The Runesmith

‘This place looks more like the auction house in Edelgard.’

Roland had arrived at the meeting place half an hour early. Without anything else to do, he decided to examine the Auction House that he was banned from.

The first real difference he discovered was the large sign on the front of it. Previously it didn’t show any affiliation with the Valerian household but now there was an emblem of their house there, Instead of the old ‘Albrook Auction House’ name it changed to ‘Valerian Auction House’.

It seemed that this family would offer up their name that easily. Perhaps without the new noble appearing here it would still have the old naming scheme. Now, on the other hand, it was profitable enough to give it a boost by affiliating it with their brand.

‘Having brand recognition must be nice…’

While looking at the sign he thought of his own little magic shop. While he tried to present his store as one with high-quality wares, it wasn’t that easy. His competition went out of their way to badmouth his wares and any dwarven adventurers were clearly affected by it.

Even though the runes that he produced were better than the enchantments his competition was offering, a lot of people were scared. They didn’t want to risk their hard-earned money into a product that didn’t have a good reputation.

That’s why his shop’s progress was slow yet somewhat steady. Most of his advertisements went through word of mouth. If he actually managed to reel in a customer, they mostly returned for more. There was just no comparison between the quality of the magic a rune could produce. Then with the added aether alloy treatment, it produced just a better product in general.

He was gaining some ground but it wasn’t quite enough. The wares were not flying off the shelves as he had hoped. Without money, he was not able to fuel his continuous research into his golemic creations and various weapons. Luckily whenever money was low he could always go into the dungeon and hunt for some monsters.

But even with the new mining spot now accessible to him, there was always a problem with selling the better products. There was nowhere to dump the spider droids off and the black market merchants were somewhat unwilling to fork up what he was owed.

The products he was offering fit more with the nobles and merchants as they were not quite the killing machines that people at the black market could use. The spider bots didn’t work that well for other people that didn’t have direct access to their runic software. Without a proper strategy, these would most work as mobile turrets that could give some ranged support.

But even with the somewhat clunky way they worked, they still packed a punch. With enough of the spider golems casting attacking spells, any tier 2 monster would go down eventually. They also ran on mana fluid that was replaceable.

They were like portable mages that could be placed at certain locations. He could imagine one adventurer just luring a larger monster into a trap where his golems spammed it with multiple elemental arrow spells. The problem lied in convincing people that it was a worthy investment over any other magic weapon.

This he hoped to achieve by having it be auctioned off to people that could actually afford it. He would have to improve on the design a bit further but he was confident in making a valid prototype that could be used by anyone.

‘Getting a bit ahead of myself here, first I need to hear this noble out…’

Roland gave out a sigh while standing there and waiting. The motives of this person called Arthur Valerian were unknown to him. The most obvious turn of events would be that he would be given some unfavorable contract.

Then there would be the worst-case scenario where the noble was already working together with his enemies. He could be offered two options to either work under the dwarven union or get kicked out of the city instead. The city lord could crush his business in various ways, one of them would be similar to what was happening to the orphanage.

They could accuse him of performing various acts of dangerous witchcraft. If there was a priest that could be bought out, they could testify that he was some kind of demon worshiper. Evil Warlocks like the one he ran into all those years before were deemed as enemies of Solaria. They were hunted down by the church and seen as criminals for signing contracts with evil deities or demons.

While his imagination raged on, time passed. The more he waited the more anxious he became, then he even noticed that there were people looking in his direction. Before panicking he realized that for some reason all of the people staring at him were women.

Old ones, young ones, and the in-between. It seemed that they were staring his way after he had disrobed. His face and more fashionable clothes were now on display. At this point he realized that they were not people out to hurt him, no they were clearly staring at him without malicious intent.

‘Oh… was this why Elodia didn’t want me to take this robe off before I entered the Auction House?’

It seemed that his new girlfriend was feeling threatened. Roland was aware that he was quite handsome and his charisma stat had gone up over the average a few years ago. Most of his time was spent in the dungeon or working in his workshop so he didn’t really have time to mingle with other people.

Now after enhancing his looks with better clothes and somewhat styled hair, he was clearly attracting more eyes. Luckily for Elodia Roland did not have any intention of using his newfound good looks to cheat. To him, such things were far too troublesome and he quite liked his current situation with a woman that could actually aid him in his ventures.

‘What time is it? … Should I go ask one of the guards?’

Noon was quick approaching and Roland glanced towards the Auction House. There were many guards all over the place and several entrances. One for the customers, another one for the sellers and another one for the people working there. Before he could go and ask, he noticed a certain out-of-place cat girl walking out of the entrance used for workers.

Her red cat ears were on display and they somewhat clashed with the maid uniform that she was wearing. The girl was quite the sight for sore eyes and a head-turner. But her beauty was not the only attribute that Roland noticed. There was something in the way she was walking, then there was also the fact that he could not examine her status.

‘Either she has some kind of analyzing blocking skill or a magical item like me…’

Around Roland’s neck was still the item that he received from his old boss. When he was there he didn’t realize but this thing was quite high quality. Only a person at tier 3 with an evolved analyzing skill would be able to see past it.

“Well come, you must be Mr. Wayland, Lord Arthur is waiting for you, please follow me.”

She was quick to pick him out of the people standing there. He had never seen her before but for some reason, she was informed about his appearance. The worst thing about this visit was that he could not bring any weapons with him.

At first, he thought about bringing something small like a ring with a simple attacking spell. But if it was discovered by the lord’s guards he would be quickly sent to jail for attempted murder. He didn’t like it but for the time being, he would have to get through this without wearing any extra equipment.

‘This puts my class in perspective…’

His class of Runesmith Lord might have given him battle strength over most tier 2 classes but it had a huge weakness. This was of course that without proper preparations and equipment he lacked most means of protecting himself.

Even though his raw stats might be above people of the same level, he lacked any battle skills that those classes had. Someone like Armand could reinforce his fists with certain skills to become hard as metal, in a direct exchange Roland would probably not fare too well.

Roland nodded at the cat girl’s question and followed behind her towards the worker's entrance. Some of the guards looked at them with narrowed eyes, it seemed that they wanted to say something but couldn’t.

‘Haven’t seen this place in a while…’

Soon they were on the inside, he had been here before the whole dwarven union debacle. The entrance for the sellers was quite close to this one and they shared the same corridor. Not far from this spot he could see the entrance to the room where he received some payments for his limited wares.

Roland had not spent much time here though, his contract with the guild was quite swift. For quite some time he unloaded his wares there and just came to pick up the coins later.

The maid turned to one side and the journey continued. His opinion of the maid started to increase as he noticed that she was not making any sound as she moved. Her whole demeanor was like a sharpened sword and for some reason, he was reminded of a certain elf lady from his days in Edelgard.

The woman was clearly not a simple maid but an actual threat to his life. Her status was hidden so he was not aware if she was above him in levels. Without his equipment, he was not able to measure her threat value which just increased the tension.

Soon they passed through more corridors and from the corner of his eye he could even see part of the auction house stage. At this time it was still closed but he noticed that the workers were preparing for tonight's auction already. Items were being organized by worth and then shipped to the correct stage.

This auction house only had two sections, one for the more costly items and another for the ones meant for people with less money. Both of them were about the same size but the one that involved the rich merchants would clearly look better. If he ever was allowed to sell, here again, he would probably target this more exclusive auction stage.

After another flight of stairs, they finally arrived at what looked to be the manager's office. The first thing that he noticed were two men dressed in bulky armor. They were clearly knights and this time around his analyzing skill did work.

Name:

Gareth Astastel L 91

Class:

Sword Knight L 41

Name:

Morien Hartmond L90

Class:

Spear Knight L 40

Roland didn’t even bother looking through their tier 1 classes and focused on what was important. They weren’t that strong, there were many silver-ranked adventurers and old retired veterans that reached these heights. They both looked to be in their twenties so they still had some time to improve.

“Please wait here, I’ll inform the lord of your coming.”

The maid ventured forward while he was left with these two people. Both of them were giving him the stink eye but not like they could intimidate him after he knew their levels. There was a large gap between them, even without his armor he was confident in being able to overpower these two or at least make a run for it.

Both of the guards had last names, this indicated that they belonged to some kind of noble line. Arthur Valerian was still related to the duke's household so it was normal for him to have retainers from noble houses at a lower standing. The house names didn’t ring a bell so it meant that the two didn’t hail from any important family.

“The Lord will see you now, but first we will need to perform a search, I hope Mr. Wayland understands.”

The maid walked out after a minute and informed him that he would need to get padded down. This was expected and the reason why he decided to leave all magical items at home. If it was him from a few years ago, this would probably be the time where he declined the offer. Now, on the other hand, he had learned to put some trust into others and not presume that everyone was out to get him.

“That’s fine, I expected this much.”

Mary smiled and then turned her face to one of the guards. The man named Morien moved in after getting the search order. He was shorter than Roland by half a head but his frame was slightly wider. His chestnut hair and a balding patch at the back of the head became visible the moment he walked over.

Roland didn’t resist, his new clothes didn’t have any pockets as Elodia probably didn’t have any time to add any. After a quick pat-down it seemed that he was free to go but as soon as the knight stepped back the maid got involved.

“Mr. Wayland, that pendant could you take it off?”

It seemed that this Maid was up to something. The two knights didn’t say anything but Roland was not fine with revealing his status screen to people he didn’t know.

“This was not included in the letter, I’m sure you know what this is used for, I would like to keep my status out of this.”

“You dare to go against the lord’s wishes?”

This time around it was the man called Gareth, he was closer to Roland’s height but thinner. It didn’t seem that the knight liked Roland’s tone or choice of words. Due to his modern-day roots and also him being an actual noble, he did seem to interact with these aristocrats in a more casual way.

“No, but I would like to keep some things private, I can offer you my adventurer card, you’ll find all the information you want there.”

This type of situation was something that he was expecting. Thus the only identification that proved who he was, was his adventurer card. The people here didn’t need to know that it was created without people actually peeking in on his full status screen.

Mary the maid raised her hand which for some reason caused the angry guard to be quiet. She reached out her small hand towards the card that Roland was holding and then vanished inside of the room. After a short moment, she poked her head out with an answer.

“The Lord says that it’s fine, you may come in now.”

This maid knew what kind of magical item this pendant was. It was clearly not hazardous to the man that was waiting for him inside this office. Finally, it was time to meet the lord, surprisingly the two guards wouldn’t be taking part in this meeting. Instead, the maid remained, it was clear that she was also a combatant, probably stronger than the two guards.

“Good day Mr. Wayland I must apologize for my guards, they are just trying to do their duty in protecting their lord.”

It was quite a surprise when Roland heard the first sentence. An actual noble apologized for his retainers that were rude to him. Normally they would only double down or berate the common folk for taking up their precious time.

The person named Arthur was sitting behind a large desk, behind him was a large window. It was somewhat tinted but through it he could see down to the Auction House main stage. Some of the workers were shuffling around even as the noble was speaking.

This office had a clear view over the whole stage and the people sitting there. But the people on the other side probably couldn’t look into it. Roland recognized the tinted dark glass, it was magical in nature and made from special material.

“I thank the Lord for his gracious words and understanding of my situation.”

Roland on the other hand replied in a cordial fashion while bowing his head. It had been some time since he interacted with a proper noble. His manners were a bit rusty but thanks to his current identity the noble would probably let it slide if he did something wrong.

“Please sit down, we have many topics to discuss.”

Arthur pointed to the chair opposite to him and Roland just nodded. It was time for the meeting to finally take place.

“Ah yes, Mary. Bring it out.”

“Yes my lord.”

As he was sitting down the Maid opened up a side door that looked to be a closet. From it, she took out something familiar and placed it on the middle of the desk. It was the spider golem that he had gifted the noble and probably the sole reason that he was here.

“I have received your gift Mr. Wayland and it was quite the fascinating one indeed. The instruction manual that you have created was a nice touch but I won’t bore you with empty praises. I’m sure you are a busy man, so instead, I would like to make you an offer…”

“An offer?”

“Yes, become mine!”

“Um… become yours, my lord?”

Roland quickly replied while looking at the noble named Arthur. For some reason, he was staring directly into his eyes with a somewhat strange look.

‘Wait… am I in danger?’