danmachi: runes master

Chapter 5: New Helpers

"A genius is not the term I would use. Now then, I have to go kill some monsters," Ben said.

"Wait, wait! We can help! We'd make great porters," Yarnēd said.

"Explain," Ben said, annoyed.

"My skill, Float, allows me to make anything weightless for an hour. The bigger the object, the more mana it needs to stay afloat, but it stays level with me," Yarnēd explained. "And Charles over there, with his Buff skill, can increase your strength and carry things with me using his innate dwarf strength. Also, me and Charlie work as a team—if you take one of us, you take both. Plus, I can heal! We are literally the support people you need."

"You're right. How does this sound? I take 40%, and you both get 30% each," Ben asked.

"Sounds great! You're good with that, right, Charles?" Yarnēd asked.

"Damn straight I am! With this kid's skill, we might make 30, maybe 40 thousand in a day each, with the speed he's killin' 'em off," Charles said happily.

"Alright, let's go," Ben said, getting ready to run.

"Cough, cough—quick question. What about us?" Nataly asked.

"Actually, they could come in useful. With Jake's Taunt and Nataly's Speed Buff, we might do even better, plus they won't slow us down," Yarnēd said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, Nataly, how many people can your speed buff work on, and how strong is it?" Ben asked.

"It can affect up to ten people. The strength depends on how much mana I use. At max, it lasts 20 minutes and gives a 35% speed boost. But if I use just 10%, it can last up to three hours because I can control it better," Nataly explained.

"Alright, Nataly, I need you to use that speed buff magic at the lowest controlled output you can—on this blade right now," Ben instructed.

"Okay," Nataly said, beginning to use her magic.

Ben started carving runes into the blade. Once finished, he looked at it, then down at his shoes. Taking out his blade, he cut his finger, grabbed one of his goblin teeth, dipped it in the blood, and added an edited version of the seal that would increase speed by 50% until mana stopped flowing into it. He then put on the shoes and thought about how useful Ultimate Eyes was, allowing him to memorize everything.

He decided that Nataly could join this trip but not the next ones. However, he was definitely taking the others. Jake was coming because Ben couldn't replicate his Boar's Taunt skill—it wasn't magic. Charles was in because Ben still had to copy his strength buff magic, and his innate dwarf strength made him the perfect porter. Lastly, Yarnēd was necessary because Float magic would be too annoying to control while fighting, so Ben didn't want to turn it into a rune.

"Now then, let's go," Ben said, getting ready to start running before glancing at Yarnēd. "You should turn off your float magic on yourself, or you won't keep up."

Ben activated the magic on his shoes, smiled, and said, "Let's run."

Immediately, everyone else passed him by. Even while using his speed stat to the max with Ultimate Eye and the speed boost, they were much faster than him.

"Wait, guys! Can you slow down to my max speed?" Ben asked, embarrassed.

"Sure, bro," Jake said, snickering.

They continued running through the dungeon, passing the fourth floor without issue. Suddenly, twenty goblins swung down at them, ambushing the group.

Ben punched straight through them with his increased speed, smashing through five like a bat crushing jello.

Jake ducked under a goblin's attack and countered with Slash, killing two.

Nataly used Ice Rain, pelting all the goblins with ice spikes, leaving them heavily injured. Ben took the opportunity to memorize the runes in her spell. Then, he pulled out a tablet with the Lightning Storm seal on it, injected mana, and threw it up. The storm activated, shocking the remaining goblins to death in two or three strikes.

"Hey, Yarnēd, can you float those magic stones into Charles's bag?" Ben asked.

"Done, Ben," Yarnēd replied. "Oh! We got a goblin tooth from one of 'em," he added lazily.

"Nice!" Ben said excitedly.

"Wait, Ben, was that one of your runes?" Nataly asked.

Ben picked up the tablet and replied, "Yeah, it was. It's from a spell called Lightning Storm. Speaking of…"

He quickly drew the Ice Rain seal he memorized on the ground, pressed his hands to it, and infused mana into it. He then added the delayed activation from Lightning Storm to the seal. A second later, Ice Rain shot up into the ceiling of the dungeon. Ben turned to Nataly with a playful grin.

"Thanks for the magic."

"Really?" Nataly said with a deadpan expression.

The group continued running before encountering seven dungeon lizards. Ben used his new Ice Rain seal by drawing it on the back of one of his tablets, injecting mana, and holding it up with both hands. The ice spikes shot out, killing the dungeon lizards instantly.

"Get the stones and items," Ben said, throwing his tablets into his biggest bag and continuing forward.

Reaching the fifth floor, the walls suddenly changed to a light green color, and the dungeon's structure shifted. They were immediately attacked by giant ant-like creatures.

"Watch out, Ben! I think those are Killer Ants! They can bite through steel, their skin is tougher than steel, they're 1.3 meters tall, 400 pounds, and their stingers can pierce through iron and stun you," Jake warned.

"The fuck you mean—so steel is basically useless against 'em?" Ben muttered.

Thinking quickly, Ben decided to use his gauntlets, carving a superior shock seal with a stronger stunning ability and delayed activation. Once finished, he ran up to the ants and activated the seal, overcharging it with mana before throwing the gauntlet.

One of the ants bit down on the gauntlet, crushing it, but the seal activated. A surge of 800 volts shocked the ant's brain, causing it to hemorrhage and collapse, blood leaking from every orifice. The electricity arced through the other ants, stunning them. Ben swiftly stabbed the first ant through the chest with a mutated goblin tooth and then cleanly decapitated the rest as they stood paralyzed.

As the bodies disintegrated, leaving behind magic stones and a stinger, Ben turned to his party.

"Guys, I'm nearly out of mana. I won't be able to make any more seals. If we continue, you'll have to use my seals for magic. Trust me, it's more mana-efficient than regular magic. You guys will have to fight until I regenerate," Ben said, thoughtfully handing out tablets to his squad.

"You're saying these stone tablets with weird symbols can replicate magic?" Nataly asked.

"Yes. Now, focus your mana and bring it to your fingertips," Ben instructed.

"Alright," they all said, successfully gathering mana.

"Now send it into each rune evenly," Ben said.

(Crackling~) "Done," Nataly said with a playful smirk.

(Crackling~ intensifies) "I got it!" Yarnēd said proudly.

(Crackling~ even louder) "I successfully injected mana into the runes," Charles said happily.

"How do you do it?" Jake asked, frustrated.

"It's fine, Jake. The others can use the runes," Ben reassured him, taking back Jake's tablet.

"Alright, guys, let's go deeper," Ben said, grinning devilishly.

They soon ran into a Frog Shooter. Nataly immediately used Shock at 500 volts, frying it to death in three seconds.

"Damn, Nataly, did ya have to fry him like that?" Jake said, spooked.

"You just used a fourth of your mana on that. Why?" Ben asked, scanning her mana reserves.

"I hate slimy things," Nataly huffed. "It deserved to die!"

"…The fuck you mean it 'deserved' to die?" Charles asked, horrified.

"It's a monster! It should die, especially a slimy one!" Nataly declared self-righteously.

"…Alright, let's just keep moving," Ben sighed. "I see the next floor's path up ahead."

Chapter End

Sorry it took so long to update I just have been studying for the ACT so it's been a bother

-Gachadevildog

Gacha's also been working on another story called Naruto shop system he's been wanting to write a story with high levels of manipulation and a lot of shamelessness in it ever since he read Naruto the wind calamity

-TheMasterofSystems