The Runesmith

There was quite a commotion in Southtown. In the middle of the night, a loud explosion was heard from one of the warehouses. It was loud enough to wake up the people living there. The guards arrived at the scene quite late as always. They were expecting to find some kind of unregistered alchemist lab accident but instead, they were greeted by a dead burglar's body.

Next to this body was a youth dressed in a dark robe. There was also a tied-up person on the ground in front of the warehouse. One of the windows was missing and smoke was coming out of it. It looked like someone tried jumping through it outside.

The guards could see that the two people on the ground had the usual rogue esthetic. The one that was alive was tied up really well and had a rag shoved into his burned mouth. He was also not looking too good, one of his arms was mangled up. The clothes he was wearing were also ripped apart and also burnt as if he was getting roasted on a fire.

“Took you long enough, these two tried robbing me.”

The youth moved his hood down from his head and spoke out. He had dark hair and somewhat gloomy expressions. The two guards that got here first looked at each other and then at the supposed thieves.

“We’ll need you to come with us and explain everything…”

It was about 2 am at night and some other people had also gathered here. This world didn’t have something like a police station, instead, it was the city guards that were responsible for the order. Even though Roland was the person that was almost killed, there was no evidence for it yet. They needed to take him back to the guard post and question him along with the witnesses.

Roland gave out a sigh, he was already tired and now he needed to go with these two idiots. He didn’t want to get in trouble so he just nodded. Going against the city guards was considered a felony, it was better to get this over with. From the looks of things, he would be spending the night in the brig as he didn’t think they would really question him at this late hour. The whole ‘questioning’ process was carried out by higher officials but these two were just common guards.

While Roland was mumbling profanities under his nose someone else arrived at the scene of the crime. This person remained unnoticed while keeping to the shadows. The guards couldn’t even see as the person sneaked into the building. The intruder blended into the shadows as if they were a part of it.

There was no one else inside. The figure of the person emerged from the shadows, it looked like a cloud of pitch-black smoke. The smoke took shape into the figure of a woman. The woman was wearing black cloth armor that covered all of her body that was quite curvaceous.

She was standing in the room where everything happened, the blood was still fresh. She could tell that someone used a similar skill that she performed just now. She could feel the darkness element in the air which piqued her interest.

“Did the boy use one of his scrolls?”

Her face was covered by a mask, she had a similar roguish look as the attackers had. The only thing that could be seen under her hood were her bright silver eyes. She started quickly going through the warehouse, with her enhanced skills she could tell through where the thieves came inside. She could also tell more or less that the thieves were caught off guard.

The woman faded back into the shadows and left soon afterward. While traveling through the night her stats were enhanced which let her reach her destination fast. The place she was going towards was the richest district in this town called Hightown.

From the outside, this building looked very elegant. It was built with grey stones and had yellow pine wood decorations. Tall, large windows allowed enough light to enter the home and had been added to the house in a very symmetric way. The building had a rounded shape and a small garden outside of it. The roof was high, triangular, and was covered with brown roof tiles. One small chimney sat at the side of the house and some smoke was coming out from it.

One of the windows was slightly opened and a dim light was coming out from it. The woman with the use of her shadow traveling ability made her way inside. The moment she entered she could see a shadow bouncing off from that light. It was a figure of a person, this person was sitting at a desk and looking through some parchments.

“Zilyana is that you? Told you not to sneak up on me like that, you can use the door like a normal person.”

The voice of the gnome that Rolan worked sounded in the residence. The woman’s form emerged from the shadows as she made herself noticeable. She looked slightly different from what she normally did. Her golden hair was now pure white and her skin color was dark brown. This was the usual appearance that a moon elf possessed.

“But it’s more fun this way~”

She giggled while the manager stopped writing, he fixed his glasses and pushed the stack of papers to the side before asking.

“Did you find anything?”

He was curious as his ‘assistant’ rarely returned in the middle of the night without a good reason, something must have happened.

“Perhaps...It’s a bit complicated.”

The gnome’s eyebrow rose but he remained silent waiting for her to continue.

“There was a small incident in Southtown.”

“In Southtown? We don’t really have many assets there.”

The manager interrupted Zilyana, his store mostly operated in the better parts of the city. He had some real estate bought out in the slums but only because it was cheap. Its cheapness stemmed from how bad the living conditions there were.

“Stop interrupting and let me finish! It’s about the kid, you know your favorite scribe.”

“Roland? Did something happen? Is he dead?”

The gnome rubbed his chin, when this woman was involved death wasn’t far away. It wasn’t really far fetched if the boy got involved with her.

“No, not him. Though someone did die by his hand…”

Zilyana started describing the situation. That Roland had slain a tier 2 thief and captured another one that was close to a high level steel adventurer. She also gave the info about him using some spells similar to her skills. This part wasn’t much of a surprise to the gnome as Roland had even asked him to supply him with all sorts of spell scrolls. The surprising part was that the child that wasn’t even 13 years of age could take out a tier 2 rogue.

“Damn bastards!”

The gnome smacked the table with his hand, a vein pulsating over his eyebrow was clearly visible.

“First someone tries to undermine my business and now this.”

He paused for a moment before turning to his moon elf assistant.

“Do you know who is responsible, you said that one of the thieves survived? Do you know who they are?”

Zilyana smirked a bit before answering.

“They were clearly a party from the guild, that rogue was probably the leader. Haven’t been there in a while, should I pay them a visit?”

The woman smiled even wider, this smile made the manager shiver slightly as he knew what she was asking him about. He thought for a moment and nodded, he needed to show that he and his employees couldn’t be trifled with. The people from the thieves guild were strong but he had his own connections and he wasn’t afraid of the consequences.

“Take Ziron with you, if they don’t give you the information, you know what to do…”

“What about the kid?”

The woman asked while turning around and ready to leave.

“Send someone to pick him up in the morning, that brat will probably chew me out in the morning.No respect for his elders.”

The woman nodded and left, the manager sighed while thinking about what was going to happen. He knew how this woman operated but they dared to attack one of his assets that he was cultivating. He knew that Roland had a bright future ahead of him, he was even making enchanted equipment already.

He knew that if he managed to strike a deal with him, he would earn a lot of money. Promising runesmiths wasn’t something that came across everyday. The ones that weren’t dwarves were even rarer. He was progressing a lot faster than expected, which made him fear for what the kid would expect in the next contract.

This would need to wait as there were more important matters to look into. Mainly the problem with someone trying to sabotage his stores. It started with some bogus claims about faulty products, then some thefts and shipments getting sacked. Now they even tried to kill one of his workers by using the thieves guilds assassins. This had to stop as soon as possible, the guild would need to give up the names of the person responsible or suffer the consequences.

The gnome moved from his chair and moved to a different room. In it was a round decorative mirror with some crystals around it. The gnome couldn’t see his reflection in this mirror as this was a magic artifact meant for a different purpose. He reached out to one of the crystals and injected some of his mana into it. The moment he did the crystals started glowing blue.

After a few minutes, the glowing crystals changed the color from blue to green. The moment they did a vague outline of a figure appeared in the mirror. The figure’s appearance was blurry at first but it slowly became sharper.

“Did something happen? You rarely call.”

The person that was on the other end of the magical device asked. The manager didn’t stall as this magic item burned through magic crystals like nothing.

“Yes, I need you to...”

It pained the gnome that he needed to make this call. He would need to spend some of that hard-earned cash but it had to be done. The talk continued for a minute, the person on the other side vanished as the conversation ended.

“This should do it…”

The old gnome headed back to his room while the night continued. This wasn’t yet over as the main part of the evening had just begun. The elven woman that was in Hightown was already going towards a certain place, where a certain man would probably be. The area that he mostly stayed at was somewhere that she didn’t like venturing to.

This was the very cutely named flower district, it didn’t really have anything to do with them though. This was the red light district and where all the whorehouses were, they were owned by one of the members from the council.

Zilyana appeared at one of the brothels that her co-worker frequented and was lucky enough to find him. As always he was naked with two ladies from different races around his neck. She barged into the room while they were already doing the deed, to the brothel owners' dismay. The moon elf woman was well known in these parts so they didn’t stop her. The moment the man saw her enter he greeted her with a smile.

“Welcome, did you finally change your mind?”

The man named Ziron asked while not doing much to cover his nether regions. He even sensually pointed his ‘spear’ towards the dark-skinned elven woman that just furrowed her brows.

“Get dressed, we have a job to do. I’ll wait outside, you have one minute.”

She wasn’t in the mood to argue with this guy as he would just tease her as always. She didn’t like working with him but she knew that his skill was comparable to her own. Back on the outside, Ziron finally showed up. His shirt was unbuttoned and you could see some lipstick marks over his toned body.

The man had a similar appearance to Zilyana as he was also a moon elf. Just like her, he had long silver hair and dark skin, some people sometimes mistook them for siblings.

“M’lady, did I keep you waiting?”

He did a courteous bow while sniggering to himself. The man was slightly above 180 cm in height and had a slimmer toned build. He was also a moon elf with silver hair and brownish skin but it was slightly lighter than Zilyana’s. His eyes were golden in contrast to the female’s silver ones.

“We have work, we are going to pay the guild a visit so get dressed and take this seriously…”

She narrowed her eyes at the man who didn’t have his battle gear on. Ziron nodded and his smile changed into a frown, there was time for pleasure but now it was the time for work.

“Cold as always. Aye, give me a minute…”

The two walked away from the brothel and moved towards one of the dark alleys. Just as the woman, the man’s figure turned blacker as it faded into the shadows. Soon the two were running next to each other. Ziron’s face was now covered by a hood and a lower mask, his gear was similar to his female companions.His armor looked to be some kind of black leather, some intricate inscriptions were visible and indicated that this was enchanted armor of the runic kind. His weapons of choice were two long curved short swords that he held in his hands. The two continued towards their destination at high speeds.

The place they were going towards wasn’t in any of the districts in the city. No, it was located beneath it, somewhere where normal residents wouldn’t even want to venture to.

“I hate going to the Rat Plaza, it always smells like shit there…”

The man complained while looking at the entrance to the so-called plaza. It was a large sewer opening that would take them to the city sewers. The sewers were composed of a large array of corridors filled with various waste products. They weren’t going there for the rats and bad smell though, there was another place that you could only access through these passages.

The two dove inside and could quickly make their way through the dark corridors thanks to their shadow walking skills. They followed the usual path and ended up at a certain wall. If someone didn’t know any better he would think that this was just your everyday piece of rock. The two on the other hand knew what they needed to do.

“Will the beautiful lady do the honors?”

Zirion smiled while grinning, the elven woman just rolled her eyes and squatted down. She moved her hand into the sewage water and after a moment managed to find the lever. The moment she shifted it, the wall started moving. The mechanism was slow and it made the whole wall go in a circle.

“One day I’ll kill the bastard that placed that damn lever in a spot like that.”

Zilyana pulled out a bottle of water from her storage bag and started rinsing her hand with it. The two then stepped through the now opened up passage. The slow-moving wall didn’t stop until it was sealed. On the other side, they were greeted by another corridor this time with magical torches leading the way.

They could already hear some people talking inside as they had arrived in the hidden part of the city of Edelgard. This was the place where all the thieves and bandits spent their time, some of them even lived here while rarely coming outside. The thieves guild that they were going after was also here.

The two walked inside, past the torch-lit corridor was a large open space. There were various merchants stands here, the people here weren’t selling food though. This was what most people would call a black market. Various stolen items were placed on display, people could even get body parts of humans and monsters that were forbidden for various reasons.

The two walked past those merchants, everyone was covering their faces in one way or another. The whole Rat Plaza spread through the cities underground like a spiderweb. There were various larger junctions and pockets like this black market. Those larger areas were occupied by separate shady organizations. Ones dealt in slaves, others in assassinations and then there was the thieves guild.

It operated in a similar way to the adventurer’s guild and also had other branches in different cities. It was a group that wasn’t very tightly knit like the adventurers though, fights for the guild master position broke out occasionally. The guilds from other cities wouldn’t really get involved with each other unless the payment was good. This also meant that they wouldn’t help other guilds retaliate if something happened. Unless someone made it worthwhile.

This was also why these two elves were quite confident in the task that was given to them. They vanished from the large underground space into one of the many underground corridors. Their destination, the zone where the guild had their headquarters, it was time to get blood on their hands.