Chapter 169 – Interesting discovery.

“It really isn’t reacting…”

Roland mumbled to himself while looking through the hole in the wall that he made. On the other end, he could see a flaming skull looking his way. Soon this skeletal monster turned away as if it couldn’t see the human looking at it and then vanished back behind the corner.

He remained in place while looking at the shadows in the distance. This was not the only monster wandering this place. Other various sounds were heard from this direction and he even saw another skeletal enemy that was considered much more troublesome than even a Champion.

While a Skeleton Champion was a tough foe the magic counterparts were a lot more troublesome. They could summon many lower leveled skeletons without end to help them in their fight. Then while their small battalion of skeletons kept their enemies busy they would sling damaging spells from safety.

‘That one didn’t react either, now I’m sure…’

The undead type monsters were considered mostly just magically animated corpses that saw the world differently. They were quite sensitive to life and magical energy. If something like a lich couldn’t see him when he was standing there then there was only one explanation of what this was.

‘An entrance to another separate dungeon.’

This was a rarely seen phenomenon when two separate dungeons that had their own cores collided with each other. During his studies, Roland came across a book that described a few instances where this happened.

This supported the theory that the dungeons were divided into zones through which the monsters inside couldn’t pass through. Just like in this situation where the monster ignored the human on the other side even when being stared at directly.

The missing corridor on his minimap could be explained by the two dungeons interacting with each other. He theorized that the two sub-spaces collided with each other and might have been causing his detection devices to be erroneous.

What the monster here saw wasn’t the hole in the wall, it was just a wall. The skeleton and the Lich could not see past the border of their own dungeon. Unless Roland moved through the hole they would not react. He thought about throwing a rock at the monster for another test but gave up as he didn’t want to push his luck too much.

The small opening that he made would also mend itself back after some time. The dungeons seemed to have some pre-programmed venues and would repair the broken-down walls with time. This was why mining them was such a lucrative business. The tough part was just finding a room like this where the treasures were exposed.

“I’m not sure if I’m the luckiest man alive or the unluckiest one…”

Roland gave out a sigh while moving away from the dungeon entrance that he discovered. His drones were back at work and drilling into the ground as even with this discovery, he still intended to stick to the old plan. There were too many variables for him to just enter the new dungeon, plus the two monsters that he saw in there were far more dangerous than the lone boss that he faced before.

While he could profit immensely from this discovery, it could ruin him if the wrong people found out about this place. The room filled with precious metals was already a massive risk but now he found a doorway into a higher-ranked dungeon.

If he decided to sell this information to the adventurer’s guild or the thieves guild he could probably earn a small mountain of gold. The earnings of the guild would increase dramatically through the tier 3 monsters and treasures that were probably within that dungeon.

That would probably be the smartest thing to do, as withholding information like this was considered against the law. The commoners didn’t have permission to enter the dungeons before the adventure guild officially opened them up. Most of the time, the first dungeon clears would bring in higher rewards and some costly treasures would never be seen again.

Thousands of golden coins and high-quality materials were on the line here. If someone discovered that he was in possession of such information they would do anything to make him cough it up.

Even though he knew the danger, Roland thought that he should withhold this discovery for now. What he would gain for the information didn’t outweigh what he could profit from this in the long run. He was looking at a gold mine of experience, one that he was the only one aware of.

He knew that if he went to the adventurer guild they would take over this place. No one would be able to go inside without the proper papers, this including him. At this point in time, he was still only a silver rank adventurer as he never bothered to go through with his gold rank test.

This one wasn’t as easy as the little battle with Armand. To pass it he would need to go to the guild again, first, they would re-evaluate his levels with another measuring device. It would be impossible for him to use his old tactic of hiding his class as he did before.

The gold adventurers dipped into the elites which made the tests more precise. He would need to at least reveal that he had the Runesmith Lord class during the examination. Then if he passed the guild would send him out into another guild to pass the test.

This was a somewhat strange tradition of sending adventurers to other cities on long journeys. They would be given some standard gold rank quests to fulfill along with a time limit.
Most of the time a worker from the guild would be assigned to the party and travel with them like a shadow. He would remain hidden during their tests and grade their performance from a distance.

This role was mostly given to other adventurers that were over the golden rank or retired ones that worked at the guild. Some magical items were given to these testers to keep them from harm.

These guild members would not be held accountable if the person taking the test died. Their job was to watch from afar and grade their performance. If they got themselves into trouble that they could not handle, then it was their fault.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He was a busy man, there was no time to go on long journeys to other cities. At least not while his business was expanding at a fast rate. Adventuring was just a means to an end for him to get his shop running. His true skills remained in crafting and runes.

That didn’t mean that he wasn’t interested in a deep down this rabbit hole here. His levels have been stagnating lately, the only good experience that he received was from monsters over his level like the boss he faced or by making complicated tier 3 rune schematics.

After creating a runic spider drone like this he would gain a lot but it was only for the first one. When creating copies or ones that only had small changes his experience would decrease dramatically. This was also the reason why craftsmen initially leveled up fast but with the years they started to stagnate if they didn’t innovate.

“This was unexpected, what should I do now…”

Roland looked at Agni, who was somewhat interested in the hole in the wall. After going through a few things through his head he decided to perform a little test before covering up the hole.