“Bored… I’m bored!”

Lobelia called out while looking at a piece of grilled meat in her hand.

“It’s stuffy, hot… I’m all sweaty and there isn’t anything to do… we’ve been sitting here for four days already!”

“Stop complaining, this isn’t that bad.”

Armand was sitting next to her just chomping on a similar piece of meat which was much bigger. Both of them were sitting outside the camp area without much to do. A bit over four days had passed since they set foot in the middle regions of this dungeon.

This region was different from then the upper levels of the maze dungeon. It was a gigantic area that wasn’t fully mapped even after a year had passed. It was also filled with tier 2 monsters which already brought in some good coin.

Most adventurers like to keep it safe and didn’t push in that deep. Though the biggest reason for the slow mapping out of this level was the smoldering biome. The further a party went in, the hotter it became. Lava-filled dungeons like this were historically hard to progress in, a party without a frost mage or magical items that controlled heat, had no way of progressing.

“We get to sit around and do nothing, This is the best possible job we could get!”

Armand gulped down a large piece of meat that came from a salamander they had hunted. Surprisingly this monster was very sought after for its meat and leather. It could be eaten without much preparation as the hard part of this monster were its scales. After getting through them the juicy insides could be devoured.

“I know that it’s easy money... but there is nothing to do…”

Armand rolled his eyes while looking at the encampment of the knights. The group had been slowly advancing further into the dungeon while returning here with their loot. He had no idea what their purpose was here but not like he cared. They had just returned from a small expedition an hour ago so there was some movement now.

While lazily looking around he saw a certain armored man leaving one of the tents. Roland had been noticed by him acting strangely and now for some reason, he was constantly visiting the noble camp.

“Heading out to your little noble lover Wayland?”

“Huh?”

Lobelia had noticed him leaving each day to go to that camp as well. This would be his third time heading there.

“You can’t fool my elven eyes, I see you going into that cave where they are keeping the two mage ladies, didn’t know you were such a charmer, Wayland!”

She started shaking her hips provocatively while describing the situation. Soon Armand joined in on the questioning as he did not pay that much attention.

“He is? The blue-haired one or the blond?”

“It’s the blue one.”

Lobelia replied while Armand rubbed his chin for a moment before looking back to Roland with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Woah, good choice… she might not look like it, but she can’t fool my eye.”

“Huh what do you mean?”

Lobelia turned to Armand as she wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment.

“Hah, not like a pancake as you would even understand.”

“Hey, what did you say!?”

Roland looked at the two idiots fighting. Lobelia was quick to jump on Armand after the comment and started hitting him with her small fists. He was a large man so he just covered his head while laughing.

‘Those two sure get along… but I feel like I’m losing intelligence points the more I listen to their conversations…’

After a few days had passed not much seemed to be happening. The knights were periodically patrolling the area around their encampment. They faced off against the monsters that were living here, mostly the volcanic salamanders and Wolf types that were similar to Agni.

There was also a monster called ‘Fire Fly’ that liked to spit lava at its enemies and was the size of a domesticated cat. It was hard to defeat with only knights and mages in the party but some of the knights like Robert did have some lesser archery skills that could be used on this occasion. He wondered if the teacher that came with them would lower their score for not bringing any archers to this expedition but it might have been a requirement to only use knights.

“Agni stay here.”

Roland leaned down to his Ruby Wolf companion that gave out a whine and started to look at him with those puppy dog eyes.

“I don’t trust those knights, they might confuse you with one of the monsters living here.”

Agni after his first evolution had gained a lot of intelligence. Roland felt that explaining the situation to him would actually bear some fruit.

“Agni!”

But before he could convince his wolf to stay without giving an order he was tackled from the side by an overzealous half-elf.

“Who is a good boy!”

The girl started rubbing the Ruby wolf’s belly and his hind leg began to twitch. Soon he flopped his tongue out and was in bliss. It looked like Lobelia had grown fond of his tamed monster and with nothing else to do she bombarded poor Agni with pets and scratches.

“Don’t worry Wayland, I’ll keep him busy!”

He just nodded while turning to the camp of the nobles. One of the knights greeted him along the way without doing anything to stop him from entering. He had made a small deal with the blue-haired woman. For money and access to the runic books she had, he would help her with some runic research.

Roland was previously unaware of this but mages could somewhat affect the runic structures themselves. Not by changing them with runecraft but they could empower their effects with their own mana and even convert some simple runic spells to more complex ones on the fly with their own magic.

These runic mages were somewhat able to affect the magic language that was embedded into the runic structure. They were unable to affect the outside of these runes, this was all dependent on the runesmith.

This mage type was not that sought after due to this limiting factor. They relied on runic weapons without being able to actually alter the ‘hardware’ part of the runic structure. If anyone wanted to maximize that class they would have to get a Runesmithing class as well.

However, mages and craftsmen weren’t that similar in that regard. Hammering hard metal into shape and working in a smithy wasn’t something that magical types liked to do. Thus it was a very rarely seen profession.

Roland was now aware of this class, it was also a tier 2 profession. He wasn’t sure if he could even acquire it due to the lack of elemental proficiencies. He could not ask Lady Lucille about it as him not having any elemental affinities would be a dead giveaway to his true identity.

If it was a worthwhile class was also up to debate. He could already affect the runic code with his Runsmith Lord class. It might have not added anything new and the skills could very well overlap with one another. The only thing he would be getting from it would be the mage-focused stats if he went with it after his current class was maxed out.

“You may enter…”

Roland was greeted by a new knight this time around. Luckily his brother Robert wasn’t this lady's exclusive knight. Her bodyguards switched out from time to time depending on who was on guard duty.

“Sir Wayland, I’ve been waiting for you, have you read through the research material? Do you need more time?”

Inside of the cave that the two girls were living in had changed a bit. There were some curtains made from some flame-resistant materials hung up all over the place. It separated each of the girl's sections, further in the back there was even a toilet and a hot tub. It didn’t look like these two were in any kind of danger, it was like a vacation.

“Yes, I’ve read through them, it was very insightful.”

Thanks to this girl he was getting hidden resources that no one besides nobility could get their hands on. This blue-haired girl was really interested in runic magic and even had some proper skills related to them.

He was unsure if she was trying to become a runic mage though. From his perspective, it would be a bad idea. The girl was already a frost mage which was more of a traditional caster. If there was something like a Tier 3 Runic Frost Mage class was unknown, even if there was would it be better than all the other tier 3 classes that didn’t need runic weapons?

“Really? So today we can discuss the lecture about … “

Roland wanted to ask if the girl was really serious about this but he was not that nosy. She was already a proper adult and had to make the choices herself. If she really liked runic structures this much she might actually be the right person to go