The Runesmith

Roland felt a little jittery this day. They had waited till almost the middle mark and the longer it took the more stressed he was. He had almost forgotten that his family could even be looking for him after all these years but now he was about to face one of their members.

His older brother Robert that he didn’t really get along with was riding on the horse a bit behind an expensive-looking carriage. He was one of the accompanying knights that hailed from the Luxendarc Knight Academy.

It was clear to him by the design of the silvery armors that they were wearing. This was one of the more prestigious schools that a noble could attend. He was sure that Robert only studied there due to his father’s involvement in the academy.

Wentworth his father like the members of the family before him had attended this very academy. The Arden house had produced many knights but only after his father rose to be the number one position in the academy did the name start gaining fame. There was a strict hierarchy the students followed and he managed to reign supreme.

Martha was the one that told him this tale. In it, Wentworth was painted as a heroic man that went through many missions given to him by envious nobles. All of them were jealous of his talents and wanted him to fail but he never faltered.

He achieved something that was quite rare, he raised his house name into a proper noble rank. Knights were somewhat considered to be nobles but they were mostly treated as mare soldiers.

If one of the parents was in the possession of the knight class the children would be able to pick this class later in life. Unless they went down the same path, the class would be lost to the third generation. This was also why parents usually pressured their children into becoming knights themselves.

Only if they were raised to official nobles could the class be passed down without a limit. The noble trait was a hidden title that was not seen by the system. People speculated that it was connected to the bloodlines and would be unlocked only when approved by other nobles in a given country. Higher noble titles could also sometimes unlock more prestigious classes.

Then there was the carriage, the name of this academy was Xandar’s Institute of Wizardry. It was named by some old legendary wizard that lived many millennia ago. The two schools were in close proximity to each other. This was also probably the reason why these two institutions were working together on this expedition.

Roland knew this place quite well as he had researched it before his ascension ritual threw a wrench into his plan. If he had normal elemental affinities he would have probably been attending classes at that very academy for young mages.

Fate worked in strange ways, he was now looking at the two academies that he might have been a member of. If he had stayed behind he would certainly be stuck in the school that Robert was about to finish.

The adventurers that were walking towards the dungeon were forced to the side by the many knights. They were all together which allowed Roland to count.

“Twenty greenhorn knights and two young girls that probably haven’t even seen a goblin before...”

Next to him, Silvio was leaning against a tree. He as the others weren’t looking that favorably at this group of nobles. Roland understood well where they were coming from, the mission was pushed back by more than a whole day.

Having to wait without anything to do was not how these adventurers liked spending their time. Roland could have easily crafted some runic equipment in this time and gained some experience. Instead, he was stuck rechecking his equipment without anything else to do but to wait.

“Everyone wait here, I’ll go talk to our young lordlings.”

Slowly everyone started to get up, Korgak had to be woken up with a smack to the head by Armand. This drunkard was probably the best-rested team member as within the first half-hour of waiting he had fallen asleep on the rough ground.

“Isn’t that helmet a bit stuffy?”

Roland’s attention was brought to the side, Lobelia was there. She was in the process of stretching out as she had also succumbed to drowsiness.

“No, I’m fine...”

Due to the danger of his brother recognizing him, Roland was sure to never remove this helmet out in the open. Even he instantly recognized Robert even after not seeing him for over six years. It was very likely that his brother would be able to do the same.

“If you say so, I’ll be counting on you!”

The girl shrugged while also for some reason giving him a smack on the shoulder. He didn’t really budge from his spot and instead, he could see the half-elven girl’s hand become a bit red.

“Ah sure…”

Due to how the party formation was set up he would be handing out with Lobelia in the back.

“Woof!”

“You too, you cutie!”

Agni’s mouth was opened soon as Lobelia started rubbing him behind the ears. Roland was surprised that his Ruby Wolf opened up to someone so quickly. The girl seemed to have a knack for talking to tamed monsters and Agni was clearly enjoying the scratches.

While the girl was playing around with the pooch Roland took his time in examining the noble party from afar. Most of the members were young adults, after some quick scans with his analyzing skill he could tell that they were mostly at the onset of the tier 2 knight class. They were mostly split between the Shield Knight and Sword Knight class, which Robert was part of.

All of his brothers like him were forced to master every weapon type that was used by a knight class. This was all for the sole purpose of easy advancement in the future. Most would focus on both of these variants which would unlock the ‘High Knight’ class. There were also harder variations that would unlock the ‘Crusader’ or ‘Knight Champion’ classes instead.

There was one person that was above all of them when it came to levels and strength though. His armor looked bulkier and he was the only knight with a nice blue cape attached to his shiny plate mail armor.

‘That guy must be their commanding officer.’

Silvio was in the process of talking to this man. He was clearly past his forties and also a tier 3 class holder. Roland couldn’t really see his stats due to the difference in levels. His identification skill still was lacking levels to allow him to peek on everyones status screen. The only thing he could somehow tell was that his level was close to Silvio’s.

‘Probably a High Knight, don’t think they would let anyone with a more prestigious class be an instructor at a Knight academy.’

Roland knew that even though this man’s level was high, he couldn’t be counted on during combat. This instructor would prioritize the noble children instead of the adventurers. He would probably focus on the two noble ladies that were now coming into view.

‘That one is a frost magician?’

First, he saw a young girl with long blue hair stepping out of the carriage. She was wearing a somewhat light-looking dress. It was white with a skirt that went down to her knees. Her feet were covered by long boots that also went up to about knee height.

The upper part of this robe was form-fitting around the chest area but became looser around her arms. In one hand she was holding a large staff with a large blue crystal. This crystal was clearly a type of mana stone that would lower her casting requirements.

The second person that stepped out from the carriage was also a girl, her hair quite blond. She was wearing a similar robe but the staff she had had a more brownish stone embedded in it.

‘That one seemed to specialize in earth spells.’

Frost was clearly the weakness of fire elemental monsters but the reverse was also true. Earth would be the better option as it took quite the temperature to melt hardened stone into lava. It looked like the two mages put some thought into picking a fire-type dungeon for their mission. A frost magician would come in handy, a simple spell that lowered the temperature could cause some of the fire monsters to suffer quite a bit. The volcanic salamanders for instance were quite susceptible to these sorts of spells.

On the other hand, a frost magician would find it hard to create their spells and concentrate with a high concentration of fire elements in the air. Thus it was a double-edged sword. It depended on the strength of the magician. She would be able to deal more damage but casting would become difficult.

‘Either she is confident in her spells or she is underestimating the difficulty…’

Roland with his runic spells could circumvent the casting difficulty. He didn’t need to concentrate much, inserting his mana into the premade structure was the only thing he needed to worry about.

The two ladies were wearing various accessories like necklaces, rings, and earrings. Even from here, he could tell that they were all magical tools that probably either increased their mana capacity or spell power.

There was a certain lack of mana stones on most of those accessories. They were clearly crafted with the help of the manufacturing knowledge that he was hoping to get after this expedition was over.

Unless he got his hands on that he would be forced to attach bulky mana stones to his creations. This would pose a problem later on, as these monster crystals only increased in size with the strength of the monsters they came from.

While Roland was glancing at the two young ladies from afar Silvio finally returned.

“Okay listen up people, we will be clearing up the path for the nobles. All the way up to the boss room, it’s time to earn our keep.”

Apparently, the nobles weren’t interested in killing the lower-level monsters. From Roland’s perspective, they wanted to conserve their strength before the tier 2 monsters arrived. The first one they were going to be battling would be the 10th level boss that he faced. With so many knights and two tier 2 mages even if it was the Ruby Golem, they would probably survive.

“Agni, stay close to Sister Kassia, your job is to protect her if something happens.”

Roland pointed to the nun from the church that was in the middle of the party’s formation. Agni gave out a bark and quickly moved to his position.

“Oh my, what a gallant protector.”

The nun chuckled while looking down at the Ruby Wolf. His tail was swinging side to side while he was striking a pose.

“Wayland, I heard from the guild master that you can give us magical support from the back.”

“Hm? Sure.”

Roland nodded while taking out something from his own backpack. It was a long metal rod with a large blue crystal at the very top. There were also some smaller mana stones embedded on the rod’s shaft to lower the mana usage.

This was a runic staff of his own making. It was mostly straight with the top part looking like a hawk's claw holding the large mana stone in place. Roland didn’t give this weapon any gimmicks or detachable parts. It had a couple of spells engraved into the spell structure that thanks to his basic knowledge of the runic code could be activated at will.

It worked in similar fashion to the arming sword design that he made before. It was a more advanced version that would allow his spells to be activated faster. The only downside to this was the thick and heavy design he had to go with. This was mostly to save up on runic corrosion and so that he had a lot of material to perform repairs later.

Due to this, the staff wasn’t really something another magic caster would find a use for. Roland had a high strength stat all things considered while most mages had meager gains in that regard. The heavy weight would also allow him to use it as a weapon if he ever needed it.

“Here keep it safe…”

“Leave it to me!”

Roland handed his backpack to a certain person wearing a large backpack. It was even larger than the one Bernir was stuck wearing. This person was a regular human and a steel grade adventurer that was hired as one of the porters for this party. The nobles had some of these carriers following them around with large spatial backpacks as well.

This person was not really part of this party but would be staying with them in their encampment. A steel grade adventurer was entrusted with this mission instead of a regular porter as they were going down into the lower levels. Mostly people that lacked combat classes took on these types of jobs that paid less than what a proper adventurer could earn.

Because of the dangers below the 10th level, the notion of regular porters was abandoned. Roland knew this so he didn’t even ask if Bernir could come along.

The young man that was coming with them was slightly older than he was. He was in his second tier 1 class. His first one was the usual scout class while the one he had now was archer. He looked to be mostly specked into agility and would have no problem of running away if things got too dangerous.

With everyone finally ready it was time to descend into the Dungeon below. His party with Silvio in the front was awaiting further instructions. Before heading down they had to wait for the nobles to get in formation as well. With Roland being directly in the back he would be the closest to the knights in the front.

Luck was really not on his side as the further most knight just had to be his older brother Robert. He, like most of the other knights, was wearing silvery half-plate armor. There were two people from the group with more extravagant-looking gear. First was the tier 3 High Knight instructor and the second one was a handsome young man with golden hair and blue eyes.

‘Is that the commander of the knight unit?’

Just like his adventurer party, the nobles had some kind of commander in their unit. A person like this had to be someone from a well-off noble house and also be quite skilled to get this position. At this moment the lady that had the earth elemental staff was walking next to this man and blushing.

‘Would be nice if they stopped flirting and we could get this over with…’

He and the others arrived early in the morning but these nobles had gotten here about fifteen minutes ago. It was clear that they didn’t care if they made the commoners wait. Roland just gave out a sigh and turned in the opposite direction. One of the reasons was boredom while the other was his brother. The less both of them interacted the better.

“Oh...OH! What is this!”

While minding his business he felt someone approach from the back. At first, he ignored the callouts as he thought that the nobles were talking to each other. Soon he felt someone poke the back of his armor, the voice clearly belonged to a woman.

“Where did you find this… these runic structures are so well made… did a master craftsman fashion this for you?”

“Huh?”

Roland turned around to notice the blue-haired lady mage standing really close to him. He looked down at her as she was more than a head shorter than him.

“Lady Lucille please be careful!”

Robert quickly appeared like a lightning bolt and moved his hand between the two. Roland took a step back while being surprised. The noble lady instead of listening to Robert continued to look at his runic items while her eyes shone like bright blue moons.

“I see that the noble lady has a keen eye!”

For some reason, Lobelia that was next to Roland decided to talk. She clearly had no problem speaking up even in front of a noble.

“You might not know this, but Wayland here made this all by himself! He is a very famous runesmith with more talent than even the dwarven smiths!”

Roland tried glaring at Lobelia but due to wearing his helmet, this was unnoticed. Instead, Lobelia gave him a thumbs-up as if she thought that she was helping him strike some deal with these nobles here.

“This sir is a Runesmith? I have dabbled a bit into runecraft but I haven't seen such a unique runic composition before, is this some kind of new spell?”

The young girl became quite chatty while Roland remained silent. The biggest problem remained his brother Robert that was giving him the stink eye. Luckily for him, the blond man that was the commander decided to walk over.

“Lady Lucille, please don’t inconvenience the adventurers.”

The moment the young man called out to this young lady Roland could see an instant reaction.

“Ah… Lord Percival… I apologize, I shall return with haste.”

The young woman was quick to go back while evading this man’s sharp gaze. Roland wasn’t sure what this was about but was glad that this man could exert control over this girl.

“You, return to your post.”

Robert wasn’t even graced with a name as Lord Percival ordered him to get back. Finally, everyone got into their designated spots and it was time to descend below ground.