The Runesmith

‘They do work fast here, just a day ago they were fighting for their lives and now it’s like nothing happened at all.’

Roland had to give it to the people living in this world. They quickly recovered after the potential life-ending incident and were back to their daily lives. However, he wasn’t sure if it was because of their nerves of steel or just because otherwise they would starve. The nobles didn’t usually offer any aid to the commoners, if they stopped working their money would quickly vanish and so would their food.

‘It’s not that they are brave but they don’t have any other choice.’

Guards were everywhere but they didn’t look that mindful of monster attacks, probably the adventurers that he saw outside were patrolling for monsters instead. There were a lot of people going out of the main gate but not that many inside. However, a line was forming as the soldiers were frisking people for monster bones. Just as he expected, some kind of agreement was made between the city and adventurers as they were actually giving small amounts of coin to people with skeletal bones on them.

‘I guess they’ll buy them for a smaller price and sell them later for a profit, sounds like something the Guild Master came up with.’

His turrets just like he expected were melted down due to someone overusing and ignoring their specs. He would need to perhaps make a written manual while also improving on the design further. This just meant more work for him but at least they had taken a lot of skeletons down with them. Perhaps they had no value for prolonged sieges but they could be used to push the initial enemy advance.

‘With a Runesmith included in the defense they would be able to last through a lot longer, perhaps a more modular design would be better if the operators won’t follow the instructions?’

While thinking of a different turret design that would allow certain parts to be replaced on the fly he heard someone calling out to him.

“Hey you, stop!”

“Hm?”

“Hey what are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“Please go through sir, forgive him he is new here.”

“Ah alright…”

Roland without thinking about it much just attempted to cut in line. One of the soldiers that looked quite young started shouting his way but was instantly stopped by a gate guard that he recognized. While walking past the two he could hear the older guard reprimanding the new one about it.

“Are you stupid or something? That’s the city lord’s runesmith. Do you want us to get a pay cut or something? Or even worse, if he brought it up with the Lord you could lose your head!”

The older guard made a head-slicing motion with his thumb and followed it up with quite a good impression of a head being torn apart. The younger soldier recoiled in fear as his face got pale.

“That is? I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

After receiving a couple of smacks to his head the young soldier ran off to the main line while Roland continued on his way. He could see that people were looking at him with more interest than usual. He had told Arthur to keep him out of the rumors but perhaps making a trap strong enough to kill a Lich was enough to earn the people's favor. Some of them whispered while others bowed in respect slightly while he passed.

‘If this was a game, would my approval rating with the city have risen to favorable or something?’

He wasn’t sure if he liked this, his face was somewhat exposed as he wasn’t wearing his helmet but just covering it with a dark robe. When he came here a few years ago he wanted to lay low and just live a simple life of a craftsman. Involving himself with the nobles and being sent to war to fight was something he wanted to avoid.

With his current array of skills, he would probably be safe from that fate as making good weapons was usually more important than becoming a soldier. The situation at the borders was finicky with small skirmishes breaking out every so often. It was like a powder keg waiting to explode, each kingdom and empire was eager to gain more lands and power. Getting involved with that world was a given if he remained in the Arden estate and it was still a possibility if his father actually found his new residence.

‘He hasn’t found me for over ten years now so he probably won’t ever unless Robert talks.’

Too much time had passed since his disappearance and it was more than likely that everyone had come to terms that he was dead. That is with the exception of one person which was his youngest sister who was apparently getting some oracle-like dreams from time to time.

‘But even an Oracles has limits, as long as I keep away from the royalist territories she shouldn’t be able to tell that I’m here, at least not until she gets to tier 3 perhaps? But perhaps I should stop worrying about things I have no control over, I can only prepare and minimize the damage when the time comes.’

In reality, Roland’s fears of his family had mellowed out substantially, even one of his brothers knew about his location, and nothing ever happened. It wouldn’t be strange if his Father knew about his location already and just chose to ignore his existence entirely. The old man felt quite distant, perhaps having one bastard out of the way just made things easier for him as Roland's current status as a Runesmith gave him little value as a prospect. Without a knight class that was considered noble and just, there wouldn’t be any marriage partners that were willing.

‘Marriage huh…’

One way of making himself truly undesirable in the noble world would be to take a common woman as his first wife. When going by the traditions of this world, this choice was the most important one of them all. No noble lady of status would be willing to be a second wife of a husband with a common first, it was something none were willing to stomach.

There was already one person in his mind but considering that he was putting himself in constant danger he didn’t want to take the plunge down that road. Then there was the fact that he was practically already in one as many kids were wandering around his compound while he was also sharing the bed with the woman taking care of them.

Bringing more of them under his roof would just be a new headache, thus he wanted to still wait a bit more. The age of his new body was quite low and with his vitality stat constantly increasing his longevity was becoming enhanced. It wouldn’t be strange for him to remain at the appearance of an early twenty-year-old even when he arrived into his mid-thirties like this. This was kind of what happened to humans that leveled up fast, reaching the tier 3 class would only enhance this effect further.

Stray thoughts continued to enter his mind while he headed towards a secondary location, the Church of Solaria. Before moving to Arthurs's estate he needed to get his hands checked by one of the priests. Luckily the person he was most familiar with here was there, Sister Kassia.

“May the Lady bless you on your journey.”

“Thank you.”

It was a mostly uneventful encounter as there weren’t that many people that were injured during the siege. The only noteworthy event was when one of the tier 3 monsters flew inside the city. However, the guild master made quick work of the skeletal gargoyle before it could even injure anyone else.

Though Roland did use this opportunity to activate his runic eye and get a better feel on the divine spell Sister Kassia was using. His hands were cured as he expected and now he would be even able to show them to Elodai when he returned. His research concerning these spells was close to a breakthrough and with his higher level, his eyes weren’t even hurting that much when he was examining this radiant effect.

Soon he continued on his way and finally arrived at the Valerian Villa. At first glance, it was clear that a lot fewer men were guarding it. Some of them were probably patrolling the city or outside of it to see if it was really safe. This didn’t stop them from letting people out, everyone was free to go outside and had to decide for themselves if it was worth the risk.

Things like shelters didn’t really exist and some people actually had to beg for temporary stay in other people's houses. This whole siege was a good wake-up call for the missing infrastructure that this city required. To not have a similar mess happen like in the city attacked by the cultists Arthur would need to think about updating everything and perhaps Roland would be part of this enhancement plan. Being able to produce golems and turrets for protection was already something that had proven its worth.

“Master Runesmith, the Lord is awaiting you please come in.”

‘Master Runesmith?’

A guard dressed in armor that he had enhanced with his runes called out to him. To the side, he also spotted a sword with one of his runes that he could detect through his senses. With his current skills, he could even activate this rune to produce the effect it was created for. This would somewhat make escaping from Arthur’s soldiers rather easy if he was ever betrayed in the future.

‘Is my new position in this estate that decent or are they just nice to the man that made their magical equipment?’

He wasn’t sure what Arthur told everyone here just yet but at least he was being respected by the average soldiers. While high-born knights and nobles didn’t see blacksmiths as just common craftsmen, the soldiers usually gave them more respect. They knew well that their life depended on the quality of gear they were using and they didn’t want to antagonize the person that made them.

‘This place sure is changing fast, before Arthur came along this was nothing more than a big house.’

The previous mayor that lived here didn’t really have any funds to expand this manor. After Arthur appeared it had to be enhanced as it would look bad for a person from the Valerian household to live in something that was considered small. Now they had high walls around it and from what he heard there were plans of expansion to the back.

‘If this was before I discovered that other dungeon I’d say that building a castle would be impossible, but after it gets out that one is here the money will roll in.’

They were actually sitting on a gold mine here, a potential B-rank dungeon was just this sought-after. It could even be something greater than an A-rank dungeon or just a better connection to the S-rank dungeon that even to this day was giving everyone a headache.

‘The only problem is… that we don’t have a good foundation here yet.’

This was the part that was the most concerning. Arthur lacked any tier 3 knights and his personal bodyguard was probably weaker than Roland himself. While the Valerian Patriarch would probably not make a move this wasn’t the same for his sons. They could see this as a chance, what could their bastard little brother even do if they sent a few goons after him?

They would probably attempt to turn him into a puppet and funnel all the gold that was gained here into their own ventures. If he didn’t want to cooperate? Then perhaps they would even try doing something more drastic. Roland had already seen what a succession battle could do to people in Edelgard. There the ruling noble decided to kill all the prominent merchants just to get ahead.

‘Though those Platinum adventurers could be Arthur’s way out, that is if they agree to work with him.’

It wasn’t strange for powerful adventurers to retire and work for nobles instead of being stuck in dangerous dungeons. It wasn’t such a bad deal for them as they would have access to tier 3 creatures here already. Those tier 3 skeletons that were at the entrance would go for quite the penny and as first adapters, they would have a chance to earn big.

Every adventurer that stayed in the business knew that the first loot received in a dungeon would always be better than anything that comes after it. This was a somewhat loose rule but there existed a higher chance of rare items dropping from the boss' chest during the first clear. It was as if this game-like world didn’t allow easy rare item farming. With the monsters being around levels hundred fifty and sixty the boss monster would be a little tougher. If they managed to clear out that area then they were looking at a lot more money than they could ever have hoped for from a simple Lich subjugation.

“Please wait here.”

Roland was led into a room without anyone in it and told to wait by one of the maids. Everyone that he was acquainted with was missing, Gareth, Morien, and Mary were nowhere to be seen. They all must have been gathered with their lord and perhaps were conversing with the adventurers. Ferdinand, who was the mayor before Arthur arrived, was the only one he recognized but he was conversing with some of the serving staff and vanished quickly into another room.

‘This reminds me a bit of the old home…’

The room that he was sitting in looked to have been recently outfitted into a waiting room. It wasn’t too lush but it certainly was something that would be used by a noble and somewhat similar to the old rooms in the Arden estate. In the distance, he saw some random paintings of people that he didn’t recognize but they seemed to be of noble birth, probably either current or old members of the Valerian family.

It was a rather boring experience as he was forced to wait here with nothing much to do. From time to time a maid would show up to give him a refill on his tea and some sweet treats that he ignored for now. When asking about Arthur he was informed that the lord was in an important meeting and would ask for him when the time came. This of course happened but around two and a half hours later after his arrival.

‘Maybe I should stop coming early.’

“The lord is awaiting your presence, please follow me, Master Wayland.”

Roland even in his previous life was the type of person to always arrive early. This was something that not everyone followed and many times he would be left waiting. Ever since arriving in this world, he had tried to keep up with his old habit. Thus he felt that whenever his time was wasted he was being looked down on but after arriving at the new room he realized what the reason for all this waiting was.

“Oh, isn’t that the gentleman from the other day? My, my you do look a lot better without that shiny helmet.”

It was Myrtle the cryomancer along with one other member of her party, the sun elf archer. They were sitting on one side of a table on a white sofa with Arthur and the guild master on the opposite side. Mary was standing next to the tray with tea while the two knights were guarding the entrance to this room. It was now clear to him that they were discussing the issue with the dungeon and it seemed that they were now finished.

“Ah, I see that you have already met Master Wayland.”

“Not bad but he doesn’t have the charm of a proper Sun Elf.”

“Oh, you.”

The woman laughed at Aubron that eyed Roland’s facial features before deciding that he was still superior to the human smith. He wanted to ask what this was all about before advancing but luckily Arthur was quick on the uptake.

“I will make this short then, in three days' time Master Wayland will guide you to the area we discussed, there you will establish an encampment and finally delve into the dungeon to measure the threat level, just as we discussed.”

‘Three days?’

Roland had not really agreed on a timeframe for preparing his tools and everything. He was yet again thrown a curveball and couldn’t see himself sleeping too well for the next three days. Yet he didn’t want to complain as this was still a great chance for everyone gathered here. The Platinum Adventurers were willing and there were five of them. With this amount of manpower, they would certainly breeze through the dungeon.

“Excellent, then we will see Master Wayland in three days.”

The Platinum Party leader smiled brightly while looking at Wayland before standing up from her seat. It seemed that his presence wasn’t really needed and that he had probably wasted a big chunk of the day on getting here. However, while the two excused themselves the guild master and Arthur remained in the room.

“I heard that you proposed this plan, Wayland, I must commend you on your craftiness brat.”

Aurdhan laughed while also standing up.

“I’ll make sure that everything goes smoothly on my end, my lord~”

In a flash he was gone and before Arthur could say a word Mary’s voice exploded from the back.

“Who does that baldy think he is? Lord Arthur, we should lock him up in a damp dungeon!”

“Ha ha, calm down Mary, he is now an important business partner and so are those adventurers, you’ll have to work with him for the time being.”

Mary’s face went a bit red with anger but she didn’t say anything back to her lord. Roland on the other hand just stepped a bit further as he also needed to be filled in on the status of the plan. It seemed that he would need to create an entrance into the dungeon that wouldn’t look out of place and luckily after glancing into the other dungeon he knew how it should look.

‘Three days will still be a bit rough though… I might need some outside help and I’m missing a forge. Wait, perhaps I can use that place instead!’