The Runesmith

“Hey, nah bad... haven't I seen ye somewhere afore?”

“No, it must be your imagination…”

Roland shifted himself to the side while trying to hide his face. His decision to not wear his helmet caused an old acquaintance to ask some questions. It turned out that the woman that was this ship's captain was someone that he had a run in a few years ago. She was looking at him in a funny way while licking her lips and this was not the only problem.

“Ey big sis, can I 'ave this one, he be kind o' me type~”

In the past, the woman had tried luring him into his cabin which he refused. Then there was an even greater problem of her having multiplied. Previously he only had to deal with only one strange pirate lady now there were three of them.

They were clearly sisters that weren’t that much apart from each other in age. Perhaps after the oldest became the captain she lured her siblings into the trade. One of these sisters was now leaning against his shoulder and grinning like some pervy old man. Even without asking he knew where this was going and if he took the ship then the trip would probably be somewhat uncomfortable.

“Nah fair, ye looted the last one, it's me turn now.”

For some reason no one was asking for his opinion, it was as if it was a given that he would consent to whatever they were feeling. Roland decided to leave the two pirate-like ladies to their fight while focusing on the ship’s captain. She was still the decision-maker and it was still safer to go by ship.

“Excuse me…”

“See, he likes me more, can nah compete wit' yer cap'n”

“No…, I just… When is the ship leaving?”

The captain seemed somewhat happy that he came over to her. It seemed that these three sisters liked to compete for the attention of the male passengers. For some reason, they weren’t that interested in the sailors around them. Besides these three all the other people here were rugged men. Roland’s frame wasn’t that much different than of the sailors but his face wasn’t as rugged and his skin was more fair compared to the tanned men of the sea.

“We be leavin' in about a week but I wouldna mind if ye join me in me cabin tonight…”

“Uh, I’ll have to pass on that…”

“Well, ye be no fun. If ye change yer mind ye know where t' find me, 'til then ye'll 'ave t' wait. The shipment that we needs t' grab won't be dockin' fer a few days.”

“Thank you, I’ll be back then.”

Roland already knew that only when the ship was about to leave would he be able to pay for the trip. Until that day came he would need to remain here in this city. While the cult problem was unresolved this was the safest place to be. Solaria’s church was here along with a prominent noble house. With so many soldiers, knights, and adventurers even the cult would not be able to storm the city.

‘This doesn’t mean that I can just relax…’

“Where are ye goin' handsome, why don't we grab some rum at the tavern?”

“Ah thank you but I have something else to do, I’ll have to excuse myself.”

While walking away one of the younger sisters tried yanking him towards the city. After shaking her off he backed away and headed back. The women seemed maddened by the fact that they were rejected but soon they turned towards some other men that were going down from the stationed ships, it seemed that they were just itching to get drunk and party.

Having fun was not on his mind, he needed to stay here for almost an entire week if he wanted to take the ship towards Vita. Before leaving the docks though he paid another visit to the information booth. Perhaps some other ships were leaving sooner and if a problem arose he could take them instead.

‘Nothing is going towards Albrook, I’m really unlucky to come at this time…’

It seemed that all the ships were unloading cargo at this time and the earliest he could leave was in four days. Even then the ship was leaving to the other side of the island and the one after it was going towards the mainland. Apparently, there was some angry sea creature spotted lately which was blocking the way. A group of ships was forming to clear it out but it would also take a few days for them to complete the mission.

‘What should I do for an entire week?’

There was not much for him to do here but twiddling his thumbs was not something he wanted to do. For someone that didn’t need that much sleep spending a whole week doing nothing would be mind-numbing. He had repaired his armor’s runes already and the rest of his equipment didn’t suffer that much damage, even his runic rod only needed to get bent back to shape.

‘Maybe I should go to the church and get some elixirs, wish I could get my hands on an empyrean crystal…’

The cult was still on his mind and the best way to counter their corruption was divine energy. He had witnessed firsthand how a divine blade made from aura could cause the strange parasitic creatures to turn to vapor. Regretfully he was not someone that could mimic divine energy, it was a skill locked behind worshiping classes.

Yet there were ways of storing this energy, one of such items was called an empyrean crystal. It had various shapes and sizes, depending on the divinity it could even turn black to produce evil energies that demons craved. This crystal was able to store the energy that he required to counter the dark ritual, with its help he might even be able to use divine skills if he managed to decode them with his Runic Eyes.

From the literature that he read it was stated that these crystals formed by absorbing holy energies from their surroundings. This could be achieved in many ways, one of them was actually a secret of the church that was able to produce these items. People theorized that after performing healing miracles the divine mana that was released was being absorbed by something that would later become an empyrean crystal. These would then be used in the production of various holy items, even weapons like swords.

‘Would be nice if I could just emulate the divine energy with only my runes, going to the church every time will drain my coffers quickly.’

Roland gave out a sigh while looking into his purse. He needed to get some supplies like mana potions and health potions. Then he needed enough for food and the ship fare. This didn’t leave much for him to buy an elixir that could cure curses on the fly. They were one-time use items that could put a person in-dept quite fast.

Back in Albrook, the church was not advanced enough to produce any but here in Reeka, he should be able to get one vial for the road. Thus for the time being he decided to go through the city. While he had gotten some supplies for his trip he was hasty. Now with more time on his hands, he could go through the list slower.

First, he visited the church of Solaria, while he was interested in getting his hands on some elixirs this was not his only reason to go there. With the cultists buzzing around there could be some information that he could receive there.

‘So this is the church, it makes the Albrook one look like a little shrine…’

This temple created for worshiping the sun goddess could be seen from outside the city gates. It stood at the same height as the castle that belonged to the lord and was probably founded by the noble himself. People took religion very seriously in this world and nobles liked to be in good graces with the high priests from the church. With deathly curses being a reality, they could assure themselves a quick checkup from a high-level priest if a need ever arose.

It looked more like a large cathedral than a church, in the front there were two large towers and between them was the entrance. The large stairs led up to it and the circular window with stained glass above it was fashioned to look like the sun. Above this window, he could see a statue of a woman that resembled what the people here believed Solaria to look like.

Roland wasn’t sure if these gods really existed or were just a representation of some skills. To his knowledge, this representation of solaria was created after some pope used some powerful skill that apparently summoned the god to aid them against some demon in the past. Was it an actual god or was it just some summoned creature similar to the ones summoners could call down was the question.

No one was stupid enough to call the believers out on their gods. The worshipers were lunatics in Roland’s eyes but even he could not deny the existence of supernatural creatures. He was proof of something outside his understanding existing as he came to this world from another world and was now able to produce magical arts that went against everything he had learned there.

‘It looks quite busy, is it normal for that many church knights to be here?’

The first thing that he noticed was a group of armored knights that looked similar to the ones that he met when escaping the forest. They were just standing around the whole church as if they were expecting something to happen. People were still coming in and donating money, the side that he entered was meant for the merchants and nobles.

‘Perhaps this is normal…’

Roland wondered if the cult activities were the reason for a large number of church knights here or if it was just due to not wanting the commoners with no money to venture through this entrance. A far smaller chappel existed on the other side through which the less fortunate could get their prayers answered. This didn’t sit too well with him as they were clearly segregating the people by class.

Complaining about the status quo was not why he was here. Thanks to his job he was someone with a lot of money, paying a few silver coins to get through the front gate would make the experience faster. The acolyte held out a tray to which he dropped the minimal amount of money that was required, then he ventured into the large chapel.

The place was covered in silver and gold patterns. The large windows were created to allow the natural sun to illuminate the whole area. Then there were a few statues of their goddess along with some angels similar to the valkyries from his past life. With the help of his mana sense, he could feel that there was a high concentration of divine mana in this place, a lot more than he was used to in the other churches he visited.

But he was not here to admire the nice architecture, what he wanted was to get a cheap elixir to help him with any potential curses that awaited him in the future. After a few glances, he noticed a side room with a few Solarian nuns that were doing just that. They had shelves lined with various concoctions one pricer than the other.

“I wish to buy a divine elixir that works against curses.”

“Praise the sun.”

The nun welcomed him and after presenting him with a few options he was quickly done with his purchase. It was quite surprising how well trained these acolytes were at peddling their wares. He needed to constantly be on guard as they tried pushing the higher potency potions on him to make more money.

‘Somethings definitely got them spooked, could they be expecting the cult to make a move?”

His reconnaissance mission was over and he discovered a few things. The number of soldiers was concerning, were they just being cautious or were they preparing for war? If they were expecting a large number of cultists to appear soon this would explain the tight shift they were running.

The amount of divine mana was also telling him a story. He knew that those squiggly worms could not survive long when exposed to them. Perhaps if an infected walked into this church their affliction would become obvious to the priests here.

‘Loreena didn’t explain much about them but It does seem that those buggers can lie dormant in a person for a while.’

If someone started getting a headache and dropping down to the floor it could be one sign of being corrupted. But could those bugs affect the host's brain before becoming active? Would they do something if the person decided to go to a church filled with energies they disliked before it happened?

After discovering that the church was on high alert Roland went on towards the vendor stalls with dried food and water. There was not much that he required to survive and beef jerky was enough to last him for weeks. Due to Elodia’s good cooking, he had been spoiled slightly but this didn’t mean that he couldn’t survive on dried meat for months.

“Well this is problematic, I didn’t expect them to be so wary.”

“What’s problematic?”

“Huh?”

While mumbling some words he heard a familiar voice. It was a halfling along with three other adventurers that he thought he ditched after completing his mission. He was now in a restaurant, spending the day walking around the city and getting supplies was quite tiresome in heavy armor like this.

“We meet again, it might be fate.”

Said Dalrak while making himself at home at the empty table Roland was occupying.

“Fate my ass, this place just has the cheapest food from this area, we were bound to run into each other.”

Said Orson as he sat down next to his dwarven comrade. Even Grisalde was here, she only nodded while sitting down next to him as if it was the most normal thing to do.

“What’s with the long face? Oh I forgot, it's just how your face is”

Senna was the last one to sit between the two groups, it was as if she was the mediator between the gold rank adventurers and the silver ranked ones. As always Roland remained mostly silent but their company wasn’t as uncomfortable as he remembered. Perhaps he was slowly growing accustomed to other people but this didn’t mean that he wasn’t thinking about just walking out the door when they started acting stupid.

“So, did you decide on your next destination, if not how about you come with us to the dungeon, we could use a mage like you in the team?”

Senna spoke up while the others called over a waitress to bring them some food. This was not a surprising proposal as he was already a gold rank adventurer. People of his rank would have an easy time finding work as they were proved specialists with one foot in the tier 3 region.

“You want me to join your party?”

“Interested? We’ll give you a good deal! You might be a gold rank but I and the boys will join you there soon too. ”

The others smiled as it was the truth, if they stayed in this city and trained in the dungeon they could probably reach level one hundred in a short time. Then a full party of five gold adventurers could be created to challenge harder dungeons like the super dungeon that this island was famous for.

It was not such a bad deal as he already knew these people. Forming teams wasn't only about the number of levels each adventurer had, there always needed to be some trust involved. This could be created in various ways but some reassurance that a person would backstab you during a dungeon expedition was needed for a long-lasting party. The longer a party lasted the easier fighting monsters became as with teamwork came improvement.

“I will have to decline, I need to return to Albrook.”

“You do? What does Albrook have that this city doesn’t? The women are better, the alcohol is miles apart and even the dungeon here is a C+!”

This time Orson answered, this city was clearly superior but Roland had another life there, adventuring was only his side job to fall back on if something went wrong with his shop and to get stronger.

“Wayland is just playing hard to get, leave the talking to me!”

Senna on the other hand grinned after hearing his reply. From Roland’s perspective, the halfling had probably mistaken his motives. He wouldn’t be surprised if she thought that he only wanted more money. With being a mage class holder he would easily be able to join proper gold rank teams that were already established. Yet before he was able to receive the sales pitch something happened.

“W-what was that?”

From the distance, he could hear people shouting at something. Those shouts were followed by a strange low pitched howl. He was clearly not imagining things as everyone turned their faces to where the commotion was coming from…