The Runesmith

“This material really isn’t bad, didn’t know the dwarves were hiding on to it…”

“See Boss, I told you this would be much better than using a chain-mail. Luckily those bastards can’t deny us anymore but they seemed even more docile than usual, did you say something to them?”

“I just gave them a small pep talk while picking up the anvil.”

Roland shrugged a bit at Bernir’s inquiry as he didn’t want to let it slip that he was already abusing his new position. While they were talking about the Union of Dwarves, it was still a slippery slope. If he let his new position get to his head then he would not be any better than the people that wrong him. While he didn’t want to be petty, he did like the payback he got by threatening one of the Union branch leaders when he grabbed the anvil from the shop.

“If you say so… but how is it?”

“It allows for better finger movement without decreasing the bulk at all, won’t need to make any other adjustments.”

His hand was inside of his new gauntlet and thanks to a new innovation it was pretty good for gripping. Some space between the finger joints would always be uncovered to allow for a person to move their fingers in their full range of motion. The more metal put in place the worse this range got.

The simpler gauntlets were usually just metallic on the upper portion with a leather glove fitted underneath. The same was for his early armor designs but now he wished to encase everything in his alloy. However, this was not such an easy task if he decided to go with the old technology but there was a way out and this was liquid metal.

The Dwarven Union was stocking up on rare materials lately and this became apparent after he encountered the orichalcum anvil. With it, he was able to finish up the other foot and now could start connecting the pieces. The original plan was to use a chain shirt to go under it but now thanks to this strange liquid alloy, there was no need for it.

Roland had heard about the technology before but it was not something readily available to him. This combination of alchemical techniques along with smelting metals was not something that he could do himself. Thanks to Bernir hanging around the union stores in search of better tools this topic came up. Then it was just as simple as taking enough to cover his body parts in it.

“This is pretty ingenious, it just hardens around my body and keeps the elasticity of a leather glove.”

“Yeah, good that we caught on before everything was finished.”

“Remember to remind me to give you a raise later.”

Bernis started grinning after hearing that and considering what the two were through he needed a little bonus. His wife was also in a bit of a problematic situation due to her belly recently expanding in size to the point of it affecting her work. For the time being she was to remain in the city. Normally no one would give her any coin for not working as in this world people expected the man of the house to cover this part. Luckily, their boss was a person from modern times that believed in maternity leave.

The alchemical alloy they were using was called Silvergrace alloy. The name stemmed from the silver coloring and how gracefully it allowed people to move in it. Its weight was slightly above a chain vest which added even more weight to the current design.

How it worked was very simple. First, a mold needed to be formed and filled with the concoction, after sticking his hand through and using some mana the alloy would start to harden to create an elastic shell. This shell would be similar to leather but more resistant to outside shocks. It could be made relatively thick to boost the defensive ranking without losing that much elasticity.

It was the perfect material to make use of his repairing skill. It was an alloy so it could even allow him to integrate some lesser runes or more traces. However, it wasn’t the best material for rune crafting as it would start melting and losing its properties rather quickly when coming in contact with runic enchantments. It did its job as a filler material to keep the joint areas protected.

‘Should I make a whole suit from this instead of splitting it up into parts…’

When interacting with this new material he remembered things from the modern world, in particular wetsuits. It was possible to create something that would fit over his whole body and would integrate him into the new armor much better than any separate part could.

‘I’ll just need to create simple runic traces over the whole structure and it won’t hinder my mana from going into the armor. For now, it’ll be easier to make it separate from the armor but later on integrating it fully into it might be the better solution.’

To cut corners he decided to go with the wetsuit idea and leave a part in the back open for him to slip in. With a large backplate protecting his rear, this small weak point wouldn’t really matter. He would be fully surrounded by metal from all sides and perhaps in the future a sturdier version of this silvery suit could be made. He might even be able to integrate thinner armor onto it so even if the outer shell was destroyed, he would have some semblance of runic spells to work with.

Normally introducing changes to the design so late into the build wasn’t advised. Yet he could not deny the advancement this new suit could bring to his fighting capabilities. It also opened a new field of research that he needed to look into and presented something that he was lacking.

The methods that he was using now were above others in certain places but in others, he was trailing behind. While he didn’t think that any Master Runesmith was above him in crafting runes, he was still inexperienced in the basic constructing methods of this world. There were still things that he could learn and perhaps more research was in order.

Thus hours continued to wind down as he along with his assistant resumed their work. Some time was spent to make the human-sized mold to fit Roland’s whole body but it was a necessity for this procedure. After being encased by it, Bernir just needed to pour the silvery liquid inside while he focused mana around his body.

The alloy would react to this veil of mana and begin to harder while the rest remained liquified. This allowed for the creation of a much less precise mold and would even work if he just submerged his entire body in this magical liquid metal. The end product fit around his body quite nicely but there were some parts that needed to be smoothed down. Yet the result was something that he could work with.

Soon more days passed and the assembly of the other parts could continue. With the platinum adventures around the burden on his shoulders could be lessened. He was aware that potential spies had already started going through everything. Just like those knights were informed of the defenses at his shop without him knowing of it, it would probably be the same a second time. There was already one solution to this problem but first came the armor.

The parts to protect his shoulders, thighs, and then chest were all made soon after. The limited amount of mythril alloy that he created was all spent until almost none of it remained. The last element to fashion was the helmet which would be larger than the previous iteration. With the increase in bulk of all the other parts, there was a bit more space to work with.

The visor was expanded to cover more of his eyes and to also allow the implementation of a better-integrated monitor. Through it, he would be able to use his radar and take better advantage of the enhanced sensors. For a moment he considered ditching an outer visor and encasing his whole helmet in metal. Golemic eyes could be placed in strategic locations instead to act as live cameras. This idea had to be ditched due to the lack of picture clarity. Before he acquired some tier 3 golem monster eyes to remedy this issue the regular visor design would need to be implemented instead.

“We did it!”

“Kind of…”

“Uh… what do you mean boss?”

“It’s just an empty armor, before the operating system gets fully integrated it won’t be much better than regular enchanted armor.”

“Ugh…”

“It’s fine, you can go home, I don’t need you for that, you did enough already.”

Roland glanced at Bernir who was down on the ground. The fact that he was able to work through all of the craftings with a workaholic like him told a lot about his tenacity. He didn’t sleep much and had to use several stamina potions to get himself through all of this. His body was probably exhausted but he lasted through all of it.

“Are you sure boss, I can at least stay to help you get into this bulky thing.”

“It’s fine, as you can see I don’t really need more hands as I already have multiple ones.”

Ever since using the mage hand spell in the recent fight he had become proficient in using them. With a small enhanced runic version that he could integrate into this new silver armor suit, he could generate very dexterous mana hands. With their and his multiple minds skill he could act as his own assistant and putting on this new armor wouldn’t be an issue.

“I see… but could you stop doing that, it looks eerie…”

Bernir was looking at a bunch of floating armor parts that Roland lifted up in the air. Due to his lack of mana sense and basic crafting profession, he was not good at seeing low-cost mana spells like this. It looked like vague, flashing, and transparent blue hands were creepily holding up all the items in the vicinity.

“You’ll get used to it, now go home and call me if you need any help but you’ll need to wait for that raise, we’re a bit in the red this month…”

“Aye, Boss I know.”

Finally, it was time to get into the nitty-gritty of it all. While the shell of his new product had been constructed there was still more work to be done. All of the runes were in place but they still needed a functioning system to run it all. The old one could be used as a base but needed to be modified to fit the greater runes. Being able to switch through the various spells fast wasn’t the only thing he wanted to implement. With something like the levitation spell becoming possible a lot more calculations were in order.

‘At least I have something to work with now. Things outside had become quiet but I don’t have that much time left before Theodore’s people arrive.’

While tinkering through the system he reminded himself of the issue with the other Valerian brother. After Emmerson’s defeat, he was given off for ransom and his master Theodore decided to pay up. This meant that a company of knights would be arriving to pick him up. This of course meant trouble for him and anyone involved in the incident.

‘It would be stupid for them to attempt another open duel but I can’t discount it.’

It wasn’t probable but there was a chance that things could go wrong. What if three Knight Commanders appear to grab Emmerson and then decide to team up? Without this armor being fully functional he would probably not stand a chance. If they actually figured out that Arthur lacked any trump cards, it could be over.

‘There shouldn’t have been enough time to go through everything though and the Platinum adventurers will be there too, it should be fine.’

Roland tried to lessen the burden on himself by remembering the backup that he now had. Outright fighting between the forces that belonged to the Valerian household inside of the city was not something probable. Arthur’s father would probably not let them be for making his family look like savages. Theodore or the other brothers wouldn’t do anything hastily.

‘They won’t do anything out in the open but this just complicates things…’

Now that he exposed himself he had become a target. It was possible for a lot of trouble to come his way. He was the Head Knight and a hurdle for the other Valerian successors. Taking him out would be one of the main moves that Arthur’s siblings could go after.

‘I’m sure someone will try to make contact with me, I need to prepare for that occasion. If this thing explodes on me, then I’m done for…’

While thinking about the future he placed his hands on the chest piece of his new crimson creation. The metal had a dark red tint and right in the middle housed a crystal. Instead of the replaceable magic gems that he used with the previous model he now had an integrated concentration point. There was a tradeoff as after firing once the ray of magical energy would need some time to cool down.

To the side, he had two of the square cubes that he designed to replace his shoulder cannons. His naming sense wasn’t the best so he decided to take things from his memory and call them bits for the time being. With the dawn of spatial magic, they could be stored inside a cavity in the backplate. With a simple spell, he could then allow them to escape for a surprise attack. For the time being he was limited to the size of his armor, thus storing a whole spider golem within a spatial space at their current size wasn’t quite possible.

The rush to finish this product before visitors arrived intensified. He continued to work tirelessly through the night as always and finally, it was finished. The first real creation that he made after ascending to this new level of power. Due to his inexperience, he was aware that this was only the best item that he could make at the moment. The silvergrace alloy made him realize that there were things outside that needed to be researched. This gave him hope for continuous growth and an ability to tackle difficult tasks that could arise in the future.

‘I just need to connect these traces and it should be complete…’

Roland performed runecrafting on all the separate parts beforehand. At the end he just needed to connect a few runic traces and fiddle with the integrated operating system to finish the product. After getting the basics going he finally connected all the missing parts to let the mana structure function correctly. Yet just as he was about to get inside this new suit of armor, he was surprised by a strange prompt that he never expected.

Congratulations on creating a unique armor set, please give it a name.

“Huh?”

At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of it, he had never seen something like this before. After the message was over he was greeted with an empty screen. It remained there without moving as if it wanted him to do something with it.

“It wants me to name the armor set? Has this happened before?”

In truth, Roland didn’t really have much experience with high-level equipment. Emmerson’s suit of armor was the first true tier 3 item that he ever got his hands on. Everything else that he interacted with was either on another person like the platinum adventurers, locked away in the store, or used against him by the abyssal cult.

“Wait, aren’t there some named legendary items in the kingdom somewhere? Or like the church, think the robe the pope wears is supposed to have a name…”

When thinking about it he realized that there were certain legendary named weapons and armor in certain places. He read about them when he was younger and didn’t really think much of it after getting integrated into this world. Perhaps his assumption that these people just liked giving cool names to swords was wrong. Considering that a system existed here that gave things titles and for performing certain tasks then naming stuff was a possibility.

‘A name for this armor set? I’m not good with names…’

When glancing at the crimson armor parts on the table some names started flashing through his head.

‘Crimson Armor? No that doesn’t sound right… The Bulky Red? Runic Avenger? Wait, if I make a new set, would I have to name it again? If that’s the case then how about…’

“Rune Mark I?”

Registering the name 'Rune Mark I'

Congratulations you have gained a new title.

After blurring out the name he realized his mistake. The system was just waiting for him to speak out some words before instantly applying them to his suit of armor. Yet he didn’t really mind, the simplicity behind the name would allow him to keep track of all the named iterations of his wares if they actually continued to pile up. Without thinking much about that part he activated his advanced analyzing skill. To his surprise, there was a purpose for the naming.

“It gives the set a bonus if all parts are worn together?”

Thus Roland’s first greater set was created and finally, he could truly take a step into the realm of tier 3 class holders.