Rune Soldier (2001)

Spurred on by the promise of treasure, Melissa, Genie, and Merrill seek out an ancient ruin, but the entrance is sealed with magic. They return to town to find a magician to break the seal. They meet Louie, a magician in training. The girls brush him off, so Louie picks a fight with Genie, but he blows up the town bar in the process. Louie tracks down Melissa the next day to demand a second chance, but she is in the middle of a sacred ritual when he calls. Merrill and Genie try to stop him at the door, but Louie makes his own way in, to Melissa's shock.

Merrill and Genie scold Louie for crashing Melissa's ceremony, but with no other magician recruits in sight, Melissa reluctantly accepts him into the group. The four head out to the ruin, although Louie quickly finds himself doing more manual labor than magical spells. Despite the girls' initial misgivings, Louie does manage to open the entrance to the ruin with his magic. The party realizes, when they get inside, that any treasure which might have been there has long since been looted. In its place, they find a nest of angry goblins.

While fighting the goblins, Louie wields his magic wand like a club and breaks it. To make a new wand, he needs a branch from a 500 year old oak tree. The nearest forest with trees that old is the Tartious Forest, believed to be a home to demons. The girls are completely disgusted with Louie and refuse to help. A rival group of adventurers tries to get Louie to join them, but Louie suspects their underlying motives.

The girls decide to help Louie, who immediately causes trouble with a magic demon-summoning whistle. While the girls are busy handling demons, Louie goes toe to hoof against a wild boar. The group finds a suitable trree, but a beautiful elf named Celecia interrupts them. She promises she can find them a better branch in the elves' village. The girls are skeptical, but Louie overrides them and inadvertently leads the group into a trap. Locked up and facing certain death, Louie proposes a means of escape so stupid, it just might work...

Melissa accepts the job of giving some junior warrior priestesses some practical training. The goal of this training is to rid an ancient ruin of zombies. The usual group tags along, but wanting to save face in front of her juniors, Melissa can't bring herself to tell them Louie is her hero. As the party moves into the ruin, the foundation collapses and separates Melissa and Louie from the others. The two find themselves in an abandoned dungeon, surrounded by a corps of zombies. Can Louie's sword cut a path back to their friends?

Melissa's headaches double when a man shows up at the Mylee shrine professing his undying love. It's Conrad, Melissa's old fiance. Melissa puts Louie on the spot, saying that if Conrad can beat him in a duel, she'll return to Ramliearth. If not, Conrad can never come near her again. Unfortunately, Conrad has become a master swordsman. With only a week to train, it becomes obvious that Louie is the one in danger. Melissa tries to stop the fight, but it's too late. All she can do is watch and pray.

As the bookie for Louie and Conrad's duel, Merrill makes a fortune by betting on the dark horse--Louie. But, she gets hit with misfortune after misfortune, until the inn where Merrill is staying burns to the ground. With nowhere to go, Merrill becomes paranoid and starts avoiding everyone, even her friends. Louie comes to help her, convincing her to bury the treasure. He summons a clay golem to act as a guard, but the pair must go to extreme lengths to get it back after telling the golem not to let anyone touch it.

The townspeople in Ohfun are busy preparing for the Mylee Appreciation Festival, which happens every five years. Meanwhile, Louie has been so engrossed in adventures, he forgot to do his homework. His instructor grounds him until it's complete. Louie works frantically to finish his tasks and barely makes it to the festival. At the festival, Melissa's three fans plot to embarrass Louie in front of her, but they end up dragging in Merrill and Genie instead. When the smoke clears, Melissa steps down and admits that Louie is her champion.

It's the middle of the summer and Louie has taken a job as a porter. Ila takes advantage of this, and while out with her on the job, he notices it begin to snow. Returning to the Guild, Ila gets a letter from Master Banarl, a magician who retired to the Tower of the Four Great Magics to complete his weather control research. He asks the group to go with her to the tower to investigate. Along the way, the group meets the elf, Celecia, who joins them. But the road won't be easy with blizzards and demented nature spirits standing in their path.

Overcoming the fierce snowstorm, the group finally arrives at the Tower of the Four Great Magics. At the entrance, they are greeted by a Flesh Golem, the gate guard resurrected by Master Banarl. Despite some difficulties, they kill the golem and make their way into the lab. There, they find the magician's frozen remains along with a horde of vicious Flau, mad ice spiritss that freeze everything they touch. The girls create a diversion as Louie heads to the main control panel. When the Flau attack, Louie makes one last gamble...

Based on information bought in a bar, Louie's group heads toward a mountain where a crystal miner named Gonga has supposedly been lost. On the way, they run into Melissa's rival, Isabel, and her team: Renard, Isabel's new champion; Jakinson, a swordsman; and Lily, a Faris priestess. When both teams find they have the same goal, the rescue turns into a race. Out of breath, the teams agree to work together. They find Gonga in a cave, but he refuses to leave without a very large crystal. With the cave ready to collapse, Louie goes in after it.

During Headmaster Carwes' absence Master Foltess takes charge of the Magician's Guild. Delighting in his new authority, he delivers a long, boring speech to a captive audience of students. After class, Louie and Ila head to the bar to meet with Louie's team. A little girl, Catherine, appears, piggy bank in hand. She wants to hire them to find a ""Senian Flower"" for her ill grandmother. It's a rare flower not native to Ohfun. Louie finds the Guild has one in its greenhouse. He begs Master Foltess to borrow it, but he refuses. That's never stopped Louie before...

Louie and the girls meet Barb, captain of the Ohfun Royal Guard, while treasure hunting in the western reaches of the kingdom. Barb warns the group of strange activity along the border, but Genie assures him their adventure is nowhere near there. The next day, strange mercenaries attack the adventures. Genie offers to buy time for the other three so they can run to Barb's post and alert him. Melissa and Merrill go, but Louie stays, enraging Genie. Tempers flare, exploding into a fistfight between the two.

While selling flowers, Merrill is accosted by a mysterious young man. Catching her off guard, he kidnaps her and takes her to his home. He turns out to be William Wilder, heir to one of Ohfun's richest families, and he asks Merrill to marry him! Louie, Genie, and Melissa hear the good news, but something is amiss. After a little snooping, Louie finds out that William has mistaken Merrill for another girl who saved William's life in the mountains. It's up to the group to find the real girl and make sure true love really does conquer all!

Coming home from an adventure, the group runs into Ila. It seems that she had been waiting for them at her parents' lake house when she heard they would be nearby. Since the last adventure fell through, everyone decides to take a break and spend some time at the beautiful lakeside. But, when Meilssa hears of a ""Guardian of the Lake"" terrorizing the fishermen, she sees the perfect opportunity for Louie to prove himself. Louie, on the other hand, just wants to fish. Interests collide when Louie hooks the ""Guardian"" with some very unique bait.

Urged by Merrill, the team heads to a ruined estate to search for treasure. There, they meet Isabel and her team. The swordsman, Jakinson, recounts some history to discredit Merrill's claim, but the two teams decide to investigate anyways, hoping to gain some adventure from the outing. They find it in spades. The adventurers fight their way through hordes of monsters to the heart of the ruin's basement, where they discover a farm for magical creatures. The ancient magic, said to be lost ages ago, is very much alive and well--and very deadly.

While visiting a small town, Louie and the others hear of a fighting tournament. It's a reunion of sorts with appearances by Conrad and Renard, for both are competing. Conrad boasts that he will win first prize as a wedding gift for Melissa. Once again, Louie is called upon to defend Melissa's honor. At the same event, Merrill overhears a plot to assassinate the tournament sponsor. She attracts the attention of the plotters, but escapes...sort of. Stuck at the bottom of a well, Merrill must find a way to send out the message before she runs out of time.

While helping Ila organize her magic item collection, Louie comes across a strange item. He plays around with it and ends up hurting himself. When Ila scolds him, Louie leaves in a huff. Ila toys with the item herself and ends up turning Louie into a woman! At first, he panics, but soon her takes advantage of this perfect opportunity and rushes into the women's sauna. But it doesn't stop there--when Melissa and Geni find Louie, he's an old man! With Ila and the item nowhere in sight, Louie's talent for embarrassing Melissa gets to shine.

One night, Merrill's shack by the river gets swept away in a flood. Disheartend, Merrill decides to buy a house with the small savings in her pot. Her despair turns to joy when she snags a house at a bargain price. The house needs some touch-ups (read: a complete overhaul), but Merrill is proud of her new home. Alas, misfortune strikes again as the house turns out to be haunted by an army of ghosts who have nothing better to do at night than beat each other up. With her home falling apart, Merrill enlists the aid of her friends.

Louie has been getting intensive sword training from Genie ever since he joined the team, but his skill has yet to improve. After a long training session, they go to the group's favorite bar, where Melissa tells them about the annual wine-carrying race. Seeing the chance to defeat Genie, Louie goads her into racing. On the day of the race, the three run into Conrad, who plans to use his horse in the race. Genie assures Louie that Conrad will have to ditch his horse in the rugged mountains, but the sneak knight seems suspiciously confident.

Poor Merrill. If it's not one thing, it's another. This time, she's come down with a fever. Merrill doggedly tries to return to work, but Melissa convinces her to take a sick day by offering to fill in on the job. ""Job"" quickly becomes ""jobs"" as Melissa goes through Merrill's hectic schedule of part-time professions--and gets fired from every one. In tears, she retires alone to a bar with one job left to accomplish. But Louie and Ila aren't far behind, and Melissa learns how to get by with a little help from her friends.

The hostile army gathering on the western border invades Ohfun. King Rijarl musters his own army and sets out with Headmaster Carwes and High Priestess Jenny, leaving a council of ministers in charge of the capital. In class, Ila informs Louie that the paper he asked her to translate is a list of ingredients for a powerful magical creature. But Louie has little time to ponder this mystery as he is whisked away by Master Foltess for a little work-study. There, Louie uncovers a treasonous plot--in which young Lily is playing an integral part.

After being thrown into a pit for his discovery, Louie manages to climb out and escape. With an army of mercenaries on his tail, he heads deep into the woods...only to get lost. Meanwhile, the girls have become prisoners in their own city when the regent, Lord Dardanel, declares martial law. Concerned for Louie, they begin to suspect that something is rotten in the state of Ohfun. Suddenly, the alarm is raised. When Ila confirms the cause of the alarm is Louie, the girls decide to take the law into their own hands.

Merrill, Genie, and Melissa break into the castle. Fighting their way through, Genie holds off a crowd of soldiers while Melissa and Merrill go on to confront Lily. However, the swordswoman isn't alone for long--Isabel and Jakinson come crashing through the gates to lend their support. Deep inside, Louie find an imprisoned Renard, whom h efrees before continuing on his mission to give Lord Dardanel a well-deserved punch in the face. But Dardanel still has a trump card left to play. Will Louie and the girls be able to bring justice for king and country?