The Runesmith

“You shall all bear witness when the great one descends, your flesh will be turned into his glorious body, the world will finally become whol…”

*Thud*

“Shut up, damn shitty cult nuts.”

“Hey be careful, that’s the last one, we need to get more information out of him.”

“But boss, none of those fuckers talked, their heads even started to explode…”

In a room lit up by magical torches a peculiar scene was taking place. An old man in a dark robe with an insignia of the Abyssal god was cackling while in a pool of blood. To the side was a small pile of corpses of people wearing similar robes.

“This one seems to be different, boss. I think he is a high-priest, almost a tier 3… we lost many good men during the raid…”

A large man with an even larger scar across his face delivered a kick to the laughing high-priest. The man’s hands and legs were bound, the foot connected with his stomach and caused his whole body to be flung against the dirty wall.

A sound of bones being broken was heard by the small group of people here yet no one seemed to mind. To them, this was quite the normal display, a day-to-day occurrence. In the underworld, a person needed to grow a tough outer shell. Without getting used to all the blood and violence it was impossible to survive here.

“Gah…”

“Please don’t damage the subject, I still need him alive, the other ones weren’t very… noteworthy.”

A man in a tailored suit and glasses walked in. He had the appearance of a posh Buttler at around the age of forty. His hands were covered with black gloves but a tint of red was visible. To the side, he had a large bag that he placed on a nearby table. Soon he opened it up, in it, there were various vials with strange liquids, medical tools like scalpels, and syringes as well.

“Do you think you can get something out of this one, Doc?”

A woman’s voice came from the side, all of the people in this room looked at this lady. It was a peculiar sight to see a woman of about the height of a hundred seventy centimeters be surrounded by brutish-looking men.

Her body was clad in black leather armor that quite tightly hugged her body and allowed everyone to see her curvature. The lower side of her face was covered by a mask that seemed to have a filtration feature. A hood was draped over her head which didn’t allow people to make out her facial structures.

“I can’t promise you anything, Guild Master. The magics that keep these fanatics in check are strong. The stronger with their delusion they become, the more adverse their reaction to the stimulus becomes”

The gentlemanly looking man looked towards the bunch of corpses that were all missing their heads. He had already gone through the henchmen but all of them had some kind of in-built defensive mechanism that would kill them instantly.

“You’re telling me that the famous underground doctor can’t do anything either? Do you expect me to still pay you?”

“I didn’t say that it won’t be possible.”

The man continued to work with his back while talking to the leather-clad woman. From within he pulled out something that resembled a butcher's apron. He started placing it over his clothes and soon also took out a syringe containing a strange purple liquid.

“Give me a day, if he has some information, you shall have it.”

“... Let’s go boys, give the Doc some space, you all know he is shy.”

The men inside the room looked towards the syringe and strange vials. They knew what was about to happen and would rather not be inside this room to see it. Even though they were thieves and killers, torturing required a stronger stomach. Soon the woman and three of her goons were walking through the dungeon-like corridor.

“Are we sure that it was the only hiding place?”

“Our guild members went through their hiding hole, they weren’t there for long, a few months at most. They were slowly expanding the tunnels but weren’t able to connect to anything worthwhile, think we got lucky this time.”

The large man that previously kicked the high-priest against the wall talked while the others remained quiet. The day before they had managed to unearth the Abyssal Cult’s hiding place, inside they found six people and the high priest.

“Even if some of them escaped, they won’t be able to leave.”

“We’ll need to thank that girly for bringing those magical boxes over, it made things a lot easier.”

“Aye, she has a lot of guts if she was able to snatch it from the city guards.”

“I’m not sure about that…”

“Hoh? Do you think they just gave it to her? Could she be working with the noble? Want me to bring her over?”

The man’s facial expression changed to one of anger. This was the thief guild and unless it was a direct order from the guild master it was forbidden to keep secrets like that. Normally if a trade like this occurred the thieves guild member would have to report it to the big boss.

“That hatchling? No, that’s not it, she hangs around that Runesmith a lot and he was the one that made them.”

“You sure know a lot boss…”

“That’s why I’m the boss, now screw off and make yourself useful.”

The large man didn’t know what the leader was thinking but he was not in a position to make any decisions. It seemed that the girly that brought over the magical boxes had some connections to powerful people on the outside.

“Aye, I’m going…”

Soon the group of four became three after the woman clad in leather vanished behind the corner. Even when the three men tried they could not hear any noise, it was as if she was never there, to begin with.

“The boss creeps me out, she always appears out of nowhere. Does anyone even know how she looks?”

“I heard that the last fellow had his eyes gouged out, so better be careful…”

“You two better shut up, if she hears you, your balls might be snipped.”

“I’d rather die than lose those.”

“Hah, you just use them on whores.”

“Is there any other use for them? Also, Buckley, the boys have been getting annoyed lately… it’s about that Runesmith…”

One of the men recalled something when the conversations switched towards the city Runesmith.

“Shut your mouth, he is off-limits, if the boss says it then there must be a good reason for it. Don’t go out on your own and cause trouble.”

The two goons looked dejected. The Runesmith had been a good target to rob for years but they weren’t allowed to go near his house. There had to be some kind of deal in the background. There was always a list of people that the guild members weren’t allowed to touch. Most of the time this meant that they were paying a lot of money to stay safe.

The Runesmith was a peculiar case though as the other merchants wanted him out instead. Some of them even tried paying a bounty to get him out of the picture. Yet the guild master had strictly forbidden going against him, it was as if he was being protected by someone powerful on the outside.

The only way of robbing his workshop would be to quickly abandon the city and seek shelter under a different guild master. This was not something a normal thief would be willing to do. The guild masters didn’t need to listen to each other but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t exchange favors. Sometimes the rule-breakers would be sent back in parts just to earn some good faith with a powerful tier 3 class holder. This also depended on the transgression, fights between lower-ranked members were mostly ignored by the higher-ups.

“Fine but after this is over, you’re buying me booze.”

“Hah, dream on.”

Soon the group of thieves guild members dispersed to continue searching for the Abyssal Cult signs. It looked like they were the ones with all the cards. Almost all of the cult members were infected besides the high-priest. Thanks to Roland’s devices they would be able to control the situation. Even if some escaped from the underground they now had checkpoints where everyone would be examined. Unless the cult created brand new tunnels they would not be able to infiltrate their underground base.

…

A few minutes later a bookshelf started rattling while sinking back into the wall. It then slid to the side to reveal a large sturdy door. This door didn’t have a handle; instead, there were various magical symbols that started to light up. The door started to slowly open up to reveal the leather-clad woman that was referred to as boss by the guild members.

“These garments are so constricting…”

The mouth-mask was tossed to the side along with part of the upper garbs that were now coming off. When she was finished the leather armor made its way onto a wooden mannequin that was surrounded by various short-bladed weapons. Throwing knives, poisoned needles, and items that looked like bombs were neatly placed on the walls or encased in glass cabinets.

The secret lair of the thieves guild master was riddled with various traps and one of the few places where she could relax. There was even a bathing area that the woman decided to occupy after getting the foul stench of the unwashed thieves on her. For someone with an enhanced sense of smell, it was truly a painful experience.

“That I have to put up with this…”

The woman found herself submerged in a large tub made of the finest silver. Her head was sticking up to showcase a rather alluring visage. When looking further a set of large fox ears could be spotted and after her bath was over it was completed by a tail that would fit on the same animal. The woman’s face showed a frown as these extra appendages seemed to appear only after she removed the black clothes.

“At least something is finally happening.”

After the bath, the woman was quick to put on a rather revealing eastern-style kimono. Her long legs and thick thighs popped out and only the ample cleavage was more eye-catching. With the bushy tail and fox ears, she would be unrecognizable to the guild members and her body proportions were also altered.

“Madame Isis.”

“How are the guests?”

“Everything is in order.”

The woman was greeted by a lady wearing heavy makeup and quite the scandalous dress. When walking forward through the establishment she could hear various heart-filled moans of pleasure. She emerged to a small balcony overlooking the well-lit district that was filled with drunks and people seeking the thrill of the night.

“Well done, keep up the good work…”

The woman blew out a large puff of smoke from the elongated pipe while looking out into the distance. The working girl that was with her smiled and returned to her work of enticing the red light district clients.

“Could this be a sign of change… perhaps this boredom is about to end…”

A grin appeared on her alluring face as she looked toward the star-filled sky. Soon she returned back to her establishment to play her role where no one was the wiser.

…

“Hm… Is this really the best that I can do?”

Roland as always was working until late into the night. While people were having fun in the city he was stuck in this room lit with magical lights. At this point in time, he was looking at his armor set. A life-sized dummy was wearing it just so he could examine it from all sides. After returning home he had fully repaired everything and all dents were ironed out.

“What if I place this here…”

Recently he had questioned his choice of weaponry. The armor was good as a means of casting spells but he felt like it should be able to do more. It wasn’t much different than tossing spell scrolls at people while encased in metal. Thus he was now trying to innovate a bit.

In his hand, he had one of the legs that belonged to his spider golem. It was one of the mass-produced designs that Bernir had assembled. While he would prefer to not use inferior parts together with his expensive armor, there wasn’t that much time. If it was possible he needed to cut corners, if the new design worked then perhaps he could improve it later.

“Hm… they are too short… but it doesn’t look that bad?”

After fiddling around for a moment he had attached two of the golem legs to the rear side of his armor. They were attached slightly below the neck and the shoulder part. With this, they were able to bend forward while also backward.

‘Should I place them on a rotary joint or will that complicate the mechanism?. I could just make the top part bend backward to cover the rear… would making them bigger be feasible… could they support my weight?’

At first, he just wanted to insert the legs as something similar to a movable turret. Yet soon after the part was attached his imagination started to take over. It seemed that the new trait that he had achieved was actually working. In his mind, he was already imagining large insect legs glued to the armor back that could actually help him scale walls.

‘Yeah… that’s probably not going to work, at least not for now…’

Roland wanted nothing more than to design a futuristic runic suit of armor but he wasn’t quite there. First, he would need to design a whole new backplate to support those spider-like legs. They would also need to be much thicker and able to take all that weight. Then came the problem of designing a whole new runic program to make them function. Even then the whole design could become a failure as only after doing some testing would he truly know if it was worthwhile.

“Best to stick to something more basic…”

After fiddling around he had decided to take the spider legs down from the back. To replace them he grabbed something different, it was smaller and had a tube at the top part. It was attached to something possessing several moving joints, with the tube part being on a circular joint. In short, it was a small turret that could move around independently while targeting enemies.

After some more fiddling around this miniature cannon was haphazardly placed on the armor's left shoulder. While touching the portable canon directly he could activate the inscribed runes to make it rise up. It looked like an assembly line robotic limb that could move around.

‘Maybe I should make it fold back during close-ranged combat…’

He could see this mini turret firing off guiding spells at monsters that tried to attack him from the back or from a flank. Yet the robotic limb it was placed on was somewhat sticking out and an eyesore, it wouldn’t be a problem for someone to hit it or for it to block his view. Perhaps for certain situations, it would be better for it to be hidden behind his back, it would also probably be a nice thing to surprise his enemies with.

The turret he was using was one of the many designs that he had already gone through while improving his house defenses. There were much larger ones at key locations on his walls. They were somewhat precise but would still have trouble hitting a rogue with a high agility stat. Yet they were designed to act more as a support feature to suppress any potential enemies.

“This might actually work and won’t take much time to assemble.”

The shoulder parts of his armor were heavy enough to not buckle under the weight of this small canon. After getting it in place and connecting them to the rest of the runic system he would just need to upload the separate program to control it. When it was integrated with his scanning system it would automatically pick up threats and fire if he so desired.

“Well then, It’s almost time.”

Roland looked towards the hidden tunnel that he and Bernir had worked on for years now. After all of his armaments were ready, the time to descend into the dungeon was upon him. With some luck he would be able to reach the tier 3 threshold sooner than most people would expect him to.