Chapter 273 – The skeletons are loose.

While a certain Runesmith was deliberating if he should make a back-scratcher for his assistant things at the dungeon were starting to move along. Everyone that could have been evacuated was now outside and the guards were keeping others from going in. This of course didn’t go well with the adventurers that depended on the income that this underground monster mine provided for them.

“How long is this going to take? You can’t expect us to just stand here!”

“That’s right, do you know how much it costs to get a meal in this city?”

“Yeah! What will you do about the loss of coin!”

“Please settle down, this was ordered by the City Lord and also the adventure guild master, no one is to go in!”

The adventurers were somewhat disgruntled. The vast majority of them lived from a daily grind in the dungeon. The more adventurers appeared in the city the less they could get for the monster materials they excavated. Unless a person reached a silver grade they would have to be really careful about their expenses and living in inns didn’t come cheap.

Then there was a problem with the addictive nature of this bunch that the thieves guild knew how to exploit. Milking the adventurers by getting them addicted to gambling and the red light district was a big reason the underground guilds survived. It was a gray area with which even the nobles were fine with. As long as they didn’t need to see the debauchery they would look past it as the monetary gains were tremendous.

This left some of the less successful adventurers with some debt or needs that they just needed to satisfy. Even one day of not working could set them back tremendously or be a cause for them to be injured by the loan sharks. Those types weren’t that forgiving and would probably not wait for the dungeon problem to be alleviated.

“This is dumb, just let me sign a paper and go in, we’re not afraid of some stupid skeletons!”

“Yeah, that’s right, let us through!”

A group of angry steel rank adventurers started pushing forward, to them this was not a problem. If they ran into strong monsters they could just retreat. The loss of money was too big of a problem and they were always willing to put their lives in danger to progress. There weren’t that many guards here to block the way down so they didn’t see a problem in pushing their way forward.

“What do you think you are doing!”

“Get out of the way.”

In reality, the guards didn’t really care if the adventurers went down and got themselves killed. The only reason they were here was that they were given a direct order by the new city lord. Even though Arthur Valerian was just a noble in name it was one that could not be ignored.

The guards were still only commoners that had a very small chance of becoming higher-tier soldiers and perhaps knights if they proved themselves to a noble lord that could make that a possibility. Even the man that was in the city could potentially raise them up to this position but no one seriously believed in that. Some would even scoff at the idea of being a knight of such a bastard as it would be a true dead end.

“Rudy, shouldn’t we go? You heard what Mr. Wayland said.”

“Yeah but… It’s hard to believe, we should wait and see first.”

The group of young adventurers that Roland had a run-in with and also sold runic equipment to had remained in place. They were away from the entrance and the group of people that were trying to get it. Their curiosity got to them as they had a hard time believing that the dungeon monsters could go out the exit. To them it was natural for the dungeon creatures to back off whenever they reached a safe location, it was a truth of this world.

“I’m not that great at running…”

“Miron has a point, maybe we should back away further…”

“It shouldn’t be a problem, with those guys in the front even if the monsters come out they will act as a distraction.”

The red-haired youth commented which made everyone shake their heads.

“Do you even have a conscience?”

“Huh? Did I say something that wasn’t right?”

“…Wait… something is coming!”

Before the group could explain to their ‘leader’ that it was wrong to use others as meat shields, they spotted a change in the group of adventurers. Previously they were clawing to get into the dungeon but suddenly they all went quiet.

“What’s happening, I can’t see!”

Rudy and his group were peeking from behind a tree in a safe location. The large group of adventurers and guards were blocking almost everything. Suddenly they all started backing away from the entrance as if to open the path for something. This was followed by a strange sound coming from within the entrance which quickly began to get louder.

“It really is a skeleton!”

“Hey, that thing is running up the stairs!”
“They were actually right?”

The adventurers were met by a lone monster that had sprinted up the stairs and actually broken through the barrier that should not be broken. It was an undead monster with flames coming out of its head and body parts, somewhat similar to the flaming skeletons they met inside of the dungeon. It had some differences which were the thickness of the bones, its height, and the amount of flames coming out from its body.

“Shit, it’s a tier 2!”

“Quick, kill it!”

Most of the adventurers that were in the front were of steel rank and had not gotten their own tier 2 class. Battling a tier 2 monster of this grade was possible if they combined their numbers and this one was not very coordinated. It just started swinging a bladed bone around and charged at the first person it could. With so many people around it quickly found itself being turned into a pin cushion to spears.

“It’s still alive, don’t use spears, use blunt weapons instead!”

The panicked adventures forgot that stabbing attacks weren’t all that great against skeletal creatures. Only after maces and hammers were utilized was the creature finally dispatched. How it squirmed on the ground until its head was shattered was quite concerning. However, it was not as concerning as the fact that it actually made it out of the dungeon.

“Shit… t-there is another one coming, watch out!”

This was not the end as after the lone undead appeared another two started crawling out from within the entrance. Some of the less brave adventurers started shuffling behind the city guards that were somewhat forced to keep the monsters at bay. Some others saw this as a chance of getting free resources as the bones of tier 2 monsters did fetch a good price on the market.

This novel’s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Calm down, are there any silver ranks here? Go to the front, they are only mindless undead!”

One of the few silver ranked adventures that remained shouted. It was an older man with a shield and sword combo that could potentially be used in this situation. While blunt damage was best to shatter the bones a longsword could still cut down this type of monster to disable it.

“Hey, Rudy… I think we should leave this to the true silver ranks… those things are all tier 2 monsters…”

“Yeah…”

The group of four was in an in-between stage, half of them were fresh tier 2 class holders while the other half were close to getting to level fifty. Their speed of progression wasn’t too fast or too slow as they took their time. After almost dying in the middle levels they had taken a step back and decided to take a slower safe approach. Even now this strategy allowed them to make the decision of removing themselves from danger just as Roland had instructed everyone.

“What’s with this shit experience, are these really tier 2 monsters?”