The Runesmith

“Most of it looks to be in order, he is improving but there is still room for improvement.”

After practicing his new skills and taking some time to bounce back from using his new eye skill Roland was now looking over the golem parts that Bernir prepared for him. While he had not abandoned the ways of the blacksmith he somewhat preferred assembling the parts than making everything himself.

Bernir was quite skilled with his hands and had a lot of drive. It was clear that he had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to prove to the dwarves that rejected him that he could be just as good as them at crafting. His current class was Armorsmith but he was leveling up quite fast, soon he would be level hundred.

But this was not the time to worry about his assistant's progress. He had already wasted enough time on fashioning the new smelter and running into the dungeon to get more materials. This had allowed him to level up faster but he still needed to prepare something special for the coming presentation.

The young lord seemed a bit suspicious but he was the best way of fighting back against the dwarven union. With his help they would not be able to go against him, at least not in this city. They had already wasted some profits in banning him from buying the resources that they could offer.

In reality, a more symbiotic relationship with the union would bring both parties more profits in general. Besides not earning anything from offering him base materials they were in a constant price battle with each other. This was a good thing for the adventurers that could buy cheaper magical equipment but bad for the stores and craftsmen making them.

The only reason to continue on this path was that they wanted to monopolize everything. While they could earn more by directly working with him they could get more out of it later if they managed to remove him from the chessboard. When he disappeared they could increase the prices exponentially and not one would be able to do anything about it.

“Playing the long game huh?”

Roland mumbled while placing the familiar spider golem parts on the workbench. What he was going with would be more of the same yet after going through his last class change he wasn’t sure if this would be enough. His creativity was quite generic and the number of C grades he received for his creations was staggering.

While it was clear to him that outer appearance didn’t matter that much when it concerned weapons he was still selling a product. If the golem that he created didn’t seem unique enough for the rich merchants they would probably be inclined to pay less for it.

This was not a weapon that a poor adventurer slowly saved up for, it was a premium product for the rich. His buyer base was different and he needed to think about who he was targeting this golem with. Would this be a toy a rich merchant gifted to their son or would it be something more?

He somewhat decided on this part already after giving Bernir the order to make the parts out of durasteel. This was a material that was reaching into the upper echelon of magical alloys. It could produce weapons that Gold and Platinum adventurers would use. This was in the ballpark of tier 3 which he needed to take seriously.

‘While I have to limit myself to my old design this doesn’t mean that I can’t change it…’

While some time had passed he still had enough to apply changes. This was not the time to be sloppy and he still had some leftover materials from his last dungeon run. Thus he decided to leave the completed parts here while he returned to his office to draw up some schematics.

It was somewhat a strange feeling to go through his past designs. The drawings started to lack something, he could not put his finger on it but everything started to seem bland and uninspired. Was it the effect of his new class or the skills that he picked up? He wasn’t sure but inspiration hit him hard.

The remainder of the day that he wanted to spend assembling the spider droid frame was instead spent on redrawing the golem schematics. There was much to correct and some of the parts would need to be thrown out or cut up to fit the new design he was going through.

This was not something Roland was familiar with as he found himself spending hours on the smallest details. Solutions that he didn’t previously see became quickly apparent to him as he continued to go through his old research papers. It all clicked into place and when he was giving his drawings the finishing touches he was roused from his trance by a knock on the door.

“... Are you okay?”

“Huh, what?”

It was Elodia’s voice and it was followed by Bernir.

“See, I told you he was doing fine, it's just a blacksmith thing.”

He could hear the two talking with each other as if there was something wrong. Then he also noticed it, the whole room that he was in was a mess. There were old torn-up schematics everywhere with the new ones pinned to the board on which he finished working on.

“I’m coming in.”

Elodia opened the door that was unlocked with a concerned look on her face. Bernir peeked from behind him with a sorry look on his face, as if he was apologizing for letting her in.

“You really need to take a break, you’ve been in this room for four days, get some sleep!”

“Huh? It has been four days?”

Roland was shocked at the revelation that he had been cooped up in this workshop office for that long. There weren’t any windows here to help him tell the time and he decided to not place any clocks either. Then he had also made sure to make the walls thick enough to not let any sound in from outside as Bernir’s constant hammering could get annoying.

“Look at this place, how can you work in this kind of mess? You didn’t even eat the food I placed outside…”

Elodia looked at the room that was turned upside down, it seemed that the situation was serious as she never really came to the workshop. She knew that he liked to work long hours but even then he never spent this much time without coming out to see the light of day. It seemed that with his new class he really didn’t feel fatigued as much and only now when they mentioned it he started feeling sleepy.

“Ah… I’m sorry I must have not heard you but I was finishing up anyway, I just need to”

“You want to continue working?”

Roland flinched a bit as he noticed the change in Elodia’s voice. Her eyes narrowed while a glare appeared over her normally cute face. It seemed that if he continued with working he would probably anger this lady. It was a strange feeling to be stared down by a small woman that shouldn’t pose any threat to his life but for some reason, he felt apologetic for making her worry.

“Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow…”

He slowly placed the pencil on the desk next to him while Elodia followed his hand movement with her gaze. Then slowly while moving the old schematics out of the way he started going towards the exit where her and Bernir were standing.

“Ah don’t worry about this, I’ll organize them later.”

“Sorry boss, I saw you working hard so I told the Mrs. that you were busy but I couldn’t stall her for longer…”

When he was out of the room Bernir whispered into his ear. Now it all made sense why she was mad. His assistant fed her some excuses while he remained locked in his workshop. Not coming over for the usual meals that she prepared probably gave it away. The whole situation just made him smile a bit as he was not particularly mad for being disturbed.

“No that’s fine but we’re not …”

The only part that he wasn’t sure about was that Bernir made it seem that the two were married. It did seem like that from an outside perspective as she did spend a lot of time in his house and even cleaned it from time to time. There was not that much of a dating culture in this world and not everyone went through with a proper wedding.

“Don’t need to be shy, well I’ll leave you alone.”

After giving Roland a hard smack to the shoulder Bernir left the workshop. When back in his home above only now did he notice that he had really worked through almost four days. The sun was already setting and even Agni served him with a hard tackle as if he didn’t see him for weeks.

His previous concerns of him becoming some kind of workaholic robot were slowly starting to become true. Even though he had managed to prepare a nice schematic for his product it was not something he wanted to repeat. There was more to this life than being stuck in the workshop; a middle ground needed to be reached.

Elodia’s food was quickly gobbled up by him which caused her to halt with the glaring. Their time was short spent as she forced him to take a bath. After working for that long he was beginning to smell and she clearly didn’t want any part with that. Then after managing not to fall asleep in the bathtub for once he rested.

On the dawn of the next day, it was time to finish up with his drawing and organize, it was finally time to prepare the modified spider golem. It would be about the same size as the older model but it would come with some modifications and a new frame. The parts that would be reused would be the legs and some of the inner components but the main chassis needed an overhaul.

“So, this part is going to be the abdomen and this is going to be the thorax.”

Back in the office, he had Bernir and his wife follow the new plan. The previous spider drones were made out of a single part and more egg-shaped while this new one would be a double parter. While making it composed of more parts would lower the golem’s structure integrity it would add some other features.

“Back to the drawing board, I see, well what are we waiting for then, let's get to work!”

Bernir didn’t seem perturbed by the idea of working more. The main reason was probably that he was grinding those levels and the more he worked on the smelter the faster he would hit that threshold. His larger-than-life wife was also very interested in the new design, not many craftsmen had the pleasure of working on magical golems as they did.

So they did, everyone followed the drawn out schematics that Roland had created. All of the parts that were needed had a separate page along with the dimensions that needed to be kept. Roland was still a proper Blacksmith, while he had less experience than these two he did not trail behind by that much. Having high stats was also on his side as both of them could only dream about having the amount of dexterity to aid them in their craft.

The process was slow and cumbersome. Some of the runic repairs that he performed had to be postponed while he tried to reach the deadline created by the lord named Arthur. Perhaps he was trying too hard for his first real auction reveal but he wanted to leave a lasting impression.

If he failed there was a possibility that the lordling could decide to pull back his aid and Elodia would be left out to dry as well. If the lord deemed it so he could instantly remove her from that building that was apparently breaking some old laws that no one really followed.

This time around he made sure to take some breaks, the eight-hour working limit that he placed on his workers was somewhat ignored to a point. Bernir and his wife had no problem working ten or twelve hours a day as they knew what was at stake. With the increase of stats, it was possible for them to power through more without the mental and physical stress being overwhelming for their bodies.

But even if that was the case Roland was apprehensive about making them work for that long as he did not want to repeat what his old boss did to him. So when the ten-hour mark was reached he made sure to kick the both of them out.

The days started passing and the new forge along with the new smelter had gone through a rough period. Luckily it did not break and the runic structures didn’t deteriorate even after many hours of work. The difference in material was apparent as this new equipment would last him for years to come.

Finally, after weeks of rigorous crafting, all the required parts were produced. Assembling them together came soon after but after the extensive practice Roland gained during his class change quest this didn’t prove that difficult.

The spider droid ‘Head’ was connected to the thorax and it was circular in nature. On this somewhat flat head he placed three golem eyes that would work as the main cameras. The head could slide around the circular axis it was placed on. Thanks to this solution even if one of the small eyes was damaged the golem would still be able to compensate.

The abdomen that it had behind its head made it look like a proper spider. It was a bit taller than the head part at the front and could also open up as it was meant to function as a storage. Inside would be enough space for a spatial bag and a few replacement parts. Then in the front below the head came the most difficult component to manage, two smaller looking robotic arms that had multiple uses.

“Well then… now I just need to revamp the whole operating system of this thing…”

He had spent designing this for some days and made sure that the whole construction was structurally sound. The hardest part was the weight distribution as the abdomen was a bit bulkier than the head part. But with the two multipurpose appendages on the front, he managed to equal it out.

While the exterior of the golem was mostly in order now came the tough part. He needed to connect everything to the golem core. Instead of his own batteries, he went for a more traditional solution with a compartment for mana fluid.

“This might take a while…”

It might have seemed that he only needed to push the on switch and everything would be finished but this was far from over. All the new armaments needed to be tested, if the golem ended up shooting someone at the auction house it would be his head that was on the line. Probably another month of work was waiting for him which would cut it close to the previous agreement that he had with the young lord.

Thus he almost barricaded himself in his own workshop for the remainder of the day that he had. This time he was sure to inform Elodia that he would be working for longer than usual. Only after promising her that he would take a longer break after the auction house visit was finished did she relent.

He did not forget to slowly draw up the spatial rune from the small satchel he found in the dungeon. With each headache, he was getting closer to something that would allow him to slim down some of the current creations. Soon the days were passing rapidly and the moment of truth was upon him, it was time to show his newly gained creation to the masses.