife through butter. Their broken bodies piled up in his wake, yet he continued forward, undisturbed and focused.

“These must be leftover monsters from the dungeon break.”

He muttered. 

“But their forms… why are they like this?”

As Roland pushed through the horde, the creatures’ forms continued to trouble him. They were twisted versions of monsters native to the super dungeon, their bodies warped and unnatural. He had tried analyzing them before, but found no clear explanation for the corruption.

It almost seemed as though they had been summoned or created in this state by the dungeon itself. Yet something about that theory still felt incomplete. There was a pattern he could not quite grasp. After discovering the strange, dark rods scattered throughout the underground, his suspicion had begun to grow. He was no longer certain the dungeon was acting on its own. Something else, or someone else, might be behind it all.

“I need to leave one alive.” 

He pushed through the masses of monsters, killing them swiftly until only one remained. It was a massive creature wreathed in flames, with all four limbs shaped like sharp blades. Identified as a ‘Blazing Blade Demon’. It let out a distorted screech as it stepped out from behind a pile of slain beasts, one of its legs severed by his rune bike. Despite the injury, it kept advancing with a slow limp with no fear in its distorted eyes. 

Using its front limbs to drag itself ahead, it opened its tooth-filled mouth and released a blazing fireball aimed straight at him. Roland didn’t flinch. He let the flames crash harmlessly against the shield of his bike. The barrier held strong, not a single mark left behind. Calmly, he dismounted as if nothing had happened. The creature shrieked louder, as though enraged that its enemy refused to take it seriously.

“Limb regeneration? That shouldn’t be possible…” 

He watched as the creature’s severed blade leg slowly reformed, and with it, the demon gained speed. It rushed at him. The monster swung one of its bladed limbs, but it struck only empty space. Roland’s form blurred, and in an instant, he was several meters away, just outside the demon’s reach. Though it was the perfect moment to strike back, he didn’t move. He simply stood there and let the creature attack again.

The Blazing Blade Demon screamed with molten fury, its freshly regenerated limbs slicing through the air in wide, lethal arcs. But to Roland, its movements were slow and predictable. A moment later, one of its limbs was sent flying, severed cleanly. The creature was hurled backward by an invisible force as the rest of its limbs were sliced apart in quick succession.

“You shouldn’t be able to regenerate with this special binding spell…” 

The runes etched into his gauntlets began to glow, and the demon was slammed against a nearby wall. The rock, dense and infused with mana, began to shift under his control. Stone flowed like clay, wrapping around the creature’s severed limbs and pulling them into the wall. The binding held firm, locking each limb in place. The creature thrashed, but the wall continued to consume it until only its head remained exposed. That was exactly what Roland had been waiting for, and his examination began.

“Let’s see what makes this head tick.”

He raised one finger, now glowing with blue light, and a blade the size of a scalpel formed at its tip. Slowly, he brought it to the creature’s skull and began to slice. Thick, greenish-black blood burst forth. It hissed on contact with the air, poisonous to the touch, but completely useless against the mana veil protecting his runic armor.

The creature wailed as its head was cut open. Roland’s expression didn’t change. His eyes behind his visor, cold and calculating, tracked the incision with the same detached curiosity one might use to dismantle a machine. Piece by piece, he worked his way through the layers of corrupted tissue, cataloging the abnormalities.

“The flesh is mutated and changed… but… I’ve seen this structure before.”

What he uncovered beneath the creature’s skull was mutated flesh. Twisted and grotesque, yet there was a pattern buried within it—something he had seen before. The demon thrashed violently, but it remained alive just long enough for Roland to cut deeper, driven by the need to confirm his suspicion. Then, just as he neared a breakthrough, a voice echoed inside his helmet. Sebastian was calling him.

“Master, Arthur’s ascension trial has concluded. He was not able to complete it.”

“Arthur?” Roland replied, momentarily distracted.

“Yes. I have updated my guidelines when referring to Arthur. Should I revert to the default designation?”

“No, it’s fine…”

He gave a small nod to himself, focusing on Sebastian’s voice. The runes on his helmet flared as he established a link to his runic network. Thanks to the infrastructure his golems had been laying throughout the area, he was now able to connect to Albrook and even access the golemic surveillance within his personal workshop. 

Through one of the cameras, he saw Arthur rising slowly from the trial chair, rubbing his forehead. His posture was heavy, his expression defeated. The trial had ended, and new images surfaced once the memories were archived. He had failed again, and now only one chance remained before the assembly.

“One more, huh… Well, this gives me more time to investigate these tunnels.”

Roland’s gaze returned to the bound and twitching creature. Its head had been split open like a lab rat, revealing something unusual inside. From his spatial rune, he retrieved a small vial made of specially treated glass. With a mage hand spell, he carefully extracted the object and placed it into the container for later study. Once it was secured, he sealed the vial within a box inscribed with containment runes. As the lid closed, the runes flared to life, glowing with a dark hue.

“This should preserve it. It has to be a new strain.”

With the sample secured, he stepped away from the monster and released the binding spell. Even with his vast reserves of mana, maintaining control over the magically reinforced walls had been a strain. The stones pulled back into place, and the creature collapsed. Its body shriveled in an instant, then burst apart in a sudden explosion of pulpy flesh.

Roland stared at the aftermath of his dissection and let out a quiet sigh. It was clear that this investigation would lead to more trouble, both now and in the days to come. But he had no choice. He needed to dig deeper, to uncover the truth. Without knowledge, proper preparation would be impossible…

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