Chapter 188 – Oh god, my eye!

A high pitch whistling sound filled the cavern along with a blue glow. The light soon took form as it spiraled around in place to form a drill of azure. This energy construct quickly vanished from sight as it rocketed forward towards an ugly-looking monstrosity.

Roland moved the still glowing magical staff to the side. It was producing a lot of smoke while looking somewhat used up. It was showing signs of runic erosion, the glowing symbols weren’t as clear and the magical spell that he produced had diminished in power.

‘I guess even Durasteel can’t handle altered runes like this…’

The spell that he produced was probably something between a tier 2 and a tier 3 rank. It had enough power to kill off stationary targets like the ones inside this grinding spot but was inefficient. It required for the caster to fill it up with their mana for too long, thus causing the runes to deteriorate faster.

‘That creature’s regenerative skills were far too high…’

First, he came across the Infernal Skeleton Champion, then he also saw a lich but the monster that stayed in the corridor was this Ghoul. While Ghouls were seen as a lesser version of a more intelligent monster that was a Vampire, they were not weak. Some could even overpower their more conscious brethren in a fight.

They were undead creatures that could mend their own wounds in a matter of moments. With no other targets that he could choose from, he was left in a prolonged ranged battle where he slowly overwhelmed the creature with his runic magic.

This of course overloaded the weapon he created while also made him use up quite the amount of mana potions in the process. For the time being, it did its job but the next time he attempted this venture, he needed a change in weaponry that wouldn’t drain him of his magical energy.

‘Best if I leave this one be…’

The dead Ghoul was already decomposing into a pile of flesh. The moment it was dead and unable to regenerate itself its body started to break down. The only usable part would be the tier 3 mana stone it had but regretfully another monster had decided to stay in the room.

It was quite a surprising sight, it was the Lich type that showed some interest in its dead comrade. The monster did something that he didn’t expect, it picked up the sparkling mana stone from the ground into its bony hand and then promptly ate it.

While Roland wasn’t a specialist when it came to monster behavior he was sure that this was not something ordinary. The monster couldn’t see him but even after eating that mana stone, it continued to stay in that corridor while staring in his direction.

After maxing out his level there was no reason for him to kill more tier 3 monsters other than farming their bodies for materials. The staff he made was still operational and he could always repair the runes but for the time being he decided to close the opening to the other dungeon. Instead he would use the rest of the time to gather up more of the ores.

Thus he placed some boulders in the opening to not have to see the ugly flaming skull of the Lich. With his new level also came a nice surprise, he had gained a new skill when his Runesmith Lord class had maxed out.

‘That’s kind of vague, what is this truth? If it’s the truth, why is this skill called the Runic Eye of Truth and not just Eye of Truth?’

He had many questions about this skill but the fastest way of discovering what it was about, was just to use it. As with all the skills that came before, there was a sort of implantation of knowledge the moment he received it. How he could activate it was known to him but what it did was another thing.

The spider droids were back at work and Agni was patrolling the area so he had time to test things out. Without much reservation, he decided to activate the skill. This time around he would learn an important lesson, not all skills were the same and some like this one had drawbacks.

First, the skill activated and he could feel a large chunk of his massive mana pool being drained in an instant. While he couldn’t see it, his left eye began glowing as something appeared before him. This something were runic components and they were everywhere.

At first he was baffled by what he was seeing, the dungeon walls, the lava pool, even the air was covered in runic symbols. It was somewhat similar to the world of illusions that he witnessed all those years before but he was certainly not in an illusion.

Roland didn’t get much time to figure out what this new skill was trying to show him. After a couple of seconds, his head felt like it was hit by a sledgehammer. He was burning up and the longer this skill was activated the blurrier his vision became, then just before he was about to pass out he managed to cancel the effect.

He dropped down to his knees while clutching the left side of his head. He could feel something dripping down from this side and when he pulled his hand away, there was blood. His left eye had suffered an injury and he was bleeding from it.

The pain was sharp and his vision blurry before him, without a second thought he moved his hand into his satchel to take out a greater potion of healing. With haste he poured it over his eyes while also drinking the rest. Thanks to his quick thinking the pain started to subside and his darkened vision also slowly returned to him.

“…”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Awoo?”

“Ugh… my eye…”

Roland felt something moist touching his forehead which turned out to be Agni’s nose. He had collapsed on the ground and actually passed out for a few minutes which gave Agni a scare. His head was killing him and he felt like puking.

“I’m fine Agni, just give me a moment.”

Slowly he moved over to a larger rock that he could lean against. There he tried waiting it out, the piercing headache that he received didn’t subside even after he drank some mana restoring potions along with the healing ones. Only after half an hour did he find himself released from the sharp pain that felt like the worst migraine he ever had.

‘What the hell was that…’

Roland placed his palm over the left side of his face where the skill was activated. His eye was still pulsating but thankfully he could see through it. This was the first time something like this had happened to him. He heard of skills injuring their users but not by this much on the first try.

After calming down he thought back to the moment he activated the skill. The world seemed to shift into something different and most of the surroundings turned to runes.

‘Runic Eye of Truth… wait…’

He tried to figure out this new skill but his memory was somewhat hazy after the splitting headache occurred. But thanks to his high intelligence he was able to go back and remember.