The Runesmith

“Are you sure Mr. Wayland? Surely it would help you with that bad reputation of yours if you made an appearance during the event…”

“I’m not very good with things like that Lord Arthur, I’ll have to decline the offer…”

“Well if you change your mind then be sure to inform me, we still have some time before it starts.”

“I will, Lord Arthur.”

“You may leave then, thank you for your continued work.”

Roland bowed before the City Lord while quickly walking out of his Auction House office. He had been delivering some items for the auction while he was called up. Arthur was organizing a big event to ease the minds of the people. They had managed to clear up the Abyssal Cult's presence before any substantial damage was taken.

Lobelia had informed Roland about the thieves guild dealings. He knew that the hidden lair was discovered and the cultists were now probably dead. News of smaller outbreaks was going around the whole island and even the mainland which still caused some panic. He had been invited as the person that created the divine devices.

As Arthur stated this would be a good publicity stunt for him. All he needed to do was to show up and wave at the people while others did the talking. His reputation was still not that great after the dwarven union painted him as a crook. They made sure to try and discredit his works so that no one would buy them. Only when dropping his price and getting a few adventurers to advertise his work was he able to get out of the slump.

Yet as the introverted person that he was, it was difficult. Even though he knew it would be good for business, it was difficult to advertise his face so loosely. There was always a chance that he would be recognized by someone or even attacked by some vengeful cultists. Due to this being an official outing where the City Lord showed up he would be able to gear up.

Most of his weapons would need to remain outside the venue that they were using which didn’t sit too well with him. Even though Arthur seemed to trust him, his people didn’t. Mary his true bodyguard, would not allow him to come fully armed.

‘It would be a good place for some networking, the vast majority of the merchants are still weary of doing business with me. It would show that I have the backing of the city leader, it would be strange if they came up to me and offered some deals by themselves…’

Even though he was free to buy up resources from the more trusted hands, he was not offered that many trading offers. While he had a contract with Arthur that didn’t mean that he couldn’t do business with other people. What he needed to do was just deliver the minimum required creations to the auction. After that, he was free to do whatever he wanted with his free time.

‘Though at this time I don’t really need or want any more work, so might as well wait a bit more until the offers pile up.’

Roland decided to play the waiting game for now. He did not like the attention and at this moment didn’t really need it. Money was flowing in from multiple sources. The minerals and rare ores that he got from the dungeon were slowly piling up. He was preparing to create a new set of armor when he attained enough red mythril. Together with some of the exotic blends, he would probably be able to make something that would last him for a while.

Money was not an issue and he didn’t have enough time for his current project. This was to level up to tier 3 which he was already able to achieve. His level had reached the minimum requirement and he was heading home for the big reveal. His Runic Engineering was only at level twenty-five and he had gained another useful skill.

The name was quite peculiar and at first, he wasn’t sure what he should make of it. He had already researched a technique that allowed him to control his golems via exterior devices. This he demonstrated during his first mining expedition. Yet after going through some tests he realized that this was much handier than whatever he could produce.

With this skill, he could ‘connect’ to exterior runic devices that were within his range. At level 1 he was limited to something over seven meters. This was a strange number but it seemed that for every hundred points in intelligence he was gaining a twenty percent increase in area size. Now he only needed to gain a level in the skill to see how much it would be expanded.

He assumed it would be a five-meter increase with each level, this would put it at over fifty meters if he adjusted it to his current stats. It didn’t use that much mana which allowed him to be connected for long periods of time. Runic items that were created by other runesmiths would be more demanding and an increase in quality would actually lower the requirement instead of increasing it.

First of all, it allowed him to control his golems without the need for voice commands. It was possible to connect to their golemic eyes directly and allow the image to slip into his own field of vision. The first time he used the skill in that way it was truly surprising. Roland didn’t feel that he would be able to use it well if he didn’t possess his parallel thinking trait. Controlling things that he wasn’t touching while trying to move his own body wasn’t that easy. This skill would require some getting used to but it would probably enhance his combat abilities.

‘It’s not limited to golems either, I wonder if Runesmith classes focused on golems get the same skill that is just limited to golems…’

This was a possibility and the main reason that he decided to go with this class instead. Even though it lacked some of the golem-focused skills and buffs, those could still be gotten by him with the help of some skill books. The only reason that he hadn’t been buying those up was the uncertainty of what he would be getting from this class of his.

If he received a skill that he spent fifty small gold coins on the previous month, he would feel like a fool. Yet after gaining twenty-five levels in this class he wasn’t seeing any golem-specific skills yet. This made his theory that this was a somewhat unique class with its own unique skills a possibility.

Then there was another, a bit less useful skill that he had also achieved on his way to level hundred fifty. Just as the name stated it allowed him to instantly create copies of schematics and blueprints. As the previous skills, it wasn’t limited to runes and he could actually draw up a schematic of something like a golem.

He was really getting a lot of new and interesting skills, more than he gained with the Runesmith Lord class. Yet from his point of view the reason was probably due to some overlap from his old Runic Blacksmith class, that one generated lesser versions of skills that could be then leveled up further with the higher version of the class. This one on the other hand had a new set of unique skills that even started at their basic levels. There was a large possibility that they would turn to their regular version which could also be leveled up later.

‘The auction house catalog didn’t really have anything that I wanted, if I want to get more golem-related skills I’ll probably have to order them from the outside or through other means…’

Tier 2 skills weren’t as easy to come by as tier 1 skills. First of all crafting related skill books were controlled by the dwarven union. They would buy anything related to crafting and also frown upon people that tried selling them. The best way of earning money was to constrict the knowledge and not allow blacksmiths that didn’t sign up to gain manufacturing knowledge or skills.

‘Still, some people don’t care and will sell them if they need money, those types of skill books appear on the black market a lot too…’

While he had stopped going to the underground market this didn’t mean that there weren’t items there that he wanted. Just as the upper city was expanding, so was the lower city. Apparently with time their own version of an auction house would be created. There new never before seen wares would be placed, some with forbidden knowledge and perhaps something to give him an edge against the competition.

But that would have to wait as he had more pressing things to do. Only because of the tight schedule he had to rush towards the Auction House after returning from the last dungeon run. Now it was time to reorganize his thoughts and see if his luck was good. However, before he reached his home he was spotted by some people that recognized him. These were not ones that he knew but instead a side effect of his recent reputation boost.

“Is that Mr. Wayland? Please, you must visit my store!”

“Here have these fresh apples!”

“Hey, isn’t that the Runesmith?”

Some people pointed from afar while others approached him to give him gifts and invite him to their establishments. Someone had spilled the beans on his involvement in the checkpoint establishment. The only thing he could do was deny the fact that he was the one that developed the blueprint for the divine device. For the time being it was only known that he had been the one manufacturing them as he still didn’t want to appear too competent to bring in unwanted company.

“Uh, not this… I have enough food at my house…”

As always he tried to ignore everyone while hiding behind his hood. It started to become annoying to come to the city where previously people were apprehensive about interacting with the strange magical craftsman. With how he was working with the city lord it seemed that everyone wanted to profit off his good name.

This didn’t fly with him that well as these were the same people that ignored him a few years ago when the Dwarven Union was trying to put him out of business. Now when the boot was on the other foot they started crawling back. Even the guild master was trying to invite him for another business talk which he was informed by Elodia.

“Excuse me but I need to get back to work… please give this to someone that needs it.”

As a rule of thumb, he didn’t accept any gifts that could potentially force him to return the favor later. There was no need for him getting any help from the regular business owners as his earning potential had increased by a lot. The only person that he couldn’t really ignore was the guild master of the adventurer guild. He had torn up the contract but he did guide him towards the black market that allowed him to survive until this day.

‘I can always refuse any business offers now but I still need to meet up with him…’

“Are you alright? You’ve been sighing a lot lately, have you thought about resting?”

Roland was now back at his house and at the entrance, he ran into Elodia that was packing up for the day. For some reason, he felt somewhat refreshed after seeing her face. It did really change things up when there were people that were concerned about him. Perhaps without her and the others that were relying on him in some way, he might have decided to scale down the whole business.

“I’m fine, don’t worry I don’t need much sleep and I don’t really get tired anymore.”

Elodia reacted with quite a weary smile before closing the shop door behind her. Roland had entered through the main gate that now looked like an entrance to some kind of prison. He had placed a fence around it so that even if someone managed to get through it they would have a second barrier to contend with. This was mostly made for the couriers that could drop the package there instead of leaving it in front of the gate.

“Well don’t stay up too late and remember about that thing, it would probably mean a lot to the kids if you were there too, some of them look up to you.”

“They do? I guess I need to wear my good shirt then.”

“That would be nice.”

His joke went past his girlfriend as she gave him a peck on the cheek. After about an hour she was heading back to her main home. The orphanage was still in the city and the vast majority of the kids she brought over here were still living there. He had promised to join them for a little event the next day which was quite important for the ever-growing munchkins.

Finally, the time had come, he was alone in his office with a class change crystal right before him. To this day he had no idea what these things were and how they were created. They were supposedly only created at large temples through some rituals but there was nothing substantial to confirm the rumors.

Within a moment he found himself at the old apartment building. In the past, this place used to feel like home but the longer he stayed away the more it felt alien to him. It was as if the previous world that he came from had been some kind of fever dream and this place he was in now was his actual home. Even though his intelligence stat had increased he had trouble remembering his past family, their faces were fading away into obscurity.

“Are the memories being abandoned or forcefully removed?”

He looked at a picture frame of himself and his parents. He was an average-looking person with the only outstanding thing being his height. Besides that, he wasn’t much different and blended in with the crowd.

“I should probably not linger here for too long…”

Just as always he turned on his old PC and was greeted by the loading screen which led to the class selection screen. There he would have the option to go through the classes. Luckily the choice didn’t need to be taken, there was a go-back button. There were ways of going back from class change rituals and they had been already well documented. They varied depending on the person taking them and would lead to a penalty of not being able to take the trial again for a short while.

“What do we have here…”

There were a few classes that he hadn’t seen before and they were all tier 3 classes. Yet they weren’t the only ones, a few different tier 2 classes had shown up while some others became grayed out. He was not really interested in getting another tier 2 class though so his focus was still on the tier 3 section.

“Let's see… Advanced Runesmith, this should be the most basic Runesmith class…”

Right at the start was a sprite of a slightly more advanced-looking Runesmith and right further down the line was the Master Runesmith class that was usually taken. Then there was a plethora of runic variants of advanced smithing classes.

“Runic Master Weaponsmith… Runic Master Battlesmith… Advanced Warsmith?”

The classes that started with ‘advanced’ could be ignored. As a rule of thumb, they were lesser versions of the Master ones. People that were unable to reach the master variants did it mostly by not having the minimal stats required for the job. This was quite surprising as in reality Roland only had seventy-five levels of proper tier 2 classes and still managed to reach the threshold.

“Master Runesmith is there but nothing really eye-catching…”

While that class was his original goal before he set out on his adventure, now things had changed. After getting the Runesmith Lord class he was searching for a higher version of it but nothing that had a noble title appeared as the screen was filled with the usual classes.

“Some rare classes sometimes require a hundred levels of tier 2 classes, I might have to wait… also my skills aren’t fully leveled up.”

There could be many reasons why he wasn’t seeing any prestige classes. His fast growth in levels caused his skills to lag behind. The one that he received after attaining the fiftieth level of Runesmith Lord was not yet maxed out. He would at least need to get it to level nine before he came back here.

“This is what I kind of expected…”

Everything was still going according to plan, there were twenty-five levels of Runic Engineer to go and he intended to get them all before the next switch. If nothing eye-catching showed even after that, he would need to focus on the rare skills. Only when he was out of options would he decide to go with a more regular class. If nothing worked then he would go with the Master Runesmith which was still a somewhat rare job not practiced by many.

“Well then, I guess it’s back to the dungeon.”

With that, he clicked out of the class selection screen for the first time. His eyes glanced at the old apartment that he had begun to forget.

“Hm… so how do I get out of here again? The records showed that there should be some kind of exit that isn’t always too obvious…”

Roland gave out a sigh and started going through this recreation of his living space. He needed to get out but there wasn’t really an instruction manual about these things, it was time to investigate this place further.