The Runesmith

“We have really improved, haven't we?”

“Yes at first I was worried when you proposed that stupid idea but we did manage.”

“What do you mean stupid idea? Those Troglodytes didn’t stand a chance!”

“Yeah because Sansa was smart enough to get some of those explosive magical scrolls.”

A familiar-looking group of four adventurers walked out from the Albrook dungeon. All of them were smiling as they had gone through quite the large battle.

“It was clever to place them at the spot they would fall in, we took out half of them with just a few scrolls!”

This group of steel grade adventurers thought back to the battle. Once before they triggered a trap which caused them to be almost wiped out. If not for a certain person saving them by pelting the monsters with runic spells they would be long dead.

This time around after some time had passed and they had managed to level up, they decided to pay that room a visit. The monsters proved a lot easier to defeat now and with so many bodies they would make quite the penny from all the materials.

“With all the money we get from those mana stones and monster parts we will be able to relax for a while!”

“You want to spend it all on booze again, don’t you Rudy?”

The red-haired boy flinched a bit as his scheme was quickly discovered. With all the materials they would be set for a month or two if they didn’t spend it all.

“Stop being an idiot, now is the time to invest! We are all approaching level fifty, we need to invest in our gear, I propose that we spend it on new weapons and armor!”

“What’s wrong with our weapons, Keira? I bet it can last us all the way till silver grade!”

“If you think that little sword will do you any good against the lower level monsters then you are more of a muscle brain than I thought!”

“Keira is right, we only managed to kill those monsters because of the magic scrolls, you should understand the importance of good equipment by now!”

Rudy the red-haired youth looked to the other girl and started frowning.

“Not you too Sansa, hey Miron you say something.”

He turned to the largest person in the group, another youth in half-plate armor that was clearly all scratched up and dented in a couple of places. While the group was talking he was looking over a hole in his shield.

“I don’t know Rudy, I think the girls are right this time around…”

Rudy started looking over everyone. It was true that they had been using old weapons and armor that they had gotten after ranking up into steel grade adventurers. After going through the dungeon their gear wasn’t looking that good.

“We should have bought them earlier, there was a big discount at the stores…”

The group went silent as all of them knew that they were at fault. While Rudy spent most of it on drinking, the girls did put it into jewelry and new clothes. Then there was Miron that liked to indulge in excessive eating.

“We don’t need to feel down, even if the prices have gone up they are just the same as they were before!”

Keira smiled while cheering everyone on as she tried to shift the conversation in a different direction.

“Keira is right, no use worrying about it now, we have some money and we can just go into that chamber to get more!”

Rudy replied as he intended to farm the lizard man-looking monsters for their parts as much as he could. Sansa on the other hand shook her head as she found a small problem with that reasoning.

“It won’t be that easy, I’m all out of those exploding scrolls.”

“Can’t you just get more?”

“I wish, for some reason, I haven’t seen them being sold anywhere, it's as if they stopped making them, they were also runic scrolls but they didn’t cost that much over the enchanted ones…”

Sansa replied to Rudy as they entered the road leading towards Albrook. The girl was worried as the scrolls were somewhat special. They exploded the moment a monster stepped on them which made them perfect as traps. They could even be hidden under some dirt and would require a small jolt of mana to activate.

“Is that so? Come to think of it, I did try to look up some magical short swords but they were all enchanted ones that the dwarves make, I saw some other ones at the other shops a month or so ago…”

Keira replied to Sansa while the two thought that it was strange that most of the runic wares started vanishing from the store shelves. They saw an influx of them when a certain runesmith appeared in town but it seemed that they had been bought out and now none remained.

“Runic, enchanted or empowered, it’s all the same to me.”Rudy on the other hand just shrugged as he didn’t really care about where the magical items came from. The two girls from the party gave out a sigh as they were aware of the differences between each item that he had listed.

The group continued to walk towards the city while discussing their finances. While they divided their earnings between themselves equally they were still a team. All of them needed to keep up with each other to not drag everyone behind.

This was the same for their items that required an update. All of them were close to reaching the 50th level and this would grant them access to tier 2 classes. Then they would be able to take the guild exam towards the silver grade.

Being a silver grade adventurer started meaning something and mostly all of them were known to use some sort of magical item. It was a requirement as the gap between people and monsters started to grow.

Without the proper weapons, it would be impossible to defeat increasingly more resistant monsters. There was always a high price attached to these weapons but they would make life easier for them.

While their thoughts were riddled with new shiny magical weapons they noticed something that wasn’t there before. Around halfway towards the city, they saw a large sign that was not there before.

“What is this? Wayland’s Runic Emporium?”

Rudy read the bright red text that was on the wooden boards. It was clearly an advertisement and under the store’s name was a short description along with an arrow pointing towards a narrow dirt road that led into the forest.

“For all your runic needs please visit Wayland’s Runic Emporium?...”

Keira read part of the slogan which had a list of services that this magic store gave. Apparently, they repaired runic items for cheap and also sold various runic related items. This quickly piqued the interest of this small group of adventurers as they were just looking for magical items to buy.

“Mr. Wayland made a store and is accepting customers?”

Keira clapped her hands while smiling and looking over to the other girl in the party. Both of them nodded at each other while the two men frowned.

“Mr?”

Rudy lowered his voice as he was not fond of the fact that Keira was being so formal towards this runesmith. He knew him after being rescued and then saw him again at that presentation. Ever since he tried his best to rise to the occasion but it seemed that the girls in his party were still interested in that peculiar man.“Something wrong?”

Keira asked while looking at Rudy who shook his head as he did not want to seem like the jealous type.

“We should go check it out! Maybe we can find something good there!”

“You want to go now? We just got back from the dungeon, shouldn’t we go to the guild and drop these monster parts off?”

Rudy pointed to Miron, who had a large backpack. It was a standard spatial bag that normally porters wore but without having much money and being stingy they decided to carry it around themselves. Thanks to it, they didn’t have to suffer through the smell of monster remains.

“Hoh? It’s rare that you propose something sensible for a change.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Rudy recoiled after Keira called him stupid in a roundabout way. Both the girls started laughing but then nodded.

“Then, how about you and Miron go to the guild while me and Sansa check the new store out~”

Both of the young men looked at each other and then back to the two girls. The moment they turned their heads they could see them skipping towards the forest. Rudy and Miron just nodded at each other before following behind as they were worried what could come of this visit to the runesmith.

A few minutes later all of them found themselves inside the forest. They walked through a small dirt road and found more arrows pointing in the direction of this supposed emporium.

“Have you ever been here before?”

Asked Rudy while Keira replied.

“No, there was never anything worthwhile but I heard one of the silver grades saying that they had their runic weapon repaired here.”

While the name Wayland had spread through the city no one really came around this part. To get to the house a person had to go through a somewhat dense forest. Then they would come out to an open area surrounded by unkempt farmland. For young adventurers like them, this was one of the more boring places to visit.

“There, think we are out… I can see some buildings...is that it?”

The group came out of the forest and the first thing that they noticed was the large walls that were surrounding something. They were quite high and mostly made from wood with barbed wire at the top parts.

“What is this supposed to be?”

Asked Rudy.

“Is this some kind of prison…”

Replied Miron as he was also confused about the way this building was set up. Most of the walls were made from logs but there was also a newer section that was made from stone. This section was connected to the large entrance gate and the brick house next to it.

“That must be the shop… that emblem…”

Sansa started rubbing her chin while examining the store sign. It had the words ‘Wayland’s Runic Emporium’ as the other sign but there was a small addition. There was a strange drawing of a sun to the side that she remembered.

“Is something wrong Sansa?”

“I don’t know yet, give me a moment.”

The girl that had a bow slung over her shoulder placed her hand into a satchel to pull out a scroll. She looked at this item and started comparing the insignia that this runic item had on it.

“It’s identical… Did Wayland make these scrolls?”

She shared her findings with Keira before moving towards the store. They were not the only people here though as outside the store they could see a large man. He was someone that they knew and that was somewhat infamous around the adventurer’s guild for his simplicity.

“You no make trouble, if trouble Korgak will remove.”

It was the large half-orc adventurer that they sometimes came across at the guild building. Most people tried to avoid half-orcs as they were seen as stupid brutes. They made great bodyguards though as their physical stats were closer to their monster orc counterparts that they came from.

All of the four instantly straightened up as they knew that they would not be able to handle this half-orc if a fight broke out. The time that he managed to catch a team of silver grade adventurers was well known around their circles.

“You don’t need to worry Mr. Korgak, I’ll be sure to make them behave.”

Keira smiled while smacking Rudy on the back. Korgak just nodded while moving to the side, there he had a large tree stump that he could sit on.

Rudy wanted to shout out but was somewhat intimidated by the large green-skinned man. Thus he just frowned at Keira that was chuckling silently behind him. The group soon entered the shop and the moment they opened up the door a strange chime sound echoed through it.

They looked at the door that they opened to see if there was a bell above it but they didn’t see anything there. It looked like the sound went off after they opened the door. It was a small gentle chime but where it came from no one knew.

On the inside, they spotted a certain woman, one that they were very familiar with. She sparked a little debate a few weeks ago as she vanished from the adventurer’s guild without a trace.

“Ms. Elodia? What are you doing here?”

“Welcome to Wayland’s Runic Emporium.”

She called out to them. Her dress was slightly different from the uniform that the women at the adventurer’s guild were forced to wear. It made her look somewhat like a head maid from a noble’s estate, the glasses only made this look more prominent.

“Elodia? The receptionist?”

“Yes, you are correct, I work here now, do you have some questions? If you look to the board there we have written down a couple of rules.”

The other three members from the group quickly homed in on the woman as well. She was standing behind a counter with some unknown items on it. Sansa from the group noticed that there were shelves filled with certain parchments that she was familiar with.

Just as she had thought, the runic scrolls that vanished from the circulation around the city were nowhere and Wayland was the one producing them. The sign with the rules that she pointed them two laid down some ground rules.

One of them was not touching the goods without asking the store clerk for it. Another one stated some rules about runic weapon repairs and the rates.

“It says here that you will repair the items free of charge?”

“Ah yes, the first runic repair will be free, you will be given a token with your purchase that you can then use whenever you wish to get your item repaired.

“Really? That’s neat, most of those old dwarves never offered something like that...”

Elodia nodded as Keira posed the question. It did sound nice to get one free repair with every weapon purchased. It was as if the cost of it went down by a whole small gold coin.

“Can I look around?”

“Be my guest, if you have any questions please ask me.”

Keira backed off for now but was also somewhat taken back by how Elodia was acting. While she still had the resting bitch face as always she seemed someone nicer. Her complexion had improved and she felt more genuine than the automaton that she was used to seeing back at the adventurer’s guild.

At first glance, this store didn’t look much different than the other stores in town. There were various cabinets through which they could see some magic daggers and swords. Some shields and armors were hung out on the walls with the only difference being that they had many strange runes on them.

All of the adventurers from the four-man party made a few rounds around the shop that wasn’t either small or large. All of them met up in the middle, strange looks plastered over their faces.

“E-excuse me, are these prices right…”

Keira waddled over to Elodia and posed the question while pointing at the price tags that were next to the items.

“Yes, that’s right. Mr. Wayland decided to lower the prices for now but I’m not sure if they will remain as such for long, will you be buying anything?”

“Y… No… I mean... “

The girl looked back to the group of adventurers and they all gave her a nod before slowly walking out from the store.

“Please come again.”

Elodia looked a bit down after the party of four left the store. After the door closed she couldn’t see much but the youths started increasing their pace while shuffling towards the forest. The closer they got to the dirt road the faster they walked.

“Did you see it…”

“Yes…”

“We need to...go get money before it's too late!”

Keira shouted out while the group of four bolted towards the city.

“Miron, move your ass faster, we need to get those runic weapons, I never saw any at that price before!”

Miron clenched his teeth while running as fast as he could while wearing his half-plate armor. The backpack he was wearing was still somewhat heavy and it had all of their gains from this dungeon run. They needed to sell first before they could buy the gear they wanted.

“Sansa, go ahead and reserve a spot in line for us, we need to act fast, if word spreads that Wayland is selling those things for so little we won’t be able to get anything!”

The group's archer nodded as she sprinted forward. The group of youths all had panicked looks on their faces but there was also a twinkle of joy. In their heads, they already pictured themselves with magical weapons that they could never afford.

They knew the reason but they also knew that this opportunity was fleeting. They needed to quickly return with a purse filled with coins before it was too late.