The Runesmith

“Ugh…”

“Boss, your eyes, there is blood coming out of them.”

“Don’t worry I’m fine, give me a moment.”

Roland poured a red recovery potion on his face to make his vision recover. This coupled with a mending spell that had been inscribed on a metallic wand quickly nursed him back to health.

“Maybe ye should take a break, I know that the deadline is in a day but ye must watch your health, what if the missus finds out?”

“I’m fine, also I’ve already finished that project.”

After taking a breather Roland pointed to a box that was to the side. Just as he had planned it out, the runic device didn’t look eye-catching. The most intricate part about it were the various runes and gems placed on the outside.

“I’ve already prepared the diagram so you can start preparing the parts, it’s a basic design so you won’t have trouble in making them.”

“Eh? So this is it.”

Bernir looked at the unsuspecting box and craned his neck back to Roland. He was given a nod which indicated that he could go ahead and examine it. There was a hook latch on the side and small hinges on the other which allowed him to open it up. On the inside, there was a small metal cylinder with what looked to be mana fluid inside of it.

“So you went with the old design boss.”

“Obviously, can't go outside the norm with it yet.”

Bernir nodded as there were various reasons to stick to the usual magical fuel. One of them was just for ease of use while the other was for the better design not to be copied by the dwarven union. They would certainly get their hands on this little box sooner or later.

Regretfully there wasn’t anything like patents in this world, so he could not safeguard his designs from being used by others. The only thing would be the inclusion of passwords and blockades in the code. With their inclusion, a specialist would be needed to crack the code. It was similar to the basic pirating prevention methods from his old world.

There were of course ways of making this prevention software even harder to crack. One of these methods would be a handshake between hardware components, like the batteries that he made. Someone would need to be able to recreate both parts perfectly otherwise the main device would not function and if he wanted, short circuit the runic components.

He had already implemented a simplified version of this system in his golemic products that utilized his rechargeable batteries. With more time he hoped to make his products too bothersome to copy. The real money didn’t come from making large heavy to construct machines, like golems.

If he could become the only supplier of runic batteries while other runesmiths bought them from him to use his designs, then he would be swimming in money while doing minimal work. Then there was also the factory approach if he failed with that endeavor. While he probably wouldn’t be able to design automated systems like in the world he came from, he could substitute them with golems that could be programmed to make separate parts.

While he was thinking about the future of his enterprise, Bernir pressed the activation button. This caused the box to glow faintly, it was followed by a warm tingling feeling that quickly subsided. To the untrained eye, this would look like a glowy paperweight with no apparent use but to someone that could detect mana, the change would be somewhat noticeable

“Will this really help with those squiggly thingies?”

“It should be enough to force out the symptoms, the concentration of divine mana is slightly above the one in the church.”

“So boss, if you’ve completed your work, shouldn’t we bring it to the lord?”

“Not yet, we need to prepare more and I already asked for more crystals and materials from the auction house…”

“Ah!”

Bernir smirked as he realized that his boss was trying to milk his business partner for more resources. This was an opportunity to get free research material from the auction house that he didn’t normally have access to.

“Well, if it’s like that, then I’ll send them in when they arrive.”

After grabbing the diagrams from the table, Bernir ventured out to create a few more boxes. They needed enough to cover all the entrance gates of the city along with places where people gathered. It would be up to Arthur to organize everything as his job would be over after he delivered the runic device.

Roland had actually not expected everything to go that fast. With the help of his skills, there was no problem if he worked twenty hours a day. It was just a matter of assembling the runic components in the right places and then playing around with the code inside.

These divine runes weren’t that different from the ones that used mana, they just required a different power source which was supplied by the empyrean crystals. He had also examined the weapon that used rechargeable charges and applied them to the design as well.

If for some reason the city lord couldn’t provide the divine energy crystals, he could ask the priests to recharge them instead. This change prolonged the assembly by a few days but he did not want to deliver a faulty product when people's lives were at stake. With one and a half days left until the deadline he had shifted his research to another field, divine mana emulation

‘It should be possible if I can find the correct wavelength…’

His eyes had stopped hurting from looking at the divine energy that was produced by the magical devices. The runic components were similar and overlapped with the regular ones that used mana as the only source. They had some additional parts that injected this holy energy instead.

One of these parts utilized the empyrean crystals while the other just absorbed an outside source. Yet there were clues in the design, such parts also existed in regular mana devices. This gave him an idea, what if the mana in this world can be changed, what if it operates on some kind of spectrum or a wavelength. Perhaps if he could alter this wavelength he could produce divine energy by himself or at least mimic it enough to produce a similar effect.

For this reason, he was using his runic eyes of truth. With their help, he was trying to analyze the divine energies that these items he took from the auction house generated. The biggest problem was that runic magic by design worked in reverse. It took mana from outside and altered it to produce things like elemental spells.

What he would need to do was to create a component that altered the mana into the divine mana before being injected into the runic structure. He might have to create a totally separate element that would alter the mana flow before sending it into the runic traces.

‘That will probably be the better solution, it's easier to simulate an empyrean crystal instead of a constant charging feature.’

It would be great if he could just design a whole rune that did all of the work for him. But simulating a whole new energy source seemed like a massive undertaking. He would need to go through many various patterns bit by bit. His eye skill could only marginalize the area of search. By looking at what energy he was producing he could slowly push it in the right direction.

‘So much work to do and so little time…’

His Parallel Thinking trait was working in overdrive as he felt that he would need five more brains to get through this field of study. Recreating a bizarre fantasy world energy crystal in mechanical runic form would probably be quite the breakthrough. It could also put him on the hit list of all the orthodox religions. They would probably not look kindly to someone creating blasphemous imitations of their divine spells.

While he was aware of this, there would always be ways to hide the use of divine spells. The only reason he was willing to go into the field was the looming threat of evil monsters appearing at his doorstep. Roland did not know if the people from the Solarian church that he met were still alive.

Perhaps Loreena had already been forced to talk about his involvement and assassins were on the way. The only thing keeping him calm was the strength of the church, combined with the cultist's target probably being the destruction of their relic.

‘They shouldn’t have any time to deal with me, Loreena also doesn’t know about the nature of my skill and how I really got out of that illusion.’

He could only grit his teeth and continue with the research. The faster he learned to emulate an empyrean crystal, the faster he could outfit his home with defenses. For the time being he could always go to Sister Kassia to recharge the field he would create around his house.

After getting some rest and drinking some water he returned to his workbench where a stack of papers along with his notebook was waiting for him. There he started going through various theories and old research.

Yet even when he tried, time just continued to pass and the crumpled-up papers riddled the whole floor. The task was proving to not be an easy one, thus after the deadline was over he needed to clear his mind and prepare the basic defenses before continuing.

…

“So this is it?”

“Yes Lord Arthur, let me demonstrate. You just need to fill this small canister with Elokin’s Fluid and place the empyrean crystal in this socket, then just press the button on the side.”

Mary placed herself in front of Arthur Valerian while Roland did the presentation. It was funny to see the maid not trust him at all but he could understand it. There was always a chance of things going wrong or people using their skills to impersonate him or even mind control. It wouldn’t be strange if the item exploded if a powerful enough person wanted Arthur dead.

“This does feel like a lesser healing spell and the area should be enough to cover the gates.”

“It can go up to five meters in diameter, use the knob on the side if you wish to lower the area of effect, it will lower the mana usage, and the device will last longer.”

“So we can narrow the checkpoint size and save us some money, you have outdone yourself Mr. Wayland. Mary, have these placed at the main gates and start informing the guard captains as we have discussed before.”

“Yes, Lord Arthur.”

They were out in the courtyard with the usual two knights watching over the city lord. It seemed that they used the week to prepare a proper plan. Roland wouldn't be surprised if Arthur had already contacted the church and gotten them to agree to help out.

“Mr. Wayland, you will be rewarded handsomely for your efforts, but I think you should rest now.”

Even though Roland didn’t inform Arthur about his other part of the research, his baggy eyes and melancholic way of talking made him seem like someone that didn’t rest for a week or more.

“Thank you, my Lord, I will excuse myself, please contact me if you need more of the items made, of course, at the agreed-upon price.....”

Arthur nodded while Roland quickly wobbled out of the estate to head home. Even though he had arrived here a week ago, only now was he truly free to continue with his life. There was one more small thing that he needed to take care of before returning home and the person helping him with it was already waiting outside.

“Are you done?”

“Yes, here.”

From within his spatial bag, he removed one of the boxes that he had created. After handing it over to Lobelia he was done for now.

“So this is it? Doesn’t look like much.”

“I can guarantee that it works, don’t forget to bring me the money later.”

“He he, I bet those old bastards will pay whatever I propose.”

“Don’t go overboard.”

“Are you worrying about me? That’s cute~”

“I’m more worried about Elodia, if she finds you in a ditch with a dagger in the back she will be devastated.”

“Were you always this melodramatic? Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, they will probably want more of these if they work and I’m the only one that can contact the supplier!”

Lobelia chuckled at Roland who had become the supplier of magical goods for the thieves guild. He had decided to push the items towards the underground to check for any people that could be afflicted. Apparently, during this week a few more people were discovered and quickly treated thanks to Lobelia that spread the information.

Roland was hoping to eradicate any potential cultist lairs from forming in the city and for that, the Thieves guild was needed. They were used to looking for hidden passages, in theory, they should be able to find any hidden tunnels or at least keep the infected from spreading.

For that, they first needed to examine all of the members and also place his divine boxes at the secret thieve guild entrances. With time they should be able to identify the source and hopefully take care of it without anyone from the upper citizens being affected.

“Remember, the fewer people know about this the better, you can’t alert the cultists or they might activate the parasites.”

“I know, don’t worry, I’m good at keeping secrets and so are the people in charge.”

Lobelia smiled while striking a pose. He couldn’t really do much as he was not part of the underground guilds and he had no interest in meeting their leader.

“Let’s change the topic then, how is your friend?”

“Jasper is doing fine.”

“He is?”

The half-elf blurred out the news as if it was nothing.

“Were there any side effects? Memory loss? Blindness?”

Roland on the other hand was very interested in this scoop and started throwing questions at the smaller girl.

“Woah, calm down Wayland. He is fine but he couldn’t remember the past few hours.”

After a quick back and forth he finally received some good news. It was possible to make a full recovery from the larva if it was discovered before being activated. This confirmed his theory that these creatures remained dormant and waited for some kind of activation sequence. Their only defensive mechanism in this state was making their host uncomfortable whenever close to divine energy.

“There is one more thing, remember the thing you asked me about.”

“Yes?”

“The guild received some news, apparently that forest where the church was fighting with those weirdos has become a desolate wasteland!”

“A wasteland?”

“Yes, some sort of spell was used and everyone had to evacuate but It didn’t reach the city. No one can investigate further, the religious nuts are keeping everyone from going in.”

It seemed the battle was over and both the cult had left the danger zone. Some kind of spell had been used to probably destroy any leftover evidence. If the old man that he met that knew his father and his granddaughter got out in time was unknown to anyone.

“Can I ask you for one more favor?”

“Hm, what is it?”

Lobelia looked a bit pouty as he asked for it but this was quickly remedied by his next sentence.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay you, I need some information and you probably know someone that can get it.”

“That I do!”

“I need you to get me information about two people…”

Roland didn’t want to remain in the dark, he needed to know if information about him was out there. If the two golden order paladins he ran in were safe and sound, then he could relax. Yet if they were found missing then he might have to consider taking drastic measures.

Even without that knowledge he still needed to get stronger. One part was the new divine runes that he was working on but that seemed to be a long-term investment. Another research topic were the spatial runes that he was still trying to figure out. If he could integrate storage technology into his armor, he could bring along heavy armaments for more dire situations. Then there was the dungeon and his secret training spot that he needed to visit.

“Golden order members? Do you have friends in high places?”

“Can you do it or not?”

“Sure thing but it might cost extra!”

Roland nodded as the two finally parted, even though he had the freedom to do anything he couldn’t waste any time. He needed to get stronger and the fastest way for that was to gain more levels.