Chapter 298 – Mapping the new dungeon.

“Hah, so you killed one of them yourself? What tricks did you use?”

“Aubron, it’s not nice to ask.”

“Well sorry for trying to confirm this guy’s strength, what if he was sent by that noble to take care of us after the job is done?”

“Haha, you sure have a vivid imagination as always.”

Roland was eyed by the sun elf after the party of five finally returned to the entrance. The bones that the monster was composed of weren’t that easily removed. Some tiny fractured bits remained even after he got most of them into the spatial bag. The tier 3 archer couldn’t be easily fooled as he realized a battle had occurred. Myrtle on the other hand probably noticed the concentration of mana so there was no use hiding the fact.

“As you might remember, the monsters can’t see outside the entrance, it’s not difficult to defeat them with enough firepower and magic offers a lot of it.”

His level and classes were still hidden away thanks to the necklace he was given. However, he wasn’t sure if the high level mage here couldn’t use some sort of means of peeking through the veil. Even with his high level, he didn’t pose much of a threat to these people and even if he was able to take out one person with his magical attacks, the other four would quickly get to him.

“A’m worn out.”

“Aye.”

The two dwarven warriors ignored the conversation while looking at the metallic frame that was created in the hours they were gone. Now that Roland had some time to look at the group he could see signs of combat. Some scratches and small dents appeared on the new-looking armor. While they weren’t carrying any monster remains he was sure that they had probably stuck all the monster bones into their satchels.

“Isn’t this great though? If this Runesmith can protect himself, then we don’t need to be here?”

Braum commented while looking at the sun elf that was still somewhat suspicious of the whole situation. In theory there shouldn’t be a way of Roland being able to produce enough power to defeat a tier 3 monster, even with magic it would be quite a difficult feat.

“That is true, we only came back because Myrtle was complaining, we could have easily gone further.”

“Haha, we were hired to help them, we can’t have the Master Runesmith just perish under our noses.”

“See, I told you we should have stayed for longer, I bet there were some chests hidden in the next room.”

“Haha, perhaps but we don’t need to rush, let us use this safe room and slowly map out the new dungeon.”

“If you really have to.”

The woman laughed while slowly walking out of the other dungeon into the mine. For the time being this was a safe zone but this didn’t mean that monsters didn’t appear. Probably in the future people would start guarding it due to all the precious minerals and metals in the mine. Roland wasn’t sure what would happen to this mine after they officially opened up the dungeon.

‘Hm? She was a mana scribe so she probably can draw up maps…’

Roland waited for the group to go to their tents before going back to work. One thing caught his attention and that was the large parchment the woman was scribbling on. She was a mage with high intelligence so she probably remembered the topography of the dungeon. It was only natural for her to create a map for further investigation. With it they would be able to comb through every nook and cranny before advancing to the next level or into a boss chamber.

“Want to take a peek?”

“Uh…”

Myrtle, who was drawing up the map, noticed that he was secretly glancing over in her direction. He wasn’t sure how she did that as he was wearing a helmet that didn’t allow anyone to see his eyes. Roland was quite interested in what the inside of the new dungeon looked like, so he couldn’t help himself from staring. Luckily all of them were in the same boat here and the cryomancer didn’t seem to mind.

“If you don’t mind.”

Normally he would have just shaken his head at the preposition but his curiosity got the better of him. There wasn’t that much work left on the metallic door so it wouldn’t hurt if they took a break too. As he was the driving force of this operation he could also decide on when they took a rest and attaching the door wouldn’t take that much time anymore.

“Hm…”

“Something wrong?”

“That chamber is a little bit bigger…”

“Oh, is it now? Care to explain how you know this?”

The map was well made and he was already a pro at making ones himself. It took only a few glances for him to tell that something was off with the dimensions. It wasn’t Myrtle’s fault nor was it really that important as the shape of the room was the same. However, thanks to his mapping device that did the calculations for him he could see that she was off by a little bit when drawing this map spot.

“Actually, I…”

Roland stopped himself for a moment but then realized that this was a good chance. The woman could probably put the map to paper but this didn’t mean that they could go further than that. The mapping orbs that he usually stuck to walls were easy to produce and survived the Lich’s assault. With the help of this party of adventurers, he could actually map out the new area and also keep check of the monsters inside. He was actually hoping to bring it up before they entered but then they vanished inside the new dungeon, now was a good time to show his hand.

“I think you could use this during your exploration, give me a second.”

Without waiting for a reply he moved toward the large backpack that Bernir left on the side. In one of the side pockets, he deposited a hastily created holographic device, similar to the one he made for Arthur during the siege. Its square shape and lack of any significant parts was very characteristic of his minimalistic designs.

“Oh, that’s the first tunnel and here we have the first chamber where we encountered the skeletal mage…”

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Myrtle looked at the image that was produced by Roland’s runic map. Most of it showed the mining area but it also went into the other dungeon. The right side path was the one that the five adventurers took while from the left one the monster Roland defeated came from.

“Oh, what are those green dots?”

“Those represent us, I can change the color but for now anything that is green is a human, red a monster and blue a non-human animal.”

“This is quite interesting Master Runesmith, but can we see more of the dungeon? I remember that first room here, it was really a dead end.”

Myrtle pointed to the first room that appeared when a person went with the right path. His mapping devices weren’t picking up any paths that went out from it so the party probably continued north to the next one. That was also the area where his Lich friend came from.

“It might be, but this map isn’t perfect, some hidden areas won’t show up as they are blocked by magical means, I’d have to place a sensor next to it to enhance the signal, and then it could reveal any hidden areas.”

“A sensor?”

She asked just as Roland had planned. His reason to show the woman this map was not to show off his invention but it was to make her help him map the dungeon. These people were going at their own pace and later could even give Arthur a fake map if they wanted to hide something. However if he could get them to place his sensors all over the place, then it wouldn’t be possible to hide anything. Even if they destroyed the sensors after arriving at a spot they wanted to hide. As long as he recorded everything with his runic armor, he could then redraw his map later.