Saving Runes – 8

‘As expected.’

I gazed with satisfaction at the Rock Centipede, which had died miserably without even showing a few proper patterns. The rock fragments that were once its head, covered in ice, rolled across the floor.

Entrusting the finishing blow of the Rock Centipede to the Knight Captains was definitely the right choice. They handled it much faster, safer, and more swiftly than I ever could have.

If it had been me, I would have had to roll and hit it repeatedly for a long time.

“It was just big, but nothing special. Just as you said, Rookie, it was slow and easy to catch.”

Rije walked over and said that. The ice covering her silver armor melted away. As she took off her helmet, her blue hair was revealed.

“That’s certainly true. Even if I had challenged it alone, I could have easily caught it.”

Erica also took off her helmet. The bun tied neatly behind her head stood out even more. *Clang*, I heard the sound of Erica sheathing her katana back into its scabbard.

“Is this the end, Rookie?”

“Yeah. How could it survive in that state?”

“……I once dealt with a monster that could regenerate even if its body was torn to pieces. I just wondered if it might be one of those.”

“This isn’t just ‘torn to pieces’, is it?”

I pointed at the Rock Centipede’s corpse. Its head had frozen and shattered into pieces, and below that, it was melted and charred by flames. The rest of its body was horribly crushed.

It was definitely not something that could be expressed with a single word.

“That’s true.”

Iris chuckled softly. It seemed like she had been joking from the start.

‘I roughly know what she’s talking about.’

The monster she just mentioned, capable of regenerating even when its body was torn to pieces, was one of the bosses from the middle part of the game.

It was a boss that could arbitrarily break its body into pieces and reattach them, which often led to boss battles dragging on and turning into a game of tag, so its evaluation wasn’t very good.

Even so, it wasn’t on the level of the Rock Centipede.

A few years ago, Iris had fought it but retreated without reaching a decisive conclusion, so if you show her proof of its subjugation, she becomes very happy and praises the protagonist profusely.

“Rookie-ssi. Now it’s your turn, Rookie-ssi. You know what to do, right?”

Erica glanced back. Where her gaze landed, there was a rune monument glowing green.

The monument that provided the rune would disappear and reappear somewhere else, its location and timing perfectly random. It could reappear in a few days, or it could take decades for it to reappear.

This was a fact confirmed in the writings of a scholar who dedicated their entire life to researching the regularity of its random appearances, only to fail and despair. It was also one of the few comedic scenes in BraDk 4.

I approached the monument, from which a faint green light emanated. Ancient characters of unknown meaning were carved into the stone. Behind me, I felt three pairs of intense gazes.

“I’ll begin.”

I placed my hand on it. The green light swirling within the monument began to transfer to me. It felt like a strong wind blowing through my veins inside my body.

I closed my eyes and chose the location where the rune tattoo would be etched. It was possible to engrave it anywhere on the body, but the most common spot was the back of the hand.

As I concentrated, as if manipulating the in-game UI in my mind, the wind that had been coursing through my entire body soon gathered on the back of my left hand. My hand trembled uncontrollably for a moment, then a hot sensation welled up.

The heat soon subsided. I opened my eyes and examined the back of my hand. A peculiar-shaped tattoo was visible. It was the tattoo signifying the Vitality Enhancement Rune.

‘I don’t really feel it.’

For now, it might be because my stamina isn’t being depleted, and unless I roll 4-5 times in a row, there’s no particular reason for stamina consumption.

‘There were also guys who chose female characters and engraved this on their lower abdomen.’

The original meaning was not at all inappropriate, but looking at this kept reminding me of the guys who used it for strange purposes. For example, giving female characters “womb tattoos.”

Typically, these were users who deliberately chose female characters, customized them to be sexy, dressed them in suggestive clothing, and then combined runes to create patterns resembling hearts or vulvas.

‘They’re geniuses, alright.’

Such users would truly create heart shapes or womb shapes using combination methods no one else would think of. Or they would simply use mods to change the tattoo’s shape itself.

While I was having these useless thoughts, the rune transfer finished. The green light completely permeated my body. The monument that had passed the rune to me lost its light and crumbled into an ordinary pile of stones.

Now it will reappear in a dungeon somewhere else in the world.

Of course, that’s just the setting. Even if a rune reappeared, there was never a case where a player could acquire the same rune again in the same playthrough.

That was merely a device to add plausibility to why players could acquire all runes.

“Is it over, Rookie?”

“Here, the rune tattoo. I’ve definitely absorbed it.”

“What’s the rune’s effect?”

‘……Huh?’

My mind froze for a moment at Iris’s question. Now that I think about it, how do I check the rune’s effect?

In the game, you could just press Esc and open the character status window to check it, but now there’s no status window or stat window, is there? There was no way to check the rune’s effect right now.

I remembered the effect of the Vitality Enhancement Rune itself. It was an effect that increased the character’s natural stamina recovery rate by a certain amount. But there was no way to directly confirm it, whether through text or anything else.

“…….”

“……?”

Iris looked at me, who was frozen blankly, as if asking what was wrong.

“Isn’t there something that comes to mind? That’s the rune’s effect.”

‘Ah, so that’s how it works.’

It seemed that here, when one acquired a rune, its information immediately came to mind. Since I already knew the Vitality Enhancement Rune, nothing particular came to my mind.

There was no need to worry about whether the Knight Captains would understand the concept of stamina. I had confirmed all the stat names from the ability confirmation orb.

“Uh…… it says ‘Stamina natural recovery rate increase’?”

“That’s a quite useful effect. You’re lucky to get that. Congratulations, Rookie.”

As I expected, Iris understood its meaning at once. It was an effect that didn’t matter to me if I didn’t have it, but it certainly wasn’t bad to have.

“With this, our purpose for entering the dungeon has been achieved. Now all that’s left is to leave, but……”

Erica looked around.

“I don’t see a passage leading outside. We might have to go back the way we came.”

At the mention of going back the way they came, Rije winced. They had walked down for nearly an hour and a half. It was natural for her to react that way if they had to walk back up.

It’s fine. Anyway, once you get the rune, one side of the wall collapses.

“Still, there won’t be any monsters, so it doesn’t matter, except that it will take quite some timeㅡ”

*Rumble*, before Iris could even finish her sentence, the wall directly behind where the rune had been collapsed, revealing a path.

“……it won’t.”

“It seems the structure was such that a part of the wall collapses when a rune is acquired. I’ll record this in the report later.”

“Do that. Rookie, is there anything else we need to do here?”

I shook my head from side to side. Once I acquired the rune, there was no need to come here again. There were no other items, and nothing left to gain.

Even if there was a reason to come, I wouldn’t. Damn Rock Centipede.

“Understood. Everyone, prepare to leave.”

The way out was quick. Erica and Iris put their heads together, wondering how the dungeon’s structure worked, while Rije, as always, stuck close to me and chattered away.

Outside, an impenetrable darkness had settled. It felt like several hours had passed.

Considering that a rune acquisition dungeon usually takes around 20 minutes to clear at most, it had taken an awfully long time. Moreover, most of that time was spent on the Rock Centipede’s gimmick.

Even accounting for the fact that the scale had become more realistic than in the game, Iris and Erica also said it was a considerably large dungeon, so it was indeed true that it took a long time.

‘For now, all the rune slots are unlocked with this.’

Now, all I had to do was go to another dungeon to get the rune that allowed me to ignore the combat fatigue debuff, and then steadily level up and continue the main story.

‘……Wait a minute. But how far is that place?’

As I recalled the location of the next dungeon, I paused my thoughts for a moment at an unexpected fact.

Even in the game, the distance between the city where the Silver Dawn Knights were located and the dungeon with the rune that allowed ignoring the combat fatigue debuff was quite far.

Furthermore, now that everything had expanded to a realistic scale, it was all too obvious what the distance between the two would be like.

The answer came when I thought about how far I had to ride to reach the boss field of the Headless Armored Knight, which was only a few minutes away by horse in the game.

‘…….’

Even at the lowest estimate, it would probably take a full three weeks.

“What are you doing, Rookie? We’re leaving now.”

“Ah, I was just thinking about something for a moment. Sorry. I’ll be right there.”

Iris, who had already collected the gems around her horse and mounted it, urged me on. Rije and Erica were also waiting for me. I apologized briefly and mounted my horse.

“It’s late, so let’s hurry back.”

Iris rode her horse straight out. Erica followed closely behind. Rije and I followed a little distance behind.

“Just a moment. I have something to say.”

“……?”

After how long had we ridden, Rije, who was riding right beside me, spoke to me in a serious voice.

“What is it?”

“You seem to be troubled, Rookie. I wanted to ask what’s wrong.”

“Wait, was it that obvious?”

“Your expression made it impossible not to notice.”

“…….”

Indeed, it was a fairly serious matter I was contemplating. I knew the surrounding terrain and approximate location, but I couldn’t just blindly set off relying on that alone.

It wasn’t a matter of a few days, but a distance of nearly three weeks. I wasn’t confident I could find my way properly.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking again, but there’s no good in worrying alone. I know you worry about us, but we worry about you just as much. It might be better to worry together than for you to struggle alone.”

“……For once, you’re saying something serious?”

“I can read the room too, you know?”

Rije chuckled.

It would have been a perfect comfort if she hadn’t immediately followed up with, “They say men’s worries are usually solved by touching a woman’s chest. How about it, interested?” to tease me.

‘Well, there’s no reason for me to worry alone.’

It was about time to reveal that my stats had increased, and it was also time to start providing useful information to the Silver Dawn Knights.

It was time to bring out the omnipotent shield once again.