The Runesmith

“Huh?”

A man about the age of 25 opened up his eyes. He had fallen down from what seemed to be a gaming chair. He was in a small apartment that only had one room that connected to a tiny bathroom. The whole place looked messy and unkempt.

“What was I doing?”

He stood up, his eyes felt heavy. He felt as if he had been sleeping for days. Dazed and confused he glanced around. The room around him seemed familiar yet distant at the same time.

He looked around, the apartment was badly kept and dirty clothes that were rolled up into a ball were thrown in the corner. A half-eaten microwaved pizza was to the side along with some soda. This drink had long lost its carbonated properties and now would taste like sugar water.

The man rubbed his head as he sat back in his chair. He felt like he was forgetting something, something important. He remembered returning from a hard day's work while almost getting run over by a truck. Then he started playing some games.

‘I must have fallen asleep while playing…?’

He thought to himself while looking at his PC screen. Instead of seeing a game on it, he saw a pitch-black monitor. He leaned forward to his mouse, maybe his computer had gone into sleeping mode after he dozed off. The moment he jolted his mouse the screen flickered and something appeared, something that didn’t look like a game.

“What the?”

He saw an image of an ant, it looked awfully realistic and somehow more monstrous than a regular insect. The image on the screen looked at him as it moved. He moved his head to the left and the large ant's head moved to face him. His first thought was that it was some kind of new gaming feature. Things like eye tracking weren’t new, the strange part was that he wasn’t wearing anything for the program to track his head movement. He didn’t even have a webcam on his computer and he wasn’t wearing his VR headset either.

While he was thinking an odd occurrence took place. He saw that the ants head started pushing through the large flat computer screen as if it was trying to tear through it. He instantly jumped back in panic falling down from his chair yet again.

After some pushing, the monster ant’s head finally burst through the 32-inch screen. The thing gave out a massive loud wail that caused all the windows in his apartment to shatter. He moved up his right hand to protect himself but he spotted something wrong, he couldn’t move it at all.

The man looked to where his arm was and saw it mangled up. It looked as if he put it in a garbage disposal, his fingers were all bent out of shape and the pain was unbearable. Before he could register this the monster ant’s head moved closer, its giant mandibles opened up in front of his face and they chomped down on his head.

“Noooooooooooo!”

A youth in a black robe shot forward, his loud scream alerting the people next to him.

“Hey, calm down.”

Roland’s eyes went wide, he wasn’t sure what was happening. His first instinct was to look to his right arm. He remembered activating the barely tested scroll that he made. It was a yet unreliable product that he supersized after making a smaller version. He used the whole pelt from a monster sheep that was used for regular spell scrolls along with some better magic ink.

He created the runic spell by jerry-rigging as many fire arrow runes onto the pelt as possible. He managed to connect them all together with the magical pathways and fixed it all up with his debugging skill. What was created was a haphazard runic spell scroll that overloaded when you tried casting it, the backlash from activating it was the reason his arm almost exploded.

At least that was what he thought had happened but for some reason, his arm looked mostly fine now. His fingers weren’t disfigured or gone and the burn scars were faint. He looked to the side and finally realized that he was in a moving carriage, his party members were sitting there and looking at him.

“Quite th' girly scream ye git thare laddie.”

Dalrak the dwarf laughed out loud while Orson sniggered on the side. Helci looked at the two men with narrowed eyes and even gave Orson a shove. The young man just sniggered further.

“Hey! Stop making fun of him, he almost died!”

Roland’s face showed lines forming between the eyebrows while he tilted his head to the side. Helci looked to him with a slight smile on her face as she explained what happened after he had used that spell scroll of his.

“After you passed out the Myrmeke Queen…”

Apparently the spell worked and the Queen ant backed away into the mine, due to its size the tunnel collapsed right after the monster retreated. Roland had passed out, Orson carried him to safety over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.The adventurer’s outside were already waiting for them. The two explosions that they caused to blow up the wall alerted them to their presence. Wells the expedition leader was really surprised to see them there all alive with only Roland being injured.

He was then healed by the tier 2 priest that had tagged along on this expedition. The priest had advanced healing miracles which allowed Roland’s fingers to be patched up. The reason that they were in a carriage now was that they were heading back to Edelgard.

“So the expedition leader ordered a retreat after realizing that there was a tier 3 Myrmeke Queen in the mine?”

“In short, yes.”

Helci nodded while relying on the information. This made sense as the tier 2 team would probably have a hard time against a tier 3 monster. To bring down a monster at that level they would probably need a full party of equally strong tier 3 classes. Monsters tended to be stronger than their human counterparts and the gap widened on the higher tiers.

“Well done back thare laddie, couldnae have made it back witoot ye”

Dalrak said while giving Roland a manly smack to the back, this caused the youth to almost face plant into the wooden carriage floor. He was slowly getting fed up with these people smacking his back all the time.

“Yeah great job kid, what was up with that spell anyway?”

Orson asked while everyone stared. Roland had made quite an impression on the adventurers here, some of them were even thinking that he was a tier 2 in disguise.

“Ah, it was just a spell scroll I bought. It’s not like I can cast those myself.”

From the standpoint of these adventurers, this had to mean that Roland was someone rich. There was no way a normal person would have so many common grade spell scrolls on him of various elemental affinities. He had to either have some kind of connections or be the son of a rich merchant, maybe even a noble in disguise. They would of course not pry into his business but it was something they would remember.

“Hey, if you need advice on some of the shops in the flower district, come find me in the guild. I can introduce you to all the best girls, they’ll take care of ya, just say that big brother Orson sent you.”

Roland had a blank look on his face while he was listening to Orson talking about the flower district. This was how the city's red-light district was called. The warrior was probably thinking that he was giving the youth some sound big brotherly advice. The young boy that was actually a person over thirty wasn’t as appreciative. He could only shake his head while Orson talked about his passion. The dwarf even started butting in, he tried to sell Roland on the dwarf girls yet again. These two were quite the pervy duo apparently and they seemed to be hitting it off together.

“That’s why men are…”

Helci had a big frown on her face as she listened to these idiots talking about the red light district. They were even giving the youth some insider knowledge with her right next to them. She did find it odd that Roland wasn’t interested at all, he wasn’t even blushing as a normal kid his age should be.

Roland just ignored that horny duo and thought back to what transpired today. He had gotten himself trapped in a closed mine and even the people in his expedition were working against him. If they didn’t blow up the exits he might have been able to get out of there without a mangled hand. He believed that the queen ant wouldn’t have noticed them if they weren’t blowing up the wall to the closed-off mine shafts.

Somehow he managed to survive. still, he had to rely on others to get to safety just like before. If he was alone he would have probably died in that passage, if not by the Queen’s hand then by the rubble. He had prepared more this time still, it was not enough. He underestimated the danger yet again and had almost suffered the consequences.

Roland knew that there wasn’t enough data, like the monster type or where they were specifically located. Helci’s team on the other hand did the right thing and stayed clear from this one. He would have to take things more seriously or quit being an adventurer whatsoever. This was a failure in his eyes, with only one good thing coming out of it which was his runic mastery skill level.

There were so many ants there and he had used up most of his runic spell scrolls. He didn’t need to kill monsters to level up his runic mastery, hitting them was enough. He was looking at a maxed out basic rune mastery. He had killed some tier 2 monsters and also landed a devastating blow on the Myrmeke Queen with his unconventional scroll. This was apparently enough to level this tier 1 class skill up really fast.

He wasn’t the only one from the party that had gained a lot from this expedition. Everyone had multiple mana stones in their possessions and they killed a lot of monsters which allowed them to get a lot of experience. Helci had the biggest jump in levels, from a measly tier 1 level 10 all the way up to level 23. She would be soon allowed to get another tier 1 class and join the steel adventurer ranks.

Roland had gained two levels throughout the whole encounter. He might have even maxed out his class if it wasn’t a crafting profession. The rune mastery skill it had was unconventional for the type of class it was. He was banking on it unlocking better job options in the future, them not necessarily being other tier 1 classes.

“Thanks for pulling me out.”

Roland spoke out towards his party members who were arguing about women’s busts again. He at least had to thank them for getting him out of there, he wouldn’t have been able to survive otherwise. The guys laughed a bit, the elf remained in his spot as he just kept looking outside the carriage. Helci blushed slightly, unused to getting thanked by others.

They returned to Edelgard in one piece, the journey back always seemed faster and he also was out cold for half of it. They wouldn’t be needing to make any kind of reports to the guild as Wells was responsible for that. They had to pull back due to the miss report that the mine manager gave them so they wouldn’t suffer any fees for an incomplete job. If they would be getting all of the rewards from the mine owner was unknown, they might have to walk away without getting paid anything.

This wasn’t something Roland cared that much for though. His main profession was a crafter, he had gained some mana stones that he could sell. He also gained a lot of experience and could now evaluate where his strengths and weaknesses lay.

For one this large pelt scroll that he came up with needed some protective measures. Maybe if he attached a barrier spell to cover his body during its activation it could mitigate the damage he would potentially receive to his hand.

He also realized how limited this style of combat was. If they didn’t find an exit and had to wait there, his scrolls would run out eventually. He would have to rely on his regular spells that were much weaker or his own close-range fighting capabilities. He might have to train his combat skills up, most of them were stagnant after he got used to his backline support position.

This and a few other things needed adjusting. He hopped out from the carriage and stretched out his sore body. He was still surprised about the power of healing, his arm felt brand new and he could vaguely tell where the burn marks started. A healer could cast this spell which would normally cost you quite the penny if you bought a common grade recovery potion.

“Well, ah will be seeing ye aroond.”

Dalrak packed up all of his gear and said his goodbyes.

“Been interesting ya bastards. Hey, wait up dwarf!”

He and Orson had apparently bonded over booze and women on the trip here. Maybe they would be forming a party of their own soon.

“Farewell, if destiny wills it, our paths will cross again.”

Selanar said his one-liner and then walked away, his long golden hair dancing in the wind as he strutted away without looking back, his bow over his shoulder. The only ones remaining now were Roland and Helci.

“They were quite the odd bunch…”

Roland muttered out while Helci nodded.

“And you’re not odd at all?”

“Me? What’s odd about me?”

The girl just rolled her eyes and moved forward. She wanted to go to the guild and sell the mana stones she gathered. After Orson ‘took’ that dead adventurer’s spatial bag, everyone agreed on giving it to Helci as she lacked her own. She was now richer and could probably afford better armor and better weapons for her next adventure.

“What?”

Roland raised his eyebrow as the girl didn’t answer and just started walking away. After a while she just turned around and started waving, a smile plastered all over her face.

“See you later ‘mage’ Roland, if you’re ever in need of a scout you can come find me at the guild!”

“Yeah, see you around.”

Roland just nodded, he wasn’t sure if he would ever meet the girl in the future. After working as an adventurer she seemed to not be as bipolar as before. She still sometimes had some angry outbursts but it was mostly focused on Orson that liked to butt heads with her.

He himself went back to his lodgings. He had ditched the old room and found himself something bigger. His bed and mattress were now half decent and he left most of his work-related stuff back at the store.

He laid out the contents of his spatial bag on the table. There were various sizes of mana stones there. Ones the size of fingernails and larger at the size of a marble. The larger ones belonged to the tier 2 soldier type ant while the lower ones to the workers.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to sell these yet. Supposedly things like magic ink that he used for the scrolls was somehow also manufactured with these as a resource. Some weapons even used these stones as a power source that could be later recharged. He was going to be fashioning weapons like that in the future, so not selling these would probably save him some money in the long run.

Roland glanced at his status screen, he only needed to get a couple of levels and he would be able to switch to his third tier 1 class. There was another path he could take, getting a tier 2 class instead which would give him the 1.5x multiplier to his stats and would make him a lot stronger than before.

He wondered how fast other people got to those tier 2 classes and if it was worth not to gain more levels with the tier 1 classes instead. His future progress might be stunted if he didn’t unlock more skills.

‘Three levels, shouldn’t take more than a couple of months of scroll crafting.”

He nodded to himself, he already spent a lot of time crafting scrolls. This would put him at a year into his contract. There was a bit of a problem he was afraid of. When he switched to a blacksmith class, he would need to drop one of his class bonuses.

He might have to give up the bonuses his scribe class provided. It gave him bonuses to mana regeneration and it lowered his mana consumption while crafting scrolls. He had a large pool of mana as it was but he burned through it quite fast when crafting. His mage class also gave him more mana as well as mana regeneration, which was best for crafting he would have to see.

This was something that he would tackle on a later occasion. He had gone through quite the adventure and he was really tired. The carriage wasn’t a place that he could sleep and he mostly remained awake for the rest of the journey home. He still had some days off and he would use them to sleep it off. After he recovered he would grind till the next class change and finally get his blacksmith class.