The Runesmith

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to bring your attention to this set of six high-grade elixirs. These have been distilled from the finest Daga’s hearts and are very potent, the starting price will be at two small gold coins.”

Roland looked at what looked to be a small paddle with a number being raised when the busty lady stopped explaining the item that was being sold. These Elixirs were quite potent to the point of being able to regenerate fingers if they were cut off but not at the level of full limb recovery.

The initial price was more than what an average family spent in a month's time and it only continued to rise. The amount of money that was going through this auction house was quite staggering. Yet without a proper class that could earn this much money the world seemed unfair.

Even Roland could easily earn gold coins now while just entering his twenties. Farmers with no special skills could only dream about his money-making capabilities. But some special cultivation classes existed, even farmers had potential breakthroughs that would allow them to grow special food that then could be turned into something costly. But such people were few and far between just like him who had quite unorthodox skills.

‘I wonder if I’ll get a good price on that golem… that is if anyone starts bidding in the first place.’

Ever since this morning, Roland was feeling anxious. If he didn’t have his sleep resistance skill with him he would have been dead tired from all the worries. These worries turned to questions he asked himself during the night that kept him awake.

With a slight glance to the side, he watched the dwarven union members looking over the items. They were clearly not interested in the potions, unless it was some kind of enchanted weapon or magical creation they would not be moved.

The biggest fear that Roland had now was that even with the help of the city lord, the union would be able to force the merchants to ignore his items. If something like that occurred he would be driven out of business, what good were high-quality goods if no one bought them?

But this was the auction house, many wandering people with deep pockets visited them, people,that did not worry about something like the dwarven union. While they were influential, this also had a limit. Anyone not in the circle of merchants and craftsmen would not really have anything to lose by spending coins.

‘My golem is scheduled to be out later, this might take an hour or two, depends how much these people are willing to barter up…’

Even when no paddles were raised by the potential buyers the auctioneer didn’t just end the auction. Her job was to squeeze out the most amount of coins from each auction. She would regularly pause while trying to sell the item on stage. Examining facial expressions came in handy as most of the time a person could tell if someone was interested in the item or not.

"Going once, going twice,.... sold to the handsome gentleman in the blue coat.”

The man was far from handsome with his balding head and age of fifty years. This didn’t stop the busty elf from giving him a wink after the bidding war was done.

“Please remember to pick your item up before you leave the auction house, if you wish you may do it now or wait till the end of the auction. You don’t want those bargain magical items to be bought out when you are gone, now do you?”

While she didn’t elaborate further Roland was aware of all the procedures. The items were carried off into a special room where the buyer had to pick them up. It was heavily guarded not only to protect the items.

This was an auction and while rarely some people got overexcited and weren’t able to fork out the money that they were owed. If something like that occurred they would be mostly detained and then punished. Sometimes even sold into slavery if the auction house boss was especially ruthless.

In this case, it belonged to the city lord so they would be sent to jail. Then they could barter on an equal exchange if they had any. It was hard to track people down in this world and verbal agreements were useless. The only way of such a buyer leaving would be with a signed contract that would give him quite the curse if he failed to deliver on the promise.

The potions were soon carried off by some guards while the person who bought them remained in place. Then the next item of interest was carried out which this time around was something he was familiar with, a runic mace that wasn’t of his making.

It was a bit strange to see one of these out on the market. The dwarves that he was paying attention two seemed interested in the item to some degree. One of them raised the paddle for the initial bid and it continued until they got it for slightly over the market price.

‘They do seem to be interested in runic wares a lot…’

From this exchange, he could somewhat confirm that the dwarves would bid for items concerning their craft. The spell on the mace was pushing the limits of tier 2 and was rather unique as it had smite on it. This was a holy element enchantment that required a priest to recharge it.

Roland was interested in getting his hands on something like that too. It was a runic weapon so he would not have to use the runic eye skill to figure out the schematic. But he was not here to spend his coin, a weapon like this could be bought elsewhere and he did not want to stick out. Not many people in this city had the money required to buy something like it which would pull unwanted gazes at him if he also bid.

“How come ye buy that thing?”

Dunan asked Bamur that was the one making all of the bids.

“Tis fur mah research, why do ye care, Ah can spend coin as Ah want.”

It seemed that the Enchantsmith wanted the mace with the smite spell on it for some research. Why he didn’t know, the dwarf was not a runesmith but this didn’t mean that he could not become one in the future. Being an Enchantsmith and a Runesmith wasn’t totally unheard of yet it would be harder to learn both fields at once.

‘It also could just be an excuse…’

Roland turned his head back to the auction house and it continued. Various other weapons and trinkets started to be carried out. One was even a magical box that acted as a hologram that had some beautiful women performing an alluring dance to some music.

It was clearly some kind of spell that recorded it along with the music and was just grafted onto a golden box. Perhaps to some rich merchants, this had some value but to him, it was a waste of good metal. It went for a high price and would probably find its way into the hand of a noble with too much money.

There were even magical sets of clothes that glistened in the moonlight. It was quite surprising to see a good-looking woman walking out in a dress to present herself to the audience. There was apparently not anything that would not be sold here and the people were more than willing to spend money on it. If the item had magic on it, it was almost guaranteed to be resellable.

Then finally after one and a half-hours of seeing magical thingamajigs being presented, it came for his creation to be announced. This he knew by the unsuspecting wooden box that confused the people that were looking at it.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for another special article, this time around it is something that has been constructed by a local craftsman!”

The people that were in the room started staring at the box in the middle of the stage. It was still closed but it was not the only thing there, next to it was a little stand with what looked to be a rod covered in runic engravings. The dwarves that were on the balcony quickly realized what it was just by a glance.

“That does look lik a golem control rod, that whelp really managed tae mak' a golem at his age? “

Bamur the enchantsmith that had a better eye for runes leaned over the balcony while somewhat shouting. His comrade that was next to him just started scowling while looking, it was clear that the two were not too happy to see something that should only be made by dwarven hands there.

After the members of the union got rowdy the merchants perked up. It was clear to them that something worthwhile would be presented if the penny-pinching dwarves were even interested. The richest of them came prepared, the costlier items were always presented to the end of the auction and this part was finally beginning.

Roland started looking around and he did notice that a lot of people were interested in what was in that box. The lady knew how to make a show of it, it seemed that they decided to have the golem exit from within the box by itself instead of presenting it out in the open.

He did explain giving the manual to a worker beforehand, perhaps the Lord had decided that it would be more interesting if the golem made a grand entrance. Thus after all eyes were on the control rod the elven woman made her move.

“Please observe, this is what is called a control rod, it can be used for various magical artifacts but in this case…”

Without revealing what the box contained she activated the remote control with the help of some mana and spoken words.

“Activate.”

After the command was spoken the golem would begin to function. While the people outside couldn’t see it just yet the inside of the wooden container started to move slightly. Soon the top part was moved to the side and one of the spider golem’s appendages appeared.

“Oh? What is that?”

“Is that a magical construct?”

“Interesting…”

The golem started to rise out of the box as it was programmed to by him. Moving through terrain and maneuvering through tight places wasn’t difficult for his creations. It was able to skillfully get out of the box by stretching its legs to step outside.

When turned off it remained curled up on the bottom which also reduced the size of the package it was in. It was thus quite easy for the blue golem to gently present its shiny body that Roland spent an exorbitant amount of time polishing for this occasion.

The glistening metallic outer shell reflected the magical lights that shined onto the stage quite well. The golem that was shaped like an arachnid slowly moved towards the woman holding the control rod just like he had programmed it. Then it went back into its passive energy-saving mode while waiting for more commands.

“As you can see ladies and gentlemen, this is a brand new custom-made golem, while it might look like the popular spider-iron golem, it is made from durasteel and has many more uses. Let me bring your attention to this enlarged arachnid abdomen as its creator likes to call it!”

The abdomen area was used to house the spatial bag and other utensils. The elven woman opened it up while having the golem turn around by itself. While this was going on Roland felt quite stressed, his creation was being shown off and he couldn’t really tell if the people liked what they were seeing.

At first, they were surprised by the unique design that was different from the schematics of a more conventional model. To the untrained eye, a custom model might seem better as it was newer but to these people here it wasn’t so. There was a reason why people stuck to proven designs as there was less risk involved.

The lady listed all the features that the golem had but there was no space on the stage to perform any battle tests. For safety measures, they could not fire off any deadly spells which was a big selling point of this model that was made with the highest quality runes.

At first, everyone was leaning forward and listening closely but soon they all sat back to contemplate. The golem was somewhat risky, he was probably the only person that could repair it if something went wrong. But the noble house backing this auction house was known for its prestige so some might be inclined to risk it.

“As this is a well-crafted runic construct, we will be starting our bid at two large gold coins!”

This was it, questions would not be asked towards the auctioneer, everyone had to use their own judgment. While Roland could see someone trying to raise the bidding paddle he also heard a loud grunt coming from the balcony above. It was both of the dwarves again, one of them was giving the sign that he would be bidding.

Then Roland realized what the grunt meant, the moment the union dwarves were involved the other merchants started backing off. He could see them nodding at each other as if this had been discussed beforehand. Perhaps they had some kind of agreement on not bidding against each other in certain situations which if true could set him back by a lot.

The two large gold coins would not cover the manufacturing costs for the golem. If no one else placed a bid then he would be in the red and without a golem that was usable in the dungeon. The auction house could not pull the offer back at this point even if they were aware of the merchant agreement. At most they could ban the people involved in the scheme later or try to clear it up away from the public eye to not affect their reputation.

“Two large gold coins, do I perhaps hear three large gold coins? Three large gold coins for this beautiful magical creation?”

Even when the elven lady stalled the people here shook their heads around. Two gold coins was already a large sum of money that was equal to twenty small gold coins. There were not many merchants here that could afford it as a lot of people just came to see the spectacle of people bidding high.

Yet suddenly a hand was raised, instead of a paddle, it was a fan covered in jewels that looked very expensive. The bidder was a woman of unknown origin that was hiding her face behind a veil. For some strange reason, he had the feeling that he knew her from somewhere.

“Three large gold coins to the madam in white!”

The moment the bid rose the dwarves in the balcony turned to the lady. She didn’t look like someone from this city and was probably unaffected by the union.

“Is that a noble?”

“Maybe a mistress of some lord?”

People started whispering as the amount of money wasn’t small. There were two men in unfamiliar armor next to her which made her look like someone important and with a lot of money. Now with her in the game, the bidding war finally started. The dwarves seemed not amused as they quickly bid past her and continued.

It was a quick back and forth between the two, each time the price increased by mostly a random small gold coin amount. Roland wasn’t sure why the woman was interested in his creation but thanks to her the price reached an amount that he was satisfied with. Yet this wasn’t over as it continued past what he was expecting.

“…”

Bamur from the union slammed his fists down onto the balcony while going red in the face. It was not allowed to antagonize the other participants with words so instead, an outburst of anger was probably supposed to send the message to the woman bidding against them.

The girl dressed in white didn’t seem to care though as she outbid the dwarves by another large gold coin which brought the price up to eleven. It was clear that she was not perturbed by the outburst which was somewhat sending the message that she didn’t care about the dwarven union or was not informed.

Without knowing her true identity the dwarves could not judge if she was someone that they had to contend with. The bidding slowed down for a moment as the two started discussing if it was worth continuing. But to these craftsmen, new golems like this could prove important in developing their craft.

Roland was sure that they would want to analyze his creation. They would surely dismantle it and try to judge with their own eyes if he was the real deal. Though when they did, they would receive a small surprise.

“T-twelve large gold coins to the dwarven gentleman with the red face, does the beautiful lady in white wish to offer more?”

Yet, when the price reached twice what he was expecting to get it finally ended. He noticed that the woman was not looking at his golem but at something that was above it. Then after nodding once she moved her luxurious fan down towards her knees and gave the victory to the dwarven union.

Then as if she was never there, she and the two armored men walked out while the voluptuous elven lady on the stage was congratulating the dwarf for winning the bid.

While everyone was a bit stunned by the quick exit he noticed something. Even though the woman was wearing some high heels that would normally make loud noises while walking, there was no sound being generated.

'Wait, didn't I see that way of walking somewhere before?'