The Runesmith

“Oh, so back then you were using a fake name? Rodan was it?”

“Yes, something like that, just call me Wayland from now on.”

“Aye, that’s fine.”

Roland had managed to calm everyone down. Soon he gave them a recount of his adventures with a somewhat altered version of them. There was no reason to tell them about the strange cultist that he had a run-in with or his noble roots. After the explanation, he revealed to them that Roland was the fake name and Wayland was the true one.

Luckily his two distant acquaintances probably didn’t care much or had any reason to doubt his words. They had managed to get rid of Grisalde that was now snoozing while resting against the inn table. Her and the halfling girl had argued for another hour and had decided to get into a drinking competition for one last bet.

Roland just wanted to leave the moment it started but all the people in the inn started chanting when the two women continued to down the cheap booze. Even Dalrak and Orson were in on it, it was as if the previous brawl never happened.

It was strange to see the large barbarian lose out, it was clear that the halfling girl had some type of skill that allowed her to stomach barrels of alcohol like it was water. That didn’t stop her from ejecting a large part of it back onto the floor. She was still part of the shorter races.

“We didn’t have time for an introduction, but this is Senna. After we parted on the mainland we had gone through many adventures, she is quite the good tracker.”

She had an interesting tier 2 class that he hadn’t seen before but only read about. This was a somewhat similar class to a rogue but it had various perks to hidden attacks and concealment. From what he knew they were specialized in dagger combat along with throwing skills and even illusionary skills that could confuse their enemy for a devastating blow.

“So it’s just the three of you and you’ll be joining the caravan I’m in?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Replied Orson, who had a strange look on his face when looking at Roland.

“Hah, stop yer staring, no need to be jealous that the kid outpaced ya.”

Dalrak delivered a smack to the back of Orson’s head. During the conversation, he revealed that he was doing this for a rank up quest which meant that he had to have gone through the second tier 2 class change.

“I’m not jealous, you are jealous!”

Orson didn’t take the hit lightly while glaring at Dalrak, who was all smiles. The two seemed to have grown together past the two years they had been adventuring. While they weren’t quite there if they continued with time they might be able to reach tier 3 which would probably be the stopgap.

“Hah, what a lightweight.”

Senna finally returned to the table they were sitting at after going outside to take a breath of fresh air. After the first discharge of unidentified liquids, she was chased out from the inn. It seemed that the innkeeper was fine with fights but not with someone that forced him to mop the floors.

“Wayland was it? Thanks for the backup but I didn’t need any help, everything was under control.”

Now that the girl was closer he could get a better look at her. Halflings did have more humanlike proportions but were about half the size. This girl looked to be about three feet tall, her hair was brown and tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were quite large with a hazel hue to them, she looked somewhat youthful and the constant smile on her face made her seem somewhat cheerful.

“I’ll remember not to intervene next time then…”

Roland just nodded at the smirking girl that might have ended up as a bloodstain on the floor if the barbarian woman stepped on her. She was smug about winning the money and by how it looked there was probably some cheating involved in that card game. Yet with no proof he could only speculate.

“Hey lass, don’t be like that, if it wasn’t for Wayland here we might have been clobbered to death by that lady.”

Dalrak seemed to be the voice of reason as he probably knew that he and Orson would have a hard time handling the woman themselves.

“Ha ha, it was going all according to my plan! You two should have just made a run for it, try thinking from time to time you blockheads.”

Senna on the other hand shrugged while giving out a sigh. Perhaps she was stalling Grisalde so that the two could get out of there before making her own escape. Her Trickster class was focused on agility which allowed her to evade someone with a higher level for so long.

“The caravan will be leaving in a few hours, I’ll see you there then…”

While the halfling started arguing with her two party members Roland decided that it was probably a good time to make his own getaway. Midnight was approaching and they needed to gather before six in the morning. This didn’t leave much time to rest for anyone.

“Aye, we’ll see you there, It’s reassuring to have ye with us, Wayland.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

After giving both Orson and Dalrak a firm handshake he was off. The barbarian woman was left passed out by the table as no one was brave enough to move her. The only person in that position would be Roland but he didn’t want to get into another fistfight if something went wrong either.

‘This sure is a small world, even though it's supposed to be much larger than earth.’

After going back to his room Roland wasn’t all that sleepy. The run-in with old acquaintances made him think of some bad outcomes. Perhaps ignoring all safety measures wasn’t such a good idea thus it might be better to stick to wearing his helmet through the entire mission.

“That person from the guild should be there… but until then…”

Roland glanced at his status screen and at one skill that he had somewhat disregarded.

It was an old skill that he had picked up after escaping from his first predicament. It was around the time that he met these two adventurers and a certain nosy assistant. There was so much work to do in his workshop that he mostly forgot to train up.

This skill required constant meditating and focus. But with the amount of work and lack of sleep, it wasn’t the easiest thing to level up. Most of the time he found himself either too tired or too busy to focus on it. Now on the other hand he would be traveling for at least two weeks which left him with a lot of free time.

‘If I max it out I’ll get a flat 25% added to my MP pool.’

Thus Roland closed his eyes and got to it, his body started to faintly illuminate the darkroom he was in as he started to absorb the ambient mana in the surrounding. If he performed this meditative training in an area with higher mana it would certainly speed up the process.

Hours passed and soon it was early morning but even though he had been on it for five hours he did not manage to level up his skill. The rays of the rising sun that hit Roland’s cheek successfully woke him up from his meditation. It was finally time to move on to their next destination with an increased number of adventurers.

Roland’s armor went through some improvements, one of them was an easier way of fastening it to his body. Instead of the basic leather straps that most armors possessed, he had managed to reproduce a more magical solution.

He had removed the top part of his armor set for the meditation. With more skin, the skill would progress faster as always. Now after putting on the chest piece he would normally need someone to fasten the armor piece from behind.

Instead, the whole armor began glowing with the belt-like straps reacting the most. It was as if they were tiny snakes slithering towards a specific target. They slowly flowed into the clasps that also collapsed on them for a tight fit when the time was right. With the help of this new self clothing armor, he did not need Bernir to help him get it on.

This was not something that he came up with as there were various magic spells that could help people put on clothes. This was a minimized version that only worked on certain parts and not the whole set. Maybe in the future, he could just jump into the air and his armor set would just fly onto his body as if he was a superhero but for now, this would have to do.

When he was out of his room he also noticed other people going out. Some adventurers were already downstairs and eating, he on the other hand decided to eat some of the homemade food that Elodia gave him for his travels for now. Thanks to the spatial backpack he had enough of it for a week or two if he rationed everything well. If he ran out then he had enough dried meat and fruits to last him for even longer.

Luckily there was no sign of the loud woman that he had a run-in last night. Perhaps it would have even been better if she didn’t show up for the rest of the transport mission. If she caused only drama at each checkpoint of the journey then perhaps it wasn’t worth the hassle. Regretfully he was not the person making the decisions here and he didn’t expect the merchant to know or care about the altercation.

Soon he made his way back to the meeting point, there he arrived a bit earlier than everyone else. The workers were yawning while still packing up, with nothing to do he just found himself a good spot to sit and wait. With time everyone else started to appear along with his old acquaintances.

“Good morning.”

“Good day.”

Dalrak, Orson, and Senna had arrived and made their way towards where he was sitting.

“You don’t mind if we join ye right? It’s always better in a group.”

Dalrak seemed to see the bigger picture. Roland was probably the strongest adventurer around here or at least one of them. It would be beneficial to this group of three to get him to join them. Other adventurers would be less likely to bother them and then during a monster encounter, they would have someone to rely on.

“Go ahead, I’m just waiting for everyone to gather, though I’m probably going to be stuck in the front wagon again…”

Unless more high level tier 2 helpers arrived he would be back to guard duty along with Grisalde. The woman didn’t seem to be here yet but it was the same for half of the other adventurers.

“So, you came from Albrook? How is it there?”

Orson asked while sitting down on a tree stump that he brought over from somewhere.

“Oh, it’s not bad but the heat in the dungeon can get to you if you’re not using any protection.”

“The dungeon? No, you misunderstand me, I’m not interested in the dungeon, how are the ladies there?”

“... the ladies?”

“Yeah.”

“Here he goes again…”

Senna seemed annoyed at Orson’s question while the dwarf just smiled.

“Well… I guess the same as in any city? But there are some sun elves at the adventurer guild?”

“Oh, sun elves, tell me more brother.”

While yesterday Orson seemed to have his pride hurt after he saved them from the barbarian. This time around he was interested in the women from his city. When Roland thought back to the old days he also remembered this man to had been somewhat driven by the thing between his legs.

“What, you want me to describe her or something?”

“Now you’re speaking my language, I knew we would understand each other eventually.”

Orson moved in even close while Roland wasn’t sure what he should do. Luckily for him, someone showed up before he was forced to disclose the cup sizes of the guild receptionists.

“Hello, is there a Mr. Wayland here?”

What he heard was a voice that belonged to a woman. When looking behind Orson he saw someone that didn’t quite fit this place surrounded by testosterone-driven adventurers. It was a young woman that couldn’t be much older than twenty. She was of average height with an average build. In both her hands she was holding something that looked like a suitcase.

Even when he didn’t answer she continued to shout out loudly while looking at a piece of paper. She was certainly sent by the guild for the rank-up test but she was probably not an adventurer herself.

‘Did they really send a receptionist?’

Sometimes there was a lack of adventurers in an area or they were just unwilling to go through the hassle of shadowing a new gold rank adventurer. Thus they would send out someone else that worked at the guild.

Perhaps the reason for this was the type of mission that he chose, with it only being an escort mission the guild employee didn’t need to worry about monsters. They could just remain in one of the armored wagons while peeking through an opening to see if he was properly doing his job.

‘This might actually be a good turn of events…’

Roland decided to stand up as people started looking at the woman with braided hair that was shouting in all directions. Her inexperience was showing but this could go in his favor as the woman might not be able to judge him properly if he actually did something to fail the test.

“Yes, I’m Wayland, did the guild send you?”

“Ah yes, you must be Mr. Wayland, it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Melaina. I will be observing you through the rank test. Here this is for you, please read through it but if you can’t I can help you.”

The woman was wearing an oversized hat that perhaps was meant to help her avoid sunlight. She looked like someone that mostly stayed cooped up inside doing paperwork inside of the guild. She was wearing an outfit with a long skirt that would be unfit for running away, she would be a sitting duck if monsters managed to claw their way here.

“What is this?”

Roland took the note from the woman’s hand and looked at it. On it, there was a short explanation of the test that he would need to fulfill. The woman here was actually part of the grading system. She was to be escorted to the adventurer guild at the last city this caravan stopped at, if she was injured in any way then he would be penalized for it.

“So let me get this straight, I’m to be your bodyguard while also protecting the cargo?”

“I see that you understand Mr. Wayland, I will be in your care.”

The young woman smiled while looking at him with her large eyes. There was a small silence between the two before she finally spoke back up.

“So um… could you show me to my cart? I’m not really sure where I should go…”

Roland looked at the piece of paper and then back to the clueless girl. It seemed that the guild just dropped someone troublesome his way.

‘Well this is going to be a hassle…’