The Runesmith

Two hands were raised for and two against Armand being relieved of his position as an instructor. The ones that were against it was the man with the scars on his face which didn’t come as a surprise to Roland. The man was a similar type of person as Armand and he wanted to settle it with a fistfight instead.

The other person that was against it came as a surprise as the woman with the glasses that was a receptionist raised it. He could somewhat tell that she hesitantly raised that hand for some reason. Was this Armand guy blackmailing her or did they have some history?

The old lady and gnome that were clearly people that worked more with their brains were for it though. It all came down to the guild master now, would he choose to fire Armand or would he keep him here. The impression Roland had through the interactions here was that they two were close.

It was as if the guild master was an older brother that liked to make fun of their younger sibling. He would constantly laugh at his anger outbreaks while pointing his finger but not like Roland could do much about it. The real perpetrators were banned from the guild so this was already a win for him.

“Two against two? Maybe little Elodia shouldn’t have been assigned to this hearing…”

The man commented while rubbing his chin, his bald head shining in the room light. This comment only strengthened Roland in his beliefs that the woman was involved with Armand in one way or another. The woman in question just turned her face to the side while evading the gaze of the other people in the room.

“You put this old man in a tough position.”

He shrugged a bit while standing up, after a few steps he was in front of Armand that continued to be in a foul mood. The large bald man from the goliath race smiled brightly while the recipient looked even more dejected.

“Don’t worry Armand, you can keep your adventurer card.”

‘Here it comes…’

Roland wanted to give out a sigh as it seemed that this rowdy adventurer would be getting out of this without losing his position.

“I knew I could count on you old man!”

Armand rejoiced and wanted to stand up while grinning in Roland’s direction. Before he could go through with that a large hand was placed on his shoulder and kept him in place.

“I’m not finished yet, brat.”

The man’s voice got colder and the aura around him also changed.

“You can keep it, but it will need to be updated as your position as an instructor will become vacant.”

“Old man, what are you…”

“It seems like I’ve been too lax on you. Ever since you got here you have been picking fights with everyone that was up for it. Then when someone comes along that can contend with you, you do nothing but complaint like a little brat!”

Soon Roland could see the guild master grabbing Armand’s other shoulder and slowly lifting him up into the air. With both, his mitt-sized palms clenching together even Armand with his large frame looked like a small child in comparison.

“I gave you too much freedom! And what do you do with it? Attack a Runesmith in my city? Do you want our guild to go bankrupt or something?”

The conversations soon shifted into something that Roland didn’t expect. It started to sound like the guild master was more concerned about offending a Runesmith than about what Armand was actually doing.

“He is a human Rumesmith of all things! Do you know how rare those are? Do you realize how hard it is to find a Runesmith that isn’t forced into the dwarven union? Huh? Do you?”

‘Dwarven Union?’

Roland knew this name, it was a huge behemoth of united dwarven companies. At one point all of the dwarven craftsmen gathered under a large banner to hike up the prices of the magical items.

They were the gatekeepers of 80% of all the magical weapons, armor, and items. Their race had a natural knack for smithing and creating, which also caused them to have the most Runesmiths from everyone.

Being a Runesmth and a Dwarven Runesmith was also seen differently. The race of craftsmen had a long history and shared secrets among each other. They were seen as superior item makers. When people had a choice between a human or a dwarf they would always go with the latter for blacksmithing.

“S-stop shaking me around o-old man!”

The guild master continued to berate Armand while finally letting him down to the ground. He then turned over to Elodia while maintaining the menacing look.

“Go file the paperwork and don’t think I don’t know what you were trying to do here. Next time something like this happens you will also be out of a job.”

The woman with glasses went pale in the face while bowing before the guild master.

“My apologies, I’ll go get it done swiftly.”

The other guild members that were here remained silent and soon started to stand up. Armand was a bit stunned by the decision and it looked like he wanted to say something. One stare from the large man that owned this place was enough to make him not to.

“Okay, everyone get back to work, this hearing is now over!”

Armand managed to stand up from the ground and it looked like he wanted to contest this decision. Before he could do that Elodia approached him started to yank him out of the room. In time Armand dropped his shoulders in defeat and followed along, the look of defeat plastered on his face.

The two didn’t look all that happy about this resolution but the guild master word was the rule. They soon left probably to carry out the orders. Armand would be keeping his adventurer card but he would lose his position. He was still a promising silver rank adventurer so this wasn’t the end of the world for him.

There were many ways to make money even without those bonuses he received by being an instructor. For Roland this was enough of a punishment, he didn’t want to push his luck with this guild master that was now showing some interest in him.

At his word, the people started to stand up. Bernir that was next to Roland remained quite quiet during this whole predicament. The half-dwarf looked a bit pale, probably a bit affected by the guild master’s killing aura.

“Everyone but you kid that is.”

“Huh?”

Roland was about to call it a day but was held back by a rather large hand. He considered himself to be tall but this guild master made him look like a ten-year-old.

“Me? Is there something else?”

He looked up at the man, the baldy before him was back to being all smiles. This person was quite fast to change his mood. It was better not to get on his bad side though, otherwise you could be shaken around violently like Armand.

“Yes human Runesmith, we need to talk about money.”

Roland wanted to refuse at first but after thinking it through he just nodded. This was the guild master he was talking with. There was a certain degree of respect that he was required to show here.

Otherwise, he could be very well removed from the guild as well. Besides that, he was also interested in what this man was offering. It seemed that he wanted to strike a deal with him, probably to craft weapons for the guild while abandoning the auction house.

“About money?, not that many guilds offer runic weapons or armor.”

“Exactly.”

The bald man nodded while the others slowly removed themselves from this room. Bernir remained next to Roland while not knowing what to do. He wasn’t really an adventurer so he didn’t feel like the guild master here could order him around. The only person he would actually listen to was his own boss.

“It’s fine Bernir, just wait for me this shouldn’t take long.”

Roland told Bernir to wait for him mostly as he wasn’t sure if his assistant should be walking back home alone without protection. He looked a bit meek today and was probably stressed after seeing Dread End try to escape from their faith.

“Okay boss.”

“Just don’t drink too much…”

Bernir turned around while trying not to show his facial expression.

“You make me sound like some kind of drunkard boss…”

Roland didn’t reply to that as he just stared at his assistant’s back. It seemed that the mention of alcohol had at least helped Bernir recover his humor.

“You done?”

“Yes.”

“Follow me, kid.”

The guild master smirked while finally getting out of the room that the hearing took place in. Outside he could see some blood and cracks in the walls. It looked like Dread End did meet a demise. The half-orc was nowhere to be seen, probably stuck guarding the five ruffians after beating them up.

The other people weren’t there anymore either. Elodia was probably filing out some paperwork to get her younger brother removed from the guild roster.

Just as the guild master ordered he followed behind him. This was the first time he was this far back here so he took time to look at this guild. They went through a long corridor with various doors on the side. Some of them were labeled while others remained a mystery.

One room was used for monster part harvesting. Normally here they would just be allowed to deliver the parts to a side room while given a slip that proved what they left. A person could just leave a whole monster carcass and be given the regular market rate for it.

They could also decide to wait, the guild would then sell off the parts, and depending on the quality they could get more gold. This way mostly brought in more money but took a lot longer, most adventurers were fine with taking an average cut and using that gold instantly.

There was a large aversion to banks in this world, they mostly functioned with merchants and nobles while the adventurers liked to carry their winnings around with themselves.

On this level was where the guild instructors were stationed. Armand could have occupied one of these rooms. They were named instructors but they were required to do many other tasks which could range from training people to monster slaying.

Quite often they were hired by merchants or nobles to protect their kids that descended into the dungeon for the first time. While the young masters and misses were hunting monsters they would guard them against any unforeseen disasters.

This type of work was risky. If a noble child died during such a mission the instructor would be held accountable. They could then end up as a slave or even dead depending on how influential their noble parents were.

Besides that he also spotted some potion-making rooms, the guild apparently did hire some alchemists to produce potions cheap. Ordering them from stores always brought in lower margins for them.

This was probably also why the guild master was now interested in Roland. The guild offered some weapons but they were mostly overpriced and only there for when an adventurer had no other choices or lacked time to get a proper weapon from a reputable store.

After getting through this corridor they moved upstairs where the guild master’s office was. On the way, he could see some other offices belonging to different high-ranking officials. There were positions like Vice-guild master or a guild treasurer and they were also here. Where he was going though was the office at the very end and with the biggest door.

“Take a seat kid.”

The guild master pushed the door open with one hand and the two walked in. Roland took a second to look around this place and the first thing that he noticed was the giant black desk at the end of the room. Behind it was an equally large-sized armchair where the guild master sat down in. It was clear that these items were custom-made for this baldy as they were far too large for any regular human being.

While looking for a seat he also noticed the many monster heads hung up on the walls. They all looked to be evolved monsters or beasts, they were probably all hunted down by this man.

He spotted a couple of chairs to the side. It was a bit strange how they varied by size but it all made sense all things considered. Races here all varied in height so having chairs to fit them all was actually a good idea. He grabbed the one that was human-sized and placed it in front of the desk where the bald man was sitting.

“So what would you like to discuss, guild master?”

“Let’s get right to the point then, I want you kid?”

“You want me?”

Roland flinched a bit at this reveal. He also noticed that the bald guild master was looking at him with passionate eyes which brought him to one conclusion.

“Sorry but I don’t swing that way…”

Could this be why this muscle monster was hesitant to remove Armand from the guild faster? The guy was a handsome young man, what if this guy just liked to keep those types around!

“Hey, stop looking at me like that and stop backing away you stupid brat!”

The man slammed his hand on the giant desk which shook around but somehow remained intact. It was clearly made from a superior wooden material that could take these tier 3 hits.

“I want you to work for the guild and only for the guild!

Roland gave out a sigh of relief as he didn’t think that he could win a one-on-one fight with this man. At most he could spray some icicles in his face and make a run for it.

“Why would you want to hire an unknown Runesmith? Even one that is a human.”

Craftsmen that weren’t dwarves were seen as slightly worse in a general sense. Their racial traits were just fashioned to work with molten metal and hammers. They also had a vast history and many hidden techniques that were not shared with any other races.

“That’s why I want to hire you, you are unbound by them, a blank slate!”

While they were talking Roland noticed a strange shift in the mana around the guild master’s desk. Almost instantly after this strange feeling, a person barged in through the door with something in her hand.

“I brought it, guild master!”

The one bursting in through the door was the elven receptionist that he usually visited. The item that she was holding was wrapped up in cloth and was placed on the guild master’s desk.

Roland could somewhat tell what was in this cloth by the general shape. The guild master didn’t wait long before pulling this cloth to the side and revealing the weapon inside.

“This is…”

“Yes, it's one of yours.”

What they were looking at was a longsword that Roland had made about a month ago. It was created from deep steel and had a mana stone in the hilt along with two runic enchantments.

“The craftsmanship of the sword is only adequate…”

Roland took a critical hit to his pride instantly. He knew that he wasn’t the best blacksmith and most of his weapons came out at an intermediate grade.

“But that isn’t important, these runes on the other hand are perfect! You have a talent for rune smithing!”

His runes were a notch above the rest. Most new runesmiths that just started out would have a hard time inscribing a basic rune at the intermediate level. He on the other hand only produced the high and highest ones.

One part of this was that he could improve on every schematic thanks to his skill. The other was his work ethic that brought him this far. Then another was the talent for mana which aided in the creation of these runes.

Most dwarven runesmiths had a fatal weakness. Their race was not the best with mana as they were mostly given warrior and crafting professions. Their magicians were inferior in some ways to humans and elves thus a lot of them chose to go with rune smithing or enchanting instead.

“Thank you but, what are you offering me here?”

Roland was not keen on working for anyone besides himself at this point. This didn’t mean that he could not be swayed into a sort of partnership. This all depended on what he would get from this exchange. If it was just a small contract to limit himself to the guild with sales then he would probably refuse.

The rates in the auction were not that good but the bidding wars that sometimes transpired there made up for it. The prices were sometimes hiked up to twice or more of what the item was worth.

“I see that you aren’t convinced, well let us talk business then!”

Roland recalled the old gnome that he had a similar conversation before. He wasn’t really that interested in this offer but there was no problem in hearing this guild master out. Maybe the deal would be better than anticipated and having the guild master on your side was always a good thing.