Chapter 301 – Dungeon Grind Ends.

“This wall, it opens up tae, use th’ device!”

*Click*

“Tis opening up… This smell, it mist be th’ mines, we did it!”

A wall was slowly sliding open to reveal a large cavern. There was no sun above them as they were deep underground but the place was brightly illuminated by various sources. One was the lava pit in the middle while many other glowing crystals in the walls added the rest. The group of seven dwarven adventurers started rushing through, their eyes almost turning into golden coins as they gacked at everything in there.

“Greetings, Took you long enough to get here.”

Suddenly their bright grins started turning sour as they saw that there was already a person inside. It was just one person wearing silvery armor covered in various runic inscriptions that were glowing. At the moment he was walking through a passage and dragging something behind him. This caused everyone to pay attention and go for their weapons as the thing being dragged looked to be a skeletal monster.

“Don’t worry it’s dead but if I were you, I wouldn’t set foot in that dungeon, the monsters inside it aren’t a joke, with your levels you’ll not be able to last a minute in there.”

“Ey, isn’t that th’ human Runesmith?”

“Ay, that’s him…”

“Whit’s in that bag, urr ye mining th’ resources ‘ere? Do ye kno that they belong to th’ union?”

“Oh, they do now? Regretfully news doesn’t reach all the way down here plus, I think you are lying so… finders keepers?”

Six of the seven dwarves raised their weapons while looking at the armored man that was in the process of putting the skeletal remains into a large backpack. He was alone here and there were seven of them, in their eyes, they could beat him. While he was a high-level runesmith it didn’t mean that he was a capable fighter. They were all warriors hired by the union, if they managed to get the human runesmith that their bosses disliked then they would surely be given a reward.

“Oh, are you sure about this? I’m a bit tired so I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull my punches if you continue…”

The runes on Wayland’s armor started glowing brighter which made these men curious. They knew that he was wearing some type of magical armor but surely it wouldn’t pose a problem for them. In a flash, they could surround him and beat him down.

“Whit urr ye idiots daein’, pat doon yer weapons if yi’ll want to live.”

“Wedamir?”

“Do it now ‘n’ step to th’ side, let him thro’.”

“But…”

“Shut yer trap.”

“You’re the dwarf from that time… you’ve made a wise decision.”

The man in armor commented while the brightness of the runes subsided. The dwarves that had been gathered here were quick to notice that their comrade was sweating. It was instantly clear to them that he was afraid of the human runesmith and that perhaps the rumors about him lying about his level weren’t exaggerated. They had also seen him drag away a tier 3 monster from a hidden chamber, everything added up and suddenly they all started to back away.

…

‘I guess that’s it for my monster farm, they took some time to get here. Soon this place will be crowded, might as well finish up away from all this trouble.’

Roland peeked behind his shoulder as he looked at the panicked dwarves. They were all high-level tier 2 class holders. For a moment he thought that he would have more blood on his hands but luckily one of the people here was an acquaintance. Wedamir was the dwarf that he rescued from the Lich and during the escape, he had seen him perform some feats.

Thanks to this he was able to avoid a struggle with the seven individuals that he wasn’t actually sure if he would win that easily. While his level had gone over one hundred seventy, he had spent a lot of time here without sleeping or resting. His mana reserves were low and his armor had thinned out. It was better to not push his luck, even though his opponents were far below his level it wasn’t worth risking his life over nothing.

‘I thought the union didn’t do things like this but perhaps the dwarven adventurers aren’t really part of it, they are just hired swords, maybe they thought they would get a raise if they dealt with the human runesmith?’

While speculating he increased his pace and continued to look at his runic map. He had already seen the dwarves approach this location several hours ago. The dead tier 3 skeletal berserker was left there on standby. He wanted to use it as a deterrent but his little bluff didn’t seem to work, luckily Wedamir was there to pick up the slack.

Roland could already see multiple green dots outside of the secret chamber before they arrived and prepared accordingly. His range extended further away so he also noticed other details that pushed him into not engaging with the dwarven adventurers. Thus he picked up the pace and continued walking through the now emptied-out corridors.

He quickly arrived at the lava lake where the exit was. The dwarves had constructed a magical device to get through which meant that the chamber didn’t become flooded by lava. However, it looked a bit different which made him come to the conclusion that they attempted that approach.

His assumption was that they probably placed some explosives in the area the entrance was. Perhaps they even rushed inside and had run away from the lava that flooded in. Probably in time, this lava would be removed by the dungeon itself and give them some time to examine the magical door.

‘I wonder if anyone died here…’

He could not spot any bones or remains of dead dwarves or any other people but it wouldn’t be strange that someone had to pay the ultimate price. The union was dead set on getting to the secret mining spot before anyone else. Roland wouldn’t be surprised if they tried going in through the chasm in some way.

Perhaps it would be possible to build some kind of platform that worked like an elevator there. It was possible to go straight down and arrive at the other entrance where he caught Armand and his party. Maybe a pulley system could work there but the problem of getting attacked by worms was still there. They wouldn’t be able to put enough workers there along with guards to make such a construction possible. However, in the future, if they spend enough time and money, it could become a reality.

‘I don’t think I can sneak past them anymore…’

“Hey, I see movement, are they coming out? No… there was no one wearing armor like that with them…”

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“Who is it? Could it be a monster?”

After the lake started parting Roland decided to pop his head out. This time around there were a lot of people gathered here. He could even see flame-resistant tents set up close to the lake on both sides. The seven dwarves that went in were just the first but more adventurers were waiting here. They weren’t only of the dwarven variety either.

‘So did they send the dwarven unit that is on the union’s side first while these guys keep anyone from going in?’

Both sides of the lake had people guarding it. They were probably keeping all the other adventurers away from snooping on their expedition. Nothing out of the ordinary but now he was placed in another situation. What if they thought that he had killed their comrades and started attacking?

“Hey, that’s no monster, that’s just Wayland.”

“The Runesmith? Now that you mention it… I can see some runes on that armor.”

Luck was on his side today as his favorite martial artist was in the small crowd of people. He was on the side of the lake that he was going towards and continued to wave at him as he was getting out of the hidden chamber. Now that he got a better look at the people there, they were all various adventurers that he had seen before. Some of them were even using weapons from his store.

“But what happened to the dwarves? We were supposed to wait for them?”